How Do I Market My Business On Instagram?

Today I’m going to answer the question, “how do I market my business on Instagram?”

First, I’m going to share the hottest strategy for Instagram that’s working like crazy right now. Next, I’m going to jump into what used to work….it actually used to work really well but no longer works. (We are going to cover a couple things there.) Lastly, I’m going to give you my suggested overall Instagram marketing plan.

What’s the hottest strategy for Instagram?

You may have guessed it, but the hottest marketing strategy for Instagram right now without a question is Instagram reels, no question, right? They’re crushing it. They’re making it happen. But there’s been some nuances over the last couple years of what’s working much better right now versus what used to work. Instagram Reels is basically their version of TikTok. TikTok did two really cool things when it came out. One, to introduce the concept of just super short videos, right? 10 second, 20 second, 30 second videos. You can do longer ones on there, but the majority of consumption is those short videos. They also did something that really rattled the social media world, which is they rolled out a totally different algorithm.

I didn’t plan on doing TikTok to be honest. I had one of my good friends and clients, he said, “Hey, man, I got a lot of people crushing it on TikTok, they’re making a lot of money over there. You need to learn it because I like the way you teach….and I want you to teach my people.“

I’m like, “Okay, well tell me about it, who’s crushing it?”

I thought he meant that existing influencers were going over there and crushing it. That’s not what he meant. He meant that people that were struggling over on Facebook, not making much money, went over to TikTok and Instagram and all of a sudden they’re making money and crushing it and building followings. That’s when I knew I had to learn it. Because my job is to help people at every level of experience, create a better life, make more money, etc. So if I hear of something that is helping average, everyday, ordinary people make more money and get more exposure, I have to learn, that’s just part of my business model.

I go over to TikTok, start learning it and the way that the algorithm works over there is whether you’re an influencer or have a huge following or have a big brand or not, they’re taking your content and they’re showing it to people that they think will like the content, whether they know you or not. That’s very different because Facebook…and I’m not talking about Facebook reels, but if you look at Facebook as a whole, they will if you post something, yay, it’s my birthday or whatever, right? If you post something on Facebook, you’ll never have 100% of the people that you’re actually friends with see it, it’ll never happen. It’ll show it to some people and then you know, if it gets liked and stuff, they’ll show it to some more, but they’ll never show it to even 100% of people like you and they’ll never share it to people that don’t know you unless one of your friends actually shares it. That’s how Tik Tok completely changed the game with that and so everyone has learned from that…Instagram reels learn from it, Facebook reels are learning from it.

So with Instagram reels, you do have a chance, a very good chance if you consistently are posting Instagram reels that you’ll get people that don’t know you to see your content. Now, that tackles a very common issue that people have of “oh, I’ve already reached out to all the people that I know…” I’m saying if you’re wanting to use Instagram for social media marketing, you’re selling something and you’re hoping that you can get in front of people that know you but also in front of people that don’t know you….Instagram reels are a great way to do that because they copied a lot of stuff from TikTok, which is great.

Now we have YouTube shorts, not to introduce something new here, but it’s kind of their version of TikTok. Doing these Instagram reels, the question is, okay, what kind of content what we’ve seen, I’ve seen two things that work really well that anyone can do. Anyone can do this, right? Two different types of content.

Number one, is the benefit play. What’s the benefit of your product or service? Is it that someone gets to sleep better? Is it that they lose weight? Is it that they have more energy? Is it that they make money or they save money? Like what is it… they have a better relationship? Are they happier? Easily demonstrating that in a short video.

Here’s an example. If I was selling something that was that help with sleep, right a CBD or melatonin or whatever, right? If I was selling something that had to do with sleep and getting better sleep, I would be doing Instagram reels that would show like a scene one, I would be laying down and I would wake up and I’m agitated and my hair’s all messy and maybe I punch the alarm clock. I would probably go to Goodwill and get a cheap alarm clock just to smash it with a hammer on camera. I want to make something that’s going to get attention. So scene one I wake up agitated.

Scene 2, I wake up, and I’m going to put birds in the background. Tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, right? I’m going to flutter my eyes. I’m so rested and feeling fantastic and I might have texts that say, finally I found something that helped my sleep. Thank God. If my target market…anyone in my target market watches that, who struggles with sleep? Are they going to comment? Of course they are. They’re going to say, “what do you do? How do you do this? I need sleep….” right? You can do that with anything you can do. You know, maybe it’s you sitting in the kitchen, if you sell something around weight loss, and you’re sitting in the kitchen, you’re looking at your plate, and it’s got a mini carrot on it, maybe a mini corn and a slice of tomato that’s tiny, and you’re looking at it and your stomachs grumbling and you’re starving and then that scene one and scene two is, you know, you just came out of the kitchen, you’re feeling fantastic. And you’re like, finally found a diet that works. Someone that’s struggling with weight loss or struggling with calorie restriction, they’re going to ask you. Now notice, I didn’t say go here to buy. I didn’t say the name of the diet. I didn’t say here’s the pill I take. I’m creating curiosity through these short videos, and people are going to comment, I promise you, that’s the first type of benefit play.

