Instagram Marketing Strategy

Businesses of all sizes, from large corporations to small startups, are implementing the best marketing strategies for Instagram to differentiate themselves and leave a lasting impression in the market.

Just a few months ago, during a business networking event, I was caught off guard when someone inquired about my business's Instagram handle. Realizing I didn't have one and lacked knowledge of Instagram marketing strategy, I recognized the importance of learning and sharing my experiences to assist others in navigating this platform.

To equip you with winning Instagram marketing tactics, I've created this user-friendly tutorial based on my own journey and insights. Happy reading!

Instagram Marketing Statistics

Instagram being the trendsetter in social media marketing sure has revolutionized the game of social commerce. Businesses are using this social media platform extensively with more than 200 million business accounts on this platform. 

As a matter of fact, in 2024, with almost 2 billion monthly active users globally, the USA alone has 169 million Instagram users, just behind India at 362 million users. 

Instagram is no longer a space for personal use only. It is a platform where businesses can showcase their services and products, humanize the content, inspire the audience, engage with them directly and recruit new talent at the same time. 

Reports from January 2023 reveal that 80% of online marketers use Instagram for business promotions and marketing, making it the second most popular platform for this purpose, just behind Facebook, which leads with 89% usage among marketers.

Why Businesses are Turning to Instagram Social Strategy 

An integral part of digital marketing strategy, Instagram marketing leverages the Instagram platform for the promotion of a business and its products or services. With an extensive pool of global active users, connecting with the target audience is simpler on this social media platform. 

Let us see why marketing on Instagram has become a preferred choice with the majority of digital marketers and businesses alike.

Targeted advertising

Marketers can develop highly targeted advertising on Instagram for businesses for optimal audience reach based on preferences, interests, behaviors and demographics. Targeted advertising improves the chances of conversions. 

Engaged and extensive user base

With 2 billion active monthly users, the number of users on Instagram is increasing every day. The user base is not only extensive but highly engaged at the same time. This allows businesses to connect with potential customers and promote their brand to a large audience. 

Enhances brand awareness 

When marketers look to enhance brand recognition and awareness, there is no better social media platform than Instagram. Create a strong online presence by curating appropriate content resonating with the business’s values and mission. 

Leverages visual appeal

Content on Instagram is in visual and audio-visual mode. By creating appealing and engaging content, you can grab the eyeballs of potential customers. Your content will help you stand out from the other businesses and gain a competitive edge. 

Instagram Marketing Techniques You Must Implement

Digital marketing endeavors are complete with Instagram marketing. Digital marketers brainstorm to find the best Instagram marketing strategy for their clients. Many professional agencies also offer dedicated Instagram marketing services among other digital marketing services. 

To master the art of Instagram marketing, take a look at these Instagram marketing tips:

Feel free to experiment with different content types

In this cut-throat social media competition, use different content kinds to showcase your brand. Work on your Instagram content strategy and feel free to experiment with content varieties. 

Along with posting colorful images, work on creating engaging and interactive videos to drive customer attention. Get creative with reels and short videos for showcasing your business’s products/services. 

Now the most important thing, while experimenting with the content varieties, focus on your audience's feedback and engagement levels. This helps in understanding your audience’s preferences. Create content accordingly. 

Take advantage of Instagram stories

If you follow Instagram closely, you will notice that the majority of businesses on Instagram use stories to take their products/services to a wide audience. Stories can be in the form of images or short videos, which disappear after 24 hours. 

Along with creating brand awareness, stories help drive traffic to your business directly. You can start with questions, or a poll about your brand to see your audience’s reaction or create an engaging caption for a trending product. 

Understand what the audience wants

To create an effective Instagram marketing strategy, understand what your audience wants in the first place. The content that you create should sync with the audience's preferences for higher engagement and conversion of potential followers into loyal customers. 

Once you tailor your Instagram strategy from the content aspect, concentrate on Instagram Analytics. You can check your business account’s overall performance. 

Following Analytics helps streamline your marketing strategy on Instagram. It also helps to understand whether you deliver desired results for your audience. 

Work on creating the best Instagram profile

When it comes to creating the first impression, you have to do it right. Consider your business’s Instagram profile to be your business card on the social media platform. 

You have limited space to share things about your company, be extremely choosy and conscious of what you share. 

Maintaining a consistent brand aesthetic is a must for your Instagram profile. Your profile should speak of your brand personality and values. Refine the content to resonate with your brand personality - this includes the use of colors, images and videos. 

The profile bio should be concise but engaging. A link to your business website is a must too. Use the ‘Highlights’ feature, just below the bio to display important information and content including customer testimonials, product demos, influencer videos, etc. 

