4 tips to perform on Instagram

Instagram offers multiple ways to build your brand image with customers. Additionally, with different location options, it's not a tool to be neglected for retail chains or franchisees! Consider the benefits you can already derive from your brand's national page. Imagine this translates into a successful local strategy for each of your retail points (POS) in your network. Discover in this article the benefits and best practices of local Instagram pages.

With more than 500 million daily users and powered by rich visual content and quality, Instagram offers brands a tool to reach their local community and share quality content to boost sales and retain your clientele. Moreover, Instagram offers multiple location options that create great opportunities to effectively reach more qualified customers near your points of sale. Consequently, beyond a strategy for your national pages, you should also consider an adapted communication plan for your local points of sale to get the most out of your presence on this platform.

But what strategy to apply for these local pages? What type of content to put online? What is the best time to post? What about hashtags? Even if your strategy must flow from the specifics of your brand and your sector of activity, there are a few "rules" general to keep in mind to ensure a performance optimal of your local accounts. Discover in this article the best practices on Instagram for your points of sale !

Want to know more about the reasons to consider Instagram for your points of sale? Check out our previous article!

Is Instagram useful for your local network? 6 reasons to use it!

Local Marketing on Instagram

As we have already mentioned, the specificities of your brand and your sector of activity must be kept in mind when developing a high‑performing Instagram strategy for the establishments in your franchise network. 

But what are the specificities of Instagram marketing for a brand or points‑of‑sale network? It is quite similar to small‑business marketing because of its shared goals, namely increasing brand awareness on a specific market and driving sales. Moreover, when launching any marketing plan on social media, the first step is to define and set objectives.

The difference in marketing for a network of points of sale lies in the specific brand rules that must be applied uniformly across all local accounts. Moreover, creating a social‑media strategy as a franchise comes with a series of additional considerations. Unlike other small businesses, you do not plan for a single business: you must develop a compelling social‑media presence for each franchise.

By consistently keeping in mind the best practices presented below for your local Instagram pages, you are on the right track to perform 💪

4 tips to perform on Instagram as a retail network

1. Timing is essential

To reach as many people as possible in your target audience, you need to find the right time to post. The best way to find the ideal posting time is to test content timing to see which days and publishing hours generate the most engagement from the audience (likes, comments, shares and saves).

Nevertheless, this trial period takes time and requires specific resources that are not always available. Fortunately, Sprout Social conducted a global study on the best time to post. 

On most social platforms (including Instagram), it has been constaté that Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays à 9 or 10 o'clock were the most suitable à publishing content. Around 10:00 is the période around which l'engagement is the most élevé. However, according to Hubspot, the best time to post on Instagram is the Tuesday between 11:00 and 14:00.

For weekdays, it is preferable to post during the time slot from 11:00 to 14:00 for increased engagement. Furthermore, by posting earlier in the day, accounts benefit from less competition. However, it is important to keep in mind that this also varies by sector and depends on the specific demographic audience of your pages. 

Furthermore, it is recommandé to publish régulièrement. According to a étude de Digital Information World covering 14 sectors d'activité, brands share on average four Instagram posts per week. However, to obtain better résultats, it is préférable to post daily.

Our advice: Think first à maintain a régularité in your fréquence of publishing : c’est better to stick à a lower publishing frequency, and prioritize quality content, with your audience will interact.

2. Quality Content

If your local points of sale or franchisés must comply with your brand's standards, their content must être engaging, visually attractive and adapté to local trends.

There is nothing worse than a generic and boring content. A combination of national and local content is therefore recommended. Moreover, having a Instagram grid (posts présents on the page) well thought out where your posts are organized and appear synchronised is visually attractive and conveys a good brand image.

Furthermore, use your local pages to share an authentic story. By using Instagram Stories, c'est-à-dire a slideshow or a vidéo that remains visible on your profile for 24 hours, you can give customers a aperçu of the behind-the-scenes of your brand. Since stories do not appear on the normal Instagram feed, this allows the businesses to post more fréquently. Here are some content examples for stories: 

• Photos or videos of events in store, such as the launch of a product or a special sale.
• Tutorials on products, showing customers why they need your product and how they can use it.
• Create anticipation for a new product by showing a preview of it before its launch.
  
