These details define your brand identity on Instagram. More importantly, they impact your account’s 

1. Take Advantage of Your Bio
A warm and engaging bio is the first thing people see when they get to your Instagram page. In a way, it’s like a homepage of your brand. The bio gives people an idea about what your brand is all about. The bio should also include a link to your website or the latest content for easy accessibility. You can also add relevant hashtags to your bio to further pique the interest of visitors. A good bio goes a long way.

2. Ask For Followers
People may enjoy your content, but don’t necessarily follow your brand yet. What they need is a small push. This can be done by asking users to follow you. You can also work these into your captions and in the comments section, thus urging people to follow and engage with your brand.

3. Stay Updated With Latest Trends
You can increase engagement and visibility by keeping in touch with popular trends. Align your content and hashtags with the relevant trends. However, make sure your content is presented in a meaningful way and is something that your audience might be interested in.

4. Build an Instagram marketing strategy
Having a clear idea of where Instagram fits into your overall social media marketing strategy will not only give you positive business results but also steer you in a laser-focused direction on what to post on Instagram.

But how do you create an Instagram growth strategy?

Step 1: Solidify your goals

Define whether you want to increase brand awareness, boost direct conversions, drive website traffic, or something else. Clarifying your goal dictates the content you post, your call-to-actions, and keeps your Instagram grid on-brand.

Step 2: Get a 360-view of your target audience

Knowing the basic demographics is crucial. But also go beyond that and deeply understand what your audience struggles with and how you can help them resolve their challenges using your Instagram content strategy.

Natasha Pierre — host of the Shine Online Podcast and a Video Marketing Coach for small businesses — says losing sight of your ideal follower in exchange for virality is the single biggest mistake creators make:

“People often focus so much on going viral and reaching as many people as possible that they lose sight of the ideal follower they're trying to reach. You could go viral today, and if you're reaching mostly the wrong people:

1) chances are it won't result in them following you, and

2) it would lead to a follower that's not an engaged community member if you're a creator or would never be a warm lead if you're a small business.

Taking the time to reflect on who your ideal follower is will help you create specific-to-them content which will not only result in better growth but quality new followers.”

Step 3: Define your brand voice and aesthetic

Craft a social media marketing voice that’s uniquely you so Instagram users can identify your posts without seeing the username.

Brand voice is hard to track or quantify, but it’s non-negotiable to be memorable. On Instagram, you can also define your aesthetic along with your brand voice. Use brand colors, stick to a consistent content theme, and have a personality.

⚠️ Remember: Your social media marketing voice shouldn’t differ vastly from your general brand voice. Reflect your company values on and off the app.

Step 4: Create content pillar themes and stick to them

Decide on a niche for your Instagram account. Have a few overarching topics you’ll post about, and don’t deviate from them too much. This has many benefits:

You don’t have to constantly reinvent the wheel for brainstorming content ideas
Your Instagram community starts recognizing you for the type of content you create
You don’t get distracted by the new, hot, shiny thing and keep revising your Instagram strategy
⚡Pro-tip: Do the best ideas come to you while doing the dishes or walking the dog? Use Ideas from Buffer to store thoughts whenever creativity sparks.

Step 5: Create a content calendar and post consistently

How often should you post on Instagram?

We recommend posting at least once daily — whether a carousel, a Reel, or a Story. Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, recommends posting two feed posts per week and two stories per day.