Are you someone who is having a hard time cracking Instagram for business best practices to achieve marketing results? Or are you a newbie who doesn’t know what, when, and for whom to post?
Then keep reading. This blog is for you.
Gone are the days when Facebook used to rule the social media world unchallenged. Because now, we have a platform that is on a meteoric rise. It’s Instagram. After launching in 2010, Instagram has risen to 2 billion active users, making it one of the most used social media platforms worldwide.
In simple terms, almost one-quarter of the world’s active internet users access the app every MONTH.
It’s a highly engaging platform with tremendous potential. The exact reason why Meta paid USD 1 billion in cash and stock to buy Instagram just 24 months after its launch. It’s all paying well now.
Importance of Instagram in Marketing
The exponential growth of this photo-sharing platform, from around 400 million users in 2016 to over two billion users in 2023, has driven brands and influencers to use Instagram for business best practices. The overall engagement rate on Instagram is 0.83% which is considerably higher than other platforms.
As a result, Instagram has become the preferred marketing platform for brands looking to generate awareness and leads.
Instagram, like other social media platforms, acts as a customer touchpoint. It helps you engage directly with your customers, initiate conversations, build trust, and grow your network and sphere of influence.
With its growing user base and engagement ratios, this is the perfect time to concentrate more on developing Instagram marketing strategies and getting the best out of it.
21 Instagram Best Practices for Businesses
1. Keep your profile SEO-friendly and easy to understand
The first and foremost step in your Instagram marketing strategy should be optimizing your profile with SEO-relevant keywords. The first thing that users see when they arrive on your account is your profile picture, your username, and your bio.
Making it easier to understand what you do through these three mediums can help drive more users to hit that follow button. Many famous brands, marketing specialists, and influencers specify what they do through their bio.
Proper biostructure can be-
Line 1: Who are you or What do you do?
Line 2: What are you helping with? (increases the credibility factor)
Line 3: About your/brand’s achievements
Line 4: CTA (ideally your website link)
Including your niche beside your name can also provide clarity to your audience and make your profile discoverable on search engines. Take, for example, a sports consultant – Jack Stevenson. Keeping his name just as “Jack Stevenson” is right but not that useful as his profile won’t appear when someone searches for “marketing consultant”. Instead, he should name his profile as “Jack Stevenson | Sports consultant”.
2. Understand and study your target audience
Unless and until you know for whom you are creating content, you won’t be able to go forward. It is essential to step into your audience’s shoes to understand what they like and what they don’t. It also helps you decide your brand voice and tone. Content marketing is impossible to execute unless you know what type of content actually brings you numbers.
3. Plan posts and be consistent
To use any platform, you need a clear plan. That is when content calendars come to recuse. You must have heard that “Content is king”. It is true but posting quality content CONSISTENTLY works wonders.
And how do you make sure you are consistent with your posts? You plan.
Content calendars consider all the significant events, national holidays, and brand campaigns and help you curate content accordingly. Stating out what to post and when to post gives you a clear path and helps save time.
The planning ends with your calendar. However, to maintain consistency, you must follow every date you would note down in your calendar. To abide by your content calendar, incorporate an Instagram scheduling tool into your workflow.
Automating your Instagram posting in advance with a scheduling tool will ensure you maintain posting consistency on all the decided dates of the content calendar.
Never miss a posting date. Make your Instagram marketing super CONSISTENT!
Use SocialPilot to manage Instagram posting of multiple client accounts at once. Schedule your Instagram posts, Reels, and Stories from a single dashboard. It’s a perfect solution to automate Instagram posting for all your calendar dates, so you never have to worry about missing a posting time.
4. Run targeted ads
Sometimes, paid methods help you achieve faster and better quality results over organic means. Instagram ads are known to be more expensive than Facebook ads, but the results speak for themselves.
Nothing can beat organic growth on Instagram or any other social media platform, especially in the long term, but if you are a new brand looking to generate awareness in the market, Instagram ads are the best option.
5. Invest in a good camera phone
Instagram was initially launched as a pure photo-sharing platform. It was only years after that features like Stories, Messages, and Reels were incorporated into the application. People get attracted to captivating visuals and videos more than content.
Initially, burning a hole in your pocket and investing in a DSLR is not essential. But, investing in a good phone with a decent camera can make all the difference.
6. Partner with influencers
Influencer marketing has grown leaps and bounds in the past few years. According to a recent study, 17% of companies spend over half their marketing budget on influencers.
Influencer marketing is giving tough competition to celebrity endorsement in 2023. The basic functioning of influencer marketing is straightforward. Brands partner with influencers in return for cash or in-kind deliverables to increase their brand awareness.
If you are a small brand just starting out, it is advisable to approach young micro-influencers to gain initial traction.
7. Get creative with your content
No one likes to follow accounts with boring and outright sale-sy content. Yes, it is obvious that you have to post marketing content to promote your products, but overdoing it has repercussions.
Instagram is a space where creativity and artistry rule, and engaging content ultimately wins. Katelyn Rhoades, a social media expert, explains in her Instagram Masterclass, “Think outside the box and experiment with different formats like Reels, Stories, and Carousels. Use humor, storytelling, and behind-the-scenes shots to make your content stand out and connect with your audience on a deeper level.”
To generate maximum response, ensure your posts relate to the trending discussion topics.
8. Make full use of Instagram features
Instagram is a platform that is full of fun-to-use features. Stories, Reels, videos, and Live videos have a lot of marketing potential and a high consumption rate. Stories, in particular, are watched the most by Instagrammers daily.
