So, you have made it onto Instagram, your business profile is looking great, but you only get maybe 10-30 likes on your posts. It’s okay! Don’t be discouraged. There are several elements to consider when actually posting content. It’s called Content Marketing Strategy. A content marketing strategy (or simply, marketing strategy) includes what content will be the voice of that persona, how to post it, and when to post it. Hashtags are another crucial element of content marketing strategy. In fact, some even create an entire strategy just based around hashtags! All of this added together ultimately creates a brand persona. If you implement these key strategies, you will see tremendous results!

“Your personal brand is a promise to your clients… a promise of quality, consistency, competency, and reliability.” – Jason Hartman

Creating a relatable and likable persona is everything when you make a business profile on Instagram! While this may seem like common knowledge, it is important to really take into consideration because this is what attracts your consumers and drives your follower base. It is important to really give your page and your brand a voice. This can be done with the wording of captions; the type of photos, what kind of stories you post…the list goes on. What is important is that you find your persona, in your company profile and stick to it. That is what your followers will recognize and trust! It’s important to stick to a theme in your posts, as well. While you may offer some variety in your posts, you may want to stick to a certain color scheme or a theme of the types of visual content you post. Consistency resonates with users, familiarizing themselves with the image and character you want to portray.

If Content Is King; Video Is Power.

As a marketer and a business, your main task is to get people attracted to your brand, product, or service. The best way to do that is showcasing; it’s what Instagram is known for! While it is important to have various graphics that showcase your offerings, the type of content shared matters. It is all about appeal and engagements. The best way to do this is to use videos. Instagram is also gracious enough to give you two platforms to do it on; through Feed and Instagram Stories, however, it’s easier to stick to the regular feed.

Videos are an incredible way to not only let followers know what you have, but show them! Videos allow for so much more versatility than just a picture and a caption because you can offer even more value to your followers. To fully capture your audience’s attention; the 30 – 60 seconds need to be really captivating!

“Power Is The Most Persuasive Rhetoric.” – Friedrich von Schiller

While there are a number of strategies you can use and implement into your Instagram marketing strategy; there is one that would be considered best and most reliable.

The 80/20 content marketing strategy; what is it and how should it be implemented?

80% of your content revolves around content that is not directly related to your brand. For example, Pizza World Plus could be based in Los Angeles and so, the 80% of their posts could revolve around locally based content. Are they located right by the beach? Then they could post beach-like content or some information about the surrounding area. The main idea behind this strategy is to get users engaged in the content you are posting. Once users are engaged with relatable content, they notice the 20%; business related content. The 80/20 strategy works in such a way that draws users to your page with interesting posts, first and foremost. Implementing this strategy allows users to notice you, your product, and your services. Out of every 10 posts, 8 of them should be about something that is attractive to your ideal consumer audience that will get them to stop and engage with your post. Now, don’t go crazy as Pizza World Plus posting about the snow in Canada. It has nothing to do with you. Keep the posts relevant to the area or industry you are in, but don’t forget to add your own branded content in there too! This will help people create associations with your brand as well as engage with your entertaining content posted on Instagram.

At The Risk Of Sounding Cliché, When It Comes To Social Media, Timing Really Is EVERYTHING!

Now that we’ve discussed what content to post and how to post it, let’s discuss when the best time to post is. Let’s be honest, it’s easy just to slap some content together and quickly post it right then and there, when you think about it, am I right? Here’s the issue with this type of impulsivity; the posts may not be going up at the best times! That means, the content your audience could find extremely valuable may be missed just because it was posted during the weakest point of activity. Even for posting content on Instagram, there is an optimal time to do it. As a business, it is important to know your consumer and target this audience. However, you have to know when your audience is active on Instagram!

Studies have found that the best time frames for posting on Instagram are between Tuesdays and Fridays from 9:00am to 6:00pm. Also note, the most activity happens right a 5:00am. It is probably because we now live in a world where phones and alarm clocks are one. So, as we start to wake up, doing mundane tasks like brushing our teeth, we may open our Instagram apps to see what has been posted. Overall, Thursdays are the best days to post because of all the high periods of engagement. 

Avoid Sundays and Mondays as these are the weakest points of Instagram activity. These have very low records of engagement and, therefore, your posts won’t be seen as widely.

Keep in mind, these posting times are not finite; it truly depends on the type of business you are. If you are more directed to consumer goods, it is most wise to post on Saturdays. This is usually the day people go out with their friends and do their shopping. So, having a post or two for them to see on their way to the mall would be a great way to draw in more business.

For education, Mondays are usually the best days due to the fact that it is the beginning of the week, so users are most likely going through their weekly checklist.

The best way to determine the optimal posting times for your content is to monitor and research your target audience. Monitoring your Instagram Insights and paying attention to the times when you get the most engagement will tell you exactly when your target audience is active. This will tell you when to post for your specific industry and allow yourself to get a leg up on your competitors!

“The odds of hitting your target go up dramatically when you aim at it.” – Mal Pancoast

You know What, How, and When to post; but who do you direct your content to?

Hashtags are such a crucial part to marketing content on Instagram! Hashtags are key words that help users filter content. Plain and simple. Hashtags are the most effective way to reach your target audience. Additionally, there are a million sites that say you should use the maximum number of hashtags in each of your posts so you can become easily spotted, yet there are a million more that suggest only using a few, usually 1-10 hashtags, will be just as effective.

Who should you listen to?! Your audience, of course!

The best way to gauge the success of specific hashtags is to monitor what your audience responds to. Test it out. One post, use 5 while in the next post, use 27. However, it’s not just enough to post varying numbers of hashtags; use your Instagram Insights to monitor which of your hashtags are getting the most engagement and then stick with those on most of your posts! When you come across a few good hashtags, make sure you use those often! And of course, you can continue to experiment with other hashtags until you reach the right audience.

The most important part of the hashtag is making sure they are relevant to your brand image as well as your post. For example, if you are marketing manager of Pizza World Plus, you can use #PizzaWorldPlus to ensure that people have an easy time finding your posts and the pictures in it! In addition, adding community hashtags is a great way to expand your reach. For those who may not know what Pizza World Plus is, you can try adding hashtags like #extracheesy or #perfectpizza or something else that is more general and that could possibly be seen by more individuals. This will help attract more consumers who may not be familiar with your brand.

Not to fear, this strategy works for more than just pizza brands. You just have to find your niche and the community you want to reach out to! It would also be beneficial to see what others in your industry are doing in terms of hashtags. You may be able to find some useful hashtags to make your posts more competitive by copying your influencers.

Not only should businesses create a marketing strategy that works best for their brand, but they should also post consistently. This promotes trust among the audience as well as an active presence. It’s particularly important to note that every social media platform is different; therefore, businesses should create a specific marketing strategy that caters to each. What content marketing really boils down to is what really attracts your followers. The best way to know what does and doesn’t work is to track your Instagram Insights. This will give you a ton of information on how your followers react to whatever methods you decide to do. There is no science behind gaining a massive amount of views and engagements; it all depends on how your followers perceive your business page. It also depends on the community you’re after and what they are truly engaged in the most. At first, creating your content marketing strategy may seem difficult to accomplish, but if the infrastructure is formed, everything else will follow suit!