What you need to know about Instagram collab posts
“Hey, do you want to collab with us?” If you have been MIA on Instagram, you should now be aware of the multiple changes that the application has seen in the past few weeks. A new feature, Instagram Collabs, has popped up where users can co—author their post or reel with businesses and reach untapped audiences. This feature boosts engagement, reach, and enhances the user experience.
Collaborations are not a new thing in the market. They have been long used to promote businesses and partners at an equal pace. As a result, the term gets thrown around a lot, even in informal settings. But the purpose of collaborating remains unchanged and is done for the following reasons:
- Reach newer and more potential customers through cross—promotions
- Give the revenue stream a slight boost
- Create engaging content for the current audience
- Grow the community on social media and build networks
- Create buzz around the brand and attract eyeballs
What are Instagram collabs?
Instagram collab is a feature on the social media platform Instagram which enables easy collaboration between two entities. If person A partners with a brand on a product/service and shares the details on their feed, it will also show up on the official feed of the brand. The concerned post will pop up on both profiles, enabling more people to see it. As a result, the reach is greater, and social media engagement is collected in totality.
What are the benefits of using Instagram collabs for marketing?
The primary objective of any marketing method is to maximize reach and visibility as much as possible. While Instagram collabs already do this, there are so many other well—known benefits that the feature brings into the marketing mix.
- Increases engagement
When the post or the video is reflected on both profiles, Instagram collabs combine the statistics from both accounts, especially the engagement. So the number of likes, comments, views, shares, and everything else gets accumulated into one pool which counts as the total engagement rate of the post.
Individual posting of two different accounts may not bring in as much engagement as the combination. Therefore, speeding up the engagement rate is a better choice to please the algorithm. In the end, the more the post spreads, the more success the parties will see in their collaboration.
- Reaches new audiences
When somebody collaborates with a brand, the content they create together is viewed by their own set of audiences. The Instagram collab feature makes both sides of the audience aware of the entities involved. A part of one’s audience could be the potential audience of the other. Businesses benefit from such collaborations as they discover their untapped audience.
It is an excellent opportunity for businesses to showcase their products and services to people who haven’t heard of them before. Interested people can soon become new followers and, eventually, regular customers. Getting more people onboard will always be a boon for the brand involved.
- Shoots up sales
The first two benefits of the Instagram collab feature will reap this ultimate benefit for the brands involved. It is no rocket science to understand how higher engagement and more audience can successfully impact sales. Curious customers will eventually purchase from your Instagram store.
How to formulate posts using Instagram collab for marketing?
The following is the only step—by—step guide you need to create a brand collaboration on Instagram using the correct technique.
- Identify your marketing strategy goals
For any marketing strategy to be successful, it should be governed by specific goals that act as a guide. You can take the help of additional tools and resources to create the content. For example, you can create video ads online using Creatopy.
Of course, a massive creative idea doesn’t need to only be successful in a collab. But if you have even the most minor business objectives fulfilled through this feature, your marketing campaign will be considered an enormous success. These goals will also direct your path on who you should partner with and what can be done to keep the process as smooth as possible.
- Find the right brand/person to collab with
Once you have the best—fit brand or person onboard, your marketing campaign will already be successful. You could take the guesswork out of the scene and pitch your idea to a platform that can provide you with a plethora of options. The essential criteria that the brand or person you collab with should meet is that you should share a similar audience demographic and provide value through the work.
- Evaluate what you’re bringing to the table
All successful collaborations have one thing in common: value exchange. The product, services, content, time, skillset, and more are valuable business assets that can benefit the collab. So, ensure you bring the best skill set and value to the table, especially on a major platform like Instagram.
You can do this by creating inclusive content that reaches all types of audiences. An example of doing so is adding subtitles for people who are hard of hearing, suffering from cognitive or learning issues, or not familiar with the language of the content you are creating. You can use a subtitle generator to increase the value of the content.
- Use proper means to reach out to the audience
On the receiving end of any Instagram collab is a human being getting their needs and wishes met. Therefore, you are expected to do your research and produce personalized content for each person who is passionate about the partnership. State the benefits of the collab and insert short and customized notes to gain the audience’s attention and earn brownie points.
- Be flexible while planning the Instagram collab
While having a rigid and fully—formed idea is good for collaborations, it is also essential for you to be flexible with your approach. Sometimes, the brand/person on the other side could have better ideas for the collab. The goals set and the creative execution could be done much better if both parties fulfilled each other’s criteria.
- Leverage your Instagram collaboration to achieve the best results
You could have executed the best partnership in history, but if no one knows about it, it’ll be a super flop. The marketing strategy you come up with should use the best marketing channels to leverage the collab in every possible way. You could save time by planning collabs in advance and get extra time to make edits where required.
- Monitor your collaboration
Once your campaign is set and ready to unveil the collab to the world, you must also have enough resources to measure its performance. Be in constant touch with the brand or person you have collaborated with and track results constantly to see if your marketing goals are being met. You could save the progress of the collab and use the data and insights for the next one.
Conclusion
Instagram has once again proved that it has its audience’s best interest at heart by bringing out the Instagram collab feature. Through the reels and posts that are and will be created using this feature, Instagram is being transparent about its content while simultaneously ensuring that no duplicate content is being made. If you want your next marketing strategy to see the day, incorporate this feature into it.
