Complete Guide to Instagram Marketing in 2021

Instagram is the biggest and most popular social media network globally.

With over a billion active monthly users, the platform is certainly big enough to house plenty of interesting insights on marketing performance. You’ll find accounts that perform well and those that don’t, as well as key metrics that influence the success of your Instagram marketing campaigns. In this article, we’ll cover how to best use the platform to grow your business in the future.

Set Up Your Instagram Account As Properly As Possible

Instagram account creators should always establish a good balance between content quality and entertainment value. This means featuring a mix of both serious and funny content, as well as frequently sharing engaging stories. By having a mix of both, you allow your followers a better chance at engaging with your content, thus increasing the likelihood of them engaging with your brand.

In terms of creating an engaging Instagram story, you want to find a middle ground between too much text and no text at all. In general, 1-2 sentences in an engaging manner that leaves enough room for your followers to read more if they want to is perfect.

Post Regularly And At The Right Time

One of the best ways to gain engagement on Instagram is to post regularly. The more you post, the more people will notice you and eventually come back for more. To ensure that you’re reaching your target audience, post at the right time too. People generally visit Instagram in the morning, so if you want your content to reach your audience, post early in the morning.

You also need to post at the right time on your business’ behalf. If you’re selling shoes, for example, you might want to post at the start of the shopping season in case your followers are searching for the fashion accessory at that point in time. Similarly, if you’re a beauty brand, you might want to wait until beauty-lovers are interested in your products to post.

While this might seem obvious, it’s amazing how many brands fall prey to the occasional Instagram slip-up. Doing too many sponsored posts or going live too often can put you in violation of Instagram’s guidelines, resulting in you losing your account. So, always be mindful of what your followers are interested in, and make sure to post at the right time to maximise your reach.

Follow Influencers And Trendsetters On Instagram To Get Ideas

Another great way to get inspiration for your next campaign is to follow influencers and trendsetters on Instagram. This way, you’re sure to discover new ways to grow your business by seeing what others are doing.

In order to best utilise this platform, create a separate account purely for following influencers and checking out their content. By doing this, you ensure that you’re not distracted by all the content on the main account when you’re following along in the feed.

This is a great place to discover how other businesses operate and to take cues on how to best grow your own business. By following influencers on the platform, you’re also guaranteed to see countless beautiful, highly edited images of brands and products you might not have considered before.

Instagram Is A Great Place To Promote Your Next Event Or Presentation

Whether you’re a business or a brand, Instagram is a great place to promote your next event or presentation. The simple fact that it’s possible to promote an event on such a large platform means that it will likely reach a wide audience. To best utilise the potential of the platform, consider these three tips.

  • Post images that match the overall theme or tone of the event.
  • Post regularly throughout the event.
  • Tag users who were at the event in the images you post.

By following these tips, you ensure that your event is represented accurately on the platform, increasing the chances of attendees finding out about it. Instagram is a great place to promote your event in a fresh and unique manner, so don’t hesitate to take advantage of this fact.

Use Analytics To Your Advantage

Instagram doesn’t provide a great deal of in-house analytics, but third-party apps like Hootsuite and Meltwater allow you to track and examine your performance on the platform in incredible detail. These tools can help you identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) that determine the success of your campaigns, allowing you to adapt your strategy accordingly.

With so much competition on this platform, it’s essential to ensure you’re acting sufficiently efficiently to prevail over the competition. Luckily, with tools like these, you can easily track the performance of your Instagram campaigns and assess whether or not they’re producing the desired results. To create an engaging experience for your followers, determine the most effective methods of communication and keep track of results.

Utilise Measurement And Optimisation Tools

The above tips should put you on the right track, but sometimes you need a little nudge in the right direction. Luckily, with newer tools being created all the time to help make marketers’ lives easier, your need for a manual optimisation won’t be as great as it could be. Measurement and optimisation tools such as Google Analyticsand Optimizely can help you determine the best times to post, the most effective content, and what kind of images work best on your platform. Using these tools to their advantage can help you determine the precise niche and audience you need to focus on in order to achieve the desired results.

Try Different Metrics And Check Out Your Overall Performance

The tips above should put you on the right track, but sometimes you need a little nudge in the right direction. Luckily, with newer tools being created all the time to help make marketers’ lives easier, your need for a manual optimisation won’t be as great as it could be. Measurement and optimisation tools such as Google Analyticsand Optimizely can help you determine the best times to post, the most effective content, and what kind of images work best on your platform. Using these tools to their advantage can help you determine the precise niche and audience you need to focus on in order to achieve the desired results.

Instagram is a great place to grow your business and gain audience support, but like all other social media platforms, it can’t do it alone. To ensure your success on the platform, you need to work diligently to ensure that your content is of the highest quality, regularly posted at the right time, and that you’re being effectively utilized by the platforms to reach your target audience.