Number two is the overcomer. Now, are there things that you’ve overcome in life? It does not have to have anything to do necessarily with your product or service, but with the type of person you’re trying to attract? Have you overcome divorce? Have you overcome smoking? Have you ever lost weight? Think about what you’ve overcome. Financial hardships? If you’re willing to be vulnerable, are there traumatic events, and you’ll see if you see my Instagram reels, I mean, I share a lot on there, I share that I grew up in a very abusive home, I was dead broke, I went through foreclosure…I share my downs. Here’s the key. People are cool with your up’s, if they’re aware of your downs. See too many people do this the wrong way and they only show their ups, right. They only show their highlight reel and some people will not like that. That’s cool. First of all, not everyone has highlight reels, but not everyone’s going to resonate with that. More people resonate if you’re willing to share your downs, they’ll be cool with your ups.

The benefit play and the overcomer, those are your two best plays on the hottest marketing strategy on Instagram.

I would love to hear from you.

Okay, before I get to my next two points, I would love to hear from you. What are you doing on Instagram that’s working for you? Or what is it that you’re trying? What do you think is working for you? I’d love to hear from you. I’m always open to new suggestions. I read and respond to every single comment.

What doesn’t work on Instagram now?

Okay, so there are several things on Instagram that used to work, that no longer work.

Number one, hashtags just aren’t as powerful as they used to be. I don’t know how much they affect things but they definitely are not like they used to be, that’s a fact.

Number two, my good friend Brock Johnson says that square posts are no longer working nearly as well. You want to use the full length of what you can put on Instagram.

Number three, (this one stung) Instagram reels has reels play where they’ll pay you based on the amount of views your reels are getting. When we got approved for that program (I think you have to be at a certain follower amount) but when we got approved for that….but this applies whether you’re on reels play or not (just so you know) when we figured that out and we got approved for that program at the time, what was working really well was taking other people’s Instagram reels, giving them credit and reposting on your account. I would find an awesome one by Kanye West. I liked it. I don’t agree with all their decisions, but it was a good one, I found one with Michael Jordan and I found one with Denzel Washington. I’m taking the Instagram reel that has already been shared and giving credit linking back but sharing that and by doing that I look and we were making almost $10,000 a month just in reel play from the super popular videos. It was crazy. It was awesome. It’s like not selling anything, just free money. But we are also getting a ton I mean, I had several get 3 million, 4 million, 5 million views which is awesome. But they do not like that anymore, so don’t do it. They don’t like it even though I was giving it credit, they have an issue with it. I got a couple warnings on my account. I personally wouldn’t do that. Maybe you’ll get away with it but I would just be careful doing that, if you decide to give it a go.

Hashtags, repurposing other people’s Instagram reels and using the square post, those are three of the bigger things that have really changed with Instagram lately.

Instagram Marking Plan.

Last but not least, let me give you what I would suggest as a great Instagram marketing plan. First of all, we know reels. Reels are the deal, right? If you’re trying to grow a business and you’re trying to really crush it, I wouldn’t be doing a minimum two to three Instagram reels per day.

I would also be doing two to three Instagram lives per week. Now one thing you can do to have a great live, is you can find someone who also has a nice following and do a duet with them, do an Instagram Live and invite them to an interview. Very powerful way for you to have more reach. I’ve interviewed some of the most amazing people. If you look at my Instagram account, it’s just @rayhigdon. I have some incredible interviews there. I mean, we had my good friend, Stormy Wellington, she spoke at our event in October. We had like 7-800 people live with us. It was awesome. It was so cool. I would be doing two to three Instagram reels per day. Now, does that mean you have to shoot them that day? No, a lot of times, I will go ahead and batch 20 or 25 of those little short videos, and then I’ll just drip them out over time.

All right, don’t get it twisted here. If you’re already deciding I’m doing two to three Instagram reels a day, that doesn’t mean don’t do any. Right. It’s kind of like the gym, is it better to go to the gym once a week or never at all. Better to go once a day if you can. But if you can’t, it’s still better to go when you can but my suggestion is two to three per day, two to three Instagram lives per week and make sure you’re posting in your stories as well.

Now one thing about stories is strangers don’t see your stories. Only people that are already following you see your stories, but those three things right there, which isn’t a full time deal. It shouldn’t take you forever, that would drastically increase the people following you and the content that you have and the likes and all the engagement.

Want to grow faster?

Would you like to get help growing not just your Instagram but all of your social media profiles? We have a coaching and accountability program to help you get individual help where you can hop on with someone, one of our coaches, and they will actually coach you through what to do, how to tweak your profile, how to change up your story and really help you grow your business. Here is the link, higdongrouptraining.com. Click that link. All you do is fill out the information, just answer some simple questions and one of our people will reach out to you and see if it’s a fit for you.