Despite what some people say, Instagram is not dead in 2023, in fact, it’s still of the most popular social media platforms with over one billion active users. Instagram remains a powerful tool for business owners and marketers to reach their ideal customers and drive leads and sales. In order to cut through the noise and competition, creating scroll-stopping content is a must. With all that being said, here are my top tips for creating high-converting posts that will help you crush your goals.

1. Understand Your Ideal Customer

Those of you who have been reading my blog or listening to my podcast for a while will know that this is one of my most important tips for effectively marketing your business on any platform, not just Instagram. Creating an ideal customer avatar is one of the very first activities I get my coaching clients to do and is the first thing I research when onboarding new clients in my social media agency. This is because having a thorough understanding of what makes your ideal customer tick is essential for creating content that captures their attention and resonates deeply with them. Understanding their biggest struggles and desires and knowing exactly how your product or service can help them is the most important step in creating a post that is high-converting.

2. Use Eye-Catching Visuals

Instagram has always been a very visual platform and because it’s so popular, creating attention-grabbing visuals is crucial if you want to stand out and get people to stop scrolling. So how can you create eye-catching visuals? This step will require you to engage in some testing. Try experimenting with different colours, patterns and textures. Try including images of yourself in your graphics, particularly if your business is a personal brand. You can also experiment with different high-quality photography. Your Instagram insights will be your best friend so make sure you check them regularly to see what your audience is engaging with and then create more content like that. 

3. Write compelling captions

What I mean by this is you need to write captions your audience actually wants to read. Your caption should always begin with an attention-grabbing statement. Incorporating your ideal customer’s pain point or one of their biggest desires is key to capturing their attention. 

Now that you have their attention, use the body of the caption to provide context to your image or video. You may use this space to educate your audience and position yourself as an authority or you can tell a story or share a message that builds trust and rapport with them. 

Finally, you should always end your caption with a call to action that ties in with a business goal. This is an important step if you want your captions to convert and get results.

4. Stop stressing about hashtags

Instagram has said, and I quote “The content itself and the way people interact with it can affect the distribution more than the hashtag”. They also said that we should “Think of a hashtag as a tool that provides context about your post and supports delivering content to people who are interested in a particular topic.” Instead of spending a lot of time trying to find the perfect hashtags, choose up to 10 hashtags that are relevant to your content and invest the rest of your time making sure your caption is well-written and the visual you use is eye-catching. There’s a tool I love and use all the time called Flick, which I’ll leave linked in the show notes, that is perfect for helping you find relevant hashtags quickly and easily so you can focus your time on the other element of your post. Flick works by using Instagram’s Hashtag Search API, which allows its customers to find the best hashtags for their content by analyzing hashtags in different niches. While I am an affiliate for Flick, I had been using it for around a year prior to becoming an affiliate and I certainly wouldn’t recommend any tools I don’t already love and use. So, once again, if you’re interested in checking Flick out, I’ll leave it linked below.

5. Post at the Right Time

While I would love to be able to give you a one-size-fits-all strategy, outlining exactly what time you should post, the truth is that this time will be different for everyone. To ensure maximum visibility, I recommend checking your Instagram insights to see when your audience is most active on the platform. Instagram gives you data on the days and times your audience is most active. My suggestion is to share your post just before the most active period so that when your audience visits the platform your post is there for them to see and engage with.  

The timing of your Instagram post is crucial to its success. You want to post when your audience is most active on the platform to ensure maximum visibility and engagement. Use Instagram Insights to determine when your audience is most active, and schedule your posts accordingly. You can also use third-party tools like Hootsuite or Later to schedule your posts in advance. Again I want to shout out Flick because they also have an excellent analytics section that gives you great data on audience activity.

6. Experiment with Different Content Formats

There are many different formats you can use on Instagram including photos, short-form videos aka reels, carousels, stories and lives. If you want to reach new people who aren’t already following your Instagram account, your focus should be on posts and reels as these formats are pushed out by Instagram to new audiences as well as to your existing followers. Stories and lives, on the other hand, are typically only seen by people who are already following you. They’re a great place to share behind-the-scenes of your business, connect with your followers on a deeper level and sell your offers to an audience who are already warmed up to you and your business. 

Instagram remains one of the most powerful social media platforms for businesses and marketers to connect with their audience and sell their products and services. I hope that these tips will help you start creating high-converting content that drives results and helps you crush your Instagram goals. 

If you found value in this post and want to learn more about how you can work 1:1 with me to master Instagram marketing so you can reach more dream clients and customers, without the overwhelm, click here to apply for a free strategy call with me where we can chat more about what it would look like to work together! 

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