Four Steps to Build an Instagram Acquisition Machine
Many businesses struggle with content strategy. It is easy to say “we should have a content strategy that tells our story, connects with our audience, and drives great results,” but it is a lot harder to develop content that consistently delivers.
To help businesses stop guessing and start developing a cohesive strategy, I have developed a four-step framework to create an elite content strategy.
Step 1 - Align to a Goal
When I work with businesses, I find that a consistent problem in developing an Instagram content strategy is that they do not know what they want to achieve. Do they want to drive brand awareness and site visits? Solution consideration and buyer research? Do they want the content to drive leads?
I start with what they want to achieve. If you do not know what you want to accomplish, you cannot develop a strategy and end up with random acts of marketing. I like to start with 3 simple questions:
What story do you want to tell?
Why do you want to tell this story?
What do you want the audience to do next?
Once you answer these questions, we can start identifying where your audience sits in the marketing funnel.
Step 2 - The Funnel
Understanding where your audience is in the funnel and how that aligns with your business goals is critical. Far too often, leaders misunderstand the funnel and expect bottom-of-funnel results with top-of-funnel content. This type of misalignment not only wastes time and money but also burns out your team and creates a poor working relationship.
The Upper Funnel is the broadest segment, with most people unaware of your business or only partially aware. Upper-funnel tactics focus on increasing your business's name recognition and awareness.
The Middle Funnel is composed of people who are learning about and considering your business. Middle-funnel tactics focus on increasing consideration of your business and convincing them to take the next step and contact you.
The Lower Funnel is made up of people who are ready to contact you and become paying clients. Lower-funnel tactics focus on direct response that leads to paying clients.
If your goal is to have more followers, you will focus on the upper funnel; if you want more paying clients, you will focus on the lower funnel. When you are developing a content strategy, you need to know where your goal fits within the wider marketing funnel.
Step 3 - Instagram Formats
Instagram has five core formats, each with different ways to reach audiences, funnel roles, and expected results. These formats are:
Single Image Post
Carousel Post
Reels
Stories
Live
To grow your top of the funnel, Reels and Carousels are the best options. These formats are shown to both followers and non-followers, helping grow awareness, and people tend to engage with likes and swipes. Awareness media has a fun, light feeling - you do not want them to feel like you are asking too much from them. Top-of-funnel content is meant to be impactful and quickly consumed; you want the user to remember your name and that they liked what they saw.
If you want to grow your middle of the funnel, Carousels and Single Image Posts are the best options. Middle-of-the-funnel content focuses on education and answering common questions to increase audience consideration. You want the user to feel assured and confident in your business and in the action you are asking them to take. These formats are shown to followers first, then to non-followers, and are often saved, which helps establish authority and affirm the user's consideration of your business.
For the bottom of the funnel, Single Image Posts and Stories are the best option. These formats are visually impactful and let you create a strong offer that you can link to in the stories format. You want them to feel a sense of urgency and a need to take action. With this strong impact and ability to link to your offer, these posts should drive performance.
The Live format is unique in its role in the funnel. It immediately builds trust and authenticity since you are speaking directly to your audience in real time. This immediacy allows Live to fit into all three stages, depending on what you are discussing and presenting. If you are talking about the high-level benefits of your business, it would fit in the top of the funnel bucket; if you are live and promoting a flash sale for your business, it would fit into the bottom of the funnel bucket.
By aligning your goals with the funnel and matching funnel stages to Instagram formats, you can develop a more effective content strategy.
Step 4 - Content Development
When most people think of content strategy, they likely think of themes and outputs. They envision creating funny viral videos, how-to guides, and event announcements. This is absolutely a core component of a content strategy, but there is a lot that goes into it beforehand. When developing content, consider your content theme, content pillars, and anchor content.
Content themes focus on what is intended to be achieved - are you trying to increase awareness, accelerate consideration, or drive leads? Your content theme will align with your goals. I find that most content falls into one of four categories: awareness, educational/informational, affinity/loyalty, or direct response. These themes align closely with the marketing funnel.
A content pillar is the topic your content consistently covers. If it is a one-off post, then it is not a pillar of your content strategy; content pillars are returned to month after month. For example, if you are a SAAS organiztion, you may have content pillars around platform functionality or market use cases; if you are a gym owner, your content pillars might be your programming or how to execute a lift properly. Content pillars can fit into different themes, and themes can be supported by multiple pillars.
Content anchors are focused on the why of your business. You want your content anchors to set expectations for prospective clients and explain the why behind your business. If your core value proposition emphasizes accuracy, you want anchor content that explains why it matters.
Here is a breakdown of core content themes, where they fit in the funnel, and the expected results from these strategies.
There are lots of different ways to bucket and/or segment content, but this gives a quick-and-dirty way to parse. Another way to think about it: the more creative and fun the content idea is, the higher it is in the funnel, and the higher it is, the less likely it is to directly drive sales or revenue.
By following this four-step process, you will be able to develop a content strategy that saves you effort and drives better results. An effective content strategy has a clear goal in mind based on where your audience is in the funnel and then aligns the content with the format to maximize impact.
Critically, content strategy is a living process. You will develop a strategy, gain learnings, and then iterate on it based on in-market performance. Strategy is not a one-time set-it-and-forget-it process, but something meant to be refined and improved over time. A best practice for this optimization is: Set a review cadence, analyze the data, and adjust the strategy accordingly. You will want to review your performance at least monthly, if not more frequently.
If your business needs help developing an elite content strategy, I am offering a free consultation call. To set up your free consultation call, please email me at brian@bskstrategies.co or schedule an appointment here.
