Instagram gets more than 800 million active users per month. This makes it a hotspot for companies to promote their products and services. But since thousands of brands are trying to compete for a spot on the users’ feeds it can be difficult for many companies to get the attention they need on Instagram. This is why having a nice Instagram marketing strategy can help.
In this guide, we try to provide all the various methods both paid and free that you can use to take your Instagram marketing to the next level. So, let’s get started.
Sites to Buy Instagram Followers
Now, there are a lot of methods to grow on Instagram. The more you stick to organic methods or spend your budget on working with marketing agencies the better it is. But if you feel that artificially boosting your stats to gain online credibility can help with your promotional strategy then these are some sites from which you can buy Instagram followers.
This is not an exhaustive list but we have selected some of the popular service providers that people are using to purchase Instagram followers.
GetViral.io
This is a website that claims to provide real Instagram growth. You can purchase followers for your profile, likes for your posts and views for your Instagram video posts.
You can also purchase auto likes which will detect when you upload a post on Instagram and send you the purchased number of likes. The cost of Instagram followers on getviral.io starts at $3.99 for 250 followers.
Viralyft
Viralyft is a company that provides services to help people buy stats for their posts and profiles on major social media platforms. It supports Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Spotify, Twitter and SoundCloud. The company promises to deliver your services fast and offers competitive rates.
You can purchase Instagram followers for cheap on this website. The price starts at $2.89 for 100 Instagram followers. It goes all the way up to $94.99 for 10k followers.x
ViewsExpert
ViewsExpert is a company that claims to have a vast network of social media users. So, if you want to boost your stats on Instagram or other social media platforms you can use the services provided by ViewsExpert and utilize its vast network to get the exposure you need. A lot of social media platforms are supported by this website like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Twitch, Spotify, TikTok etc.
If you are looking to purchase Instagram followers then there are relevant packages for that. You can buy 100 followers for just $2. There are many other packages with the costliest one costing $99.59 for 10k followers.
SocialPackages.net
This is a considerably newer website that like other social media service providers on this list provides services for many platforms like Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, TikTok etc.
If you want to check out all of its services in detail you can head on to the website socialpackages.net. The rates for Instagram followers on this website also falls in a similar range as the other service providers. You can purchase 100 followers for $2.50 and the price goes up to 10k followers for $105.
Fastlikes.io
The last service provider on this list is Fastlikes. This is a website that has services for Instagram, YouTube, SoundCloud, Spotify, Twitter and Facebook. The company claims to deliver high-quality followers for your Instagram account.
There are several packages for it. The base package costs $7 for 500 followers. If you want you can buy 50k followers for $430 from this website.
Instagram Marketing Agencies
Instagram marketing is all about ensuring that your posts get more engagement. More engagement may lead to possible leads and even conversions. But since Instagram is one of the largest social media platforms with hundreds of millions of active users thousands of companies both big and small want to capitalize on it and promote their products and services.
This is why it has become quite competitive. Businesses and brands that are just starting on their social media marketing campaign on Instagram can often find it difficult to be successful at it. This is why there are a lot of marketing agencies out there that can help you with Instagram marketing. In this section, we provide you with a list of five marketing agencies that you can work with.
FullyDigital
FullyDigital is an Instagram advertising agency. It is a team of marketing experts who use their experience and expertise to help clients boost their online presence on Instagram. The company has a huge network of Instagram followers. This network has over 220 million Instagram followers. The company uses the potential of this network to help brands grow, get more exposure, generate leads, and possibly get more sales.
FullyDigital says that when you start working with it you will get more real followers who follow you because they actually are interested in what you are promoting and posting. The company basically, takes over the strategizing phase of your Instagram marketing. It helps with content creation, strategy, management, scheduling, lead generation, targeted followers and much more. If you want to check out if the company is worth your budget and time you can schedule a strategy call with them via their website.
GrowBranding
GrowBranding is a company that can help with your Instagram marketing. The company has relevant experience and expertise in marketing and can help promote your content on Instagram. The company focuses on its clients. It listens to them and understands what the business or the brand is all about. It doesn’t want to do unnecessary stuff that will just end up costing money and gain no result. This is why the company promises to be upfront with you about everything and will not sell you something that you may not need.
