Growing their following is one of the most difficult social media marketing issues that businesses confront. Instagram is viewed by many businesses as a promised land full of potential clients who are anxious to purchase their goods or services. The average Instagram business account, however, only sees a 1.69% monthly growth in followers.
Although having quality Instagram material is crucial, it is useless if you don’t have any followers to enjoy it (and learn about your products). To reach the correct audience, you must acquire new followers. As a result, you can anticipate:
- heightened interest
- increased brand recognition
- higher sales
- increased income
200 million users view at least one business profile daily on Instagram, while 90% of users follow at least one brand. That is a tremendous chance.
We’ll teach you how to (sustainably) attract real new followers for your business Instagram account using tried-and-true methods in this article to help you outperform the norm.
A word of caution before purchasing fans
One word of caution before we continue: don’t purchase Instagram followers. Paying for followers is a very futile endeavor because the followers you get will be of low quality. You won’t gain from engagement metrics, likes and comments, because they can be bots or spam accounts.
The algorithm will penalize you if you have a high following but low engagement and won’t display your material on the Explore page. Additionally, having fake followers jeopardizes your ability to show up in the Instagram feeds of your real followers, which is detrimental if you’re attempting to use the site to attract buyers to your company.
17 strategies to increase your business’s Instagram following
Following are some helpful advice, suggestions, and strategies that could grow your Instagram following now that you are aware of what not to do.
1. To attract people interested in your sector, use hashtags.
Users utilize hashtags, which are searchable words or phrases, to post content related to a specific topic. They are also used by the Instagram algorithm to classify posts. Users who click these hashtags will see all content shared with that specific tag. Find them by using:
- search for Instagram
- Analytical tools for social media like SparkToro Competitor analysis
Not persuaded? When compared to posts without hashtags, those with hashtags get 12.6% greater engagement. That’s probably because Instagram users may follow hashtags as well as profiles, making it possible for people to find your work even if they don’t follow you. Of course, they’ll hopefully click the follow button after finding you and viewing your profile.
2. Make your Instagram bio more visitor-friendly.
A key component of any Instagram marketing approach is your bio. Users notice it right away when they land on your profile, therefore it ought to be friendly and alluring for them to click the “follow” button.
Take special note to the following details in your Instagram bio:
- Your company name
- a well-known profile picture (e.g., your brand logo)
- a succinct description of your goods and/or services
- a website connection to yours
- Calls to action, such as an email address or a store button
Consider including hashtags in your bio, which is a tried-and-true method for gaining followers and expanding your audience. To increase your visibility to your target market, pick a pertinent hashtag and put it in your profile.
3. Make an immediate impression by using a grid motif.
When deciding whether to follow your business’s Instagram page, users will first look at your bio before moving on to your grid content.
Try adopting a grid theme, a certain visual aesthetic you adhere to while publishing fresh content to your profile, to leave a quick and enduring impression.
Your material is more cohesive and memorable as a result of that design. Options consist of:
- Images in black and white to create a monochromatic effect
- Your photographs should have borders to make them stand out on your grid.
- using the jigsaw method to combine smaller postings into larger photos
- Clearly defined color palettes for all of your material to promote brand recognition and association
4. Employ geotags to attract local clients
Do you cater to local clients? Add a location to your Instagram posts to give them more context and visibility. Your Instagram description and username are displayed alongside the location of your content when you quickly and easily add this to your post.
Instagram geotags have a number of advantages, but maybe their most important one is that they can make your content appear more prominently in Instagram’s search results. A user can access all publicly available postings that contain a certain geotag, such as a location or actual business address, by conducting a search for it. Make your material visible there to attract possible new followers to your Instagram account.
5. Story stickers can be used to increase engagement.
Instagram Stories give users a means to publish fleeting material on the app (Stories disappear after 24 hours). They can also be highly entertaining, particularly if you make use of the enormous selection of stickers offered.
Use GIFs, text, emoticons, and music as Instagram Story stickers. To learn more about your audience and their issues, do surveys and interview them. When producing high-quality material for your Instagram profile to attract new followers that share your interests, use these insights to fine-tune your strategy.
When starting a new Instagram Story, use the sticker option to add a sticker. You’ll be given the following sticker choices to add to your content:
What’s best? Users can share your Story to their own Stories, which means that interesting material can spread quickly and bring in additional viewers and followers. To determine which stickers have the greatest influence on your follower count, test the engagement rates and reach of your Stories with various stickers.
6. Interact with new followers to form connections
After you’ve persuaded someone to follow you on Instagram, it can be tempting to take a moment to appreciate your achievements. The real job, however, has just just begun; you now need to keep them interested and grateful enough to continue following you (and maybe turn them into a customer, if they aren’t already).
Send out automated messages to new followers with Instagram Automation by ManyChat. Consider it a chance to learn more about them, their problems, and how you might be able to assist them. Their comments on your blogs can also be automatically replied to using the Comment Automation feature.
Automation helps to improve your total Instagram engagement, which can help you gain more followers in addition to nurturing relationships. Popular content from popular brands is preferred by the algorithm.
7. Distribute video material to take advantage of demand
Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, announced in 2021 that the app will be adding new video sharing options to compete with services like TikTok and that it was no longer only a “square photo sharing” platform.
The outcome? a significant boost in the app’s video content. There is clearly a huge demand for video on Instagram, as evidenced by the proliferation of in-feed videos, Reels, and Stories.
However, that is not the main benefit of using video material. This is true: Videos can be shared 1,200 times more often than text and photo content. Additionally, you have a significantly better chance of reaching new audiences and gaining new customers when people share your material.
