How to up your Instagram marketing game

Maybe you already have a solid social media presence. Or perhaps you’re doing the bare minimum to be ‘seen’ on social media. No matter your level of engagement, these excellent (and free!) platforms can add some serious oomph to your business’ marketing game if you harness them correctly.

If you want people to book your services, you need to build rapport and Instagram is a fine way to do so.

Boost it

Yes, Insta is free to use of course, but for almost any business, it’s worth tossing a few shiny coins at it.

“When you boost a post on social media, you pay to amplify one of your existing post’s reach to your followers, a recommended audience, or a targeted audience. It’ll show up as a sponsored post on your audience’s feed,” Hubspot

So, think seriously about laying out a small budget to put behind your key posts. Sure, you can pay for ads, but you may find that pushing for more exposure in people’s feeds through a paid boost is just as good, doesn’t smack of commercialism and will be much cheaper if managed correctly.

Have a signature style

It’s all too easy to post a random assortment of images without thought about your brand. It may look good in isolation, it may represent your point, but is it cohesive? Does it scream your brand?

We all like to fit in but Instagram is where you need to stand out. Be brave and interesting with your imagery, use your own filter, keep with brand colours, be unique, have a brand voice which hollers above the others. This is a really straightforward way of building a brand, and we know how vital that is to marketing your business and increasing sales.

“Be yourself. Everyone else is taken,” unknown genius.

Know the players

Understanding and researching the ‘competition’ is just as important in Instagram as it is with any sales or business plan. Know you enemy. Know your ally. Understand why they post what they do and how they do it. Now use this information to your advantage.

Think:

  • Who are the big players in your business space?
  • Are they allies or competitors?
  • What conversation are they a part of?
  • How can I get involved?
  • What are the best hashtags to get noticed?
  • How do you differ from the competition?

Content mix is key

Don’t get stuck on one type of post. Mix it up! People tire easily and fresh, varying content is a crucial part of a successful engagement strategy.

The first thing you should do is create a publishing calendar. Map out a month or more in advance with the types of content you will be offering up.

Think about:

  • capitalising on holidays and theme days
  • product related posts
  • lifestyle defining posts that indirectly advertise your business and themes
  • inspirational posts
  • educational tips and advice
  • using Instagram Story.

Whatever your mix and calendar looks like, keep it on theme and well branded.

Get into IGTV

Some of you may not even know IGTV exists, Get across it. Short for Instagram TV, it’s a wonderful promotional tool for your business.

If your business is producing tutorials, instructional videos, webinars or tips, consider using IGTV to spread them far and wide.

IGTV allows you to post videos up to an hour in length, dependent on your account size, with a view to making it limitless in the near future. This is not possible on the regular Instagram news feed.

So, instead of posting your clips to YouTube and promoting them in Instagram, just post long instructional videos directly to your IGTV feed and keep people on the platform, which we know is preferable to most users than sending them to a different site or app.

“It’s time for videos to move forward and evolve,” Kevin Systrom, Instagram CEO.

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