With over 35 million users in 2025 in the UK alone, brands and marketers should be utilising Instagram to help grow their brand. Over recent years we have seen a shift from the solely photo sharing capabilities of the platform, meaning brands now require a more clear strategy to ensure they stand out from the competition.
Like other forms of digital marketing, a robust Instagram channel is most successful when supported by other social media platforms, like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.
Presence across multiple social media platforms is then further supported by a well optimised website, email marketing strategy and running paid advertising campaigns.
Winging it is no longer an option. To make the most of this vital platform, you must define clear goals, understand your audience, and develop a strong brand voice and style.
Why Should You Market Your Business On Instagram?
As the breadth of the platform continues to grow, Instagram offers an unparalleled opportunity to connect with your audience, build brand awareness, improve brand perception and ultimately drive sales or leads.
With over 200 million brands on Instagram, it provides a visual first platform where brands can engage with new audiences and existing customers through high-quality, targeted content and interactive features.
How To Build Your Instagram Strategy
Beginning to build your Instagram strategy can be daunting, especially for brands new to market. Research into your target audience and what kind of content they like to consume and engage with is imperative.
This research will form the basis of your strategy. Follow these simple steps to create a strategy that will set your brand apart from others.
Set Your Goals
Like anything else, setting clear goals and objectives is a crucial step in creating a successful and results-driven Instagram marketing strategy. Common goals may include:
- Increase brand awareness
- Generate leads
- Drive sales
- Increase website traffic
- Create a loyal and engaged community
Goals will vary for each brand but establishing clear targets will mean you can hone your efforts into campaigns that matter, measure progress and optimise an Instagram channel to drive maximum engagement and impact.
Know your Audience
Understanding exactly who you are trying to target is essential to any business. It lays the foundation for an effective Instagram marketing strategy, as each audience group will consume and engage with content very differently.
Firstly you need to understand the key demographics, your audience’s age, location, interests and broader cultural movements.
Then you must gather information on their pain points and preferences. Finally research into the type of content they engage with most, can inform your social media marketing strategy, to ensure you are creating content that will resonate with your target audience.
Create Your Visual Style
A strong visual style on Instagram makes your brand easily recognisable, creates a sense of trust and credibility, whilst keeping your audience engaged.
To optimise your Instagram marketing strategy and content, this visual style must align with other aspects of your brand and digital platforms to ensure consistency across each channel.
It is important to consider the mood, tone, colour palette, typography and image style you are aiming to incorporate. Different ideas for content and curating the aesthetic of your brand, will be built on these key pillars and considerations.
Plan Your Content Calendar
In the extremely saturated world of Instagram, it is essential that you plan your content calendar to ensure consistent, worthwhile and engaging content. This will encourage audience engagement whilst further positioning your brand as a market leader.
Important insights into audience behaviour will determine the best days and times to post on your channel. Content can then be scheduled directly through Instagram or you may elect to use a third-party scheduling platform, these decisions will vary from business to business depending on resources.
Decide How To Engage With Your Audience
A robust Instagram marketing strategy goes beyond posting content. Community engagement and interacting with your audience is incredibly important in social media marketing and that’s just as true with Instagram.
Engaging with your audience not only enhances brand awareness and customer loyalty, it aids brand perception, creates a positive customer experience and can even help you stay on top of trends and customer feedback.
Ensuring a consistent voice across all Instagram communications, including captions, text overlay and responses to the community feeds into fostering a strong brand image, that people can easily recognise and relate to.
Consider Paid Ads
Once you have successfully developed your organic Instagram marketing strategy, it may be time to consider the use of paid ads on the platform. Paid ads provide a valuable, data driven way to expand your audience, drive conversions and achieve measurable results.
With over 2 billion users worldwide on Instagram, paid ads allow you to reach a highly targeted audience based on demographics and interests, as well as providing an opportunity to re-target those who have engaged with your brand before. Paid ads also allow for greater brand awareness and visibility, increased engagement and website traffic, which can then be measured to determine ROI.
How To Create An Instagram Business Account
If you don’t already have an Instagram account, download the app from the app store and sign-up, opting for a professional account. If you already have a personal account, go to settings, tap account and switch to professional account.
In order to optimise your business account, we recommend the following:
- Add your business name and category, choosing a category that best describes the industry you fall within
- Upload a profile picture, either your logo or a relevant image
- Write a bio, that is optimised for social search, including relevant and highly searched key words
- Include a contact number or email address
- Add a website link or up to 5 relevant links, driving traffic to your website or landing pages
Different Types of Instagram Posts
In order to keep users engaged, posting varied content formats is essential. Staying up to date with platform algorithm changes will also ensure your contents visibility is maximised. We recommend all brands should incorporate the following formats into their Instagram marketing strategy;
- Reels; short-form videos for reach & engagement
- Carousel Posts; great for step-by-step guides or multiple images
- Static Images; perfect for high quality images to capture attention
- Stories; the only form of content that can directly link to a website
As you begin posting on the Instagram channel, you will begin to understand which format of content performs best for your target audience. These valuable insights should form the basis of your Instagram marketing strategy moving forward.
Summary
As the capabilities of each social media platform expand, a well-thought out Instagram marketing strategy is essential. This will ensure you stand out from the crowd in this highly saturated and competitive space.
If you want to learn how CEEK Marketing can transform your business through social media marketing, get in touch today.