In 2024, keeping up with Instagram’s ever-changing updates is necessary for marketers. Brands must stay relevant and ahead of the competition by tapping into new trends and user preferences.
Luckily, Instagram offers fantastic marketing features for businesses. The best part? You can market your business on Instagram without spending a penny!
So, let’s dive in and explore the essential Instagram features that every marketer should know to make the most of this golden opportunity. Read on!
Top Instagram Features for Marketing
As social media competition heats up, platforms constantly evolve to benefit users. Instagram, for example, has transformed from a simple photo-sharing app into a powerful marketing tool. Let’s check out some exciting Instagram features for marketing!
1. Professional Dashboard
Instagram’s Professional Dashboard caters to Business and Creator accounts, providing valuable insights into performance metrics.
It’s a one-stop hub to track your progress, access essential tools, and learn how to enhance your ‘gramming game.
The “Grow Your Business” section offers helpful resources to boost your Instagram presence.
In a nutshell, the dashboard serves as a central destination where you can measure success, access professional tools, and explore curated educational content from Instagram.
2. Insights
With Instagram’s Insights, you can easily monitor your platform’s success through the Professional Dashboard.
It’s a powerful tool that lets you keep tabs on crucial metrics like engagement rate, likes, comments, and followers, among others.
You’ll be able to track how your posts and stories perform and gain insights into your audience engagement.
This valuable data helps you shape your content strategy, allowing you to create content that resonates best with your followers.
3. Stories
Instagram stories offer a fantastic way to share content that vanishes after 24 hours, adding authenticity and spontaneity to your posts. These circular story bubbles appear at the top of your followers’ feeds, creating a fun and less polished vibe.
For marketing, Stories are perfect for showcasing new products, promotions, behind-the-scenes glimpses, and team adventures. Engage your audience in real-time and boost your followers by hosting Stories-only giveaways and promotions.
3.1. Story Highlights
IG Stories vanish after 24 hours, but you can save them as Story Highlights on your profile. It’s like pinning important or interesting Stories for easy access.
Brands can make the most of this feature by keeping event highlights, behind-the-scenes moments, and other significant posts visible to new followers.
Likewise, food businesses can showcase updated menus, specials, and more through Highlights, ensuring their best content remains readily available for all to see. It’s a smart way to engage and leave a lasting impression on your audience.
3.2. Story Stickers
One of the coolest Instagram features includes its Story stickers, like links, polls, quizzes, and questions, that boost audience engagement. The fun emoji sliders and GIFs make Stories captivating. When users interact with your stories, it tells Instagram’s algorithm to rank them higher in their carousel, leading to increased visibility and more interactions with your content.
4. Reels
Instagram Reels, the TikTok alternative for crafting short vertical videos, allows up to 90-second videos, offering creative opportunities for promoting services and products.
It’s a major update on the platform, highly favored by content creators due to its top engagement among all post formats. Reels are the go-to choice for marketers and businesses aiming to grow their pages on Instagram.
4.1. Remix
Instagram Reels’ “remix” feature enables creators to incorporate existing videos into new reels, resulting in exciting and unique content like reactions and dance-offs.
Users can choose to enable or disable remixing on their reels. Brands can leverage this feature to encourage user-generated content, initiate trends, and foster engagement.
Users have the freedom to react with side-by-side videos or create their own content in response to the original video.
4.2. Reels Templates
If you find making Instagram Reels daunting, the app’s new Reels Template feature is the perfect solution to create videos more easily and quickly. These pre-built templates are available for anyone to use, streamlining the Reel creation process.
Simply select an Instagram Reel with music and at least three clips that you want to use as a template. With Reel templates, editing becomes a breeze, and your videos will be automatically clipped to the beat of the song, resulting in a perfectly edited video in just a few seconds.
Related: 8 Instagram Reels Hacks You Need to Know
5. Instagram Shopping
Product tags on Instagram are a fantastic tool for retailers and a dream come true for online shopaholics. The shopping feature lets businesses showcase their products, allowing consumers to buy directly within the app. You can tag products in your posts and stories, creating a shoppable Instagram feed.
Instagram Checkout also enables customers to discover products and make purchases without leaving Instagram. Users can select from various sizes and colors before checkout, and they only need to enter their billing information once. Keep in mind that Instagram Checkout is currently available only to eligible US businesses and creators with an Instagram shop.
6. Pinned Posts & Comments
Worried about posts getting lost in your feed? Instagram’s got your back with the grid pinning feature. Just pick the Reel or photo you want to highlight, tap those three dots, and voilà, it’ll be pinned to the top of your profile for everyone to see!
And not only posts, but you can even take control of your comments by pinning one right below your caption, making sure your audience sees that special message first. It’s a nifty way to stand out and keep your content front and center!
7. Subscriptions
Instagram recently introduced Subscriptions, a cool feature that lets creators charge a monthly fee for exclusive content and perks. Creators can set their own subscription price, and a subscribe button appears on their profile.
Subscribers get special benefits like exclusive live streams and Stories. It’s part of Instagram’s initiative to support creators and help them earn a living on the platform while building stronger connections with their followers.
8. Instagram Notes
Imagine Instagram Notes as your virtual bulletin board, where you can pin short, 60-character phrases that stay visible for 24 hours.
They’re perfect for reminding people about events, promotions, and life updates. Just like small sticky notes, you can share them with your followers or select “Close Friends.”
These timely messages vanish after 24 hours, making them great for promoting products, assisting customers, and engaging with your followers in a meaningful way.
9. Collab Posts
Collab posts on Instagram are a clever way for two or more accounts to share the same content on their feeds. Both creators’ handles appear in the post, and all the comments and likes are consolidated in one place.
It’s perfect for partnerships with influencers or other businesses for ads or sponsored content, ensuring transparency for your audience. With collab posts, your reach instantly expands, as both your followers and your collaborator’s followers get access to the content. It’s a win-win situation!
10. Instagram Guides
The Instagram Guides feature is a cool way to curate content around specific themes or goals. For example, you can create a guide for a product launch, sale, or brand information.
It’s like a collection of already-published content brought together for a specific purpose. Guides include posts, places, and products, and you can add descriptions for each item.
Businesses can repurpose existing content, much like blog posts, to create travel guides, food guides, trend guides, holiday gift guides, jewelry guides, and more.
Related: The 3-Step Guide To Run A Profitable Instagram Shop
Up Your Instagram Marketing With Simplified
All these Instagram features, and yet Simplified takes the 🍰
Stay on top of your posts with Simplified’s Social Media Scheduler! Plan ahead, curate your feed, and customize content effortlessly. Simplified makes managing multiple social accounts a breeze, delivering images, videos, and ad campaigns seamlessly. And with the Bulk Scheduler, you can plan up to 350 posts in advance.
Plus, Simplified also brings all your analytics reports from connected accounts into one convenient app, making it easier than ever to track your performance and optimize your strategy. Now, you can have a complete overview of your social media campaigns, allowing you to make data-driven decisions and achieve better results.
But that’s not all! Simplified offers a plethora of features, including thousands of templates, an AI content writing tool, and AI Image generators, streamlining your marketing efforts. It’s your one-stop shop for all things marketing!
