How to Win on Instagram with a Memorable Phone Number

It’s no secret that Instagram is the next “it” platform for reaching new customers. For small businesses especially, the visual media-focused social media app can be a tremendous boost to their overall marketing efforts. Win on Instagram, and you open up a brand new audience for your brand. 

Despite the obvious advantages, many small businesses fail to succeed on Instagram. Some abstain from using it altogether, and many more just don’t get it. Creating compelling visuals is a daunting task, and how to target specific users is often a challenge. Today, we'll look at how to do just that...

Use Your Memorable Number to Win on Instagram

It’s essential for marketers to flip the conversation about Instagram in their minds. Starting an Instagram page is more straightforward than building a website, for example. Curating and sharing content is easier to do on Instagram than sharing blogs, articles, or even link-building. Moreover, it avoids the pitfalls of Twitter, which is entirely impersonal, and Instagram users appear not to have the same hashtag fatigue that users on other social media sites experience. Most importantly, Instagram is an entirely visual form of media. Everything you post must be relevant and visually striking, as well as using the opportunity to drive businesses your way. That’s where great phone numbers can help. Instagram posts do not allow links in the description section. They did this to prevent spam and it worked well. Unfortunately, it also presents a challenge to business marketers. One thing they did not disallow? Memorable phone numbers! Phone numbers that spell something or carry a numerical sequence that be easily recalled are worth their weight in (marketing) gold on this platform. With a memorable number, such as 1-800-HOMECARE or 541-FITNESS, you can cut through the noise and win on Instagram without breaking the platform's rules or losing any visual appeal on your posts. A look at the example from Holdy Realty's Insta feed below proves that you don't have sacrifice striking imagery to fit in a powerful brand asset like their million number, 772-500-0000. Next, we'll look at some steps you can take to make the most of this unique marketing opportunity.   

How to Integrate Your Phone Number on Insta

Here are four essential steps to help your business win on Instagram with a memorable phone number: 

First, be genuine.

Instagram is, after all, a social media platform. To win, you will need to be social and interact with people. You will also need to post visual content that is both relevant and genuine. For example, if you run a homecare agency and want to reach prospective clients, post candid pictures of your staff, patients, and even families of patients (so long as you have permission). Show your audience and the world how amazing your services are by posting real pictures of real people doing real work. Philanthropy, volunteering, and other community organizing are also all great ways to promote your business. Anything and everything that shows “a day in the life” of your business is fair game. Keep in mind not to sacrifice quality for the sake of authenticity; make sure the pictures you post are professional and high quality. 

Second, discover what hashtags to use for your business. 

Posting pictures on Instagram won’t matter if no one sees them. Instagram is a rare platform insofar as hashtags are not only ubiquitously used by posters, they are also sought out by people sifting through photos. A new feature in Instagram, in fact, allows users to follow a hashtag, and pictures for that hashtag will show on the user’s homepage scroll even if they do not follow that person. It is a common practice and one you should exploit. To find the right hashtags for your business, start with basic keywords. For example, if you are promoting a homecare agency, start with “#homecare”. The nice thing about Instagram is it will show you if what you entered is a popular hashtag by displaying the number of posts for that hashtag. As a general rule, hashtags with fewer than 30k posts are not particularly worth your time. Once you find a good hashtag, look through the pictures under that tag for someone who both uses it and has a lot of followers. By identifying the hashtag habits of other users, you can quickly discover the relevant tags for your industry. This gives you a shortcut to reach the feeds that engaged people are actually using, viewing and posting about. 

Third, post every day.

All top Instagram accounts have one thing in common: they post every day. Users like to follow accounts that post regularly and shy away from accounts that don’t. An inactive account will not gain more followers. It may sound daunting to post every day, but remember that posting on Instagram is far easier and quicker than, for example, posting a blog. It shouldn’t take you more than five minutes per day to post, which is a small task for a marketing channel with so much potential. [search-tag] 

Fourth, put your number on everything. We mean it. EVERYTHING!

Without exception, every image you post should have your logo and your memorable phone number. Why? Because the whole point of trying to win on Instagram is to promote your business. Since you can’t post links in the photo descriptions, your website and other promotional links are off the table (unless you buy paid ads, but that’s a discussion for another blog). A great number needs only a glance for a potential customer to remember your business. In fact, the number will probably be the most memorable part of the picture you posted. Every picture you post should have your phone number on it. It gives you a call to action and a contact point in one fell swoop.  Promoting a homecare agency? Put 1-800-HOMECARE in bold font across the bottom of photos, whether it's your excellent facilities or your outstanding care team. Run a window company? Add 1-877-WINDOWS to your images of finished projects so that potential customers who want the same results know who to call. Every view of your pictures will be one more impression for your business and one more potential caller. Where businesses fail is they post pictures, but do not provide any way for Instagram users to contact them. Again, Instagram does not allow links in posts, meaning all of your URL-based assets are off the table. Vanity phone numbers, on the other hand, were made for this and thrive in such purely visual environments that rely on a memorable hook.  

The Takeaway

Most of what we covered are best practices for Instagram no matter who you are. What we’ve added for small businesses, however, is the integration of a marketing tool that few have yet to leverage on this platform. Memorable phone numbers work because they’re easy to remember, and phone call leads are ten times more likely to turn into customers than any other kind of lead. They are also a visual form of advertising, which means they were made for a platform like Instagram. If you’re not using a great phone number on your Instagram posts, you’re leaving your marketing response rates to chance. If you want to win on Instagram, you need to be using a memorable phone number to cut through the clutter and give viewers a contact point they can't forget.