5 Tips to Create Instagram Engagement + Build Brand Loyalty
Let’s face it. As a business owner, 24-hours in a day never feels like enough time and creating a marketing strategy can feel overwhelming and fruitless. So, where do you start?
With 1 billion monthly active users and a growth rate of 5 percent per quarter, Instagram is a great tool to get in front of customers and create an engaged and loyal audience.
Since we’re in the business of helping brands build marketing strategies that break through the clutter to reach the right audiences, we’re sharing tips to implement a successful Instagram strategy to create Instagram engagement and move the needle for your business.
1. UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE AND CREATE CONTENT FOR THEM.
The first step to creating a successful Instagram strategy is planning. Anyone can post something just because they like it, but the post will fall flat if the content isn’t tailored towards your audience’s needs.
To create a winning strategy, start by envisioning your ideal customer. What are they interested in? What do they spend money on? What do they need? What problem needs to solve?
By clearly identifying the “who” you’re posting for and “what” they care about, you will create the roadmap to more engaging, relevant content.
Before each post, think back to your ideal customer profile and ask yourself the following questions: “How does this benefit them? Why would they be interested in this?” If you can’t answer these two questions, then you should consider posting something else.
2. Have a clear goal & funnel set up to guide your audience
Now that you know what to post about to appeal to your target audience, incorporate a clear goal you’d like to achieve by engaging with them through your content.
In order to get engagement, you need to direct your followers somewhere. Ask yourself, “What do I want to happen?” The answer might be pushing them to your latest blog post or driving purchase via your Shopify site. Add this goal destination to your bio link, highlight it in Instagram Stories, or clearly include it in the caption of your post. Here’s an example from Whirlaway Marketing client, SoChatti:
3. WORK WITH THE ALGORITHM NOT AGAINST IT
The Instagram algorithm decides which posts are delivered to a user’s feed. Luckily for us, Instagram revealed how it works. So, how can you make the algorithm work for your Instagram strategy?
THE FOLLOWING 3 FACTORS DECIDE HOW POSTS SHOW UP ON THE FEED:
Interest: Instagram decides if a post will be interesting to a user and then ranks the content using past behavior on similar content. As a business, engagement is key! The more you encourage someone to like or comment, the more likely it is that they will see your future content. This means it is very important to create Instagram engagement through prompts. Consider using a caption that asks a question with every post.
Recency: Timely or more recent posts are prioritized in the algorithm. Make sure you set your account up as a business and use the account insights to identify when your target audience is online and most active. Post in that window of time and reap the rewards on higher engagement.
Relationships: Posts are ranked higher based on who you’ve interacted with a lot in the past. This means that commenting and liking others’ posts or being tagged together in photos will affect how you show up to others. Consider starting a branded hashtag and encouraging your followers/communities to include your hashtag and tag you in their posts. If you repost you followers’ content that they’ve tagged you in, others will feel more motivated to tag and share content with you.
4. PLAN AHEAD AND POST OFTEN
To set yourself up for success, plan ahead by creating an editorial calendar. Identify national holidays and ‘silly’ days of celebration (i.e. national taco day), and then slate in your content around those moments. Build a list of content themes and then create new content or curate existing content that aligns with your themes. Finally, use a tool that helps you look ahead to ensure that your page follows a cohesive creative direction. We like a tool like Later to help us with cohesive page design and to schedule out posts ahead of time.
5. TRACK YOUR SUCCESS
racking and understanding your Instagram post performance will help you identify the tactics that are moving the needle for your business. When a post performs well, dig in to understand why it resonated with your audience so you can replicate that success for your strategy. Here are a few metrics to consider:
How many likes and comments did we get?
How many impressions did we get?
Did we get any new followers from this post?
Still, think you don’t have enough time to create and implement an Instagram strategy for your business? Schedule a 15-minute call with us to learn how Whirlaway Marketing can help!
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