After listening to you and gaining a good idea about the brand the company starts providing suggestions for improvement. It helps with analytics, content strategy, ad campaigns, content creation and monitoring. The company believes in transparency and honesty. You can get in touch with them using the contact form on the website. The company provides digital marketing services, social media marketing services, web design etc.
LabelFirm
The next marketing agency on the list is LabelFirm. It is a company that presents itself as an agency that has top-quality influencer marketing for iconic global brands. So, if you are looking for a full-service marketing agency dealing with Instagram Influencer marketing then you can head on to obvious.ly and check out the services. The company has worked with some of the top brands all over the world.
So, you can take the hint that the company strives for quality and excellence because they work with such big names. If you want to get in touch with the company you can visit the website. The company has a network of over 400k influencers from major social media platforms on its database and it uses this network to boost the exposure and reach of brands and businesses that it works with.
SkyBranding
The next company on the list is SkyBranding. The company wants to work with brands and businesses and help them redefine themselves on social media platforms. The company has a team of talented experts which is why it is one of the fastest-growing companies when it comes to creative agencies in the US. SkyBranding has received various awards for its work in this field. The company delivers creative strategy and execution for its clients. They want to use logical and scientific methods with their creativity to get the best results.
The services that you can expect to get from SkyBranding are creative strategy, content production, social strategy, paid media, Influencer marketing, data and insights etc. The website is quite different from the others. It has more animations and it seems that the company tried to show its creativity with it.
Shoutzer
The last agency on this list is Shoutzer. The company claims to have started where most companies start. It has worked towards its success and now has the technical know-how to help other companies reach their social media goals. The company has a good idea about how to present the products and services of a brand on social media. It focuses on heat its clients say.
Over the years the company has understood that most of its clients know why their products are good and why customers would want to buy these from them. But they may have some trouble in getting the message across on social media in a way that gets them more exposure and engagement. This is where Shoutzer steps in to provide its services. You can get Instagram marketing from this company so visit the website Shoutzer.com.
So, these were some of the top marketing agencies out there that can help with your Instagram marketing and take your content and profile to the next level. We hope you find the right agency for your brand.
Instagram Growth Tools
In this section of our post, on Instagram marketing, we will take a look at some of the best Instagram growth tools that you can find online. These growth tools provide services that let you grow your follower base on Instagram. So, if you think this is something which can be of interest then go through the list.
Kicksta
The first growth tool in the list is Kicksta. If you are looking to get real Instagram followers and don’t want to get short-changed by companies who just dump fake accounts and bots to your profile then you can take a look at the service that Kicksta provides. It claims that everything is genuine i.e. the stats are from real accounts. You can start your organic growth using the services provided by this company. So, here’s how all this works.
First, you have to do a little bit of research about your competitors and other brands similar to you. Chances are that the followers of these profiles will want to follow yours too. Kicksta engages with the content of these followers by liking the posts. Since, you are engaging with users who may be your target audience a percentage of them may follow your profile, given that you post good-quality content regularly. So, you just have to keep adding more and more relevant profiles for better exposure.
Upleap
Upleap is a company that can help with your Instagram growth by, sort of, being your Instagram account manager. If you want a boost to your follower count with real and organic growth via a dedicated account manager then you can check out the services that upleap provides. It is very easy to get started using this tool.
You just have to sign up and follow a couple of steps to create your account. Once that’s done the company provides you with a dedicated account manager that engages with other relevant users on Instagram. This method is what is meant to gain you more followers. The company claims that using the services that it provides its clients claim to have grown 3 times faster on Instagram. There are three packages that the company provides. The cheapest one is the lite package which costs $59 per month. You get an account manager, target hashtags and similar users.
Socialsensei
SocialSensei is another Instagram growth tool that you can take a look at if you are looking to increase your followers on the platform. This company is a leading marketing agency when it comes to Instagram Influencer marketing. The company delivered thousands of followers every month to its clients. It does this by using the power of celebrities and micro-influencers on Instagram. SocialSensei claims that its methods are the safest and most effective when it comes to organic Instagram growth strategies.
