Instagram is quickly becoming a popular marketing medium. Both customers and companies use Instagram to sell their products. According to various statistics, approximately 95 million photographs are uploaded to this site every day.
When an Instagram presence is well planned and managed, it offers a wide range of benefits to small businesses. If you’re using Instagram to promote your business, you’ll need a documented Instagram business marketing plan—yes, even if you’re solely responsible for the account.
Here are 15 Strategies to Promote your Business on Instagram:
1. Identify and understand your target audience
When considering how to promote yourself on Instagram, a little preliminary research can help you figure out who you can target most effectively.
It is essential to identify your target audience in order to develop content that they want. This will be crucial when choosing targeting options for your Instagram ads.
2. Define your business objectives
Your Instagram marketing plan will work best if you have a clear goal, choose specific techniques that gradually build up toward that goal, and measure your progress along the way so you can modify it as necessary, just like any other strategy.
The bases of your marketing strategy are your objectives. To set goals, we like to use the acronym SMART:
Specific: Instead of a broad goal, give specific numbers and milestones.
Measurable: Choose goals that can be tracked and measured using analytics and insights.
Achievable: Be realistic in your expectations. It is quite unlikely that you will get a million followers in a week. (Unless you’re an egg, of course).
Relevant: Stay relevant by staying up to date with your industry, business, and prospects.
3. Optimize your Instagram profile
Add your website link and an avatar, and create a compelling Instagram bio; This will help people understand your business right away. A link in bio tool allows you to add multiple URLs, such as a landing page, campaign, or new collection page, to your profile, and using keywords in your Instagram bio could increase discoverability.
Instagram’s unique link field has led social media managers to go outside the box to maximize its potential. In articles, it has become common to refer to your “link in bio” and use this link to provide a landing page with a mix of fresh content and evergreen connections to your most important product and service sites.
Various branded link management tools can be used to create social media bio-optimized links for landing pages.
4. Determine marketing KPIs and a budget
What marketing goals do you have for Instagram? Instagram is the ideal social media channel for many businesses to increase their brand recognition.
It is essential to clearly outline your objectives and goals so that you can use them as a basis for evaluating your KPIs through a social media audit at the end of each month or quarter.
If paid social media is part of your plan, be sure to clearly define your budget and divide it so you can take advantage of Instagram’s advertising capabilities, such as promoted posts and shopping features.
5. Create a solid Instagram content strategy
You have several publishing options to develop your content strategy on Instagram. Choosing the right ones depends largely on understanding your target audience. Consider the following:
What are the main demographic characteristics of my target audience?
What do you like to do, see and experience?
What attracts and amuses them?
How can brands gain the trust of their customers and persuade them to buy?
You probably won’t have all the answers right away, which is totally fine.
It is a process that you will master over time. However, as you deepen your understanding of your target demographic and what makes them tick, your Instagram marketing approach will improve.
6. Customize your content with your brand
Since Instagram is all about appearances, it is essential to curate suitable and relevant material for your Instagram marketing plan. Consumers will pay attention to your feed, so make sure your photos are high-resolution, consistent, and follow a similar theme that complements your brand.
You can use third-party apps to take a look at what your Instagram feed will look like before it goes live.
Maintain a constant “vibe.” If your business is high fashion, for example, make sure all your photos are high resolution and convey feelings of elegance and refinement. Instagram is a fantastic way to let your true colors come out if your brand is unique or fun.
7. Look at your competition
If you’re just starting out, looking at what other companies are doing can be very beneficial. Examine the top-performing posts from similar companies, your biggest competitors, industry leaders, and the most popular accounts on the platform.
This competitive research will alert you to important trends, best practices, and little-known Instagram secrets and tricks that will take you to the next level.
8. Follow a content calendar
Which content planning and organization method works best? A social media content calendar.
While spontaneous posts can be fun, there’s a lot of pressure to figure out the ideal time each day that also fits precisely with your business goals. Instead, plan your social media content in advance and develop pillars of content.
Taking time to prepare and plan ahead will increase your efficiency and reduce the likelihood of making mistakes.
