Instagram Marketing Strategy Guide for Social Media Marketers in 2024

Instagram can help your brand increase its visibility, drive sales, and build an entire community around its presence on the platform. It is the fourth biggest social media platform, after all. But with Instagram being that big and popular, it’s not always easy to leave your mark. That’s why you need a solid Instagram marketing strategy to keep you going.

In this article, I’ll explain how to put together a winning Instagram marketing strategy, plan and schedule Instagram posts, and optimize your profile. Five pro tips included!

What is Instagram marketing?

Instagram marketing refers to leveraging the Instagram platform to promote brands, products, and services. It includes creating and sharing visual content like photos, videos, and Instagram Stories to engage the target audience and establish a social media presence.

A solid Instagram strategy helps businesses increase visibility, connect with customers, and drive brand awareness.

Why should you use Instagram for marketing?

Before we dive into Instagram strategy how-tos and why you should implement one, let’s talk data:

• Instagram is one of the biggest social media platforms, with 2 billion monthly active users.
• People in the U.S. spend about 33 minutes a day on Instagram — it’s not the most time spent across social platforms, but it’s definitely significant.
• On average, Instagram has about a 1% conversion rate. That makes the platform not only big but effective for social media marketing.
• According to Instagram, 70% of shoppers look to Instagram shop for their next purchase, which makes Instagram a go-to platform for product discovery.
• Instagram is most popular among young adults and Millennials — two age groups that buy the most.

With a focus on visual content, Instagram is a perfect fit for businesses that value appearance. You’re free to choose from many Instagram content formats, from static feed posts to interactive Stories and influencer marketing videos.

But even if sales are not exactly what you’re looking for, Instagram is still a platform to be on. You can also build an Instagram presence for brand awareness or employer brand purposes.

How to set up your Instagram business account for marketing

Setting up an Instagram business account for marketing is pretty straightforward. Here’s how you can do it:

Step 1: Create an Instagram account

Open the Instagram app or Instagram on desktop and register a new account using your business email. Enter the name of your business account and the username you’d like to use.

A username is your unique @handle. The full name is the name of your business (e.g., the name’s Planable, but the username is @planableapp).

This will create a personal Instagram profile.

Step 2: Switch to business profile

Go to your profile settings, select ‘Account,’ then ‘Account type and tools’, and tap ‘Switch to professional account.’

You should then get the chance to select what most accurately represents your brand from a list of available options.

Here, you can choose whether to switch to a business or creator account. If you are a brand, stick with a business account.

Pick a category that is the most suitable for your company and select ‘Business’.

Step 3: Set up your Instagram business profile

Add a business name, profile photo (usually your company logo), an Instagram bio explaining your business, and a link to your website.

Step 4: Add contact information

Ensure your contact details are correct so customers can reach you directly from your profile. You can add an email, address, phone number, and a WhatsApp business phone number.

Step 5: Connect to Facebook

Link your Instagram business account to a Facebook business page associated with your company. This will allow you to run Instagram ads and use Meta Business Suite for both accounts.

Step 6: Add a call-to-action button

If applicable, add an action button to push your Instagram followers toward conversion. You can choose from several options: order food, book now, reserve, or add a lead form.

How to create a successful Instagram marketing strategy

Instagram is very visual and interactive. Adam Mosseri mentioned that the core metric for Instagram content is shareability. This sets quite specific requirements for your content to be successful.

To truly ride the tide and connect with your target audience, you need a social media strategy focused on quick, visual, engaging content that people want to share.

Here are 10 steps to building a tailored Instagram strategy:

1. Set clear Instagram marketing goals

Setting clear goals for your Instagram marketing shapes everything from your content strategy to how you engage with users. Deciding on goals like boosting brand awareness, generating leads, or growing your community changes the way you connect with people and present your brand on Instagram.

For example, if you want to increase brand awareness, focus on creating top-of-the-funnel content with more viral potential. Trending Reels, memes, catchy infographics — this is your gold mine.

