How to Do Instagram Marketing in 2026 2026

How to Do Instagram Marketing in 2026 + 10 Top Instagram Tips

The number of brands incorporating Instagram marketing into their business strategy continues to grow rapidly. While in 2018 only over 25% of businesspeople in the Czech Republic and Slovakia used Instagram, in 2026 it is estimated to be already more than 75%.

No wonder… Instagram now has more than a billion active users and advertising audiences with more than 850 million accounts.

Setting Up an Instagram Business Account

Before you start marketing on Instagram, you need a business Instagram account. If you already have one, skip the following tips. If you already have a personal account, skip to step 3 of this guide.

Step 1: Download the Instagram App

Android: ANDROID

iOS: IOS

Step 2: Register

open the app
click on “Create new account”
enter your email or phone number
create your username and password
fill in other profile information and click the “done” button

Step 3: Activate Your Business Profile

click on the 3 horizontal lines in the top right corner of your profile
click on “settings” and then on “account”
connect your Instagram with your Facebook business account (if you own one)
click on “switch to professional account”
click on “done”

10 Instagram Marketing Tips You Can’t Afford to Ignore!

1. Use a Business Instagram Account

In case you skipped the previous steps and plan to dive into the rest of the tips, here are a few reasons why you should reconsider.

A business Instagram account gives you access to features that you cannot use with a personal account, such as:

Instagram statistics!
ability to create Instagram ads
ability to sell products on Instagram (Instagram shopping)
ability to add contact information and a call-to-action button

2. Clearly Define Your Goals

All social networks are money machines. However, you cannot use these machines effectively to your advantage if you don’t know what you are trying to achieve and gain.

Instagram marketing can generate various outputs depending on the strategy chosen by individual marketers and account owners, such as:

increasing brand awareness (services, products, news, events …)
acquiring new leads (a lead refers to a potential customer who has shown interest in a product / service)
reaching a new group of potential clients
direct sales

You can focus on all of this and much more, but if you don’t set clear goals, you’ll probably never reach them.

3. Define Your Audience

Clearly define your target audience so you can effectively reach the group that is relevant for your business.

Defining your target group is necessary to know when automating (more about it by clicking HERE), but also when setting up standard paid advertising or establishing short-term and long-term strategy for your account.

You can support your Instagram account here

4. Optimize Your Profile

Instagram BIO (description): you have 150 characters available to make a great first impression on a potential visitor and tell visitors why they should stay on your profile and pay attention to it.

Profile photo: in most cases, your profile photo should be your logo.

Your Instagram profile photo is displayed at 110 x 110 pixels, cropped into a circle with a diameter of 110 pixels. However, it is uploaded at a size of 320 x 320 pixels, so you should choose a large enough file that will look good even if Instagram changes how profile images are displayed.

Properly created Instagram BIO and company logo photo @easycars_sk.

5. Create visually and content-wise interesting content

Instagram is primarily a visual medium, so your posts cannot look average, but must look great. However, this does not mean that your posts must be created with professional photography equipment.

Simple, sharp and with relevant description and hashtags – an Instagram post from @roseteddy.sk

If your Instagram profile is not managed by a professional agency and you are just a small e-shop or individual, it is absolutely fine to add posts of this quality. However, if you have bigger goals with Instagram, we recommend entrusting yourself to professionals who will generate content of a different level.

6. Don’t overdo direct sales

A major mistake that many companies make is turning their account into a sales shop. Most of the posts that such brands produce are made in this style.

Such posts have only little value. Most people will ignore them and the Instagram algorithm will respond to the next content from your profile as less quality and interesting, which will significantly reduce the possible reach of your profile.

7. Add posts and stories at the right time and in the right frequency

Although logic might suggest that more posts = more followers, reach and more success, experience and data provided by Instagram do not support this claim.

Too many posts and stories annoy followers, the quality of posts automatically decreases, it looks like spam, etc.

The recommended number ranges from 1-3 posts per week and 1-5 stories per day.

However, within stories we recommend always maintaining at least a minimum of 1 per day! Subsequently, after the visit of a potential follower or fan, the account appears active, and active accounts generally achieve better results.

When it comes to adding posts and stories with regard to timing, Instagram Insights – statistics that are available directly in the Instagram app – will serve you very well. They will show you directly the time range in which your fans are most active.

8. Use #hashtags correctly

Hashtags were in the past one of the key ways to increase visibility and reach. Today, due to Instagram’s popularity and their misuse, they no longer have as much power, but they must still be part of your Instagram strategy.

We recommend using 2-10 hashtags within one post, specifically hashtags that are relevant, specific to your segment, and don’t appear too spammy.

If you want to fully dive into this topic, you will find many articles on the internet dedicated to this issue.

9. Use story highlights

A recent development is the ability to create highlighted story collections, where you can preserve the best content from individual categories/areas that your profile produces, and which may be of interest to other visitors.

Well-crafted story highlights has (also graphically) the profile @nesia.sk . It’s “Videos, Rstudio team, 3D designs …”.

10. Use Instagram shopping

This feature, which is not available for personal accounts, allows you to sell products directly from posts and stories on Instagram.

Sample post from the account @dm_slovensko .

We will address Instagram shopping in more detail in an upcoming comprehensive article