5 Simple Steps To Improve Your Instagram Content For More Leads and Sales

Let’s be real, figuring out Instagram for selling digital products can be a bit of a headache sometimes.

So, I’ve put together some simple tips that have really worked for me, and I think they’ll help you too. These ideas are all about turning your posts and profile into a magnet, so people not only stop their scroll, but also want to follow, engage, and buy what you’re offering.

If you like keeping things easy and seeing great results, this little guide is full of actionable steps.

Let’s jump into it…

Step 1: Understand Instagram’s Algorithm (this is not a joke 😁 I promise)

Let’s dive into a simple, yet super crucial step that might just do the trick for your Instagram content – understanding how Instagram decides to show your content to people.

You see, a lot people are putting in the hard work, posting the content, but still not getting their content in front of as many eyes as they’d like. And that’s often because they haven’t got the hang of Instagram’s algorithm yet and sometimes chalking it up to being “shadow banned” by the algorithm.

First off, although “shadow banning” is not a real thing, there is real evidence to support the fact that the algorithm has much of the control over what your followers see versus what they don’t.

So, what can you do to avoid falling into that algorithm trap? It’s not as complicated as it sounds, I promise.

Well, first, you’ll want to post your content when most of your followers are scrolling through their feeds. This is your window to catch their attention most! But don’t stop there. While you’re at it, get to talking and engaging with them at the same time! Respond to comments, slide into those DMs, and interact with your audience. Doing all this around your prime posting times can really bump up how visible your posts are to your followers and give the algorithm a chance to control what they see – but in your favor.

To try this out, you can take a moment to figure out when your followers are most active on Instagram. Then, for the upcoming week of content, make it a point to post your content during these peak times and keep an eye on any uptick in how people are engaging with your posts.

It’s a simple experiment, but you might be surprised by how effective it can be.

Step 2: Use Instagram Stories and Evergreen Content (Together)

We all think of Instagram Stories as a 24 hour piece of content, but you probably haven’t considered how they can keep your evergreen content alive forever. Yes, you read it right – I’m talking about turning your Stories into evergreen content that keeps on giving you leads and sales.

I don’t mean post it every day. No, I mean exactly that. Post it once and let it work for you over a much longer period of time.

So here’s the deal: While everyone is busy perfecting their feed on Instagram, there’s a nifty trick with Instagram and Stories that’s getting kind of overlooked.

Your Highlights: This little feature has the power of taking your top performing stories content and making them easily accessible, any time, all the time.

Here’s how you can make highlights work for your evergreen content: Start by creating a special Story Highlight on your profile just for your always relevant and evergreen content that you want to refer to often. Then, when you want to refer people to this content, you can use a simple call to action in your post or caption, and viola, it’s a built-in evergreen leads / sales machine.

The key is to keep your highlights updated regularly and post a new fresh version of the story you originally pinned in your highlights, and pin them to your highlights as an update.

Ready to give it a try? Okay, your mission is to create an Instagram Story today. Aim for something that really puts a spotlight on a feature or a big benefit of your digital product. 

Once you’ve got that story looking sharp, pop it into a specially created Highlight for all your evergreen content. Watch closely over the next few days to see if it starts getting more eyes to your product links.

Regularly posting and sharing in your Instagram stories is a great way to create content that is under-utilized in my opinion! It’s an amazingly easy, casual, and engaging way to post that also lets you showcase your evergreen products and content, including your sneak peeks, and behind-the-scenes moments, all while building a loyal community.

With this sets of templates below, you can create stories that grab attention, spark curiosity, and effortlessly drive people to take action on your digital products

Step 3: Maintain Consistent Branding Across All Posts

Ever noticed how some Instagram profiles have this seamless, unified vibe that makes you instantly recognize them? That’s no accident. It’s all about consistency in their brand and content.

When your posts, Stories, and everything else don’t look like they belong together, people get mixed signals. You definitely don’t want to confuse anyone who’s checking out your profile or products. So, maintaining a consistent style is key to making your brand memorable and clear.

What you can do is come up with a simple brand style guide. This doesn’t have to be anything fancy – just a checklist of your chosen fonts, color schemes, and the overall vibe of your visuals. Once you have these guidelines, use them as a filter for everything you post. This way, whether someone sees a Story or a post from you, they’ll immediately know it’s from your brand.

Want to evaluate how you’re brand and content is doing? Take a minute to look over your last five posts. Ask yourself if they really look like they’re from the same family. Pick one that’s not quite fitting in, and tweak it to better match your style guide. Then post the updated version!

This is an easy step, but it makes a huge difference in how people perceive your brand. 

Need a place to start with branding? I have some templates you can use free where you’ll be able to plan out your brand and your Instagram feed.  Click here to grab your copy of my templates

Our members love using our monthly Canva template collections like this one because they’re easily and seamlessly customizable.

Step 4: Optimize Your Posts for Search and Discovery

This is super important, but also sometimes tricky. Making sure new people can actually find your stuff!

Have you ever posted something you thought was really cool, perfect in everyway, and then sat there waiting for likes and comments that never came? It can be a bummer, right?