If you want to get more leads, concentrate on more interactive content with strong call-to-action hooks. Your core content would be lead magnet offers, targeted Instagram ads, and testimonials.

2. Research how your target audience uses Instagram

Understanding your Instagram target audience means figuring out what kinds of posts they’ll likely engage with and tailoring your strategy based on your findings.

Start by researching key details such as their age, location, gender, interests, motivations, and pain points. Here’s what can help you walk in your audience’s shoes:

• Explore forums. Look at Quora, Reddit, and Google’s ‘People also ask’ section to discover your audience’s problems or questions. This can spark ideas for relevant content.
• Analyze influencers. See what content is popular among the Instagram creators your audience follows. This shows what interests your audience and the style of content they prefer.
• Content analysis. Study the types of posts, popular Instagram trends, and relevant hashtags in your niche. Notice what your audience likes and interacts with most.

This research will guide you in creating compelling content pillars for your Instagram strategy, ensuring your posts resonate well with your audience.

3. Keep an eye on the competition

Competitor analysis on Instagram provides valuable insights that can inspire your own content strategy. This is how you can pick up a new trend or a successful content format.

Here are three things I recommend doing to keep an eye on your competitors:

• Follow competitor accounts. Regularly check their content, noting which posts get the most engagement, the Instagram hashtags they use, and their posting frequency.
• Analyze engagement trends. Look at how their audience interacts with different types of posts, such as videos vs. images, long Instagram captions vs. short ones, etc.
• Monitor promotions and campaigns. Pay attention to special offers and campaigns they run. This can give you ideas for promotions that might resonate with your own audience.

Pro tip: To see what ads your competitors are currently running on Instagram and Facebook, go to their Facebook page and find all active ads in the ‘Page transparency’ section.

However, if you see an idea that works, don’t just copy-paste it. Make sure to give it a twist: learn from what your competitors do well and adapt it to fit your brand’s unique voice and goals.

4. Get familiar with the algorithm

Instagram has multiple algorithms in place. Here’s the big idea: Instagram predicts how interested Instagram users will be in your content based on various signals. The platform ranks your content and decides whether it’s going to followers’ feeds.

And those signals change. Very often.

For instance, several years ago, Instagram hashtags were among the top ways to grow your organic reach. Now, hashtags can connect you to a certain community but don’t really affect reach much.

So, if you want to create engaging content and deliver it to your Instagram audience, you have to be familiar with the algorithm’s current picks. That means having a flexible strategy with multiple content formats that allows you to jump on a new trend or pivot to a new direction quickly.

Sophie Hartley, a Paid Social Specialist at Vixen Digital, notes:

“Simply spending time on the platform will uncover what’s trending. And if you’re following and engaging with accounts related to your industry, you’re more likely to see any trends relevant to your business. Make sure you’re signed up for the Meta Business Suite newsletter, as they’ll release information about products and updates first.”

I also recommend following Adam Mosseri, whom I’ve mentioned multiple times. The devil works hard, but Mosseri works harder.

5. Optimize your Instagram profile

Your Instagram page is the face of your business. You want it to be clear, concise, and algorithm-friendly.

Here’s a short checklist for Instagram profile optimization:

• Profile picture. Use a high-quality image that represents your brand, such as your logo.
• Bio. Include a concise and specific description of what your business offers. Make sure to include relevant keywords for better search visibility. If your business is location-specific, add it to the bio.
• Links. You can add up to five links to the Instagram bio. To drive website traffic, add a link to your website or a landing page and include other relevant links.
• Action button. Add a direct action button, such as Order food, Book now, Reserve, or Add lead form to encourage direct interaction.
• Instagram story highlights. Make the most out of your highlights and turn them into a showcase. Add testimonials, FAQs, reviews, or location info at the top of your Instagram profile.

6. Create a content calendar and plan your posts

Consistency wins any social media strategy, and Instagram is no different.

Creating a content calendar is key to managing your Instagram strategy. It helps you decide what to post on Instagram, ensuring your content is consistent and well-planned — no content gaps in sight!

