Instagram is a highly efficient yet affordable platform with ample opportunities to grow your business even on a tight budget. Millions of brands, companies and small family businesses around the world use Instagram as a major source of income. Two questions remain: What does an effective Instagram marketing strategy look like and how to implement it? One way is to turn to current Instagram trends for ideas and inspiration.

We’ve looked at some of the biggest changes that have taken place on this social network recently and compiled a list of topical Instagram marketing tips. Feel free to add them to your existing marketing strategy, or simply test them out as an experiment.

Instagram content trends

Stories rule

Stories get nearly half a billion views daily. This trend is predicted to continue to grow, so that Stories will become the main way of transmitting messages on Instagram, confidently dominating the regular feed.

Some brands already include  Stories in their marketing strategy. And the most interesting thing is that the situation does not stand still. Instagram’s marketing team introduces new features often enough to diversify the platform and provide customers with more interactive tools to engage their audience. Today, Stories can include GIFs, polls and questions, which have become an effective new method of interacting with subscribers.

Advice:

• Count Stories with a separate social channel network with their own separate content plan.
• Use functions that fit the design of your story.
• Imagine subscribers branded gifs or augmented reality face filters, to increase the recognition of your brand.

Custom branded augmented reality filters

Augmented and virtual reality were the main themes of 2020. There are many ways to apply these technologies in practice – you’ve probably tried Instagram face filters or filters that add fun elements to the background of photos.

For example, check out Rihanna’s Diamond Filter, designed to bring more attention to her charity Diamond Ball, or try one of Kylie’s lipsticks with Kylie Jenner’s Personalized Facial Filter.

Augmented reality is expected to become one of the main trends of 2021, as Instagram prepares to launch its new built-in service for creating branded augmented reality filters. The service is already undergoing closed testing, so we hope it will soon become available to users.

This is our advice:

If you represent a well-known brand, agency or a large company, you can already directly contact Instagram, order your own filters of augmented reality and add them to the marketing strategy for Instagram. But if you are a small company, nano- or micro-agent of influence, you can use the time before the official release of the search function promising ideas for its application.

Personalized content

As many have already found out, engagement with authentic, user-generated personal content works much more effectively for brands than branded content – especially when it comes to advertising. You’ve probably clicked the “do not follow” button yourself many times if you received a direct ad that you weren’t interested in at all.

In 2018, brands and businesses had to invest in creative advertising and scrutinize subscribers to see what would resonate with them. As a result, brands are now producing even more content than ever before to focus on a specific niche instead of targeting every message to an entire audience. 

This is our advice:

• Use Instagram to collect relevant information about their clients.
• Ask subscribers about their needs and opinions.
• For improved results aim to a specific niche audience.
• If you want to refer to different segments, create different content for them, and maybe even make them separate niche profiles.

Personal Instagram business cards

By mid-2020, Instagram had reached 1 billion monthly active users. With the sheer number of active accounts, it has become really difficult to find individual users. Understanding the needs of the audience, Instagram introduced the Instagram business card. Basically, it is a QR code that can be personalized in various ways, such as changing colors, adding emojis and even selfies. Instagram Business Card is an easy and quick way to send followers directly to your account.

Advice:

• Create an actual Instagram business card. Not worth making it too simple – use emojis or selfies.
• Periodically update your Instagram business card. Pick up decoration for holidays and important dates throughout the year to entertain their readers.
• Agree a business card with its general style and image.