In an age of social media, Instagram marketing can be a powerful tool to boost your brand. It offers the perfect opportunity to promote products, enhance your brand visibility and reach a broader audience.

In fact, Instagram has over one billion monthly active user accounts.

Perhaps the best selling point is that it’s free for you and free for your audience, which means anyone can use it.

With a range of features, there is no one way to use Instagram to market your business. You might use some, you might use all. But there’s a few key things you need to do as you get started. Then get creative!

Delve into the world of Instagram marketing and find out how to use it to grow your business in the easiest, most efficient way.

Getting started with Instagram marketing

For Instagram to become your marketing weapon, you need to have a few things already figured out before you start making and posting content. It is best to figure these out beforehand so you know what to plan your marketing strategy around.

Know your target audience

At the heart of any successful marketing strategy is knowing your target audience. Understand demographics, interests and preferences. That way you can tailor your content to them and help them feel connected to your brand.

Define your marketing goals

Have a clear vision of what you want to achieve. Aiming to boost sales? Increase brand awareness? Drive traffic to your website? Engage with your community? No matter the goal, understanding your intentions are key. Clear goals will guide your content and strategy.

Use Instagram features to help you

Once you have your goals and audience down, you can make sure you understand all Instagram has to offer and know how it can help you. Instagram has a variety of features that you can utilise to your advantage and benefit your business as much as possible.

1. Create a business account

Starting off strong with a simple one. With a business account you will gain access to analytics and additional features designed specifically for businesses. If you have one, connect your Instagram account to your Facebook Page.

Here’s how to do it:

• Go to your profile and tap the three lines in the top right corner
• Tap Settings
• Tap Account
• Tap Switch to Business Account, then Continue
• Select the category for business, then Done
• Tap Business and follow the prompts

2. Analytics and insights

Regularly analyse your Instagram Insights to gain valuable data about your audiences, post performance and overall engagement. From this you can create yourself a social media report to help you evaluate your marketing strategy. Find out how to create a social media report and then you can use that information to tailor your future content, to make sure those goals are reached.

3. Build a compelling profile

Use your Instagram page to help you stand out against the competition. Your profile should represent your brand, its identity and values. Have a recognisable profile picture – a logo and a memorable username are great ways to help people see and remember you.

Have an engaging but succinct bio that explains what your business does. Make sure to include your contact information and a link to your website or a specific landing page. Let the people find you!

Creating content

Then, the creative part comes in! There are multiple ways to create content on Instagram: stories, posts, reels and now Instagram Threads. With so many options it can be a bit hard to navigate so here’s a few key things for getting started with your marketing plans.

• Consistent posting schedule

It’s always helpful to stick to a consistent posting schedule to help keep audiences engaged and informed. Striking the balance between posting too much and posting too little can be difficult. You want to find the optimal posting schedule that means you aren’t posting so infrequently that audiences forget about you nor do you want to be creating meaningless filler content. Look at how often to post on social media and decide what would be the best schedule for your marketing goals and business.

Keep a consistent visual identity too. Having a cohesive identity can help with brand recognition and make your profile appealing to visit (and stay visiting).

• Stories

Stories offer a variety of interactive features like polls, questions and quizzes that your audience can engage with. They also provide the opportunity to post other content, such as behind the scenes or limited time offers. Ask for their opinions, preferences, or feedback on various aspects of your brand or upcoming projects. Use story highlights to keep those important things visible long term.

If you’re posting videos, remember to keep them short. Instagram users are predominantly mobile users; they are not going to stick around for 10 minutes.

• Hashtags

Hashtags are a great tool to help you reach a larger audience. Utilise relevant and trending hashtags to push your content further. But, strike the balance! Make sure you don’t overload your content with hashtags; keep them focussed and meaningful. Including popular and niche hashtags can help increase discoverability.

• Engage with your audience

Interact with your audience regularly and in a timely manner. Respond to comments, messages and mentions. Interacting helps to grow a sense of loyalty and shows you care about them.

A quick bonus: paid advertising

Don’t be put off by the word ‘paid’ – sometimes a little investment can be worth the bigger return. Although by no means necessary, leveraging Instagram’s advert platform can help you reach your target audience with precision.

Create visually appealing ads that align with your brand’s identity. Create something your audience would want to watch!

You can start boosting in just five steps and take control of your ads success.

And you’re off…

This by no means exceeds all the tools on offer when it comes to Instagram marketing, but it’s a great way to get started. Remember to be creative and original to stand out from the crowd of businesses already using Instagram. But play and experiment, figure out what works for you and your brand!