Getting Started with Instagram Marketing: A Beginner’s Guide
When taking the next step in growing your business, you may be turning your attention to Instagram marketing. With literal billions of monthly users, it’s a powerful tool for small businesses and worth looking into for small business marketing.
Get started with Instagram marketing and use this guide to help!
Strategize
Before diving into Instagram marketing, take some time to analyze whether it’s truly the best platform for your business and how you can show up there in a way that accomplishes your goals.
For example, the driving force behind the Instagram algorithm is Reels. Similar in many ways to TikTok, creative uses of trending sounds, off-the-wall Gen-Z/Gen-Alpha humor, and cultural references/memes are key ways of increasing reach and driving engagement.
If you’re not interested in being too “out there,” though, don’t worry! Also successful on Instagram is high-luxe imagery. And high-curated breeziness. Whatever your niche is, see what other businesses are dong on Instagram and decide if that’s the way you want to use the platform.
If not, you may need to consider other platforms like LinkedIn, TikTok, or Pinterest where your content may do better. It’s all a matter of knowing yourself, your audience, and your business.
Create a business profile
Speaking of your business, you will need to make a business profile on Instagram. If you haven’t set one up yet, here’s how:
Download Instagram: Get the app from the App Store or Google Play.
Sign up: Create a new account or convert your existing personal account to a business profile by going to Settings > Account > Switch to Professional Account.
Add personality: Complete your bio with a clear profile picture (preferably your logo), a compelling bio, and a link to your website. Your bio should succinctly convey your brand’s identity and value proposition–think 25ish words that contain keywords, your city or state of business, a punchy summary of who you are, and a call-to-action (CTA) to click whatever link you have in your bio. It’s a lot to pack in, but it helps!
Understand your audience
As I mentioned in the section above when discussing whether you should do Instagram marketing, continue to analyze your audience even after you’ve started posting.
Use Instagram Insights (available for business accounts) to analyze your followers’ demographics, interests, and behavior. You may notice that what you think you should be talking about doesn’t perform as well as something else entirely, offering you the opportunity to reach beyond your comfort zone and do the thing that your audience likes to see. As an Instagram marketing beginner, that information is invaluable.
You can also use plain old logic to help make decisions for what to show your audience. When I first started Instagram marketing as a beginner, I was confused about this—I began doing things like I saw other social media managers doing online and I realized that they were marketing to other social media managers. Other SMMs are not my ideal audience—small business owners who feel clueless about social media are. I had to take a massive shift in my content as I realized I wasn’t out to connect with people who were like me, I needed to connect with people who needed me. 🤯
Develop a Content Strategy
Content is king on Instagram, but not all content is created equal. A well-planned content strategy includes:
Content pillars/buckets: Identify key themes relevant to your brand, such as product showcases, behind-the-scenes looks, customer testimonials, and industry news. While every business has different content pillars, I’ll say this for free: almost all of my clients have an “education” pillar when I make their strategies—teach your audience something about what you do that they may not know!
Content types: Utilize various formats like photos, videos, Stories, and Reels. On stories, use the engagement stickers like questions, polls, quizzes, and sliders. Create Highlights on your profile that contain the most important information for new followers to quickly catch up on. Use all the features of Instagram to their fullest!
Posting schedule: Consistency is key. It doesn’t have to be consistent in the sense where you HAVE to post 5x/week. If you can, aim for 3x a week to the feed and daily on the stories. But even if that’s unattainable, just try to post at a similar time of week/day if you can. One thing that helps is to create a content calendar to plan your posts and maintain a steady flow of content. I personally use Metricool, but you can use Meta’s built-in planner in the Meta Business Suite. I also have a content planner template (no auto schedule, it’s just a Google Sheet) here if you’d like to give that a shot!
