In today’s crowded online marketplace, it can often feel overwhelming trying to find your ideal audience, grab their attention, and convert them into loyal clients/customers. And although social media is an incredibly powerful tool for marketing your business, it can be exhausting constantly trying to shout above the noise and get yourself heard.
This is for you if you
- Struggle to find and connect with your ideal audience
- Want to use Instagram for more than just likes + follows
- Are ready to have genuine conversations with your people on IG
Although we all like to see our follower count go up, the key to any social media marketing needs to be focused on genuinely engaging with your audience rather than just throwing out content and hoping someone will see it.
Even though followers and likes can give a certain indication of your audience size and interests, it also means nothing if they are never really connecting with your brand beyond the double-tap. 
Finding clients/customers is first and foremost about creating a community and gaining trust. It’s about listening to what your audience wants and providing them with content that makes them stop and take notice.
These 5 tips will help you engage with the right people and build your brand on Instagram.
1. Ask for engagement
It sounds too obvious to work, but sometimes the most simple things work the best. In this case, if you want engagement you have to ask for it. You can do that by asking a question, prompting a response, or starting the conversation yourself.
You can end your posts with questions like “what do you think” and “what are you working on” to entice them to respond. You can also give them a chance to ask you a question (this works great in stories too).
Look at your Instagram account as a way to build a community with people who actually care about what you do and genuinely want your help. The more you do this and work to actually engage with them, the more your brand presence will grow and in turn the more clients and sales you’ll be able to get.
2. Use all the features
Instgram has grown and changed over the years and now it’s almost like having several smaller social media platforms within one app. There are so many ways you can use Instgram: posts, stories, reels, IGTV, live, and guides.
It might feel a little overwhelming to tackle all of these so let’s start out by saying you don’t have to. You can pick a few of the features that work best for you, your brand, and your audience and stick to those. While all of the features have their benefits, and using all of them together can pack quite the punch, but there is no reason you have to force yourself to do it all either.
I do recommend using at least a few of the features regularly so that you can reach your audience in different ways. Some people will connect with posts better, some with stories, and each feature has a different use that helps round out your brand.
(Side note: If you want to learn more about how to use each feature specifically, check out the Brand Your Instagram bundle for a guide and templates to better brand your Instgram.)
3. Tell stories
One of the most daunting things about launching a business is the feeling that there are already so many people doing the exact same thing and that you are entering into a highly saturated market.
One of the things that is going to make you stand out is you, the personality behind the brand. This is why revealing your own personal journey about how you got to where you are today is an incredibly powerful way to make people take notice, particularly if you’ve overcome hurdles to get there.
Stories and branding go hand in hand and telling stories through your content on Instagram is just one more way to connect on a deeper level with people. People relate to stories. It’s easier to consume stories.
Although you want to keep a professional front, don’t be afraid to reveal your flaws and vulnerabilities to your audience as these are things that make your business and brand feel more real and authentic.
4. Go beyond Instagram
Although Instagram is amazing for attracting your clients/customers and connecting with them, you still want to get them to engage with you beyond the app.
A great way to do this is by encouraging them to sign up for your email list so you can connect with them outside of Instagram. You can also point them to your website from the link in your bio or swipe up on stories so they get to know more about you and your brand and how you can serve them beyond what they see in the squares.
5. Collaborate with others with a similar audience
Collaborating with others is one of the best ways to increase your reach and expand your audience. The idea is that you reach out to someone who attracts if not the exact same audience, a very similar one in order for you to form a mutually beneficial partnership. You also want to think about what could benefit your audience as well.
Some ideas for collaborations are guest posting, taking over stories, co-hosting a live, or collaborating on an IGTV. By doing these as a team and by both individually promoting this collaboration on social media, you are both getting exposure to each other’s audience.
Bonus – track the right metrics
I know I said 5 ways at the beginning of this post, but I wanted to throw in a bonus tip because I think it’s so important to note when trying to track your engagement. Engagement goes way beyond the likes and follows these days. In fact, the most important metrics are saves and shares.
So when you’re creating content for Instagram keep in mind that your goal is more for people to save and share than just simply like the post. Even if they are not commenting or directly responding, saving or sharing a post, reel, or IGTV counts as engagement.
Recap
Instagram has been hugely impactful for my business and it’s one of my favorite marketing tools but in order for it to work, you do need to be strategic and intentional in how you show up. To build up your community on social media does take time, but if you are consistent and persistent, soon enough your fans will come flocking.
Next Steps
If you’re ready to build your audience and engagement on Instagram, grab the Brand Your Instagram bundle to get started. Learn the strategies you need to intentionally infuse your brand into your Instagram plus get access to over 170 plug and play templates that will help you elevate your brand presence on the app.
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