8 Powerful Instagram Marketing Strategy to Use For Small Business

Instagram Marketing Strategy: Social media marketing is essential in today’s digital landscape. As a brand, you can’t avoid it. Instagram, with its one billion monthly users, is especially relevant when it comes to marketing your business online. The key to successfully reaching your goals, however, lies in attracting a loyal, active and engaged following.

In order to do that, you need to be intentional with your practices. Follow these powerful Instagram marketing strategy to see a greater return on your social media marketing efforts.

Also Read: Instagram Marketing Strategy for 2020

These are Some 8 Powerful Instagram Marketing Strategy

Be Prepared to Build Community

First and foremost, according to ViralRace, it’s imperative that you understand the social aspect of social media. The users of these platforms expect to get something out of their online experience with brands. 

They don’t want to simply have pretty pictures placed in their feed with no interaction or value to them. If you want to attract and maintain a significant following, you absolutely must be prepared to put in the work of engaging with the users.

This is especially true when someone has liked or commented on your post. Head over to the profiles of folks who’ve liked you. Follow them, interact with their content. Chances, are they’ll do the same for you.

While it is possible to use services to get a boost to your numbers, you absolutely must be prepared to spend time cultivating a following and building a community. Always be sure to return comments and answer questions. No one wants to be ignored.

Offer Consistent Branding

Branding simply refers to the message you send to consumers. It’s what they think of when they see your company. You create this message in a number of ways such as the copy you use, the causes you support and the very products or services you sell.

What you may not realize is that even the way you visually present your company through photos, logos and other graphic media portray a feeling or vibe about your business.

It’s important to keep this vibe consistent. You can do this by producing photos that support your message in their use of color, mood, copy and overall aesthetic. Use the same filters throughout your images. Be sure your images don’t contradict your mission and intent.

Strategize Your Hashtag Use

Hashtags are one of your most useful and strategic marketing tools on Instagram. It’s easy to think they’re just a fun way to jazz up your posts, but these tags have a very specific purpose. By tailoring your use of hashtags, you can attract the ideal target market you desire. Don’t just throw them in your posts haphazardly.

Instead, take time to research relevant hashtags within your industry or niche. Study which ones seem to generate engagement. Try some out. Use the ones that work well for you. Create your own hashtags exclusively for your brand of a particular campaign.

This can be a great way to gain momentum through word of mouth. Narrow down your tags to ones that relate to the exact type of consumer you wish to reach. These tips will help the right users to find you.

Also Read: How to Use Hashtags for Your Business: Tips and Tricks Just For You!

Post Regularly

This may seem obvious, but it’s easy to become complacent. If you don’t post on a consistent basis, the followers you’ve gained are likely to forget you. 

People like to know what to expect from the brands they follow. Show them that they can count on new, interesting content from you. It’s best to strive for at least one post a day.

Optimize Your Profile

When people come across one of your images they like, they’ll probably head to check out your profile description. Don’t neglect this valuable piece of real estate. 

Be sure to use a copy that is reflective of your brand and take the time to say something meaningful to invite followers in. It’s tempting to write just a couple sentences and leave it at that.

But really taking the time to craft a stellar profile is an investment worth making. Also, be sure to include your best link. 

That may be your company homepage or it could be a link to a contest or landing page. Don’t be afraid to change it as needed, depending on your marketing campaign needs.

Invest in Ads 

Creating ads on Instagram can be a fabulous way to boost your following and reach more people. Just be sure to invest in market research so you’re reaching the most relevant audience.

Then monitor your ads regularly, making changes when necessary, until you find the right formula that works for your brand.

Also Read: Instagram Marketing for Small Businesses: 4 Tactics that Actually Convert

Cross-Promote Your Content

Share links to your Instagram account everywhere you are online. You’ve already put in the time to gain followers elsewhere, why not invite them to visit your Instagram profile? 

This is one of the easiest and most overlooked ways to boost your follower numbers and get people interacting with your new profile.

Drop a link occasionally on your other social media posts or add your profile URL to your blog and email signature. People will follow.

Reward Your Followers

People thrive on recognition. They like to feel validated for their contributions. Be sure to keep this in mind and make an effort to provide shoutouts to your Instagram followers on occasion. 

You can do this by sharing a user’s relevant content and tagging them to show you’re impressed with what they’re doing.

Or you can showcase a customer testimonial in a post. Host a contest. Show actual consumers using your product. Involve your followers. Not only will they appreciate it, you’ll likely find that their followers will notice.

These eight tips should get you started on the right track to successful Instagram Marketing Strategy. Try these strategies out to give your profile a boost and to begin making the types of relationships that help to gain brand enthusiasts and loyal customers.

Instagram Marketing Strategy for 2020: Will The 'Like Ban' Kill Instagram Influencer Marketing?

Instagram Marketing Strategy for 2020: Brands and Instagram influencers are trying to figure out what’s next in the wake of the social sharing platform’s "like ban" test. 

For many influencers who generate their livelihood from a portion of the 95 million photos and videos uploaded to the site daily, the ban feels like a calamity of epic proportions. 

For brands that are increasingly relying on influencer marketing as a must-have marketing channel and using likes as one of their go-to metrics to measure performance, this seems like a setback.

But here’s the thing: vetting and working with influencers should not be based on a likes-driven popularity contest. Brands should look beyond likes to determine the success of a campaign. 

