Instagram has now become the second most popular social media platform after Facebook. It has achieved over one billion active monthly users and sees around 500 million daily stories.

Jacksonville social media experts have estimated that around 71% of the businesses in the USA use Instagram to market their products. It is also a great platform for youth and a study has shown that around 45% of Instagram users range between the ages of 18 years and 44 years.

With all these statistics, it has become clear that Instagram has become a global platform for everyone around the world be it an individual or a business, and allows everyone to showcase their talent, market their products, humanize their content, and inspire their audience. It also helps businesses grow their brand awareness and introduce products in the markets.

What Is Instagram Marketing?

Experts from Digital marketing Agency Jacksonville explain Instagram marketing as a kind of social media marketing where marketers and professionals use this platform to promote their business and market their products. It involves various strategies and tactics, that apply to different kinds of business goals. Instagram has two main kinds of tactics

• Paid tactics – influential marketing, collaborations, and advertising.
• Unpaid tactics – creating original content such as posts, stories, live and engaging with your audience.

Main business goals may include increasing their reach on Instagram, increasing followers, boosting the brand’s reputation, and selling their products as well as services on Instagram.

Why Market on Instagram?

Instagram has grown immensely since the day it was started that is in 2010. It currently has around one billion users and 700 million daily active users. And out of these around 400 million check their stories regularly. Also, around 72% of Instagram users have purchased a service or product they saw on Instagram which is around 500 million users. Now, this shows that there is a huge sum of people looking for your brand or business on Instagram. That’s why Instagram can be a great platform to promote your brand or business. Also, these one billion users come from different classes, ages, sex and have different preferences. That’s why there is a large scope for almost every type of business to thrive on Instagram. All you need is a different type of tactic and strategy for different businesses.

Businesses that gain benefits from the design of their products or businesses that are visual or give visually noticeable results have the best chances to thrive on Instagram. This is because the one thing that differentiates Instagram from other social media platforms and also the advantage it has over other platforms is its visual nature.

9 ways to Build Your Instagram Marketing Strategy

Digital marketing agency Jacksonville has given 9 pointers that you can add to build a strong content strategy. They include:

1. Set your goals for Instagram marketing

Before you start posting content on Instagram, you need to first set the goals and objectives as to why you want to post on Instagram and your answer should not be because everyone else is posting. You need to have a set target and objective so that you can justify your energy, time, and monetary investment.

Your goal and objectives are the pillars of your marketing plan. Experts from Jacksonville Advertising Agency will advise you to follow the SMART acronym to set your targets and goals that stands for:

1. Specific-you should set exact numbers and milestones instead of setting a vague goal.
2. Measurable- you should choose goals that are measurable and trackable through analytics and insights.
3. Attainable- you should be realistic. You cannot gain a million followers in a week, so set achievable targets.
4. Relevant- you should try to stay aligned with your business, niche, industry, and outlook.
5. Time-bound- you should try to give yourself a time frame so that you can accomplish your goal.

Once you follow the SMART acronym, you should set a goal for yourself and make a content strategy.

2. Build Your Instagram Content Strategy

Now the next step is building your content strategy. The right way to do this is by determining your target audience first. You should find the key demographics of your target audience. Remember to consider factors like age, gender, class, interests, location, income, motivation, etc.

3. Check that every post is aligned with your branding and aesthetic.

You should try to align your post and caption with the aesthetics and branding of your business and try to keep a consistent vibe. E.g., if your brand is a high fashion brand, then you should post high-quality images, that depict elegance and sophistication. Or if your brand is quirky or funny, then you can post images that depict some freedom and fun, you can let your true colors shine with this type of brand.

4. Competitive analysis

When you are starting with tour content strategy, it can be helpful if you start looking at your competitors and brand or pages that belong to the same industry or niche. Review their Instagram profiles and perform a competitive analysis. Check what kind of posts are getting the highest engagement, or the popular hashtags they are using, how they write their captions, how they engage with their audience, their posting schedule, and the rate of their growth.

While you audit your competitor’s content, you need to grab the opportunities that they might have missed. If you add unique content, your business or brand will stand out from the rest.

Doing this competitive research will tip you off when it comes down to famous trends, tricks, Instagram hacks, and best practices to grow your base.

5. Posting schedule

Generally, users purchase products and services from the brands they trust. To build a trustworthy relationship, you need to post regularly and consistently. So that they get an idea of who you are and believe that you are an authentic business page.

One way to achieve this is by posting content at peak days or hours when the majority of your followers might be online. According to Digital marketing Jacksonville, the best days to post on Instagram are Mondays and Thursdays whereas Wednesdays and Sundays are the worst ones to post. Also, you should keep in mind that the best time to post is between 8:00 A.M. to 9:00 A.M. and also 2:00 A.M.

