Instagram Marketing Hacks for 5X Brand Reach, Growth and Visibility

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With over 2 billion monthly “active” users, Instagram is currently one of the most-used social media platforms, just after Facebook with its 3+ billion users, and WhatsApp with almost similar numbers. As WhatsApp is primarily a messaging app, Instagram stands tall with its advertising and promotional opportunities after Facebook.

According to brands, it is a goldmine for promotion and growth, that too at nominal costs. 

Yes! Most Instagram marketing services do not burn a hole in your pocket. 

Instagram is also a favorite social media platform for the youth. About 62% of users on Instagram are aged from 18-34. And 16% of users belong to the 35-44 age group. 

If your brand’s target audience demographics belong to this group, you can leverage this opportunity to reach out exponentially. Only, you have to realize that the marketing world has changed drastically over the few years.

You need to update your Instagram marketing strategies to reach out to a global audience and grow your brand. In this guide, you will help you build a strong Instagram presence to make the most of the platform’s marketing potential. 

Let’s get you started then!

What is Instagram Marketing in 2024?

To be precise – Instagram is a social media platform that people turn to for entertainment. 

Unlike Google, or other search engines, most users are not looking (deliberately) for some kind of information through Instagram. They scroll through reels for entertainment, watch stories (including those of brands), and sometimes even engage in reviews (of influencers).

According to Social Pilot, 62% of users show interest in any brand after watching its stories. Also, 90% of users engage with at least a single business account, watching their stories, reels, etc. 

Instagram Reels, which came out in 2020 has grown exponentially in popularity and engagement. Statistics reveal that:

Instagram Reels have 2x more impressions than other kinds of content on the platform. 

Leave engagement, more than 6 million reels are shared through DMs (Direct Messaging) every minute. They comprise more than 50% of content shared through direct messaging. 

And the latest one will shock you! 

About 80% of users prefer to watch a Live video on Instagram than read a blog post. 

Instagram Threads, which just launched last year, has also entered the competition zone with 1 million sign-ups in 5 hours (ONLY). 

There are 23.7 million active Thread users right now in the US, after India and Brazil. It’s expecting $4.5 billion in revenue by the end of 2024. 

So, what do these data suggest? 

If you are not using Instagram marketing for your brand, you are losing out on a great deal! 

The Significance of a Robust Instagram Advertising Strategy  

About a third of Instagram users have been seen to buy products directly from advertisements. Further, 60% of users have followed a brand after an ad randomly came on their feeds or while scrolling stories. Talking about demographics, Gen Z people have been more active in buying from ads directly.  

Now what does that say about the platform’s amazing advertising potential? Well, a lot! 

• Reach goals faster – The right strategy can help your brand gain more followers than you imagined. Even your sales can increase manifold. Most fashion and beauty products advertised on Instagram have a high sales ratio. A survey by Instagram revealed that 44% of people use the platform for shopping at least every week. 
• Connect with the right people – The platform has an amazing ability to help you connect with the right audience. 

How many times have you failed to do that on other social media platform? 

How many times have your ads been scrolled past without engagement? 

The chances are lower on this platform, because of targeted hashtags and more appealing ways to present content. People (about 60%) come here to LOOK for products and they seek out the same. So you need not put too much effort into getting connected to your target audience. They will seek you out from the crowd. 

• Enhance brand visibility – Instagram presents a lucrative opportunity for brands to make their mark on social media. With the different features that it provides – stories, reels, threads, advertising, etc., you can present your brand in a unique manner. You can also choose brand themes, colors, and settings to create familiar and consistent visuals. 

How to Create a Robust Instagram Marketing Strategy

An Instagram marketing strategy is all about what content to publish and how to promote your brand through that content on the social media platform. A robust strategy will include your brand’s specific promotional requirements, as well as the needs of your target audience.

It will carefully amalgamate the two to create an effective roadmap to enhance your brand visibility and accelerate its growth. 

Let’s now talk about how to develop such a robust Instagram marketing strategy for your brand. 

