Instagram Marketing Strategy

11 Step Instagram Marketing Strategy to Drive More Sales 

Is your Instagram marketing strategy actually resulting in sales?

If the answer is “no” and you’re in the ecommerce space, it’s time to do some soul-searching.

Because to say that business is booming on Instagram would be a massive understatement.

According to Instagram themselves, 60% of users rely on the platform to research and discover products. As a result, retailers and ecommerce brands alike are treating Instagram as a sort of extension of their existing storefronts.

Instagram’s status as a hub for ecommerce sales doesn’t show any signs of slowing down, either. Just look at the ‘gram’s new ad types and features such as checkout on Instagram as proof of that.  

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The good news? Given how much the platform has evolved and grown, now’s a prime time to rethink your Instagram marketing strategy. For brands primarily interested in scaling their sales from social media, we’ve highlighted eleven actionable Instagram marketing tips below. 

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1. Switch to a Business Profile ASAP

Before you start thinking about your Instagram marketing plan, be sure that you have an Instagram Business Account.

It’s easy to switch your current profile to a business account.

Just head to your settings and click on “Switch to Business Profile” to get started.

There are some clear benefits to having a business profile.

For example, followers can click on your contact button to get in touch with you right from your Instagram page, just like they would from your website. Additionally, you’ll gain credibility as an established brand amongst your audience.

A business profile allows you to create and publish Instagram ads without needing to use Meta’s advertising tools.

You can also access Instagram analytics tools, called Insights, that provide stats about the impressions and reach of your posts.

Once you’ve unlocked the free perks that come along with a business profile, you need to start using them to track metrics and understand your audience.

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2. Use Free Instagram Marketing Tools

Business profiles on Instagram aren’t all that different from Meta business profiles.

Through Insights, you can view statistics like impressions, engagement data, and more.

You can even get a breakdown of the demographics of your followers, including information on their age, gender, location, and most active hours.

Insights aren’t just generalized, either. You can get specific insights on posts for the week that show you how many impressions you earned for that time period and what your top posts were.

These free tools are priceless because you can use them to understand exactly how users are interacting with your content.

The more that you know about how users are interacting with your posts, the better you can adjust your content to boost engagement.

One category of posts that is almost always attention-grabbing is product teasers. 

3. Post Product Teasers That Will (Gently) Urge People to Buy

What if you could sell more products just by posting product teasers on Instagram?

Well, you can.

Instagram is a great place to advertise your products. And if you play your cards right, you won’t annoy users or scare them off with advertisements, either.

If you’re too pushy, followers will drop like flies. But product teaser posts are a simple way to talk about your product and increase excitement without looking like you’re trying too hard.

Here are two posts from Gilt Man’s Instagram page that don’t directly try to sell a product, but a way for followers to use a like to buy social ecommerce feature where users can shop all of the brand’s inventory.

The brand offers a 70% off discount while showing you photos of some of the items that are available to purchase.

And the posts received thousands of likes each, which is huge in the advertising world.

The ads work because they aren’t pushy. They’re laid back. They tease users with the discount and product image to download the app and shop around.

This works for almost any industry. Starbucks teases its audience by announcing seasonal drinks with sharp imagery without trying to force people to buy them.

When you tease people about products they are interested in, and you don’t push them into buying anything, they’ll be more likely to pull the trigger and actually buy something.

If not, they’ll at least engage with your post by liking it, commenting on it, or sharing it with a friend.

So don’t be afraid to show off the goods by posting product photos. Just do it gently.

It also helps to create some sponsored ads. 

4. Create Sponsored Ads

Instagram ads have become commonplace on the platform. The best part? You can control exactly how much you want to spend on them by setting an ad budget.

You can showcase just one sponsored ad or multiple ads with the carousel feature.

This gives brands the ability to target their audience in a whole new way. Before sponsored posts, only users following your account could see your updates and photos.

Now, brands can promote their photos to anyone that fits their target audience to increase their reach further than ever before.

For sponsored ads, use content that is engaging while also appealing to the target demographic you want to put the ad in front of.

You can turn existing posts into sponsored ads, too, so keep an eye on your top posts.

You can push these high-performing posts out later to potential customers in the form of sponsored ads.

Run multiple posts to different audiences simultaneously for even more engagement. Keep in mind that there are many different forms of sponsored ads that you can post, such as:

• Photo
• Video
• Reels
• Carousel/Dynamic Ads
• Stories
• Stories Canvas

Instagram Stories or Reels, sponsored or not, are another great way to connect with followers. 

