When marketing your business on Instagram, you have a few different options. You can opt to post photos and videos without any strategy or be intentional about how and when you post things. The latter is much more beneficial for your brand’s growth.
Marketing your business on Instagram starts with understanding your audience. The best marketing strategies are those that speak directly to your target audience, so if you want to increase your followers, you must understand who those people are. To start, you need to know what type of content your audience wants to see and how often they’d like to see it. An SMM panel in India can help with this.
Create a solid Instagram content strategy
Once you’ve identified the types of content that appeal to your audience, you can start creating a content strategy. A content strategy doesn’t have to be complicated. It just means that you have a plan in place for what types of content you’ll be posting, when, and why you’re posting it. There are three main types of content you should be posting on Instagram as a way to market your business:
- Visual content: This includes things like photos, videos, and product images. Visual content is likely the type of content that comes to mind when you think about Instagram marketing.
- Text-based content: This can include blog posts, quotes, and surveys.
- Interaction-based content: This includes quizzes, and polls.
One important thing to remember when creating your content strategy is that you want to post something new on Instagram at least once a day. With so many brands vying for attention on the platform, consistency is key if you want to stand out from the crowd. It’s also important to note that you need to be consistent with the content you’re posting.
Always include an overlay in your Instagram posts
An overlay is a piece of marketing material that appears on top of your post, either at the beginning or the end. Several different overlays can be used to help boost engagement with your posts. For example, you can add a CTA (call-to-action) that asks followers to take a specific action with the post, like commenting on it, sharing it, or clicking on a link. You can also use an overlay to ask followers questions about the post or provide them with more information about your company or brand. While you’re allowed to use a CTA in your Instagram posts, you can’t use a link.
You can’t drive traffic to your website or ask followers to sign up to your email list using Instagram. Overlays are your best bet for adding more content to your posts. While you can’t include a link, you can link to your Instagram profile, which is a great way to let followers know where else they can find you. If you want to include a link in your Instagram post, you can add an overlay to your post that has the link text and a clickable URL. However, if you want to add a link to your Instagram post, you first must host your link on a website.
Take advantage of Instagram’s built-in analytics
Posting content to Instagram is great, but you also want to know how well that content performs. This can help you adjust as you go and ensure you’re always posting the types of content your audience engages with the most. You can track the performance of each of your posts on Instagram by going to your profile, clicking “Posts,” and then selecting “Manage Posts.” From there, you’ll be taken to a screen that shows you data on the past 30 days of posts, including the date the post was published, the number of likes it received, the number of comments it received, the number of times the post was saved and the number of times the post was reported as spam.
Use other social media platforms to gain followers on Instagram
If you’re starting with Instagram marketing and don’t yet have a large following, you might wonder how you’ll ever build your audience to a point where it’s benefiting your business. The good news is that you can start building your Instagram following before you even post your first photo or video. You can promote your Instagram account on other social media channels. Most social media platforms have free tools you can use to schedule posts to be published at different times throughout the week or month.
You can use these tools to promote your Instagram profile by linking to your Instagram account and asking followers to follow you there. You can also ask your current followers to engage with your posts and refer their friends to your account. The more engagement your posts get, the higher they’ll appear in your followers’ feeds, meaning you’ll likely see an increase in the number of followers you get over time.
Don’t forget about video marketing on Instagram
Instagram recently changed its algorithm, and posts with video content are seen more often than those without video. Including video in your Instagram marketing strategy can be incredibly beneficial. You can post video content straight to your Instagram Stories feed or use Instagram’s new IGTV feature to post longer videos that are only viewable on mobile devices. If posting video content to Instagram, you should ensure it has a strong call to action.
Final Take
The Instagram marketing strategy that works best for your brand depends on several factors. Your business and your audience are two big factors that will determine the best strategy for you. However, no matter what type of Instagram marketing strategy you choose, you must be consistent. You can’t let a few posts here, and there be your only form of Instagram marketing. You must ensure you’re posting new content regularly, so your followers never miss out on anything from your brand.