With a staggering 1 billion monthly users, 90% of which follow at least one business profile, Instagram is the place to be if you are running a business in 2020.
Plenty of opportunities for promotion, brand building, and seamless e-commerce experience set Instagram apart from any other modern digital platform.
However, a basic profile with some random postings won’t cut it in 2020. To be able to cut through the noise of oversaturated content powered by massive Instagram marketing budgets, you need to prepare for some hard and long work.
Although overwhelming, Instagram for business comes with a lot of fun and creative work. So, buckle up, and let’s get those Instagram numbers up with the 5 essential Instagram growth tips below.
Engage your audience one caption at a time
Sure, your visual content is worth a thousand words, but you need to employ a killer caption to direct your audience further.
The perfect caption lures people in and inspires additional action, with the appropriate CTA.
Ask the questions that inspire conversation in the comments.
Entice your audience to check your Instagram Stories or click the link in bio for the latest updates.
Run a contest or a giveaway, and ask them to tag/invite a friend, like, or follow you on other social media platforms.
For more info on the best Instagram engagement strategies, check out the Flock Social’s blog post on the topic: https://flocksocial.com/how-to-increase-engagement-on-instagram/.
Get discovered with hashtags
Hashtags are the holy grail of Instagram and will forever keep their place on the throne. Why? Well, there’s simply no better alternative for a fast and accurate search for the content you are interested in.
This works to your advantage if you are a business trying to improve your Instagram game. By introducing the right mix of popular, general, specific, and branded hashtags, you are getting discovered by your perfect audiences. Additionally, hashtags are helping you create and engage communities around your content and brand.
Attract with top-notch content
Poorly-edited or randomly-posted content is not enough to attract your ideal customers.
To grow your business through Instagram, you have to have a perfectly-organized content calendar and a beautifully-curated grid.
- Use different content formats
- Show people behind the business
- Post regularly
- Edit and introduce different filters to add that something extra to your posts
- Research your ideal audience and curate your content to attract their attention
- Organize your grid in squares, a checkerboard, or a grid by grid layout
- Use branded colors and themes to create a recognizable look
Build trust with UGC
Nothing creates trust faster than thousands of user-generated photos featuring your product or service.
Consumers are much more likely to trust a brand with regular people posting about it than they would any perfectly-curated ad.
This is why many big and small brands are creating UGC campaigns to build trust among their audience.
However, the trick is to solicit and edit these posts carefully to get the most appropriate and on-brand images. Otherwise, you could risk your brand image getting slightly off track with UGC that doesn’t resonate with your audience.
Create relatability with influencers
Finally, find the most appropriate brand ambassadors to spread the word on your brand.
Before you freak out about the possible price tag attached to some big Hollywood stars’ collaborations, let us reassure you. It won’t even cost you a fraction of what you’d imagine.
One word: influencers! Or better yet, two: micro-influencers. Audiences today are unresponsive to glamorous ads with famous celebs. They want to see someone they can actually relate to promote a product or a service in a more realistic setting.
This is why influencer marketing is so widespread nowadays. Because it simply works.
The best bet would be to work with a micro-influencer specialized in your niche. This brings you in front of the super-specific targeted audience quickly.
