10 Instagram Strategies To Increase Your Followers In 2025

Instagram isn’t just for personal use anymore. Instagram is now a global platform brands use to humanize their content, find new talent, promote products, and inspire their audience. Currently, it has over 2 billion monthly active users. Moreover, 130 million Instagram users engage with shopping content every month.

Your marketing strategy will guide you what type of content to publish on Instagram and how often to post it. Instagram marketing is a strategy that utilizes the platform and its features to build a community and promote your business. Brands using Instagram for marketing must create captivating content dedicated solely to the platform. For the strategy to succeed, they must also build a cohesive plan for specific content and creatively engage with their target audience. 

Table of Contents

• Define your Instagram Marketing Goals
• Zero In on Your Target Audience
• Conduct a Competitor Analysis
• Create an Instagram Content Calendar
• Build a Consistent Branding
• Make the Most out of Story Highlights
• Converse With Your Audience
• Optimize Your Instagram Profile
• Explore Instagram AI Features
• Measure Instagram Performance
• How to Track the Effectiveness of Instagram Strategies 
• Conclusion

Here are the IG marketing strategies you should consider in 2025. You might already be doing some of these tactics now and then. But paying more attention to these strategies would do you well. That’s because they’re expected to rake in more followers this year.

1. Define your Instagram Marketing Goals

This might seem a cakewalk, but you must be able to address exactly why you want to have an Instagram presence in the first place. Goal-setting is an essential step in any strategy. These goals determine everything, from your content strategy to how much time you need to invest on the platform to accomplish these goals. 

2. Zero In on Your Target Audience

Even the best IG posts won’t work if you’re not getting through to your target audience. One of the most fundamental keys to making your Instagram strategies work is designing your posts to touch base with your prospects and community. One of the ways to do this is to use the appropriate hashtags. Choose hashtags that your target audience would most likely search for. If influencer marketing is part of your public relations strategies, it’s a must to choose influencers whose image, expertise and niche are in line with your brand identity.  

3. Conduct a Competitor Analysis

Once you’ve identified your Instagram audience, conduct a competitive analysis to understand what other marketers in your field are sharing. If you already know your main competitors, start by examining their Instagram profiles. You can also search for industry-related terms to find similar accounts.

Conduct a quick audit of these accounts to identify the posts with the highest engagement, popular hashtags, captions, posting frequency, and growth rate. Use this information as a benchmark as you develop your own account.

While reviewing your competitors’ content, look for any missed opportunities and incorporate unique content will help your business stand out from the crowd.

4. Create an Instagram Content Calendar

Creating an editorial calendar can help you save time and manage your Instagram account efficiently. Configure your calendar with some Instagram post types, and plan your captions, hashtags, and posting schedule. 

Your Instagram content calendar is also a perfect place to record major events to highlight on your Instagram account, like new product launches or special promos. With this calendar, you can track real-time opportunities instead of cramming for last-minute posts.

5. Build a Consistent Branding

Inconsistent or disorganized content can confuse your audience and lead to a loss of followers. To avoid this, maintain a cohesive brand aesthetic on your Instagram account. Post images with your brand narrative in mind and include compelling stories in your captions to make your brand more relatable. 

For example, Red Bull’s feed features many high-energy images and videos that add to its brand’s story.

6. Make the Most out of Story Highlights

If you’re not utilizing your account’s Story Highlights, then you’re missing out on a lot. This profile feature can be used to display pertinent information. Use this especially if you want your visitors to know about your brand right away. You can use this section to display promos and discounts or showcase new products or services. You may also highlight user testimonials, or announce important information such as holidays or price changes.

5. Converse With Your Audience

If you only use your IG account to post content and promotions, then you’re only utilizing half of what it can do for brand promotion and customer engagement. Make it a priority to appoint someone in your team to reply to comments and direct messages. It would also be an excellent step to monitor posts that consumers tag you in. Or repost these user-generated content either in your feed or in your stories.

