When it comes to building an engaged and purposeful presence on Instagram, effective branding is everything, especially if you want to become one of the best brands on the web.
With good Instagram branding, you can build an online presence that attracts your target audience and provides value in every post. Over time, you’ll develop a fan base for your content and begin to establish a community with plenty of scope for sales conversions, helping your business grow.
Feeling confused or overwhelmed?
Don’t panic. Instagram branding sounds complicated, but it doesn’t have to be. In fact, with just a few simple tricks up your sleeve, you can quickly turn your Instagram account into a branding success, reaching out to new users around the world. Find out how!
Know your brand
Effective Instagram branding starts with knowing what your brand stands for. Only then can you identify the best ways to build a brand-driven Instagram strategy.
Start by asking yourself what value your brand offers to the community. What are you an expert in, and how can you use your knowledge to help other people? What kinds of products or services do you offer, and what consumer pain points do these things solve?
The better you understand your brand’s purpose and mission, the more effectively you can develop a brand identity that aligns with these. This can help you establish the tone people should associate with your business.
Brand clarity is lesson one of digital marketing. When you know what your brand should be, you can establish an online presence that drives this home for audiences.
Develop a guide
Once you know what your brand is, it’s time to develop an Instagram branding guide that helps you outline and stick to the decisions you’ve made for your business.
Looking to other brands in your industry to get a sense of what works and what doesn’t, begin to create a set of guidelines that will inform your content strategy. Include everything from your brand voice and brand values to the color palette and logo details you want to fuel your brand identity.
When you have a clear, easy-to-follow guide that defines what makes your Instagram brand unique, you can create a strong visual brand identity and build brand awareness well, all while relying on comprehensive guidelines.
Over time, this will help you to foster brand recognition, meaning that people will know and remember your brand and the value you provide for your online followers.
Optimize your Instagram business account
Now you’re ready to set up your Instagram business account! This is your chance to start putting your branding prowess to work.
Start by creating an on-brand Instagram name and handle. Add your logo to your profile, and make use of your brand colors wherever you can. Add relevant keywords to your Instagram bio, and don’t forget to include a clickable bio link to direct Instagram users to your website, online store, blog or podcast.
By setting up a well-branded Instagram account, you can harness marketing best practice before you even share your first post! You can give users an insight into who you are and what you offer, all at a first glance at your Instagram account.
Your overall Instagram profile will act as a foundation for the content strategy you employ later. Every time you share posts on your account, you’ll be encouraging users to visit your Instagram page, follow your journey, and understand what makes your brand special.
Stick to your niche
Sticking to your niche is important, especially when you start sharing visual content, including both photo and video content, to your Instagram feed.
Whether you’re a travel brand, a beauty brand, a lifestyle brand, or something else completely, you need to stay on topic and give users what they’re looking for. Plus by sticking to a specific niche, you can use your visual identity to help your brand stand out from others in this same niche.
Understand your audience
The main job of your Instagram brand, or any social media presence, is to help you engage users and reach your target audience with content they care about.
Make an effort to conduct market research and regularly review your Instagram analytics, developing a clearer sense of what matters to the people who follow you. Later down the track, you can even involve audiences directly by sharing user generated content to your Instagram feed!
By knowing which Instagram users are interested in the content you share, you can start to target your content strategy and respond to your niche audience more effectively, sharing more of what people want to see.
When you create content with your audience in mind, you can build trust and establish stronger brand loyalty, growing your business and offering value for consumers each day.
Stay consistent
Consistency is the key to any good content strategy, across all social media platforms. Instagram is no exception. Be consistent, and you’ll benefit from improved growth opportunities.
When you have a strong visual identity and clear branding materials, make sure that they appear in all your content, no matter what formats you’re using. Incorporate your company logo as much as you can, and refer back to your brand story regularly.
So what does consistency look like in practice? Here’s how to take your branding to the next level on Instagram:
- Use Plann’s Canva integration to create branded Instagram templates and use these across all placements (from Reels to Instagram Stories to carousels and beyond)
- Create branded cover images for your Instagram Stories highlights, leveraging your brand color palette and fonts to give your profile a strong branded look
- Ensure every graphic post you create (from how-to guides to testimonials to memes) leverages your branding and harnesses your logo at every opportunity
Consistency can also help you prove yourself as a reliable, trustworthy business. This is a great way to use Instagram branding skills as part of an overall marketing approach.
Plann ahead
When it comes to building a strong, memorable brand on Instagram, its important to put a gameplan in place to make it happen.
Create a clear content calendar, and know what kind of content you want to create before you make it. Make a plan to align with your unique style, and know how to develop Instagram posts that maintain good branding while responding to your content pillars.
When you plan your Instagram marketing campaigns ahead of time, you can take the stress out of managing a business account, levelling up your branding skills and joining ranks with the best brands on the ‘gram.
Want an easy way to kickstart your journey to great Instagram branding? Start Plann’ing with the greatest social media scheduling and content planning tool on the market! Sign up for a free 7-day trial of Plann now.
