7 Instagram Hacks to Increase your Sales and make your Competition Irrelevant

With 500+ Million daily active users, Instagram is the holy grail of social media marketing. Ever since the launch of IGTV, Instagram is not coming slowly at anything.

If you’ve been following our blog, you might have come across two of our most popular Instagram posts, how to write Instagram captions for business and how to find hashtags to drive more sales, that made it clear that engagement on Instagram is the new model of success.

You might be a budding startup that desperately needs some killer Instagram hacks to spice up your brand image on social media.

So, fasten your seatbelt people, here are some mind-blowing Instagram hacks that you can add in your social arsenal and gain a competitive edge over your rivals.

Without any due, let’s dive in!

1. Table of Contents

   Post Content at the right time

Timing on Instagram is everything. Posting the right content at the wrong time won’t give you any engagement and views. Instead, if you craft a post and post at the right time, it will gain much attention.

It’s easy to figure out when is the right time to post on Instagram. The next step is to understand that the latest content performs a lot better than the older content when it comes to ranking the content at the top. This means that you must post the content when your target audience is relaxing and browsing all the other content.

These days no brand is a local brand. Every brand on the internet can reach a wider audience and make a name in the global market. That’s why you must keep a log of various time zones so that you can post at the right moment.

Moreover, you must keep your audience in mind when you post. For instance, if you have a local coffee shop in Dubai, the chances are that when the coffee shop is closed, people in other states might want to know when the coffee shop will open again, so they will surely check on Instagram feed to check for any latest update.

2. Share a Photo, tell a Story

There is a reason why Instagram stories are called, well, stories. When you create a story on Instagram, it becomes a real, in-the-moment connection with your audience.

You don’t even need a professional graphic designer to make all those beautiful photos. Just click a photo and use Canva to give your photo a professional look.

Check out this fantastic story shared by Starbucks on their page.

Photo Courtesy

Notice the quality of the image. The amount of content used and carefully crafted hashtag that will bring maximum traffic because of the contest. And just like every other brand, you can add “link in bio” and encourage your followers to check your content.

3. Post for the right number of times

Social media is quite tempting and unpredictable at the same time. You never know which of your photos will get 10 likes, or which photo can bring traffic on your homepage, or which metric made all the difference.

But, just like real life, you need a trial and error method to understand the dynamics of your target audience. You cannot post once a day and wait for the traffic to clog your server.

Similarly, you cannot post absurdly and expert users to like every post.

What you need is balance.

And for balance, you must try out a couple of things.

If previously, you’ve been posting once a day, now is the time to post twice a day for one week. Monitor the engagement over the week and figure out what’s the nest for your brand.

4. Engage Actively with your audience

Next up is the most popular Instagram hack that you can use.

This tip is for startups who are short with budget but willing to create a significant impact.

• Take your followers behind the curtain and show them the “making of” moments of your product or service. Please encourage them to take part and engage them at an emotional level.
• If it’s difficult for you to come up with tons of fantastic content, then don’t fear because you can always ask the followers to contribute their content. Run a contest, give a gift, and engage as many users as you can handle.
• Do you want users to trust your brand expertise? Teach your followers something regarding your brand. Prove your talent and let them know that you have a steady hand on some skills. It can be tips or tricks or in-depth product demos.
• Ask followers to give feedback and post it on your account. This will provide the user with a sense of belonging with your brand.

Lastly, it’s better to collaborate and build a relationship with old followers. They already trust your brand, so they’ll be the first to share the best of your brand with others.

Photo Courtesy

5. Use Strategic Hashtags on your profile

The best approach is to use the industry keywords strategically in your profile. Doing so will help your profile show up more in Google search results.

Because on Instagram, users prefer to search by keyword rather than usernames. When you add a keyword in your profile name, it increases the chances of being found.

For instance, McCall’s Pattern Company used “Sewing Patterns” in their profile name so that they can gain some edge over competitors.

Photo Courtesy

6. Share Highlight of your Story

Do you know what the best way to engage your audience is? It is to build curiosity among them.

Why show your complete story in one-go? You can take help from human psychology and use it for your advantage.

If you give a preview of the coming attractions via a sneak peek of Instagram story, this will force the user to come back to check the complete story. And if you want more engagement, you can even use two or three posts before you reveal the whole story.

Photo Courtesy

7. Try Instagram Private Account for a change

Recently, some of the brands are leveraging private accounts to gain massive success. The element of curiosity rises when people see that a brand account in private.

When people get curious, they will follow the brand, and before unfollowing, they will think twice.

In a world where a brand needs a public-facing Instagram account, there is no harm in going against the status quo and see if going away from the crowd can work.

Bottom Line

Regardless of whatever you think about Instagram, it is benefiting brands in unimaginable ways.

If you want a substantial following on social media, Instagram is the quickest way to gain a following and trust for your brand. The above seven hacks can help you to give a tough time to your rivals.

Moreover, if you are looking for a digital agency to manage your social media, we are here to help you out.