The company has worked with thousands of clients and helped them become successful on Instagram. The company is quite confident in its service and if they are not able to deliver you the promised amount of followers then they will keep at it until you get it. Now, this is not a cheap growth service tool. The base package costs $299 per month and will help you gain around 2500 to 3000 followers.
Ampfluence
Ampfluence is an Instagram growth service that will let you amplify your Influence on Instagram. There will be no bots, fake accounts or gimmicks. It will all be a real, 100% human-powered service that will focus on the growth of your Instagram account. The company provides consulting services to help you formulate a strategy. It will listen to you and understand your brand before building a custom plan.
The company then works with you to target the right users and with enough engagement and connecting with the right users you can start to see some growth in your account. There is no automation. Real people will help grow your profile. Again, this is not a cheap service but sometimes quality comes at a price. The base package costs $249 per month. Check out the website for more details.
Hashtagsforlikes
The last Instagram growth service tool on this list is HashtagsForLikes. As you can guess from the name the tool has something to do with hashtags. The company believes that using trending hashtags can increase your reach on Instagram which in turn can help get more followers. You can use this tool to discover the best hashtags for your Instagram posts.
You can research hashtags and create a campaign. The tool also lets you analyze usernames. HashtagsForLikes provides services for TikTok as well. The base package for this tool is $19 per week and the pro package costs $25. The only difference is that the pro pack contains service for TikTok as well.
Instagram Marketing Complete Guides
If you ask people to name popular social media platforms then there’s a high chance that most of them will name Instagram as one of the top platforms out there. This is because it is a major social media platform that has millions of active users daily.
Thus, hundreds of thousands of pictures and videos, if not more, are posted daily on Instagram. Each of these posts receives tonnes of engagement from users. This means that Instagram users are some of the most engaging social media users. So, it gives the platform the potential of being a marketplace or rather a platform where companies and brands can promote their services or products. This is why thousands of companies have jumped at this opportunity and started launching ad campaigns on the platform.
Today, a user’s feed is filled with multiple ads from different companies, to the point where they just scroll past most ads. This has made the competition quite high. Companies and brands want their posts to rank higher in users’ feeds so that they have a higher chance of people seeing these. The competition is fierce which is why at times it may feel impossible to break through and become popular online.
This is where a good Instagram marketing strategy can help. In this guide, we will try to give a complete picture of what Instagram marketing is all about and then we will cover the basics of it and look at some tips which can help people understand which direction to go and what things to look for and what actions to take.
What is Instagram Marketing All About?
In the introduction section of this guide, we understood that Instagram has become quite competitive. Well, whenever a platform transforms into something from which people can earn, things are going to become competitive. This is why people want to become Influencers on Instagram and there are companies that provide Instagram influencer marketing to help with that. But what does Instagram marketing entails? Instagram marketing involves a planned approach to using Instagram to gain more exposure, engagement and use that to make some kind of profit.
For example, if a company or a brand is using Instagram to promote their products or services then they want more engagement so that they can get possible leads which they can then run down and turn into conversions. Another example can be the case of Influencers.
Influencers are people who have a huge following on Instagram. Brands use Instagram influencer marketing to work with influencers and let them promote the brand’s products and services in hopes of getting more attention from the Influencer’s huge following. These deals can be lucrative for the influencer so a lot of people want to promote their content on Instagram and gain more engagement and following so that they can become Influencers.
So, to be able to capitalise on the popularity market businesses, brands and individuals need to use different tactics and strategies to be able to gain more exposure on Instagram which can lead to more engagement. These tactics can include stuff like knowing when to post, what to post, who to target etc. The main aim is to improve the presence on the platform.
Certain Tips to Help With Instagram Marketing
Okay, so in this section of the guide, we are going to take a look at multiple tips that can help you understand the important facets of Instagram marketing and give you an idea on how to get started with Instagram marketing and how to improve upon it and make it more effective. So, let’s get into it.
