3 Ways to Boost Your Instagram Engagement

Whether you're a startup, an established business owner, or looking to grow your personal brand, Instagram remains one of the most powerful platforms to connect with your audience. But with so much content out there, how do you cut through the noise and stand out? Here are three proven strategies to boost your engagement, grow your following, generate leads and ultimately revenue.

1. Professionalise Your Profile

Your Instagram profile is your digital shopfront—it should be clear, compelling, and credible. Think of it as the first impression that determines whether potential customers will stick around or keep scrolling.

Use your business name or personal name as your page title.

Follow this with a short line that includes your name, occupation, and industry. The vertical spacers are commonly used and what your audience would expect to see.

For example: William Smith | Architectural Installer | Interior Wrapping and Refitting

This helps visitors instantly understand who you are and what you do.

Keep your word count in mind for your bio.

You need to communicate what you offer as quickly and efficiently as you can before you get scrolled over. Use the 'Four-Line Framework' for your bio. Emojis can help break up the text and add personality. Your bio should communicate:

• ⏰ (What you do) Quick install, no building, no loss of revenue
• 💸 (Why it matters) A sustainable and cost-effective solution
• 💬 (Social proof/awards etc.) Over 200 satisfied customers
• 👇 (Call to action) Want to work on a project?

Choose a vibrant, clear, and professional profile picture.

Use your brand colours for the background and border to maintain visual consistency across your feed.

2. Do Your Homework

Creating content with purpose starts with research. Viral content doesn't happen by accident—it's built on strategy and insight. Here's your step-by-step process:

Step 1: Define your niche and break it down into five subtopics

For example, if your niche is interior wrapping, subtopics might include: kitchen wraps, bathroom wraps, commercial spaces, materials, and installation tips.

Step 2: Search each subtopic on Instagram

Tap the Reels tab in the top right-hand corner to find trending content.

Step 3: Save the videos with the most views

These are your inspiration and benchmarks for what's working in your industry.

Step 4: Repeat this process for all subtopics

Continue until you've saved around 20 videos that represent the best-performing content in your field.

Step 5: Codify your findings in a table

This doesn't need to be laborious or time-consuming, and it's the stage at which most business owners give up. If you're one of the determined minority who commit to seeing this through, you're automatically giving yourself a competitive advantage. Because time is often a barrier, we've included a free download (see bottom of page) to give you the impetus to start studying trending content straight away.

Videos featuring influencers drive high engagement for us (as demonstrated in the table below). Similarly, collaborations with other businesses/pages typically have higher metrics. Our recent post with Avery Dennison launching their Supercar Blondie Collection was an instant success. If you have professional-standard content that you'd like to share with us, tag us and we’ll share it on our social channels to accelerate your engagement.

Here's how to track what works—hooks, formats, visuals, and engagement metrics:

It's not all about videos.

It's worth noting that picture carousels in portrait format can be an equally effective way to reach your audience (and they're easier to create when your schedule is hectic). Each time a user scrolls, the algorithm sees this as engagement.

3. Start Creating with Purpose

Now it's time to turn your research into results and start recording your short-form content.

Script your content using the hooks and topics from your research.

It's crucial that you add your own expert advice to make it unique and insightful. Rehashing content without adding any value can undermine what you're trying to achieve and decrease trust and engagement.

Invest in basic lighting and sound equipment.

Softboxes (available for under £100) and a wireless mic can dramatically improve video quality and viewer retention. Poor sound quality is one of the most common issues on self-produced content, but it's almost as important as the composition of the video. In fact, research has shown that sound quality is even more important than your picture quality. People would rather watch content with poor picture but excellent sound that content with a good picture and bad sound, as good audio enhances immersion, emotion, and the overall experience, while bad audio can be "intolerable" and difficult to fix, even with great visuals

Film in portrait mode and switch your grid on.

Your eye line should stay on the upper horizontal bar throughout the video (even if you're tracking or panning). The composition of the reel below is particularly effective because the space in the mid to upper left section has been left clear to demonstrate the visual element (in this case, the car). You can use this space in your videos to drop animations, stickers, and other visual elements without the risk of clashing with the bottom and sidebars.

Use subtitles. Whilst sound quality is an important consideration, recent data suggests that most viewers watch on mute (around 85%). Apps like CapCut and ClipChamp will auto-generate subtitles for you in one click. However, these apps aren't infallible and there will always be errors. Proofread the subtitles carefully and position them on or just below the bottom third gridline so they're not blocked by Instagram's interface at the bottom of the screen.

Add visual variety. Avoid repetitive talking-head videos. Use B-roll footage showing materials, job progress, or dramatic before-and-after shots. These are especially powerful for trades and transformation-based businesses, particularly when the original shot shows a space in a disgusting state of disrepair—the transformation becomes even more impressive!

Free Download

To help you get started, we've included a free Excel template for your viral Reels research. Use it to track trends, plan content, and stay consistent.

So go ahead—get creating and grow your audience. Your dream engagement is just a strategy away!