Also Read: Instagram Marketing for Small Businesses: 4 Tactics that Actually Convert

A change to the way Instagram displays interactions shouldn’t be seen as a catastrophe, but instead as an opportunity to develop new, more durable strategies for engagement and community building.

What is Instagram Marketing Strategy for 2020 'Like Ban'?

Earlier this year, Instagram boss Adam Mosseri announced the platform would test removing the public display of likes. 

The company’s reasoning, according to Mosseri, is to support mental health and to encourage connection rather than scorekeeping.

The ban has been tested in a handful of countries, not including the U.S. The ban allows like counts to be seen on the back end by the creator but doesn’t display specific like counts that are accessible by those perusing the site.

How will the ban impact brands and influencers?

In our experience, where 60% of the 3,000+ influencer marketing campaigns we’ve facilitated to date have been on Instagram, we’ve seen that marketers’ initial reaction to the news has been one of concern. 

Many of them still count on the number of likes, along with comments and shares, as the most reliable measure of success.

While many brands and influencers are understandably either fearful or frustrated regarding the change, others are taking a more pragmatic approach.

The changes to the platform are intended to help people "spend more of their energy connecting with the people that they love and the things that they care about." 

It stands to reason that in order for influencers to continue thriving in this market, they must be attuned to the needs and interests of their target audiences. 

Their goal won’t be getting quick likes anymore; instead, they’ll focus on creating stronger, more authentic and interactive content that drives action.

Instagram Marketing Strategy for 2020 who wants to continue to have an engaging Instagram presence will need to determine which metrics they want to highlight to brands seeking partnership. 

Also Read: Instagram Marketing: The Ultimate Guide with Examples

They can also benefit by homing in more specifically on the audience they want (looking at specific demographics or geographic information or at more intangible characteristics such as voice and responsiveness) than creating content that speaks to them and inspires action.

I predict video will continue to gain precedence on the platform, so I believe that creators who can develop engaging, actionable stories will likely rise above the rest.

What’s the best way to avoid a negative impact from Instagram Marketing Strategy for Like Ban?

In virtually every line of work, user experience has become a key area of focus. The same goes for influencers working on Instagram. 

If they’re connecting in the right way, likes are just a small piece of the overall equation. 

Their main concern should be the experience and engagement they develop through interactions with followers.

In this way, the ban can have a positive effect on brands collaborating with Instagram influencers by encouraging them to create impactful content that hits several different KPIs, instead of basing success on likes alone.

Examples of KPIs that can give a better overall reflection of the effort and effectiveness of the influencer’s communication strategies include:

• Comments and shares.
• Video/Stories views.
• Follower growth on the brand’s channel.
• Mentions and hashtags.
• Brand’s website traffic.
• Conversions and leads.

What positives could the ban bring to influencer marketing?

Instagram recognizes the value influencers create through community-building on behalf of businesses and brands. 

According to the Instagram Business blog, 68% of users access the platform to engage with content from creators.

While the ban may produce a short-term negative effect of additional stress for scrambling influencers and brands trying to accommodate a new reality, the long-run impact should be more positive, holistic relationships between brands, influencers, and their online communities.

Rather than judging an influencer’s entire worth or campaign success on the number of likes they can score via an image, the ban will push brands and influencers to consider experience and interaction as a whole and to create better relationships.

As a potentially positive opportunity for brands and influencers, Instagram has developed a new advertising tool that allows brands to share creator content.

The new Branded Content ad offering puts the focus (and the ad spend) on content that influencers are making and sharing. 

Metrics for this type of ad sales program must be revenue-adjacent to make sense for the brand. 

Many of the other KPIs mentioned are more predictive or closely correlated with the end user’s actual intent to purchase than likes alone.

As another potential positive impact, brands may choose to take strategic steps and not leave all their eggs in the Instagram basket. 

Other platforms are also ripe for development and audience building/engagement, including TikTok (short-form mobile video), Twitch (gamer-focused streaming) and, of course, YouTube.

Likes may be going away, but the Instagram Marketing Strategy for 2020 movement is here to stay. 

As brands look for ongoing opportunities to engage with customers via a multichannel strategy, I believe Instagram will remain a valuable resource for connection and community-building.

When it comes to social media influencer marketing, we’re technically still navigating a new space, and it’s normal and expected that there will be changes, some of the more drastic than others. 

It’s up to brands and influencers to be flexible and adapt as the industry moves forward by proactively employing new strategies and tactics that are mutually beneficial and elevate the collaborative work that they do.

Instagram Marketing for Small Businesses: 4 Tactics that Actually Convert

Instagram Marketing: If your entire ad strategy on Instagram is simply posting a quick photo or video in your feed you are missing out. Also, boosting your content via the Promote button without much thought not only leaves money on the table, but you’re actively giving it away.

Getting viewers to take action on your content on any social media platform means that you must not only use that platform’s unique features to your advantage but also ensure that your content stands out against the competition. Otherwise, you’ll be just another victim to our short attention span.

The next time you want to promote your latest campaign on Instagram, keep these tips in mind to make sure you get the best conversion your ad dollars can buy, Instagram Marketing.

1. Make sure you’re using Stories to Instagram Marketing

Ads in your typical Instagram feed can get some great results. However, if you really want to capture attention right away Stories are the place to be.

Why are Stories so important for Instagram Marketing?

Not only are they the first thing users see when they open up their Instagram app, but they also disappear in 24 hours. This means that users are far more likely to be checking their Stories every day often multiple times to get the most recent updates. It’s their version of the daily news, and that’s where you want to be.

