Instagram is a popular app with a great reach opportunity for brands. But with great reach comes great competition.
To stand out on such a platform, you need to implement a set of key tactics into your Instagram marketing strategy. Not sure where to start? No worries, we got you covered.
Keep reading to find out ten important tips that will boost your Instagram marketing strategy.
1. Choose the Right Profile Picture
All your social media accounts should have the same photo to become more recognizable. The best practice is to use your logo as your business profile picture. This way, you will let people know they found the official business page of your company.
To make sure your profile picture looks good, upload it at a size of 320/320 pixels. Moreover, keep in mind that Instagram crops pictures into a circle with a 110-pixel diameter. So all of your visual elements should be visible within those parameters.
2. Craft a Strong Instagram Bio
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You have 150 characters at your disposal. How are you going to use them?
A bio should exactly describe your business, show a little personality, authenticity, and link to your main web pages. You can also add a CTA for better performance.
A good practice is to add relevant branded hashtags to your bio. This will let your audience know what hashtags to use when talking about your business. Additionally, it will help them find relevant posts about your brand more easily.
You can always change your bio depending on the campaigns you are running to bring more awareness towards key products and services.
Something worth mentioning is that the only clickable link at your disposal on Instagram is the link you include in your bio. A better way to approach this obstacle is to use link-in-bio tools that allow you to direct your audience towards a set of relevant links.
3. Create the Best Instagram Content
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Just because Instagram is a predominantly visual platform, doesn't mean that it lacks versatility. There are multiple ways you can diversify your content and make it more engaging for your following.
Instagram stories are a great way to interact with your audience through features like Q&As and polls. You can take advantage of this opportunity to get an insight into how your customers perceive you and receive helpful feedback.
Instagram Live has become more popular due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are some of the things you can do on Instagram Live:
Establish a more direct interaction through
Make live presentations on topics of interest for your followers
Introduce new products or services
Give a behind-the-scenes look at your workspace/work process
Instagram Reels can be used to show a little more personality and incorporate a little fun and humor into your social media strategy. Hop on some popular trends and let your creativity get the best of you.
Instagram TV videos are long-format videos (60 minutes) that are much more visible on the explore page. So take your time and craft a video that has a high informational or entertaining quality to it.
The most engaging post format on Instagram is carousel posts. You can upload up to 10 files, mix photos, and videos to create a comprehensive post. For example, you can use this content type to introduce a new product line or share the highlights of an event you hosted.
Because Instagram is such a visual app, learn here how to create an esthetically pleasing profile.
4. Maintain a Posting Schedule
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Plan your social media content strategy with your target audience in mind. Do they use Instagram? What kind of content do they prefer? When are they usually online?
With Instagram Insights, you don't have to worry about posting times. All you have to do is go to "Your Audience" and then click on "See All." Now you have the time frames in which your audience is active.
All that is left is to schedule your posts; based on this data and try to make it as engaging as you can.
Another aspect to keep in mind is the posting frequency. You want to maintain a balance in your posting schedule between posting too often and posting too infrequently. Spamming your audience might lead to them unfollowing your account, while not posting enough will decrease your reach and engagement levels.
The ideal number of times you should post is one to three times a day, and the minimum amount is three times a week.
5. Work on Your Captions
Beautiful visuals are a must, but without strong captions, the photos will get overlooked. The goal is to catch the attention of your audience with great visuals. And to keep them engaged, we use powerful copywriting techniques.
Use keywords in your captions to show up in search results. Choose popular phrases that your audience uses to look for similar products and services. As a result, you will increase your chances of becoming visible to potential clients.
Based on your audience, you can incorporate emojis to make your captions more visually pleasing and convey your message more clearly.
But be careful not to overdo it.
Even though Instagram captions have a character 2,200 limit, you should test what works best for your followers. The ideal caption in 2020 was 405 characters long. And these factors are constantly changing. That is why you should always use the data you have from your audience and guide your strategy based on your performance metrics.
6. Add The Right Hashtags
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Help your potential clients discover you sooner by using the best Instagram hashtags. #eureka
Instagram lets you use up to 30 hashtags per post. In reality, that many hashtags will look spammy and might make your followers lose credibility in your brand.
Somewhere between five to ten hashtags might do the trick. The best Instagram hashtags are the ones who:
Are related to your field
Are specific
Match your caption
Are branded
7. Create an Instagram Shop
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Having an Instagram business account has its perks. Rather than bringing your followers to your shopping page, you can bring the shopping page to them.
Create your Instagram Store and make the shopping experience faster and easier for your customers. Combine beautiful visuals with engaging copywriting and establish a direct connection to your products. This feature is worth it. It is reported that 130 million users use shopping posts to get informed about different products.
Moreover, you can add a "View Shop" to your profile to let your audience look through your products, even if they don't see a related post.
Benefits of having an Instagram Store:
Appear on the explore page in the shop tab
Add products to posts, stories, IGTV videos
8. Use Influencer Marketing
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Instagram is the most important influencer marketing channel.
Collaborating with an influencer can be beneficial for any business. The key is to reach out to influencers that:
Have a good image
Are related to your industry
Have followers from your target audience
Influencer marketing can boost your credibility and bring new followers. This type of collaboration is typically done through promotional posts directly on the influencer's account. But this is not the limit.
Brands can experiment with all the features Instagram has to offer and even implement an account takeover. Meaning that the influencer posts directly on the business account for a limited time, bringing new followers to the table.
9. Invest in Instagram Ads
If you want to be sure that you reach your social media marketing goals, use Instagram ads.
Plan a strategy, define your target audience, and write down your goals and objectives to stay on track. For maximum efficiency, your ads should be targeted to specific parameters, such as:
Demographics
Location
Interests
Furthermore, your ads should contain appealing imagery, good content written by SEO principles along with CTAs and relevant hashtags.
Instagram ads can appear in the feed section, in stories, or on the explore page.
10. Use Social Media Management Tools
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Social media management tools can help you create, schedule, and post your content effectively, saving you time and improving your social media workflow.
Several social media management tools provide a visual library with images and videos to personalize and use on your Instagram page. Moreover, you can also monitor your social media presence with detailed reports generated directly from the platforms.
Furthermore, social media management tools are a great way to maintain a collaboration with your teammates using features that allow you to leave notes, edit, approve, dismiss or delete posts as you go.
Now to You
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Are you ready to put these tips into action? Instagram is such a great platform for businesses; you have a lot of diversity at your disposal that you can use to grow your brand. Explore your options and have fun during the process.
If you need help with your Instagram marketing strategy, let us know. Send us a message, and we will get back to you with professional advice.
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