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Neil Patel

Instagram Marketing 101: Grow Your Following With These 7 Guides and 5 Courses

Neil Patel

Did you know that Instagram has more than one billion monthly active users?

How about the fact that more than 50 billion photos have been shared on this fast growing social network?

Despite the fact that Instagram is one of the largest social networks out there, even bigger than Twitter, its power is overlooked by many marketing professionals.

Why is this the case?

There are many reasons for this:

And, that’s just the start. Unfortunately, if you let one of these excuses hold you back, you are missing out on an opportunity to engage with the quickly expanding worldwide audience of the Instagram community. 

With more than a billion global users on Instagram, now is the time for your brand to implement a sound marketing plan, with the goal of generating immediate results.

In the blog post to come, we’ll examine 7 guides and 5 courses you can rely on to achieve Instagram success. While some of these blog posts, guides and courses share a similar focus, each one can teach you something unique about succeeding with this social channel.

It’s time to get started! 

7 Instagram Guides

1. Instagram Marketing: Your Complete Guide to Instagram Success (Social Media Examiner) 

When it comes to marketing guides for social networks, Social Media Examiner is one of my favorite sites. Here’s why: they provide more than the basic steps that you can take to get started.

This guide, for instance, is full of links to other guides, blog posts, and tools. Maybe you want to learn more about how to use hyperlapse video. They have you covered. 

As you make your way through this guide, you are presented with blog posts, advice and links on every subject imaginable. One of my favorites is the section on how to run successful contests on Instagram. This is a great way to market your brand, but only if you take the right approach.

When you read this guide from Social Media Examiner, you are just getting started. It would be in your best interest to follow all of the links provided, as they take you to other guides and pages with just as much useful advice.

2. The Marketer’s Guide to Instagram (NeilPatel.com) 

This guide is not the most current on Instagram marketing, but it’s one of the most in-depth, thanks to its high-quality, targeted advice and simple layout.

From getting started to growing your following to user-generated content and influencer marketing, anything and everything of importance is included in this guide.

I particularly enjoy the section entitled “Creating an Instagram Marketing Campaign.” With a simple three-step process, following the advice in this guide will help you to develop a targeted marketing campaign in no time.

With plenty of statistics, data and screenshots, the Kissmetrics Instagram marketing guide is everything you hope for, plus much more. You can use it to guide every decision that you make, in regards to marketing your brand to the Instagram community via this social networking service.

3. Instagram Marketing: How to Establish an Effective Strategy (Sprout Social) 

It’s one thing to have an Instagram account. It’s another thing entirely to create a marketing strategy that yields serious results. And that is why Sprout Social has published this guide.

If engagement is important to you (and it should be) then Instagram posts should get just as much of your time, attention and resources as Facebook and Twitter.

In this guide, you learn how to create a successful Instagram marketing strategy. For example, the first suggestion is to settle on your objectives. This means answering questions such as:

If you want to achieve Instagram success, this guide will point you in the right direction. As you continue through it, don’t be surprised if you come across information, such as how to monitor location tags, that you never thought about in the past.

This guide from Sprout Social will improve your ability to create and implement a sound Instagram marketing strategy.

4. The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Marketing for Retailers and Brands (Wishpond) 

Are you a retailer? Are you attempting to grow a brand via an Instagram account? If you answered yes to either question, this guide from Wishpond will do wonders for your business.

There are eight concrete tips for increasing sales through Instagram posts and each one is well worth your time. My favorite is the one on establishing a posting pattern. Here is why: entirely too many brands get started with Instagram marketing, just to back off when things don’t go their way.

As with any social campaign, it’s good practice to stick with a regular posting schedule. This helps you to grow your brand, as readers understand that they will be presented with fresh, high quality content on a regular basis.

If your audience doesn’t know when your next update is coming, they may tune you out in the future.

“The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Marketing for Retailers and Brands,” examines this topic among many others. If your brand needs any help with Instagram marketing, Wishpond can step in.

5. How To Use Instagram For Business: A Practical 6-Step Guide (Hootsuite) 

Getting started with Instagram marketing for any business is easier said than done. There are challenges to overcome. There are roadblocks standing in your way. But, here is the good thing: the right strategy can put you on the road to success in no time.

Hootsuite, one of the biggest social network names, has published a beginner’s guide to using Instagram for business. This is perfect for those of you who have never used Instagram in the past, because you believe that getting started is entirely too difficult.

This guide is built for beginners, but my favorite section is the one on Instagram best practices. These are listed as follows:

If your business isn’t using Instagram to connect with customers and prospects, you are missing the boat. This guide is perfect for any beginner.

6. The Secret Guide To Instagram Influencer Marketing (Social Media Week) 

Once you no longer consider yourself a social network beginner, it’s time to learn more about Instagram influencer marketing. This is an advanced technique that can have a serious impact on your business.

The Social Media Week “Secret Guide To Instagram Influencer Marketing” is one of the best that you will find, as it starts with the basics and works through advanced techniques and tactics.

