If You Want To Grow Revenue, Here’s How You Should Be Posting On Instagram

Are you wondering if Instagram has more to offer than playing with images and hashtags? Looking for Instagram marketing tips that can actually get you clients?  

With modern social media strategies, millions of people tend to believe that likes, comments, and clicks will help to achieve more revenue on Instagram. I’m sure you’re starting to question those “strategies”.  You should!  

To put it bluntly, clicks are not clients. 

No matter how much noise you are making on Instagram, if you are not connecting with users who are interested in knowing more about your products or services, you’re not growing a business. You might be just feeding your ego. 

In this article I want to put the Instagram hype to rest and instead, show you an Instagram marketing strategy that will take you to experience growth revenue, not just background noise. 

Let’s dive into this basic formula.

1. Why Do You Have An Instagram Business Account?

I guess this seems like a very basic question, but mandatory when it comes to defining revenue goals. You want to cut the noise and truly define what is social media used for when it comes to business. 

Ask yourself why are you really on social networks, in particular in Instagram?

Are you doing it to promote your business? Get more leads? Create a fan base? Help your business flourish? Connect with your clients on a more personal level? Your answers should be yes to all of the above. 

But in order for your business to grow, you need to have clear and measurable goals within your marketing strategy. At the same time, those goals should be attainable and realistic, just like the SMART criteria when you set any goal.

A great initial goal is brand awareness, as it should be! In fact, 74% of small and medium sized businesses say their top goal on social media is brand awareness.

Let’s say that you want to achieve brand awareness with your Instagram business account. In simple words, what you want is to generate a comfortable platform that your potential customers can relate to. Keep in mind, your future buyers will search your social media accounts and your website. 

Why should you always have your website and social media accounts updated? 94% of people don’t trust outdated websites. (MyTechlogy)

Now, why businesses need a solid Instagram marketing strategy to increase revenue and generating leads, besides brand awareness?

• ✔️It has over a billion active users.
• ✔️You can encourage your audience to respond to the content you post – something that applies to their lifestyle.
• ✔️Users can easily shop on Instagram.
• ✔️The platform makes talking to customers very easy, whether you are private messaging them or liking/replying to comments.

Take some time thinking about your why. This will motivate you to have an open mind and even take some Instagram courses along the way! 

2. Who Is Your Target Audience? Define Your Future Buyer.

At the brand awareness level, the best way to connect with your ideal users is not by profiling them one by one and seeing if they meet your criteria. 

You never know who needs your services, if they know someone who needs your services, or if they are purchasing a product from you for someone else. 

You want to earn trust from them. It all starts with finding ways to ignite conversations with like-minded individuals.

There are tons of ways to utilize your Instagram that will help you ignite conversations. Businesses usually overlook hashtags for example. Hashtags are one of the easiest ways to find people to connect with.

For example, we just got a new puppy. I don’t sell dog products, but I still can use dog-related hashtags to ignite conversations with other users that have dogs. Since we will have that in common, it will be easier to connect and have a conversation. Just like real life! Come and check the post here!

Get the point? And the main point of this article is to engage. Engage, engage, and do some more engaging. 

Comment on your own posts, reply to followers, comment on other people’s posts. You want to be friendly and approachable, and you want your business to have a face/voice behind it that makes consumers attracted to what you’re offering.

3. What Are The Demographics Of Your Target Audience (Why Does It Matter?)

It is true that Instagram has over a billion users. However, we need to be aware of or their demographics. 90% of Instagram users are below 35 years old. This is a key factor to consider if you’re targeting a mature audience.

In theory, social media is for all ages. However, let’s face it, different generations and age groups expect different content and engage with content in a much different way.

To make it simple, let’s narrow this plan to four different age group generations:

Baby Boomers (Roughly 50 to 70 years old)

Generation X (Roughly 35 – 50 years old)

Millennials, or Generation Y (18 – 34 years old)

Generation Z, or iGeneration (Teens & younger)

I know that you have heard that Instagram is all about visuals and hashtags. You need to take that advice very carefully. One size doesn’t fit all here. 

We need to understand how age groups like to consume content.

• ✔️Baby Boomers – Simplified design – want to find out information easily.
• ✔️Generation X – Enjoy clear and concise information- Enjoy comparisons and reviews/ testimonials.
• ✔️Millennials aka Generation Y – React to incentives and offers- Brevity is key – want information quickly.
• ✔️Generation Z aka iGeneration – Often enjoy whatever is most popular as they will be embracing this first-  Enjoy visual and interactive experiences (Click, click!!!!) 

