How a Marketing Company Used ShortStack to Grow Their Instagram Engagement by 152%

Case Study: MarketingProfs

Instagram has moved from a simple i0S app to a valuable social network for businesses and brands alike.

Brands have started using their Instagram posts to drive traffic to their profile’s bio section — hence the ubiquitous “Click the link in our bio!”

When users click the URL in a brand’s bio, they are then usually directed to whatever content the brand recently posted on their Instagram account.

The Challenge

The challenge facing brands is that they’re using their Instagram profiles to promote a variety of content, but they’re only given one live link to work with.

The limitation means most brands must update the URL in their bio periodically – sometimes every day.

There are downsides to this practice.

‍1. It’s a hassle. Logging into your brand’s Instagram account every day to update your bio link is time consuming, especially when a new tracking link is required for each update.

‍2. Posts’ calls to action expire. When a user discovers your brand’s Instagram account for the first time, or a current follower decides to scroll through your photos and click the link in your bio as your posts’ caption copy have directed them to do, they will discover outdated information

The Solution

In this case study, we’ll show you how MarketingProfs used Instagram to direct their followers to a mobile-friendly ShortStack-built Campaign where they were able to host multiple types of content with unique tracking links and, ultimately, capture useful data.

We’ll teach you how MarketingProfs used ShortStack’s time-based visibility setting feature to configure their Instagram Campaign (i.e., an easily updated Instagram bio link) to reveal content at the exact same time that they planned to promote the specific content on their Instagram account.

We also include details about how you can do this same thing for your business.

1. Choose the Content You Want to Promote

While Instagram is a photo-based social network, businesses can and should use the platform to promote a variety of content.

The are five types of content that brands frequently promote on Instagram:

‍1. Inbound marketing content, like a blog post, video, PDF, etc.

‍2. Products, used primarily by eCommerce businesses.

‍3. A sign-up page to encourage Instagram users to sign up for their email list.

‍4. An Instagram exclusive, i.e., a landing page that hosts content created just for Instagram.

‍5. A rules page, used when a brand hosts an Instagram giveaway/contest that has lengthy terms and conditions.

While MarketingProfs shares a variety of photos, quotes and valuable content in their Instagram feed, for this study, they focused on four different giveaways over a 13-day period.

The most important step in building a dynamic campaign that reveals content at the same exact time that it’s posted on the Instagram feed is to create and follow a strict schedule of the posts you plan on putting on your Instagram Page.

MarketingProfs had five posts that were the basis of their campaign. Four of the posts were about giveaways and one was a link to a blog post. They planned to post their five updates over a 13-day period.

Each time a post published they would ask fans to follow the link in the bio to learn more. The bio link would take fans to the Instagram Campaign where they could enter for a chance to win that day’s giveaway prize.

‍The Takeaway: Use tracking software to keep count of the number of clicks you get on the link in your bio to see if your calls-to-action are working.

4. Analyze Your Results

Brands can learn the best strategies for collecting leads by watching what their Instagram followers are most likely to engage with.

MarketingProfs’ 13-day Campaign gave them insight as to the types of content their fans enjoy and the content they don’t care as much about.During their Campaign, MarketingProfs saw a 152% increase in their post comments and a 23% increase in their post likes.

Each of their giveaway posts focused on a different prize: marketing swag, laptop stickers, a product upgrade, and a book.

Forty-eight percent of MarketingProfs’ entries were for their “marketing swag” promotion which told them that this was the type of promotion their Instagram followers are the hungriest for.

‍The Takeaways: Look at your data and your analytics and adjust your future Campaigns to better meet your followers’ wants and needs.

‍Ready to make this work for your business? The good news is we’ve already created the Instagram template for you, all you have to do is fill in your information. Here’s a guide on how to build a dynamic Instagram Campaign with ShortStack.