Instagram is an absolute marketing treasure for businesses of all types. From building an interactive community to online marketing, Instagram can help any business to make huge strides in its online presence.

According to Semrush, Instagram is among the ten most-visited online websites worldwide. With over 1.29 billion users every month, the popularity of Instagram can reinforce you to leverage it as a marketing channel. 

Instagram is the first choice of every marketer and consumer. However, the simplicity of Instagram can be deceptive. As a result, many businesses still struggle to use Instagram as a part of their online marketing strategy. 

8 Steps to Plan Successful Instagram Strategy 

With the always-changing algorithms and numerous features, it can be challenging for businesses to make the most of this social media platform. And this is why we have explained these X steps you can employ across your Instagram marketing strategy. 

1. Create a Compelling Instagram Profile 

The first step to making a successful strategy for Instagram is to optimise your profile on Instagram. The Instagram account of your brand should be nothing but a representation of your brand. 

Try to be social and formal. Moreover, don’t write the account bio in more than 60 characters. Your brand profile on Instagram should be as minimalist as possible. Take a consistent approach to all your posts, including photos, videos, reels, and lives. 

Your Instagram profile should be more than just a catchy name and a vibrant logo. Having a profile on Instagram means your brand has a distinctive personality.  

2. Choose Your Target Audience 

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One of the common and biggest mistakes every business makes on Instagram is to impress everyone. Of course, we know it would be great if everyone followed your profile, but it’s more important to understand that your marketing approach on Instagram should always be targeted. 

Targeting a specific audience doesn’t mean eliminating people who don’t fit your brand criteria. Instead, targeting allows a brand to focus on marketing the brand message to those who are more likely interested in it. 

Around 56% of customers agree that online brands should listen and better understand their needs. Targeted audiences are those people on Instagram who are defined by the brand’s criteria of behaviour, interest, and demographics. Following these targeted demographics, a brand can easily curate content, products, and services that suit its audience’s needs and expectations. This way, the audience feels more connected to a brand. 

Creating clear target demographic data can help brands narrow their marketing efforts so their money and time aren’t wasted in pursuing people that aren’t interested in their offerings. So, once you’ve created an Instagram brand profile, make sure to craft relevant content, including photos, videos, and live streams that reach the targeted audience – leading to a better conversion rate and increased ROI. 

3. Improve Your Visual Branding

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How do you expect your audience to identify your brand’s post in this competitive marketplace of Instagram? A brand can’t share its business name in every social communication. Well, that’s what the logo is for. 

A logo advocates for the identity of a brand on Instagram. A well-designed logo represents a company’s visual identity and personality that leaves a long-lasting impact on the targeted audience. Creating a distinct and unique logo can help customers effortlessly distinguish your brand’s posts on the explore page of Instagram. 

Fierce competition on Instagram makes it hard for brands to stand out through standard marketing efforts. However, using signature colours and designs can help increase brand recognition by 80%. In addition, including a brand logo on Instagram can help strengthen your brand’s online presence.

4. Keep Your Profile Up-to-Date 

Whether you run a small shop or have a multi-national firm, your Instagram presence can boost your brand recognition. But unfortunately, people often think that just making a social account on Instagram can get them the perks of social media marketing. Well, that’s not the case. 

Instagram accounts aren’t enough to drive business growth. Uploading consistent posts on Instagram and keeping the profile up-to-date with relevant content and brand happenings will help build its authority and identity. 

Removing any poor-performing, inactive, and irrelevant Instagram posts that don’t sit well with your brand is imperative. First, briefly create a brand profile that efficiently fills every detail your audience is looking for. Then, delete any questionable, dull, or controversial content that could hinder your brand’s online presence.  

5. Build Brand Voice and Tone 

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After visual branding, it’s time to focus on captions and content that plays an important role in branding your Instagram posts. For example, a brand’s Instagram profile represents some personality; it’s sarcastic or formal for some, while flirty and friendly for others. Deciding which tone and voice best describe your brand cultivates a practical approach across Instagram. 

As mentioned before, consistency is the key for brands to remain authoritative and credible. For example, a recent survey showed that the company’s revenue increases by 23% when presented consistently across all social media platforms. 

A brand’s voice and tone include the targeted audience, brand personas, core values, company catchphrases, guidelines, and personality traits. These things create an impact on the viewers. For example, creating a unique brand persona and using a different tone to convey a message can seamlessly build prospective relationships with the audience. 

6. Pay Attention to Trends 

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If you’ve made this far in this blog, you probably know now that consistency is one of the utmost importance for branding, especially in this age where Instagram marketing has become such a buzzword. 

Amid intense changes and advanced innovations in the Instagram platform, it can be challenging for an online brand to stay up-to-date. The ideal way to keep your brand up-to-date is to follow the latest trends and use them in your Instagram branding strategy. 

35% of salespeople have agreed that seasonality is the main reason for their company’s success during a specific period, while 26% claimed that understanding and following industry trends significantly influence success. 

Paying attention to the trends on Instagram can help the brand understand what the audience is looking for. In addition, it helps in creating appropriate and compelling content that resonates with the brand’s personality over time. 

Incorporating trends in your Instagram strategy doesn’t mean neglecting your company’s value, mission, tone, and personality. Instead, it means staying true to the brand while staying on top of trends to appeal to people of all ages. 

7. Quality over Quantity 

The endless options of Instagram marketing for e-commerce businesses might seem overwhelming, but there is no “one-size-fits-all” answer when it comes to posting frequently online. Instagram posts offer value – you could be uploading multiple posts a week. Still, if you’re not providing unique and valuable content to your followers, you’re just running in a loop. What you post matters most than how frequently you do it. 

A disengaging and boring post won’t serve your company any good. However, it could harm the online presence of your brand online presence. 

The difference between the influence and popularity of a brand depends on the user experience. If your brand is known and popular but fails to deliver quality products and services, then influence has come down, eventually hindering the popularity as well. 

8. Create an Instagram Calendar 

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Posting great content is key to branding, of course. But it’s equally important to plan when and where you’ll share the content to get maximum exposure. Successful Instagram management requires planning and organisation. 

Sometimes things like posting or content creation can slip through the head. That’s why developing an Instagram posting calendar can help keep a brand organised and on track with its marketing efforts. 

60% of online marketers with a planned social media strategy have claimed that their marketing efforts were highly effective and long-lasting, while 32% of marketers with a verbal strategy couldn’t reach the desired marketing plan. Planning out brand posts and content for the entire week or a month can help reduce the stress of when and what to post.

Build a Strong Instagram Strategy with Growth Beast 

As the digital industry weaves into our daily lives, more people go to Instagram. Instagram can be challenging for branding, but managing it doesn’t have to be stressful. If you want to experience increased traffic to your profile do not hesitate to reach out to Growth Beast