Top 10 Instagram Marketing Tips for Your Business or Nonprofit
How to Get Started with Instagram Marketing
Facebook’s reign might be long-standing, but Instagram, with over 2.4 billion monthly active users, is the king of visual storytelling. It’s a platform that showcases vibrant photos and captivating videos. Instagram hosts a community hungry for engaging content and is a great place to market your business or nonprofit.
Marketing Your Business or Nonprofit on Instagram
Whether you’re a business aiming to build brand awareness or a nonprofit looking to spread your message, Instagram offers a great space to connect with your target audience and achieve your marketing goals. As a user, it is easy to get lost in the creative content available and endlessly scroll through reel after reel. There are countless Instagram accounts vying for attention in the feed, targeting the same audience.
How then do you make your posts stand out and stop your audience in their tracks while scrolling? You need a strategy, a plan of action, and exceptional content. Your strategy should start with a clear goal, a budget, and an outline of available resources. Once you have these in place, you can start working on your content strategy.
We have gathered some tried and tested Instagram marketing tips to help you make the most out of your Instagram marketing efforts, no matter your budget!
Instagram Marketing Tips for Business and Nonprofits
Here are ten quick and actionable tips to jumpstart your Instagram marketing strategy:
1 Audit and Optimize your Instagram Bio
Look for ways to improve your Instagram bio, like refreshing the logo and description. We caution you against using hashtags in your bio, as this will lead people away from your profile. Format your bio copy to be concise. Using emojis in your bio can add some personality, but only use where appropriate. Include a link in your bio, preferably one that goes to a landing page on your website that invites your followers to explore more about you.
2 Craft Instagram-Specific Content
Tailor your content strategy for the platform and your target audience. Since Instagram is a visual platform, focus on high-quality images and captions that encourage engagement. Create content that stands out in the feed and makes people “stop the scroll.” One way is to use images of “real people,” preferably your own team or customers, instead of stock photos. Keep captions short with a clear call to action for increased engagement and don’t forget to add up to 30 relevant hashtags to your caption.
3 Leverage Hashtags Strategically
Research hashtags by using hashtag search tools or searching on Instagram for hashtags that relate to your post. Use a mix of popular and niche hashtags to increase the chance of your content being discovered by non-followers. Try using hashtags in these four categories for each post:
- Location (if appropriate)
- Branded (for your business or organization)
- Industry-specific
- Post specific
Instagram gives each post the ability to use up to 30 hashtags. Take full advantage of this feature!
4 Utilize Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories allow you to reach a wider audience. Share behind-the-scenes glimpses, host live Q&As, or promote new content. Don’t forget to repurpose feed images by sharing them to your own stories, adding stickers and animation. Stories offer the ability to add a link to content; this is a great way to be able to ask for a “read our blog” call to action with a link to your website.
5 Experiment with Instagram Reels
Create engaging Reels using trending music, effects, and text overlays. Reels are short-form videos (up to 90 seconds) that have their own dedicated feed in Instagram and can help you reach a wider audience. To find the latest trends to use in your Reels creation, first look to the Instagram Explore page, which is a collection of content based on your interests. The algorithm curates this content continuously. What you see on this Explore page is based on accounts similar to yours and content you’ve interacted with. Next, look for content ideas and inspiration from other accounts that will work for your specific audience.
6 Respond to Comments and DMs
Actively engage with your audience. This means responding to comments on your posts and to direct messages in a timely fashion. To increase your following, consider scheduling a dedicated time each day to interact with other people’s content. That activity will bring a steady flow of new followers to your account.
7 Optimize and Track Performance
Leverage learnings from Instagram Insights, available on your phone app, to refine your strategy. Use this data to analyze engagement metrics such as likes, comments, saves, and shares to identify what content performs best. Then focus on creating new content formatted and posted at times that resonated with your audience.
8 Boost Top-Performing Posts
Identify posts with high organic engagement and allocate a budget to promote them to a wider, relevant audience. Do this frequently to find the best posts to boost. To boost your Instagram content or place ads, visit the Meta Business Suite.
9 Host Engaging Contests and Giveaways
Run contests and giveaways to encourage user-generated content (UGC) and boost brand awareness. Contests and giveaways (forms of gamification) are a great way to gain followers quickly, but they won’t get you far on their own. They are best used in conjunction with a solid content strategy.
10 Partner with Influencers
Collaborate with relevant influencers in your niche to tap into their audience and gain valuable exposure. Look to micro-influencers who are just starting out, especially if your initial Instagram marketing budget is small. Micro-influencers often have smaller online communities, yet a more engaged audience and are excited for new opportunities!
Looking for an Instagram Marketing Partner? Contact Rapunzel Creative.
Do you have more questions about Instagram marketing? Are you wondering which of these tactics is best for your company? Contact Rapunzel Creative to learn how our social media consulting and strategy sessions can help boost your engagement and your bottom line.
Looking for similar tips for LinkedIn and Facebook? We have those covered, too!
Top 10 Tips for Marketing Your Business on LinkedIn
Top 10 Tips for Marketing Your Business or Nonprofit on Facebook
About Rapunzel Creative
Rapunzel Creative is an award-winning branding, digital marketing, and advertising agency located in Bergen County, New Jersey, within the New York metro market. Services include business branding, website design, digital marketing (such as social media, SEO, and email marketing) and advertising campaigns. The agency also specializes in nonprofit marketing and branding. Rapunzel Creative is certified by the State of New Jersey as a (WBE) Women Business Enterprise, is a WBENC certified organization, and is a certified SBA and WOSB and approved contractor with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
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