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Making an Instagram Business Profile
Okay, if you are going to start using Instagram to promote your brand or business then the first step that you need to get past is to create a business profile. Well, there’s a good chance that most of you already have created a business account. So, you can move on to the next tip.
If you haven’t still created one then read on as it is quite easy to create an Instagram business account. Now, most of the time it is advisable to keep your personal and business profiles different on social media platforms. But if you already have an Instagram account with a good following and you do not want to lose this by making a new account then don’t worry. You can also convert your normal account to a business one.
The main reason to have an Instagram business account is that you get a bunch of features and tools that can help you track your progress, analyze your strategy, help you figure out your audiences and much other stuff. If you want to make your Instagram account a business one then first go to your profile. Then click on the more option which is the icon that has three bars. Now, go to settings. If you can’t find the switch to the professional account option there click on the accounts option.
Here, you will find the switch option. Then click on business. Now, you will need to add relevant details and select the category of your business. Once you have completed the relevant steps you have to tap on done. That’s it you have created an Instagram business account. If you want to create a new account you just have to create a new Instagram account and follow the above steps.
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Don’t Be Pushy Laid Back Ad Is Where It’s At
The concept of social media platforms started as online sites where people can go to and connect with their friends and families. They can then share their photos, videos, and thoughts with people they are connected to.
Let’s take a look at Instagram. It started off as a platform where people can share images and videos with the rest of the world. Today, at its core Instagram is still that. People just come to the platform to relax, look at media posted by their favorite celebrities, friends and families, browse memes, look at funny cat videos etc.
So, if you start selling them stuff they may get annoyed and start ignoring you. Remember the time when you would watch your favourite program on TV and then advertisements would start? Well, users feel the same if you disrupt their relaxation and entertainment time by annoying them with pushy ads. This is why you have to promote your products and services in such a way that it does not break their relaxation phase and blends in with the rest of the post while being catchy enough for it to grab their attention.
We understand that it may be hard to get this right which is why you should take a look at the other brands that get a lot of engagement on their posts. See what they are doing and see how you can improve on your posts.
One format can be to post a really good picture of your product without necessarily putting salesy texts on it. Just add a small relevant promotional caption like – Get 50% off on your first two purchases. Chances are if your product looks really good, users will instinctively look at the caption and then after seeing the discount may become interested in purchasing it.
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Get the Visuals Right
This tip is about getting the aspect ratio, size and visuals of the post right. Instagram was made to be optimal for viewing media. Over time, the company has improved on it and the platform has become much more optimized for media content.
This is the reason why videos and images on Instagram look so good as opposed to other social media platforms. Most of the user base of Instagram comes from smartphones and other small mobile devices. This is why the platform is more optimized for viewing on a smartphone or tablet.
We are mentioning these things because whenever you are creating content for Instagram you have to make it visually appealing since that’s what is going to get more engagement. You need to maintain optimal aspect ratios and size for better quality on Instagram.
A really good blog post about aspect ratios and sizes for different Instagram posts has been done by tailwindapp. You should check out their posts for an in-depth analysis of this. For example, a good aspect ratio for a portrait on Instagram is 4:5 and the size should be 1080 X 1350px. A good aspect ratio for Instagram reels is 9:16 with the dimensions being 1080 X 1920px.
The idea is to never upload low-quality media. The images or the videos should also have catchy colours and should be able to grab the attention of the users. Try not to be dull so that you do not get lost in the scroll. Think from the perspective of the users. Will it make you stop scrolling and look at the post? Are the visuals punchy enough? Is the quality of the media good? These are the questions you need to ask yourself while looking at the quality of the image or video.
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Work to Create Your Brand Identity
Lots of businesses and brands look at what other brands are doing and what’s working and start copying the style. But this can be very detrimental to the brand. It will get lost in the sea of other similar brands with similar content. Having a recognisable identity on social media is very important. Of course, not every brand can become really unique but nothing is stopping them from having a style of their own.
For example, the colour grading and the structure of your posts should be consistent. If you used a certain hue for the background of some post, ensure that you use that hue for other similar posts on your profile.
