If you feel you’re a novice to Instagram marketing, you’re not alone. Today no social media strategy is complete without an effective Instagram marketing plan. The platform that started being a younger sister to Facebook has taken the world by storm now. With over 800 million active monthly users and 500 million daily Stories user, Instagram has become the second most popular visual-first social medium.
Instagram has become a goldmine for businesses of all shapes and sizes. It allows businesses to sell online, build a loyal community for their brand and generate revenue. This is the reason why Instagram is booming right now among businesses and consumers alike. Today Instagram has over 2 million advertisers and 25 million business profiles!
Last year has particularly contributed to the growing number of users on Instagram with everyone moving online. The rise in visual content flooding the social networks was remarkably prominent on Instagram as well. All this signifies that Instagram marketing strategy has become crucial in every brand’s communication program. Here’s our take on the best Instagram marketing strategy for your business to help you get started.
- Create your Instagram profile and optimize your bio
You begin by creating a profile of your brand and make sure it is optimized for your business and target audience. Your profile should reflect your brand story.
Keep a friendly approach, don’t be too formal.
Another important aspect is your Instagram bio. You have to present your brand in an interesting and informative way at the same time. You need to convince Instagram users that adding you to their profile will add to their Instagram following will enhance the content and value of their feeds.
Also, your Instagram bio is the only place you can add a clickable link, so don’t forget to include a link to your website.
- Get found by tagging your location
Your company must be reachable both online and offline. This is where the location tag comes in handy to help you find your exact address. This brings authenticity to your account as people know where to find you.
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Create an Instagram feed that reflects your brand’s aesthetic
It’s difficult to create an aesthetically pleasing profile, but it’s important. As a visual first medium Instagram contributes immensely to online shopping with product images playing a major role in attracting users. Include your brand’s tone and personality in the feeds. Play with your brand’s style and add brand value. Most importantly, be truthful and human.
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Get creative with captions
Content plays a vital role in attracting users. Creative captions are the key to attracting customers, but it’s difficult to nail it every time. A short and interesting caption can do the trick for you along with a carousel post.
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Focus on the target audience
Find out what it is about your product or brand that appeals to your target market and reflect that in your Instagram feed. Don’t skimp on the quality of your posts and messages and use this platform to connect with your audience through discussions about shared values and goals.
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Research your competitors’ strategies
Keep a track of what your competitors are doing. Study their strategy and get a feel of what are they promoting on Instagram. Are they creating fresh content for their feed or relying on user-generated content for their products or services? What type of content are they publishing on Instagram? How often? What’s their hashtag strategy?
Find out what your competitors are up to and how you can improve your marketing strategy.
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Use strategic hashtags
Hashtags are an interesting part of your strategy. They are used to track the content that users are looking for. You need to choose your hashtags after proper research and use them strategically so that more users can find your posts during their search.
Here’s how you should be using your hashtags-
- Include 2-8 hashtags for your post
- Opt for the most commonly used hashtags
- Incorporate hashtags that are exclusively relevant to your specified target audience
- Create brand-specific hashtags
- To implement your brand in a local area, opt for location-based hashtags
- Find out if it’s better to use hashtags in the caption or the first comment
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Create more carousel posts
According to an Instagram engagement evolution study, carousel posts led to a higher impression rate on Instagram. They are a great way to showcase a product, a new brand feature, a post with the team, etc. In a carousel post, you can include up to ten photos or videos, so make sure you use them all to emphasize your brand’s message.
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Create awesome Instagram Stories
500 million people use Stories on Instagram daily. If you add narrative with your brand identity, it will make your audience connect with you emotionally and add meaning to your content.
Stories establish a connection between you and your audience significantly. Play around with GIFs, add music to your Stories, tag people, use hashtags, and so on. The poll feature is one of the new Stories features that can help bend the bridge between you and your audience. You can highly improve on your products and services by asking your audience about their needs and interests in the form of a poll. This makes your audience feel directly connected to your business.
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Be aware of your most engaging Instagram posts
Always check your data and metrics to see what kind of content is doing well with your audience. Checking Instagram analytics can help you find the most successful post; this is an easy way to find out what your followers like. Interaction is the king on Instagram, so take advantage of this and move in the right direction.
Summing-up
The news feed algorithm of all social media platforms keeps changing. What worked for you a month back will probably not work for you in the following month. You need to stay up to date with the trends. You need to be mindful of a few things, such as on-brand content, top-quality images, user-generated content, friendly and engaging posts, and trending topics.
If you still haven’t optimized your profile to engage your followers and can’t get your strategy in place for Instagram talk to us. Shergroup offers social media marketing as an outsourced service that is cost-effective and easily accessible. Our dedicated team of social media experts work extensively to help you manage your social media platforms to reach customers around the world.
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