1. Create a content plan

Focus on the kind of content that will best work for your brand. 

For example, if you have a garment store (online or offline), you should concentrate more on creating fashion stories, reels, and threads. Through Reels, you can engage more people and influence them into buying your products. Through stories, you can give updates on every new product, discount offers, or other updates. And through threads, you can remind people to check on your updates, whenever anything comes out. 

If you have an online bookstore, creating engaging quote posts, and inspirational stories, and notifying your audience regarding the same in Threads will do the trick. 

What if you offer some kind of utility service? 

For example, if you run a cleaning service, you can create engaging videos on cleaning works that you have undertaken. During the lockdown, cleaning videos showed an interesting uptick on social media platforms, like TikTok and YouTube. Later in 2020, Instagram started recognizing the same trend, under hashtags, like #cleanfluencers, #cleantok, etc. The hashtag #cleantok had 98.5 billion views. 

This is because a section of people find such videos calming or de-stressing, which psychologists explain as the Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. So your cleaning videos, most likely, would have got tremendous engagement. 

Similarly, if you offer plumbing, electricians, or any other service, you can create engaging videos of the same and post those on Instagram to attract your audience. The right content plan will help you gather more followers, gain views, and take your brand visibility to the next level. 

2. Know when to post

Instagram, just like, any other social media, works best for brands when they know “when” to post along with “what” to post. According to experts, the best time to post content on the platform is 10 AM-2 PM on weekdays. Sometimes, the hours extend to 4 PM, especially on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

This is because most users tend to scroll social media while commuting to their workplaces or while resting in between a tight work schedule. They need Instagram for diversion, and you can leverage this habit to promote your brand. In other surveys, it has been revealed that Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are the best days for posting new content on Instagram. 

Create a content schedule accordingly, and you will be surprised at the response you generate. Experts also opine that you should refrain from posting on Instagram on Sundays. It is because this is the time people actually tend to enjoy their real (social-media-free) Lives. 

3. Chalk down your marketing goals 

Every brand has different expectations from its Instagram marketing campaign. While some are after visibility, some others may be wondering how to gain followers. Then there are brands that need more sales, and nothing else will satisfy them than those loaded shopping carts. In every case, you should identify your goals and jot those down.

Creating an Instagram advertising strategy that directly caters to your specific goals will increase your chances of fulfillment. 

For example, if you have an online fashion store, obviously, you will seek high website traffic. Creating reel videos and content that send users to your website will do the trick. 

If you offer kitchen cutlery, sharing stories with links to your website will work best. Take the example of the brand below – Crate and Barrel. See how carefully they have integrated links into their stories to take the viewers directly to where they want.

We suggest talking to an experienced Instagram marketing agency before trying anything. An expert can analyze your brand and suggest what Instagram marketing strategy will work best.

4. Pick the right marketing features on Instagram

As we have mentioned earlier, every brand needs some specific marketing gimmicks to create a lasting impression on their target audience. You should first understand what Instagram marketing feature will work best for your brand. 

Instagram Posts (3-4 times per week)

For a conventional business profile, you should post at least 3-5 times per week, preferably on weekdays. Showing off your brand consistently will increase its visibility and help gain more followers on Instagram over time. We recommend that you create a content calendar and stick to it. 

If you are wondering what kind of posts you should create, well, every brand will have its specific content guidelines. You can talk to a marketing expert from a reputable Instagram marketing agency for starters.

If you think that you have an idea, chalk down an action plan to execute it. Whatever content you choose to upload, make sure that it is consistent to your brand theme and message. Use design tools to create stunning graphics and go out there; and promote your brand viciously. 

Instagram Reels marketing (5-7 per week)

If your brand falls in one of these categories –

• Food & beverages
• Fashion
• Retail
• Health & beauty
• Entertainment
• Home & interiors
• Travel 
• Influencer
• Sports
• Utility services  

– You can earn massive followers and incredible engagement through Instagram reels promotion. 