Craft Engaging Content
High-quality, visually appealing content is crucial on Instagram. Here are some tips:
Visual appeal: Use high-resolution images and videos. UGC-style pics do the best vs. stock photos, but it’s still crucial that the quality be top-tier. Whatever you decide, do what you can to maintain a consistent aesthetic that aligns with your brand’s style. Some brands, for example, create a Lightroom preset that they ask everyone to use on pics before uploading. Whatever you do, just try to keep the images matching.
Simple graphics: it’s tempting to throw a bunch of words on that little graphic. Try to keep it simple—it keeps people’s attention better than if it’s too busy and it also makes it easier to make it fit into your overall aesthetic.
Captivating captions: Write captions that engage, inform, or entertain. Use storytelling to connect with your audience on a personal level. Keep in mind that in most cases, people will read the first 1-3 sentences at the most, so keep things short, concise, and use hooks to get maximum attention.
Call-to-actions (CTAs): Encourage followers to take specific actions, such as visiting your website, participating in a giveaway, or sharing your post. Keep in mind that on Instagram, links in captions do not work. If you have a link you’re trying to direct folks to, you’ll need to use a “link in bio” CTA or use a service like ManyChat to set up automations for comments on the post and ask your audience to comment for the link.
Utilize hashtags efficiently and effectively…if at all.
Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri has recently come out and confirmed that hashtags don’t do that much to increase your reach on Reels. Instagram captions are now instead a ripe field waiting to be sown with keywords. Optimization of your captions to include search terms may be a better strategy.
That said, Instagram says there is a modest boost that can be found to posts with hashtags and that their search engine can read hashtags in captions and in comments. They have also provided guidance that no more than 5 hashtags should be used.
If you decide to use hashtags, don’t do them willy-nilly. Just because you can put a hashtag in front of something doesn’t mean it should be a hashtag. Do your research and see what hashtags businesses in your community are using. See what hashtags businesses in your niche are using. Mix popular hashtags with niche ones specific to your business (think #socialmediastrategist and #AelsaonSocials)
Engage with your audience
Building a community around your brand involves more than just posting content. Engage with your followers by:
Responding to comments: Show appreciation and answer questions promptly. If somebody comments, try to reply every single time, even if it’s nothing other than emojis!
Interacting with other accounts: Like, comment, and share posts from other users in your niche. This helps build relationships and increases your visibility. Don’t just expect other people to follow you, follow them back! When you send a follow, engage with a couple of their recent posts to make sure they see your engagement…they’re more likely to respond in kind.
Running contests and giveaways: These can boost engagement and attract new followers. Be careful, though, as a beginner Instagram marketing explorer, you may find yourself wandering into the trap that is social media giveaways. There are many restrictions on the types of contests you can run on Meta platforms.
Analyze and adjust
Regularly review your Instagram Insights to track the performance of your posts and overall account activity. Pay attention to metrics like engagement rates, reach, and follower growth. Use this data to refine your strategy, experiment with new content ideas, and improve your results.
Not to mention—Instagram changes things all the time. The week I’m writing this blog, they’ve dropped multiple app updates for like the 6th week in a row. It’s crazy out here. As an Instagram marketing beginner, keep your mind open, be flexible, and try to stay on top of all the changes as much as you can.
Consider paid advertising
As you gain confidence and see positive results from your organic efforts, explore Instagram’s advertising options. Sponsored posts, Stories ads, and carousel ads can help you reach a larger audience and achieve specific marketing objectives. Start with a modest budget and test different ad formats to find what works best for your brand.
Good design and a clear ad strategy help, but it will always take a little exploring and experimentation. That said, beginner Instagram advertising is attainable for everyone!
Conclusion
Starting off Instagram marketing as a beginner doesn’t have to be daunting. By setting clear goals, creating engaging content, and actively interacting with your audience, you can build a strong presence and drive meaningful results for your brand. Remember, success on Instagram comes from a combination of strategic planning, creativity, and continual learning.
And if it becomes too much, I’m here. My Instagram marketing services are available to you on monthly retainer so you don’t have to worry about any of this. It’s a lot and I’m happy to help! Visit my services page here and then send me a note to book an icebreaker chat here.