Also, these posting schedules might be different for some businesses depending on their industry. So, they can research the best time and schedule for their content strategy by using tools like Instagram insights. Also, the research shows that you should post one or two times in a day and no more or less.

You should also create a social media calendar, to make sure that you are always consistent and cohesive in posting your content which eventually leads you to the top position.

In the calendar, you can write all the posts you want to post in the next month, making sure that you schedule at least three posts per week.

6. Track your performance with Instagram insights

There is no use in following and making content strategies and posting on Instagram if you don’t know how well your posts and pages are performing. You can use various Instagram tools that tell you how each of your posts is performing and how much engagement you are getting.

You should also track your follower growth rate and engagement rates which include likes and comments.

Your engagement rate is measured by finding out the average engagement percentage of your total followers and the average engagement rate of each post. It gives you a clear picture of how your page is performing.

You also need to track your URL click-through rate. You should always add a link to your website in your bio and measure how many people are clicking through that URL and visiting your website. The average click-through rate on Instagram is 0.94% currently.

Always keep in mind that the more your audience is influenced by your Instagram page, the higher your CTR rates will be. You should be correcting your approach if the CTR rate is low.

When you know these things, you will know exactly what works for your brand and what are the things that you should be avoiding.

7. Use Instagram Stories

According to a report, around 500 million people use Instagram Stories, and around 400 million of them, use Instagram stories regularly. It makes the perfect sense, these stories are a more exciting and transient way to share your moments, memories, products, services, etc., with your followers.

This feature of Instagram gives you truly endless benefits. For starters, they bring your pictures to life and add needed personality to your pictures. They also have several engaging and interactive ideas and tools like pools, questions, and other widgets that offer instant feedback and also give easier access to links.

They are also a worthy addition to your Instagram feed as they provide you with an opportunity to promote or showcase things or pictures that do not warrant a standard post.

Instagram stories can also be helpful if you wish to generate leads. Also, they are displayed at the top of the follower timeline where users look daily.

Brands can also use story features as a way to capture behind-the-scenes insider posts that are generally not as high quality as regular posts. Also, brands now don’t have to worry much about the vibe of the post. They don’t have to worry if the post aligns with the aesthetic of their niche or page.

Instagram stories have also made it easier to experiment with different types of content like boomerangs, short videos, rewind videos, GIFs, templates, and other widgets. You can also use the tag feature which is a great feature when you are collaborating with some other brand.

8. Build an Interactive Branded Hashtag

In today’s Internet Marketing world, hashtags are virtually everywhere. If you are looking to apply this to your marketing strategy, these Instagram hashtags are a clear signal to users that your post is relevant to what they are looking for. E.g., red bull has added over 299,612 posts featuring their tag called #itgivesyouwings.

You can also think of hashtags as signposts that direct your potential customers and target audience to your posts. Posts with at least one hashtag have more engagement as compared to a post with none. Also, hashtags help organize and present the content so that the users can easily find their interests.

Also, sometimes customers use hashtags to post user-generated content. It allows users to search through all of the posts relating to your brand or business. Nowadays, many users search for content based on hashtags alone. So, if you want to post something related to a trending topic, make sure that you include the hashtag associated with it. So, if you want to post something related to a trending topic, make sure that you include a hashtag.

9. Partner with Influencers

Collaborating with influencers who already have a huge number of followers is the fastest way to your potential customers on Instagram. A lot of people now purchase products and services based on what they see in their Instagram feed from influential people they follow.

Partnering with the right influencer helps your brand to get in front of the users. For this, first, you need to identify influencers that have an audience relevant to your product or industry The first step is to try and identify some influencers that have an audience relevant to your product or service. You can also use user-submitted photos to influence people to buy your products.

As I mentioned earlier, Instagram is the second most popular social media platform today. Nowadays, everyone is on social media platforms. Every business is trying to gain a huge base of potential customers through their posts at every opportunity which has made Instagram an absolute powerhouse.

With one billion active monthly users, Instagram is gaining more power and reach day by day. Its users value high-quality content. So, you should focus on creating content that provides your audience with interesting information and that engages them with your brand. You should also focus on writing engaging and interactive captions. While creating and maintaining a social media platform that captures your brand’s visual identity might seem intimidating but Instagram has a way to make it fun and easy.

If you have started your Instagram marketing strategy with a growth mindset, you will find that it is easier and more flourishing as you go. Also, it gets pretty fun if you play your cards right.

Hence you should follow the above tips to make the most out of your Instagram strategy.