5 steps to Instagram Growth Hacking
Utilize your bio
The link in your bio is extremely important! One of the best ways to utilize the link in your bio is to capture an email list. In some cases, it works better than the link directly to your site. The founder of Foundr, a company that just started in 2013 and has over 1 million followers on Instagram, says they now generate 30k-100k clicks per month on their page from Instagram alone. With this strategy, your focus and hope is to turn those subscribers into paying customers. When keeping the link to your email list in your bio, monitor how many people are clicking on the bio link. It’s extremely important to track what is working for your brand’s audience and what is not.
Here are a couple of pointers to remember:
- Make sure the landing page in the link is mobile-optimized.
- Make sure the headline on your site’s front page is result-driven and benefit-driven. (People love benefits.)
- Make sure the landing page/website is well-designed. (great design builds trust)
- Use bullet points on your page, they work because people don’t like to read fluff. (I mean, you’re still reading right?)
- 99% of people who view Instagram, are viewing it on their phone so make sure the mobile view is pristine.
Solid Content Strategy
Content, Content, Content! You need content, you need it to be great, and you need to present it in a way that your audience will engage with it and place value onto it. The most important points to remember when figuring out your content strategy are:
- Know your audience.
- Post content your audience loves that will want to make them share it with your friends. Provide value.
- Give them a reason to want to follow you.
- Trigger their emotions.
- Be consistent!
The Good Quote, an Instagram page based on quotes with over 13 million followers, posts anywhere from 6-8x per day. The more you post, the faster you grow. Building a message snowball effect is not too much if you post content your audience loves at scale. The strategy for posting times when posting 6-8x per day is essentially based on these periods: One post when you wake up, one on the way to work, one during your lunch break, one during afternoon tea, one coming home from work, one after dinner, and one before bed. Once you work your way up to 6-8 posts per day and consistently posting at these times, your audience to expect it. A great start for posting if you want to slowly grow to 6-8x/day is 1-2x/day and then ramping it up.
MAKE SURE YOUR PHOTOS AND LAYOUT LOOK GOOD! This is key. No one wants to see 6-8 crappy quality posts. You can have a layout that’s entirely original content, entirely curated content, or a mix of both. With solely original content, you can create images/quotes/posts through apps like Phonto and Canva.
You can also take photos on your phone or with a camera (photos that are based on your brand or content of course). For all curated content or a mix of both, you can use stock photos and add your own twist to it. You may also ask owners of photos you like for permission to use it on your page and credit them. You may also use giveaways/contests and present offers! Don’t forget to use video! Use motion graphics. Treat Instagram like your audience is watching TV.
INK 361 is an app that allows you to run searches on your competitors: top most liked images, top most commented images, etc. You may also use this as the basis of your strategy. Encourage user-generated content: Post content at scale and sell! DON’T BE AFRAID TO ASK FOR A SALE! People will not click on the link in the bio unless you tell them to. Give them a reason.
Engagement
When it comes to engagement there are 3 things to keep in mind: hashtags, likes, and comments. It’s important to search for hashtags that are relevant to your niche. Secondly, you must engage with people in your target audience that are on your competitors and target influencers pages. Saving the best for last here, constantly write back to your community and treat them like gold. This is extremely IMPORTANT. You must make your audience feel valued. No one wants to talk to a bot or receive responses from a bot. Engage with your audience and use the voice that best fits your brand.
Shoutouts
Share for shares are a great way to bring people onto your page. Driving followers to a friends’ page can help with growth. You may also exchange free services and products for posts. Several of our clients, along with many other brands/businesses, will send out free product to influencers in exchange for a post on their social media pages. This, in turn, will benefit both parties and expose your brand to the influencer’s followers. The more influencers you have associated with your product, the more other influencers will be receptive to receiving your free product in exchange for a post. Drawing up a contract that states that you may use the influencer’s post with your products on your page as well will ensure you more content. This brings even more value back to your business.
Analytics
Analytics play a big part in this entire process. You must analyze what works and what doesn’t work. If you can improve what isn’t working and make it work, then do so and further analyze your alterations. If what isn’t working can’t be fixed, then scratch it altogether and go back to the drawing board with new ideas and creative ways to grow your following. For what is working, find a way to take that to the next step. For example, if you post quotes on all white backgrounds with black font...try a new color font, or a new color for your background. Create color schemes or new visuals that will show your audience that your brand evolves. Allow them to evolve with it and raise their expectation of your brand.