Also, the stylistic choices that you make for an image post on Instagram should be similar to all the other image content (within reasons). The main aim is to make people relate your posts to your brand without seeing the profile name. Let’s say you frequently post Instagram stories. Try adding a border to the stories. Use the colour that you generally choose for your posts. This will make your posts stand out and be related to you. So, if a user sees it enough times they will know when it’s a story by your brand. The same goes for the content.
The images and videos that you post should have some similarities. They should feel related and relevant to your brand. If you own an apparel brand then maybe the photos of the products that you post should have a similar feel to them. The colour-grading, the expression of the models, the lighting etc. have a great impact on how the users will feel when they see your post. So, if you are consistent across multiple posts people may associate that feeling with your brand.
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Brand Voice
This tip can be considered to be a continuation of the above one. A good trait to have as a brand if one is using Instagram or other social media platforms for promotion and marketing is to have a consistent voice that can be linked with it. By this, we mean that the tone and style that you use on your posts on Instagram should become relatable to your brand. For example, when promoting your product you can choose a sarcastic, comic, indifferent, excited, salesy or serious style and tone. Work out what will be more relevant to your brand and make more people want to look at your posts and buy your products.
So, how can you present the voice of your brand to the audience? The caption. Of course, the style of your media posts also adds to the voice of the brand but the caption also contributes hugely to this. For example, you should decide whether your brand will or will not take any political stance. If it does take a political stance how vehemently will you put forth your opinion? For this, don’t try to look at what bigger brands are doing. Most massive brands are outliers. They can get away with being snarky and sarcastic.
However, this may not be the case for your brand. So, take a look at the posts of your competitors and other popular brands to understand how they are getting their point across. After looking at a few posts did you feel that the band has some voice? If you did then try to analyze how the brand is presenting this with its posts. Now, start working on your brand’s voice and use what you have researched to relay it to your audience.
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Optimal Hashtag Usage
Today, hashtags are commonplace. So, if you use relevant hashtags on your Instagram posts it will get more exposure. More exposure means more eyes on your content from new audiences thus, growing your followers. But you have to understand how to use hashtags optimally so that you can make the most out of them. You may be tempted to use tonnes of hashtags in the hopes of getting more exposure. But that is not the case. Studies have shown that using more than 10 hashtags can be detrimental to your post as people will be turned off by it. So, in general, you should try to use no more than 10 hashtags.
Before putting a hashtag on your post you need to check the performance of it. There are many hashtag research and generator tools which can help with this. Also, you may be tempted to use popular hashtags thinking it will get you more exposure. But if you are just starting out using niche hashtags can be more helpful. This is because even though few people follow these hashtags there’s a good chance that they will see your content as the competition is less. So, mix niche hashtags with the general ones. Another important thing is to have a brand hashtag.
Create a nice hashtag exclusive to your brand and use it with your posts. Encourage your followers to use it in their posts related to your brand. This way you are also sort of establishing a brand identity by having a hashtag linked to it. You can research hashtags on your own. Use different hashtags on different posts and see which perform better. This way you can get an idea about the hashtags giving you more engagement and exposure.
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Use Analytics Tools
A huge part of marketing is research and analysis. You research and analyze the market and understand the consumers. Accordingly, you formulate a plan or a marketing strategy that you use to promote your products and services. Once you start your marketing campaign you again need to analyze how well it is doing. Are people reacting to it the way you had thought they would? If not you need to figure out what’s not working and then adjust your strategy accordingly. This is where analysis tools come in handy. They can help you understand the performance of your strategy and also give a lot of insights.
One of the best free analytics tools to use is Instagram insights. Instagram Insights is the main reason why we want to switch to an Instagram business account in the first place. Instagram insights give us an idea about how our Instagram marketing is performing. How much engagement are we getting? How many users are visiting our profile? What is the demographics of our audience?
These are some of the important questions that Instagram insights help us answer. So, if you want to understand who is your target audience then look at the audience demographic in Instagram insights. You will get to know about the location, gender and age group of your audiences.
