Day 3: Competition & Aligned Accounts
Understanding the Instagram ‘landscape’ for your niche and industry is crucial to your success on the platform. There are a few things you need to investigate and understand to create an Instagram strategy that works.
First of all, you need to understand your competition’s approach on Instagram. Their content, their community, their style. You also need to look into other accounts your target market would follow – these are your ‘aligned accounts’.
You’ve likely done competitor research before, but have you done Instagram competitor research? What your competitors are doing on Instagram can give you insight into what kind of strategy and approach you need to take.
For example, if your biggest competitor is using Instagram to push their products constantly, maybe the market would respond well to a more personal approach.
If a competitor is getting high engagement rates and doing well on Instagram, this tells you what kind of content is resonating with the market and sets the bar for what you need to aim at.
Or maybe, if you’re lucky, the competition has neglected Instagram and you have a wide-open space to carve out for yourself.
For each competitor, ask yourself:
- What are they doing well?
- What are they missing?
- What opportunities are there for you to capitalise on?
- What threats are they posing?
After you’ve done this, you can look at your industry or niche landscape as a whole.
Ask things like:
- What are the overall content trends?
- What topics seem to come up the most?
- What do all the most successful accounts have in common?
- What sort of comments are they getting?
![](http://marketingyourbrand.com/cdn/shop/files/download_3_424637bf-7e67-4929-a23f-6ff808c555cf.webp?v=1724740496&width=1080)
It’s also important to remember that you can’t see everything from the outside. You can’t see how many shares or saves their posts are getting, you can’t see their direct messages, and you can’t see their overall marketing strategy. There are many different ways to use Instagram as part of an overall marketing strategy, so a gap you perceive in their Instagram may be taking place elsewhere in their marketing. Such as, in a paid ads campaign or email marketing sequence.
However, investigating the competition can give you a loose understanding of the landscape and help you make more informed decisions about your strategy. But now, for the best part!
You can steal your competition’s followers.
Imagine if you had access to your competition’s customer database and were allowed to contact them..
Well, on Instagram, you have just that! One of the first questions people always ask about Instagram is, “How do I find my target market on Instagram?” The answer: hashtags, businesses and accounts that share your target market, and your COMPETITORS!
Spare a little time each day or week, and hop on over to your competition’s Instagram page. Engaging with the people who engage with them can help you build your initial, targeted following.
All you have to do is open up the comments or likes, then go down the list visiting each account and liking a few of their posts. If their account is private, then you can skip them. If you cannot see the likes, you will be able to view them – if you are following them – or someone else you follow has liked the post. So use your personal account to like the post first, if no one else has.
Aligned accounts
Aligned accounts are another excellent way to find and get in front of your target market. Aligned accounts can be other brands or businesses, public figures, influencers, publications (like blogs or magazines), organisations, clubs, niche or meme accounts, and so on.
It’s important to understand who the other types of accounts your target market follows, as this gives insight into the overall community they are a part of.
If you’re in a niche where most of your target market have private accounts (happens a lot in retail, like clothing or kids) this is a great strategy to focus heavily on. The other option would be to run paid ads.
So what are you waiting on! Spend a few hours on Instagram searching for your competition, and align your account with those your target market are following.
This is only Day 3 of 7 Days of Instagram Education!
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Day 1
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UNDERSTAND INSTAGRAM
How you can use Instagram, where it can fit into your overall sales and marketing strategies, and how to set your IG goals.
Day 2
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THE ALGORITHM
Exactly HOW the algorithm works and how to use it to your advantage.
Day 3
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COMPETITORS & ALIGNED ACCOUNTS
How to find your target market on Instagram and conduct competitor research to help inform your own IG strategy.
Day 4
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USING HASHTAGS
How to use hashtags to reach more of your target market easily (and the killer mistakes everyone makes that you must avoid!).
Day 5
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POST STRATEGY
EVERYTHING you need to know to create on-brand, highly relevant posts that your audience will love.
Day 6
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STORIES STRATEGY
Developing your story strategy to deepen your audience relationship and increase brand loyalty.
Day 7
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ENGAGEMENT & COMMUNITY
Find out the BEST strategies for growing your Instagram community, and reach your Instagram goals.
Day 8
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AN EXCLUSIVE SURPRISE!
We give you an exciting exclusive offer, only our Instagram education subscribers can get! It is not available anywhere else!