Instagram Marketing Guide: Tips That You Can Follow In 2024

Instagram has more than 2 billion monthly active users and has been a leader in social media marketing for over a decade. It’s not just a platform for sharing holiday pictures with friends. Instagram has influenced social commerce, the creator economy, and how brands use social media.

But let’s focus on how you can use Instagram marketing in London to grow your business in 2024. Do you need Instagram ads or Reels to succeed? Is Instagram’s shopping tools necessary for your brand?

What is Instagram Marketing?

Instagram marketing is the practice of using the Instagram platform to increase brand awareness, audience, leads, and sales.

As the most widely used social media platform for people between the ages of 16 and 34, Instagram is an efficient marketing tool for businesses, entrepreneurs, and creators.

Instagram marketing strategies include:

• Organic content
• Paid content
• Influencer marketing
• Shopping tools

Why Market on Instagram?

Instagram is one of the most widely used social media platforms worldwide, with over 2 billion active monthly users. If you own a business, your current and potential customers are likely to be actively using the app.

Instagram is also popular among users, ranking second in a survey of preferred social platforms. Users spend an average of 12 hours per month on the app, and many use it to shop.

In fact, 44% of Instagram users shop on the app weekly, and 62.4% use it to follow or research brands, products, or services.

Furthermore, many users claim that Instagram helps them build meaningful relationships with brands. In fact, two out of three active users say that they have established such relationships on the platform.

How To Create An Instagram Marketing Strategy?

Many Instagram accounts seem to be successful by sheer chance. However, most brands with active and engaged Instagram followings have implemented proven techniques and strategies.

Follow these steps to create a successful Instagram marketing strategy for your business account.

Understand Your Audience:

It is important to clearly understand your target audience in order to create engaging content. This means knowing where they live, how old they are, where they spend their time online, and what kind of online communities or hashtags they are interested in.

You can analyse your analytics and data from your offline marketing efforts to determine who you are talking to.

Gaining these insights allows you to create appropriate content, establish a strong editorial voice, and develop campaigns that will resonate with your audience. A strong Instagram marketing strategy begins with a deep knowledge of your target market.

Make The Best Instagram Profile Possible:

Think of your Instagram profile as a digital business card that represents you and your brand. Your profile is the first impression that your potential followers get, so it’s important to make it perfect.

Like a business card, you have limited space to share your message, so ensure you have a snappy bio that includes important keywords. You can also get creative with emojis. To showcase your past content, you can use Instagram Story highlights.

It’s essential to fill out all your contact details and ensure your URL works properly. Additionally, you should have a high-resolution and professional profile image that aligns with your brand’s identity.

Aligning Your Social Strategies As Per Your Business Goals:

It’s important to make sure that your social media plan aligns with your bigger business goals before you start posting a lot.

For instance, an optical company posts content that is not related to glasses, like a meme about soup. This type of content is probably part of the company’s strategy to make its brand appear more approachable, relatable, and fun.

If you want to increase brand awareness, your social media plan should focus on exposure and reach.

Alternatively, if you want to generate more leads, your social media strategy should aim to direct more traffic towards your sales funnel. In other words, every action you take on social media should have a clear purpose.

Create A Content Calendar:

Planning and organising your content is crucial for your business. The best way to do it is by using a content calendar. Although posting spontaneously can be exciting, finding the perfect daily moment that aligns with your business goals can be stressful.

Instead, you should brainstorm content pillars and schedule your social media content in advance. By setting aside dedicated time to plan and prepare, you’ll be able to work more efficiently.

Schedule Your Posts In Advance:

A scheduling tool enables you to prepare a week or months’ worth of social media posts in one go when you are feeling creative.

This way, you can ensure maximum impact on your audience. Additionally, scheduling your Instagram posts helps you post during the time when your audience is most likely to be online.

Never Missing On The Mentions:

Instagram marketing is about more than what you post; it’s also about how you interact with your audience. Social listening is essential to a strong Instagram marketing strategy. You can track mentions, keywords, and search terms most relevant to your business.

Do a custom search that can also help you stay updated with industry news. This will ensure that you never miss an opportunity to engage with your audience.

Getting Familiar With The Algorithm:

Instagram’s algorithms play an important role in deciding what content appears on a user’s feed, what qualifies for the Explore page, and what content goes unnoticed. Therefore, if you want to thrive on the platform, it’s essential to understand the algorithms.

To put it simply, Instagram’s algorithms analyse information about the content (including Reels, feed posts, and Stories) and users (interests and behaviour on the platform) to offer the most relevant content to the right people.

Each algorithm considers several factors such as post relevance, popularity, the person who posted it, your interaction history with them, and your activity across the platform.

Experiment With Different Formats:

In 2010, Instagram was launched as a simple photo-sharing app, but it has evolved into a more complex platform with a range of formats to explore. You can now create a perfect Instagram grid on your main feed by sharing photos, videos, or even carousels of pictures.

Instagram Stories are positioned at the top of the feed and capture millions of views daily but disappear after 24 hours. On the other hand, Instagram Reels allows playing with short-form videos.

Most businesses experiment with a mix of these different content styles. It’s essential to start posting to determine what works best for your audience.

Trying Out A Live Stream:

Instagram’s livestream feature provides a distinctive and highly engaging opportunity to broadcast live to your followers.

Whether you’re providing a behind-the-scenes tour, sharing an exciting product update, answering questions from your audience, interviewing a brand ambassador, or even selling your products.

Instagram live streams offer a thrilling experience to your audience, allowing them to have an intimate interaction with the brands they love.

Set Up An Instagram Shop:

Instagram Shopping is a feature that enables customers to buy products directly from the Instagram app instead of being redirected to the brand’s website.

An Instagram Shop is a customised digital shopfront where customers can shop directly from the brand’s Instagram profile.

Final Thoughts

Are you thinking of getting maximum reach? Well, start noting down these strategies; they will be helpful for you. Of course, strategies can do wonders for every marketer out there. Get in touch with Cyber Creation – one of the top social media agencies in London – to get the best Instagram marketing services in London.