With over 1 billion monthly users, Instagram is a formidable player in the world of digital marketing. After Facebook, Instagram generates the highest level of engagement of any other social media platform, with 60% of people using Instagram as a way to find new products. With this in mind, it’s clear that having a presence on Instagram can do wonders for your marketing strategy. That is, if you get it right.

To be successful on Instagram in the present day, it takes a lot more than just posting some filtered images and haphazardly adding ill-considered hashtags as an afterthought. Every successful brand on Instagram has adopted a strategy which considers every aspect of the platform, from the audience they are targeting to the times they are posted. In this article, we will take a look at some things you should consider to optimise your Insta-game.

Know your goals

Before you get started on Instagram, you need to determine exactly what you are trying to achieve. Is your aim to sell through the platform or simply to raise awareness of your brand? Are you looking to reach a particular type of audience you can’t access through other forms of marketing? Once you have got your goals down on paper, make sure to refer back to these and keep them in mind for all future interactions.  

Understand your audience

Knowing who you are marketing to is essential across all marketing strategies. After you have determined your target demographic, your next step is to truly understand how they work. What times of day will they be browsing Instagram, do they check little and often, or do they prefer extended browsing stints? Think about their challenges, what drives them and what makes them get out of bed in the morning. Why should they care about your product or service? To effectively sell your brand, you need to understand the value you bring to your audience.  

Quality over quantity

Most brands will not benefit from bombarding audiences with sub-par content with the aim to stay relevant. Every post should be considered and in keeping with your brand, although that’s not to say every post needs to be perfectly curated; many Instagram users are leaning towards more candid content which shows a more ‘human’ side to the brand. As well as the visual side of things, brands are increasingly turning their attention to the comment which supplements the image to encourage conversation and deepen connections.

Scheduling  

It’s not just about what you post, it’s when you post it.You could post the same image on a Friday evening and a Wednesday morning and expect very different levels of engagement. This can be very much a case of trial and error at first but once you have assessed results, the best times to post for your particular demographic will become clear. Instagram business accounts come with an analytics tool which can help with this.

If you need more advice on generating leads across social media platforms, or across the rest of your marketing strategy, the specialist team at Skein can help. Just get in touch here.

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