According to Jessica Stanberry, an eminent internet personality (also an influencer) recommends posting at least 5 reels every week to get their brand at the top. In her blog, she describes how posting a reel every day made her brand shoot up and go through the roof ultimately. Right now, she flaunts 26.4K followers, with only 897 posts.

She said that even if all reel views do not convert to customers, they do help increase scroll views and grow your account. For a new brand, that’s enough. You can eventually reach your goals with consistency and regularity. 

Then there are other brands that use Instagram Reels wisely for business growth and visibility:

People’s Revolt

This digital marketing and PR brand uses viral sounds and catchy CTAs (Call-to-Action) in their reels to connect with their potential followers. As a B2B business, the company leverages its CTAs to engage more business owners. Their reels are also inherently simple with no fancy graphics or design features, making those comprehensive and engaging at the same time. 

Netflix

Of course, we all know what this brand is about. The Instagram handle of this global video-streaming platform leverages reels in the most charismatic way possible. Starting from witty, fun reels for engagement to product launches and other announcements (trailers) in the most glamorous way, they surpass all expectations.

Many people follow the brand just for their entertaining reels that also include updates of recent videos, promotional offers, and everything else. 

Everlane

A fashion brand set in the US, the company leverages reels to offer style guidance to its followers on Instagram. That way they add more value to each purchase. Customers are driven by their fashion advice through reels that help in purchasing decisions. 

Betty Crocker

You may also use reels to round up your existing Instagram content into a calendar of sorts. Betty Crocker is one such brand that leverages this idea quite effectively. It’s also a time-efficient approach, especially if you cannot get the time to shoot videos every day. Check out their Instagram handle to get a better idea. 

Liquid Death

One of the top brands that combine Instagram reels marketing with influencer marketing effectively is Liquid Death – a canned water brand. 

It has a network of influencers, who create reels that resonate with its brand message and share those. The digital marketing team then re-publishes those reels to reach out to more people in the process.  It’s a careful and smart technique that helps the brand to reach its target audience in two different niche markets. 

Once you know how to use the reel feature on your Instagram handle, you will find that your brand is growing exponentially. A whopping 2.35 billion people interact through reels every month on the platform. You can expect your brand to grow stupendously through the smart use of this feature. 

Instagram stories (The FoMo Effect)

500 million users are checking Instagram stories every day! 

Do you realize how big this is? 

Besides, 200 million users visit at least one business handle on the social media platform daily. About half of these people have ended up visiting a website after checking the brand’s stories on the platform. If you are not leveraging this opportunity to grow your business, you are missing out on A LOT. 

The 24-hour limit that Instagram puts on its stories gives the latter a FoMo effect. 

Now, what is FoMo in marketing? 

The FoMo (Fear of Missing out) effect works miraculously for Instagrammers. They know that if they do not watch the stories, they may miss certain essential updates of their favorite brands, like seasonal offers, new product launches, etc. by putting up stories daily, you will feed on this fear to get maximum engagement for your brand.

The social media platform now allows you to put up links on your stories, so you can directly lead the viewer to important landing pages on your website. Using music, fun graphics, GIFs, polls, and other interactive features, you can create more engagement for your brand. 

Now, you must already know how to create stories on Instagram. If you don’t, follow these steps:

Step 1: Go to your profile and click on the “+” icon at the top right corner. 

Step 2: You will get the option to publish posts, reels, stories, Live, etc. 

Step 3: Create an interactive and engaging image or video with the aspect ratio of 9:16 (vertical) to share on your story.

Step 4: Post graphics or GIFs using the effects (highlighted with the stars sign) on the story.

Step 5: Add some trending music by tapping on the music icon at the top. 

Step 6: If you want to add a link, tap on the sticker icon and choose the link symbol. Put the URL and type the CTA, Now put it in your story and resize it by pinching. 

Step 7: Now publish your story by tapping “Send”. 

There are several other stickers that you can use in your story. However, we recommend that you keep it clean and clutter-free. Just use the stickers that are relevant to your current story. You can create multiple ones on a day to deliver a complete experience. Again, make sure that you limit the number of stories to scroll through. 4-5 stories in a row are deemed best for maximum engagement. 

