In recent years, Instagram has become a major marketing platform for businesses of all sizes. With over 800 million monthly active users, it's a great way to reach your target audience. It is important to know the best practices for a successful Instagram marketing strategy and to be able to develop one that fits your company's needs. In this article, we are going to share 5 tips to help you strengthen your competitive Instagram marketing strategy.

Pay Attention to What Your Instagram Audience Wants

Your audience might not express what they want and need explicitly. However, your audience’s behaviors and actions can tell you a lot about what they want to see on Instagram. Use Instagram analytics tools such as analisa.io to connect the dot between what consumers want and what marketers think. This will guide marketers to grow the brand's presence on Instagram.

Before you create any Instagram strategies, pay attention and listen to what your audiences want. Try to answer these few questions to find out;

• Which content gained the most engagement?
• What kind of strategy works best in getting your audiences to comment?
• Is it effective to include questions in your captions?

You can begin your competitive Instagram marketing strategy by answering those questions. By doing those actions, you can connect with your audiences and come up with some interesting post ideas to use in your content calendar. Adjust your Instagram content strategy to deliver your audience and potential customers exactly what they want to see.

Pro tip: Use insights from social media analytics like Analisa.io to find out what kind of content your audiences like to interact with. Avoid just guessing what type of content your audiences might find interesting, make sure you’re getting accurate data outside your own biases to understand what your audiences want.

Stay Up to Date on The Latest Trends

Instagram is continuously changing, that is why brands have to always update to the latest trends and features. This will help you leverage these changes and updates ahead of your competitors.

Use Instagram tools such as Instagram analytics and hashtags analytics in relevant conversations to help you identify what is currently on trend. You can also pay attention to your competitors or the top industry thought leaders' participation in those conversations. Utilize this knowledge to make reliable responses and to engage influencers for future campaigns.

Instagram offers popular content options like Instagram Stories, IGTV, Instagram Reels, and Instagram Shopping, which brands can use to increase their Instagram engagement by interacting with their audience. Furthermore, Instagram has enhanced its current features to introduce trends such as augmented reality filters to Instagram Stories. Brands can create customized AR filters to promote their brand awareness and increase Instagram engagement.

Cultivate Relationships With Instagram Influencers

Partnering with Instagram influencers or Key Opinion Leaders (KOL) allows brands to add a human touch to their brand's marketing strategy while also gaining more visibility to broader and new audiences. Brands are partnering with influencers, from nano influencers, and micro-influencers, to mega influencers to increase their Instagram engagement. 

When brands and Instagram influencers have a close relationship, it will set them apart from the brands' competitors. It is similar to the way influencers cultivate long-term relationships with their followers, brands also have to build strong, continual relations for a more effective marketing strategy. Influencers need brand partnership, especially close, well-managed relationships that empower brands with continuous access to influencers’ creative content and loyal audiences. If the brands have successfully established strong influencer partnerships, they will get benefits like prime access to the Instagram influencers' top-notch content, higher audience Instagram engagement, and stronger brand awareness which all lead to increasing ROI.

Analyze Sentiment: Run Sentiment Analysis on Instagram to Evaluate Brand

More or less, emotions play a significant role in customer behavior. Emotions can drive customers into buying a product because not every step a customer takes is only directed by reasoning. However, quantifying emotions is not as straightforward as measuring data metrics such as likes, comments, and mentions. Although it is easier to focus on data, dismissing the sentiment behind all those numbers, will lead you to misinterpret the data.

Try to find out by filtering topics of sentiment to gain insight into how people feel about your brand, industry, and competitors. This way, you can better fulfill what your audiences need.

Moreover, monitor your competitors:

Your brands' competitors are also attempting to make your targeted audience pleased and assured the same way you are. By utilizing sentiment analysis, you will be more aware of your competitors’ content strategy and how well it is received. You can later use that information to define whether your marketing strategy is effective enough for your target audience.

Measure Your Instagram Performance

To deeply understand your own brand's overall Instagram performance, you need to measure its performance and presence against top competitors in your industry.

Try to keep track and measure your brand's performance as well as your competitor's. Use Instagram analytics tools such as analisa.io to get more wholesome reports and track fundamental metrics like audience growth, Instagram engagement, and content performance. Then compare the results with your competitors.