Updated 2 November 2026. First published in 2018.
Want to use Instagram to grow your business and not sure where to start? This guide shows you how to build an Instagram strategy that strengthens your brand and brings in sales, one step at a time.
Every business owner knows that strategy matters, yet most find it daunting and time-consuming. I'm glad you're here, because I'll show you that you can put together your Instagram strategy in a single day.
It's worth the effort.
Instagram now has 3 billion monthly users, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in September 2025. In Europe, Instagram ads reach 65% of adults in Sweden and 63% in the UK, and around 44% in Germany and Austria, according to DataReportal's Digital 2026 reports.
How many adults Instagram reaches across Europe
Instagram ad reach as a share of adults aged 18 and over, late 2025
Nordics UK and Estonia DACH
Source: DataReportal Digital 2026 country reports, based on Meta's advertising tools.
Post summary
Why your business needs an Instagram strategy
Six steps to build one
Which content formats to use and when
Captions, hashtags and search
Contests, collaborations and Instagram ads
How to measure what works
Why create an Instagram strategy?
Strategic plans tend to follow the same structure. They usually have three parts.
Research and analysis (point A)
Objectives (point B)
A detailed plan to get from one to the other (the roadmap)
An Instagram strategy looks very different from a product launch plan. However, the idea stays the same, choosing the best road from point A to point B.
If you still need convincing, here's what a strategy gives you.
Faster results. With a plan, you stop running around like a headless chicken.
The bigger picture. Even without a full digital marketing strategy, planning for Instagram makes you think about how it works with your website, email and other marketing channels.
Better content. Knowing what works and scheduling it in advance raises the quality of everything you post.
Peace of mind. I always say you'll have peace of mind once you have a plan, whether it's for your business, your digital marketing or Instagram.
Feeling reassured? Let's get started.
Step 1. Look at where you are now
Ask yourself why Instagram matters to your business and what place it takes in your bigger plan. Instagram might not be your main source of new clients. However, it builds trust by showing what your company cares about and the people behind it, and gives you a place to share their stories.
If your website is your headquarters, where all the fundamental information and links live, your Instagram profile is an extension of it that helps potential clients get to know you.
Instagram has also changed a lot in the last few years. Video now takes up more than half the time people spend in the app, and direct messages are now the most popular way to share posts, Instagram head Adam Mosseri told Bloomberg. Words matter more too. Since July 2025, public posts from business and creator accounts can appear in Google and Bing search results, so your captions now help people find you outside the app.
If you already have an account, take a fresh look at it.
Is it a professional (business or creator) account? You need one for Insights, contact buttons and ads.
How many followers do you have, and how fast did your account grow over the last year?
Does your bio tell visitors what you do and who you help?
Are you using your bio links well? You can now add up to five.
What do your last nine posts say about your brand?
Find your best-performing posts by reach, watch time and shares. Then check Google Analytics 4 to see how many people visit your website from Instagram. Don't draw any conclusions yet, just collect the data.
It also helps to write a few sentences about your company and the products or services you sell. A short overview helps you focus.
Step 2. Focus on creativity, not competition
I try to avoid the word "competitor" where I can, and Instagram is the perfect place to drop it. There is no limit to how many profiles your ideal client can follow, and no one loses if they follow both you and your "competitor". So I prefer the word benchmark.
Choose profiles that talk to the same audience as your company, including brands outside your sector. Look at what makes them successful and what type of content they create. Their last nine posts usually tell you all you need, unless you want to study a profile in detail.
Pay attention to the type of content you find.
Products
A subject of interest (often used when a company can't show its product)
User-generated content, which builds a community around the brand
The people behind the company and their stories
A mix of content
As you collect information, note these points too.
What subjects they talk about
Which colour theme they use
Who creates the content, the company or its users
How often they post
Which formats, such as Reels, carousels or Stories, get the most engagement
I'm not asking you to copy anyone. I want you to have a broader understanding of what's going on around you.
Step 3. Choose your tribe
Now that you can see your current situation and your surroundings clearly, decide who you want to attract and engage with. Ask yourself what kind of followers you want.
What are their interests? What do they like?
What language do they speak and where do they live?
