How to Increase Instagram Engagement For Your Business

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“I have an Instagram page for my business, but I don’t get a lot of engagements on my posts!”

“Other businesses on Instagram get 100s of likes on their posts. How are they doing it?”

“I just started an Instagram page for my business. How do I get engagements on my posts?”

As a business owner, you’ve probably asked yourself one of the questions above. The truth is that every business can use Instagram to increase engagement and expand its audience reach, but only some get the decent amount of engagement they deserve. When you use the platform to boost your brand awareness and deepen connections with your audiences, driving authentic organic engagement becomes easier.

Almost every business you can think of is on Instagram and it is one of the biggest platforms for social media marketing for businesses. Even as a consumer yourself, you’ve probably bought once or twice from an IG business. Because of the high number of businesses and competition on the platform, finding the winning formula to boost your business's feed engagement might seem like a quest for the holy grail, or like wearing a white shirt and trying not to stain it while eating shaki that has been dipped in stew.

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But, with all that said, with the right combination of creativity, strategy, and a pinch of pixel-perfect charm, you can turn your Instagram feed into a thriving hub of likes, comments, and shares. In this article, we’ll cover:

1. What Instagram Engagement Means

2. What a Good Engagement Rate on Instagram Is

3. How to Boost Instagram Engagement for Your Business

4. Using Bumpa to Sell More on Instagram

So, let’s dive into some actionable practices for turning your business's digital presence on Instagram into a feast for the eyes and a playground for engagement!

Image Source: Claudio Schwarz

Instagram engagement is the collection of interactions and responses your posts receive from your followers and the broader Instagram community. It includes likes, comments, shares, and other actions that reflect how well your content resonates with your audience.

So, in essence, Instagram engagement is the measure of how well your posts can charm their way into the hearts, minds, and screen time of your audience, and in your case as a business, charm your way into their pockets and wallets!

To understand whether or not you have a decent engagement rate, you can measure it with this formula:

Image Source: Hopper

You’ll need to look at the total number of content interactions– including likes, comments, shares, Story replies, and saves.

If you use Instagram for Business, you have access to the built-in analytics feature called Insights. This is where you can see a comprehensive breakdown of your post performance, audience demographics, and other very important data.

What Is a Good Engagement Rate on Instagram?

Once you've crunched the numbers for your engagement rate, you can start to analyze and understand what the number actually means and whether it is good or bad.

Here's a handy industry benchmark to put your results in perspective:

• Less than 1% = low engagement rate

• Between 1% and 3.5% = average/good engagement rate

• Between 3.5% and 6% = high engagement rate

• Above 6% = very high engagement rate

As a rule of thumb, an Instagram engagement rate falling between 1% and 3% is usually a positive indicator, right in the ballpark of what you'd typically find on an influencer's profile.

If that rate surpasses the 3% mark, it's a clear signal that their audience is genuinely enthusiastic about their content. Conversely, if the rate dips below 1%, it's an indication that the overall audience isn't quite as fired up about what you’re posting.

Read Also: Best Instagram Business Pages We’ve Ever Seen…And How to Be Like Them!

How to Boost Instagram Engagement for Your Business

Now, to the very interesting part.

First of all, it is important to remember that there’s no such thing as an overnight success. You can’t expect your first Instagram post to get thousands of likes and comments in one night. After all, you’re not a magician or a famous celebrity. But with that said, these tips below will help you get the most out of your efforts.

1. Copy Your High-Performing Posts

If you're looking to boost your Instagram engagement, it's wise to start with a good old-fashioned trick that I like to call “Just Copy What Worked Before”. Review your account's history and identify the posts that have gotten you the most likes, comments, and shares in the past.

These high-performing posts hold the secret sauce to what resonates with your audience, and by replicating their elements, you're more likely to strike gold with your future content.

2. Don’t Forget the Thought-Provoking Captions

While captivating visuals are the heart of Instagram, don't underestimate the power of a thought-provoking caption. A well-crafted caption can add depth, context, and a touch of personality to your posts.

It encourages your followers to engage with your content on a more meaningful level, prompting likes, comments, and shares that go beyond the surface. Even better, they can be more likely to buy what you offer.

3. Engage With Your Audience

Engagement is a two-way street, and the more you interact with your audience, the more likely they are to engage with your content.

Respond to comments, ask questions in your captions, and participate in conversations. This not only builds a sense of community but also signals to the algorithm that your content is worth promoting. Also, here’s another tip for creating content; addressing the comments and questions that your audience is dropping in your comments section in another post.

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4. Create Short-Form Content

In the age of fleeting attention spans, short-form content is the name of the game. Well, except you’re writing an article like this one.