But just being there isn’t enough! You’ll need some great-looking graphics to stop them in their tracks and keep them engaged.

For this, you can check out apps like StoryBoost, which not only give you amazing templates specifically made for small businesses and influencers like you but also has transition elements and unique stickers. This helps you create a whole experience instead of one static post.

2. Place your call-to-action everywhere

When someone comes across your ad in their feed, they are doing one of several things. Take a look at the photo(s) and/or video(s) in the post while reading the prominent call-to-action (CTA) link that Instagram overlays on ads, reading the caption, or clicking through to your profile to see more of what you have to offer.

If you want to guarantee the maximum conversions, you’ll need to include your CTA in all of these locations. Specifically, within the image or video itself, the default ad banner, the caption, and in your bio. This will ensure that no matter where your audience chooses to go, they’ll always be able to take action.

For more information on how you can place CTAs all over your Instagram marketing endeavors, check out this guide on Business 2 Community.

Recommended For You Webcast, November 27th: Why Podcasting is the Ultimate ABM Strategy 

3. Maximize your use of relevant hashtags

Ever wondered why so many Instagram accounts include a whole cloud of hashtags in their captions every time they post? It’s because of one simple fact. Hashtags are the absolute best way to reach a wider audience on Instagram. Just take a look at how popular social media scheduling tool Buffer uses it them in their posts.

Just think about it. Not only are hashtags searchable for both posts and Stories, but users can also allow the following hashtags. In other words, these posts appear in their feed and Stories the same way posts would from those they follow, Instagram Marketing. 

Hashtags aren’t just great for regular posts, they’re great for ads too. The hashtags you use in your ads will give Instagram a better idea of what your post is about. When a hashtag is particularly popular, your post won’t necessarily be seen by everyone who follows it. Instead, it will use a combination with ads that almost guarantees a boost straight to the top of the selection pile.

Just make sure to do your hashtag research beforehand, so you have a batch ready to go when needed.

Read Also: Instagram Marketing: The Ultimate Guide Step by Step with Examples

4. Don’t forget to stay active and engaged

This tactic is so obvious that it actually gets overlooked too many times.

Instagram loves when you spend ad dollars on their platform, but you know what else they love? Engagement.

Instagram knows the more engaged their users are, the more likely they will be to stick around each visit and the greater the likelihood they’ll return multiple times a day. That’s the lifeblood of every social media platform.

The more folks engage with your account organically, without being prompted by advertising, the more relevant Instagram will assume you are. In turn, the platform will show your content, including your ads to a wider range of users, Instagram Marketing Service.

So even if you’re mostly using ads to build your audience and drive traffic to your content or site, it’s still important to actively engage on Instagram regularly. At a minimum, ensure that you respond to comments on posts and direct messages you’ve received (particularly if you have a business account). Otherwise, be an active part of the community and you will be rewarded accordingly.

Wrapping It Up

Whether you are in favor of click-throughs or lean towards conversions, there are few better ways to get it than with Instagram ads. With access to millions of users worldwide, Facebook’s robust advertising network and an audience are often and genuinely interested in receiving advertising content from brands they like, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more suitable platform.

However, simply boosting a few posts and going about your day won’t do the trick. To ensure this process works you really want to make sure every dollar you spend gets you the maximum benefit, Instagram Marketing, but it requires lots of work. But rest assured that as long as you stay true to the platform, and use the tools available to make your content stand out you’ll definitely see results.

Instagram Marketing : The Ultimate Guide Step by Step with Examples

Instagram Marketing: Today we are covering one of my favorite topics, Instagram marketing.  In this comprehensive step by step training, I’ll be covering everything about Instagram right from the start until the end.  Be it creating your profile like a pro, finding the right hashtags and creating a content strategy that will drive 10x more followers for you. I’ll also go through all the growth hacks and strategies that I personally use. Also, I use them for my clients that will drive an insane amount of followers for your account.

I’ll also be going through all the software and tools that are already available in the market which will make the whole process much more simpler and much more easier. We won’t be covering the strategy that is used to work in 2018, but rather all the strategies are 2019 proof.  So they’ll be working by the end of 2019 or even the year 2020.

This training is in the form of case studies so I won’t be giving you just the theory, but also showing you life case studies, life truth, or various accounts that were actually implementing these tactics.  And in the end, I’ll also be sharing all the secrets about how to make money for Instagram.  Even with an account with the following of 100,000 – 300,000 followers, they are making multiple lakhs per month just through Instagram marketing influencer.

So I’ll be sharing my strategies and also some case studies of various accounts that are doing it and how you can replicate the same process for yourself.  And as I told you in the earlier blog as well, that you won’t be learning just form the theory, so make sure you implement all the steps on your Instagram account and see the results for yourself.  We have a huge Facebook group, where you can ask questions and also see other people, how they are performing on their Instagram account.

Instagram Marketing

I don’t think I even need to explain this, Instagram is the new trend in 2019 or rather even in 2018, I even did a poll in a popular Facebook group and my question was related to how many people were actually opening Facebook more compared to Instagram. And around 70% of people polled for Instagram. 

That they are using Instagram much more often compared to Facebook. So this just shows the amount of opportunity that lies in Instagram in 2019 and even incoming years. So for people who don’t know what Instagram is, Instagram is a photo-sharing mobile app, it used to be a photo-sharing app but you can even add the blog nowadays. It was launched in 2010 and then it was acquired by Facebook.

