With complete certainty, I can claim that Instagram is the most popular social media site among the people in my immediate social circle. I’m curious as to what it is about Instagram that individuals find so appealing.
When I ask this question of my friends, family, and acquaintances, the most popular response is “The photographs!”
Instagram’s built-in filters and editing features make it simple to create stunning picture collages. People are drawn to these polished images and want more of them, and this is before we even consider the psychological impact of obtaining “likes” on one’s own photographs and the pangs of “fear of missing out” (FOMO) felt when one falls behind on their friends’ posts. It’s because of all of this that Instagram may become addicted.
If you’ve already joined the Instagram bandwagon, you may be wondering what else you can do and whether or not your postings are actually generating any tangible results for your business. Right here is where you’ll need our assistance.
Formulating an effective Instagram marketing plan
Create a plan for your Instagram marketing efforts
If you’re ready to take your Instagram account in a more strategic direction, the first step is to figure out why you’re using the platform in the first place. Do you want to get more people talking about your brand, get more leads, get more leads to buy, or engage with consumers to become brand advocates?
While it’s possible that your account was founded for more than one of these reasons, keeping your end objective in mind as you draught each post helps ensure that you don’t stray from it.
Your Instagram expansion plan should be based on your top priority. For instance, if you have a sizable advertising budget and want to enhance brand awareness, you may attempt airing commercials that reach a wide variety of potential customers.
However, if you want to increase customer loyalty, your Instagram marketing strategy should focus on educating your customers about how to get the most out of your products and services (through things like video tutorials and interactive posts that link to additional resources) and holding customer contests to boost engagement.
Modify your Instagram following
After deciding what you want to accomplish, you may narrow down your target demographic. If you are familiar with Facebook’s Ad Manager, this next part should be simple. You will be utilising the same interface, only this time it will be for Instagram.
With Ads Manager, you may narrow down your target audience based on a wide variety of factors, including but not limited to age, geography, and a wide variety of demographic, interest, and behavioural categories. You may also submit a list of people who have engaged with your business before by creating a bespoke or lookalike audience.
You can stay on top of your game and reach the correct individuals with your Instagram strategy if you take the time to refine your audience before launching a new campaign.
Make a plan for Instagram marketing spending
The next step is to set a limit for your Instagram spending. The good news is that targeted advertising on Instagram can make even a modest budget go a long way.
How much money, then, should you invest? First things first: decide if you’ll stick to a daily or permanent budget. Having a daily advertising budget will prevent you from spending more than Y dollars every single day. Setting a total budget for a longer period of time in a lifetime budget leaves greater wiggle room for day-to-day spending.
It may make more sense to begin with a daily budget if your financial situation is dire. It’s difficult to recommend an optimal daily budget before your advertisements begin running, but you’ll likely find the sweet spot via experimentation.
The next step is to think about how you might improve your ad distribution. This will connect once more to the original objective. Optimizing for links clicked might be useful if you want people to take action on a certain page of your website. But, if spreading your brand’s name around is your main objective, you could choose to focus on increasing your number of viewerships.
A better Instagram marketing approach
Maintain a steady backdrop and lighting scheme
The very first thing you should do is make sure all of your pictures and videos look the same. If you manage a restaurant, for instance, you shouldn’t take photos of your dishes in front of a different backdrop for each and every one of your posts. The rustic feel may be what you’re searching for. To achieve this rustic look, you may try photographing your cuisine on a wide wooden slab or board. Photos taken against a bright backdrop tend to come out the best, and if you’re utilising natural light, you should position yourself near a window or outside, but out of direct sunshine.
Use the same filters consistently
Using the same filters can help your photos look more uniform, which is related to the previous point. Try out several filters to see which one gives the desired effect, or experiment with the tools available to you in order to get the desired effect manually. Personal picture editing is something I really like doing, and my go-to techniques include boosting the exposure, increasing the saturation to make the colours pop, and using a tilt-shift effect to zero in on the subject of the shot.
Consistently employ a set of hashtags
Huh? For what reason is this so crucial? If your hashtag list is well-researched, you’ll save time and always be able to reach the relevant people with your posts.
My advice is to make a note on your phone and/or computer with your most often used hashtags so that you can simply copy and paste them into each photo you upload. It’s fine to mix things up every so then, but using the same hashtags consistently can save you time and ensure that the right people see your feed.