If you want to create video content, make sure it’s quick and to the point. Snappy animated videos and concise carousel posts can captivate your audience without demanding too much of their time. You can also use a good video editing app to touch up your content and make it have more dazzle.

These formats often lead to higher engagement as they are easy to consume and share. Research by SproutSocial revealed that customers find short-form videos to be 2.5x more engaging than long-form videos.

5. Post Your Content at the Best Times

Timing is crucial on Instagram. Pay attention to your audience's active hours and schedule your posts accordingly. Different days and times may work better for your specific niche and demographic, so use Instagram Insights to pinpoint the best posting times.

Here’s a study by Hootsuite about the best time to post on Instagram for reference:

Image Source: Hootsuite

They found that Instagram users are the most likely to interact with content during work hours, mid-day, and mid-week. The worst time to post is on weekends.

But it all boils down to your own unique audience and their behavior. It's essential to keep a close eye on your Instagram Insights and conduct your experiments to pinpoint the sweet spots for posting that align with when your followers are most active and responsive.

6. Sprinkle Some Cross-Network Promotional Posts

Cross-promotion across different social networks can be a powerful way to drive engagement on Instagram. Share teasers or snippets of your Instagram content on other platforms, encouraging your followers to check out your Instagram profile for the full experience.

This cross-network promotion can bring new eyes to your posts and expand your Instagram audience.

7. Invest in Instagram Ads

Sometimes, a boost in engagement requires a financial push. Instagram offers various advertising options that allow you to target specific audiences and promote your content to a broader user base.

By investing in Instagram ads, you can increase your visibility and engagement while reaching potential customers who might have otherwise missed your posts.

The targeting feature is where you can focus on factors like demographics, interests, and behaviors. It ensures that your content reaches the right people at the right time.

Using Bumpa to Sell More on Instagram

The goal of any business, and even the reason why you want to get more engagement on your Instagram, is to make your business more visible and turn your audience into paying customers. When you’ve done all in the list above to bring that engagement to your page and your customers are finally ready to pay some serious money for your products, handling them the efficient way is key to keeping them happy and satisfied and making sure they come back. And that’s where Bumpa comes in.

With the Bumpa app, you can:

1. Connect your Instagram app and share products and payment links with your customers, making payment easier for them.

2. Record your customers’ orders and enable automatic order updates sent to their mailbox as you update order status.

3. Save your customers’ information, even down to their Instagram handles. If you ever lose your Instagram account, you don’t have to fret. You’ll still have your customers!

4. Track each order to see the status; paid, shipped, delivered, fulfilled, completed, etc. This helps you manage your orders better.

5. Get insights into your best-performing sales channels, which could be Instagram for all you know. But the data is so much easier to see from one dashboard!

6. Update your inventory automatically as you sell on Instagram. This means you can keep track of your stock without any hassle at all.

7. Share payment invoices and receipts with your customers with just the click of a button. Yes, we agree that you can be professional even while selling on Instagram!

And there’s so much more. Additionally, you can get a website for your business, add your staff to the Bumpa app, assign roles to them and track them, and even send campaigns to your customers via email or SMS.

To get started, download the Bumpa app by clicking on this link, and sign up with your business details. It’s that easy to get started, and you’ll experience a lot of other things that haven’t been listed here. Check it out now!

Conclusion: Take Your Engagement Rate to the Next Level

Building a thriving Instagram presence takes time, consistency, and genuine engagement with your audience. Consistency, experimentation, and a deep understanding of your unique audience are the keys to long-term engagement growth. It's a marathon, not a sprint, so keep at it and watch your efforts pay off over time. And cheers to all the customers you’ll get when the engagement starts pouring in!

Frequently Asked Questions

Does buying Instagram followers help with engagement rate?

No. Many services that sell Instagram followers provide fake or low-quality accounts. These accounts are often inactive, bot-generated, or from accounts with no genuine interest in your content. While they give you a follower count boost, fake or low-quality followers are unlikely to engage with your content, which can negatively impact your engagement rate. Instead, you can use some proven hacks to increase your followers organically.

Is it better to have a smaller, highly engaged following or a large number of followers with lower engagement?

It's generally better to have a smaller, highly engaged following. Genuine engagement often leads to better results, conversions, and brand loyalty compared to a large number of followers with low interaction.

Does the use of relevant hashtags impact the engagement rate?

Yes, using relevant and trending hashtags can increase your content's discoverability and potentially lead to higher engagement. That all said, avoid using too many irrelevant or spammy hashtags, as this can have a negative impact.

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