Image by Tumisu, please consider ☕ Thank you! 🤗 from Pixabay

By Noah Rue

There is no way around it. If you want to promote your business to as many people as possible, then you need to get social. Marketing on platforms like Instagram is essential because social media is important to the younger generations. In fact, 65% of Gen-Z is active on the Instagram platform, so failure to promote your company there means that you are allowing many potential customers to fall to the wayside.

Instagram is a bit different than many of the other social media platforms because it typically puts more of an emphasis on images and video than straight text, so you need to be smart and creative if you want to grab the attention of new followers and customers. To help you out, we have some tips for how to create engaging posts and beautiful images that will draw in the Instagram audience.

Get more eyes on your content

The most important part of success on Instagram is being active and posting often. One post every couple of months won’t help you to build any traction. Instead, you should aim to upload a new post every day if possible, and you need to get your message out when most people are likely to be watching. For instance, studies show that the best time to post on Instagram is between 10 a.m. and noon since that is when many people are at lunch or looking for a distraction from their work day.

To keep up with your daily upload, you need to think ahead and come up with engaging post ideas (more on that later) ahead of time, so you can start to produce those messages and pictures now and have them go live when the time’s right. Ideally, you should schedule your social content for the next 12 months. When you do, keep future company promotions and holidays in mind so you can post the best content for those specific dates.

When posting, you should avoid throwing out generic content and instead use social media algorithms to determine your audience and market directly to them. If you don’t research the algorithms, then it is possible that your demographic may never see what you post. So, if you are a business owner who needs help in this area, then it may be time to bring on a qualified social media marketer. You can try to reach your audience by adding relevant hashtags, tagging other similar profiles to get more attention, and creating valuable content.

Take clear and vivid photos

To create that valuable content, you need to have a professional appearance and draw people in with beautiful and engaging posts. Since your photos will be the first thing the viewer sees, you need to ensure that they are top-notch and express exactly what you want to say.

Consider creating a dedicated photo-taking space where you can paint, decorate and modify the space for every different shoot and changing season. So, if you are filming a summer scene, then you can decorate with bright and happy colors like seafoam and white or add floral or tropical patterns. As you replace the backgrounds, consider taking pictures of that process and sharing those as well. People love to see the behind-the-scenes of their favorite company because they can see that there are real people working there and that it is not just a faceless corporation.

While taking colorful and engaging pictures is key, you also need to make sure that your posts look professional, and choosing the right image size is a big part of that. If you simply throw up a picture and it is too small, or there are black bars on the sides, then people may not believe that your company is professional or worthy of their time. You need to consider if your image will be portrait or landscape and then use the size that is ideal for Instagram. There are many image sizing guides online that you can follow for the best results.

Try unique post ideas

If you are trying your best to make creative and attention-grabbing posts, but you still aren’t getting the views, likes, and comments that you desire, then you may have to try a couple of unique ideas that are likely to achieve the necessary boost. For instance, you can host a giveaway where you provide one of your awesome products to a random customer who comments on your post. Or you could promote a huge sale and provide a discount code that will encourage people to check out your online store.

Another idea is to take some time to engage directly with your audience. That might mean that you post an intriguing question and then ask anyone who sees it to give their answer via a comment. You could also create posts where you respond to a question, testimony, or review that a customer has made about your products. That is a great way to clear up confusion and build awareness of the items that you sell.

If your company produces a physical or digital product, then you can do a video tutorial where you show all of the perks of that item and how to use it efficiently.

The point is that if you find that engagement is not improving, then you may need to mix things up and try a different approach from time to time. No matter what you do, never stop posting.

As you can see, there are many ways that you can improve your Instagram posts and promote your business with fresh and relatable content. Try these tips and use your imagination, and you will continue to draw in more followers.

________

Noah Rue is always wondering where his next trip will take him. When he’s not traveling the world, he writes about sustainability, technology, workplace management, career development, and other interests. Noah also enjoys a good meme from time to time.