Producing 90-second videos (reels), polls on stories, QnA rounds on stories, and quizzes are a great option to solicit feedback and generate ideas for new content. Such formats generate higher engagement and have a high probability of gaining more traffic than regular posts.
9. Ask relevant questions to engage the audience
Instagram is a social media platform that has the highest number of engagements. But it becomes a bit tricky to engage your particular set of audience with every post. A simple technique to use when your account’s engagement rates drop is asking questions. What is better than getting customer feedback for a brand? Nothing.
Adding a personalized touch to your questions can interest your followers and tempt them to respond with an answer. Asking for actions like: “Drop an emoji to describe your day”, “What is your favorite song?”, “What do you like about our brand?”, “What type of content is interesting according to you?” can help improve your engagement ratio, and engaging content ultimately wins!
10. Make your audience the face of your brand
Your Instagram audience is most likely your future set of loyal customers. Endorsing their profiles on your account would help build credibility and give that personalized touch to your brand.
Re-share their stories and posts that mention your brand on your official business profile. Such practices build a community around your brand and help you gain organic followers.
11. Use emojis
According to Statistics, almost half of Instagram posts feature at least one emoji.
We all love using emojis while talking to our friends and family. It gives that interactive and authentic touch to our virtual conversations. Then, why not use them on Instagram posts?
Emojis lead up to 48% more Interactions on Instagram. Using emojis in your bio, captions, and stories helps build the engagement that brands often crave.
So, the next time you post, remember to use 3-4 related emojis in your content.
12. Maintain a give-and-take relationship
Social media is not a one-way street. Just making sure someone follows you is not enough. You should keep your audience busy. Hosting small contests like “Photography competitions”, “Like, comment, and tag three friends to win the giveaway”, and “DM us to get a discount” at regular intervals keeps your followers entertained and makes your account worth following.
13. Use clear call-to-actions
The most skilfully designed posts can be futile if not complemented by clear CTAs that ask viewers to act in a specific manner. Most efficient marketing messages give the recipient a single, clear, and very short action to take.
It can be anything – Sign up, Call now, Register here, and Learn more. Basically, any call that prompts a clear action. Keeping your call to action informative and to the point can help increase the number of conversions and boost the ROI of your campaign.
14. Using filters and editing tools
Did you know that you can create your own filters on Instagram?
It is a strategy adopted by a lot of brands out there. Curating your filters increases engagement on your account as people love playing around with filters.
Using new filters on your page can help boost engagement too. Experimenting with different editing tools like Inshot and Snapseed can help your profile stand out and make a long-lasting impression.
15. Make use of the Instagram shop
The Instagram shop is a new plugin introduced by the app and is useful for both small and big brands. Shops are immersive full-screen storefront that enables businesses to build their brand story and drive product discovery – all in a native shopping experience.
This feature enables your audience to visit your Instagram store by tapping into your post or story. It is a great plugin to use if you are starting on Instagram.
16. Create a feed that stands apart
As stated above, visual appeal can make or break your brand’s reputation on Instagram. When you are aiming to grow in the Instagram space, understanding the design gives you an extra edge. Here’s how you can create a visually appealing profile:
- Pick up a color scheme and stick to it
- Choose one filter/editing tool and use it consistently
- Take quality photos
- Audit your images as per standard
- Use natural light
- Plan your feed layout and structure
17. Experiment with timings and select the best one
As much as what you post matters, WHEN you post, matters even more. Instagram is all about experimentation. The algorithm changes regularly, and in order to keep up with it, you need to experiment and find the best time to post on Instagram.
This also helps you understand when your audience is active on the platform and up for engagement. Post during different timings and judge what works out and what doesn’t. It will help you go a long way.
18. Plan your hashtags
Using industry-specific hashtags makes your posts more discoverable and effective. There are several do’s and don’ts of making hashtags that you should religiously follow. The major catch while selecting hashtags is to not go for those with millions of posts already but go for those with around thousands.
Including very specific hashtags makes your post reach the right and more users at the same time. For example, if your post is about some business strategy, using #business or #entrepreneur won’t help you that
19. Analyze your account
One of the most overlooked techniques when it comes to Instagram marketing is measuring and analyzing. Instagram has in-built insights that efficiently tell you about your followers’ demographics, gender, age, and many more metrics.
But, if you do want more information that is downloadable and insightful, use a third-party tool like SocialPilot. SocialPilot lets you know about every post’s engagement rate and provides insights even based on your reels or profile to help you stay at the top of your game.
Feel free to experiment with other tools that provide information in the form of detailed reports that can help you know which post is performing well and which isn’t.
20. Tag Products in Posts
A majority of Instagram users use the platform for discovering new products and shopping for the products they want to buy. It is witnessed that businesses that tag products in feed posts attract a higher sale then those which don’t.
You can also experiment and tag products on reels, stories and ads to generate sales.
21. Revisit your top-performing posts and recreate them
Once you analyze your account and get to know your top-performing posts, it’s time to recreate them. Yes, you heard it right. Recreating by no way means copying.
It simply means if your followers like a particular pattern of content once, they would definitely like something similar in the future. So, hang on to that theme and increase your chances of making hit content.
Follow the Best!
Instagram is all about finding beauty in the mundane. Even their official website encourages you to curate distinct and compelling content to make your brand stand out.
It takes a bit of effort, but once you integrate these simple best practices for planning your Instagram marketing, you will reach that spot where you consistently grow organically.
The practices we have mentioned in this blog are applicable across all brand categories, so please feel free to customize these practices to ace your Instagram game.
Content scheduling and planning are key to ensuring marketing success. So, don’t forget to use SocialPilot to schedule your Instagram posts and seamlessly execute your marketing plans.