8. Use influencers to spread the word about your brand
Influencer marketing is an excellent strategy for attracting new followers to your account who are also relevant. Having Instagram influencers mention and discuss your business online helps to increase brand recognition; in fact, 40% of influencer marketing efforts aim to increase brand awareness.
When you collaborate with an influencer, it is acknowledged as a “paid partnership.” The followers of the influencer will have access to your Instagram account and your company’s profile. They will click the follow button if they like what they see.
9. Hold Instagram Lives to involve both present and potential audiences
Reaching an active and interested audience on Instagram Live is a fantastic opportunity. Similar to the Stories feature, it operates by giving live broadcasts priority over standard Stories
Additionally, if your Instagram Live develops a sizable enough following, it can be highlighted on the Explore page. Promote your live broadcast actively in advance to draw a sizable audience and (hopefully) gain new subscribers.
Co-hosting a live video with another company, an influencer, or even a client is another option to reach out to new audiences. You’ll hold the attention of your viewers, and the viewers of your co-host will be able to see the content as well, increasing the size of your possible audience. Keep in mind that more Instagram users will give your material more opportunities to gain followers.
10. Use user-generated content to strengthen your community.
User-generated content (UGC) is a fantastic strategy to increase your Instagram following and reach new audiences.
“We counsel brands to pick a specialty, engage with their audiences, and maximize user-generated content. By doing this, they may spend less on content generation while building a strong user base that will recruit more people. The more a business engages with them, the more posts they’ll make about it, broadening the brand’s exposure and building their audience.
Senior Content Marketing Executive at The Social Shepherd Mireia Boronat
Request user-submitted photos of people using your items (or of your products in situ). Share the material they tag you in with your audience to strengthen the connection.
Habitat, a furniture retailer, receives a lot of user-generated content because interior designers and lifestyle bloggers routinely mention the company in their images. Take a look at this one from Home Crafted Style:
11. Hold a freebie to attract the correct crowd.
Instagram competitions are a fantastic way to grow your following quickly. Contests may increase your follower count up to 70% more quickly, according to research. There is a thin line between getting a group of disinterested individuals searching for a freebie and gaining relevant followers.
Choose a prize for your contest that is pertinent to your sector in order to ensure that you draw followers who fit your target user or customer. Whether it be a purchase of one of your own goods or a subscription to a connected service, it must be properly aligned or you risk having followers who don’t engage with you or abandon you as soon as the contest is over.
12. Test out various content types.
We briefly mentioned the idea that although Instagram began as a photo-sharing service, the program today supports a variety of content formats. You can share movies, Reels, Stories, and carousel posts in addition to photographs. By allowing you to appear in more locations, diversifying your content increases your reach on Instagram and exposes you to more prospective followers.
Utilize the various post formats and keep an eye on where you can view instagram anonymously for analytics to determine which format produces the best results. What kind of material is most likely to be shared by your audience? Which media types encourage the most interaction?
Your follower count might rapidly and significantly expand if you manage to go viral with a specific type of material.
13. Use advertisements to expand your audience (if your budget allows)
When you share something organically on Instagram, only some of your followers will see it. You can use the platform’s paid ads to reach more viewers by either boosting your posts or launching more specialized ad campaigns.
You can choose to target a “Lookalike audience,” in which case Instagram will show your advertisement to individuals whose profiles resemble those of your current followers. By doing this, you can make sure that your postings are seen by people who share the same interests and behavioural patterns as those who are already interested in them. They are then much more likely to follow themselves as a result.
14. Use takeovers to increase exposure and credibility
Instagram takeovers are a strategy you may use to gain the trust of your audience. For example, you might share behind-the-scenes photos from your company or introduce your employees to your followers. You may also ask prominent figures in the business to manage your account so that their audience will see your brand.
Let’s imagine you market cosmetics. If you give a beauty influencer access to your Instagram account for the day, they will refer a ton of their own followers, who are people who are probably interested in your items, to your profile. There will inevitably be some more follows as a result.
The skincare brand VI Peel, which featured a takeover by a prominent dermatologist, is a perfect illustration of this strategy in action. The takeover gave the company’s Instagram account an extra 1,000 followers, which is not bad.
15. Get your profile out there.
Getting more people to view and follow your Instagram profile is simple if you promote it on your other platforms. Popular techniques include:
- embedding a link to your Instagram account in the footer of your website
- mentioning your blog’s profile
- marketing cross-platform on other social networking sites
- link placement in email newsletters
It doesn’t have to be a sales pitch; something as straightforward as including an Instagram post as an example in one of your blog pieces can be enough.
People who notice these mentions of your Instagram profile are likely to want to follow you on Instagram since they are already interacting with your business in some way, either as current or potential customers.
16. Pay attention to and engage with relevant accounts in your sector.
It’s not all about taking when increasing your company’s Instagram following. You must also show some affection.
Follow accounts that are linked to your field, goods, or services to gain new, high-quality followers for your page. Follow websites that share articles that interest you and your audience, such as:
- relevant decision-makers
- Blogging and trade publications
- important or well-known clients
They will follow you back if you leave comments and enjoy their material and they start to notice you and look at your profile. Consider looking at the prominent accounts that are following your competitors and do the same. Many people will repay the favor.
When your audience is most active, post 17.
When there is a lot of ongoing discussion and debate, that is the greatest moment to post on Instagram. Studies on the topic are numerous, and they frequently conflict with one another.
It is evident that the ideal posting period depends on your niche and your audience. Others are night owls who prefer to peruse Instagram in the nights, while people with certain interests are likely to be more active in the morning.
