Instagram Marketing Tips
Since Instagram’s inception, things have changed, and more people are connecting with their audiences through video. Even though some people just do it for fun, businesses can use Instagram’s power to boost profits!
Therefore, how can you expand your business in 2023 through Instagram marketing?
After Facebook, Instagram is the most frequently accessed network. Over two billion people use the popular visual-first social media platform on a monthly basis, and 500 million Instagram Stories are shared each day.
For more than a decade, Instagram has shaped social commerce, the creator economy, and how brands use social media. Instagram lets people and businesses take pictures, edit them, and share them with the world. Your posts can be shared, liked, commented on, saved, and shared by platform users.
Your company can increase its success on Instagram by developing and implementing a marketing strategy for the platform utilizing the useful interactive features of Instagram.
In this article, we will explain how to market on Instagram and how the platform can help your business in this article. For a comprehensive look at Instagram marketing best practices, read the entire article!
What Is Instagram Marketing?
The practice of using Instagram to increase brand awareness, audience, leads, and sales is known as Instagram marketing. Instagram is a highly effective marketing platform for brands, entrepreneurs, and creators because it is the preferred social media platform for people between the ages of 16 and 34.
It’s one of the most widely used social media platforms. 59% of adults in the United States say they use Instagram on a daily basis. Because of this, brands that use Instagram can share content with a huge global audience.
Examples of Instagram marketing strategies are:
- Organic materials: Stories, photos, videos, reels, or carousel posts.
- Paid content: Ads on Instagram, such as Shopping ads, Stories ads, and other Influencer marketing.
- Shopping Tools: Live shopping, Instagram Checkout, the Shop tab, and product tags and catalogs.
Why Use Instagram Marketing?
The visual nature of Instagram is its primary advantage over other social media platforms. Instagram is the best platform for showcasing content if you run a business that benefits from the design of your product or offers a service with a clearly visible outcome.
Video, images, and illustrations are all excellent types of content for this social media platform; however, your marketing strategy will ultimately decide what kind of content you post and how frequently. Even if a new social media platform works well for everyone else’s business, having a plan in place before you start using it will help you stay focused on your goals and, most importantly, your audience!
Additional reasons why Instagram marketing can be a great way to promote your business include the following:
- Out of all the major social media platforms, Instagram has the highest engagement rate. This means that you can easily acquire numerous comments, likes, and followers.
- Since you can add links to your Instagram stories and bio, it’s simple to get people to visit your website.
- Instagram also lets you sell your products directly. In point of fact, at least 75% of Instagram users have made a purchase.
- Instagram is already being used for marketing by many businesses. As a result, you can use Instagram to monitor your rivals.
- Instagram is one of the best platforms for social media marketing if you want to expand your business.
Instagram Marketing: Overall Benefits
There are numerous advantages to implementing a successful Instagram marketing strategy for your business. The following are some of the main advantages of marketing on Instagram:
- Boost customer engagement to your brand: Through likes, comments, and reposts, Instagram is a platform that encourages engagement. As a result, using Instagram marketing as a means of increasing customer engagement can be simple and efficient.
- Advertise for cheap: Instagram offers a free professional account, and compared to other, more conventional advertising platforms, running paid ads typically costs less.
- Expand your audience: You can reach a global audience of a very large and diverse size through Instagram.
- Create a distinctive brand identity: You can personalize the visual elements of your brand and make it memorable in people’s minds by curating posts carefully.
- Make your content marketing plan stronger: As part of a larger content marketing strategy, Instagram is a great place to post engaging images and videos.
Now that we have that out of the way, let’s take a look at our Instagram marketing tips to help your company make the most of the platform!
Instagram Marketing: 15 Tips To Boost Engagement On Your Account
1. Optimize Your Profile:
If you want Instagram users to become customers, your profile can make a big difference. Utilizing an Instagram business profile is one of the easiest ways to market on the platform. Using an Instagram business account can make marketing so much simpler for you because it was made just for businesses.
Your profile will be used to judge you by users who don’t know much about your business or what you do, so pay close attention to it. You have 150 characters to create an Instagram bio that conveys your brand’s personality and makes a great first impression. You can also talk about your brand in other places, like your name, username, website URL, brand category, contact information, and call-to-action buttons.
Your profile picture should match all of this information. Your company’s logo will typically serve as your profile picture to lend credibility. Your business may also profit from the development of clickable hashtags, story highlights, and a view shop button that directs users to your brand’s in-app store.
2. Create Engaging Content:
You should post content that piques people’s interest in order to promote your business on Instagram effectively.
There are numerous strategies for engaging your Instagram posts. To begin, you can:
- Use humor
- Pop-culture references
- Add memes to tell stories
- Talk about current events.
- Ask interesting questions.
Since Instagram is a lot of pictures, you can use it to create a unique look for your brand. When people scroll through their Instagram feeds, your images can instantly stand out from the competition. You can create a one-of-a-kind Instagram look by:
- Make sure your font and color scheme are distinct from those of your biggest rivals.
- Stick to photos that are relevant to your business.
