How to use Instagram to market your architecture practice (and turn Followers into Clients) - Part 2
This is the second instalment of my article about how you can use Instagram to appeal to future clients, and invite them to start a conversation with you.
If you haven’t already read Part 1 – which explains the key purpose of Instagram in your overall marketing channel and how to work out if Instagram and Social Media are the most suitable platform and channel for your business – you can find it here.
This article outlines the steps you can take to enhance your Instagram activity to deliver visitors to your Website, so you can start turning Followers into future clients.
If Instagram delivers a decent stream of traffic to your Website, how you can take advantage of that, and expand your presence even more?
If you’ve determined that Instagram is a useful source of Website traffic – that it’s doing a good job of building Awareness around your services – there are several things you can do to improve your performance.
1. Post consistently each week
You probably know that not all of your Followers see all of your Posts and Stories. So it’s important to post regularly – 2-3 times a week is advisable, daily is ideal if you have capacity for that – to ensure your content is seen by the largest possible audience.
Planoly is one of many tools you can use to schedule Instagram content in advance.
You don’t have to create a new post from scratch every day though: you’ll probably find it easier to schedule your posts in advance – for a week or a even a month – using a scheduling tool like Planoly or Later.
Both of these provide the ability to see draft posts in your actual feed, so you can curate the look and feel, and both have a free plan with a limited number of uploads per month.
Another advantage of signing up to a scheduling tool is that you can opt in to receive their emails, which contain useful advice about changes to the algorithm or new tools in the App that might be useful for your business.
If you’re not keen to use a scheduling tool, or you want to prepare occasional posts on the run, you can prepare draft Posts in the App on your phone or tablet, and save them so that you can manually post them later (when your Followers are online, see below).
Preparing your content ahead of time helps with the next point, too.
2. Use the Instagram algorithm to maximise your reach
Make sure you post images and captions to your feed when your Followers are most active online.
This will help your post to be seen by more people when it’s new, and if they engage with your content – by liking, commenting, sharing and saving – all of those actions will push up your post in the algorithm, enhancing your reach even further.
You can find out when most of your followers are online via Insights > Total Followers > Most Active Times (at the bottom) – Choose Days / Hours and click on the bar graph to see the number of actual Followers at peak times.
3. Photos of people usually perform better than images of projects
It’s a social media truism that people prefer to engage with people – you, your team, your collaborators, clients, anyone really – over places and things, so you should regularly post portraits to your feed, to increase your engagement.
You can check this for yourself by looking at the analytics of your past posts to see whether portraits generated more engagement than projects.
Another accepted truism says you should prioritise completed and photographed projects on your Instagram feed (to cultivate an appealing overall aesthetic) and keep the WIP and construction shots for Stories (because they are ephemeral and last just 24 hours, unless you save them as Highlights for people to refer to later).
4. Use #Hashtags to extend your reach and engagement
You can also ramp up your #Hashtag game to put your posts in front of more people who aren’t yet following you, which will help to expanding your Instagram reach.
You should have several sets of 30x hashtags – the maximum allowed on any one post – so that you can max out on every post upload. For example, if you are working across various types of residential projects, you might hashtag sets for renovations, new homes, multi-res, city homes, country homes, coastal homes, etc and you use one of these sets every time you post to appeal to different ideal clients.
Be warned though! Don’t use the same set of 30 hashtags on all of your posts, which could you get shadow-banned – that’s when Instagram hides your posts from the feed without you knowing. It usually only lasts a few days unless you are a repeat offender!.
You can look at your “Post Insights” to see how many people who were not already Followers saw your post. Check the “Reach” stats – the more accounts that saw your post that were not following you, the better – because that means you are expanding your reach and influence.
Check your Post Insights to find out whether your content and/or hashtags helped your post to be seen by more Followers or other users.
Post Insights enables you to quickly see whether your post was seen by more current Followers or non-Followers. Remember, you are trying to expand your reach!
You can also look at your Insights > Content you Shared for the past 30 days or year, and toggle to the > Follows metric, to see what kind of posts deliver more new Followers. And then do more of those types of posts – and use your best performing hashtag sets – in future.