If you’re targeting a mature audience (Generation X or Baby Boomers), Instagram will be the place where your audience do “window shopping” but it won’t be where they swipe their credit cards! Your Instagram marketing strategy needs to be tailored to attract these generations. 

One Size Doesn’t Fit All

Do NOT follow what Instagram coaches tell you on the tactics. When you want to drive sales, you need to be more focus on what your users want. Not what Instagram Gurus think that your users want. That’s a totally different game! 

4. What Do They Want To Talk About?

It’s very important to consider what you’re talking about and who you’re reaching out to, but most importantly, what are your potential customers interested in and how do they prefer to have those conversations?

Have you noticed that some of the most popular posts on Instagram are about life reflections, sentimental, and emotional and they typically have a model with an amazing picture? That’s the kind of content that appeals to a certain generation. But warning! You don’t need to post like that !!!!

I’ve found a very helpful guideline to content by generation that can be useful to craft your content to your target audience.

Baby Boomers

Guides/ books – more detailed text

Testimonials and Reviews

Video (longer lengths & more detail, if useful)

Generation X

Testimonials and Reviews

Video content (again, longer content OK if useful, otherwise keep it short)

Email newsletters

Blogs

Concise information – overviews, facts etc.

Millennials aka Generation Y

Video (short)

Promotional emails & discounts

Blogs (shorter)

Social media

Lists and facts

Emotional content – i.e. (real life perspectives, stories)

Beneficial content i.e. recipes, checklists, guides

Generation Z aka iGeneration

Social media

Videos (very short)

Quizzes

Memes

Imagery – photographs, graphics, (Instagram) 

If there’s something I want you to achieve from reading this article today is making the decision of targeting your demographics by generation. Who do you want to connect with on Instagram? Your answer will help you refine your marketing strategy and most importantly, your content.

The truth is, you can know using analytics and data what your user wants. We don’t need to invent this! And this is the part, I believe, that separates those marketers who market to make noise, from the ones who market to drive sales

5. How Do You Attract Your Audience?

I hope you’re ready for a big “aha moment”.  Instagram isn’t a platform where you post and all the sudden leads come to your inbox! 

You look – it’s as simple as that. Don’t wait for them to come to you. 

Like previously mentioned, you can find them by using simple searches, related posts, and hashtags. Build a connection with these people – they are your potential buyers/clients. Figure out what you have in common with them and use it as a pivotal conversation point. I’ll say it one more time…engage. 

6. The Right Way To Post On Instagram

If you’re here, this means you know your demographics and what do they want. The right way to post will be the way your users want to experience it.

• ✔️Use your best visuals! Choose the best looking pics. But, where is the crowd?

• ✔️Search the hashtags that are the most relevant to your topic and discover trending posts. What do they have in common? In case you need a hashtag finder, try Display Purposes. It’s a great tool to find hashtag ideas by popularity. Just one thing to remember, always search trending posts on that hashtag.

• ✔️Your caption! Here is where your content marketing fits in! Remember to talk to your generation! Once you have a masterpiece of a caption and have your picture ready, go ahead and post! But…don’t leave yet!

• ✔️Now that you’ve posted, find people who are posting about the same topics you are. Imagine you’re at a party and you’re in a group of people talking about your favorite Netflix show. What do you do? You’re going to observe, comment, and join the convo!

How To Turn Your Instagram Users Into Customers?

The strategy we are covering today fits a game plan that will get you to find users and generate brand awareness. However, once you reach to a great number of users who are engaged consistently (say about 1,000 users), we will jump from organic engagement to paid engagement. This means Facebook Ads.

With Facebook Ads you can build a custom audience based on your Instagram Engagement. This means that your ads will be seen by users who have engaged with your Instagram, but that also meet certain interests or behaviors. 

Your Instagram users have a Facebook account. And if you’re targeting a mature audience, they rather engage with you on Facebook. So now you can combine this plan with your Facebook marketing strategy. 

Perhaps your next advertising campaign for those Instagram users who are more mature and have an active Facebook is to offer them a Guide or showcase a testimonial.  

You will be surprised by how powerful testimonial ads can be. One of my clients reached $1M this in 9 months just using testimonial ads.

Takeaway Notes

See? Boosting your Instagram by thinking outside of the social media box is simple, it just needs to be relearned. Honestly, it’s no different than talking to peers in real life. Instagram is an extremely fast-paced, but if you do this regularly (at least five times a month) you will find an amazing tribe!

There’s so much noise on Instagram.

The reality is, there’s no right or wrong when it comes to marketing your brand on this platform. You do what you gotta do in order to engage in conversations with the people who truly matter to you and your business.

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