Instagram is, without a doubt, the biggest social media platform to roll around since Facebook. Instagram is geared to be an image and video sharing social platform that is technically a part of Facebook, but over the years it has quickly risen to be a favourite of marketing agencies due to the many features it offers businesses to promote their products and services. It is also immensely popular among younger generations, with over 60% of the user base belonging to the age group of 18 – 44 years. And with the pandemic pushing more people than ever to kill time online, the opportunity is perfect for a business to implement an Instagram strategy for growth.

One of the best ways to possibly use Instagram for your business is to simply imagine your experience on the app, while simultaneously trying to relate to the social media experiences of your immediate social circle. Everyone has a unique, curated dashboard that updates frequently with posts of their friends, content creators, personal interests, or brands that might interest them. Similarly, think about the accounts that you follow on the app. Every account that you voluntarily chose to engage with had something that kept you coming back for more.

What was it that kept you hooked to these accounts?

This is the question that you will have to get to the bottom of if you want to successfully use Instagram for marketing. You will need to appeal to your audience and keep them hooked. Advertising on Instagram can be a goldmine if you know how to tap into what the audience likes. Instagram growth strategies for business can only succeed if your target audience decides to voluntarily engage with what you post. While this can seem like a daunting task, we are here to help you out with how to successfully implement an Instagram strategy for business growth.

Figure out why Instagram is a part of your social media strategy

Before creating a strategy, jot down which goals you hope to achieve using Instagram and the methodology that would be the most effective for the business. Is Instagram necessary to target a certain demographic of your future clientele? Or does the app’s visual nature help in displaying your products and services to its full glory? For instance, if you are a tattoo artist trying to promote your work, you will need images of your work on display to boost your credibility and network with the community. On the flip side, if your business is centred around selling a product like cement, your marketing strategy will have to go beyond the confines of social media as well.

Create a Visually Appealing Page

As a platform that is exclusive for sharing images and videos, it goes without being said that visual aesthetics play a huge role in your Instagram growth strategies. Regardless of whether your business goals are to increase brand awareness, sell products or services, or simply build a community, finding the right aesthetic is mandatory for a business Instagram.

Before you begin posting on your new business account, come up with a set of visual guidelines that your brand can consistently follow. Things like a colour palette and font size matter when your brand is making an impression on new audiences on a daily basis. The first impression is the most important, but consistency is a close second. To avoid any visual clutter in your Instagram growth strategies, your account has to strictly follow the visual guidelines.

Your brand’s aesthetics don’t just apply to what you post, but also to your account logo and your Instagram bio. The logo should be memorable while aligning with your account’s theme, while your bio should be short, sweet, and catchy enough to convince the audience to keep scrolling through your feed.

Create a Posting Schedule & Plan out Your Posts

Fortune favours the brave, and Instagram’s algorithm favours the regular. Instagram advertising is only effective if your business account’s posts are frequent and relevant. The algorithm constantly collects data on what Instagram users like and what is relevant to them. By posting frequently, the chances of your brand’s content showing up on a potential customer’s feed is simply much higher. Instagram marketing services generally create a tight posting schedule and abide by it to see the best results.

However, posting frequently is not a free pass to compromise on quality. A customer is just a tap away from unfollowing your brand’s account permanently if they do not like what you post. To succeed with Instagram advertising, plan out your posts, take inspiration from trending pop culture, and actively engage with your audience. Many Instagram growth strategies include influencer marketing to tap into a pre-existing customer base that already relates to an influencer. For business growth, this is a great strategy for your brand’s credibility and reliability to be cemented on Instagram.

To keep up with a posting schedule while maintaining high-quality content, plan out your posts well in advance to see the best results.

Use Hashtags to Increase Brand Visibility

Luckily for businesses, their content is not solely at the mercy of the algorithm. Hashtags are a fantastic tool in social media marketing and should be essential in your Instagram strategy for business growth. Hashtags are data tools that categorize content based on a particular topic, making it easier for users to find relevant content that they relate to. This can be an incredible asset for businesses, with most Instagram advertising using a variety of hashtags to create brand awareness. If you want to know more about how to use hashtags in social media marketing (with tons of examples from Instagram), click here.

Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags in a single post, but it is recommended to use no more than 18 – 20 to avoid visual clutter and maintain a neat aesthetic as we mentioned above. For effective Instagram advertising, place hashtags in captions rather than comments to boost your reach.

Engage and Have Fun!

Finally, the last tip would be to interact with your followers regularly. Instagram is an interactive platform which businesses could use to their advantage by fostering relationships with their customers. This not only makes their brand more likeable but also more authentic. Over 90% of Instagram’s users follow at least one business account, if not more. By being creative and having fun with the content that you post, your chances of retaining customers are that much higher. After all, the young demographics of Instagram are never actively looking for advertisements, which Instagram marketing services could improvise on.

The element of humour and fun would instantly make your brand much more relatable. Your Instagram growth strategies should ideally include funny memes, reels, and regular responses to the comments that you receive on your posts. While this may seem less important than the technical parts of the algorithm, it will be an invaluable asset to your Instagram strategy for business growth.

Mix and match with different types of content

The huge range of visual content types have been a blessing for creative people out there and have broadened the playing field exponentially! Stories, reels, posts, videos, and IGTV are all different from each other; each content type subsequently has different functions, strengths, and weaknesses. The 24-hour limit of a story is a fantastic way to draw attention to your profile or to update your followers about something new. On the other hand, reels, posts, and videos are all ideal for taking advantage of Instagram’s algorithm while creating evergreen content.

To truly figure out what kind of medium works best for your content, experiment with everything Instagram has to offer! This way you not only increase your reach on the platform, but you also learn more about it and how it syncs with your brand! Judiciously take note of what works and always be open to the latest online trends.

There are hundreds of ways of succeeding with Instagram advertising, but a few foundational strategies for Instagram growth will take your business a long way. Constant innovation, creativity, and patience are also the essentials of Instagram marketing services. With the best of the technical and abstract knowledge put together, you could land up with the perfect Instagram strategy for business.

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