 5.) Plot Instagram Posts to Align With Your Marketing Plan and Goals

Instagram should be an integral part of your company’s marketing plan, complementing your content, email, and other social media marketing efforts. To create an effective Instagram marketing strategy, start by going over your company’s marketing calendar and brainstorming relevant Instagram content for each initiative.

Are you planning a seasonal event or a product launch? Plan Instagram content for each step of the process, from teasers to announcements to collaborations. You can map out an Instagram calendar anywhere that works for your team, on a whiteboard, spreadsheet, or collaborative platform.

As you add content ideas to your marketing calendar, note the goal for each post. That way, you can make sure to align your Instagram strategy with your marketing goals. For example, your goals might include:

• Increasing awareness of your business or your offerings
• Getting people to engage with your content
• Driving website clicks from your bio or Instagram stories
• Selling products from your Instagram shop or website

6.): Adjust Your Instagram Posting Schedule as You Grow

Should you post every day, a few times a day, or just a couple of times per week? Getting your posting frequency right is critical for your Instagram strategy. Naturally, you want to post enough content to get results without overwhelming your audience or receiving negative feedback.

According to research by Later, the size of your account determines the right posting frequency. In general, it’s best for small accounts to publish a couple of times a day, while it’s better for big accounts with 250,000 followers or more to post about once per week.

The time you publish content makes a difference, too. Posting content while your audience is online means they’re more likely to see and engage with it.

To find out when your followers are online, open your Instagram Insights and tap Total Followers. Scroll to the bottom to see what day of the week and time of day your followers tend to be online. Then add those times to your regular posting schedule.

Although you can certainly post in the moment, you can save time by scheduling Instagram content in advance. Both Facebook Business Suite and Creator Studio allow you to schedule content so you can always publish at the ideal time.

7.)Modify Your Organic Content Mix to Reflect Your Audience’s Shifting Demographics and Preferences

Once you have an idea of the kind of content you should post, the next step is to determine how to position it effectively on Instagram. It’s important to make sure the content you post resonates with your audience so you can reach your goals.

To learn more about your audience, open the Instagram app, tap the Insights dashboard, and select Total Followers. You can see breakdowns by gender, age range, city, and country, providing a complete picture of your account’s demographics.

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 who you’re reaching. Keep an eye on this breakdown over time to make sure you’re always creating content that resonates.

Even if you’re looking for fresh content ideas, you can use your past posts to see what’s worked best before or what to avoid in the future. Scroll to the bottom to see the content with the greatest reach. Then tap Accounts Engaged and scroll to the bottom to view top content based on likes and replies.

8.)Know your audience

The customer is the king. This is something that most businesses follow and try to cater to their customer’s needs. Even while using Instagram as a marketing platform for your business, you need to know and understand their perspective.

However, before that, you should be able to reach your target customers. If you aren’t able to gain followers the old way by sharing content, you can always buy Instagram followers to help you get the right following who will help you in getting reach.

9.)Content creation

This is the most important aspect of Instagram marketing. Whatever you post will have everything to do with your profitability. So, when you are creating content for your Instagram profile, ensure that it's well thought and represents your brands perfectly well.

These days, people relate more to memes and puns than they do to anything else. So, try to include these in your content as it’ll help in attracting more people. Everyone enjoys a bit of humor after all.

10.)Make navigation easy

Everyone avoids complicating things in life as much as they can. So, the case isn’t different when it comes to purchasing something. Statistics have revealed that people prefer using those profiles/websites for purchasing something easy to understand rather than something with a difficult ordering process.

While Instagram has made the lives of sellers quite easy by introducing features that allow them to redirect people to their website, not everyone has a website. For those people, they can simply put everything in the caption or the story highlight so there’s less confusion involved and marketing products is quite easy.

11.)Collaborate with other marketers

Collaborations are one of the most followed trends on Instagram. Almost every business, small or big, has either collaborated with other influencers or businesses. It not only helps in gaining more followers but also in establishing the authenticity of one’s business.

While collaborating, keep in mind to collaborate with people who make content mostly in your niche. Having someone relatable promote you will only help you in gaining people’s confidence for a long period.

 12.)Use hashtags

If you are an avid social media user, there’s no way to miss hashtags. Especially since they are so commonly used everywhere. But have you wondered why is it so? Well, hashtags help in getting more reach, especially if you have used a hashtag that is trending and quite searched on Instagram.

So, while we advise not overusing it, you should include trending ones from your niche after doing a bit of research on the same. This will help more people in finding you with ease. 

Conclusion

Instagram marketing has emerged as one of the most sought-after ways to market one’s products and services. Going digital has benefitted several businesses, thanks to the huge number of a new set of customers they got. So, investing time and money in it is worth it as the results are rewarding.