Instagram is a very popular content platform right now for marketing. Instagram is home to exciting photos shared by millions of creators, while Facebook has recycled and turned into a recurring meme dump. And Twitter is full of spambots retweeting everything.
This is indeed a great thing for Instagram. But with so many people using the platform, it becomes very difficult for new Instagram users to stand out from the depths of the seemingly endless sea of content. However, there are of course a few ways to attract attention among so many users.
Now we’re going to give you 15 very effective Instagram marketing secret strategies. Whether or not you share these secrets with others is up to you. With these Instagram marketing strategies, you’ll be sharing great content, building an engaged audience, and maybe even making a few sales.
Here are 15 strategies you must know and apply to use Instagram most effectively.
1- Plan your content ahead of time
One of the most important factors in marketing on Instagram is frequent and consistent content planning. Many social media marketers already know that it’s a good tactic to collect lots of photos ready to share. But these marketers don’t realize that there are strategies that make content planning a lot easier.
It is possible to create a content calendar for your Instagram marketing efforts by using applications such as Later or Buffer. The biggest advantage of using such services is that you plan the content you will share ahead of time. Hashtags and captions also apply to these plans. In other words, thanks to such programs, the time you spend thinking “I wonder what I should share on Instagram today” is reduced. This way, you have more time to interact with your followers, and as a result, your social media presence is built on solid foundations.
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2- Learn to use hashtags effectively
When it comes to social media, especially on the Instagram platform, hashtags are what make the world go round. Choosing the right hashtags will make your content successful, while using the wrong hashtag can defeat your content. Hashtags have a great impact on the interaction rates of the shared content. And decide whether your posts will reach your target audience.
There are a number of different strategies for using hashtags. But how the perfect mix of hashtags should be is still being debated. Among the strategies you can apply, the most ideal are hashtags that are local and directly related to the content you share.
Although the use of hashtags such as “#love” or “#friends” has the capacity to get you many likes, these likes are generally meaningless. They come from bots and therefore do not guarantee you the results you want for your business. Instead, do your research and make a list of hashtags used by local businesses and companies serving your industry. Doing this research ensures that you always reach the right audience for your target audience.
3- Use Instagram’s draft function to have ready-made content to share in the future
If you are still undecided about investing money or time in a content planning app, fear not because there are solutions for you too. One of the little-known functions of Instagram is sketches. When you add a photo to Instagram, write a caption and tag the people in the photo. But do not publish this photo you prepared yet. Instead, you can choose to save the content you have prepared as a draft. As a result of this process, the photos you have edited are saved as drafts. So you can find these photos you saved as drafts and quickly publish them instead of thinking about what content you will share on Instagram in the future.
Although saving your posts as a draft is not as effective as content planning applications, it is a very useful tactic in terms of having content at hand. If your Instagram strategy is not planned and programmed, but something that develops when it blows your mind at an unprepared moment. It will be very advantageous for you to use drafts.
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4- Use top quality photo editing apps
To be honest, using photo editing apps is no secret. VSCO, Enlight and even more. You’ve heard it all before, haven’t you? Or haven’t you heard?
If you want to be serious about Instagram, you will have the opportunity to try many different applications. Take care to learn about these applications so that you do not lag behind emerging Instagram trends or other Instagram users.
These two photo editing apps should be among the must-haves:
Snapseed: Although it looks very similar to other editing apps, Snapseed, a Google product, is the most powerful option. It has editing tools for advanced users, including an intuitive interface that makes it a great photo editing service.
Facetune: Facetune is a very popular option among photo editing services. At first glance, it may seem like it’s only suitable for people or portraits, but it’s also a great choice for making small touches and adding Instagram-friendly shine to all your photos.
5- Create an eye-pleasing holistic feed
This is one of the most important Instagram secrets. Although it is not suitable for every industry, you can prepare a holistic Instagram feed in a stylish and harmonious way. And turn your profile into a visual feast, thus presenting a unique photo gallery to your followers and potential customers. So what does holistic feed mean? Arrange all the photos you share in such a way that they appear as if they are all a small part of one big picture. As a result, your feed will look like one big whole picture.
In order to do this, you need to use a theme that you will place on your photos. You need photo apps like Photoshop to edit your photos this way. This strategy is really great for industries and companies that don’t need to constantly produce content to be successful. The only disadvantage of this tactic is that it will take you longer to make the necessary preparations. So the next photos you will add to your profile are also suitable for this theme.
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6- Share behind-the-scenes content about your products or brand
When you are constantly producing your company’s products or promotional content, you may notice inactivity on your Instagram profile. One of the best ways to bridge the gap between this type of content is to share behind-the-scenes content. For some reason, behind-the-scenes content is not preferring by Instagram users as much as they deserve. There’s a reason why behind-the-scenes content about a product like “how-to” or “how to” is so successful on every platform because people enjoy being knowledgeable about them.
Share photos not only of your product, but also outside of your products. For example, you can also share photos about your company culture or your employees. These types of photos capture engagement easily and help you connect more strongly with your followers or potential customers.
7- Share customer reviews and reviews of your products
Having social proof means the world when it comes to choosing which product to choose when shopping. If you’re looking to use the Instagram platform for your company to sell more products, we have a great suggestion for content you should share: customer reviews and reviews. Your explanation of why your product is perfect is something entirely different. The main event is showing potential customers what other customers and users are saying about your products. Thus, you can establish a very positive relationship with your customers on behalf of your brand. Add a photo of your product, share the comment of any of your customers about that product on the photo or as a caption. Tag the person who made this comment in the caption or in your photo. Sharing such content will provide very positive returns to your profile.
