The Ultimate Guide to Increasing your Instagram Followers

Instagram has become the third most popular Social Media platform after Facebook and YouTube with the percentage of active reported users surpassing the 1 billion mark.

As Instagram’s popularity continues to rise, so does its business benefits. More than 80% of businesses consider Instagram engagement as the most important metric when measuring brand success and the platform has become known as an ideal fit for e-commerce marketing.

A high amount of page-followers offers your brand more credibility and a higher organic reach. With over 75% of businesses using this powerful platform, understanding how to differentiate yourself from the competition and stand out from the crowd is vital for growth and success. 

Here’s our ultimate guide on how to increase your Instagram followers;

1. Create an IGTV series

Creating an IGTV series allows brands to use Instagram as a platform for serial content where viewers can browse and pick the video that most intrigues them. As viewers tune in to every new episode they will turn into followers. By repeating your theme and style throughout each video, your new audience will know what to expect. What does your audience want to learn through your video content? It’s important to stay consistent and fresh to ensure viewers are coming back for more. 

2. Use Instagram Reels to improve your marketing strategy

Instagram Reels is a new dynamic tool to create fun, engaging, high-quality video content from Instagram Stories in the form of a 15-second video clip. It helps to build your community and grow your reach on Instagram by creating authentic content which showcases your brand personality. 

3. Post more video on your feed

Video is the future of Instagram and as IGTV begins to pick up traction, brands are also creating long-form video content for their feeds to drive growth and business performance. The immersive qualities of IGTV have now been introduced to Instagram feeds with the preview feature available on the grid, making it easier to combine your audience and IGTV content.

Video drives a higher engagement rate with 92% of marketeers deeming it as a vital part of their marketing strategy, providing them with a positive return on investment and of course, more engaged followers. 

4. Treat your Instagram profile like a homepage

Brands are now just as likely to use an Instagram profile to represent their business as a website, therefore, in just one page you must incorporate all aspects of your brand. Your feed is the first opportunity to capture users attention and essentially turn visitors into followers. Following the below steps will ensure your profile is the ‘whole package’: 

• Consistency is key: whether it’s the filter used on your visuals or the time/day you post, your audience will engage with the dependability of your brand and the experience of visiting your page as a whole.
• A powerful and relevant profile photo that is streamlined with your feed will strengthen your brand and entice users to initially visit your page. 
• A detailed yet concise bio which effectively showcases your brand. When writing your profile, include keywords that could help users find you.
• Active stories which are posted consistently.
• Coordinating cover photos for Instagram highlights.
• Include a call to action: link back to your site/other social platforms.

5. Write longer captions on your posts

Although Instagram is an aesthetic platform and will always require powerful, high-quality visuals, it’s also essential to build on your brand’s authenticity to stand out from the crowd. Creating a genuine and evocative profile ensures your Instagram users will continue to follow you and it will also attract a more engaged audience.

Adding long-form captions to your posts will give your audience a chance to learn more about you and your brand and simultaneously raise awareness for the causes you stand for. Asking questions and replying to comments in your captions will also boost engagement

6. Work with micro-influencers & collaborate with powerful brands

Reaching new audiences is the key to growing your brand and subsequently, gaining more followers. Instagram influencer partnerships are the best performing platform for brands due to their high engagement rate. Long-term partnerships with micro-influencers are the key to success in 2020 with this trend continuing to pick up traction.

Building an influencer partnership with regular collaborations ensures consistency across your platform and fuels a strong affinity with the influencer’s audience by building trust. The top three industries working with Instagram influencers include luxury brands, sports clothing and beauty brands. 

Collaboration with a powerful like-minded brand also has the same positive impact. Your profile will be shared with a fresh new audience with the right demographic, who will be interested in what you have to offer and more likely to follow you.

7. Promote your Instagram content on other platforms

Promoting your Instagram strategy as part of your marketing efforts to gain more followers includes more than just updating your Instagram profile. It’s important to update your other marketing channels such as Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and your website which lead your audience to your Instagram page. Users are more likely to follow you if they trust your brand and the more platforms you engage with, the more professional and genuine you will appear. Cross-promoting can also introduce new audiences to your page. 

8. Hashtags are still as important as ever!

You can use hashtags for everything from running hashtag-based campaigns and promoting your Instagram community to highlighting your branded content and announcing your Instagram campaigns. It’s important to check your Instagram hashtag analytics on previous posts and do hashtag research to see which tags perform the best. Using relevant hashtags as often as possible alongside creative content and audience targeting will help to boost your business and promote it in the right way.

Hashtags are essential for:

1. Targeted Social Media marketing
2. Keeping an eye on the competition
3. Promoting events
4. For visibility purposes

9. Use a branded hashtag to create an Instagram community

A branded hashtag is a short and simple yet memorable hashtag that’s unique to your business. Branded hashtags create a community around your business and can attract new followers with as many as 7 out of 10 hashtags being branded on Instagram. Be sure to include your branded hashtag in your Instagram profile and entice your followers to follow your unique hashtag to double your chances of engagement.

10. Get your pictures right

There are some simple hacks that will boost your likes exponentially. Here are a few ideas to implement on your future posts:

• Keep pictures relevant and interesting.
• Quality beats quantity. Don’t scatter-gun your Instagram account, keep it relevant and interesting.
• Use consistent filters. 
• Tag people in your images. This ensures your image is seen and will boost engagement.
• Geotag your pictures – your photo will show up to others who post in your local area.
• Get your image dimensions right.
• Be sure not to infringe copyright.

11. Reach-Building is key

Reach-building is the act of proactively seeking out relevant users and boosting your brand’s visibility. Here are a few tips for implementing reach building techniques on Instagram:

• Start liking images from profiles in your target audience – as many as possible.
• Comment on pictures by offering genuine and interesting advice.
• Follow relevant users. 
• Follow ‘suggested friends’.

Neil Patel, Digital Marketing thought leader offers his own experience of this: “For every one hundred likes I did on random photos of other users, I generated 21.7 likes on my photos and 6.1 followers. I did not have to follow people back for this to work”.

12. Paid Advertising will sky-rocket your visibility

If you’ve got access to a budget, advertising is a great option. Use online ad-buying tools from official Instagram partners. This allows you to use a third-party site to create, target and place ads on Instagram yourself. Be sure to keep up to date with performance – never underestimate the importance of data analysis.

Here are 7 benefits of using paid social media advertising for your small business:

• Amplify your reach
• Fit any budget
• Enhance your targeting
• Boost brand awareness
• Maximise your content marketing
• Gain access to mobile users
• Gather market insights

Our team is fully equipped to build your Instagram follower base and fertilise your digital home; drop us a line.