For those businesses that sell products and services whose appeal can be augmented by them being seen or represented visually, many online channels can be used to market them. However, there is one, in particular, which must be considered, not least because it is the 4th largest social media website by user numbers on the internet. That platform is Instagram, whose usage has grown exponentially in the past 10 years to around 1.5 billion active users.

Any business that wants to get its products and services in front of the eyes of some of those users who also happen to be their target audience will find Instagram to be an excellent platform to do so, but with the caveat that it must be done correctly. To assist you in that, here are 10 awesome ways to boost the return on investment from marketing on Instagram.

#1: Determine Your Objectives – No marketing campaign on Instagram or any other platform for that matter will be successful as it should be if it does not have clear and specific goals. So, before you so much as upload an image, set your campaign’s objectives, first.

#2: Ensure Your Bio Is Optimised – The first sight of your brand any Instagram users will have is your bio, so it must be fully optimised. Describe your products and services, your other social media platforms, your brand’s hashtags, and your logo as a minimum.

#3: Fully Utilise Your Content – Instagram is an image content platform but that does not mean that you simply publish photos ad infinitum. You want to optimise them all with text, callouts, additional graphics, colour, and lots of calls to action to encourage shares of your content.

#4: Use Story Stickers – One way to customise posts is with story stickers. There are loads to choose from but for businesses, two of the most effective are the question and quiz story stickers. These encourage interactions such as followers asking questions about your products and allows for surveys of your followers.

#5: Enhance Your Branding Via Your Profile – Just as you should optimise your branding on your website, you should do likewise on Instagram. Colour schemes, fonts, and styling all play a big role on Instagram, so it is the perfect platform for you to boost and augment your branding.

#6: Use The Best Of Your Competitors’ Tactics – There is no shame in seeing what others are doing well and then using that information to emulate them. That does not mean copy and paste their posts but instead ascertaining the best principles from them and adapt them to improve your posts.

#7: Seek The Help Of Influencers – Influencer marketing is huge right now and unlikely to diminish anytime soon. This means you should seek out influencers on Instagram relevant to your industry or niche and come to an agreement as to how you can leverage their huge followings.

#8: Hashtag To The Max – Those who know that keyword stuffing is a big red flag in SEO might be puzzled by this, but it works. Using multiple hashtags within posts is a key feature of marketing on Instagram and helps to increase engagement and shares.

#9: Increase Your Video Content – Whilst images are still their primary content, Instagram is steadily increasing the amount of video content they publish too. Video content increases engagement hugely so ensure your Instagram marketing campaign has video as a key component.

#10: Be Authentic – Maybe not so much a marketing tactic but more of a principle you should follow whilst you conduct your campaign. Followers on Instagram love authenticity but hate pretentiousness so be as real, honest, and as transparent as can in all your content.