Instagram Marketing Strategy – Find a niche and run with it!
Without an Instagram Marketing Strategy, your Instagram efforts are likely to reap no return.
Now ,this is a fairly bold statement to make – and not always completely accurate – but let me explain myself…
Instagram is awash with great visuals and content. If you’re a brand trying to post content purely for likes, based on the types of posts you like to see on Instagram yourself then, chances are, there are others who are posting content which is a lot prettier/more powerful/better produced/smarter than yours.
Scroll through a number of popular feeds with thousands of likes and views and it will quickly become apparent why their visuals help drive engagement.
For example, imagine this is my sandwich…
It may taste great, it may look pretty decent (the best I have had all week) and I may be able to put a pretty neat filter on it that makes it look like something that would catch my eye? However, a quick search on the popular #sandwiches tag on Instagram and it is clear that my sandwich is in fact, not all that great.
This is the risk you are running every time you post content without a clear and well thought out Instagram Marketing Strategy.
So, find a niche. What is it about your brand that you are trying to promote? What do you want to be known for? Focus on growing that. See our FMCG Marketing Case Study to see an example of when we’ve incorporated Instagram into a social media marketing strategy.
If your Instagram channel is going to be successful, an engaged community of Followers is essential. Posting content which lacks direction/ brand style/ doesn’t gel together will quickly make your community run for the hills, and your feed will look pretty tacky to boot.
Struggling to work out the best content to post on your brand feed?
Get to know your target audience, what sort of content resonates with them? If your influencers keep sharing a particular type of content, look at the reasons why. This post (above) by actress, Martin McCutcheon, attracted a ton of engagement and was a great promotion for Cambridge Weight Plan. What can that brand learn from that? How can they replicate or amplify it?
If you haven’t worked out Instagram already, this kind of thinking could help give you an idea of the content which you should be sharing on your own feed.
Once you have done this, using knowledge of your target audience you will be able to refine your hashtags to increase the probability that your content will get the attention it deserves.
Later on, you will be able to grow your brand offering and incorporate alternative content which targets multiple audiences and areas you want to promote. But for now, instead of trying to appeal to the masses, focus on one type of content with a clear brand style and get to work creating the ultimate eye candy!
Also, why not check out our blog post about improving your Instagram Marketing.