Top 10 Instagram Growth Strategies

Whether you are a brand trying to raise awareness or a content creator looking to reach a new audience, having more Instagram followers is essential. The number of followers will determine the reach of your posts. Unfortunately, it's not easy to grow an Instagram account. From the need to create content that resonates with your audience to understanding the Instagram algorithm, there is a lot you need to know to get more followers on Instagram.

When creating a good instagram marketing strategy, it's important to note that there is no one-size-fits-all method for taking your account to the next level. However, you can use simple methods to increase your account's visibility and engagement, resulting in higher account growth. 

Top Tips to Grow Your Instagram Account

Here are tips to take your Instagram account to the next level.

Use the Right Keywords in Your Username and Name

If you want your Instagram account to be noticed, you must ensure you use the right keywords. That way, the algorithm will recommend your account to those searching for those keywords. There are two key areas where you can add the keywords. These are:

• Username. This is your profile name or the Instagram handle you will be using. For easy identification, it should be consistent with your brand name, username, or other social media channels. By adding relevant keywords to this space, you can improve the visibility of your account.
• Name. This is your company name or brand name. By adding the relevant keywords in this space, you can increase the visibility of your account.

Optimize Your Instagram Bio

With a limit of 150 characters, the Instagram bio offers you a chance to market your Instagram account in the least words possible. Therefore, avoid using fluffs on this space and instead add the most essential information for the page, such as:

• A simple but straightforward description of what you do and the products you sell.
• Stroke of brand personality.
• Link.

When writing an Instagram bio, remember that this is what makes the first impression on your prospective customers. Therefore, you should make it creative, clear, and complete. When someone reads the bio, they should understand what your company does and the value it can add to them.

A key element of the bio section should be a link to your website, YouTube channel, or any other key information. You can also keep updating the bio based on your recent posts.

Understand the Instagram Algorithm

The Instagram algorithm determines the content users see on their feeds as Instagram tracks different aspects of content visibility. By understanding the Instagram algorithm, you can focus on creating content that brings maximum engagement and conversion. 

• Information about the content. Instagram algorithms usually track different signals, such as the number of comments, likes, and posting dates, to gauge the popularity of content among audiences.
• Content owner’s information. It refers to how often people interact with content to determine a person’s credibility.
• User action. If users discard certain types of content, Instagram interprets this as a lack of interest. Similarly, if content is reported as spam or offensive language, its chances of appearing on the user's feed decrease. The content may also be removed entirely.
• Instagram predictions. In addition to the above signals, IG also makes informed guesses about what might interest a user. It tracks a user's time watching a video or certain content. It also measures the user's saves when they click or visit the owner’s profile. When users take such actions, the algorithm increases the posts on the user's feed.

Leverage Influencer Marketing

Another great idea that will help you grow your Instagram account in a short amount of time is influencer marketing. This involves finding the right influencers, contacting them, and creating a strategy to promote your business. You can explore the Instagram platform to find the right influencers to partner with. However, when doing that, ensure they have a similar audience to yours. Check the influencer’s posts and their audience demographic to see if they share the same ideologies with your brand.

Once you are satisfied that the influencer is a good fit for your brand, you can contact them through an email or a direct message. Remember that working with an Instagram influencer with a small following will be easier if you have a limited budget.

Create Save-worthy Content

By saving content, Instagram users can rewatch or reread it later. When they do that with your posts, it shows the algorithm that you create content which resonates with them. It indicates that you are creating high-quality posts that increase the chances of the content being shown on the user's feed. When you create save-worthy content, you increase the chances of your brand receiving a higher engagement and, therefore, building the rapport and trust of your audience.

To create such content, start by understanding your goals. If you aim to build awareness, you can share informative and educational content. For instance, you can share pictures and infographics that add value to your followers. If conversion is your goal, you should share action-driven content.

Create an Instagram Growth Strategy

An Instagram growth strategy should be part of your social media marketing strategy. It should give you the direction to take your account to the next level. Here are the steps you need to create an Instagram growth strategy.

Determine Your Goals

You need to determine what you are trying to achieve with the Instagram growth strategy. Is it to increase brand awareness, boost conversion, drive traffic, or something else? Once you determine your goal, you can decide the type of content you should post and the call to action you should use.

Understand Your Target Audience

A common mistake that content creators on Instagram make is to focus on going viral to reach as many people as possible. Even when they achieve this goal, they may reach the wrong audience. Such an audience will not drive the engagement you need, so it's essential to understand your audience first. Doing that will help you align your content with their needs. You will also understand their challenges and how you can help them resolve them.

Create a Brand Voice

You should create a unique voice to help Instagram users easily identify your brand. This voice should be about the message and influence other elements, such as the choice of colors, a consistent theme, and the brand personality. Remember that this voice should be similar to what you use in your other marketing messages outside social media. Therefore, consider your business value on the app and outside when creating one.

Create a Content Strategy

You should choose a niche that your Instagram account will focus on. Select several overarching topics and ensure that you stick to them. This will ensure that you don't keep deviating from the main topic. Building a community of followers interested in that type of content will also be easier. A content theme will help you stay focused on your niche without getting attracted to the newest hot and shiny object.

Use Hashtags the Right Way

Instagram hashtags are a great tool for reaching a bigger audience and driving engagement on Instagram posts. Therefore, ensure that you select about 30 hashtags. These should not be too popular or too rare. A good number to pick is those with 50k to 300k images for each hashtag. This is important because if there are too many hashtags on a post, it can be hard for your videos or images to be visible unless you are very popular on the platform.

