4 Creative Ways to Use Instagram with Your Toll Free Number

Leveraging your vanity numbers to social media channels, can also include Instagram, the premiere social media photo sharing social media app. While a wildly popular social media platform for individuals, the site remains outside the marketing radar of many small business owners.

Here are four quick and easy ways that small business owners can use Instagram to promote toll free numbers.

1. Create a Portfolio of your Products

For small businesses, Instagram provides the perfect platform for demonstrating how a product looks.

The sudden surge in the popularity of Instagram means your business should be implementing creative ways to leverage the photo sharing social media platform with your toll free number. You need to be creative—maybe even a bit crazy—to really maximize the benefits of using Instagram.

Several research studies have concluded that many customers make purchasing decisions after they see the products offered by small businesses. For years, this meant visiting small businesses and eyeing or sampling the products in person. Now, you have the opportunity to close sales online, or at a minimum start the buying process by uploading photographs of your products to Instagram.

Always having a call-to-action in any marketing strategy is imperative. Add your toll free number to the photograph, and you’ve got something. This method enables customers to call to ask questions and make purchases. Be sure to put your toll free number in the comments, so that mobile users can click and instantly be connected to you. Creative toll free numbers capture the attention of customers, so make sure any toll free number associated with a product reminds customers of your product or business.

2. Creative Contests

Small businesses that run contests typically see a spike in sales. Why not promote a contest by using Instagram? From your Instagram business profile, request that customers upload photographs that pertain to your small business. For example, if you run a pet care store, ask your customers to post the funniest photos of pets receiving shampoo treatments, and place a #hashtag of your promo name. For example: #1800petcare.

Car repair shops can run contests that ask customers to upload and tag photos of cars damaged by hail. Acquire a toll free number that exclusively handles the contest, or simply use your existing vanity number. If you do set up a new vanity number, your staff will be able to run the contest from one dedicated line, and have tracking of how many calls were generated in addition to the number of photo participants.

3. Add Personality to your Photo Placement

Instagram provides business owners with the best social media platform for humanizing your brand. As you know, establishing your brand by acquiring toll free numbers represents an integral part of your marketing strategy. Allow Instagram not just to promote your products or services, but also to humanize your brand. Upload photos of employee parties, workplace levity, and smiling faces that show both potential and existing customers that you’re a great place for business.

Don’t be shy with a toll free number; make it easy for people to see it, so that they can use it! Place the general business toll free number in a prominent, yet unobtrusive spot on each photograph. Your vanity number will stick in the minds of customers, and they’ll in turn pass it along to friends and family members.

4. More than Just Photographs…

In 2013, Instagram developed a short video platform. What better way for you to establish credibility online than by uploading short product demonstrations to your Instagram account. From teaching customers how to fix a plumbing problem or maintain care of their lawns, you can establish the type of credibility that builds trust.

At the end of each video remind customers to call your vanity toll free number, which is also shown on the bottom of the video screen, as well as in the comments. Be sure that if you’re posting videos, that when a new or existing customer calls to inquire, all of your employees have seen the video so that they are able to reference and answer questions successfully.

It is relatively easy to add a whole new marketing channel to your business via Instagram. You are only limited by your imagination, and always remember to include your most effective call-to-action: your toll free number. And as the photo-sharing social media site expands its repertoire of marketing tools, you’ll continue to  find more ways to use Instagram for your business marketing.

*Posted with permission from 1-800PetMeds.

Image credit: “Think Big” © Grasko – Fotolia