In 2019, there were 815 million users on Instagram. If you could gather even 10% of the total users for your business, you will be able to get a great income out of your Instagram account alone. That means Instagram has great potential for businesses and plays a significant role in business growth. Therefore, one should know the strategies for Instagram success and implement them properly to get better results.
First of all, you should know the number of active users in your service area (it could be worldwide too) but initially target your local area as it is easy to grab a market in your known area. Let’s discuss few more tips to build a successful Instagram account.
How To Build A Successful Instagram Account
1. Decide The Purpose Of Your Instagram Account
It is always a waste of time without a specific goal. You should know why you are making an account on Instagram. The goal could be anything from brand awareness to income generation.
Also, it is not mandatory to have a physical product or service for a business account. Many Instagram users are there on the platform as an influencer.
Some common goals of using Instagram:
- Brand Awareness
- Build Community
- Showcase company values
- Product and services sale
To get clarity of your goals, pen down your requirements and expectations. Based on them, finalise your goals. Once finalised then create your Instagram account accordingly.
2. Plan The Content Strategy
Your content strategy will be based on your defined goals. If you think posting pictures, videos or reels regularly is enough to drive the audience’s attention then you are on the wrong track.
Just think about what you will like to see in a brand, accordingly make a content strategy. It should include yourself, your brand, business offerings, business ethics, etc.
Take inspiration from competitors, see what they are doing to grab attention. Do not copy them but blend them with your ideas and create something new and unique.
You can use calendar planners to have a written plan for everyone’s reference too.
Invest in bringing out the quality of your content. It should feel like brand communication. The tonality, visuals, words, and the overall look. Everything should be in sync. You can look for opinions from your internal team or close relations before posting them on Instagram.
3. Optimise Your Profile
First things first! Make your account a business profile as the business account offers more features and services to expand your profile, track metrics and sell on Instagram.
Always remember to utilise all the features offered by Instagram. It gives 150 characters, a few action buttons and a link to give information to the viewers and optimise your profile.
Create a killing bio which should include a quick business description, your business category, a brand tonality, contact information, and a link (the only place on Instagram where you can share a clickable link) to your website or the page you want your audience to visit.
Your profile image should be brand focused like a logo or a business product to attract your target audience.
4. Research and Create Your Visual Aesthetics
Instagram is all about visuals; posts, stories, reels, and IGTVs. It is extremely important to follow a good visual approach to bring more audience to the account.
You can check on your competitors and other brands that inspire you to look better. Scroll on Pinterest to create a mood board and finalise your brand’s visual aesthetics.
Once you finalise your visual aesthetics, create a brand guideline. All authentic brands follow a brand guideline that helps in maintaining consistency. Pay attention to your colour palettes and colour theme.
5. Keep Posting On Daily Basis
If you post consistently, Instagram will show your content more to your followers which means, you will get more visitors to your account which will eventually increase your brand awareness.
By posting regularly, you can study an individual’s activities and customise your timeline accordingly through Instagram’s algorithm and machine learning. It increases your account’s overall reach and gives them more chances to engage more with your profile.
Also, you can schedule your posts as per your convenience to not miss the peak hours of getting the engagement. Instagram does not have a feature for scheduling posts but multiple software are available in the market that allows Instagram post scheduling.
So even if you are on a holiday, your Instagram profile will not suffer due to a miss on content posting.
6. Use Hashtags To Reach New Audiences
Hashtags are the commonly used way to gather an audience on social media platforms. According to research from Track Maven, a post with at least 11 hashtags gets a good engagement. However, you are allowed to put up to 30 hashtags on Instagram posts. Utilise them as, 10 low reach hashtags, 10 medium reach, and the last 10 higher reach hashtags.
You can copy and group hashtags in an excel sheet if you find it difficult to put them manually again and again.
7. Run Experimental Campaigns & Analyse
You never know what drives more visitors to your account. Keep experimenting with different and unique content strategies.
The biggest advantage online marketing has given us is analytics. You can measure your campaign performance through Instagram Analytics (only available for business accounts). It will help you understand what kind of content is driving more visitors and fulfilling your goal.
Conclusion
Instagram offers a wider scope of business expansion, promotion and awareness. If your purpose for creating an Instagram account is clear, you can gain a lot from it. There is no such thumb rule or Instagram success tips. You have to be cautious about what you are putting on the platform. At the same time, you should be consistent in content posting with relevant hashtags usage. Keep measuring your content performance to make the required changes.