According to Statista, Instagram boasts approximately one billion monthly active users. As one of the most popular social media platforms, Instagram is a powerful tool for marketers.

Launching a strategic, actionable, and power-packed Instagram marketing campaign is your golden ticket to reaching more people, building a wide audience, boosting conversions, and securing your bottom line.

As an advanced marketing and advertising tool, Instagram is routinely updated and equipped with new features. As a result, your Instagram marketing strategies should also evolve every month.

As we kick-start 2023, it’s the perfect time to tweak your current campaign and leverage new tools, features, and updates. In this blog, we’ll look closely at the top Instagram marketing strategies for 2023. Keep reading, take notes, and feel free to ask us questions towards the end. Let’s begin.

1. Avoid Visual Themes, Prioritise Quality

In 2022, marketers had a razor-sharp focus on maintaining pristine, thematically cohesive Instagram feeds. In 2023, themes aren’t a big focus anymore.

Stop trying to maintain the perfect feed and start focusing on quality instead. Nike’s Instagram feed is an excellent example. Instead of chasing a neat, systematic theme, the brand has taken a more laid-back approach—and it works really well.

Select high-quality, purposeful, and engaging photos that tell a story. Instagram is a visual social media marketing platform, after all! Every photo should make sense and provide value to your readers. The more creative you are, the better.

If you haven’t hired a professional photographer yet, it’s the perfect time to make that investment. Professional product/service photos will make your Instagram feed stand out. As we mentioned earlier, the photos do not have to be perfect. However, they must be high-resolution, professionally planned shots. Instead of using stock photos, generate original visuals that bring something new to the table.

Instagram reels became wildly popular towards the end of 2022, and their popularity is expected to skyrocket further in 2023. In addition to hiring a photographer, recruit a designer who can create custom illustrations for reels. Visual variety will excite your audience and keep them coming back for more.

2. Make the Most of User-Generated Photos

If you want to popularise your Instagram account without shelling out any $$$, leverage the power of user-generated photos. Social media users are tremendously creative, tech-savvy, and talented. While they may lack professional setups, they can still capture impressive photos.

Encourage your followers to share pictures and videos of your products/services. Granted, most of these shots will not be polished enough for your Instagram feed. However, you’ll get a few diamonds in the rough.

Feature these photos on your story or feed. Nothing beats the authenticity of media that comes directly from web users. Whether it’s a photo, video, a comment, or an audio testimonial, user-generated content helps other users determine whether a brand is legitimate, trustworthy, and reliable. Not only will you increase your feed’s visual appeal, but you’ll also improve your brand identity.

We also recommend closely monitoring the “Tagged” tab on your profile. Turn on manual approval to ensure that only the crème de la crème of user-generated content makes it to your profile. The “Tagged” section is a part of your profile, after all. Instead of being a convoluted mess, it should be neatly organised.

Recommended Read: Follow These 3 Instagram SEO Strategies to Get More Organic Traffic

3. Stop Ignoring Captions

Visuality is the most important aspect on Instagram. However, this doesn’t mean that text takes a backseat. People still read captions. While they may not read it all the way through, they will quickly scan it at the very least.

Your captions should be engaging, witty, attention-grabbing, and value-added. Try to keep things short and sweet. Long captions don’t perform as well as short, properly formatted captions.

If you must provide more detail, make sure you break the text into small paragraphs. However, detail should generally be avoided. Only reserve it for feature-rich products/services.

If you’re providing detail, try to use bullet points to add another layer of readability to your content. Captions ultimately vary from industry to industry. If you run a healthcare clinic, you can’t exactly write a ‘witty’ caption. However, you can make it engaging (while keeping the tone professional at the same time).

The goal is to compel people to take an action on your page, i.e., follow you, click on the link in your bio, leave a comment, DM you, and so on. To do this, you must incorporate a power-packed call-to-action (CTA) within the first few sentences of your caption.

Remember, people will most likely not read all the way through. This is why your caption should come early, not late. It should also create a slight sense of urgency to prompt an action. The right balance of actionable and professional captioning will help you make a great impact on social media users and steer your brand in the right direction.

4. Get Creative with Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories should be used with care. Since it’s a popular feature, many brands take it for granted and create random stories for just about everything. Avoid doing this. Instead, be intentional with your Instagram Stories campaign. Your content should be meaningful, well-timed, relevant, and impactful. Avoid posting a story just for the sake of it.

We also recommend diversifying your Instagram Stories. Promote products/services, share behind-the-scenes glimpses, provide tips, ask questions, answer questions, share your thoughts on trends and activities, share your brand’s story, hand the floor to your team for takeovers, play games with your audience, and so on.

There’s a lot that you can do. Don’t forget to create highlight reels for your best Instagram Stories. This will improve user experience; people can quickly and easily find relevant information. It’ll also increase the aesthetic appeal of your profile. When you choose the right image for each Instagram Story, your profile will look a lot more polished and put together.

If you’re looking for social media marketing experts in Canberra and Sydney, we’re here to help! At TocToc, we craft powerful Instagram marketing strategies and effective campaigns that help you reel in a wider audience, make more sales, and strengthen your brand identity.

Explore our social media marketing services to get started. We also specialise in digital marketing, search engine optimisation (SEO), content marketing, email marketing, website design and development, and application development. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. We’re always happy to help!