The 80/20 Rule for Instagram Marketing: How to Go For It
February 28, 2023
Simply put, the 80/20 rule states that 80% of the content you publish should be valuable to your audience – meaning it’s entertaining, educational, or brings some sort of significance into the lives of your followers – while only 20% of your content should be promotional.
Like many other content ratios, marketers use the 80/20 rule to enhance their content generation process while also delivering top-notch value to their followers.
If you’re new to content creation, content ratios, and the 80/20 rule for Instagram, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s dive into the 80/20 rule and how it can boost your Instagram engagement.
What is a content ratio?
When social media experts refer to a content ratio, they’re just categorizing the types of content they publish and how often they do it. A content ratio determines how frequently you post different types of content.
Even if you haven’t heard of a “content ratio,” chances are, you’re subconsciously utilizing some sort of content ratio method. For example, if you’re running an e-commerce business and you post sales and promotions every Saturday, and repost your customers’ tagged photos on Wednesdays, that’s a content ratio!
People in the marketing industry use content ratios to help make content creation easier by getting into a habitual social media routine. Plus, it helps create consistency – when you use a ratio, your messaging maintains a uniformity, which in turn establishes credibility and builds trust.
The 80/20 rule of Instagram is just a more structured content ratio. It’s a guideline that determines when and what you’ll publish, and it’s a pretty successful one.
What is the 80/20 rule of engagement?
For social media, the 80/20 rule states that the majority of your content should be non-promotional. People won’t follow your brand if there’s nothing in it for them.. According to a survey from USF, people use social media to learn new things, develop their interests, and be entertained.
In utilizing the 80/20 rule for Instagram, the goal is that people will stop their scroll to look at your content. The 80% is what’s going to turn your audience into active members of your Instagram community, and soon after, converted clients!
Essentially, if you’re posting 10 times a month, 8 of the posts should be entertaining, and only 2 of the posts can be promotional. Sounds easy enough, right?
Here are a few content tips for following the 80/20 Instagram rule:
The 80%
- Memes – it’s 2022, and people are still meme-ing. No matter what products or services you’re pushing, there’s always potential for a meme moment. It’s fun to poke at your own brand or industry, and people will appreciate the humor.
- Tips – posting useful industry tips is a great way to boost your engagement and build a community that people can rely on for support and guidance.
- Inspirational content – share something encouraging for your followers. They may even want to share it with their own community!
- Educational – people learn so much on social media! When you post something truly exceptional, your followers will associate it with your brand and have you to thank.
- Subtle product placements – while your entertaining and useful posts shouldn’t focus on your product, nobody said that you can’t subtly mention it. For example, if you’re running a grocery store, you can post great recipes on your socials, then mention your products as the required ingredients!
- About the team – another hit in the e-commerce industry. Similar to how people want to know the story, they also want to know the people. These two concepts go hand in hand.
- Questions (FAQ) – spark dialogue within your community. It’s a great way to boost engagement while gaining some more insight about your audience.
- Repost from your favorite accounts – not all content needs to be original. In fact, posting content from other platforms is a great way to engage your audience. Not everyone is on every platform! Don’t be afraid to share a Tweet on Instagram
The 20%
- Product posts – finally, this is your time to showcase your products! Outright promotional, but that’s why you follow the 80/20 rule!
CTA – since your promotional content is limited by the 80/20 rule for Instagram, you need to have a convincing call to action. Every post in the 20% should have a loud and clear CTA that has a direct link to your brand! - Testimonials/Reviews – let your customers convince your prospects. If your product is truly what you market it to be, then show your audience through reviews and testimonials.
- Branding – show your followers who you are, what you do, and why you’re better.
Benefits of the 80/20 rule for Instagram
We get that there may be some hesitation about limiting your self-promotional posts by following the 80/20 Instagram rule. After all, that’s why you’re using the platform. But this is one of those times where you’ll need to trust the process – letting your brand fade into the background isn’t such a bad thing, and we’ll show you why.
The algorithm will reward you
Following the 80/20 rule for Instagram will do amazing things for your Instagram SEO. Instagram SEO means optimizing your content to be discovered in search results and on the discover page.
If you’re not following the Instagram 80/20 rule and you’re posting mainly self-promotional content, the algorithm will start hiding your posts from the fatigue of the constant push. Platform algorithms have the ability to identify this and reduce your visibility considerably as a result.
If you are using the 80/20 rule for Instagram, you can trust that the algorithm will be on your side. By posting mainly entertaining and educational content, you’re giving social media users a reason to follow your brand. And for that, the algorithm will reward you by optimizing the likelihood that your content makes it onto people’s discover page.
We go more in depth about the why on our content rules blog, but to sum it up, the best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing. Know and act on this, and the algorithm will reward you.
You’re growing and nurturing a community
The 80/20 Instagram rule ensures that you’re successful in growing a community of users rather than a sales platform. You want to build a meaningful relationship with your audience so that eventually, you’ll increase engagement, convert more customers, and maybe even turn your traffic into loyal brand advocates.
The 80/20 Instagram rule allows you to give more value to your followers than you take from them, and that’s the kind of community social media users value most.
Drives more revenue
The 80/20 rule for Instagram states that the majority of your results are generated from a smaller percentage of your activities. For example, 80% of the world’s wealth is generated by 20% of the people, or 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers.
Now, in terms of percentages and marketing, 80% of your achievements/results are generated by only 20% of your marketing activities.
Understanding and applying the 80/20 rule will help you improve productivity, maximize profits, and produce higher ROIs on your time invested in the company.
Helpful tip: A key difference to note between the 80% and 20% is self-promotion vs direct promotion. Sure, 80% isn’t a direct promotion of your brand, but it is promoting your platform. Any type of promotion is likely to drive more revenue.
What other campaign strategies are there?
The 80/20 rule for Instagram is just one of the few campaign strategies out there. While they’re all beneficial in different ways, the important thing is that you find a marketing plan that works for your brand and stay consistent with it.
If you’re interested in learning more about content ratios like the 4-1-1 or 90/10 rule for social media, check this out!
Wrapping up
We hope we’ve shown you how to make the very best of the 80/20 rule for Instagram. If you’d like to learn more about how to curate posts to fit into the 80/20 rule of Instagram, feel free to reach out to us at +374 098-33-23-30 or marketing@agencycloud9.com.
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