Why Instagram Marketing Will Grow In 2020?

So you can see the growth trajectory of Instagram by yourself. How much it has grown from 2015 to 2019. And it is expected to rise at an exponential rate in 2020 as well.

Instagram Stats

Now I’ll be sharing some stats with you just to show you how popular Instagram is. So almost 800 million-plus Instagram accounts are active every month. That’s a huge number. And the best part is out of those 800, 500 million-plus Instagram accounts are active every day. So 500 million-plus uses Instagram on a daily basis. And if you’re looking for business opportunities or marketing your business on Instagram, you can see the stats here that 80% of the accounts follow a business on Instagram. So it’s not just for the personal use that people follow the businesses, rather it’s a great branding strategy to acquire customers to Instagram as well. And nowadays the new feature of Instagram stories is killing it. It has already killed Snapchat, it is about- so many people are using more and more Instagram stories on a daily basis.

So let’s check Instagram on Similarweb.com and see how it performs. Instead of opening the mobile app, I’ll be opening the website of Instagram here. And let’s see the similar stats of Instagram. That’s a huge number. 3. 2 billion people are using Instagram on a monthly basis. And look at the time on site. Almost 6 minutes and 28 seconds. So the audience retention is also very good with Instagram. So let’s see detail stats of Instagram. Look at the global rank of 5.

It’s the 5th most popular website on the internet. So the stats speak for themselves, Instagram is a hugely popular network and it’s something that you should not let go in 2019 and in the coming years. So let’s focus on why you should even try Instagram marketing.

Also Read: What is Social Media Marketing (SMM)? How to Use it for Your Business?

Why we Choose Instagram Marketing?

You’re objective can be anything, if you’re an individual you might be focused on getting more followers, or creating a following, or becoming an Instagram marketing influencer.

But if you are a business and you are looking for more customers, so Instagram is an amazing branding opportunity and as well as you can easily acquire customers from Instagram as well.

The best thing about Instagram Marketing is high engagement with visual content. One of the primary reasons why people are moving away from Facebook and more towards Instagram is because of the visual content.

You don’t have to read the text, rather you can just look at the images and the blog. You’ll even see this trend on Facebook, you’ll see that Facebook is pushing more towards the video content. Even if you’re on the video ads, you’ll see that it cost is much less than a banner ad.

All of this is because Facebook is giving a big push to the video content on Facebook. You’ll see the image on the right here that Instagram’s engagement with brands is 10xhigher than Facebook.

And because people love visual content, they tend to stay more on Instagram. Even for me and my clients, I am pushing hard on Instagram ads. I’ve seen great arrow end on my ads spent, the targeting options are great, you can easily segment your audience.

In all, it’s a market of a friendly platform. If you are not using Instagram in 2019, either to gain a following or driving customers for your business, then you are losing out on a big chunk of revenue.

You’ll see so many Instagram influencers promoting various products, not just Instagram marketing influencer seven the popular actors and actresses, associating themselves with a brand and getting paid a huge amount just for promoting the brand.

How to set up your Proper Instagram Account for Instagram Marketing Service?

• Choosing the Perfect Instagram Handle/Username.
• Optimizing Your Instagram Bio
• Perfecting Your Instagram Display Picture
• Choosing the Right Hashtag
• The Best Time to Post on Instagram?

Either you’re opening a new account or you’re just optimizing your current account, follow all the steps that I’ll be telling you in the next few minutes and your account will be perfectly optimized for Instagram.

Choosing the Perfect Instagram Handle/Username

So let’s start first with the username. Choosing the first Instagram username. So let’s see some case studies so you can understand this point. Whenever you are choosing a username, you have to think of your niche first. So let’s say you want to create an account about dogs, so if your username has the main keyword like “dog”. Then it will be much more beneficial for you.

Just like in our SEO video you must have seen that keywords play an important part in Google search engine rankings. Similarly, if you want more followers, if you want to be found by a new audience, then you have to optimize your profile for keywords, yes hashtags also play an important part, but keywords are also equally important. You have to first define a list of keywords that are related to your niche.

In all, just a few strategies will be changed but primarily the whole concept of optimizing your profile is somehow similar to search engine optimization. So let’s take the example here of- I’ve taken two examples of “men fashion” and “guitar center”.

So here you’ll see that this profile is all about fashion images, fashion blogs and look at the beautiful username they have: “men fashion”. Directly defining their audience, “men fashion”. This channel is all about fashion for men.

So for them, the two most important keywords are “fashion” and “men”. And by incorporating these two main keywords in their username, people can easily find them and hence they have a huge following of 581k followers.

I agree that the keyword is not the only reason that they were able to grow so much, but yes it played a major role. Similarly here another example of “guitar center”. This Instagram account is all about guitars. So why not have a username related to the guitar?

And also look at how clean the username is. There’s no underscore, there’s no numeric number. Clean “guitar center”. Clean forward username. I know in 2019 it will be extremely difficult to find clean usernames, but yes you can still try to find a good one. So if you have the keyword in a username it will benefit your profile.

Optimizing Your Instagram Bio

So now let’s talk about optimizing the Instagram bio. You have to understand that Instagram only gives one particular place where you can promote a link. And that is your bio. And that through just one single link. Not in your post, not in your currents.

You cannot promote any links on Instagram apart from your bio. So that becomes the most prime real state for any marketer. Because you want to drive customers, prospective customers, from Instagram to your landing page or any other place where you want them or where you can monetize.

