Instagram Marketing Strategy: Beginners’ Guide to Enhance User Engagement

Not sure how to go about an Instagram marketing strategy?

We understand the pressure. According to Hootsuite, 1 billion people use Instagram each month. 81% use it to research services and products. And 50% have visited a website to make a purchase after coming across a service or product.

Don't fret, though! This concise beginners' guide will ease you through an effective Instagram strategy.

Introduction

You've obviously heard of Instagram. It is the sixth-most visited website, after all. But what is Instagram engagement?

Put simply, it is the measure of the interactions between your visitors and your content.

The engagement rate is a good idea to follow because it tells you how frequently your visitors interact with your posts. It is also a fairer measure of how many people actually like your content compared to, say, your follower count.

The formula (yes, there is a formula) for engagement rate is comments + likes per post, divided by total followers, multiplied by 100.

Okay, great. So what's a good engagement rate?

The truth is, it varies. (Sorry!)

There is no engagement rate that is universally good. However, you can use other companies' engagement rates (particularly if they are your competitors) to measure yourself against them.

The average Instagram engagement rate falls between 1% and 5%. That's a decent baseline to start with. However, you'll have to conduct some research if you want the rates for your industry, niche, or product.

Remember that 5% or more is considered a very high engagement rate. Even if your engagement rate is 0.85%, that's pretty good.

With that, let's dive in on how to increase yours with a great Instagram marketing strategy.

Strategies to increase Instagram engagement rate

Time your posts appropriately

Any digital marketing agency worth their salt will always keep this one in mind, and you should too.

The best day to post on Instagram is Wednesday, while the worst is Sunday. You should aim to post between 1 to 3 times per day. (Major brands average 1.5 times per day.)

Most Instagram users log in with their phones, so try to avoid posting during work hours. 11 am to 1 pm (lunch time) works well, as does 7 pm to 9 pm, right after work.

Video is where it's at

Posts with videos receive 38% more engagements than posts with only images.

If you're worried about making it fancy, don't be. Videos don't need to be immaculately edited or overly showy. In fact, a more "raw" video can add authenticity to your brand.

If you need apps to edit your videos, Magisto and InShot are good choices.

Hashtags are important

No Instagram marketing strategy is complete without hashtags.

The right Instagram hashtags will help you reach a wider audience and gain likes and followers.

But there is no one-size-fits-all strategy here. There are no "best" hashtags for Instagram. You need to do your research: What is your audience interested in? What are your competitors doing, and is it working? What are major brands and influencers posting about?

Some tools that you can use to find popular hashtags on Instagram: InstagramTags, Seekmetrics, and TagBlender.

You should begin your research with 15 – 20 popular hashtags that define your services and/or products. While you can use up to 30 hashtags per post, it's important to remember that you don't have to. If they're not relevant, do away with them.

Make your content saveable

This isn't just about making pretty or interesting content – it's about making useful content.

How-to guides, recipes, and so on work well for this purpose. Add a "Save this!" call to action in your caption too. If you want a deeper dive into content optimization, check out this article.

Still confused? Ask your local online marketing agency if they can help out.

Share your workload

This is also known as user-generated content (UGC) strategy.

Look for users and bloggers who are willing to talk about your brand or product in action, and then use that content to attract more Instagram users to your page.

Conclusion

And there you have it. A concise beginner's guide to an Instagram marketing strategy.

But if you don't have the time or manpower, you may not be able to follow through or create a digital marketing strategy.

That's fine. BluEnt's digital marketing service can do it for you while you focus on running your business.

Ready to get more Instagram engagement? Contact us now!

Maximum Value. Achieved.