Here is how the guide defines influencer marketing:

Influencer marketing is the process of marketing products, brands or services through popular individuals who can influence their follower’s purchase decisions. It’s somewhat similar to word-of-mouth marketing, but doesn’t necessarily involve recommendations. An influencer can be anyone with the ability to sway consumers and convince them to take action.

It discusses the results that you can expect, how it can help your business and steps for getting started. Even better, it includes templates for reaching out to potential influencers.

If you want to grow your brand through influencer marketing, Instagram is the one platform you cannot ignore.

I’ll leave you with this: 68% of Instagram users between 13 and 24 interact with brands that regularly use the photo sharing platform.

7. Getting Started – Instagram for Business (Instagram) 

It may be the last guide on the list, but it could quite possibly be the one that deserves the most attention. And, the reason is clear: this guide is published and updated by Instagram. It allows you to collect high quality advice, straight from the horse’s mouth.

If you want to know what works on Instagram, this page is a great place to find some inspiration. You can see how other brands are using the platform, thus allowing you to tweak your approach accordingly.

Be sure to check back regularly, as this guide is updated as Instagram evolves.

5 Instagram Courses

1. How to Use Instagram for Business (Udemy) 

If a text guide isn’t enough to put you on the right path, it may be time to enroll in one of the many available Instagram courses. This one, managed through Udemy, is one of the best.

Here is the course description:

Learn expert Instagram marketing strategy to engage with customers, drive traffic to your website, and increase sales.

Sounds intriguing, right? Well, you aren’t the only one who feels this way. There are more than 2,000 students currently enrolled in the course, with a nearly four-star rating since inception.

With 39 lectures and 2.5 hours of video, the modest enrollment fee is well worth it. Led by Andrew Macarthy, a social network consultant and bestselling Amazon author, you are provided with 39 separate videos to help you reach your goals.

Rather than go on and on, here is a testimonial from a satisfied student:

That says it all, doesn’t it?

2. Learning Instagram (Lynda) 

A basic course with more than 200,000 views, anybody interested in getting started with Instagram marketing could benefit from soaking up the 1+ hour of guidance and advice.

Sticking with the beginner theme, topics include:

This is not a course for advanced Instagram users. It may not even be the right choice for those with a profile and some experience. However, it is a good fit for individuals and brands who are new to the platform.

You can’t achieve Instagram success without a solid base and that’s exactly what you will get when you complete this course. When everything is said and done, you will have a total understanding of the basics of running an Instagram account and where you fit in.

3. Hype Your Brand on Instagram (CreativeLive) 

With a $24 fee, people should be flocking to this course. The description shows why it remains one of the most popular courses on Instagram marketing:

Think Instagram is just for beach vacation selfies and shots of your quinoa-kale bowls? Think again. With more than 1 billion active monthly users, Instagram is one of the fastest-growing social marketing platforms for business. But while you might recognize the power of Instagram and its millions of enthusiastic devotees, leveraging that power is a whole other story.

With nearly 30,000 students as of December 2019, you can be confident that every dollar that you spend on this course is one that will go a long way in improving your business.

Here is what I like best: there are 29 video downloads, all of which can be viewed on your own time and at your own pace. Best yet, you can revisit these in the future, as you continue to build your brand on Instagram.

Some of the most intriguing videos include:

If you are comfortable paying the one time fee for on-demand access, it may be time to put your faith in Sue B. Zimmerman. 

4. Instagram Marketing Master Class (Boot Camp Digital) 

The Instagram Training course strives to teach the following:

When you sign up for the class, which costs $97, here is what you get in return:

It may not be free, but it definitely doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. Think about this course as an Instagram account boot camp. It will get you up to speed soon enough.

5. Instagram Marketing 2020: A Step-By-Step to 10,000 Real Followers (Udemy) 

Another course offered through Udemy, this one is even more popular than “How to Use Instagram for Business.”

Led by Benjamin Wilson, this course has more than 90,000 enrolled students as of December 2019. Even if you need more proof that it’s a well respected course, consider this: it has a 4.5 average rating from more than 15,000 reviews!

So, why is this one of the most popular courses on Instagram marketing? It all comes down to the depth of the content.

There are 50 lectures which make up the 4.5 hour long course. Here are a few things that you can expect from the course:

The 45 lectures are broken down into seven sections:

If you want to be among the 3,500+ students who are currently learning how to grow their account to 10,000 real followers, don’t delay in signing up and taking in the first lecture.

Conclusion

Many of the top brands are on Instagram, sharing photos and engaging with their audience on a daily basis.

Regardless of your audience, there are ways to market your products and/or services via your Instagram account.

With the service continuing to make changes for the better, it’s time to get in on the action.

Now that you have a few guides and courses to show you the way, there is nothing left except getting started.

What are your thoughts on Instagram marketing? Have you had any success with this? Will it be a big part of your strategy in the future?

Grow your traffic