Setting up an Instagram content calendar from scratch might seem challenging and time-consuming. Instagram tools make it much easier and faster, offering ready-made templates, different views, and many other useful features.

A good content plan keeps your posting schedule on track and aligns your Instagram posts with your overall marketing goals. This not only saves time but also boosts the impact of your Instagram marketing efforts.

7. Schedule your Instagram posts, Reels, and Stories

Manual posting takes quite some time, especially when Instagram is not your only social media platform. My advice is to schedule Instagram posts in advance.

Scheduling ensures you post consistently. Instagram has a native scheduling tool, so you can begin there. However, it doesn’t offer a built-in content calendar to give you a comprehensive view of your strategy. It also doesn’t allow you to schedule Instagram Stories.

So, third-party scheduling tools can be a great help. They allow you to plan ahead and always have content ready, avoiding gaps and maintaining a steady flow. Such tools streamline your Instagram management so you can focus more on quality content creation.

8. Engage with your audience

Be social on social media. Your audience and community are your biggest potential advocates who can support and propel your brand online.

Make your audience feel like they’re part of the conversation. Answer their comments, engage through Q&As, create interactive Stories highlighting their input, and act on your audience’s suggestions.

Look at how Semrush does it. They answer most of the comments, even negative ones. Users feel connected to the brand because they get a response from them.

Dominic Edmundson, Marketing Manager at AMRIT Restaurants Berlin, recommends combining the best-performing content with freebies:

“Giveaways and competitions are also another great way of building an engaged community. I’ve used these successfully in my role, whether it’s for tickets to sports events or goody bags with branded merchandise, they always seem to be the best-performing pieces of content.”

9. Track your Instagram analytics

Instagram analytics is the only way to see whether your strategy is working. Data tells you what drives engagement and where you can improve.

Native Instagram analytics tools give you general info on the most popular posts, the best times to post, and who your followers are.

You can also get performance data on each Instagram post separately. One of my favorite metrics is impression breakdown — it tells you where your post was seen the most (e.g., on the home page, in the profile, or from your branded hashtag).

You can also use third-party tools to gain insights from social media analytics and get a more in-depth look at your Instagram performance.

10. Experiment and try to replicate the success

Alas, there’s no universal recipe for great social media content that will fly. That’s why experimenting and analyzing results is the primary working approach.

Trying different content types helps you find what resonates best with your audience. The algorithm changes, so try to invest in multiple formats. Instagram videos are on a roll, but so are carousels, and the platform can pivot at any moment.

Combine your format experiments with tracking your performance using top-performing post insights. Analyze why some posts succeed and why others flop to avoid making the same mistake.

Millie McKenzie, Founder of Ugly Chicken Social, emphasizes this approach:

“You’re not going to know how to enforce ‘good’ social right away, but trying new things, new content, new ideas, new formats, and monitoring performance is paramount for moving forward, creating a solid strategy, and seeing repeated results.”

Test and refine your strategy, stay adaptable, and research. It’s the most entertaining part!

How to run your Instagram marketing strategy with Planable

Planable is the ultimate collaborative social media management tool for running your Instagram marketing strategy. It’s designed for teams to work together on social media posts and other forms of content, making it easy to plan, review, and post all in one place.

The platform has a lot of amazing features to help you manage multiple Instagram accounts with ease:

• Content calendar

Planable’s content calendar helps you organize your posts and get a full picture of your efforts. Use the Instagram grid and feed view to check how your posts will look in your Instagram feed.

• Canva integration

Quickly create and import visuals right in Planable, making it simple to approve visuals with the team and schedule content right away.

• Post collaboration

Work on Instagram Reels, Stories, and posts together with your team. Exchange feedback through internal notes, comments, and annotations, and approve the final posts with customizable approval flows.

• Media library

Save your Canva designs, upload brand elements, and keep all your images and videos at hand, ready to use anytime.

• Editing tools

Edit images and videos directly in Planable to perfect your posts.

• Content scheduling

Schedule content for Instagram and nine major social networks directly in Planable. You can even schedule your first comment to help increase engagement!

