Instagram Marketing: What it Is & How to Do It in 10 Steps

Instagram marketing is a way for businesses to use videos, images and other content on the platform to increase brand awareness and sales. All small businesses can benefit from Instagram marketing, although specific strategies will differ across industries. A successful Instagram marketing strategy increases Instagram followers and engagement, converting them to customers.

Small businesses without marketing knowledge turn to freelance professionals to either execute or guide them as they craft and employ their Instagram marketing strategy. They may branch out to other platforms, and even buy Spotify streams to podcasts that lead to their Instagram.

On Fiverr, for example, businesses can find an Instagram marketing expert, then negotiate a price that fits their budget. To learn more about Fiverr’s Instagram experts, visit Fiverr and search for relevant freelance skills, like Instagram experts and Instagram marketing expert.

How Instagram Marketing Works

Instagram marketing is a process that takes a business from Instagram profile creation through the promotion of their brand, products or services. First, a business would create a business-specific profile, and then post relevant content directed to their target audience, and encourage engagement through effective call-to-actions (CTAs). This leads to greater brand awareness and sales conversions.

Instagram marketing starts with learning who your competitors are by Googling popular questions your customers have. Then, analyze your competitors’ Instagram profiles, including metrics like audience growth and fluctuations, top performing posts, best engagement times and days, posting frequency, engagement types and more. Once you have this data and know what content performs well, create goals to maximize the impact of your content.

If you implement an Instagram marketing strategy successfully, you will see an increase in brand awareness (with increased user engagement and more followers) as well as an increase in return on investment (ROI) from leads who have converted on sales and opt-ins.

Who an Instagram Marketing Strategy Is Right for

Instagram offers powerful marketing tools for business-to-business (B2B) brands, business-to-consumer (B2C) brands and nonprofit organizations. With more than 700 million monthly active Instagram users, there are 8 million business profiles — up from 1.6 percent in 2016 — and 80 percent of Instagram users follow at least one brand.

Here’s a more in-depth look at how nonprofit, B2B, B2C businesses can use Instagram

B2B Businesses

B2B brands use Instagram to increase engagement with their target audience by creating an appealing persona that their audience can relate to. Real-time event images,product demos with voiceovers and live behind-the-scenes videos, for example, add authenticity to the B2B world, making business customers and clients feel a deeper connection than they often do with professional brands.

B2C Businesses

B2C businesses generate sales based on a trusting relationship with their target audience. That trust is created by offering a relevant personality on platforms like Instagram. Using this social channel, businesses join followers in conversations that mean something to them via hashtags, mentions, user-generated content, live video, stories and more. Once consumers have connected with brands on a personal level, brands can run more successful ads and promotions while sounding less salesy, and with a more genuine and engaging feel.

Nonprofit Businesses

Nonprofit organizations looking to raise funds and awareness around their causes must do so via authentic storytelling. Instagram offers nonprofits unique opportunities to immerse followers in stories and events via Instagram’s live video, stories, images, hashtags and user-generated content. These help nonprofits showcase their worthy cause rather than pleading their cases. In turn, followers become more aware and passionate about nonprofit missions.

Instagram Post Types

When creating an Instagram marketing strategy, it’s important to understand all the types of content available to you. Instagram goes beyond a simple photo-sharing platform, allowing you to connect with users through a variety of engaging content types, which then fuels interaction between your business and target audience.

Here’s a closer look at Instagram’s shareable content types:

Photos: Share static visuals with your audiences, including snapshots, memes and infographics designed with Instagram’s dimensions and mobile-first platform in mind

Stories: Instagram stories are viewable for 24 hours before they vanish; via the Stories feature, you can share videos and images, and then add polls, captions, hashtags and tags or even use direct-messages to make them interactive and engaging

Live video: When you share live videos, your followers are notified you’re going live; they can then like or comment on the stream for a real-time connection; then, once you’ve finished, the video vanishes; however, if saved to Instagram Stories, it becomes available for replay for a 24-hour period

Video: Post a video up to 60 seconds in length, just like you would an image; you can add a filter, location tag and caption for more engagement opportunities

Ads: Create ads in Facebook’s Ads Manager or turn one of your highest-engaging posts into an engagement ad

Instagram shopping: Tag up to five products within your product images; then, users can click on tags to access information like pricing, descriptions and links to your site’s purchasing process

Instagram TV (IGTV): Share hour-long videos with your audiences via the Instagram TV app within Instagram

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How Much Does Instagram Marketing Cost?

Instagram business accounts are free to set up and offer free basic analytics. You may run into costs if you would like to use third-party tools like Unbounce, Sprout Social or Canva to analyze and optimize your profile around your business needs. You also must pay per impression to run Instagram ads, with a minimum budget of $5 a day.

What Are Some Top Tools for Instagram Marketing Success?

There are quite a few tools to get you started in managing your Instagram marketing strategy, including CoSchedule, Buffer, Keyhole, Hibu, Fiverr and Unbounce. Sprout Social and Canva are two other tools that can help you design, execute, manage, analyze and optimize your Instagram marketing strategy for long-term success.

How can Retailers Use Instagram Shopping?

Instagram Shopping allows businesses to post products so followers can browse and purchase them. Within a product image, marketers can tag up to five products to add information like product descriptions, pricing, and call-to-actions (CTAs) with links to help followers proceed with purchase on brand websites. For best results, marketers must provide mobile-friendly websites to ensure Instagram shopping campaigns can result in a purchase by mobile-first Instagram users.

How Often Should I Revisit My Instagram Marketing Strategy?

It’s recommended that you evaluate your goals and marketing efforts once every quarter, if not more frequently. The specific timeline will depend on what your goals are and how important Instagram marketing is to your business.

The Bottom Line

Instagram marketing moves businesses through the process of creating an Instagram profile, analyzing competitors’ performances, and setting actionable marketing goals for increased brand awareness and conversions. This is best for any business interested in targeting an audience base that uses Instagram frequently and that wants a measurably increased ROI.

For many small businesses, developing an Instagram marketing strategy can be a challenge. Agencies like Hibu are ready and able to take the reins to expertly produce and execute an Instagram marketing strategy for your brand. To craft a custom social media marketing solution designed around your business goals, visit Hibu’s website and schedule some time to speak with one of their consultants about your business’s Instagram goals.

Watch this space for updates in the Technology category on Running Wolf’s Rant.