So there’s a particular style or a template that you should use to create your Instagram bio that has been giving the best results. So I have again a few examples here, so let’s start with “men fashion” again. You can see that the bio channel first indicates what this channel is all about. A guide to men’s fashion, luxury, lifestyle so with just a few keywords they were able tode fine their Instagram page.

So, anyone who comes into this page, they’ll instantly know, “okay, this channel is about men’s fashion, luxury and lifestyle”. They’ve also included an email address here “mfsocialads@gmail.com” this is for collaboration or business inquiries, so let’s say you have a good following and a company wants to contact you.

They can easily find your email address and contact you for collaboration. So always have a point of contact here, as well on Instagram bio. And the most important part, your link. Here they have a link to a particular website. Let’s open the website. And see how cleverly they have also mentioned the word “sale” here, in the URL. Because this will increase the CDR and more people will be clicking on the link just through the word “sale”.

You can see for yourself how they are monetizing their audience. They have a huge following, of 581k followers, their channel is good, their engagement on the pictures is good, you can see that 3 – 5,000 people are engaging with the post. And now they are driving people to this particular website. And they are selling t-shirts.

Because unlike YouTube you cannot show ads on Instagram. You won’t be able to monetize through Adsense or any other way. So the only way to make money is either by selling your own products or by affiliate marketing by selling someone else’s product or promoting a particular product by brand collaboration.

Here they have decided to go for selling their products either of a brand or they are maybe making affiliate commission here. Let’s take the case of “organifi”. This is one of the very good companies that I’ve been following for multiple month snow. You can see for yourself how clear their bio is. Organic superfood blends. And the best part of their bio is they are using emojis in a very innovative way. Emojis have always increased the audience’s retention.

Be it Facebook ads, or Instagram ads, whenever you are using emoji, it creates a much more personal touch and hence a much more engagement on either on your post or even on your Facebook ads. Similarly, they are using emojis in a much smarter way. Again, a very clean bio with just the keywords.

“Non-GMO, gluten-free and plant-based”. So probably in their market or in their niche, these three must be the main constraint of people, before making a purchase. So clearing all the doubts of people before they can even click the link.

And hence, increasing the CDR of the link. Here they are using Bitly. Bitly is used to track the link clicks. Instagram will not be giving you the analytics for the link clicks, so by using a Bitly link shortener, you can shorten your main link by Bitly and track the link clicks on Bitly.

I really like this particular line, “shipping worldwide” with the earth symbol. So it clearly grabs my attention and also clears one of my biggest doubts since I’m in India, whether I’ll be able to buy this or not. Shipping worldwide yes, and they’ll be able to deliver it to India and I can easily then click the link and complete my purchase.

We’ll take one more example; this is more for the personal branding space. Even if you want to become an Instagram marketing influencer, this will help patronize one of the biggest Instagram marketing influencers in the online marketing space. I love how he relates his family values to his entrepreneurship journey.

You can see in the first line he mentioned, he’s a husband and father. So he creates a trust with his audience. Again he is using the main keywords, entrepreneur, bestselling author, podcaster and speaker. He has just launched his new physical product, this is why he is promoting it on this Instagram bio link.

Again a very clean, simple bio, with the main keyword describing the person. Hereby using words like best-selling author, speaker… he is showing authority and he is showing that yes, people like him. People are listening to him, he is a bestselling author and yes he must-Another profile in the online marketing space, or in the personal Instagram marketing influencer niche.

You can see Amy Porter field. She’s another online marketing expert. So her first line is “online marketing expert”. She’s also using emojis to make her bio interesting. “Helping entrepreneurs build engaged email lists”.

Her niche is all about building email lists, online courses, and profitable webinars”. So that’s the line she has tried to incorporate in her bio. Helping entrepreneurs build engaged email lists, online courses, and profitable webinars. So if someone visits her Instagram page, they will instantly know.

Yes, Amy Porter field is all about online marketing, and helping people build email list, creating online courses, and profitable webinars. And then she is making a pitch for people to click on the link. I really like the way she has used the hand emoji, to drive people to click the link.

This must-have also drive the increase of the CDR of the link. So this is how you can create a bio for yourself. Put the main keywords here, show authority, and drive people to click on the link. Wherever you want the people to go.

Perfecting Your Instagram Display Picture

So the next step is perfecting your Instagram display picture. So let’s again learn it from various case studies. We’ll take the same case studies here again, so let’s talk about this particular page, “men fashion”.

They have this PNG image of more like an icon form, and also clearly mentioning men's fashion. Honestly, I think they could have used a different font because this one does not look much nicer. Because this one could have been better.

But then again, the whole point of profile pic is to show what your page is all about. And it clearly indicates that this channel is all about men’s fashion, by representing a suit. Again the use of a very simple guitar image.

So clearly indicating that yes, this channel is all about guitar. One good strategy is to also follow a color scheme in your post. So let’s say if your channel is following a particular color theme or a scheme. Then you can use the same color theme in your image as well. Just to create consistency. Let’s take the case of Organifi.

So their brand is all about healthy living and eating green foods so they have this Organfi juice, which you can create green juice. So they have created this branding in the form of green color. So they have used their logo, usually, the majority of the brands use their logo as their profile pic, because that is consistent with their brand.

If you are an individual influencer who wants to increase their followers or who wants to be an Instagram marketing influencer, then always use a smiling shot. Because- like here for Pat Flynn, he’s using- he’s looking straight into the camera and a very happy smile, looking happy. So this will always create a good impact whenever you are choosing a profile pic.

