With more than 1 billion unique users on the app every day, Instagram is ripe with opportunities for your brand and should be an essential pillar to any social media marketing campaign. Getting started is often easier said than done, but with a few best practices up your sleeve, you’ll be able to sift through the noise to reach your ideal audience.

Write a strong bio.

As with all marketing, making a strong first impression is key. Hook your potential customers with a clear and concise description of how you will benefit followers and customers, a relevant thumbnail image, and a link to a lead capture or landing page.

Establish your audience.
Considering your potential customers on social media isn’t very different than it is in other aspects of your marketing. Ask yourself:

• What demographics do your products cater to?
• What budget are you and your prospects working with?
• What problems are your prospects trying to solve and how can your products help?
• How can your brand use media like Instagram to grow?

By having a clear vision of what your brand is out to accomplish with its Instagram campaign, you’ll deliver more engaging and confident content that’ll hook your target audience.

Craft focused, goal-oriented posts, stories and reels.
Just like your other marketing assets, every Instagram post should have an actionable goal. Whether you want to make it easy for customers to access your products via a link in your bio, increase engagement with a direct invite or request, or support customers with useful information, you should treat every post as an opportunity to grow your brand and connect with your ideal customer.

Keep your content fresh.

While you want to keep your marketing message consistent (more on that later), it’s still important to incorporate plenty of variety. This is especially key on Instagram, where users can view your whole feed at once and will be able to tell at a glance if your posts are repetitive. Try using different color palettes, locations, camera angles and even people in each post. Incorporate goals that are less salesy and more lifestyle oriented (i.e., holiday posts or behind-the-scenes content), and don’t forget to utilize Instagram stories and reels.

Know your competition.
Every bit of intel is crucial when crafting a social media marketing strategy, which means you should be acutely aware of how your competitors are using their Instagram feeds. You can easily see what’s working and what’s not when scanning these accounts, and you can adjust your plans accordingly.

Stay consistent.
Repetition (bad!) is not the same as consistency (good!). Chances are your brand already has an established style and voice that’s used throughout other marketing assets, and it’s a good rule to carry over to social media as well. Even on Instagram, where you can afford to be a little more casual and informal, writing with a company style in mind will ensure that posts stay on-message and on-brand, no matter which employee is crafting the post or responding to a comment.

Prioritize customer engagement.

A brand is nothing without its customers, and Instagram is the perfect interactive medium to incorporate user-generated content into your strategy. You can accomplish this by:

• Creating a contest that includes a unique hashtag and reposting the responses to your story
• Asking followers to post photos with their favorite products in use
• Using a Q&A format to engage with your audience in real time
• And much more

Utilizing user-generated content checks many of the boxes on this list.  

 

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