6 Instagram Marketing Hacks to Grow Your Business

Many businesses find it challenging to keep up with fast-changing algorithms on the popular social media site, Instagram. Instagram is nonetheless an incredible marketplace.

Taking advantage of this market can only help your business grow. There are many reasons why it is a convenient market place, including its flexibility and its large user base, which allows you to market your products there. 

Given that there are 500 million daily active users accessing the Instagram app globally and 11.01% of the world’s 4.54 billion active internet users access Instagram daily, the viewership is huge.

So, if you have an engaging marketing strategy, many people will notice your product/s and may be interested in buying it.

However, there are some useful Instagram growth hacks that can be used without trying to reinvent the wheel that still result in growth in followers, engagement, and profitability. These are as follows:

1. Post Engaging & Exciting Content

While this may seem very obvious, the fact is there is a lot of content being posted everyday. You might lose your audience if your content isn't compelling.

Getting a professional to create your content might be a good idea. Using a graphic designer or image editor is another option for designing the content of your product. In order to make a lasting impression with people, you need to be fun, engaging and be able to reach their hearts.

If you plan on posting content to each category, it is recommended that you define how often you will post. Additionally, there is an 80/20 Rule which many businesses follow that says 80% of your Instagram content should focus on emotionally engaging your followers, while 20% should focus on selling.

2. Use Relevant Hashtags

One can consider the hashtag as the index of your content. The use of 30 hashtags is allowed in one post. If you use a hashtag, your content will be visible to others who use the same or comparable hashtags.

Using hashtags, particularly your branded hashtag, can help you reach a greater number of targeted individuals more effectively and efficiently by marketing your product. Thus, this helps in increasing your visibility.

Using a branded hashtag makes it easier for your target audience to identify your business. By clicking this hashtag, users can easily see a listing of past Instagram posts made by your account.

3. Invest in Instagram Paid Advertising

If given the choice between organic growth efforts and paid advertising, paid advertising might not even seem worth the investment. Due to the constantly evolving social media landscape and its algorithms, it has nevertheless proved necessary.

The paid advertising options on Instagram provide you with an opportunity to reach demographics you may not have been able to reach from the start. In addition to offering formats like standard photos and videos, carousel posts, and stories, it is remarkably precise as well.

In fact, in 2020 the Instagram ad revenue was projected to be at $12.32M which indicates that the social media platform has considerable and irreplaceable value for businesses.

It is possible to accomplish specific marketing goals through paid advertising, such as building brand awareness and converting sales. In order to reach an even broader audience, you might also want to promote your Instagram ads on Facebook.

4. Promote External Websites With Instagram

For you to increase sales, tracking clicks and conversion metrics on your website is important. Make sure that your profile has a Bio link so that customers can easily find your website or buy products.

Your chances of converting a visitor into a customer increase if you receive more clicks on your website. You should make sure that your landing page is optimized so that you won't disappoint potential buyers.

There is limited space available for external links on Instagram. The app does this intentionally, in order to keep their own retention high among users. This should not discourage you, but rather drive you to strategize better and also plan your content in such a manner that you reach your target audience.

For instance, you can think about creating a unique URL based on a platform such as Link Tree, which provides user links to several different sites on the Internet.

5. Make Use of Instagram Stories & IGTV

You can further increase the number of impressions that a post receives by cross-promoting Instagram Stories on both Facebook and Instagram. Story Highlights can also be created to promote a key offering or event, and are a useful way to leverage your best stories.

Considering that Instagram stories are being viewed by 500 million people every day, you cannot afford to miss this opportunity for your brand.

Additionally, IGTV video content can be featured as a Story or a post. This increases the visibility and viewer engagement of long-form content within the account feed. You may use this feature directly in the app by tapping the IGTV icon, or downloading the IGTV app independently.

In addition, brands often prioritize live streams within social media algorithmic workflows. Now that Instagram wants to move its live streaming over to IGTV by adding a new button feature that would facilitate watching and viewing video content, it may be worth testing how this could potentially benefit your business. It may prove to be quite beneficial for your brand.

Instagram Stories are a powerful tool for promoting user-generated content. You can feature someone's story about how strong they felt after attending a class at your gym and tagging your business to generate exceptional social proof. This would not only work as a testimonial but would also add a personal touch to your brand.

6. Use Instagram to Promote Affiliate Products

A referral-based referral system is used for affiliate products. Here is how affiliation works: You are provided with your own links or coupon codes from businesses that pay a percentage of traffic you bring for the businesses you are partnering with. This can be accomplished in two ways through Instagram:

• Obtain an affiliate link from another company.
• Promote your products to industry leaders by sending affiliate links.

In any case, this is a very effective way to generate sales, either for your own personal profit or to gain exposure and direct sales for your brand from an influencer.

7. Create a Marketing Plan for Instagram influencers

You should identify relevant influencers in your niche who possess the same interests and goals when developing your Influencer Marketing strategy. Find out whether the company has an audience you may use to promote your business (i.e. blog highlights, sponsored posts, and brand tag mentions). 

Make sure the brands they may already be promoting complement your brand, not compete with it. It is advisable that you focus on micro-influencers with fewer than 50,000 followers as they are more likely to be receptive to your products. It is common for influencers with over 50,000 followers to request large monetary payments, but this is not feasible if you are just starting out.

Conclusion

In addition to these marketing hacks, Instagram enables you to do a great deal more. If you're trying to reach out to a young audience, this is definitely one of the best platforms.

In the digital world, sales conversion has never been easier than it is right now, as there are an endless number of opportunities to support sales. You can almost guarantee success in the Instagram world by using the right tools, strategies, and dedication.

In order to be aware of how well your Instagram marketing efforts are working, make sure you track engagement rates and metrics. To achieve this, you should analyze your engagement rate, click through rate, and follower growth rate regularly.

To reach your target audience, you simply need to capture their attention with the right marketing tools, and Instagram offers plenty of them.