Check out some brands, whose stories are just worth it! 

Byte

There are brands that showcase products/services through Instagram stories, and there are brand that connect with customers on a deep, personal level. Byte falls in the second category. Besides sharing promotional stories, the brand also gives shout-outs to customers, who tag it in their stories. Some influencers have also been seen to use this trick to connect with their audience. 

Besides celebrating their customers, such interactive stories also give an idea of the impact the brand has on its followers, thus inviting more attention. 

Gainful

Sharing positive reviews on your Instagram stories is another effective way to create an impact on the viewers. Gainful uses this tactic to generate more awareness and leads in the process. It also uses the brand hashtag #TeamGainful to create a sense of belonging and community. By linking Instagram stories to specific sections on the official website, the brand also generates a high amount of traffic from the social media platform. 

Jones Soda

They create personalized stories to pique the interests of their customers and general followers. If you check their stories, you will find that they go beyond the conventional CTAs and product messages to engage more people in a fun manner. The stories are humorous, to say the least, engaging, and sometimes, inspirational as well. Generating a fresh breath of air every time it posts, people get attracted pretty easily and seldom miss a story. 

You may also combine your stories and reels superbly by posting your new reels on stories as a reminder to your followers. That way, they will hardly miss your reels and also check your stories for such updates regularly. 

There are, in fact, several creative ways to use Instagram stories in your Instagram marketing campaign. Brainstorm ideas and let your creative juices flow! If you need help, we are always here to offer some. 

Instagram Live (Directly reach your followers)

Be the face of your brand on Instagram. Trust us, nothing works best to offer authenticity and transparency to your customers. According to surveys, Instagram Live streaming offers 10x more engagement than regular posts. 

100 million people watch Instagram Live daily. Yes, 100 million! Among them, 80% accepted that they would watch a Live session rather than read a blog post. 

If you are new to this, it is understandable that you may feel somewhat camera shy to be present in front of a global audience. You can appoint someone from your company to be the face of the brand. But it isn’t wise to ignore the immense potential of Live sessions to grow your brand. 

How to make the best use of Instagram Live

The unedited, interactive Live sessions can be so much more engaging than your regular posts. In such sessions, you can share updates on your brand, create quizzes, or incorporate Q&A sessions to answer customer queries, almost like a real-time interview, only more impactful. It’s because the questions are asked by regular people, not journalists. 

So consider the following factors beforehand to reduce risks:

• Think of an objective

Although the Live sessions are unedited and primarily unscripted, you need to have something to give you a clue as to what you’ll be talking about. 

• Is it a product that you are about to launch? 
• Or it is a query-resolving session?
• Is it just some seasonal Live to meet and greet your customers?
• Or, is it going to be a celebration of achieving some goal?

In each case, you will need a well-developed guideline before you go public. It will prevent awkward silences and mishaps from ruining your Live. 

If you are interviewing or collaborating with other people on your Live, make sure that you connect with them earlier to discuss the content. Be as much ready as you can be, because one unexpected turn of events can spoil your brand image. 

• Check your internet connection 

It is one of the most crucial things that you need to take care of beforehand. Excessive buffering and disturbances in your Live sessions can cause people to cut off. Yes, people have less patience for such mishaps. Hence, a stable and secure internet connection is mandatory. Also, ask the other collaborators and influencers to check the same before they come to your Live. 

• Create an impactful setup

Aesthetics are important, especially if you are facing a global audience. Even if you have a small business, your followers will prefer to see you in a good, positive setting instead of a shabby, shadowy, cluttered, or cranky one. Choose a spot where the lighting is ideal, and your face is visible clearly on the camera. You can also add some extra lights to improve the setting. 

• Double-check the sound

Before you actually come Live, check the sound of your microphone and see if your words are audible enough. Sometimes, people face hearing issues while attending Live sessions. Further, you cannot control who will be attending your Live session, so make sure that the sound is ideal even for people with hearing issues. Use an external microphone if possible. If you are planning to incorporate echoes or other sound effects, check the same before using it in your Live session. 

