Instagram Marketing – Top tips for an effective Instagram marketing strategy for 2020. Read more for all the essential details.
Instagram encompasses extraordinary marketing opportunities for small and medium sized businesses. In July 2019, it became the sixth most popular social media platform in the world, with more than 1 billion users worldwide. It’s a very popular platform as a result of its attractive presence and visual focus. That’s why it’s important to introduce you to some of the most important Instagram marketing tips you can easily utilize next year.
So let’s see what the key to a successful Instagram marketing campaign is and what social marketing strategy you need to build your business, whatever its size.
1. Create a business profile
When joining Instagram, you have the option to select whether you want to create a personal or business profile. A business account is a lot more ideal choice as you will have access to analytics and consequently you will be able to constantly measure the performance of your profile. With Instagram Insights, you can get detailed information about your followers, you will see when they are most active, and get a better idea about the number of likes coming in or the amount of traffic in a given period of time. What’s more, your followers will find it much easier to connect with your business if necessary. If you haven’t switched to a business profile from a personal profile yet, make sure to do this as soon as possible, and as the first step of your Instagram marketing strategy.
If you need to start your business profile from scratch, don’t hesitate! In 2020, it is estimated that more than 75% of businesses will use this platform. You need to join Instagram in order to beat the competition and attract new customers!
2. Create a killer Bio!
Instagram only provides you with 150 characters of space to tell your followers all the appealing and click-worthy details they need to know about you. Use this space (and wonderful opportunity) wisely! It is probably worth using some hashtags in this section so it’s easier to find your profile. And don’t forget to provide a link to your website here too!
3. Create a personality, a friendly and attractive presence
Remember that Instagram is a visual platform which means that your profile, or in this case your business profile, matters a lot. Carefully pick your colors, font, and style – make sure that your presence is consistent with the message you convey. If you want your followers to associate your content with your brand, then create a sense of harmony.
4. Check your competitors
Not sure how to get started with Instagram marketing? Look at other businesses that operate in the same sector. If you need a little bit of inspiration, you can get ideas from them any time. Check what kind of content they post, what hashtags and visual tools they use. Take a look at their results, how many followers they have, and how many likes they get for each post. This is going to allow you to determine whether their strategy is working properly.
5. As part of your Instagram marketing, plan ahead for the content you post
Instagram marketing is most effective if you have a strategy in place. Once you have figured out what type of content you want to publish, plan each step of it: write down a list of the topics, plan the frequency of publishing. Posting regularly and consistently on Instagram will make your followers much more engaged.
6. Using Hashtags is part of your Instagram marketing strategy
Using hashtags is one of the most important features of Instagram. Hashtags allow people who are not your followers (yet) to find your content. While until recently everybody has advised to use all the hashtags possible (namely 30) and fill in all the space you are provided, this is definitely not the case anymore. Unfortunately, this practice can only do harm to you now because your Instagram account will be considered as spam by the algorithm. Studies have shown that using 5 to 10 hashtags per post is the ideal scenario. The number of course depends largely on how many followers you have on board.
Do not use the same hashtags all the time, as this is also against the policy of Instagram. With this tactic your profile will again seem to be spam and after a while Instagram’s algorithm will not show your new posts to anybody. Remember that it’s never about getting as many people as possible see your posts, it’s about getting the message to the right people, to your target audience.
Incidentally, Instagram recently added a feature to the interface that lets you see how many people have found your posts with a particular hashtag. This will help you understand which hashtag generates the most engagement and modify your Instagram marketing strategy as needed.
For your business, hashtags are a way out of the dark, leading you to a wide variety of leads and feeds. However, choosing hashtags is a serious matter, and you can’t just guess which one to use for a particular post. Every hashtag you use should be relevant to your business so always select them carefully.
One easy and great way to find hashtags is to look at the words and phrases your competitors are using. Obviously, it will change from post to post which hashtags you want to use but competitors can always give you some very good ideas. Don’t be afraid, it’s not illegal at all, everyone does that and everybody knows that. The bottom line is to transform any new idea into your own business and incorporate it into your own profile. Remember that it’s OK to check your competition for some ideas but it’s never OK to copy and paste. Copying can do serious harms to your business.