8. Optimize Your Instagram Profile

Make sure that your IG bio is optimized in 2025. Take note of the following factors to make sure that your bio performs at its best:

• Convert to a business profile
• Upload an appropriate profile photo. It could be your logo or symbol.
• Compose a short bio that summarizes the nature of your business. Include three hashtags that best describe what you do.
• Spell out the full name of the business
• Make sure that your business profile is under the correct category
• Put your updated contact information: email address, business phone number, and business address 

9. Explore Instagram AI Features 

Use AI tools to personalize your Instagram content and ads and tailor your messages to different segments of your audience for better engagement. Here are some Instagram AI features you can consider: 

• Content Recommendations
• Dynamic Ads
• Customer Segmentation
• Predictive Analytics
• Chatbots and Virtual Assistant
• User Journey Mapping
• Content Creation

10. Measure Instagram Performance

All these Instagram strategies are useless if you don’t track your performance. Unless you see how people engage with a particular piece of content, you won’t know whether it’s something that they like to see. At best, you may be wasting your time and resources on content that doesn’t contribute to your bottom line.

Consistently measure your Instagram performance to see what’s working and what’s not. Keep track of vital Instagram metrics to see what content relate with your audience and which campaigns are paying off. Then, use those insights to fine-tune your strategy and optimize your results.

How to Track the Effectiveness of Instagram Strategies 

Tracking the effectiveness of your Instagram strategies is vital for understanding your audience’s preferences and optimizing your content. While Instagram comes with built-in analytics, investing in a more robust analytics tool can deliver better results. This will give you a clear view of all your social media marketing efforts at once. 

Here are a few analytics tools you might consider:

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a leading social media management solution that streamlines the process of maintaining multiple social media accounts. It has evolved into a comprehensive platform that provides easy-to-understand reports. So, if you’re looking for a tool that offers performance data from Instagram and other major social networks, Hootsuite is a good choice. 

Sprout Social

Sprout Social’s social media analytics dashboard allows you to connect your Instagram business profile to monitor Instagram performance data. It gives you access to all the key metrics, including impressions, likes, and comments. In addition, Sprout Social automatically analyzes your data, so you don’t have to manually calculate things like engagement rate and average reach per post. Moreover, Sprout breaks down these performance metrics at the post level, allowing you to identify your best posts quickly.

Iconosquare

Iconosquare is another analytics option that helps agencies manage multiple brand profiles simultaneously. This way, social media managers can easily switch from client to client. The good news is that Iconosquare also offers a free account audit for business profiles to ensure you’re adhering to Instagram best practices.

Here are 15 key Instagram metrics you should track to help you understand your audience better and optimize your Instagram strategy:

• Follower Growth Rate: Measures how quickly your follower count increases over time.
• Engagement Rate: Calculates the percentage of followers who interact with your content based on comments, likes, and shares.
• Impressions: Counts the total number of times your posts have been seen.
• Reach: Counts the number of unique users who have seen your posts.
• Likes: Tracks the number of likes your posts receive.
• Comments: Determines the number of comments on your posts, indicating engagement and interest.
• Shares: Calculates how many times users have shared your posts.
• Saves: Shows how many users have saved your posts for later viewing.
• Story Views: Tracks the number of views your Instagram Stories.
• Story Replies: Measures the number of replies to your Instagram Stories.
• Profile Visits: Counts how many users have visited your profile.
• Website Clicks: Tracks the number of clicks on the link in your bio.
• Hashtag Performance: Measures the effectiveness of the hashtags you use in your posts.
• Top Posts: Identifies your most popular posts based on engagement metrics.
• Audience Demographics: Provides insights into the age, gender, and location of your followers.

Conclusion

By leveraging the top strategies outlined in this guide, you can effectively engage your audience, boost your followers, and enhance your brand presence. But remember, while strategy is essential, the visual appeal of your content is equally crucial. Eye-catching graphics and captivating advertisement designs can make all the difference in capturing your audience’s 

Are you ready to take your Instagram marketing to the next level? Consider Penji for unlimited graphic design services tailored to your needs. Whether it’s stunning visuals for your Instagram feed, engaging stories, or captivating ads for all your social media platforms, Penji has you covered.