Social media marketing involves promoting your brand, product, or services to audiences using social media platforms. In this article, we’ll unpack the method of coming up with a strategy for Instagram, our personal favourite platform for social media marketing.

Note, when we use the phrase Social Media Marketing, we’re talking about the organic kind — not paid advertising. If that’s what you’re here for, check out our Meta ads hub.

With over 1.3 billion active users worldwide, Instagram has become one of the most popular and influential platforms for businesses. Its wide range of features means you can employ different strategies to guide your audience through every step of the customer funnel:

Creating brand awareness. Reaching, informing and generating leads from new people — best measured by reach rate and follower growth.
Nurturing buyer consideration. Encouraging interest in your brand/offerings — measured using engagement rates and post interactions.
Generating conversions. Driving traffic to a conversion site — leading to sales, enquiries, or other desired customer actions.
Encourage returning customers. Building a loyal community — proven by testimonials and inbound feedback.

Unlike some other platforms, with Instagram it’s possible to address all of the above. Keep reading for beginner’s guide to Instagram marketing in 2024.

Understand your audience

Before you go any further, you need to figure out who you’re speaking to. Take note of audience demographics such as age, location, average income, typical job title or industry, and interests. These factors will guide the way you express yourself online.

Are you trying to break into the Gen Z market? Does your customer have an eye for luxury? Are they part of the corporate 9-5 crowd? Busy parents? Financially conscious students? Come up with a detailed profile of the person you’re speaking to. As the saying goes, ‘when you speak to everyone, you speak to no one’.

Analyse your competitors (but don’t copy them)

Aside from your audience, your competitors are your other key inspiration. We’re not giving you permission to steal their ideas; your brand is unique and your strategy needs to represent that. But you might be able to learn a thing or two from a competitor’s Instagram. Do a little reconnaissance to find out:

What’s expected in your industry
How your target audience is engaging with likeminded brands
Where there are opportunities to differentiate yourself
What you can learn from their success (and/or failures)

Let’s reiterate: you can’t just copy someone else’s strategy. Not only is it lazy, but it also won’t work. Social media algorithms and your followers are both smart enough to recognise a copycat. Moreover, you’ll always be one step behind if you’re just waiting for someone else to come up with all the ideas — and our aim is to get ahead of the competition.

Make the algorithm happy

Your success depends largely on how well you understand the Instagram algorithm, and knowing which kinds of metrics matter the most.

TIP 1: IT’S ALL ABOUT SAVES AND SHARES

Instagram boss Adam Mosseri recently confirmed that the more shares a post receives, the more Instagram displays your posts to people.

“We are looking to help people discover content they want to connect with friends over, and so ‘sends’ is a great proxy for that sort of connection over creativity.”

Saves are the second metric you want to be aiming for, considered a key indicator that you’re creating the content your audience wants to see — which the algorithm rewards by increasing the reach of that post and others in future.

The best way to get people to share and save your posts on Instagram is through:

Educational information
Helpful tips or advice
Quality visuals
Conversion starters, from memes to interesting news

*Left to right: Like, comment, send, save*

TIP 2: REELS REACH MORE PEOPLE THAN PHOTOS

In 2024, it’s no secret that Instagram Reels perform better than photos. It’s been confirmed that they’re more likely to appear on the Explore page to users who don't follow your account, and we’ve definitely noticed high reach rates with non-followers for Reels compared to photos. It’s likely that Instagram encourages users to post videos in order to compete with TikTok.

On the subject of Reels, head honcho Adam Mosseri has recently dropped some more algorithm lore. Apparently, making your reel longer than 90 seconds will actually hurt its distribution. This does make sense, as trends indicate most users are craving quick consumption.

So, if you want to reach a wider audience, make sure to add plenty of Reels into your content calendar.

TIP 3: ORIGINAL CONTENT IS BETTER THAN AGGREGATE ACCOUNTS

In April this year, Instagram made an interesting announcement: content aggregators will now see a lot less reach.

A content aggregator is an account that just reposts content from others. In Instagram’s opinion, aggregator accounts rarely offer an original perspective, which is what they aim to reward and encourage on their platform.

How does this work? If the algorithm finds two pieces of identical content posted to Instagram, it will try to determine the source of the original post. If successful, it’ll intentionally show the original post to a wider audience instead of the aggregator's version, and even add a link on the aggregate post to the original.

If your goal is to reach new audiences, reposting or resharing content won’t cut it. The loophole is that the algorithm is only crosschecking your posts against other Instagram content — so if you’re resharing a photo you found on Pinterest, for example, you should be okay.

TIP 4: INTERACTION BREEDS VISIBILITY

Did you know that Instagram is more likely to show your content to a wider audience if you’re regularly engaging with the community? This is because they want to reward the most active accounts, in turn encouraging users to spend more time on their platform.

So, follow people, like their posts, and spend some time commenting on interesting content that you see in your feed and on the Explore page.

Hack: Search up 5 hashtags relevant to your brand and comment on a handful of posts under each. If you do this regularly, Instagram will start to show your posts on the Explore page for other users who also look at those hashtags.

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To summarise: a good Instagram strategy starts with knowing your audience and analysing your competitors. Your content should then be driven by an understanding of the algorithm. Likes and follower count used to rule the game once upon a time, they’re now less important than ever. Remember our four rules:

Aim for saves and sends
Reels are best, but only under 90 seconds
Be original
Invest in the quality of your content

Need help? Ask us about our social strategy and management services.

An Intro to Instagram Strategy in 2024