7 Instagram Marketing Tips That Get Results

Since Instagram started, it has become the ultimate platform for sharing photos. Almost everyone is looking like a movie star these days because of it.

There is over 800 million monthly active users on the platform.

Creating the right type of content to stay relevant to followers while also bringing in new ones is going to be the core of building your loyal following.

It can be very hard to know what type of Instagram posts work best for increasing your audience, engagement and traffic.

So here are the seven Instagram marketing tips to get results. These tips will allow you to get the growth from the platform you deserve.

This first step might seem obvious but you wouldn't believe how many people I speak too that have never switched to a Instagram business profile.

1. Switch to a Business Profile Right Away

If you don't even have an Instagram business profile how are you going to measure your growth?

Here is how you are going to switch your profile over to a business:

The benefits to switching to an Instagram business profile:

• Insights: you get access to powerful stats about your posts, the engagement, who your audience demographic is, best time to post, etc.
• Sponsored Ads: publish Instagram ads with ease and you don't have to use the Facebook business manager to do so.
• Industry Specific: you get to choose a category for you or your business. Like entrepreneur, restaurant, retail store, etc.
• Contact Button: people can click on a contact button to reach out to you through email, direct message, call, get directions or visit your website.

Once you get your business profile switched over there are many advantages that come with it, you need to start using the analytic tool (insights) to track various metrics and understand your audience.

This will allow you to have a better understanding of how to operate your business page and what content to post that works best.

2. Instagram Tool 'Insights'

Business profiles on Instagram are not too different from how Facebook business profiles store information. They each have analytical tools that you have access too.

That should be of no surprise since Instagram is owned by Facebook.

After all Facebook is a giant and loves data so why not empower the Instagram users with the tools to improve their business profiles too.

Through Instagram Insights, you can see:

• Impressions, reach, profile visits, website clicks (7-day view)
• Engagement data
• Audience demographics
• Active times to post

There is so much information you can start to learn from that can improve your following, engagement and drive more actions.

Instagram Insights is definitely worth checking out, if you want to understand how your audience is interacting with your content.

3. Sponsored Advertisements

With Instagram sponsored ads you can control how much you spend on Instagram by setting a specific ad budget.

There are many different types of sponsored ads that you could potentially run.

This gives brands the ability to target their audience in a whole new way. Since sponsored ads used to be only shown to your followers.

Now, brands can promote their photos or videos to anyone that fits their target audience to increase followers, engagement and sales even more.

You can turn existing posts into sponsored ads, so use the audience insights tool from earlier to see which of your posts perform the best and you can then promote those posts.

You can push the high-performing posts out later as well. That way you have more time to evaluate to see which post is the top performer.

There are many ad types you can run and multiple ads can be going simultaneously for even more engagement.

Here are the different Instagram ad types:

• Photo
• Video
• Carousel/Dynamic Ads
• Stories
• Stories Canvas

If you still are unsure on where to start with running Instagram ads then Chappell Capital's instagram management service is a perfect way to increase your results.

4. Add Instagram Stories to your Profile.

If you want optimal results from your Instagram profile that can generate traffic even without you having to make posts. Then you need to start adding profile hashtags, profile usernames, locations and links.

This will make your profile optimized to start generating more profile views. It also helps Instagram show your profile to more people who are also interested in your hashtags.

This is a relatively new feature of Instagram's that you need to start using. I can assure you it will make all the difference. Also make sure that you choose relevant hashtags to your brand.

If you include a username make sure it's tied into your business or other page you might manage.

Never fill up your profile with too many hashtags and usernames either because that will only lower your profile views.

5. Start Partnering with Influencers

If you want to reach a massive amount of potential customers on Instagram, then one of the fastest way to do so is through influencers who have already built a huge following.

Everyday more people are starting to buy products and services from what they see on their social media feeds. A large portion of those sales come from influencer posts.

If you find the right influencer that matches your target audience and you can get them to make a social media post for you. Then you will probably see a lift in sales, followers, and engagement.

The first thing you need to do is try to find a few influencers that have an audience that is relevant to the product or service you offer.

Here’s an example of how Airbnb used the influencer Blankitinerary to promote their brand on her Instagram page.

This post generated thousands of likes and got a great deal of engagement.

Airbnb has gotten a lot of their success and customers from social media. They have been using influencer marketing and user-generated content to fuel their growth.

If you look past just the short-term gains and direct sales that you can make from influencer marketing, you will understand there are many long-term-benefits to this as well.

Partnering with influencers build long-lasting relationships, long term brand awareness, increase your brands trust, and visibility.

Now influencers typically won't post for free, they can be costly.

But... you can drive similar results another way by using your customers photos.

6. Get Photos from your Current Customers

Finding posts that have you brand in them can be quite easy. The first thing you can do is create a brand hashtag so users can use that hashtag to get your attention. You can also go check your tagged photos from your Instagram profile

You would be surprised of how many posts you could use that have photos of your products and services in them from people who have tagged you or posted about you.

You can get your followers to create content for you and post about your brand.

Some of the people might not be influencers but it definitely will help increase your brands value and traffic to your page.

People like user-generated content (UGC) because they can trust that people actually use your product or service.

If you are still wondering of some ways you can get user-generated content then visit this article.

Your going to want to tag the person who made a post about your brand because they get new followers and it also encourages your current followers to post UGC as well because they want to be featured on your profile. This way it becomes a winning situation for both sides.

GoPro's entire marketing strategy has been to use UGC.

If you visit their page, you will see that almost every post is from a customer. They run competitions to get people to post their photos of them using a product.

If you try something similar for your brand you will start to understand the power of how effective UGC can be.

Make sure the photos you repost are quality and fit your brand.

When you’re running a business, you have to be sure that everything you post is in line with your brand’s message, audience and public image on Instagram as well as other social media platforms.

It also helps to come up with some kind of reward system that will encourage people to post about your brand on Instagram. Run a giveaway, give a free feature on stories, or you could even add their photo to your website.

Your followers will feel like they are apart of the brand and this will increase engagement and traffic to your page for sure.

7. Connect with the Top 9 in your Industry

For whatever industry you may be in there is always going to be a hashtag that you can go see what the top 9 performing posts look like.

For example: if you're a real estate agent you might use the hashtag #beautifulhome so what you do is go look at the those 9 top photos and see if they all have something in common and you can start posting similar photos.

You then want to go on every photo that is in the top 9 and comment something that you like about the post.

Now I know what your thinking...

Why would you increase the engagement for other people when that is what you're looking to do for your own Instagram page.

Because what happens is those pages will take notice of your comment and possibly do the same on your post or they might follow you.

Now the benefit of this is when these top performing pages engage with your page by following or commenting, you can get a major increase in traffic because you have people interacting with your page that already have been marked as an engaging page.

Conclusion

Instagram has been growing in the social media world. It’s the go-to place for image sharing and with the platform having over 800 million active users its hard to stay away from it.

Your going to need to be actively involved with your Instagram page and interact with other users to grow your page.

If you need to do one thing to make a difference in your page, switch your profile to a business page and add those hashtags to your description.

Post more lifestyle posts and find some influencers to post for you. Also scan your tagged images to see if you have some user-generated content you can us.

Run some sponsored ads to supplement the short-term while you build up your brands image and value over the long-term.

Be sure to leverage the power of user-generated content by reposting images that your customers share. You can run giveaways to grow your page.

Want to see 10 more Instagram tips that you can use to lift sales, leads and grow your social media? Then click here to see 10 more.