Focus on captions

Talking of Instagram marketing tips, this is a point you cannot overlook. Though a strong visual medium, Instagram values the brand voice ‘captions’ as much as the content. Create captions that narrate interesting and engaging stories. 

Use ‘hashtags #’ in the captions to capture the attention of the audience. Captions with hashtags help your audience find the post easily. 

For instance, if you are a business offering vegan meals, use hashtags like #vegan, #veganfood, #veganmeal, #veganlunch, #plantbased, etc. with the image or video that you post. 

Use user-generated content

The main aim of creating an Instagram marketing strategy is to increase customers and business sales and revenues. If you want to boost your business and gain more followers and customers, social proof is mandatory. 

People nowadays do a lot of research online before they purchase a product/service from a company. Social proof helps in establishing a trust factor. Check for client testimonials or reviews and post them on Instagram. You can also ask your happy customers to share their experiences via a photo/video post related to your company’s products/services on their profiles. 

Partner with influencers

An excellent Instagram strategy for business growth is partnering with influencers. A valuable marketing approach, influencer marketing helps in boosting ‘followers’ on Instagram significantly. 

Influencers already have a strong connection with your business’s target audience and therefore they can direct potential customers to your business website or social media profiles. When you choose the right influencer, your brand gets more credibility. 

While choosing your influencer, keep the audience age group in mind. If you are targeting young people, go for influencers in the same age group so that there is a natural connection. 

Choose the right time for posting posts

Proper timing for posting Instagram posts is an integral part of Instagram marketing strategy. To stay ahead of the curve, you must start with creating a good content calendar. However, to reach out to the maximum audience, choose an appropriate posting time for your content. 

The posting time of Instagram posts might be different depending on the age of your target audience. 

Professionals offering Instagram advertising strategy believe that It is best if you can post between 07.00 am to 09.00 am and sometime between 03.00 pm and 05.00 pm on weekdays. On the weekends, you can post between 08.00 am and 02.00 pm. 

Interact with your followers and respond to their comments

To strengthen your relationship with your customers and followers and to boost engagement, you have to interact with them. Respond to the comments that they leave on your posts. Customers appreciate when you respond to their comments and replies and feel connected. 

It might not always be possible to respond to every single comment. Many customers often ask a common question. As a solution, you can answer the question in general and end with a hashtag related to the post. 

Instagram Live

Your Instagram marketing strategy is successful when you see that you have been able to engage your audience successfully and they interact with your business continuously. Social experiences with the target audience ensure better sales for your business. 

Instagram Live is one of the most effective ways of capturing audience attention and engagement. The video goes live-stream and you can interact with your audience in real time. You can answer their queries and put your views in front as well. 

To make the ‘Live’ successful, try building hype around the session. Ensure that you create the hype way before the schedule so that people can make time to be present during the ‘Live’ session. You can also stream the video on other channels for expanding revenue potential and audience reach. 

Wrapping It Up

Instagram marketing strategy is dynamic. Following one Instagram marketing strategy example blindly might give you temporary results. Hence, experiment, try new strategies, stay abreast with the latest emerging Instagram trends and plan marketing strategies likewise. 

Another important point I want you to note before crafting a compelling Instagram marketing strategy is to keep a close watch on the Analytics. The insights from the Analytics help in devising future marketing plans and campaigns for Instagram. 

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Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the best strategy for Instagram marketing?

There is no single Instagram marketing strategy that can be said to be the best. Some of the strategies include:

• Creating engaging content
• Interacting with the followers and customers
• Leveraging Instagram stories and reels
• Partnering with influencers, etc. 

2. What are the three C’s of Instagram marketing?

The three C’s of Instagram marketing are content, consistency and creativity. 

3. Why is Instagram a good marketing strategy?

With 2 billion active monthly users, marketing on Instagram helps in reaching a wide audience in a short period. Almost 80% of online marketers use Instagram for business promotions, sales and advertising. 

4. What type of marketing does Instagram use?

Instagram marketing is an integral part of social media marketing and digital marketing. With an effective Instagram marketing strategy, marketers reach out to prospective customers via the Instagram platform. 

5. How do I get 18 content on Instagram?

This is the ‘Sensitive Content Control’ settings. You can change the settings for your profile by following these steps:

• Navigate to your profile on Instagram
• Click on the three lines in the upper right corner and select ‘Settings’. 
• Click ‘Account’
• Select ‘Sensitive Content Control’. 

6. How much Instagram ad cost?

You can advertise your business and reach more prospective customers with Instagram ads. There are different budgets for the ads. Choose as per your business goals. You can update ads whenever you want.