• Promote the Live session

You will find hundreds of templates on the internet to create the perfect post for your Live session announcement. 

Put it up on your story and let your audience know what you’ll be talking about. It will help them free their schedule in advance to attend your session. They will also know what to expect, thus triggering their interests further. 

Are you wondering how to incorporate Live sessions into your Instagram marketing strategy? We have you covered. 

1. Connect with your influencers 

Introduce your followers to the influencers, who are marketing your brand and reviewing your products. It will help generate transparency and strengthen the bond between your brand and its followers. When people will know the faces that actually “USE” your products, they will be keener to buy those.

If it’s a well-known face, you can ask them to answer fan messages through Live, and meet and greet them warmly. You can also hold a funny, interactive session with your Instagram influencer marketing team to entertain the attendees. The key is to give them the most value for their time. If you follow this, your brand will get the highest engagement over time. 

2. Announce a product launch or an event

Do you have an upcoming product launch or company event? 

What better ways do you have than to promote the same on your Instagram Live? A few, to be honest! 

Host a Live to share all the minute details with your customers and random followers. Tell them how the new product will benefit them, or how the upcoming event will fulfill their needs. If you belong to the service industry and are hosting an event regarding the same, influence more people to attend it through the Live session.

Answer their queries and interact with them, thus making your Live add value to their time. 

3. Interview your employees

An Instagram Live session can help add more value to your brand by offering transparency to how your company functions. You can host a Live event to interview your employees regarding the work they do and how it benefits your customers. You can also take them around your company and show how all the work is done, visiting different sections and giving a transparent overview of your company. 

However, make sure that you prepare your employees in advance and take their permission before hosting such a virtual event. 

4. Create a series

You can also go the extra mile and create a Live series for your followers on the platform. Pick a topic and schedule a series of Live sessions to get your followers’ attention. You can precede this by collecting their opinions on what topics you should talk. You can do that by creating a poll and posting it on your stories for maximum engagement.

If you have a dedicated Instagram marketing team, you can even ask your followers to DM you regarding the topics that they want you to talk about. You can select a few of those DMs and post it on your stories, tagging the followers, who suggested the same. 

Instagram Live sessions are highly customizable. You can come up with several ideas to add value to your brand through this feature. Once you are in the game, you will realize how fast your brand grows! 

Instagram Threads – The latest addition to your marketing strategy

First introduced in mid-2023, Instagram Thread offers an amazing alternative to Twitter (or X) for marketing your brand. The application witnessed 100 million sign-ups within the first week of its launch, even surpassing the popularity of ChatGPT. 

Primarily a text-based application, Instagram Threads offer users to connect with their favorite brands on a personal level. You can use the several customization features to decide who you want to reply to or filter out. Also, users can get all the updates about your brand on Threads and post reactions, so that you can get a clear idea of each post’s performance. 

How Threads help improve your Instagram marketing strategy

• Share time-limited promotions and offers – You can share updates about flash sales or seasonal promotions on Threads to spur engagement. Do not forget to mention time limits to trigger the FoMo effect. 
• Use visuals for more appeal – Although a text-based app, Thread allows you to post visual content to attract more people. Visuals and graphics tend to put words in an engaging and simplistic manner, thus adding an edge to your branding efforts. 
• Create contests to track engagement – You can use Instagram Threads to identify your loyal followers and filter them from random ones. The best way to do it is by creating contests and posting them to Threads. By counting the number of reactions and responses, you can get a real-time idea about how your brand is performing on the platform. Use these insights to reshape and re-strategize your marketing campaigns. 
• Get more insights into your customers’ needs – Create polls and surveys on Threads to get a better idea of your customers’ requirements. The feedback you collect can help develop marketing campaigns that target those needs directly. Such efforts will be rewarded through more leads and engagement on social media. 
• Share exclusive materials – You can also increase engagement by sharing some exclusive content on your Threads. As your customers realize that they will not be able to see such content on your posts or stories, they will hardly miss a Thread update. 
• Post reminders – If there has been less engagement on your posts lately, you can use Threads to level up your social media marketing game. Share links of your latest posts and updates on Threads to prevent people from missing out on your content. A double reminder will work best to create better engagement. Also, you will be able to track the performance of your individual posts by counting the reactions and responses in Threads. 

