5 Instagram Growth Strategies You Haven’t Tried Yet

Do you feel stuck on Instagram? You’re not alone. Leanne Barlow has been on Instagram for 15 years, but she’s been completely stuck for the past five years. She would grow a hundred followers in a day and then lose a hundred the next. She was feeling so defeated because no matter what she did she wasn’t seeing growth. Does this sound all too familiar? This Insta struggle can be a thing of the past with these 5 Instagram growth strategies you haven’t tried yet! 

 

A few months ago, Leanne reached out to me and we did an Instagram audit and strategy call. Four months later, she has grown by 50 thousand followers (and counting!). She switched up her strategy and it made all the difference. We are diving into what she did so you can make the same changes and finally see the growth you are working so hard for. (Yes, they’ll work for you too!)

As mentioned, Leanne has had her business for 15 years now, so she is familiar with the shifts and turns that Instagram and digital marketing can take. What worked for growing her Instagram account years ago does not work now. It’s important to stay on trend and adjust to how Instagram is functioning today, so we can keep getting that growth. 

 

 

5 Instagram Growth Strategies You Haven’t Tried Yet

When Leanne first came to me she was at her wit’s end. She was so frustrated for not seeing the growth she wanted. While everyone says it’s not about the numbers, Leanne knows the numbers do matter. She wanted to work with certain brands and in order to get paid more, those brands would look at her stats. She provided numbers to companies all day long, so it was hard to not feel a certain way when she didn’t see growth. 

Getting an outside perspective from a professional is what helped Leanne the most. She said she was too invested in her account and could not look at her bio and content and know if she was appealing to new people or not. She needed fresh eyes on her account and once I took a look, we knew exactly what changes to make to help explode her following. 

 

Instagram Strategy Tip #1: Become less romantic about the content you create and post.

Leanne used to care so much about the content she was posting on Instagram. Yes, you should definitely care about it, but not to the point where you are obsessing over making it perfect. This perfectionist mentality will slow you down and keep you from getting content out there. 

The type of content that works best on Instagram today (for fashion and beauty influencers) is standing in your living room and showing your outfit. Leanne had to unlearn this stylized way of presenting clothing and instead learn a much more tangible realistic way of doing it. 

Now that Leanne is less romantic about her content her mindset shifted from, “What does this content say about me?” to “How am I helping my viewer?” She now looks at her Instagram analytics to see which content performed better and can figure out what type of content her audience wants more of. The main lesson to learn here is to let the analytics do the guiding rather than your heart.

 

 

Instagram Strategy Tip #2: Niche down and organize your content plan.

Leanne used to post a ton of content that covered a much broader range of topics. She would think about a reel that would be fun to create and then create it. She would mainly think about what sounded fun to her and then go for it. She switched up this mentality that incorporated more strategy and it helped her niche down and create content that increased her engagement.

She chose five different types of content that she would create every week. (One type for each weekday.) She was no longer searching for the next post from this giant pool of topics like hardship, grief, funny, etc. She knew she was sticking to her five topics so it cut down a ton of time planning content and she was also able to stay on brand. 

Leanne had to really train her brain to stick to this content strategy because she was so used to pulling from everywhere. She’s an open book and her content would reflect that, but that is overwhelming and exhausting for a viewer. If she wanted to attract new people, she needed to simplify her content and create things that would make them want to connect with her. 

 

Instagram Strategy Tip #3: Create consistent content. 

You’ve probably heard this tip before, but if you’re still struggling to create consistent content, maybe you need to switch things around to make it easier to do so. As mentioned, Leanne went from creating anything she wanted to choosing five content buckets that she would focus on each week. This helped her narrow down what type of content to post and take action on creating it.

Creating reels from these five content buckets has helped Leanne attract a ton of new followers. She can see from her analytics that people are coming to her page from those posts to shop, which is exactly what she wants. 

If you want to create a similar content strategy, think about five different content buckets that would work in your niche. These topics can be things that you think your audience would be interested in and things that you would enjoy talking about/creating. If you need some extra help with this planning, you can reach out to my team HERE! We would love to help! 

 

 

Instagram Strategy Tip #4: Hire out help.

This tip is one that will help with your overall business and content creation. Leanne hired an editor to edit her Instagram content and it was a total game-changer. Before she hired help, Leanne was spending so long editing, that it was keeping her from focusing on the creation side of things which is where she really thrived. 

When she hired someone to edit her content for her, she was able to spend more time finding ideas, creating content, and moving on. She was tired of feeling like a one-woman show, so getting that editing help was completely worth it. 

It can be hard to let go of control over a piece of your business at first, but Leanne knew she needed the help and she was still the one deciding what the content actually was. Letting go of the editing process was so helpful for her. She found a trained eye and was able to trust them to polish her content. She was able to post more often because of this and she soon realized that she just needed to get the content out there. She used to care so much about every detail, but her viewers didn’t care about them and she stopped caring as well. As long as she was posting consistently and sticking to her content buckets, she was good to go. (& you would be too.) 

 

Instagram Strategy Tip #5: Make bite-sized content.

If you think about how you consume content, your thumb is most likely always moving. Maybe you save a thing or two as you’re scrolling, or share something to your story, but your consumption is usually moving pretty fast. With that being said, you don’t need to stress over every single reel you make. Don’t give all your information in one reel/post–give your viewers a bite-size version. 

Leanne has made bite-sized content over and over and it has really soared. Her viewers love it and makes them come back wanting more. From this strategy, Leanne has also learned how valuable repeating content is. She used to be anti-repetition, but she quickly realized that it’s good to repeat. It gives people more chances to view her content if they missed it and it serves as a reminder for people to shop her links if they’ve already seen it. 

 

Bonus Strategy Tip

While these tips are here to help you, Leanne wants you to know that the most important thing you can do is trust your own intuition. For the longest time, she was filling her brain with everyone else’s systems and what worked for them. She needed to clear those expectations out and trust herself. 

She started implementing strategies and chose a date for how long to test out the strategy. Then she’d look at her analytics to see how it performed. And then she’d repeat the process for another strategy.

Do not feel like you have to do every single thing that every single “expert” says, because that is so paralyzing. It’s important to know what’s going on in business, but it’s also important to clear your mind and focus on what you want for your business. 

 

 

5 Instagram Growth Strategies You Haven’t Tried Yet

OK, friend, I can’t wait to see what happens with these 5 Instagram growth strategies you haven’t tried yet! Leanne has such a fun energy and we can totally learn from her experience! I love interviewing people I’ve worked with, so you can see that these strategies don’t just work for me, but for influencers like you too. For a bonus Q&A I had with Leanne, check out my podcast HERE at minute 28! 

P.S. I bet Leanne convinced you to work with me, right?? I recommend starting HERE with my Grow the Gram course. I can’t wait to help you turn your business around. You come with the passion and drive and I’ll add the focus and strategy. It’s the perfect combo to get that growth! 

If you’re not quite ready for hired help, come follow me on Instagram @iammichellegifford where I share the best tips for growing on Instagram!