Much like other major social media platforms, Instagram has become one of the primary digital marketing channels for businesses of all sizes. Indeed, this platform offers a wide variety of features that allow brands to carefully create a particular image and grow their audience steadily.
That being said, not everyone knows how to get the most out of Instagram, even if you have limited resources. You probably already know everything about writing captions and taking good photos, but there are still some tricks worth learning to become better at Instagram marketing. Hence, here are the top 20 methods to attract a new audience on Instagram.
#1 Host a giveaway or contest
Hosting an Instagram giveaway or contest has many advantages. It gives your account more exposure and helps you attract more attention to your brand. If you require participants to follow you, you can even increase your follower count (though some users will unfollow you afterward if they don’t find your account helpful in some other way).
The main goal of a giveaway or contest is to give you more visibility, but if you plan ahead, you could even achieve other goals too. For instance, you can ask the winners of your giveaway or contest to review your products if you give them as a prize. This could prompt other participants to check out your products too.
#2 Cross-promote your account elsewhere
One thing many marketers forget when working with Instagram is that you don’t necessarily have to look for an audience only on the platform itself. Instead, it can be quite useful to cross-promote your account elsewhere (e.g. your website, blog, other social media accounts).
By promoting your Instagram account on other platforms, you are likely reaching a different audience. Some of these people will decide to check out your Instagram and might eventually follow you there as well (e.g. a Twitter user could also decide to follow you on Instagram).
#3 Collaborate with brands and influencers
By far one of the most popular techniques currently used by brands is influencer marketing. But instead of simply looking for influencers to promote your brand and products, consider actually collaborating with other brands and influencers.
What this means in practice is that you both promote each other instead of only the influencer promoting you. Moreover, you could partner with other brands in your niche to create a unique product. Brands do this all the time (e.g. Supreme x Nike sneakers), so why not do it in the setting of Instagram?
#4 Utilize Instagram Reels
Though Instagram introduced Reels in 2020, the feature has already become quite popular among the platform’s users. That’s why utilizing it can be quite helpful for your overall Instagram marketing strategy.
Because the videos you can post through Instagram Reels have to be short, you will need to capture the attention of your audience instantly. Moreover, such videos have the potential to go viral which can give you even more exposure.
#5 Tag post locations
Hashtags are already commonly used to make content more discoverable. However, another valuable element you should include in your posts to give them more visibility is the location tag. By tagging your locations, your posts will appear in search results for that particular place.
Edward Jackson, an expert from the best essay services reviews site, says, “The best posts for location tagging are the ones with photos or videos of the said location. That being said, you can still include the location tag for illustrations as long as the tag is relevant (e.g. the location of your store for an illustration that is promoting an upcoming sale).”
#6 Ask users to tag you
In addition to the location tag, you can also tag people in photos and videos or mention them in the caption. Beyond that, it’s a good idea to ask users to tag you as well if they want to interact with your brand.
This technique is mostly used on Twitter where users tweet at a particular company to voice their concerns about a particular experience they had with the brand. In return, the brand account usually replies to sort out the situation. You can do the same thing on Instagram by encouraging customers to post their reviews of your products and tag you so you see them.
#7 Curate Instagram Stories highlights
Instagram Stories is one of the most widely used features on the platform thanks to its ease of use and the ability it gives users to keep a post up for a limited amount of time before it disappears. However, you might actually want to keep some of the Stories up longer.
This is why curating Instagram Stories highlights can be such a great technique to start using. For example, you can create a highlight with all the past product teasers you posted in your Stories. A potential follower checking out your profile will also check your Stories highlights and could get more interested in your brand as a result.
#8 Go live frequently
Going live is one of the best ways to engage with your audience in a meaningful way. While lives don’t always help you attract new followers, they do help you strengthen your bond with your current audience. And with more dedicated and loyal followers, you could expect these very users to tell other people about your brand pretty much becoming your advocates.
#9 Create an Instagram filter
At first glance, it might not seem like the best tactic to use as it sounds silly. However, creating an Instagram filter can help you reach users that you might not have been able to reach otherwise.
When you create an AR filter for Instagram, users trying it will see the name of your accounts as the creator of the filter. If they really enjoy the filter, they will be more likely to check out your profile and see what else you have to offer.
#10 Start your own IGTV series
While Instagram Reels is the perfect feature for short videos, IGTV is your chance to shine in longer formats. In fact, you can even go as far as to start your own IGTV series that will function just like a YouTube channel would.
