Instagram Marketing Strategy – Let’s say you search for a gift for your best friend. You can always buy wine, but you want to shop and find something unique. What would you choose – run around the city to visit multiple stores or scroll Instagram?
My bet is on Instagram.
Social media and the Internet generally make the unreachable accessible. You can watch what happens on the other side of the world, stay in touch with your friends despite the distance, and buy items that aren’t available in your place of living. As you already know, customers love this convenience, so shopping online is becoming more and more popular. However, online shopping is not limited to e-commerce sites.
In the digital marketing world, social media has gained significance.
Instagram users are as willing to follow brands as their friends. An Omnicore Agency study found that more than 200 million Instagrammers visit at least one business profile daily. This conclusion provides a wealth of opportunity for marketers. So, the roadmap to success is to develop an effective Instagram marketing strategy.
There are 4 kinds of Instagram marketing strategies:
- organic content
- paid content
- influencer marketing
- shopping tools
Each area is as broad as your potential Instagram audience (or at least that’s what I wish for you!). Therefore, I will only discuss one part – organic content tips. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with the other ones! Each Instagram marketing strategy has its strengths and weaknesses. Honestly, I’m a huge fan of marketing strategies that demonstrate authenticity and build connections with customers because they result in high customer loyalty and trust. Organic content marketing has all those characteristics.
So, let’s discover 7 ways to boost your Instagram marketing strategy! (Organic content exclusive edition *wink*).
1. Discover your brand tone of voice
What you say doesn’t matter all that much. It matters how you say it.
Just look at how Candy Kittens promote their products’ special features!
Image via Instagram
Or how Letterfolk showcase their products while engaging with readers.
Image via Instagram
The best about both examples is that they are not just a single shot. Both brands have a consistent tone of voice that fits their overall marketing strategy. Thanks to it, the audience perceives them more as characters than business institutions. Bonds are tightening.
Would you like to get a similar result? Here are a few steps on how to discover your brand tone of voice:
- Get a representative sample of your content. 10-15 posts are enough.
- Describe it in three words. Find out qualities that fit every one of your posts.
- Revise if it’s in line with your overall Instagram marketing strategy, and make corrections if needed.
- Ensure writers understand how to put the brand voice into action.
- Update your brand tone of voice as a brand evolves.
In this way, you’ll gain unique and authentic Instagram content. Solid brand identity will improve your relationship with your community.
2. Marketing with Instagram Stories
Instagram stories are ice-breakers. They bring your community closer to your brand.
Think about Instagram posts – they look like official letters, crafted to be a perfect message to a broad audience. On the contrary, Instagram Stories are like a phone call with a friend: spontaneous, vivid, and transient. They are perfect for showing the human face of your company.
If you wonder how it looks in Instagramers’ eyes, the answer is — brilliant. As much as 58% of US Instagram users say that stories are the content format they want to see the most regarding business content.
It’s about time to ask – what is the best way to use stories in marketing?
- Share behind the scenes. People love to see what seems to be secret. So, take backstage pictures and videos showing funny situations and your company’s daily life.
- Showcase user-generated content. Share posts and stories where users mentioned your company. It’s powerful social proof and a perfect way to connect with your community.
- Save highlights. Of course, stories are precious because they are only 24h available, which creates a sense of urgency in visitors. However, if you notice a story has a high level of engagement, consider saving it in highlights for future visitors.
And the 4th point should be – don’t limit yourself. Authenticity is the primary value of stories.
3. Adjust posting schedule
Marketing is an adaptation game.
Its rules are simple – learn your visitors’ behaviors and adjust your strategy accordingly. Regarding the posting plan, the point is to provide people with new content when they are looking for it. In other words, adjust the schedule to customers’ visit frequency.
According to the latest research, 20% of US Instagram users interact with businesses they follow on Instagram once a day, while 20% do so several times a day. That means 40% of users look for new content on brand accounts daily! Also, 1 in 4 respondents said they watch the content or like business posts a few times per week.
So, it appears that new content should be provided several times a week, or maybe even every day!
But how to identify what works best for your particular business? Well, you can excel in your strategy and customize it to your audience by adjusting your posting schedule to your visitors’ activity. Just open your Instagram Insights and click on Total Followers. Then, scroll to the bottom and see what time of day and day of the week your followers usually use Instagram. Now, let’s just adjust your posting schedule accordingly.
In short – learn when your followers are online and surpass their expectations to see your new content.
4. Create concise content
We are halfway through this post, so I suppose your mind is wandering right now. I got nothing against you – it’s just the human thing. Since our “goldfish” attention span is a myth, one thing holds true – it’s hard to concentrate on reading long texts.
Instagramers also want to see short posts. Most of them (89%) prefer short-form content (<1,000 words) when it comes to Instagram brands’ text posts specifically. Thus, short reads increase followers’ chances to read and comment on your content.
Concise content not only holds visitors’ attention. It also falls into their taste.
5. Engage your community
A tight bond that keeps your customers close to your brand. Engagement.
Engaging in the community means involving people in interactions and, as a result, creating a sense of working together on the project. When people interact with your brand and see the consequences of their actions, they feel they contributed to your success. Thus, community engagement leads to increased trust, high customer retention, and excellent brand loyalty.
Marketing can help you achieve those qualities if you involve your Instagram audience in actions. So, welcome engagement stars – quizzes and polls. As much as 61% of US Instagram users share a positive attitude towards those kinds of content. At the same time, quizzes and polls fulfill their role brilliantly. For example, voting for a new label helps entertain the audience, gather feedback and give them a sense of influence on the brand.
Then, followers just come back for more.
6. Use location tag
79% higher engagement results from publishing posts with a tagged location than posts without a tagged location. It’s not surprising regarding the current local shopping trend. Also, people search close by when looking for on-site services. Finally, local products seem to be more familiar to customers.
The point is clear. It’s worth using location tags in Instagram posts of your brand. However, what if you don’t have a specific location or on-site store? In this case, use a location tag close to your target audience. It will help them to find your business.
7. Master using hashtags
Have you ever typed the complete question into the Instagram search bar?
Neither did I. All I use are hashtags. They not only simplify the searching process but also are trendy and eye-catching. There are several kinds of hashtags that are useful to brands. Using them correctly will bring more Instagram explorers to your business account.
- Branded hashtags. Usually, they include your brand name. Using them on your posts encourages users to share their user-generated content.
- Contest hashtags. They relate to specific contests you run, which aim to generate contest awareness.
Image via Instagram
- General appeal hashtags. Some hashtags like #photooftheday, #lovemyjob, and #tbt are so popular that they reach large, diverse audiences.
- Niche-specific hashtags. Those keywords are relevant only to your target audience. For example, it may be #weddingbouquets, #eventflorist, and #flowersofinstagram for floral business.
- Timely hashtags. Those phrases involve current events and seasonal holidays. The best examples are #christmasdecor or #autumnvibes.
- Entertaining hashtags. Don’t be so stiff – show that you can take a joke! Use longtail hashtags like #donttalktomebeforemycoffee and include them in your post description.
The combinations of all kinds of hashtags make your Instagram marketing strategy broad. Just don’t get carried away by keywords’ numbers – between eight to 11 hashtags for each post works the best.
Now, you are equipped with basic concepts for developing a successful Instagram marketing strategy for your Instagram business account. It’s nothing to wait for – let’s go and create!
- Short bio: Karolina Zając, a writer and travel enthusiast at PhotoAiD. When it comes to writing, she loves bringing dry facts to life. When it comes to traveling, she just loves bikes.