- Choose a color scheme that matches your branding.
- Use fonts that are similar to all of your content.
3. Level-Up Your Hashtag Game:
Utilizing hashtags is the simplest method for increasing Instagram followers. Branded hashtags make up about 70% of the hashtags on the platform. Instagram lets users use hashtags to search for what they need. Posts that include at least one hashtag receive approximately 12.6% more engagement than posts that do not contain any hashtags.
A post can contain as many as thirty hashtags. However, data suggests that posts with 11 hashtags perform best, but there is no general agreement on this point. Try different numbers to see which one works best for you.
You should be very careful when selecting your hashtags! Don’t just put something in because it’s popular or popular right now. Your hashtags should all be relevant. You can find posts that are trending using Instagram’s built-in Discovery feature.
But if you really want to use hashtags, we recommend that you use a third-party hashtag tool that can suggest popular hashtags for your industry or niche.
4. Use Creative Captions:
While images on Instagram are important, the right caption can also help you better promote your company on this social media platform.
Captions on Instagram are a great way to provide additional information about a photo. Let’s say you’ve uploaded a picture of your item to Instagram. Then, you can add details like the price, the model of the product, and a link to the purchase to make it easy for interested customers to buy it.
And that is only the beginning!
Do you want a lot of people to comment on your Instagram post? You can ask a question by using the caption!
There should be no more than 2,000 characters in your captions. However, long captions are not always required. Short descriptions can also be useful. Writing captions that are entertaining, relevant, and simple to understand is essential.
You can improve the interest of your captions in the following ways:
- Keep in mind that only the first 125 characters of the caption will be seen.
- Use words that your audience will understand.
- Keep the same tone throughout all of your captions.
- Use a few hashtags and emojis that are relevant.
- Use humor and references to pop culture.
5. Post At The Right Time:
Do you want more people to engage with your Instagram content? If so, the following Instagram marketing advice is for you: When your audience is active, you must post. You can manipulate Instagram’s algorithm to your advantage by posting at the right time, thereby increasing your reach and generating a lot of engagement.
Older posts will soon be lost because Instagram displays the most recent posts first. Your target audience may not see your content at all if they are not online when you post. The straightforward solution to this problem is to publish your message at a time when Instagram users are most engaged, typically between 9 and 11 a.m.
You can post on Instagram at the optimal time to get even more engagement:
- Wednesday, 11 a.m.
- Friday, 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.
6. Interact With Your Followers:
You can quickly establish a connection with your Instagram followers through interactions. People will also be much more likely to engage with your brand and make a purchase if you have a strong relationship with them. As a result, Instagram users may give you more likes, comments, and sales.
Best of all, implementing this Instagram marketing tip for your business is a breeze! You can try the following on Instagram to increase interactions:
- Respond to questions in the comments,
- Like and pin comments under your posts,
- Use your caption to ask questions,
- Post a quiz using your Instagram story,
- Comment on the posts of other popular accounts.
With these organic interactions, you can easily convert Instagram followers into committed customers.
7. Offer Giveaways:
Offering a giveaway, i.e. a gift to your followers in exchange for promoting your products or services, is an easy way to promote them on Instagram. The trick is easy: ask your followers to do something that makes you more popular.
You can request that they:
- Tag three or more friends in your post.
- Upload a video or photo to their profile with the hashtag for your brand.
You can increase your number of followers with each of these methods. Competitions and giveaways are two other options. The two are slightly different from one another. Participants in giveaways are only required to participate by commenting or taking very minor actions. In contrast, applicants must compete in competitions to qualify. There may be a number of prerequisites:
You can be as imaginative as you like! The person who comes up with the best caption wins. The person who takes the best picture wins.
Break the mold and come up with concepts that pique people’s interest!
8. Promote User-Generated Content:
User-generated content can be a huge help for small businesses that want to thrive on social media if they want to use Instagram to turn people into customers.
Getting Instagram users to post content about your products is a cost-effective way to get marketing materials. Need to know how you can do that on Instagram? Asking your customers to send you pictures of them enjoying your products is an easy way to start.
By displaying genuine Instagram users enjoying your products, user-generated content on your website can increase conversions. What’s better? This is something that your company can easily do. You can repost user-generated content on your business account by simply asking customers for it.
9. Post More Reels And Videos:
An amusing fact: On Instagram, videos receive twice as many comments as photos do. You can incorporate video content into your content strategy, such as Instagram reels if you’re looking for a simple Instagram marketing hack.
Videos give you more time to promote your business and can also keep people interested for a longer period of time. Your videos can be made without spending a lot of money either. Instagram users can get a lot of likes and comments on even simple smartphone videos.
You can try some ideas for Instagram reels here:
- Tips and procedures
- Product demonstrations
- Announcements
- Sneak peeks
- “Thank you” videos
When you post engaging IGTV videos on Instagram, there is a simple way to ensure that your content reaches a large number of new individuals.
10. Regularly Post Instagram Stories:
If you want to connect with your followers and market your business, Instagram stories can be wonderful tools.
