Instagram has blown up over the past few years in all the best ways possible. With more than 1 billion active monthly Instagram accounts and about 90% of those accounts following at least one business, the time has never been better for you to market your business on Instagram.
Marketing on such a visual platform is much different than on other platforms that aren’t as image-heavy, like Twitter and LinkedIn, for example. Still, this platform is one you can’t leave out of the equation for your marketing plan in 2022. Here are some of the best tips to include in your Instagram marketing strategy:
1. Get a Business Profile
To start, set up your Instagram account correctly from the get-go. A business account trumps a personal account if you’re looking to appeal and market to customers. If you already have a personal account, you can head to the settings and click “Switch to Professional Account.”
One of the most important perks you’ll see as a result of the switch is that you can now access Instagram Insights. This analytics dashboard lets you see your post reach, engagement, impressions, website clicks, and more. Everything you want to know about how your audience interacts with your account and content will be in Insights.
A business profile also gives you the ability to promote posts, advertise, and add a contact button to your profile. When you hit 10,000 followers, a shiny new power comes along: You can now add clickable links to Instagram stories.
2. Optimize Your Profile
An Instagram profile is a tricky thing to work with for a business because it’s limited in space. You only have 30 characters for your business name and just a few lines for your bio to explain what your company does.
For your business profile, be sure to use everything you can. Choose a business category, fill up your bio space, and add a link to your website. If you have multiple links you want to point people to, consider using a service like Linktree or Campsite, which brings people to a separate page with all the links you want to share.
3. Figure Out Your Aesthetics
Screenshot via ColorHunt.co
Instagram is the perfect social media platform to share your branding through visual content. Check out just a few Instagram accounts in your feed that are winning in terms of followers and engagement, and you’ll see that their profiles are cohesive and tell a brand story.
Color plays a significant role in Instagram profile cohesiveness. If your primary brand color is purple, you might use filters with purplish hues and imagery with pops of purple, for instance. You can play around with your brand’s colors for text posts, illustrations, videos, and other forms of content you post on Instagram, too. Try Color Hunt to find a color palette you can use for your profile.
4. Learn Your Ideal Times to Post
When it comes to getting in front of your audience – the very goal of marketing – knowing when your audience hangs out on Instagram is critical. With your business account in play, you can find out this information by studying your Insights.
Check out our guides to the best days and the best times to post on Instagram to give you an idea of when most people visit the app. You’ll still want to dig into your Insights, though, to get a better feel for your specific audience.
5. Think Outside the Stream
Instagram gives users a different way to share content that goes beyond photos, and that’s through Stories. Stories allow you to keep a bunch of posts together without overwhelming your audience. They can also be interactive. You can ask people questions, give them a link to click, and get their reactions.
Ultimately, Stories let your brand’s personality shine through and give your audience a relatability factor they might be missing from your regular feed.
6. Partner with Influencers
Instagram is for influencers! Instagram is the spot to hang out if you want to be a brand ambassador and share everything you love in one place. As a business owner and marketer, you can leverage influencers’ audiences to spread the word about your company, products, and services.
Look for influencers with lots of quality engagement, the ability to represent your brand in a fun way, and, of course, a high amount of influence. If their commenters seem genuinely interested in what they’re promoting, it’s a good sign that you’ll benefit from partnering with them.
7. Sell Directly from Instagram
Screenshot via Instagram Shopping
With a business account, you can use Instagram Shopping, a feature that lets you create shoppable Stories and posts. It’s like having an extra shop that exists separately from your website, giving more people access to your products. And you can showcase them in fun, engaging ways.
8. Reward User-Generated Content
When others start learning about your business, they might share it all on their own. Many Instagram users create content about products and brands they love without getting paid for it. Reposting content on Instagram not only gives you free content to share that’s all about brand love, but it also rewards your fans.
Beyond that, if you’re looking for even more ideas on how to grow your Instagram following, we’ve also created a series of free Instagram resources, including: our guide to the Instagram text limit, our guide on how to share a post on Instagram to my feed, and our answer to questions like how to zoom out a picture for an Instagram profile picture.
Give the original poster a mention when you repost, directing some traffic and followers in their direction. This simple action could encourage more people to want to share content aimed at your brand.
Want to stream your Instagram posts on your website? Try Social Feed, a tool that integrates your latest social media posts with your website to increase engagement, build your following, and let your audience know what you’re up to. And, if you’re looking to grow your Instagram following, you can check out our post on Instagram giveaway examples to learn how to write a giveaway post.
