Instagram is one of the most popular social networking platforms out there.
You might have seen a recent drop in the organic reach of Instagram.
Gone are the days when you could post anything, it reached most of your audience. Now, it has become a lot more complicated.
You need to learn how to strategize Instagram posts.
There are still many Instagram content strategies that work like a charm.
In simpler words, you can still many views and reach if you post the content in the right way.
We will be learning all the things about it in this post.
The first thing that you can do with your Instagram account is to create a theme for your account.
Many people get confused here and try to go fancy.
However, you don’t need to go fancy at all.
Theming your Instagram account will make strategizing your posts so much easier.
“Theming your Instagram account will make strategizing your posts so much easier.”
The theme is the first thing that people see when they open your Instagram account.
So, it will leave a great first impression on all the people.
Moreover, a theme will make your post unique.
It will increase your brand credibility when you add themes.
Further, if you want better results, you can also add branding along with the theme.
It will be the best combination that you can go with.
We will learn more about how to add branding later in this guide.
Before that, let’s see how you can theme your content.
There are many ways you can theme your content.
Here are some of the popular ways to do it.
Choose a color theme: You can do many things here such as post three posts of the same color and then change the color.
Alternatively, you can go with three different colors and post the content with similar coloring.
Theme your content based on type: You can post one text-based image, one video, and one regular image.
Make sure you follow the same sequence. It will give a beautiful Instagram look.
Use similar styles: You can also choose one of the colors or themes and create all the posts with the same color or theme
To make things short: Colors, filters, background images, etc are the primary things that you need to change if you want a different theme for an Instagram account.
This will change the way people look content.
Well, most of the small businesses are making this mistake when it comes to Instagram marketing.
If you are the one who is posting your ads on every post or trying to sell something on every single post, you are making a big mistake.
Instead of doing this, you need to strategize your Instagram posts.
You can’t just advertise your posts in every post.
You should provide value to your users.
For that, you need to post different types of content on every post.
It’s all about providing value to the users.
You should post the type of content that invites more people to engage with your posts.
If you have a product, you can share tips and tricks about the product.
You can also post about how can your product be useful.
Lastly, you can also post memes or light-hearted jokes.
Everybody loves humor.
So, you can surely crack some good jokes that somehow represents your brand in it.
It will increase the engagement of the people.
As a result, they are more likely to buy your product too.
Well, it depends on how many posts you post in a week or month.
Usually, you can post ads after 3 to 4 posts.
Also, you can surely share all the value instead of ads.
As it will have your brand name in the theme and the posts, it will surely benefit you.
Make sure you don’t post direct ads even after 3 to 4 posts.
You should be creative with your posts.
Post a story or you can also use a joke to represent your sales pitch.
Stories are the best way to convert people as well as engage them.
You can tell a story and it will then help you to get the sales.
So, make sure you strategize Instagram posts in this way.
As a brand, you should never use the hashtags that are spammy or misrepresent the quality of the brand.
Many hashtags are used for engagement.
For example, you will see the hashtags like #followforfollow #likeforlike and similar ones–you should never use ones like these.
Instead, you need to research your hashtags and then put it out.
It should be related to your brand. If you are in the marketing industry, you should not add hashtags such as #photooftheday, etc.
No doubt, this might bring some reach but it will also decrease your brand reputation.
Therefore, make sure you use genuine hashtags only.
You can use one of the websites that will help you in generating all the hashtags.
Make sure you remove all the useless hashtags and only keep the main ones.
Also, you can use a branded hashtag along with it.
Branded hashtags simply mean the hashtag of your brand or the tagline.
You can use it in all the posts.
Make sure you also follow the hashtags.
Instagram now allows you to follow hashtags.
So, you can do it if you want to know what’s going on in your industry.
There will be certain posts out there on Instagram which will automatically tell you who posted it.
This may be because of the background image or a small logo that represents the brand.
The logo is not the only thing that is important here.
The overall layout says a lot about the post.
Branding is important when you are running a business on Instagram.
People will not only remember your posts but when your Instagram account will stand out, it will automatically beat other fellow competitors.
“People will not only remember your posts but when your Instagram account will stand out, it will automatically beat other fellow competitors.”
Therefore, make sure you add proper branding when you are strategizing Instagram posts.
There are certain ways you can do branding on Instagram posts.
If you are uploading daily, you need to upload it at a specific time.
In the same way, if you are uploading weekly, you need to set a day.
This will help your visitors know that a post is coming.
It is proven that the people who post at a specific time are getting more reach on Instagram compared to the people who post anytime.
A time will come when people would be waiting for your post at a specific time when you post.
This will help you in creating a brand presence.
So, make sure you post/upload content on a specific date and time.
How to strategize Instagram posts by timing?
Most people will say that you should post at 9 PM whereas some people will suggest you to post in the morning.
Now, it does matter what everyone thinks. It’s all about what your audience thinks.
You can go to Insights into your Instagram account.
Now, you need to head over to the Audience part.
You will see when your audience is active and on which day.
Here, you will get the day as well as the time when your audience is most active.
You can strategize Instagram posts according to that.
Make sure you follow the time table.
You can also schedule your posts using one of the tools available in the market.
The main goal is to main consistency.
Instagram allows you to do many things.
Gone are the days when it was only about posting the pictures.
Now, you can upload videos, IG TV videos, go live, post a story, reshare a story, etc.
You should surely try all of these things.
Going live will be suitable only for a couple of businesses.
However, if it is suitable for you, you should surely go live.
In the same way, you should try video posts and see how IG TV works for you.
The end goal here is to try out all the things to see which one is working for you.
You can only know it if you try out all the options.
Do you know why your Instagram traffic is not converting to sales?
Because you aren’t using enough CTAs.
Instagram doesn’t allow you to add a clickable link below your posts.
So, you will need to give a link in bio.
Along with this, there are various other places where you can add a link.
For example, you can re-share a post on your story.
If you have 10k followers or more, you can add a "swipe up" link directly in your stories.
It will become easy for users to visit your website.
Not just the website–Instagram also allows you to add an email address, phone number, and address.
You can add all of them to your bio.
Using this, the user can contact you directly via email or they can use your phone number to contact you.
It also provides you shopping and order button for some countries.
If it is available in your country, you should utilize it.
You will find it in the “Add action button” in the settings option.
This is truly an amazing feature provided by Instagram.
Make sure you are using it as soon as it is launched in your country.
It will be useful for you in many ways.
In the end, it will help you in converting your IG traffic to your customers.
So, the main thing here is that you need to add all the CTAs that Instagram provides.
Here are some of the CTAs or the buttons that you should add when you are sharing a post or directly on your Instagram account.
Make sure you add all of them or try to add a maximum of the buttons for better conversions.
To conclude, this was all about how to strategize posts.
Not just the posts, we also saw some of the cool things you should add on the Instagram account which will help you in increasing Instagram engagement.
Make sure you follow all these things.
It’s not just about adding the things and posting content, you can also run an ad campaign for better views and conversions.
Instagram ads are a blessing.
You can set up your Facebook ad account and from there you can directly promote Instagram ads.
Also, you can contact influencers and make a deal about promoting your brand.
So, make sure you are following all these things if you want to grow your Instagram account.
Lastly, it’s all about providing value to your users.