This Instagram Strategy Works for EVERYONE - start with this.

There is a lot of advice floating around out there about growing on Instagram - but I don’t want anyone leaving this episode thinking - “this strategy doesn’t work for me” - I wanted to share an Instagram Strategy that works for everyone. So, let’s get on with it…

I am not going to tell you to “pick a niche”

A lot of people start an Instagram account and think the most important first step for growth is “picking a niche”. Now, don’t get me wrong - you do need to have a purpose or a mission, or what some might call “a niche” for your account. But, what too many people do when they think of “picking a niche” is choose an arbitrary genre or category that they need to assign themselves to.

I always imagine someone sitting there flipping their fingers through an index catalog system, like the ones they had at libraries, searching through a set list of niches - like fitness, travel, beauty, etc.. picking one, and that’s it. That’s their “niche”. But that is not how to create an effective Instagram strategy and if that’s how you’ve been approaching it, you’re probably facing some struggles with growing.

The key is to start with the audience, not a specific topic

So, instead of the traditional advice, you hear about choosing a niche first - I encourage you to work backward. What is the MOST important part of your strategy… it’s the end user, your audience. That is why I always suggest starting with your audience first.

But this leads to the question, how do you determine your ideal audience, right?

Before you can really determine your ideal audience, you need to figure out your overarching goal. I know this sounds like a lot of work and backtracking, but I assure you - it will be worth it and help you create the perfect strategy for you.

There are really two major goals a lot of people have when starting an Instagram account. They either have an existing business they are trying to promote on the platform, or you’re a content creator who wants to become an influencer who works with brands, affiliate marketing, etc.

So assuming you have one of these in mind, you now just need to determine what audience you’re trying to reach.

If you are an existing business, what type of customers do you need that would buy your product or service? This is pretty straightforward, right? You will work backward from the products or services you offer to determine who your ideal customer is and use that to decide the following you want to build on Instagram… and most likely if you are an established business, you already know your ideal customer.

If you’re a content creator, what type of followers do you need to secure certain brand partnerships or promote certain affiliate links? Do you have a few brands in mind that you would just LOVE to work with - ask yourself the same questions that the business owners did, but about that brand. Who is their ideal customer? Because that essentially should be the same as your audience.

Turn your audience into pillars

Now that you have your audience figured out, let’s keep working backward. So many people will choose a niche and then based on that niche, they will pick a few content pillars stemming from that main topic - right? If someone flipped through that index catalog, and picked fitness as their main niche, their content pillars might look like; fitness tips, easy workouts, and yoga. But honestly, what a snooze - right? That’s getting a bit specific, boring, and probably will be tiring for you to create over and over again Instead, let’s think about who your audience is - what their various different interests are, and what content you can make to address that.

So maybe the audience is young mothers interested in health and wellness, yoga, outdoors, and motherhood. They care about fitness because they want to live a long and healthy life and be an active part of their children's lives.

With this in mind, maybe our content pillars would instead be:

easy to follow fitness routines and workouts
encouragement and humor for young moms
hiking, meditation, and fitness news or updates
inspiration for living a more balanced, healthy life

This is more diverse content so it’s more interesting for the audience - you have the chance to attract people who connect with these specific pillars, and it helps you stand out from other fitness accounts that might solely focus on workouts - instead, you can connect to your audience on a different, more personal level. This is also better for you, as the creator, as it’s a more sustainable strategy.

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And speaking of being more sustainable, so you’re much better off having a realistic and sustainable Instagram strategy in place that you can truly execute for months and years to come, which is why I designed this free, Sustainable Instagram Strategy Planner. This is an interactive notion template that will guide you through crafting your very own sustainable Instagram strategy. Did I mention it was free? You can grab it in the show notes!

Now remember that if you want to grow on Instagram, it’s absolutely essential that your strategy is audience-focused first, and of course, sustainable for you to implement in the long term.