Instagram Paid Advertising – Tips to get it right

Ad reels have the potential reach of more than 600 million people on Instagram. In 2024, the net ad revenue of Instagram was $39.7 billion in the US alone. By the end of 2024, it will reach $59.61 billion, according to experts. Marketers also opine that there is a 90% chance that using mixed campaigns (not limited to one type of ad) will generate more leads for your brand. 

How to leverage paid advertising on Instagram

Ads on Instagram are posts, stories, and reels that have the characteristic “Sponsored” mark as they appear in the user’s newsfeeds. They look similar to organic posts, except for that “sponsored” mark that distinguishes them from the former. A brand can make the best use of these paid advertisements to generate leads directly. Here’s how:

1. Create a definite objective for your ad – Make sure you have definite goals for each ad that you create. Decide if you want to just raise awareness, update your audience, give out vital information about your products/services, or sell anything. There should be a direct call-to-action in each ad to help the viewer take some action. 
2. Identify your target – Instagram offers some targeting features that you can use for your paid advertisements. You can target people based on demographics, geographical location, browsing behavior, and interests. Remarketing is an interesting feature that you can use to improve your targeting efforts. It involves targeting those users, who have visited your profile before but not taken any action. 
3. Decide the type of ad to create – You can choose from an extensive category, like images, videos, carousels, Collections, stories, reels, or shopping ads. Depending on your goals, and the types of products/services you offer, create an ad that caters to your specific marketing requirements. While image and carousel ads are suitable for product sellers, videos, reels and other types of ads are more apt for services and awareness-related campaigns. 
4. Choose the right call to action – Give some thought to your specific CTAs to spur more engagement in your ads. For example, if you are selling a product, “Buy Now” will be an apt one. However, if you are raising awareness on something, “Contact Us” can do the job right. Let’s say you offer some kind of service. “Get a quote” or “Apply Now” should be the best-fitting CTA message. 
5. Check on your competitors – See what your competitors are doing in their respective paid advertising campaigns on Instagram. While you may not like to follow their footsteps entirely, you can get some ideas to start yours. Analyze loopholes and see what they are missing out. Create an ad that completely fulfills your audience requirement criteria and surpasses the efforts of your competitors. 

A great way to start creating paid advertisements on Instagram is by boosting your existing posts. Here’s how:

Step 1: On your professional profile, you will see the option under every post. By tapping on it, you will be taken to the Instagram Ads page, where you can fill in details of your goals, select your target audience, set the budget and duration of the ad. 

Step 2: Once you are done, you can tap on “Next” and check a preview of your ad. If everything seems fine, you can tap on “Boost Post” to complete the action. The ad will run after it has been approved. 

Track the performance of your boosted post for a specific duration. That’s how you will get an idea to launch a fully-fledged ad campaign later. 

Instagram paid advertisements are cost-effective and promote instant action most of the time. If you can leverage Instagram ads along with organic social media marketing, there will be looking back. Besides creating more engagement, you will generate real-time leads for your business and even drive more sales.

Over to You

We hope that you have a comprehensive idea to revamp your Instagram marketing strategy to obtain maximum growth and visibility for your brand. Most brands do not need to use all the features of the social media platform for branding and marketing. If you choose even 2-3 features to grow your audience and build your brand on the platform, make sure you do it right.

Talk to an expert to get further insights into social media marketing on Instagram. The benefits of collaborating with a team will reduce the roadblocks that you may face in your initial attempts. However, if you have a small business and wish to market it individually, no worries! The above-mentioned hacks will be enough to cover your requirements, and queries and minimize your hassles.