If you have friends with eCommerce businesses, call them up and ask them about their Instagram marketing strategy.
Almost all of them will be able to give you specific details. The formats they usually post in, how they design their content, the metrics they track, and so on.
The reason for this is simple: Promoting your brand on Instagram requires creativity, strategic decision-making, and, most importantly, constant monitoring. In short, you can’t just post random content and expect to do well.
Now, if you're looking to get started on the platform, you've clicked on the right article. From content batching to effective use of ads, this guide covers it all.
Let’s talk about it.
6 tips to step up your Instagram marketing game
Below, we've compiled six tips and best practices to help with your promotional strategy on Instagram. Some are individual pointers, while others include multiple elements. In those cases, we've broken it down into separate sections to organize the suggestions better.
1. Create in batches and automate the posting process
If you want to build a sustainable Instagram strategy, you must be methodical when creating, scheduling, and posting content. And the trick to doing this is batching and automation.
Content creation in batches
Batching will have you creating and optimizing your content in one sitting rather than doing it in intervals. The best part? It's simple enough to do if you:
- Categorize your content: Segment your upcoming content into chunks. For example, you can club all giveaway posts together. The same goes for product reels. This allows you to come up with a cohesive theme for each category.
- Set a publishing timeline: A dedicated publishing window can streamline the content creation process. So, say you have three live broadcasts scheduled for the first week. That frees you up to conceptualize new material for the rest of the month.
It also helps if you take the time to optimize your images. As a general rule, you want to stick with 1080 x 1350p for vertical photos and 1080 x 566p for horizontal images. Meanwhile, square posts work best with 1080 x 1080p.
Content scheduling with automated tools
There's no reason to log into Instagram every time you want to publish something. You'd be better off if you rely on effective content scheduling.
For basic posts, Instagram’s integrated scheduling feature works well enough. It lets you plan content up to 75 days in advance. And you just need a business or a creator account to use it.
The only issue is that the scheduling feature isn’t currently compatible with sponsored content, cross-posting, product tagging, or collaborative posts.
That’s where 3rd-party programs can come in handy. For example, Buffer offers a free plan that lets you stagger your Instagram posts for later. Iconosquare is another example and is most effective for eCommerce brands with a large-scale social media strategy.
2. Connect with your audience through different content formats
When it comes down to it, Instagram marketing is all about establishing a connection with your audience. The two most effective formats that can help you do this are user-generated content and behind-the-scenes (BTS) posts.
Research indicates that 40% of shoppers trust user-generated material when making purchasing decisions. Put simply, you can skip over heavy-handed branded messaging if you promote your products with such content.
As an added benefit, people see you consistently publish posts that feature them. The result? A deeper brand-customer relationship.
As for BTS material, take a look at Sani's reels of their 2022 production run. The clips highlight the effort the brand puts into designing its products. By doing so, they showcase their dedication to delivering the very best to their audience.
3. Drive sales with strategic influencer partnerships
Collaborating with influencers can help you do more than raise product or brand awareness. It can also directly boost your sales.
A 2023 study indicates that 81% of consumers have purchased or researched a product after seeing creators post about it. The same study explores the traits that draw users to influencer personalities. The ranking is as follows:
- Relatability (61% of respondents)
- Expertise (43% of users)
- Entertainment (32% of the audience)
- Aspirational values (28% of viewers)
In other words, you can't just jump into influencer partnerships. Instead, you have to find creators who align with your brand. More importantly, they must exhibit personality traits that click with your audience.
That said, plenty of platforms already host influencer profiles you can partner with. Invest some time into research here, and don't just go off on follower counts. Once you find suitable candidates, examine their content catalog to see if they'd be a good fit.
4. Master the art of product promotion
Product promotion is at the core of your Instagram marketing strategy. It's why you're on the platform in the first place. To do it effectively, you must prioritize organic posts, ads, and the Instagram Shopping feature.
