Instagram Marketing Strategy in 7 Steps

Instagram is perhaps the favorite social platform among people.

Why do we love Instagram?

Because of the images.

Visual social media platforms are growing faster.

According to Datareportal, as of October 2021, Instagram has 1.393 billion users on Instagram, which occupies the 4^th place in the world’s most active social media platforms.

Below you have some stats on the potential audience your business can reach using adverts on Instagram.

Amazing, right?

Now, Instagram brings unlimited opportunities for businesses. But you’ll need to elaborate an Instagram Marketing Strategy, if you wish to attract the audience eager to not only share your content but open their wallets.

In this article, you’ll learn how to elaborate an Instagram Marketing Strategy in 7 easy steps, put it into practice and start selling.

Table of Contents

How to create an Instagram Marketing Strategy in 7 Easy Steps

Step #1 – Define your Instagram goals

Setting goals means commitment. It’s the act of selecting one or several objectives you wish to achieve.

So, the first step is to define your Instagram goals. Do you want to raise brand awareness? Are you hoping to collect leads? Or perhaps to convert warm leads?

To have a clear goal in mind is crucial when creating your Instagram content so every piece is focused on achieving that goal.

Goals must be SMART: Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely.

If for instance, your Instagram goal is social selling, your Instagram feed should be focused to show off your products and encourage your audience to check them out.

Related content: 5 Unbeatable tips for selling on Instagram

Once you have defined your goals, set one or several KPIs for tracking your performance.

For instance:

Brand Awareness > KPIs: Followers, Social Traffic

Capture Leads > KPIs: Website clicks, Email signups

Sales > KPIs: Sales

Step #2 – Get to know your Instagram audience

Without an audience interested in what you offer, your Instagram account is useless for your company.

If you’ve already defined who is your buyer persona, then use this information. If not, you need to define your target audience.

Thinking about your average customer, answer these questions:

How old is your target customer?
Where is located?
Are your products and services more popular with one gender?
What’s your target customer’s biggest goal?
What pain points are your customers trying to solve?
How can your products or services can make their life easier?

If you are a big brand, you can address different audiences with different accounts. For instance, Adidas use Adidas Originals, Adidas Women, Adidas Swim, Adidas Running…

Said that, if you are a small business, better to kill it with one account. And from then on, you can build up.

Step # 3 – Get inspiration from the competition

Users share over 80 million images every day.

We are not saying you have to review all of them. But you can check out your competitor’s content for inspiration.

Things to take into consideration from your competitors:

Type of content they post
What hashtags they are sharing with their posts
Check out the comments on your competitor’s posts to see what their customers are talking about
Be aware of the content trends

Pick out up to five competitors, and start gathering information. Remember that the drill is to get inspiration. Do not copy what they are doing because they might not be in line with achieving your own goals.

Step #4 – Define your Instagram brand

Building an aesthetic Instagram feed in line with your business is a must. Instagram is mainly a visual platform, so the quality of the images and other materials must be in harmony with the colors and style of your core brand identity.

Related content: 4 Brand identity essentials for social media

Step #5 – Plan your Instagram content strategy

Before you plan an Instagram content strategy, you must review your bio and existing content.

Check out if your bio reflects your business mission and it’s align with your business goals.

Then, it’s time to see the content in your feed. Is the content relevant to my business goals? Are my audience interested in this content?

With these insights, you’ll be able to create an Instagram content strategy that might be different from the one you had.

Let’s dive in the content you are planning.

As Instagram allows you many options for content: images, videos, carousels, stories, reels, IGTV, etc., you can play with different types of content: educational, behind-the-scenes, product, entertainment, user-generated content, etc.

Not a graphic designer?

No problem. With Canva, you’ll be able to create (and share!) beautiful designs like a pro.

First off, list topics relevant to your business. Not only do they need to be related to the products and services you sell, the audience should be interested in them.

Keep in mind that captions are key to attracting customers. According to a Socialinsider’s study, captions up to 10 words increase engagement on Instagram for businesses, especially when combined with carousel posts.

Step #6 – Set up a consistent posting schedule

Once you have an Instagram Marketing Plan set in place, it’s time to create a consistent posting schedule.

Consistency is key if you wish to get results.

Instagram Insights will give you information about the time your followers are most active.

Uncovering the best moment to post isn’t easy. But with information, and trial and error basis, you’ll find the best time, the one that brings you more engagement and followers.

If you are wondering how many posts should be posting in a day (This is a frequent question we get in the agency), we will say 1-2 posts per day, if your goal is to grow.

Said that, keep in mind that you might not be able to create as much content, so better to keep a schedule you can maintain over the long run.

We recommend you to use Planoly – it’s a very useful tool for scheduling (and getting insights).

Step #7 – Track your progress

This is perhaps the most underestimated step.

And yet, it’s pivotal to track the performance of your actions over time.

Regularly (weekly or monthly) check out your goals and the KPIs—Key Performance Indicators—you set up early and see if you are moving to the direction of achieving your goals.

Instagram platform for business has a great tool: Instagram Insights. There’s plenty of data that you can gather and get some insights from.

Make it a habit.

Conclusion

An Instagram Marketing Strategy makes all the difference.

This roadmap will help you attract new followers, and convert them into loyal customers.

It’s time to create your strategy, and stick to it. If you need any help, we are here to serve you. Check out our plans or reach us with your inquiries.

We want you to rock on Instagram!