Today, social media platforms are the holy grail when it comes to implementing effective marketing strategies. With over 3.7 billion active users in 2019 globally, it’s no doubt the reason behind why marketers across the world are leveraging social media platforms to boost brand awareness, generate user engagement, increase organic visibility and reach their target audiences. While there are numerous social media platforms you can use to promote sales in your business, Instagram should be one of them. 

It’s no secret that this visual-centric platform, with a staggering 1 billion users is an effective marketing platform. Moreover, Instagram is continuously gaining popularity among brands and businesses due to its undisputed potential to fuel sales, attract more clients and convert leads or followers into brand advocates. Truth be told, although Instagram marketing is very competitive, this platform is an effective sales generating pipeline. However, to optimize the benefits of Instagram and all its useful features, it’s imperative to establish a strategy that aligns with your goal—to increase sales. Below is a list of proven Instagram marketing tips to increase sales in your business.

• Invest in high-quality images

It’s vital to keep your followers updated about your brand. With Instagram, you can do exactly that by posting high-quality, and captivating images or Instagram stories that perfectly highlight your brand and the products or services you provide.

Additionally, ensure that you maintain the brand’s visual consistency. This will allow your brand to be easily recognizable which boosts the chances of people engaging with your posts (through likes, shares, comments and so on) more.

• Piggyback on the right hashtags

Consider this, Instagram is used by billions of people and over 25 million businesses as well. And for you to reach your target users, you have to compete for your brand’s visibility. The best way to ensure that your brand out spreads its reach, brand awareness and audience engagement is to use the relevant hashtags. Establish an effective hashtag strategy and watch your brand visibility on Instagram snowball.

• Take advantage of Instagram ads

Instagram ads can significantly boost audience reach. It is a great technique that businesses use to advertise their products and services to their target audience. And the best thing about Instagram ads is that your ads will target followers or users who are already interested in your products and services.

Additionally, you can use Instagram ads to run retargeting campaigns for leads that have visited your website and try to convert them once more. However, to achieve this, you need to provide ads that focus on their previous interaction and behavior to turn them into customers and increase sales. You can integrate vibrant colors, attractive features and eye-catching images of your products and services to do this.

• Incorporate the Instagram shopping feature

This shopping feature simplifies users’ shopping experience by allowing them to shop for products within the app. Additionally, the function will enable brands to sell through the app by marking products you wish to trade with a shopping icon. This will not only increase sales but also promote customer relationships and boosts positive customer experience with your followers or clients.

• Use influencer marketing

Influencer marketing is among the most effective and reliable advertising approach businesses use. Generally, consumers prefer to buy products from brands that have been endorsed by industry influencers, celebrities, bloggers, and so on. Using influencer marketing not only increase sales but also doubles your audience reach meaning improved brand awareness and visibility.

There’s no doubt that Instagram is an excellent platform for positioning your brand as the industry authority and increase conversions. This platform allows businesses to reach a wider audience, create brand visibility and awareness as well as increase revenue. To successfully do this, a professional social media agency in Dubai can assist your business to establish an effective Instagram strategy to ensure you achieve your goals.

A new study published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition shows drinking a beverage with 25 grams of casein (a form of protein from milk) or whey before a morning workout may help burn extra calories, which could lead to weight loss. Casein and whey are types of protein from milk and are found in dairy products such as milk, cheese, yogurt (regular and Greek) and kefir.

Strong evidence supports the idea that eating a protein-rich snack or breakfast before your morning workout increases resting energy expenditure throughout the day (the amount of calories the body burns at rest), but not specifically the source or type of the protein. These scientists investigated which type of protein best increased energy expenditure post workout. In this experiment, researchers tested the hypothesis that casein, more than other forms of protein or carbohydrates or fasting, consumed pre-workout improves energy expenditure post workout.

THE EXPERIMENT

The study was a small one, which looked at 11 healthy college-age males who performed the same 30-minute, moderate-intensity treadmill jog on four different mornings. They drank a different solution 30 minutes prior to starting each jog and then researchers measured resting energy expenditure (the number of calories the body burns at rest) twice: immediately after each jog and 30 minutes later.

They measured the number of calories burned at rest using a method called indirect calorimetry. Indirect calorimetry measures the amount of carbon dioxide exhaled and oxygen inhaled, which can be used to calculate the amount of calories the body is burning at any one time. This was a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial (which is the gold standard of nutritional and medical sciences), so both the participants and the researchers did not know which solution the participants were given prior to each jog.

THE RESULTS

Researchers found participants burned up to 300 more calories (based off of a 150-pound male) at rest post workout after drinking the beverage with 25g of casein or whey protein compared to drinking a sugary beverage. While protein pre-workout contributed to greater calories burned than a sugary beverage or fasting, there was not a significant difference between the casein and whey protein shakes. These findings are in line with the existing body of evidence showing protein pre-workout boosts calories burned at rest.

STRENGTHS OF THIS STUDY

• The experimental design was a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, which is the gold standard of experimental design in nutritional and medical sciences.
• Each participant was compared against himself rather than other participants. This is known as a crossover design.
• Researchers controlled (kept consistent across all morning jogs) for fasting time prior to each jog by instructing participants to fast for 10 hours prior to the next morning’s jog.
• Researchers controlled for exercise and diet the day prior to each workout.
• All participants were physically active but not competitive athletes making these results more applicable to the general population.

WEAKNESSES

• Researchers utilized a small sample size of a mere 11 participants.
• Researchers utilized college-age males making these findings less applicable to females or males of other age groups.
• Researchers controlled for the volume of exercise but not the type of exercise each participant engaged in on a regular basis prior to this experiment.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Drinking 25 grams of casein or whey before a moderate-intensity morning workout may help increase the amount of calories the body burns throughout the day and promote weight loss better than fasting or drinking a sugary sports drink.

Consider eating Greek yogurt or cottage cheese 30–60 minutes before a moderate-intensity jog or workout to boost calories burned throughout the day.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.