Your followers won’t see that content again if they miss it because stories are only available for 24 hours. People will feel a sense of urgency as a result, which may encourage them to read your stories. Here are some ideas for how to get the most out of Instagram stories:
- Use stickers to show your hashtags,
- Captions
- Location
- Include a call to action at the end.
You can also save some of your Instagram stories as highlights. Make sure your message is clear in the first few seconds. Follow your brand’s unique look for your stories as well. This way, you can always display these stories as clickable icons on your profile and they will never expire.
People who visit your profile can view your best Instagram stories when you pin them, giving them a positive impression of your brand. As a result, they will be much more likely to visit your website or follow your account.
When you want to sell a new product, you can also use story highlights. Even if your Instagram story has already expired, your followers can still learn about your new product promotion this way.
11. Keep An Out On Your Post Reach:
When we talk about numbers, we mean everything from your reach to your engagement to the number of followers you have.
For some users, Instagram has stopped displaying the number of likes a post receives. While some may find this contentious decision to be in bad taste, others support it because it relieves pressure. However, followers may not be able to see many of the analytical details that brands or page owners have access to.
The number of followers a person has is the most significant number. However, since brands and influencers frequently purchase followers, it is not the only factor that determines success. Engagement, or the number of people who comment, like, or repost your photos, deserves your special attention. This is very important because not everyone who reads your post or interacts with it will follow your page.
To view the numbers, you can use the built-in system or a third-party platform.
12. Paid Promotion Via Influencers:
Let’s first look at how influencer marketing works before discussing its significance.
Simply put, influencers are models or brand ambassadors who assist brands in expanding their reach. Most of the time, they charge for their services based on things like their reach, image, etc.
Influencers are employed by almost all kinds of brands, including established ones like Starbucks and start-ups. While influencers can be found on a wide range of platforms, Instagram is often cited as the origin of the influencer phenomenon.
Get in touch with a prominent influencer and close the deal if your company can afford to do so. Depending on your selection of the right influencer, such as someone who has a good name and is followed by the people you want to reach.
13. Use The Instagram Live Feature:
On Instagram, you can interact with your followers by going live. Instagram Live can be a great option for businesses because it lets streamers add a single guest and have a one-on-one conversation that everyone can see.
Influencers frequently make use of this choice, but now businesses are also using Instagram Live to stay in touch with customers and inform them of what’s going on behind the scenes. You can connect with your target audience and interact with them in real-time through a Livestream. As a result, you are developing a relationship with your customers and learning more about them.
You can use the following straightforward concepts for your Livestream:
- Webinars,
- Product demonstrations,
- Behind-the-scenes footage,
- Interviews
14. Celebrate Your Milestones:
Celebrate your achievements with our next Instagram marketing tip. Instagram, it’s a great way to get a lot of likes and comments. You can host a small Instagram celebration with a giveaway if you recently reached a significant milestone, such as an anniversary or a large number of Instagram followers.
You’ll be able to include your Instagram followers in your success and show your gratitude for their assistance in this way. A milestone also demonstrates to your followers that your business is progressing at the same time.
You can even celebrate by holding a giveaway to thank your loyal customers. People can see that they will benefit from your business’s success, which builds brand loyalty. They are likely to keep following you on Instagram in order to participate in the subsequent milestone celebration, which is a bonus!
15. Post Customer Reviews:
You can use Instagram reviews and testimonials to promote your e-commerce brand, quickly increase conversion rates, and make more sales.
Think back to the last time you purchased something online. Before deciding, you probably read some reviews from other customers. Well, we’re all on the same page here!
We get social proof that a product is worth purchasing when we see actual people promoting it.
It will be easier to convert visitors into paying customers if you show Instagram users praising your products. As a result of your attention to their content, the user who left the review or testimonial will also be encouraged to make more.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. How to improve Instagram marketing?
Use a business account, get to know your audience, complete your profile, and try features like Instagram Stories and Reels that help you reach more people. Brands have found that short-form video content is a great way to get their content in front of followers. You can use various tips from this article to improve your marketing measures on Instagram.
2. Is Instagram marketing effective?
The world of social media has been dominated by Instagram. With over 2 billion users per month, it is the most popular location for image sharing. Every day, millions of likes are given out, and you need to do your part to get some of them. As a result, it is the ideal medium for expanding your business and connecting with new customers.
3. How to gain more followers on Instagram?
Focus more on quality than quantity. Create a regular posting schedule, hold contests, use relevant hashtags, and share your Instagram handle on other platforms like email and your brand website, this can also help you gain followers.
Conclusion
Instagram’s power and reach cannot be denied with its two billion monthly active users. What was once merely a photo-sharing app has evolved into an immersive social experience that gives users the opportunity to investigate the visual identity of a company.
Instagram users value content of high quality. Make pictures that show off your brand in a new and different way or give your audience interesting information. Write engaging and entertaining captions to optimize your content.
Instagram makes it fun and simple to create and maintain a platform that reflects your brand’s visual identity. Moreover, you can follow the tips mentioned on this page to boost engagement for your business account.
We hope you find these tips helpful!