By Sylvia Shipman —
Knowing your audience and how to cater to them is crucial to maintaining relevance in the digital marketing world. Delve into Heinz Brazil’s trendy marketing strategy, and explore how you can best use Instagram Stories to promote your business.
Heinz is in the process of implementing perhaps the best social media marketing strategy of the year: bringing its #FoodPorn posts straight to your door by connecting its Instagram Stories with a real-life delivery system.
Foodies will soon be able to taste the delicious burgers featured on Heinz Brazil’s Instagram Story following a campaign called Heinz Irresistible Posts. This feature will give followers the option to swipe up on a photo of a burger on Heinz Brazil’s Instagram Story and have that burger immediately ordered, cooked and delivered to their door.
This marketing technique is targeted at millennials, since 59 percent of Instagram users are between the ages of 18 and 29. They also chose Instagram’s Story feature since the photo only lasts for 24 hours before deleting itself, giving users a shorter timeframe to decide whether to order the dish. Think Heinz made a mistake by choosing a disappearing Instagram Story over an infinite post? An average of 200 million people use the Instagram Story feature every day.*
Food envy will be a thing of the past since Heinz Brazil’s followers will not only be able to like and lust after its posts, but they will soon be able to spread that same envy to their own followers. This marketing strategy has found a way to hit its audience’s perfect sweet spot; the Instagram-obsessed millennial generation will not only be giving Heinz their money, but chances are, customers will post a photo of their newly-delivered, Insta-worthy food, advertising the food even further.
This is an example of how far aesthetics can go in generating more attention for your social media. This feature is currently only available in São Paulo, but American social media gurus can take note of how stylishly presenting your product can lead to more publicity and sales.
However, Heinz Brazil is not the only company that can make clever use of marketing through Instagram’s 24-hour photo story feature; many B2C companies have been using Instagram’s visual-focused layout. How can you learn to promote your brand and bring online engagement into the real world?
Watch the commercial for Heinz Irresistible Posts.
1. Add links to other Instagram accounts to aid in cross-promotion
The ability to place a link into an Instagram Story is one of the chief ways Intagram Stories trump Snapchat’s MyStory. Partnering with another company to put on an event? Be sure to type “@” and then their company name so that viewers can visit their Instagram accounts, as well. For example, see how Urban Outfitters partners with Lyft to promote the ride-sharing service’s Instagram page while also marketing their own event.
2. Keep it clean-cut
Your photo can only stay on your Instagram Story for about five seconds, so you can’t risk distracting your viewers by having them quickly skim a slew of text. However, you can build text upon the same photo. The photo stays the same, but the text overlay builds throughout the story.
To do it, save the photo, write your first bit of text and put it on your Story. That’s your first image. Save it, add another text overlay, and so on.
This strategy ends up looking great and ensuring that no word is left unread. Here is an example of fashion Instagrammer @prettylittlefawn using this method to make reading easier.
3. Beat the algorithm
There’s a new(ish) Instagram algorithm that doesn’t show posts in chronological order. Instead, it shows the posts it thinks you want to see first based on your likes. This isn’t so helpful for influencers and marketers who get paid based on likes. However, you can combat the algorithm by updating your Story and telling your followers when you make a new post.
4. Use the “swipe up” feature to take advantage of impulsive and lazy shoppers
Much like Heinz Brazil, other brands have been using the “swipe up to shop” option for their products to draw on users’ impulsivity. Take Anastasia of Beverly Hills for example; the makeup brand boasts 14.4 million followers. These followers can swipe up on almost any Instagram story to purchase the makeup the company demonstrates in tutorials on their Instagram Stories. It’s a simple way to market; beauty addicts go to their Instagram Story to see the latest tutorial, and they have the option to buy whichever highly-pigmented eyeshadow or long-wearing liquid lipstick the brand is swatching on a model. Here is an example of this fantastic marketing technique in action! Note: The “swipe up” feature is only available to business Instagrams that have over 10,000 followers. Got a favorite Instagram account that is taking one of these communication tools to the next level? Tell us about it in the comments!
If you feel inspired by Heinz Brazil and feel ready to delve into social media marketing, contact Q Strategies for a consultation on which strategies are best for you!
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*Sprout Social, “18 Instagram Stats Every Marketer Should Know For 2017” Accessed September 6, 2017. https://sproutsocial.com/insights/instagram-stats/