10 Instagram Marketing Mistakes to Avoid Making

Over 1 billion people use Instagram every month. It is one of the most popular social media networking platforms for users and businesses. People love the visual aspect of Instagram. It’s true when they say that a picture can mean a thousand words.

Instagram is a part of many businesses’ content marketing plans. In fact, their feeds represent a brand’s image by showing what they want their customers to see. While Instagram can be very easy to use, there are several Instagram marketing mistakes you should avoid making. You don’t want to hurt your brand’s image or lose customers.

Here are 10 mistakes your business should avoid making if you want your increase your brand presence and reach.

Not Having a Content Strategy

An important Instagram marketing mistake to avoid making is not having a content strategy. Without a goal in mind, it becomes hard to know what type of content to post. You’ll experience a loss of direction if you manage your Instagram without a content strategy.

As you would with traditional marketing tactics, you will need to form a content strategy that fits with your business goals. You should be able to answer the who, what, where, and why.

Not Using Hashtags

You can hope that users will randomly find your content or you can use hashtags for a boost. Instagram allows you to use up to 30 hashtags at once, so why not do so? They are key to expanding your brand’s reach on Instagram.

Hashtags are keywords that users can use to find your content. Do a bit of research to determine which keywords you should be using. They will make a difference in your traffic.

Setting Your Account to Private

Another Instagram marketing mistake to avoid making is setting your account to private. If it’s private, then the hashtags will be useless. Your content will only show up in search feeds if it is public. The process of “requesting to follow” will make it harder for customers to reach you. It creates a barrier between your brand and potential users so please, keep your account public.

Not Having a Business Account

Instagram allows you to switch from a personal to a business account. If you’re a business, then you better be using this feature as it is packed with tools. With a business account, you can view your analytics, create easier call-to-actions, and gather important information about your audience. These insights will give your brand the ability to analyze, optimize, and improve your content on an ongoing basis.

Not Having a Link in the Bio

Having a link to your website is one of the easiest ways for customers to contact you. It allows users to instantly click through to your website without the hassle of opening a new browser on their phones.

Worried that mobile e-commerce sales aren’t relevant? It’s expected that mobile e-commerce sales will account for 54% of total e-commerce sales by 2021. Not putting your link in the bio could be missed opportunities that you don’t want to risk.

Not Posting Consistently

Without giving up the quality of your content, you should be posting to your Instagram on a regular basis. Your brand should be posting enough to stay relevant with all the traffic that goes on the platform every day.

Your ideal posting frequency will depend on your business goals and the amount of time your team is able to dedicate to your Instagram marketing efforts. Social media expert Neil Patel explains that there is a correlation between how often you post and how many followers you have. The most popular Instagram users post a lot of pictures.

It is recommended to post 1-2 photos per day along with 5-30 Instagram stories. As they always say, consistency is key.

Posting Too Often

It’s one thing to not post consistently, but another thing to be posting too often. An Instagram marketing mistake to avoid making is posting too often on your account where it could look “spammy”. With Instagram’s algorithm, whatever shows up in a user’s feeds is determined by what posts and accounts they engage with the most, as well as other contributing factors such as the timeliness of posts, how often they use Instagram, how many people they follow, etc.

That means that as long as you’re engaging with your audience, then your content will be seen by the right people. You don’t have to post multiple times a day to be seen. If you insist on sharing several photos at once, you can turn it into a slideshow instead.

Too Much Self-Promotion

No one likes to hear people talk about themselves all day. Don’t be that brand that only cares about selling their services. Instead, create an online community that your services can integrate into. Your brand needs to be personable and approachable in order to develop high-quality, long term relationships with your users.

Other ideas that can be mixed into your feeds can include:

• Customer stories
• Client showcase
• Tips and tricks
• Lifestyle or inspirational posts

Low-Quality Photos

One huge Instagram marketing mistake to avoid making are low-quality photos. Focus on quantity over quality even if that means missing a day of posting. If a photograph is blurry, ditch it. Your users want to see high-quality photos and that shouldn’t be hard to do considering high tech smartphones are nowadays.

Not Engaging with Your Audience

Finally, you should always be engaging with your audience. That means responding to your comments and even commenting on other posts. Ignoring comments from your audience can make it look like your brand is not interested in connecting with other users. This will probably lead to unfollows and a decrease in engagement.

It’s more than just posting a photo or video then leaving it to work for itself. If you want to build a strong online community around your brand, you have to actively engage in your Instagram posts.

Now you know what mistakes to avoid making, you can properly optimize your Instagram marketing. To sum it up, you should be using an Instagram business account backed by a content strategy and properly posting schedule. Remember to focus on quality over quantity by avoiding low-quality images. Focus on engaging with your audience to build that online community and avoid too much self-promotion. It’s about the brand story you’re creating and the people you want to involve.

Are you making any of these mistakes? What are your favourite ways to optimize your Instagram marketing initiatives? We’d love to know.