And that’s not all. Use Planable AI to generate new post ideas and captions and Planable Analytics to track the performance of your content.

It looks beautiful and feels fantastic to use, Planable is easily my favorite tool for Instagram marketing.

5 pro tips to improve your Instagram marketing strategy

Feeling extra committed? Great!

If you’re willing to go beyond the basics with your Instagram marketing, use these five Instagram marketing tips for real pros:

1. Optimize your Instagram posts

There’s ordinary posting, and then there’s smart posting. Optimize your posts to work smarter, not harder, for your Instagram engagement by following these tips:

• Use Instagram SEO. Use keywords in your captions and profile to improve visibility. This helps social media users find your content when they search related terms.
• Refine your Instagram hashtag strategy. Hashtags are not the main engagement drivers, but they don’t hurt either. Combine popular and niche hashtags to reach both broad and specific audiences.
• Use hooks. You have 3 SECONDS to stop the scroll. Start captions and videos with engaging hooks that grab attention immediately and draw Instagram users in.
• Work on your visuals. Include a hook on your cover, throw in a meme, or go fully high-quality, high-end with great images. Eye-catching visuals help you stand out in the Instagram feed.
• Engage with comments. Some recommend responding to comments right away. Others suggest responding in a few hours and bumping your post in the feed again. Whichever strategy you choose, don’t leave the comments hanging.

2. Keep track of new Instagram app features

Instagram consistently adds new features and content forms, allowing you to connect with your audience in new ways. Trying brand new things makes your Instagram account stand out and brings some metric perks.

For instance, the ‘Add yours’ template has become a real hit. The template format encourages people to spread your story further with their own twist. It allows brand Instagram accounts to leverage user-generated content and does wonders for your reach, tapping into far corners of Instagram.

Not all Instagram features are roaring successes, though. For instance, the option to answer comments with a Reel — you know, TikTok-style — has been around since December 2021. Yet, it’s not widely used or known on Instagram.

3. Boost top-performing posts

Boosting your top-performing Instagram posts is a smart use of your budget.

Investing in what works helps ensure your money goes toward content that grows your audience.

You already know these posts hit the right buttons — why not give them a little push to increase their impact and reach more potential followers?

While paid boosts can help, it’s important to be moderate. Don’t rely only on ads to build a stable, active community. A balance of organic interactions and strategic paid posts usually works best to keep your community engaged.

4. Go live or start a broadcast channel

Instagram Live or a broadcast channel is a great way to connect directly with your audience. These live interactions make your followers feel more involved and heard, helping you to stay visible and build trust.

For example, back in the pandemic times, Barry’s ran IG Live streams for home workouts so every follower could join them.

You can reuse content from your Instagram Live sessions by turning it into Reels. This lets you reach more people and keeps your profile lively with new, engaging content.

A broadcast channel also gives a lovely exclusivity flair. It allows creators and brands to send one-to-many messages directly to their followers’ inboxes for more direct communication.

5. Make the most of Instagram Collab posts

Instagram collabs work simply: the same Instagram post or Reel is published in two feeds, sharing all engagement metrics and featuring all collaborators.

Collab posts are great for boosting your reach and engagement. They let you connect with the followers of whoever you collaborate with, exposing your brand to new, potentially interested audiences. This feature is perfect for working with other brands or influencers.

ASOS uses Collab posts to share user-generated content and showcase their outfits together with influencers. This Collab below is between ASOS and Aki and Koichi. The couple shows off their daily outfits, and ASOS slides right into their follower base.

Sophie Hartley from Vixen Digital points out a strategy for choosing the right collaborators:

“Look out for multiple synergies with the influencers you follow, such as from a product, values, or demographics point of view. Then, timing is everything. If they’ve recently posted about a problem they’ve faced that your product can solve, act quickly.”

Start building your own Instagram strategy

Building an Instagram strategy helps you effectively reach and engage your audience. With the right approach, you can enhance your Instagram marketing and open your brand to thousands of potential customers.

Ready to start? Kick things off with Planable: it offers 50 free posts, making it easier to launch your strategy smoothly.