Organic posts
Instagram's visual model makes it the perfect platform to showcase your products in action. However, this doesn't mean that you take a direct promotional tone. Instead, your three primary goals are:
- Build brand awareness
- Boost follower loyalty
- Highlight your brand personality
Simply put, you must produce material that taps into popular audio and visual bytes, memes, and trending post formats. User-generated content will also work well here. In fact, that's precisely what Tortuga Backpacks turned to.
The brand used reels from its social pages to call attention to its products. Then, it integrated those clips into its website pages. The result? The efficient use of the same content helped build better brand perception.
Instagram ads
Instagram ads come in several different formats. And all of them offer varying levels of success. For instance, reels have an average reach of 30.81%. So, if you want users to discover your products, leveraging that format can be one of the most effective ways to do it.
You can also rely on:
- Sponsored reels: 90-second promotional footage featured on the ‘Reel’ tab
- Video ads: Featured on the main feed and blend well with organic content
- Ad on reels: An overlay on regular clips promoting a brand unrelated to the creator
- Explore ads: Shows up on the ‘Explore’ tab and is excellent for product discovery
If you're still unsure how to approach Instagram ads, it's best to turn to Meta’s Advantage+ Suite.
Designed to automate the advertisement process, the software will help you identify which ad formats work best and what creatives to use. The integrated filtering option can also point you to the users you should be targeting.
Instagram Shopping
Instagram Shopping allows users to buy your product directly from your page. All you need to take advantage of this feature is a business account.
If you already have that, head to Meta's 'Shops' page and click on 'Get Started'. From there, you can:
- Use the integrated ‘Commerce Manager’ to set up your shop
- Choose a checkout method (preferably from your Instagram page itself)
- Select the Instagram business account (the one you just created) to tie to your shop
Following that, you have to upload your entire product catalog. You can do this in two ways. The first involves you manually inputting every product into the Commerce Manager app. The second has you integrating an existing catalog from certified sites like Shopify.
You can refer to Meta's help center for a more detailed explanation of the setup process. Beyond that, ensure that you stick to the recommended product tagging guidelines. This will help direct users to the appropriate Shop page when they engage with your posts.
5. Use contests and giveaways to boost engagement
Giveaways and contests are an excellent way to drive audience engagement and raise brand awareness without too much effort. It works even better if you collaborate with other brands for such campaigns.
Think Sun's partnership with Lunchskins demonstrates this perfectly. Their ‘Earth Day Giveaway’ post generated over 2800 likes.
Now, Think Sun usually averages 1000-2000 likes for its posts. Lunchskin is a lesser-known brand and typically has 80-100 likes (besides a few outliers) across all its content. That post benefitted both of them, giving them user engagement beyond their standard reach.
6. Frequently review your metrics
Your Instagram marketing strategy will only be successful if you consistently examine the engagement metrics and adjust accordingly.
The native Instagram Insights feature can be your go-to option here. It offers detailed information about your followers (accounts reached, total followers gained, etc.) and their most active times. It also tells you which specific content formats are performing well.
Still, Instagram Insights only records data for up to 90 days. This can make it difficult if you wish to review your performance from, say, a year ago. To get around this, you can use 3rd-party social media analytics tools. Some great options include:
- Later: Simple, user-friendly, and perfect for solo eCommerce business owners
- Emplifi.io: Offers a free analytics tool for assessing your most popular posts
- Sprout Social: A dedicated analytics app for established eCommerce brands
Ultimately, your choice depends on your budget. So, start small if you have to and opt for a platform that doesn't drain your resources. You can scale later if you want more detailed engagement metrics.
How will you approach Instagram marketing in 2024?
Several articles centered around Instagram marketing discuss the importance of creating engaging content, optimizing your bio, or using hashtags to expand your reach.
But all of that goes without saying. More specifically, those tips, while helpful, apply to any general or personal profile.
The points in this guide, though, are all focused on helping eCommerce brands streamline their social media strategy. If you incorporate them into your next campaign, you'll have an easier setup and deployment process, along with improved results.
If you need more ideas, read about how online brands like Tush Baby, goPure, and SOSU Cosmetics leveraged social media content to boost sales.