Once you find the right hashtags, add them in your comments rather than captions. This is important as hashtags aren't there to be seen but to help people find your content. This will also leave you with clean-looking captions.

Create and Follow a Content Calendar

A content calendar will help you determine when to post and what kind of content to post. A good idea is to post at least once daily, whether a reel, story, or carousel post. You can also post two feed posts every week and two stories. While posting consistently can help you achieve a fast Instagram growth rate, it also comes with one challenge: creator burnout.

A good way to deal with the challenge is repurposing your content. You can reshare your best-performing content on other channels. If you did a post on Instagram that performed well, you can tweak it and share it again. Creatively repurposing your content can save a lot of energy and time. For instance, if you have well-performing videos, you can share their highlights in a reel.

Participate in Trends

The Instagram algorithm favors the latest and hottest trends. That means you can get your video reel to rank highly on the algorithm by jumping into a trending video or audio. However, when doing so, you want only to join trends that align with your brand. If you don't find a good trend to join, you can even take it to the next level by creating your trend. This can enable you to create a fresh and trendsetting video that will set you apart from the oversaturated content. However, you also need to ensure that the trend is something that most users can relate to.

Leverage Instagram Ads

Instagram ads can enable brands to reach a bigger target audience through advertising images, videos, and other forms of visual content. While you should not ignore the power of organic content, Instagram ads are a great choice for increasing engagement. Studies indicate that Instagram ads can enable brands to reach over 850 million users.

There are several different kinds of Instagram ads that you can consider. These include:

• Image ads. These use images to advertise products and services. They are a great choice for brands that want to use compelling pictures to share their brand messages.
• Carousel ads are immersive ads that users can view using a CTA button. They are usually shown on the Instagram user’s feed or in between the stories, often taking the user to the brand's website. Brands can use carousel ads to showcase their products, tell stories, or even share up to ten images or videos.
• Stories ads. You can use Stories for your Instagram marketing. Full-screen image and video ads are shown to users scrolling through Instagram stories. They are an excellent choice for increasing engagement and conversion, as statistics indicate that over 500 million people view Instagram stories daily.
• Shopping ads. Studies indicate that over 130 million shoppers visit the Instagram site every month, which has led to massive popularity in Instagram shopping. With shopping ads, users can view and buy products directly on the app. The ads take users to the product landing page, enabling them to buy directly from there.
• Collection ads combine carousel and shopping ads. They show products on the advertiser’s product catalog page and enable users to buy directly from the page. These ads are a great choice for maximizing conversion.

Improve Your Impression-to-reach Ratio

Engagement rate is one of the most important factors affecting how a brand interacts with its audience. If you want to determine the engagement rate, impressions and reach are the best figures to show you. While these figures sound like the same thing, they are also different. 

• Impressions refer to the number of times a user sees your content, whether a video, image, story, or reel. Every time a user views your content, it is considered an impression.
• Reach. These are the unique viewers who view your post.

A high impression rate is a sign that your audience is rewatching your content, and therefore, your content is already performing very well. That means if you have a high impression-to-reach ratio, you can develop a deeper relationship with your target audience and a more loyal audience. You can use several tips to increase your impressions to reach ratio. These include:

• Creating high-quality content. Whether images, videos, or reels, you must create high-quality images to increase impressions.
• Use the right keywords and hashtags in the content captions.
• Create different content formats. To determine your audience’s opinion of content, you can use polls. Once you determine the type of content your audience needs, you can create a good Instagram strategy.
• Engage in Ask Me Anything (AMA) Sessions. These sessions can help you determine your audience's pain points and provide a solution.
• Schedule the best posting time. Ensure you post at the optimal time when your audience is mostly online.

Monitor and Improve Conversion

The conversion rate is the number of times users engage in the desired action. It could be an action such as sales, subscriptions, or downloads. By monitoring the metric, you can analyze the quality of your content, find if there are gaps, and keep improving your strategy. Conversion rate monitoring can help you to:

• Optimize your spending in your Instagram marketing campaign.
• Create a new Instagram growth strategy to bring more prospects.
• Lower your cost per acquisition (of new customers).
• Track the results of your marketing efforts.

Leverage Instagram Insights

Instagram Insights is a built-in analytics and reporting tool available for business accounts. Businesses can use these insights to gauge content performance and determine the kind of posts that resonate with their audience. The tool will provide insights into important metrics such as likes, clicks, comments, and impressions. 

However, to access the analytics, you must have a business account. Then, you can see the insights for each post by going to settings, followed by insights options. You will be provided insights on followers, reach, content, and engagement for the last 90 days. You can use the information to:

• Track the frequency with which your posts are being shared.
• Understand the highlights of your top-performing content to create more of such content.
• Understand how your audience is interacting with different posts and the actions they are taking.
• Take the right steps to optimize your otherwise poorly performing content.
• Determine if your content is reaching the right audience. If it's not, try to adjust your content strategy to improve your results.

Conclusion

Statistics indicate that 90% of Instagram users follow at least one brand on the platform. That means Instagram is a great place for brands to reach their audience, engage, and even convert it. However, with so many brands competing for the same audience on IG, the competition can get stiff.

To stand out from the competition, you need a well-calculated Instagram growth strategy. If you are wondering how to create one, our guide above will help you. By implementing it, you will see high growth and a better ROI on your Instagram marketing.

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