5. Tailor your Instagram content to serve the needs of your ideal clients (and to inform them about your services/products)
Ideally you’ll be posting different types of Instagram content that appeals to different ideal customers, and that content should provide a range of interesting and attractive reasons for people to visit your Website.
Think of your Instagram content as a breadcrumb trail that invites people to visit your website. These are some of the possible reasons that Instagram followers or users might have to leave the platform to check out your website:
to download a lead magnet,
to find out more about a new team member,
to sign up for your newsletters,
to send you an email about starting a new project,
to read a new blog post,
to get more details about a particular service you offer…
The list is literally endless.
6. Explicitly invite Followers and other users to engage with your Instagram profile and visit your Website
When people like, comment, tag a friend or share your posts, those interactions are called micro-transactions. As well as boosting your post in the algorithm, microtransactions get people into the habit of connecting and engaging with your content.
You can invite and encourage these engagements with your Calls to Action:
Leave a comment if…
Tell me about a time you…
Tag a friend who…
Share this if you think it’s helpful…
Save this post to refer to later, etc etc.
And if someone leaves a comment on your Post or Stories, you should definitely reply and keep the conversation going (unless it’s a bot or someone offering you a paid repost opportunity. Those aren’t helpful!).
The same applies to Direct Messages – think of them as the precursor to an email – and make sure you reply. You never know when a Follower is going to transform into a future Client!
The Know, Like and Trust factor that consumers crave now with the brands and companies they buy from is built through these small transactions. Favourable and enjoyable experiences on Instagram give Followers confidence that you are a trustworthy and accessible architect for them to approach in real life.
Finally, knowing that the entire purpose of Instagram is to invite and encourage people to visit your website – where you can start a conversation that may lead to a new project in future – you can explicitly invite them to do that in some of your Calls to Action.
On a Post, you’re limited by the “link in bio” feature – and I’d rather you didn’t use Linktree or similar bio hacks, because they rob your website of the data about how many people visited your website from Instagram. So you can either direct people to your Home page (where they might get lost and not be able to find the actual blog post or project they are looking for – remember people have short attention spans!) or you can set up a page that is only accessed via Instagram, with links to various pieces of content you have shared. Take a look at my Instagram bio for an example of what I mean.
Since Instagram introduced the ability to inserting a URL into Stories, they provide a much easier experience for visitors, because you can add a URL for the exact page you want them to visit, such as a Blog post or a new project, so take advantage of that going forward.
In conclusion: Instagram is a great marketing tool if:
It helps you raise awareness about your practice and services among your ideal clients;
You deliberately use Posts and Stories to expand your reach and increase your engagement with a constantly growing audience;
AND this is the most important part:
you successfully invite your Instagram Followers to leave the platform and visit your website, where they can start a conversation, so that some of them may become Clients in future.
The best way to convert Instagram Followers into Subscribers who might then become Clients is via your Email channel, and I’ll explain how that works in a future blog post.
In the meantime, I hope this article provides insights about how to weigh up your current investment in Instagram.
Analysing your data and analytics from both Instagram and your Website will help you determine whether the time and effort you currently expend on the platform (and any other Social Media platforms you use) is a worthwhile activity within your overall marketing strategy.
Ready to access Sounds Like Design’s business development and marketing services?
I offer three services to architects, ranging from 2-hour Acupuncture Sessions to the 3-month Review + Reset consulting package.
If you’d like a short, sharp injection of expertise – to talk about any business development or marketing issues you’re grappling with – you can book a 2-hour Zoom Strategy Session here. You can choose the topics we discuss, and tap into my knowledge, experience and connections to access insights that are customised for your practice.
If you’re interested in expanding your mindset and skillset around Business Development and Marketing using the system I developed specifically for architects, you can take the Architecture Marketing 360 CPD course. You can enrol in the self-guided program and start right away, here.
If you’re interested in working with me directly, you can find details about our 3-month consulting package Review + Reset here. (I have a waitlist for new Review + Reset clients, and that’s what I aim to help you achieve for your architecture business, too).
Lastly, if you have any questions about this blog post, or any of my services, please click here to email me. I’m always happy to hear from architects who want to improve the way they communicate their value to future clients, and grow the market-share pie.
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