Even when you are choosing a profile pic, make sure it’s high quality. If you don’t have access to a DSLR, maybe you can find a friend who can take your picture a good portrait shot, with a blurred background, clearly, a happy or smiling face always helps.

Similarly the case of Amy Porter field here. You’ll see that she’s an online marketing expert, an Instagram marketing influencer in this particular niche. Again, a portrait shot, click a high-quality picture with a smiling face.

Content Strategy Tips for Instagram Marketing

• Without the right content strategy, your Instagram marketing will fail
• Consistency should not be taken lightly
• Creating High-Quality Images the easy way: Using the right apps
• Scheduling your images at the right time and on automation

We’ll be talking about using the right hashtags and the best time to post in the next few minutes, so let’s go to the next slide. First, let’s discuss about content strategy because this is an extremely important step in the overall growth of your Instagram page.

Without the right content strategy, your Instagram account will instantly fail, and your marketing will not give you positive results. And I see one common trend among people who want to scale their Instagram is that they are not consistent. Consistency is extremely important in this world. Even if you are not some kind of Instagram marketing influencer, even if you’re a brand, consistency is what will make you seem memorable and also keep your brand refreshed in the mind of people you want to target. So let’s say if you’re a YouTuber, if you are not uploading blog on a constant basis then people will forget you and they’ll move to the second alternative they have.

If you want to grow on any channel, be it YouTube, be it Instagram, be it Twitter, or any other channel where you can create an audience, make sure you’re consistent. Make sure you are helpful, talk to your audience, engage with your audience, and create content that your audience actually wants.

The third point is extremely important it is creating high-quality images and not being lazy in this. People still think that creating high-quality images is extremely difficult. But they don’t know about the free software out there on the internet. Which makes the whole job of creating high-quality images much more easier.

So let’s say that you are an Instagram marketing influencer, I know if you want those portrait shots or standard shots, you’ll need someone with a good DSLR or good lens to take those portrait shots. But let’s say if you’re creating a page about guitar or dogs, or like fitness, or anything related to a particular hobby then you can easily create high-quality content that with a very, very fast rate.

I’ll be showing you in a few minutes all the free software that you can use to create high-quality images. And also you can use the same images uploaded by your competitors on different channels and again use them on your channel as well. I’ll be showing you can do that as well.

Creating high-quality content is not a very complicated process if you know the right steps. So let’s see the content strategy of this particular account, “guitar center”. I love the engagement, they have 1. 1 million followers, but their images are generating 6k, 10k, this particular image is generating 16.9k likes.

The reason this image garnered so many likes was that they targeted a particular emotional angle. “RIP Jim Dunlop”, maybe he’s some kind of big name in the guitar industry and that’s why people, praise the image by liking the image. So this is something you can implement in your content strategy as well. By creating an emotional angle.

People don’t want to be sold to. People want to be happy, people want to be empathetic, so whenever you are targeting a particular emotion you’ll see you’ll get much more engagement compared to the ordinary ones. So Instagram is not about putting an image, you also have to be very strategic about it. You should know what type of content is suitable for your audience, and what type of content will bring an emotional response from your audience.

Let’s see about this image. 21.9k likes. So now they are showing a particular image, and they are mentioning one of America’s legendary tattoo artists, “@martinguitar”. Maybe some kind of popular guy, and let’s see how they are using the hand emoji to drive people to click on the link in the bio.

They are using this hand emoji to check out their details and learn more- click the link in the bio. So this is how they are driving people to check their profile, and then click in the bio, and make money from that. Earlier I told you about finding the right hashtag. So they also have found few hashtags for them, like “#guitarcenter”, “#gc”,“#martin”- they must have tested all the hashtags and these hashtags must have given them the best response or the most like.

That’s why they must have decided to use them. And also there are two strategies in using hash tags. Some people use it in the caption. Some people add it as a second comment to their image because that also drives engagement. It’s all about testing.

Honestly, in my experience of using Instagram and for my clients, I’ve seen that Instagram is all about testing. If let’s say one technique is working for me, then it might not work for you. So when we talk about content strategy, first you have to understand that you have to find images or content related to your niche of the page.

Let’s take the case here of men’s fashion again. Let’s click this image here, so you can see a beautiful, beautiful car here, so definitely people will be attracted to the image. One thing that you have to understand is that if you land the ordinary images or the same content that everyone else is posting, then you won’t be able to get the engagement.

The reason is very simple, if people are seeing the same kind of content, again and again, they won’t be interested in it. You have to find images or blog, which can drive attention. In 2019, the whole game is all about attention.

Even in the YouTube blog of your popular YouTuber’s, you’ll see that they are trying to grab your attention. They’ll pick the most important part of the video, and then try to present it in a line or they’ll clickbait you with a line from the video.

Just so that you’ll watch the video until the end. Because on YouTube, the most important parameter, is watch time. So they want to increase the watch time in their blog, and that is why they are trying to grab your attention. Similarly, on Instagram, the most important parameter is again attention.

If you have the attention of people, you’ll drive more engagement, and if you’re driving much more engagement, then Instagram will again give you an organic boost, and you’ll get many more people to see your posts. Again you’ll see for the hashtags they are using the hashtags related to their particular niche which is men’s fashion, gentlemen, style, fashion, Lamborghini and orgasm. In the use of hashtags, there again two different “tagology”.