  

En outre, vous pouvez organiser ces “stories” en highlights en haut de votre page. Ces highlights permettent de mettre en avant des points spécifiques à votre marque ou a vos points de vente, tels qu’une présentation du magasin et des équipes, les promos,etc,...

Vous pouvez organiser ces highlights avec des noms et images de couverture spécifique. Ce sont les images de couverture qui donnent aux visiteurs de votre profil un aperçu de ce qu'ils trouveront dans chaque Highlight.
Veillez à ajouter une photo de couverture adaptée pour chaque mise en avant et profitez de cette opportunité en personnalisant des graphiques approuvés par votre marque.

3. #Hashtag or not # ?

The one of the simplest ways to organically boost the visibility of your store/franchise content on Instagram is to use brand and location hashtags. By creating a single brand hashtag for your business, you can centralize each post shared by your franchisees on Instagram. These hashtags can be highlighted in your account bio, displayed in your stores and on packaging. Moreover, you can encourage customers to use this hashtag by sharing user-generated content on Instagram.

Brand hashtags can être combinés with the popular hashtags following to increase visibilité: 

• Product or service hashtags: basic keywords to describe your product or service, like #sacamain or #glace.
• Niche hashtags: a bit more specific, showing where you are positioned in the context of your sector, like #travelblogger or #foodblogger.
• Hashtags of communauté Instagram liée à a sector : The communautés gather on Instagram, and these hashtags help à you find them and à join them. Think à #gardenersofinstagram or #craftersofinstgram.
• Hashtags d'événements spéciaux or seasonal : they can make référence à holidays or seasons réelles, like #summerdays, or they can être utilisés for all those fêtes of the Journée national [of the thing], like #nationalicecreamday. 
• Location hashtags : Même if you geotag your Instagram post, it is always preferable to include a hashtag that references your location, such as #lbrusselseats.
• Daily hashtags : Each day is full of its own hashtags, such as #MondayBlues à #SundayFunday. 
• Acronym hashtags : l'acronym the most well-known is #TBT for Throwback Thursday. Among other popular acronyms, we have #OOTD for "outfit of the day", #FBF for "flashback Friday", etc.
  

How many hashtags should be included in a post?

Regarding the number of hashtags to add per post, it depends on the type of post and industry. According to Hootsuite, around 11 hashtags is ideal. However, on average, there are 1 to 3 hashtags per post.

4. Localization, localization, localization

In addition to adding location-based hashtags, don't forget to add your store's location to each post by adding it during post setup in the "location" section, as well as creating a specific hashtag for the outlet name, as in the example below.

It is intéressant to note that posts containing a location can cause a increase of the 'engagement of 79 % compared to posts without a location indicated. Moreover, people who click on a location can see all the other posts that have été taguées at that location. In résumé, more 'exposure means more customers, and more customers means more sales.

Conclusion

Instagram offers multiple ways to get in touch with your customers and boost your sales. Beyond positioning your brand at the national level, you should also consider a strategy for each point of sale in your franchise network. Why, you may ask? 

• Thanks to its location options, Instagram is an excellent tool for easily reaching your local audience. 
• Thanks to its visual orientation, you can easily convey an authentic image of each point of sale while adhering to national brand guidelines. 
  

Néanmoins, la création d'une stratégie sur mesure dans un réseau de points de vente comporte quelques défis. L'élaboration et la mise à jour d'une présence convaincante sur les réseaux sociaux pour chaque point de vente peuvent sembler chronophage. Cependant, il existe des outils qui vous permettent d'organiser facilement votre contenu pour plusieurs points de vente en même temps.

Additionally, once the strategy is in place, there are some best practices to apply to get the most out of your presence on Instagram:

• Surveillez l'engagement de votre public pour trouver le meilleur moment pour poster.  
• Use your local pages to share a authentic story. Give customers a aperçu of the behind-the-scenes of your brand. 
• Use hashtags spécifiques to organically increase visibilité of your businesses' content. 
• Add your location to every post to increase your engagement.

Don't know where to start on Instagram?

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