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I feel weird for making this post, considering how low elo I am, but I feel like this would help considering how most "get out of iron/bronze" posts were made by higher ranks that don't really understand how hard it is to be "not bad" at this game. From Iron 1, I made it all the way up to Bronze, and regularly gets top frag! Anyways, here's some things I improved about myself that might help some other folks trying to escape iron, in the order from what I think is most helpful to just potential tips:

1. Spend lots of time playing Deathmatch and practicing on the shooting range. This was the biggest contributor to my improvement, because through these, I could actually keep track of how well I was doing. I'm sure I spend more time playing these two game modes more than any other. This significantly improved my aim.
2. Learn some basic gunplay techniques. Just take the time to watch a quick YouTube video on basic techniques like sweeping, peeking, etc. However, it's more important that you practice those techniques. Deathmatch is the perfect place to practice this.
3. Take some time every day to practice. Just like playing a sport or an instrument, or anything that relies on muscle memory, regular practice really is important. I'm the kind of person to play lots of different games each day, so there were some days I didn't play Valorant back then. Now, I make sure to just take around 15 or so minutes during my free time at work (I work remote) to do some flicks in the shooting range.
4. Warm up before playing. I actually took this from another "how to improve" post, and basically the idea was: Don't play any unrated or compe without playing a few rounds of Deathmatch first. The first few rounds in each half of the standard 5v5 gamemode are the most important in the match as it determines whether it's a stomp or an even game, so being "rusty" in the first few rounds often means losing the entire half.
5. Be nice. A much more important tip than I thought. Being nice to other players really keeps their morale up, and they start playing better. At the very least, don't flame. You know what it feels like to be flamed when you're botfragging, so don't do it to someone else. I find that it really helps when you do something silly at the start of every round to keep the mood up.
6. Specialize in an agent. Unexpectedly big improvement. Might just be the movement meta blessing me or Neon being OP in low elos, but spamming her in compe really helped. Using her gave me a playstyle I can really enjoy, and spamming her taught me all the little intricacies of using that agent. I don't see how it won't be the same for the other agents.
7. Play unpredictably. Might just be a Neon thing, but I think it'll work for any other agent, especially for Duelists. One round I'd be playing quietly, the next I'll be bumrushing them from behind with a Bucky. Doing the same thing over and over really sabotages your gameplay, and makes you easy to kill. Which leads to my last tip:
8. Don't learn lineups. Not yet, at least. I feel like this is something super controversial, but weirdly helped me. I spent the good half of November just learning KAY/O lineups, and spamming them in compe. It just landed me from Bronze (given by placements) down to Iron. Learning lineups just made me want to force them over and over again because I wanted to "abuse" how OP it was. All it did was make me predictable and easy to kill since I would stop thinking about strategy and just using that lineup whenever I could. Proper gunplay and strategy helped me way more than any "OP tech" that I find on this subreddit. Only learn (and use) lineups when you have a very good feel on when to use them.

Most of these tips have already been repeated in this subreddit pretty much since the game was released, but I feel like these tips, out of all of the hundreds of posts and videos I watched, helped me the most. Do let me know of anything that helped you in the comments. Happy climbing!