Twenty-five years ago, marketers would say success is all about having a strong presence on television and radio. In 2024, the channel of choice has shifted to social media — specifically, Instagram.
The tricky part about social media is that it’s constantly evolving. Instagram, for example, has gone from a predominately photo-sharing app to a platform where thousands of Instagram Reels — videos that are 90 seconds or less and can be paired with different types of audio — are uploaded every day.
The good news is we have a guide for developing a current Instagram marketing strategy that’ll reel in new followers and boost your brand’s visibility. Let’s dive in.
Picture This: An Effective Content Strategy for Instagram
To harness the full potential of Instagram content creation, a well-defined strategy is key. We’ve broken down our top method of creating an effective Instagram content strategy into nine essential steps.
Step 1. Identify Your Audience
Like all marketing strategies, the foundation of successful Instagram content is identifying and understanding your target audience. Who is your ideal Instagram follower? Try to identify key details about this target audience, such as their:
- Age range.
- Interests and hobbies.
- Geographic location.
- Occupation.
- Income.
- Pain points.
- Likes and dislikes.
Once you’ve built well-defined audience personas, you can create personalized social media content that’s tailored to these individuals and guaranteed to yield high Instagram engagement.
Step 2. Define Your Social Strategy
What do you want your Instagram content to accomplish? Are you looking to engage with audiences and boost brand awareness, or do you envision using Instagram videos to drive sales?
Take the time to clearly define your objectives, and ensure they align with your overarching business goals. Determine what you need to achieve from Instagram, and then develop content that helps you reach these goals.
Step 3. Understand How Instagram’s Algorithm Works
Once upon a time, Instagram displayed content in chronological order and only from people you followed. Social media platforms have since altered their original algorithms, with Instagram saying goodbye to chronological posts and hello to content based on relevancy and engagement.
Marketers must understand how Instagram’s algorithm works so they can implement a social media strategy that ensures their content gets seen by the right users. Instagram’s algorithm typically favors posts that encourage engagement, so it’s a good idea to create interactive or engaging content that’s likely to be saved or commented on. Consistency is also critical, as the algorithm prioritizes accounts that post regularly.
Step 4. Develop an Effective Social Media Content Calendar
Using an Instagram content calendar, you can plan posts ahead of time. Plus, organizing your Instagram posts in calendar format can help ensure your content aligns with events like national holidays and company milestones — such as product launches or promotions that enhance your e-commerce content marketing strategy.
Step 5. Optimize Your Instagram Profile
Your Instagram profile is an opportunity to strike a strong impression with users, so it needs to count.
First things first, your profile picture should be clear and visible — a headshot or business logo works well. Next is your Instagram bio — a small area with limited characters where you can describe your brand. Beneath the bio, you can add links. This is a great opportunity to send Instagram users to your blog, website or Amazon storefront. Finally, the Highlights section allows you to pull content from past Instagram Stories and feature them on your page. If you choose to create Highlights, try to group them into categories so users can easily view the ones that are most interesting to them.
Teva, Expedia and Mindbodygreen are all great examples of brands with excellent Instagram profiles.
Step 6. Start Creating
The primary focus should be to produce aesthetic, high-quality content that aligns with your brand and resonates with your target audience. Whenever possible, be sure to use colors and imagery that are consistent with your brand.
Step 7. Experiment With Different Content Styles
There’s a lot you can do with social media content, so don’t be afraid to unlock your creative side on Instagram.
The platform offers a variety of content forms, so you can experiment with different types to see which ones yield the best results. For example, you can create an Instagram Reel using voiceover, such as this example from Puma:
Or you can test how Instagram Stories — photos or videos that disappear after 24 hours but include interactive features like polls and stickers — perform with your audience. Outback Steakhouse does this well by providing fun questions that users can vote on.
If you’re feeling inspired, you can also try Instagram Live, which allows users to livestream while users can join, ask questions or leave comments in real time.
Step 8. Engage, Engage, Engage
Instagram prides itself on being a platform where users are continuously engaging with one another. If you want Instagram’s algorithm to prioritize your content, you must engage with your audience. This means responding to all comments, direct messages and mentions in a timely fashion.
It’s a good idea to proactively engage with other accounts, too. This continuous engagement signals to Instagram’s algorithm that you’re actively using the platform, which can result in higher reach and better visibility for your brand.
Step 9. Boost Top-Performing Content to Increase Exposure
If you have a few Instagram marketing dollars to spend, it never hurts to experiment by boosting posts and seeing if you can connect with a larger audience. When boosting Instagram posts, it’s a good idea to start with a small budget and analyze the results. If you’re seeing an increase in engagement, website traffic or followers, it may be worth integrating boosted posts into your normal Instagram content strategy.
How To Measure Results on Instagram
Once you’ve begun executing your Instagram strategy, it’s important to track results and analyze metrics to ensure you’re meeting your social media marketing goals. A few key Instagram analytics that can help to assess your Instagram performance include:
Reach Growth Rate
Reach Growth Rate measures how many unique users have seen your content over a specified period, and it’s a good metric for evaluating how many people are being exposed to your content on Instagram. An increasing Reach Growth Rate indicates that your posts are resonating well with your audience, while a decreasing rate means your content might be missing the mark.
Follower Growth Rate
Follower Growth Rate tracks the speed at which your Instagram followers are increasing. To check your Follower Growth Rate, you’ll need to first make note of the number of followers at the beginning of a specified period, such as the start of the month. At the end of the time period, divide the new number of followers by the original number, and voilà — your Follower Growth Rate.
Engagement
Tracking engagement on Instagram can help you understand how actively your audience interacts with your content. Your Engagement Rate is calculated by dividing the number of comments, likes and saves a post receives by your total number of followers. The higher your Engagement Rate, the better.
Want to go a step further? Measure Engagement on Reach, which shows engagement from users who may not follow your page. To calculate this metric, divide the number of likes, comments and saves an Instagram post receives by your overall reach.
Website Traffic
If you have a website or online store listed on your Insta, you’ll want to track the number of users who click that link. Using a source like Google Analytics, you can view different referral sources for your website traffic and see which posts or stories are driving the most clicks.
Cost Per Click
If you’re running paid Instagram ads, Cost Per Click (CPC) tells you how much you’re paying for each click. To calculate CPC, divide the total amount spent on the ad by the number of clicks it generates. When it comes to CPC, the lower the better.
Conversions and Sales Generated
To better understand how your Instagram efforts are impacting sales, you’ll want to track how many conversions or sales can be attributed to your Instagram activities. If this number is low, then you may want to consider tweaking your social media content strategy — whether that’s changing the type of content you post or investing more in paid Instagram ads and boosted posts. If this number is high, then keep it up — your hard work is paying off.
Advantages of Using Instagram for Your Marketing
There are a few reasons why so many brands across the globe are investing time, resources and money in Instagram content. Some of the social media platform’s advantages include:
- Increased brand exposure: Instagram has over 2 billion active monthly users. Thus, brands that market themselves well can increase brand visibility and connect with new audiences.
- Targeted advertising: If you want to hone in on a specific type of consumer, Instagram’s advanced targeting capabilities allow you to effectively do this.
- Enhanced brand recognition: The more your post, the more familiar your audience will become with your brand — especially if you integrate consistent branding into your content.
Are you ready to start developing an Instagram content strategy that will take your brand to the next level?
If you’re looking for more guidance on developing your next great Instagram strategy, Brafton’s Instagram marketing services may be just what you need.