7. Instagram Stories Come on!
The Stories feature has become hugely popular on Instagram. Using this option has created a much more dynamic feed than usual with lots of fantastic features. You can publish multiple stories daily so it’s definitely worth incorporating the use of the Stories feature in your Instagram marketing strategy.
About half of the businesses use Instagram Stories and they get very good results. One third of the most visited ‘Stories’ are published by businesses. So we’re talking about a key element of social media marketing strategy. In addition, Instagram Stories uploads will disappear in 24 hours. This means that your followers expect these posts to be rawer and a lot more realistic than an average Instagram post. All in all, Stories offer a great opportunity to build a relatively close relationship with your fans and followers.
8. Use videos as part of your Instagram Marketing Strategy
Instagram marketing is not just about a series of still pictures. Videos are more engaging, fun, and there are many ways to publish them so why not use them here as well? You can post videos of up to 1 minute on the feed, you can post 15-second clips on Instagram Stories, and IGTV, a relatively new feature, lets you post videos of up to 10 minutes regarding its length.
9. Don’t shy away from direct messages
Direct messaging is much more human than public chat or comments. In some cases, you may want to send a direct message using Instagram as well. This feature is a nice tool to help you build a better relationship with your customers.
10. Work to build active relationships with your Followers
If you really want to build a strong online presence, you need to do more than just publishing your own content as part of your Instagram marketing strategy. You should write comments to your followers’ posts, like their images and videos, and this way you can show them that you really care about their content. Otherwise they might think that you are only interested in making your business known. Reply to comments for your own posts, follow interesting profiles. The more people see you and your business in their notifications, the more they will remember you and think about you!
11. It is best to post at peak times
If your content is posted during the busiest hours, people will probably be more interested in your content. Of course, it’s always worth experimenting with the hours because you need to know what works best for your own target audience.
12. Call to action – anytime, anywhere
Instagram is a great opportunity for your followers to enter the next stage of the sales funnel. Be direct and open and tell them what you want them to do next – a great example is to tell them to click on the link in your profile to view your blog posts.
13. A great Instagram marketing tactic: Working with influencers and other businesses
If you work with other businesses or social media influencers, it’s a win-win situation for everyone. If another Instagram business account gives positive feedback on your product or works with you to create shared content, a broader audience can get to know your business. You see? It’s simply great for everyone.
14. Paid ads on Instagram
Despite all the above efforts, it can be a major challenge for businesses to reach their target audiences. However, you can get pretty good results with paid ads. Instagram ads allow you to reach the right audience, and with this targeted ad it is much more likely to connect with people who will be really interested in the product or service you offer. Paid ads usually turn out to be a good investment and lead to good conversion rates.
15. Stay tuned – you might need to change your Instagram marketing strategy
Just like in the case of Google algorithm for SEO guidelines, the algorithm of Instagram and the best practices are constantly changing. This means that as an entrepreneur you need to keep an eye on these updates and changes of user preferences in order to get the most out of your Instagram marketing strategy and enjoy all the benefits that comes with it.
Let me give you an example: In April 2019, the platform of Instagram has begun removing likes. This change has not yet reached all the existing Instagram accounts, but it probably won’t be long. Of course, you can still like the posts, however, the number remains hidden. Why did Instagram decide to do this? We need to know that this social media channel is probably the most widespread among American teenagers. In parallel, it has become a platform that is most detrimental to their mental well-being and self-esteem. However, the essence of Instagram would be to provide a positive experience for its Users and to serve its members the best way possible. That’s why this change has been introduced. And your business needs to grow in line with the rules of Instagram.
If Instagram decides to finally remove the number of likes from all profiles, you may need to make changes to your social media strategy later. (By the way, you will still be able to see the likes on your own profile thanks to Instagram Insights.) This would mean that all brands will compete on a level playing field, and that you will be able to experiment with different types of content.
Final thoughts
As for Instagram marketing, don’t be afraid to experiment and try new strategies as social media platforms are constantly evolving and Instagram itself is introducing new features every now and then. If you are smart and persistent, Instagram will not only be an effective tool in your hand but also a fun and lucrative part of your online marketing strategy. We wish you the best of luck for 2020 as well!
Sources:
https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-marketing/
https://wittykittydigital.com/blog/tips-for-engaging-instagram-posts/
https://theboostapps.com/blog/15-instagram-marketing-tips-for-small-businesses-in-2020/#
https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-hashtags/
Image by Efes Kitap from Pixabay