Every home business wants to make a name for itself, but doing so globally can seem impossible. After all, shouldn’t you try to find fame for yourself right here at home? Contrary to popular belief, going after a global audience on Instagram can help your home business by tapping into audiences that are cheaper to advertise to and may be more responsive to your product. That’s why we’re walking you through a few key steps to get started on a world reach from the comfort of home.
Design A Translatable Brand
Gaining a global reach from home sometimes means forming a brand that extends beyond borders and different languages. As noted by Ready Artwork, the most recognized brands globally include Starbucks, McDonald’s, and Apple to round out the top three. It’s easy to see why. While your product or service might not reach these global behemoths, their identity was ready to be shared with the world. When it comes to building your brand, taking a page out of their book might be wise.
What makes a global brand special usually boils down to one of two things: first, the brand has such a popular product globally that it’s undeniable (like the ones above); and the second is that people can understand what the company offers without ever having to dive too deep into it. This is largely anchored by your visuals, which should not only be able to tell a story to those in other countries but be something that they’re attracted to learning more about as well. Although it sounds practical, advertising and branding were primarily started to give visual cues to the illiterate, which still rings true as a basic principle of how to communicate visually today as well. Take the time to define a strong visual presence, as it’ll be the primary point of entry when recognizing your brand.
Know Where Your Audience Stands Around The World
Another important factor in being successful on Instagram globally is knowing where your audience stands around the globe. According to the Omnicore Agency, 80 percent of Instagram’s 1 billion users are based outside of the United States, which for your business, can be a great thing. Not only is it cheaper to advertise (more on this later), but successful marketing and messaging can often spread quicker (especially if it’s from America). Finding these groups, however, can require a little bit of planning and strategic execution.
First, ask yourself what type of global audience you predict would use your product or service. You know your industry best; there might be some obvious answers, but it’s smart to round out your choices based on research. Take some time to study global search trends for your product or service via Google Keywords and Instagram and start familiarizing yourself with Instagram tools for outreach. The more specific you’re able to be with your audience, the better; it’ll make your advertising budget more efficient.
Establish Your ROI
With an audience set, it’s time to start looking through how you can form an ROI for global advertising. As scary as it sounds, 71 percent of US businesses are currently on Instagram (as noted by Oberlo), which means you’re in for some stiff competition when it comes to attracting eyes. Not to fret though, as not all of them are advertising overseas; in fact, the majority probably don’t. However, this is the part where you can shine the most.
In looking at where your global audience is, ask yourself where the highest concentrations of your predicted fanbase are, as well as why that might be the case. Next, start digging through Facebook for Business and jot down the estimates for each ad campaign. Before you start getting deep into ad campaigns, consider hiring an engagement agency like Magic Social to ensure that likes and comments are high when people visit your page.
Running paid advertising campaigns overseas can feel much more intuitive than you might imagine, especially when you consider that a lot of these people are going to have the same predictable behaviors you, yourself, might have when seeing the ad too. Granted, you’ll want to be careful of any cultural norms when writing your copy or designing any symbolism, but once you have that, it’s off to the races for your home business.
Keep Your Outreach Consistent
Finally, with a plan in place on how you’re going to attack globally, the most important thing you can do from this point forward is to keep your outreach consistent. While the novice Instagram marketer often gets frustrated and gives up on their efforts quickly after not seeing immediate success, that’s a fool’s mistake as being successful on Instagram is a patient process. In fact, according to LucidPress, it takes an average of 5 to 7 brand impressions for someone to remember your brand, which goes to show how much effort it takes to get people going. And if you’re puzzled as to how you can keep campaigning, then it might be wise to start brainstorming a content calendar.
A content calendar is essentially your plan of attack day-in and day-out for Instagram, including what campaigns you’re going to be running, as well as what posts and stories might follow. There are plenty of great tools to help with scheduling and growing your audience, like Buffer or Hootsuite. Additionally, don’t be afraid of running other campaigns globally as well, such as finding local influencers to the areas you’re trying to target. Although it can sound like a daunting task to take on an audience you’ve never met, as long as your product or service can speak for itself, your home business could be reaching other countries in no time.
What are some strategies you’ve implemented to obtain a global reach on Instagram? Comment with your insights below!