8- Organize and share discounts and offers on Instagram
Sharing your company’s short-term sales or campaigns on Instagram is an undervalued Instagram marketing strategy. Instead, brands often focus so much on establishing their aesthetics on Instagram that they don’t realize that all that effort means nothing unless they’re profitable and capitalized.
Sharing the occasional sale of your brand on your Instagram account is one of the simplest ways to get your followers to become customers of your brand in a hurry to catch the deals. It is very easy to remotely like your products that your followers share on your Instagram account. However, these users may lose interest after following you for a while. Motivate your followers to engage with your brand by running occasional campaigns to keep them from turning away from you.
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9- Stream live
This strategy is no longer a secret, but Instagram Live Streaming remains a powerful Instagram marketing strategy. You should definitely add to your repertoire. Many brands from all over the world are still trying to determine what the best strategy is through the Instagram Live Streaming platform. And believe me, there are so many strategies…
You can use the Live Streaming function in many different ways, depending on what your corporate goals are. Q&A (Questions and Answers) is the perfect starting point for you if you want to strengthen your brand’s connection with customers. The Live Streaming platform can of course use for other purposes as well. For example, teaching your followers how to do something or sharing the latest news about your brand with your customers are just a few of these purposes.
10- Use the Instagram Stories platform
The Instagram Stories platform has now spread to a very large audience. But what remains a mystery about this platform is how to use it most effectively. The great thing about Stories is that it’s the only way to guarantee a top spot in your followers’ feed. Because the most up-to-date shared content is listed first in Stories. In other words, while using the Instagram algorithm with follower activity and interaction rates in order to be at the top of the standard content shared on normal Instagram, Stories prefer a different way.
There are no firm rules yet on the best strategies for the Stories platform, but here are the general tactics used by successful accounts:
Highlight new shares: You can attract new followers to your Instagram profile. And increase the interaction rates in your sharing by sharing the content you just shared on your Instagram account on Stories.
Organize contests: With a simple contest you organize through stories, you will help your followers interact with your brand and products.
Draw attention to your promotions: If your brand has a current discount, you can share the link of your website on Stories and announce the discounts to your followers.
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11- Create a carousel
One of the latest updates to the Instagram platform includes the Carousel function. Previously, Carousel was only available to advertisers, but now everyone can use it. Carousel is a function that will excite your Instagram content calendar, but unfortunately it is not a preferred feature enough. Thanks to the Carousel, you have the chance to share multiple media content in just one Instagram post. For example, you can publish photos and videos exactly in the same post.
Carousel can of course be used in many different ways, but one of the most exciting tactics is to tell a story with the format you will use. Using the Carousel function, you can put together a particular collection of photos to tell a story to your followers. If you don’t want to deal with this, of course, you can also share simple photos of your products if you wish!
12- Build partnerships with Instagram influencers
Influencer marketing is a very popular and frequently preferred career option on Instagram. If you use Instagram heavily, you can definitely see the prominent posts shared by accounts with a large number of followers in your feed. But unfortunately, the majority of smaller businesses don’t take advantage of this type of Instagram marketing while trying to build their audiences.
To use influencer marketing effectively, you need to do extensive research to identify the major Instagram accounts within your industry. Send a message to the influencers you find and say that you want to partner with them and share content together, and leave the rest to them because they know very well what to do. Influencer marketing is such a powerful Instagram marketing secret that it even allows you to reach specific communities within your target audience that you normally think you wouldn’t be able to reach. Once you put forward the discount coupon code, your return to your company will be even more successful and positive.
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13- Use monetization tools
Given the number of e-commerce companies out there these days, it’s truly astounding to see them fail to take advantage of monetization platforms like Like2Buy or Have2Have.It. To summarize their functions, these platforms allow your followers to access the products you announce on your Instagram account more easily and quickly.
When you start using one of these services, don’t forget to include that link in the bio on your Instagram profile. So when you share your product photos: “Do you like this product? Add calls to action like “Click the link in our bio now and get this product.”. Thanks to the monetization services, a follower makes less effort to become a customer of your brand because he can reach the product he wants to buy much more easily. This is always a positive thing.
14- Take advantage of Instagram ads
In fact, Instagram ads are not considered secrets, but they are not taken advantage of by enough brands. It is especially recommended to advertise on Instagram. Because thanks to Instagram’s powerful and effective targeting system. You can directly advertise to your target audience that you think will be interested in your product.
In addition to reaching new potential customers, ads allow you to add calls to action. Thus, people who see your ad are automatically directed to the landing page of your website when they click on the ad to buy your product. In some cases, you may have to buy ads to get the results you want. But regardless, Instagram ads will give you a great return on your investment.
15- Organize a hashtag contest
This is the most secret Instagram marketing strategy! Running contests is a common occurrence on Instagram. You can organize a adaptive campaign by organizing themed hashtag contests. Create a hashtag related to a specific theme, like “#Summerfashion2018”. Then ask the participants to share their photos using this hashtag and tag your brand in the photo with caption. By organizing contests, you enable people to get excited about your brand, show interest in your brand, and grow your social audience quickly.
If you wish, you can also move your contest outside of Instagram. You will also have the chance to reach potential customers with whom you can market via e-mail through a contest on a page other than Instagram. If you do not want to use this method, you can choose to run the hashtag contest in a third-party application. So you will have a pleasing gallery of photos submitted by the contestants. In addition, by following the people participating in the competition, you can reach these users. They are interested in your competition with new promotions in the future.
Last word
If you’ve read this far, you’ve reached the end of the article. We hope you learned the lessons you hoped from the 15 Instagram marketing secrets we shared with you. Think we missed any Instagram strategy? Have a tactic you want to share with us? How about sharing these secrets with us and our readers in the comments? Happy Instagrammings!
