With 800 million active users dishing out an average of 1.6 billion “likes” every day, Instagram is just about ripe for brand promotions. But of course, you cannot just rush into the platform blindly hoping for success. You first need to arm yourself with a solid Instagram marketing strategy. Here are a few tips to help you build yours:

  • Create a business profile: Instagram has introduced a host of tools to help brands leverage the platform’s marketing potential. Switching to a business profile will allow you include your company’s contact details, in addition to viewing additional stats on how the audience is interacting with your presence.
  • Use a recognizable profile picture: It’s important that people be able to recognize your brand as soon as they visit your profile page. You can achieve that easily by using an image that’s closely linked to your brand for the profile picture. This could be your logo, logomark (logo without words), or a picture of your brand’s mascot — although, you don’t have to limit yourself to these options. Feel free to use any other visuals you think could work.
  • Post consistently: Helping your audience learn when to expect new content from you is crucial in maximizing engagement. As such, your Instagram marketing strategy should specify a schedule for publishing new content; research suggests doing so 1-2 times a day as a good rule of thumb. This will help you post consistently without hitting any lulls or stretches.
  • Don’t be too sales-oriented: We’ve outlined the need to post on a regular basis, but what exactly are you going to post? Even though your main goal is to drive sales, you don’t want to inundate the audience with too much promotional content. This is more likely to drive away followers than it is to achieve anything else. So tone down on the “salesy” posts; look for other informative or entertaining pieces that are relevant to your brand and post them instead.
  • Partner with influencers: Having your brand endorsed by influential Instagram personalities is a surefire way to grow your following. The trick is to find an influencer with the right audience base; the kind of followers you were looking to engage in the first place. If you can work out a long-term working relationship, it’ll be an effective way to build lasting awareness with a whole new audience.
  • Engage your followers: Your own followers, while not being influencers themselves, can still come in handy in spreading the word. Try to reply to their comments whenever you have the opportunity. This indicates that you’re listening, and that you really do care about your followers’ opinions — arguably the most effective way to turn fans into brand advocates.