What Your New Product Push Can Take From Brand Lessons On Instagram

I am really liking using Instagram. Although approximately zero of my potential customers are onboard, I am quite happy to post to it.

That is because for me, it truly allows people to see how I think.

And as I know that how I think can be viewed as rather different, it lets this difference be seen.

Not everyone thinks the way I do. Or likes the way I think. But when they do, we have a wonderful encounter. Profitable and enjoyable.

My own personal pics mainly revolve around the niche arena of sales presentations. Slide ideas mostly so far.

I hate seeing people in the ‘Sales industry’ posting pics of themselves on a stage somewhere from several angles, peppering their output with trite quotes day after day and having constant promo offers for their latest book/module/course/app/dvd/secondhomefund.

Once in a while reference to such could creep in. But only once in a long while, please.

I’m reminded of feeds for cafes, bars and restaurants that bombard you with pics of their newest dish, latest special and discount offers. When glory for me comes from seeing their smiling customers, stylish environment and behind-the-scenes efforts.

The only people that should post pics of menu items are happy customers, surely?

And this annoyance extends to brands in general. Yes, the huge consumer ones get all the coverage, but there’s a place for b2b too.

Indeed, Instagram’s own best-practice pool highlights grimey behemoth General Electric as a beacon of hope for finding the “beauty” in their industrial settings.

I’m also reminded of the popstar that was perplexed his daily postings spiked massively when, rather than photograph the typical in-the-studio shot or performing at yet another exotic location, he showed the omelet he just made.

Think about that…

A quick surf unearths all manner of ‘expert’ tuition on how any business can master Instagram.

Most of it utter rubbish, as you’d expect.

Just last week I sighed at yet another such list, syndicated across the web that seemed to appear at random from Associated Press. Its essential ‘5 tips for small business’ were;

tell a story – get inspired – use hashtags – respond to questions – repost customer photos

Hardly earth-shattering. Yet even here I saw parallels with a new solution sale product push.

I want to meet kindred spirits. People that see the world the way I do. Each post might not always “capture their imagination”, but enough times I can certainly give them the starting point for ideas from which their own creativity can lift-off. In my case, this’ll hopefully let them not only sell better, but get customers quicker, find more of them too, and keep them longer.

Take that generic first of five tips from above. In one form of words or another it pretty much appears in every list. its brief explanatory text in this case is;

“Upload photos that are more than just product shots. A bakery can take a snapshot of someone putting together a wedding cake or painting the walls of a new store opening soon.”

Whilst that doesn’t seem to snugly fulfil the heading ‘tell a story’, it does evoke one critical aspect that I see too often discarded from a new product launch.

It is all those elements that go to make the story of how you got to where you are.

The journey of the problem manifestation and identification, right through to resolution.

Including all the ‘behind-the-wizard’s-curtain’ glimpses every audience laps up.

So just as a constant theme throughout an Instagram feed should aim to tell the story you choose, so any new product launch pitching should remain at all times true to why your clients will be glad you launched your new ware in the first place. For the thought processes you went through already in development ought be the very ones they themselves are going through right now.

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jamie@example.com
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