Information in this blog post was obtained from Social Media Examiner, HubSpot, and Sprout Social.

We live in an age of the Internet, computers and networks have developed vigorously, and new media, as a concept different from traditional media, has grown rapidly. In traditional media, the main form of expression is television or newspapers, but now, new media rely on the Internet for information communication and exchange.

According to the current development direction of the Internet and the emergence of new media, some enterprises have formulated a new marketing strategy. Using social media platforms for marketing is not a rare business decision, some companies are already ahead of the game, they are explorers because they are the first mover who is looking for new ways to transit traditional marketing, and they succeed. But some are not, they are still exploring the road of network marketing.

Whether you are a small business or an individual marketer who wants to know more about social media marketing, here is your way!

In this blog, we will primarily talk about Instagram marketing, are you ready for your adventure? Here we go.

According to HubSpot, here are some top Instagram marketing surveys findings:

• 79% have leveraged Instagram Shopping tools and one in three plan to use them for the first time in 2022.

• 82% post video content on the platform and the content formats they use most are video-based.

• Instagram Live has the highest ROI of any content format. It is also the most effective for gaining followers, gets the most shares, and will see the most investment from Instagram marketers this year.

• Content that reflects your brand’s values and showcases your products/services have the highest ROI on Instagram.

• The best strategies to grow your following on Instagram are posting interactive and engaging stories, engaging with other users, and partnering with influencers.

• Instagram marketers will prioritize fostering relationships with their customers in 2022 by focusing on interacting with their audience and creating content that encourages engagement.

• 35% use the app for customer service and see high ROI.

• 30% work with influencers (or creators) and 42% plan to start this year.

• 84% say Instagram marketing was effective for their company last year.

Now, you know how Instagram marketing works, let’s dive deeper and check out these Instagram marketing tips for free!

Tip 1: Build an Instagram Strategy

Everything you need to know before marketing is building an Instagram strategy.

So you need to do the four things.

1: Determine your business goals, having a clear business goal, so your business strategy could align with your goals. Your goal probably considers the following.

• Increasing brand awareness of your business.

• Getting people to engage with your content

• Driving website clicks from your bio or any Instagram content activities

• Selling products or services from your Instagram shop or website

2: Narrow down your target audience

3: Research your competition

4: Develop your action plan

Tip 2: Schedule Your Posts on the Calendar

In order to keep your account active, you should have a calendar of when and how often to post. The appropriate frequency of your posts is important, which to ensure you don't overload your audience with too much information or advertising. Published content is also diverse you can use pictures, stories, or reels. Different content types have different influences. You might make more effort on the pictures with caption posts since they will stick on your landing page. Be careful, each post you publish should have a unique caption. Even the seemingly smallest details of those captions can impact your engagement rate and whether or not your post is discoverable.

No matter what you’re saying or selling, make sure that you include a combination of the following in your captions.

• A call-to-action (a question, “check out our bio,” etc)

• A touch of personality (use emojis, take up a conversational tone)

Hashtags (Make a habit of adding at least one branded hashtag to your post to amplify your account. Then add any relevant campaign hashtags and a mix of industry, descriptive, location, or viral hashtags)

Instagram story is an effective way to attract the audience’s attention as well, you could show more brand stories on the story, and these personal insights could be anything from packaging a new product to playing a prank on a colleague. They will help convey the human side of your company, and consequently boost brand awareness and engagement. A good rule of thumb: Publish an in-feed post three to four times a week and share on Stories every day.

Tip 3: Track Your Content Performance and Modify the Organic Content Mix to Reflect Audience Preferences

Tracking your data outcome is a critical step for making adjustments, once you posted any organic content, don’t just leave them to go, you should always track and analyze the performance. It's important to make sure the content you post resonates with your audience so you can reach your goals. If you've already posted some content on Instagram, you can also check the Insights dashboard to see who's been seeing your posts in their feed. Tap Accounts Reached to get a demographic breakdown and a better idea of whom you're reaching. Keep an eye on this breakdown over time to make sure you're always creating content that resonates, and you could always schedule your posts based on your audience’s active time and day. If you don’t analyze your performance and look for optimization opportunities, there’s a good chance you’ll reach a plateau with no idea how to get out of it.

Tip 4: Optimize Your Instagram Bio

Optimize your Instagram bio because, when prospects visit your Instagram profile to learn more about your business, your bio is the first thing they'll see. With a limit of just 150 characters, Instagram bios have to be pretty concise. But if you're creative, there's plenty of space for lead generation. you’ll make sure your profile shows up in the search results. This means including a business category, a short description of your brand, and a few keywords related to your brand or industry, the most important thing is making sure to include a short call to action (CTA) that points to your bio link and boosts lead generation.

Tip 5: Share Your Instagram Profile on Other Channels

We know you are trying to attract more followers on Instagram, but there is not just one way to achieve your goal, try to consider some external channels. You could promote your Instagram on your website or other social media platforms in-feed page, adding a call-to-action section is crucial. So when your audience browses your feed pages, they will have more platform choices to follow you, and you can also include a link to your Instagram profile in your email marketing campaigns.

Tip 6: Supplement Organic Instagram Content With Influencer and User-Generated Content

According to Social Media Examiner, you might create most of your brand's Instagram content in-house. But you don't necessarily have to produce all of it. Instead, you may be able to source high-quality photos and videos from other creators including customers and influencers. Both user-generated content (UGC) and influencer content can enhance any brand's Instagram content strategy. Sometimes, it works better than your organic content, since your audience will be influenced by other customers sharing. You can try to hold some online question-and-answer activities to encourage consumers to post some brand-related posts, such as sharing products or service experiences. Consumers who make posts with high engagement can earn rewards such as product coupons.

After you have a certain number of UGC, search your brand hashtag on Instagram, and choose some highly engaged UGC, direct message to the original creator to get permission for sharing. You can also share fan-made posts, stories, and reels directly to Instagram Stories, seamlessly crediting the original creator. For example, the @evernote story below includes UGC from customer @annavatuone. The original story tags the note-taking app in an answer to an interactive question, and Evernote's story amplifies the original creator's content as a form of social proof

In Conclusion

Take use of these useful Instagram marketing tips could lead you to a shortcut to successful marketing. For an enterprise itself, successful online marketing can help the enterprise increase brand awareness, promote products, and promote sales, but the premise is that the enterprise itself has quality and value. Instagram marketing channel offers businesses a premium platform for leads, and all conversions A business needs a robust strategy, high-quality content, and the ability to make adjustments when needed.

Resources

West, C. (2023). Instagram marketing: 6 ways to update your strategy. Sprout Social. Retrieved from https://sproutsocial.com/insights/instagram-marketing-strategy/

Sonnenberg, A. (2022). Instagram Marketing Strategy in 8 Easy Steps. Social Media Examiner. Retrieved from https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/instagram-marketing-strategy-in-8-easy-steps/

Chan, N. (2022). How to Build Your Brand With Instagram: 11 Tried-and-True Strategies. HubSpot. Retrieved from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/instagram-build-business-brand?hubs_content=blog.hubspot.com%2Ftopic-learning-path%2Finstagram-marketing&hubs_content-cta=How%20to%20Build%20Your%20Brand%20With%20Instagram%3A%2011%20Tried-and-True%20Strategies