Why and how do they use Instagram? When are they online and which profiles do they follow?
What do you want to offer them?
Don't get overwhelmed. Answer the questions you know the answers to. They're only there to help your thinking.
Reaching audiences across Europe
Europe isn't one market. Instagram's ad reach ranges from 65% of adults in Sweden to 44% in Germany, as the chart above shows, so the platform may play a bigger role in Stockholm or London than in Munich or Vienna.
Language matters too. A Swiss audience may expect German, French or Italian. English is widely understood across the Nordics, however captions in Swedish, Norwegian, Danish or Finnish show you're there for that market. If you already run a multilingual website, match your Instagram languages to it, either with separate accounts per market or with posts in more than one language.
Step 4. Define your point B on the roadmap
Identify the main objectives for your Instagram profile, ones you can measure.
The simplest examples are a target number of followers or website visits from Instagram. Your goal can also be tied to sales, if you use a discount code or tracked link only on Instagram.
Look beyond follower numbers when you set targets. Mosseri has said the three signals that matter most for ranking are watch time, likes and sends. He suggests you pay close attention to "average watch time, likes per reach, and sends per reach" in your Insights.
Once you have a SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) objective, write down supporting goals.
Develop a consistent visual theme
Post on a regular schedule you can keep up
Show your Instagram profile on your website, in your emails and on your other social media channels
Reply to comments and direct messages, and comment on other accounts' posts where it makes sense
Step 5. Let's have some fun!
Now you're fully prepared for the most creative part of your strategy. Start by choosing the themes you want to share with your followers.
The people behind your company
Behind the scenes of your work
Topics related to your business
Your products or services in use
Your customers and their stories
Your visual signature
Instagram is a visual platform first, so your look should be a continuation of your brand. Think about these elements and keep them consistent.
Composition
Fonts
Formats and sizes
Filters and editing style
Your colours say more than you might think, so it's worth reading up on colour psychology before you choose. Since January 2025, profile grids show posts in a taller, vertical format, so check our social media image sizes before you design.
When you post product photos, avoid showing products on an office table. Put them in different settings and show them in use. Faces help too. A Georgia Tech and Yahoo Labs study of 1.1 million Instagram photos found that pictures with faces were 38% more likely to get likes and 32% more likely to get comments.
Find example pictures for each theme and mock up a preview of your profile showing the last nine posts. You'll see whether you like it, and you can always look back to check you're following your visual strategy.
Choose your content formats
Each format does a different job. In Buffer's analysis of more than 4 million posts, Reels got 36% more reach than carousels and 125% more than single images. Carousels, however, got 12% more engagement than Reels and 114% more than single images. So use Reels to reach new people and carousels to engage the ones you have.
| Format | Best for | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Reels | Reaching people who don't follow you yet | Up to three minutes long. Trial reels let you test a Reel on non-followers before your followers see it. |
| Carousels | Engagement, guides and step-by-step tips | Up to 20 photos or videos per post, and you can add music. |
| Single images | Product shots, announcements and customer quotes | The lowest reach and engagement of the feed formats in Buffer's study. |
| Stories | Daily updates, polls and questions | Disappear after 24 hours unless you save them to Highlights. Link stickers send people to your website. |
| Live | Launches, Q&As and events | Followers get a notification when you go live. |
| Broadcast channels | Updates for your most loyal followers | Followers opt in, and your updates arrive in their direct messages. |
Video and Reels
Video is where people spend most of their time on Instagram, so use it in your feed, in Reels and in Stories.
Animations that explain your product are a good place to start. They pack a lot of information into a short clip and cost less than live-action video. Behind-the-scenes clips work well too, showing the people behind your product or brand. Whatever you make, shape the content and style around your target audience.
Instagram's own editing app, Edits, launched in 2025 and adds tools such as a teleprompter and beat matching. It's worth trying if you're just starting with Reels.
Captions
The visual is the main driver of Instagram performance, however captions play a growing role in catching attention and building engagement. They let you tell a story through the copy as well as the image.
Decide on your caption length and brand voice, then write a few examples. Only by writing several will you see which direction suits you. Put the most important point first, since only the first lines show before "more".