Well, there are quite a few ways to get new people to discover your content.

• Collaborating with other creators to get mentioned/tagged
• Hoping on a trendy reel idea to increase your chances of reach
• Getting on the search results and explore pages with use of hashtags and keywords

In this section, I want to cover hashtags and keywords. It’s important to use hashtags and keywords properly if you want to boost how many people see your posts on the explore page or when they do a search because these elements serve as little beacons that signal your content to the algorithm and let’s them know to show them to certain people who are interested in those topics.

What if you don’t use hashtags or keywords? It’s simple: You severely limit your chances of reaching those people interest in those topics.

So, here’s what you’ve gotta do: do a bit of homework to figure out which hashtags and keywords are trending in your niche. But don’t just use the popular ones that everyone is using. Be sure to sprinkle in some less common and more specific ones.

To Find Your Niche Trending Hashtags and Keywords on Instagram:

1. Use Instagram Search: Start by typing a keyword related to your niche in the Instagram search bar. Instagram will suggest related hashtags, including popular and more niche ones.
2. Explore Related Hashtags: When you click on a hashtag, Instagram will also show you related hashtags at the top of the screen. Browse these to find less common and highly specific ones.
3. Check Competitors and Influencers: Look at what hashtags your competitors or influencers in your niche are using. This can give you insights into what’s working for them.

To Find Your Less Common and More Specific Niche Hashtags:

1. Niche Down: Focus on hashtags that are more specific to your content and audience. For example, instead of just #travel, use #SoloTravelEurope if that’s more relevant to your content.
2. Use Hashtag Tools: There are online tools and apps designed to find and analyze Instagram hashtags, such as Flick which can help you discover both popular and niche hashtags related to your content.

Choosing Which Hashtags to Use:

1. Relevance: Always choose hashtags that are relevant to your image or video. Irrelevant hashtags can negatively affect your engagement.
2. Mix It Up: Use a mix hashtags. The more popular and broader hashtags can help you reach a wider audience, while niche hashtags can help you target more specifically and be seen by engaged users interested in that topic.
3. Limit: Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags per post, but you don’t need to use all 30. Instagram’s own team have indicated that a good range is between 5 to 15, depending on your post and strategy. Using all 30 can be done, if you stick to relevant tags.
4. Experiment and Analyze: Try different combinations of hashtags and monitor which ones give you the best engagement. Instagram Insights (for business accounts) can help you see how your hashtags are performing.

Okay, to put this into action, dig around and find five hashtags that really resonate with what you’re all about. The next time you post, weave those hashtags into your caption or comment section, and then sit back for a couple of days. Check out your post’s insights to see which hashtags get you the most views, and voilà – you’ll know which few tags to use for your next posts.

Step 5: Track Performance with Instagram Analytics

If you’re not keeping an eye on your Instagram analytics, you’re essentially posting blind. You could be missing out on tons of useful info that tells you exactly what your audience loves. That means you could be wasting time on posts that don’t really get you anywhere.

So, to start the process, here is what I suggest, jump back into your insights (you know, where you got the best times to post from above) and look for information about your content.

You can find info about your stories, your feed posts, and your reels. You’ll want to look at what your highest-performing post from the last month, and see if you spot what made it successful? Maybe it was the time you posted, or perhaps it was the super-relatable caption you wrote, or a specific topic, or maybe the image was goofy or weird. Whatever it is, take notes.

Then, for the next few weeks, try to sprinkle that little element and thing that made your best post special into your new content. Then keep an eye on those numbers to see if they climb.

By being a bit of a detective and smart with your analytics, you can actually start honing and crafting content that’s like a magnet to your audience before you know it. 

Ready to improve your strategy quickly? Try These..

Try these Quick Wins Next time you experience any of these engagement issues

• If Engagement Is Low: Reevaluate your content. Ask yourself, is what I’m posting actually what my followers want or need? People adore being involved, so why not throw up a poll or a question in your Stories? Listen to who matter most – your audience.
• When Your Follower Count Has Hit a Plateau: Try something new or hop onto a Reels trend – quick, impactful, and they just might be what you need to get noticed by more people.
• If Sales Are Not Converting: Might be time to revisit your call-to-action. That’s just a fancy way of saying “telling people what you want them to do next.” Keep it clear, keep it simple, and sometimes, a small tweak in how you word it can really turn things around.

Ready to improve your Instagram even further? Join the content membership!

Ready to streamline your content creation and turn casual followers into loyal committed buyers?

Join the Ivory Mix Profitable Content Membership and reach content creation zen. 🥰

With 18,000 templates, photos, reels, video templates, captions, and more at your disposal, your content relief is within reach. Learn more at ivorymix.com/membership/

Here’s a look at what was recently added this past month for members:

What Next?

Now that we’ve outlined a clear path to leveraging Instagram effectively for your digital products, what’s your first step going to be?

Continue Reading More On This Topic:

• How to create consistent content
• 7 Brilliant Strategies For Creating Content
• Do This For Quick Last Minute Content Planning
• Create Content Faster with your own Content Planner and Playbook
• The “Bare Minimum” content strategy for building your online business