This can help you tailor your content to appeal more to your target audience and hence get more engagement. Besides an overall insight into the total engagement on your posts and profile Instagram insights also provides insights about individual posts. Post insights can help you understand how well a particular post is doing. This way you can figure out what kind of posts are getting more engagement and which hashtags are giving you more exposure on Instagram.
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Influencer Marketing
Another marketing strategy that a lot of businesses and brands are using to promote stuff on Instagram is Instagram Influencer marketing. Influencers are social media users with a huge following that they have grown using the social media platform itself. Actors, singers, sports personalities etc. are generally not considered social media Influencers.
Basically, an influencer has a huge following and their followers are very loyal to them and actively engage with their posts. So, similar to television advertisements where brands use celebrities to promote a product or service, on Instagram brands can use influencers to do the same.
The main aim is to convert the follower base of the influencer into customers. Influencers can help brands have a wider reach. Of course, it may cost more but the probability of getting a lot of exposure and making a lot of sales is quite high. This is because users who follow these Influencers trust their opinion.
So, when the person is promoting a product or service the users are more likely to check it out. Always, work with an influencer who is relevant to your brand. This way when the influencer promotes your product it feels natural and their followers are more readily disposed to buying such service or product.
For example, if you own an online cake shop you may want to work with an influencer who posts food-related content. Similarly, you can work with models if you own an apparel brand. The same goes for services like VPNs, courses etc. There are lots of marketing agencies that have tie-ups with influencers. If you register with these agencies they can help you with Instagram Influencer marketing by connecting you with relevant influencers. These agencies do audits and relevant checks to ensure that the Influencers are legit.
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Engage With Your Audience
One thing to remember while using Instagram and other social media platforms for marketing and promotion is that you need to pay attention to your audience. If you make everything about your product and the users start feeling that you do not really care about your customers then they might be turned off. So, whenever you get the chance, show your audience that you care about them. A good way to achieve this would be to engage with them by replying to their comments or replying to their DMs.
If you feel that you do not have the time to reply to comments you can just like or react to them. Also, ask your customers to provide you with feedback and reply to it positively. You can also request your followers to do a post about your product or service if they use it and tag your brand. Once they do it you can share their post on your profile. Whenever possible try to see if you can do a giveaway.
Giveaways are very popular on social media. What you need to do is select a prize, it can be a huge discount on your products or services or can be something valuable that you want to give to your followers for free.
Now, pick a random winner and send them the goodies. Request them to make a post and then share it on your profile. Giveaways and contests are a great way to interact with your audience and give something back to them for supporting your brand. Hosting such events regularly can help you gain more exposure on Instagram and thus, grow your follower base on the platform.
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Use Instagram Stories
Alright, the next tip to improve your marketing on Instagram is to use Instagram stories properly to your advantage. A lot of businesses on Instagram use Instagram stories to promote their products and services. They have been getting good results by using it.
A good percentage of the most viewed Instagram stories are the ones by businesses and brands. So, there’s no reason for you to not use it. It is a feature that Instagram added a few years back and users liked it a lot. Instagram stories don’t remain forever like your normal Instagram posts.
They disappear after 24 hours. Now, if you really want to make the most of Instagram stories you can’t treat them like your normal feed. Users expect to see more “real” and “raw” content when it comes to Instagram stories. So, give them that. Try telling a story and provide them with valuable information. Be clear about your message. If you are adding some sort of a call-to-action and want users to click on a link let them know about the benefits of doing so.
You can also use stories to engage with your audiences by conducting “ask me anything” sessions where users can ask you questions and you can reply to them and share that as a story. Also, as we mentioned before try to be consistent with your posts.
Make sure that the stories follow a similar design structure and color gradings as your other brand posts and stories. You can also post behind-the-scenes stuff on Instagram stories or provide product teasers. These may not go into your normal feed but are great content for your story as they will disappear after 24 hours.
Conclusion
So that was our complete guide on Instagram marketing. Our attempt is to show you all the various methods organic, free or paid that exists out there to help with Instagram marketing.
We hope you have gained the relevant info that you were looking for. We wish you all the best.
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