Use the words your customers search for, because captions now help people find you in Instagram search and, for public business accounts, on Google. It's another way social media can boost your SEO.
Links are still limited. Instagram began testing clickable links in captions in 2026, however only for some Meta Verified subscribers. For now, use your bio links and Story link stickers to send people to your website.
Hashtags
Instagram now limits posts and Reels to five hashtags. It recommends a few targeted hashtags over generic ones such as #reels or #explore.
Choose them with care, based on your brand, your target audience and the topic of the post. A branded hashtag helps you raise awareness and see who's talking about you, and the same goes for campaign hashtags. Look at what similar companies use to see which hashtags reach your audience and which to avoid.
Other details to plan
Selling through Instagram, with product tags where they're available in your country
Localisation for each market and language
Collaborating with other accounts and creators
Contests and giveaways
Promoting your Instagram account through your other social media, website and emails
Contests, collaborations and user-generated content
One way to grow your followers on Instagram is with contests. "Like, share or comment to win" still works, however there are other ways to run a successful campaign on Instagram.
Start with your goal, whether that's more followers, more sales or a stronger brand. Choose a prize related to your brand and valuable enough to get people interested. Words are secondary on Instagram, so create custom visuals for the giveaway and keep the rules simple and clear.
User-generated content lets your customers do some of the work for you. Encourage them to use your product and your hashtag. When you share their posts, ask permission first and credit them.
Collaborations with creators can take you to new audiences. Smaller creators with an engaged, local following often suit businesses better than big names. Look at engagement rather than follower counts, put agreements in writing and label paid collaborations clearly with Instagram's paid partnership tag.
Step 6. Make it a reality
Now let's get real and plan the execution. Anyone can come up with plenty of ideas, and the hardest part is putting them into practice.
Action plan. Give yourself and your team time to build an Instagram content plan and make the changes your account needs. Assign people to each task and let them decide how much time they need. If you work alone, do the same for yourself.
Budget. You may want to invest in short videos, a photoshoot, stock photos or an agency to grow engagement. If you want faster results, Instagram advertising puts your content in front of new people. In the EU, Meta committed to offering users less personalised ads from January 2026, as part of its obligations under the Digital Markets Act. It's one more reason to let strong creative do the heavy lifting, rather than relying on narrow targeting. Work out how much you'll need to spend to reach your Instagram marketing goals.
Measurement. Split your targets month by month, so you can track your progress and adjust your strategy when needed. Add tracked links to your bio and Stories to see Instagram traffic in Google Analytics. Make someone responsible for reporting on time, or automate your reports with software.
Consistency. Posting once a month isn't enough to keep or grow an audience. Choose a schedule you can keep up week after week, rather than bursts of posts followed by silence.
Interaction. Reply to comments and direct messages. It shows your brand's personality and helps you relate to your audience. Since direct messages are now the most popular way to share posts, make content people want to send to a friend.
Instagram changes fast, so keep up with new features and trends and review your strategy every few months.
Congratulations! Your Instagram strategy is ready. You can build it in one day, so I hope it doesn't feel like too much work.
Need help with your Instagram strategy?
If you'd rather hand it over, our social media team can build your Instagram strategy and run it for you.
We offer organic social media management to grow your profile, and Instagram advertising when you want faster results. Take a look at our social media agency services to see how we can help.
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Start by auditing your current account and benchmarking similar brands. Then define your audience and one measurable objective. Plan your content themes, visual style and formats, and finish with an action plan, a budget and monthly targets. The six steps above take you through each part, and you can do it in a day.
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Up to five. Instagram now limits posts and Reels to five hashtags and recommends a few specific tags over generic ones like #reels or #explore. Clear keywords in your captions matter just as much, as they help people find you in Instagram search and on Google.
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For most consumer brands, yes, and for many B2B companies too. Instagram ads reach more than half of adults in Sweden, the UK, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Switzerland, and around 44% in Germany and Austria. It works best as part of a wider plan with your website, search and email.
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In-house works if someone has time every week to plan, create, post and reply. An agency makes sense when you need consistent content, paid ads or several languages and markets, and nobody in your team can own it. We weigh up the pros and cons in our guide to in-house vs agency marketing.