Kiernan Jones, an expert who works with essay editing service reviews sites, explains, “IGTV lets you utilize the true power of video marketing in the setting of Instagram. You can make videos on any kinds of topics but having a series will help you build a particular image and grow a loyal audience that tunes in specifically because they like your show.”
#11 Pin the best comments
Another feature introduced in 2020 is the ability to pin comments. Though the feature might not sound like much, it’s actually a good way to direct your audience’s attention during discussions under your posts. If someone mentions a particular point you like, you can pin their comment which will encourage more people to chime in.
Likewise, you can pin your own comments under your posts too. For example, you can have an informative text in your caption and then post two comments with different questions about the topic that you would like your audience to answer. Pin the comments and let people share their opinion in replies to these comments.
#12 Improve your hashtag strategy
Hashtags are one of the key elements of any social media platform which is why most brands are aware of them and know how to use them well. However, it’s still a good idea to take a look at your hashtag strategy once again and see what can be improved.
The best way to use hashtags is by balancing different types of them throughout your content. Use generic, industry-specific, and branded hashtags for the best results. For your giveaways and events, you can create separate hashtags as well.
#13 Interact with other accounts
It goes without saying that you should interact with your followers in some way if you want to see engagement. But if you want to improve brand visibility, you might want to start interacting with other accounts in their own spaces.
In other words, don’t just respond to comments under your own posts–seek out accounts in your niche where you can comment under posts and start conversations. You can also reply to Stories or share their posts in your Stories. Do this both with regular users and with brands in your niche for friendly shoutouts or banter.
#14 Consider Instagram’s e-commerce features
You might have heard of social commerce before which is pretty much e-commerce done through social media platforms. With the features Instagram currently offers (called Instagram Shopping), social commerce is quite easy to set up and execute.
There’s a whole set of e-commerce features you can use on Instagram, so it’s not possible to cover everything here. Nevertheless, Instagram Shopping is definitely an interesting topic to look into for businesses that want to try expanding to unusual e-commerce platforms.
#15 Run Instagram ad campaigns
Instead of only relying on your content, you can also run Instagram ad campaigns (that can also be extended to other platforms like Facebook). The best thing about these campaigns is that they can be tailored specifically to the audience you want to reach thanks to the data Instagram has of its users.
For example, when someone wants to find the essay writer on the writing platform, the search will stay in their records. If you offer such services and run an ad campaign, you can set everything up in a way that will target that user who made the search.
#16 Analyze Instagram Insights
Speaking of data, it’s important to analyze the information you get from Instagram Insights to improve your overall Instagram marketing strategy. This feature is available for business accounts, so if you haven’t transitioned to a business account yet, this is the time. With the help of Insights, you can better understand what your audience wants and provide it with relevant content.
#17 Focus on viral content
As mentioned earlier, Instagram Reels videos have the potential to go viral which is why it’s such a good idea to try them. However, you should actually consider focusing on viral content in every kind of form.
For instance, some brands don’t shy away from making and posting their own memes. Memes have the potential to go viral, but they are also a great way to be more relatable to your audience and humanize your brand.
#18 Encourage user-generated content
UGC or user-generated content is also something you should keep in mind as it can help you get more social proof. The more positive reviews you have of your products, the more your products will seem appealing.
Moreover, UGC helps you get more visibility. When one of your customers makes a post about your product, they are already telling about your brand to their entire audience, even if those people aren’t following your account and don’t know about your brand.
#19 Add hashtags to your bio
Optimizing your bio is important and every brand knows that. But did you know that you can also add hashtags, tags, and keywords to your bio to make it more appealing and help your account show up in different search results?
Hashtags in your bio will work just like they do in posts. By tagging someone in your bio, you let that account know that you mentioned them. And keywords help your account be more identifiable when someone makes a search where you could potentially show up.
#20 Continue posting consistently
Last but not least, it’s crucial that you continue posting consistently on Instagram. If you don’t post consistently, your account won’t be seeing any steady growth and even your current audience might get frustrated and start leaving.
At the same time, keep in mind the times when you post. Set up a posting schedule based on when your audience is the most active on Instagram and therefore the most likely to see your content and respond to it. If you also use other social media platforms, it’s a good idea to synchronize or at least align your posting times there and on Instagram.
Final words
At the end of the day, your success with Instagram depends on very many factors some of which you can control. By using the tactics from this article, you will be able to improve your Instagram marketing strategy and start reaching more users on the platform that will eventually become your customers.