Some people prefer to use many hashtags in their images and some people tend to keep it only 5 to 10 hashtags per post. Again it’s all about testing, the more you test, the more you will be able to understand what is working in your particular niche. You can also see the various competitors in your particular niche.

Like in men’s fashion, I can go to various pages or various different Instagram accounts where they have already garnered a huge amount of following and then look at their images, what kind of hashtag strategy are they using.

Also, I recommend you to note down all the hashtags that your competitors are using. And again test it in your post, and see which hashtags are driving the most engagement for you and then pick the ones that are working for you. Instagram is something that I cannot you a direct or word-by-word script. Or particular steps, that you “follow this” and you can get a massive amount of following. Instagram is all about testing.

The more you test, the more clear the picture will be for you on how to grow your Instagram account easily. So now let’s talk about the time strategy. One of the most common questions I get asked by the people is that when and what times should they post.

Again, my answer will seem repeated but then again, it’s all about testing again, even whenever I am getting a new client, I just tell my team to test the different timings, because you never know what audience is responding to, but yes, if you are living in a time zone like India, then try to post it in the morning, around 8:30AM to 09:00AM.

Because that’s the time people are going to the office or they have just reached the office. So they have not started working, they wanted to enjoy a little time- they have this habit of opening Instagram and going through their feeds. So 08:30AM, 08:00AM time is good.

In the afternoon at around 01:30PM, when somewhere close to lunchtime, then again it’s a good time to post. Because people have just worked for 3 – 4 hours, now they want to relax. So they usually open Instagram to browse through their feeds and at that time. If you post, you’ll see- or you might see a good engagement in your post.

Now similarly, at around 06:30 PM and around 09:30 PM… similarly at around 06:30 and 09:30 PM, it will give you much better results but then again it’s all about testing. Maybe your audience is engaging in a much different time. So again, test, test, and test. Testing is the key to success in Instagram Marketing.

How to Use Hashtags on Instagram for Marketing

A Hashtag Can be

• Location-specific
• Lifestyle-specific
• Brand-Specific
• Product-Specific
• Community-Specific
• Challenge-or Contest-specific
• Campaign-Specific
• Event-Specific
• Subject-Specific

Also Read: How to Use Hashtags for Your Business: Tips and Tricks Just For You!

So now let’s talk about hashtags. I’ve already given you a brief, that the best way to find hashtags is going through your competitors, look at what hashtags they are using and then making a notepad file or Ever note file and copy-pasting all the hashtags that your competitors are using. And then using a few of the hashtags from that particular list on your post and then track which hashtags are giving you the maximum engagement. Hashtags can be in various styles like location-specific, lifestyle-specific, brand-specific and so many other categories but if you go through all of them you’ll just get confused.

If you’re just starting out then my strategy and my recommendation is to go through all the other accounts that are already, getting good engagement all around Instagram. Look at their hashtag strategy, look at their timing strategy, look at their posting strategy, look at their content strategy and then try to drive some inferences from that.

Then try to replicate that in your strategy and see which particular hashtag or which particular timing, or which particular type of content is giving you the most engagement. In the end, the goal is all about engagement. Because if your posts are getting more engagements, then Instagram will boost you organically, it will be showing your post to a much higher audience, and you’ll be able to gain many more followers.

I won’t be giving you direct strategies on planning the hashtags, I’ll keep that on you, that you’ll do your duties and search. You’ll look at your competitors, make a complete list of hashtags, and test it in your own Instagram strategies. So the biggest concern that people have, is how to grow their brand new Instagram account to at least a benchmark of 1000 followers.

See so many people doing the mistake of buying Instagram followers from these various idiotic websites like Fiber.com, or any other similar websites. Trust me, that’s not worth it, you’re just wasting your money. So I have a few strategies for you that you can use to grow your Instagram followers to at least the benchmark of 1000 followers.

Then you can use that one strategy to grow it to a better scale of 10,000 or 100,000 followers. So the one strategy that I personally use whenever I am building a brand new Instagram account is the “follow-on-follow”. So to implement this “follow-on-follow” technique is honestly pretty simple. This won’t work if you are targeting 10,000 or 15,000 followers, but yes to reach your thousand followers mark, all you have to do is make a list of all the competitors. Let’s take the example of this particular channel, men’s fashion.

All the fashion-related channels are competitors of this particular channel. So let’s search for “fashion”. “teachingmensfashion” so this is relevant. Okay… here you can copy the URL. And add it to a particular notepad file. And the best part about Instagram is there are suggestions, to this channel. So when you click this particular arrow so you’ll see the suggested channels who are in the fashion niche or maybe in the men fashion niche.

You can go to “bluman” or this whatever this channel is, or “hudsonandmane”, and you can find for yourself whether these channels are suited for your particular audience or not. Here you can see the bio here… clean. Bio with the business email ID. And men’s hair YouTuber, so he’s probably into the men’s hair. It might again be relevant to the men’s fashion.

This particular account also you can copy to your notepad file, similarly again. You can click here on the arrow button and find more channels. So this way you can create- 30-40 different channels for your main competitors. And then what you have to do is, click on their followers, and follow all these accounts. So just click here. Follow all these accounts. So I see 20-30% of people do follow back the channel.

If you’re following 100 people you can easily get 20-30 followers back on your account and you can unfollow all these people. I know this sounds like a very shitty technique, but this is what every Instagram marketing influencer or even the advance Instagram marketing influencer are using to grow their channel to the initial mark of 1,000. This is not a skill able technique and I won’t even recommend it for you to do in a very long duration. Because Instagram will just flag your account as spam.

