11 Instagram Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses

Instagram is one of the most important social media platforms for small businesses. With over 1 billion monthly active users, Instagram has become a major platform for brands to reach customers, build brand awareness and drive sales. But it can be difficult to know where to start when creating an Instagram marketing strategy for your business. So in this post, we'll show you how to create an effective Instagram marketing strategy that will help grow your business by driving more leads and increasing sales.

1. Define your goals.

Before you get started, it's important to define your goals. It might sound obvious, but many people don't set goals at all before beginning an Instagram campaign. They simply start posting and hope for the best—which can lead to a lot of wasted time, effort and money.

Setting goals is also important because it helps you determine which strategy you should try first (or if one will work at all). For example, if your goal is to increase brand awareness and engagement rates, then going after influencers may not be the way to go (unless they already have tens of thousands of followers). Likewise, trying to create a celebrity endorsement deal with someone who has millions of followers isn't likely going to happen either—though that doesn't mean there aren't other ways for them to help promote your product or service! As long as their audience aligns with yours in terms of demographics and interests, they could still be an excellent fit even if they're not famous enough on their own merit alone.

2. Perform an Instagram audit.

To create a successful Instagram marketing strategy, you need to perform an Instagram audit. This step will help you determine your strengths, weaknesses, and goals so that you can make the right decisions based on the information gathered.

The first thing to do is to know your audience. This means understanding who they are and what they want from their experience on Instagram—what do they like? What do they dislike? What kinds of content appeals to them the most? There are many things to consider here: age group, gender ratio, education level or profession (if applicable), and location (are they local customers or potential tourists?). Understanding who your target audience is will help you align your efforts accordingly and will help you develop a better strategy that would appeal to their needs. 

The second thing is knowing your competitors' strengths by doing some research about them; this will help in developing strategies for gaining more followers than them over time. You'll also want to look into their weaknesses so that you can avoid making mistakes like theirs!

Once these steps have been taken care of, it's time for planning out how much money can be allocated toward advertising campaigns before making any commitments leading up to those campaigns getting started--it's important not only because profits need funds but also because having too little money could mean failing before even getting started!

3. Learn from your competitors.

• Compare your content to that of your competitors.
• Analyze their posts and figure out what’s working for them and what isn’t.
• Look at the type of content they post, how frequently they post, and who interacts with them most often.

Try to stay away from sharing similar content if at all possible. You want to stand out from the crowd, so it’s important that you post content that is unique and interesting enough for others to take notice. If you are able to share something new each time, people will be more likely to follow you instead of just following other users who already have a large audience.

4. Understand the Instagram algorithm.

The Instagram algorithm is different from other social media platforms. Unlike Facebook, which uses an algorithm to display posts in a user's News Feed based on what the company thinks you'll be interested in, Instagram doesn't show you every post by every person you follow. Instead, it shows you posts that it believes will engage and interest you based on your previous interactions with the platform. This means that if you aren't engaging with content regularly or aren't interacting with many people on Instagram, your content won't be shown to as many of your followers as possible.

This is why understanding how the algorithm works can help small businesses succeed on this platform: it allows them to make strategic choices about how they use their time and resources when interacting with customers through this channel.

5. Post regularly.

If you don’t post regularly, your followers will forget about you and your account will be less effective. Posting too often can also annoy people though, so it’s important to strike the right balance between posting too much content and not posting enough. Depending on your audience, anywhere from once a day to once a week could be the best frequency for you. Whatever schedule works for you, try to stick with it so that people know when they can expect new content from you—and don’t worry about being repetitive! Your photos may look different depending on the season or time of day (for example) but the same principles still apply across all platforms: use beautiful photos that are relevant to each post’s theme; include hashtags relevant both within Instagram itself and elsewhere online; include links back outside of Instagram when appropriate.

6. Make your content engaging and original.

Your Instagram feed should include a variety of different types of content: beautiful photos, behind-the-scenes snaps, videos, etc. Mix it up so that people don’t get bored looking at the same thing over and over again. Make sure to edit your videos and photos well, and make sure they’re relevant to your brand. Make sure they’re high quality, and that they can be easily consumed.

Use your Instagram feed as a way to advertise your products or services. If you have something new to offer, share it on Instagram! You don’t need to be overly promotional; instead, let the quality of your product speak for itself. 

7. Use Instagram Stories.

Instagram Stories are a great way to engage with your customers and show them behind-the-scenes content.

Unlike regular posts, Instagram Stories disappear after 24 hours. While this is great for spontaneity, it’s also important not to forget about the impact that regular posts can have on your business.

Instagram Stories are a great way to share behind-the-scenes content related to your brand - like images of products being made or behind the scenes at an event that you're attending. This type of content helps give followers a more personal look into what goes on at your company and may even lead them down various paths which could result in increased sales.

Instagram Stories are also an excellent tool for sharing fun personality traits about yourself or key staff members within your organization such as their hobbies or interests outside work hours (like playing guitar).

Don't forget to add music to your stories. This can help make the content more engaging and entertaining for viewers. It's also a great way to showcase different styles of music at different events or venues that are related to your brand.

8. Run a contest or giveaway.

One of the most effective ways to grow your following is by running a contest or giveaway.

• Make it fun and easy to enter. If your contest has a complicated entry process, people won't bother participating. It's important that you make it as simple as possible for people in order for them to enter your giveaway.
• Make sure it's relevant to your brand and industry. You want to make sure you're giving away something that's genuinely interesting and useful for your followers—it should be obvious why they'd want this item from you specifically, not just any product from any brand in general.
• Promote on all platforms where you have an audience: social media, website/blog, email marketing campaigns, and so on.

9. Use hashtags.

You can use hashtags to help you reach a wider audience and get more likes, comments, and followers.

It's hard to find the right words when you're getting started with Instagram marketing. So, using hashtags will help your posts gain traction by making them searchable. The more people who see your posts, the better chance you'll have of gaining followers and engagement.

10. Use Instagram Live.

With Instagram Live, you can engage with your audience and share behind-the-scenes content. You can also use Instagram live to answer questions, share exclusive content, and announce new products.

Before going live on Instagram, test your webcam and audio first. Also, make sure that you have a backup plan in case something goes wrong during the broadcast.

Instagram Live provides you with an opportunity to engage your audience in real-time. You can use it to ask questions, answer questions, or give exclusive behind-the-scenes content that's not available anywhere else on social media.

11. Create a content calendar.

To be successful, you need a content calendar that's easy to use and keeps your social media content organized.

Hootsuite is an excellent tool for creating a content calendar and posting on Instagram. The free version gives you access to Hootsuite's basic features, including its scheduling tools.

In addition: Be consistent! Posting often but only sporadically won't build up any kind of following because people will never see anything new from you unless they're specifically looking through their feed every day (and who does that?). When using a scheduling tool make sure your posts go out at least twice per day--ideally three times per day--so there will always be something fresh appearing in someone's feed without needing them beforehand knowing exactly when it might appear (or worse yet having missed something important by not being aware of when posts were made).

Conclusion

We hope these 11 Instagram marketing strategies have been helpful and that you're excited to get started on your own strategy!

Using Instagram can help you grow your business and connect with your customers. It's also a great way to get feedback from them, which helps you create products that will be more successful in the marketplace.