Make a social media content calendar so you can manage your Instagram content strategy and ensure consistency and coherence.
9. Monitor your progress with analytics
The most effective Instagram marketing plans are based on a solid understanding. Thanks to our trusty friend, analytics, the information you need for optimal performance is right in front of you.
Instagram’s own insights provide a wealth of information about which posts are trending, which stories are getting the most attention, and even the exact number of people who have viewed your most recent reel. This is a fantastic source of feedback to help you improve your next round of content; You’ll see what worked, what failed, and where small adjustments could be beneficial.
You can also examine demographic information about your Instagram followers, which can help you discover your target audience. Although the built-in analysis tool is not particularly comprehensive, it is a great place to start.
10. Set up an Instagram store
With Instagram Shops, brands can create customizable digital stores. Customers can make purchases directly from their Instagram profiles.
Consider it a landing page where customers can explore or learn about all your products. If you offer physical products, your Instagram store is a fantastic way to reach an audience ready to purchase directly in the app, especially if you regularly tag things in your stories and posts.
Hashtags appear almost everywhere on the internet these days. When used in your marketing plan, Instagram hashtags provide a clear message to consumers that your posts are relevant to what they’re searching for. In fact, many people search for content solely based on hashtags.
Although the Instagram algorithm is sometimes mysterious, using the right hashtags will increase the reach of your post. You can use hashtags in your Instagram bio, comments, and captions. In reels and stories, also use the Instagram hashtag sticker. Your content can appear in search results when someone clicks or uses a hashtag.
If your posts are about a popular topic, be sure to use the related hashtag. This can help you get your message to those who are really interested in hearing it. Creating a branded hashtag and using it regularly is also a good idea. This hashtag can include the name of your company or the name of a specific campaign, event, or promotion.
12. Post stories on Instagram
Stories can only be 15 seconds long, expire after 24 hours, and do not appear on your main profile or feed. Psychologically it makes sense: they are a more exciting and transitory way to share with your followers.
Unless you save them to highlights, story content is only available for an entire day. Stories are a valuable addition to your Instagram marketing plan because they allow you to address topics that are more timely, insightful, or not worthy of a full post.
It’s a great way to maintain engagement with new and returning followers because it’s a more private platform than reels, visible only to followers. Send special discount codes or reveal exclusive follower access to a new collection through Instagram Stories.
13. Turn Instagram Stories into Highlights
Instagram stories that have been saved for more than 24 hours and are shared on a profile are known as Instagram story highlights. They are found in the small circles below the Instagram bios.
Instagram Story Highlights are great for providing a brief summary of your account as they appear at the top of your profile. Make sure your highlights are up-to-date, align with the main ideas of your content, and aesthetically enhance your brand.
Instagram story highlights can be added in different ways. It’s important to remember, however, that you can’t upload images or videos directly to your story highlights. To pin your story highlights to a highlight or create a new highlight, the story must have been previously published on Instagram or be live.
14. Instagram Live to stream
As the name implies, Instagram Live is a feature that allows you to interact with your audience in a “live broadcast” style in real time. This is a very useful tool if you are attending an event or talking about something important.
The great thing about Instagram Live is that your story will appear first in your followers’ stories, and they will receive a notification that it is happening.
It is important to use this feature if you have really valuable content to offer. Otherwise, you risk alienating readers by wasting their time.
15. Create and publish reels on Instagram
As one of Instagram’s relatively newer features, Reels is a direct competitor to TikTok’s viral videos. Users can create entertaining and engaging 15- or 90-second multimedia loops for almost any reason. Reels include short lectures, dance competitions and educational videos.
Content created with this feature can be found on the explore page specifically designed for Reels. Regular photos, stories, videos, and posts won’t appear here, so using this type of content could be a wonderful way for your business to see audience engagement.
Increasing your Instagram followers every day is an ambitious goal, but achievable if you follow the right strategies.
Remember that the key to success is creating high-quality content, interacting with other users and promoting your account effectively. With patience and consistency, you can build a solid community on Instagram and achieve your growth goals.