Your account might even get banned. So do this only until you’re getting at least 1,000 followers and then stop doing this technique. Because I am not interested in them, I’ll just unfollow them here. And also Instagram has a limit of how many you can follow in a particular hour, I think it’s close to 50 or 40. So you’ll have to do this on an hourly basis, so maybe just follow 40-50 accounts per hour.

Do this for a couple of days, and you’ll easily reach the thousand follower mark. But before doing this technique, I’ll still recommend you at least add 10 to 15 different posts in your profile. Because whenever someone will click on your profile, because if let’s say you’ll follow someone. So they will be getting a notification so they’ll be visiting your profile here. If your profile looks like this, only your profile pic, no bio, no posts, no one will follow you back.

Make sure you have a clean bio and at least 10 – 15 good looking posts. Highly engaging posts, a good profile pic, and this will increase your follow-back count. To even much more than 20 or 30, maybe even 50 people will follow you back if you’re following a hundred. So this is what you can do to get your initial thousand followers. But don’t scale it, don’t do it after you’ve reached a hundred followers because your account might get banned.

The second technique to use to grow your Instagram account for 1,000 – 10,000 followers are using the “shout-for-shout” technique. Again this technique is not highly salable. But this is something that all Instagram influencer is doing, all the popular Instagram users are doing. Even the Instagram marketing experts are using to grow the follow-count of their clients or for themselves. So what is this technique? So let’s take the example of “men fashion”.

In the bio of this particular account, you’ll see this particular text “Kik: FashChat”. So kick is extremely popular in Instagram marketing space. So to do this shout-for-shout technique, you first have to install this kik application on your Android or IOS phone. So “kik android”… so this is the application “Kik”. This is another messenger type of application.

But for Instagram marketing, it’s usually popular. So just like you can create a WhatsApp group, similarly, on Kik you can also create groups, and you can join those groups. So there are many Instagram marketing shout out-groups, where you can join them. So let’s say you want a shout out for this particular channel… what does a shout out mean? 

So this is a shout out. Like, here you can see this particular username. I don’t know who this is, but let’s say you want a shout out from this channel, so they’ll create a post for their particular account. In the description or in the caption, they’ll mention your account and ask their followers to follow your account. So why would a channel do this for you, unless you are offering them money, right?

This is how Instagram shout out works…Primarily another monetization channel for an Instagram account holder is selling shout outs. So let’s say, another fashion-related account want a shout out from this particular channel. What they can do this they can either email their request here “mohitkumar951995@gmail.com”…that yeah, what is the price for a shout out from their channel? Or they can join their Kik channel.

They want to buy a shout out, they’ll just email them, decide on a particular payment, transfer the money and buy the shout out.

Second is kik, they can join this kik and on Kik, there are multiple communities, multiple groups. What they do is, help each other out. So there are various shout-for-shout communities. So let’s say you have 2,000 followers on your account. So you can join a particular kik community, which includes all the members within the range of 1,000 or 5,000.

What they do is, let’s say the group has 20 members, and all of them have around 1,000 to 5,000 followers, and all of them are let’s say in the fashion niche. So what they’ll do it, they’ll decide on a particular time and date. And all the 19 accounts will give a shout out to one particular account. This will increase the engagement of that one particular account, a lot of people will start following that account, and the overall following account will increase.

Similarly, what to do is that a second account is chosen from all those 20 accounts. And the same process is repeated for the second account. So this process helps everyone, all members of the Kik group. All of them gain the benefit of getting more followers. But you’ll have to make sure that no one will accept you in the group if you just have 1,000 followers. You are expecting to be included in a group of let’s say members who have 50,000+ followers.

You will be rejected. So try to find those who are in your follower range, and then join them, and help each other out. It’s an extremely easy way to grow your Instagram following.

Growth Hacks: How to Grow 1000 Followers/week with Instagram Marketing Strategy?

• Follow-unfollow for the first few hundred followers. ( sadly this is the only way or you can run ads)
• Shout for Shout will be the most helpful strategy for scaling your account
• Use Kik messenger or Telecom for joining shout for shout communities
• A/B testing is the key.
• Test various kinds of images and find trends. Which kinds of images are getting the most engagement
• Also A/B test the timing Engagement might be lower for one timing and extremely high for others.
• Use paid ads if you are impatient

So whenever we are talking about shout-for-shout, either you can join Kik groups to help each other out. You can email the similar niche-related Instagram accounts or either pay for the shout out or ask them for a shout-for-shout. So they will give you a shot-out and similarly you will give them a shout-out. But one thing you must keep in mind is that if you’re emailing someone who has a follower account of 10,000 and you only have 1,000 no one will respond to you.

Make sure you email or send Kik message to only those accounts which are in a similar follower account as you have. Now the next important strategy is A/B testing is the key. I’ve already mentioned how testing is important in growing your Instagram followers. Be it your bios, be it your photos, be it your posting time, be it your hashtag strategy.

Especially when you are growing a new Instagram Marketing account when you don’t have a huge following you have to test everything. Which one is working for you and if let’s say you find a particular strategy. That is giving you good results, make sure you double down on it. We also have a checklist from you that you can download from the link below. Apart from that share your Instagram success story, share it with us in our Facebook group. Which tactics works for you, and we’ll see you in the next blog.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NHOzZyDqDw