The Future of Instagram Marketing is here: Best strategies for 2021
Instagram saw some drastic changes in 2020. Instagrammers can now have a completely immersive virtual experience on a single application. There were many additions made to the platform. Stories, reels, hidden number of likes, website creation, price tags in stories, blog posts, support local business in stories, #BornOnInstagram and brand filters to name a few. These new features boosted the number of users on Instagram to 112.5 million in 2020. While Instagram supported marketers and businesses who used these features, still marketers experienced a significant drop in organic and non-organic reach of posts and stories. Despite the fallen reach, statistics show that 200 million Instagram users visit a business page at least once every day. The question here is only one: HOW?
How are brands increasing their reach with Instagram marketing?
Some brands are still able to gain popularity and thousands of followers in a short period of time. This definitely allows these brands to outshine others. It is an achievable goal that is planned out for Instagram marketing strategy. Statistics are of the utmost utility when it comes to achieving any such goal through any digital marketing strategy. For Instagram marketing, there are a few specific statistics that are useful to the brand in creating a consistent voice for better reach. These statistics are as follows:
- Instagram has an even gender mix: 52% females and 48% males
- 200 million Instagram users visit a business page at least once every day
- 18- 29 years aged people are the most number of users
- 62% Instagrammers take interest in products seen in Instagram stories
- 500 million people view Instagram Stories every day
- 50% of Instagrammers visit the ‘explore’ page
These statistics are vital to any brand’s Instagram marketing strategy. This is because these statistics make it clear what kind of demographic is on the app in terms of gender, age and consumer behaviour. These statistics can be used to develop any kind of Instagram marketing strategy. Digital marketing agencies suggest shaping the elements of the strategy according to the statistics. The elements that can be added are as listed below.
Top #5 strategies for Instagram Marketing in 2021
- Creativity
Instagram is a creators platform. Creativity, here, is all about conceptualizing impactful visuals. A marriage between creativity and brand guidelines is perfect to boost the discoverability on Instagram for brands. The branded content that has been conceptualized to catch more than just the eyes of the audience works wonders with the audience. Creativity attracts, the audience responds and ultimately, the algorithm pushes the content further.
- Work with the Algorithm
Working with Instagram’s algorithm is called to trigger it. It is tricky to do it.. This is because there is no guidebook to trigger the algorithm. It is all about trying different things that can be either hit or miss. The only way to know whether a marketer has hit or missed is through the insights. The more the audience saves and shares any content on Instagram, the more Instagram algorithms push content to the other audience with similar interests. Audiences express any interest on Instagram by using a hashtag for it.
- Build brand with hashtags
There is a hashtag for everything on Instagram. Hashtags help specify the niche of the audience. By using hashtags, marketers increase the discoverability of their post, story and account. It is best to use hashtags in the bio, stories, reels and posts. Use hashtags for the targeted audience as per the theme of the account and use hashtags that are relatable to the post as well. This way marketers at digital marketing agencies attract more audience to their brands’ accounts. A few of the most popular hashtags in 2020 and still continuing are #Reels and #ReelItFeelIt.
- Get featured with Reels
Reel is a new feature introduced to Instagram in 2020. Reel is a 15-second video that can be uploaded additional to stories and IGTV. Reels are posted by swiping right in the app itself. The video can be pre-recorded. Reels are popular and due to fewer reels creators, the reach of reels is extremely high. There is a ‘Featured’ incentive also given by Instagram. The app is pushing reels to the audience. Reels with the best response from the audience gets ‘Featured’ and Instagram runs the content with credits as a reels advertisement free of cost for the creator. Reels are great for creating a brand community for backend SEO links.
- Help SEO
Instagram is all about aesthetics. Digital marketing agencies use the power of aesthetics to attract more audience to their blog links. It contributes to organic traffic and an increased number of link clicks. The most unique way to do this is to utilize the same content and multiply the formats for distribution. A call-to-action can be integrated with these formats.
Conclusion
When it comes to Instagram marketing strategies, even Healthcare Brands tend to get confused as to the best approach. Everyone is looking for an overnight success mantra for their Brands.
The key for marketers is to, not to focus on the formats, but rather on the awareness of the audience behaviour and relatable content according to the focus area of the Brand they are operating in.