There are over one billion monthly active users on Instagram. And, guess what, the Instagram audience is more engaged in comparison to the audience on other social media platforms such as Facebook & Twitter.
Hence, businesses have an opportunity to use Instagram for Business. They can market their products/services to a more targeted audience there and that too without spending a lot of money on paid advertising.
However, no matter, whether you’re adapting to a new strategy or you, ’re a newcomer on Instagram, the following 5 steps guide is useful for everyone. Plus, this is the simplest guide that will teach you that how would you use Instagram for your business.
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So, whether you want to reach out to a wider audience while building a social network for your business, or want to keep your audience engaged for making a long-lasting and trust-based connection, or want to use Instagram as a sales funnel for your business, you must read this step-by-step guide for a winning strategy.
Let’s jump right in!
Step – 1: How to Setup Instagram for Small Business –
You can either start a new business account from scratch or you can also convert your personal account to a business account. However, Signing up for a new Instagram account is very simple.
Just download the Instagram app for iOS or Android or Windows, open the app and tap Sign up, enter your details, choose your username and password, and yes you have successfully signed up for an Instagram account.
Now, for switching that personal account to the business account, you need to follow the steps below.
1. To begin with, tap the hamburger menu in the upper-right corner of your profile.
2. Next, tap settings. Tap on “Switch to Professional Account” and proceed to the next step.
3. Tap Account.
4. Choose Business or Creator (whatever suits your business best).
5. Furthermore, select your business category and add the relevant contact details there.
6. And, lastly tap “Done”
Step -2 Optimize Your Instagram Profile:
An Instagram business profile is like a showroom that gives you a small amount of space to attain a lot of things. Your Instagram profile is a place where people come to learn more about your brand or if you have mentioned then they visit your website.
So, what should you do to optimize your profile for business:
1. Write a Good Bio –
Your bio should contain a hook and it should be efficient enough to show your visitors that is why should they follow you. Most importantly, your Instagram bio should describe your brand but it allows you to write only 150 characters so you should:
· Cut straight to the point
· Use line breaks
· Include emojis
· Add a CTA
Optimize Your Profile Picture –
If you’re using Instagram for business then you can use your business logo as your profile picture. But, make sure you keep your picture uniform across all the social media platforms.
Use a Link in bio Wisely –
This is the only spot for you if you are not having 10k followers where you can mention an organic clickable link. So, you should make sure that you include a link.
Add Story Highlights and Covers –
Instagram Story Highlights allows you to put everything about your business and you can put anything you want your audience to know about. However, you can make your highlights even more beautiful with Highlight covers.
Step-3 It’s time to Strategize:
The first thing in creating the strategy for using Instagram for small business, is to define your target audience because a good social media strategy starts with an understanding of your audience.
Ø To begin with, determine who already buys from you or take your services.
Ø Next, you can check the analytics on your other social media channels for getting an idea about the audience who follows you there.
Ø Furthermore, you can conduct competitor research where you can compare that how your audiences vary.
However, if you know who is your audience and who’s not will help you to create specific content for your audience. You can look at the type of content that your customer’s post or mostly get engaged with, and then use this information to make your creative strategy.
Thereafter, you need to set your goals and objectives. That means, decide what you want to achieve on this platform. However, you can start with your business objectives and understand that how Instagram will be helping you to accomplish those objectives.
But, we suggest you set your goals Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely.
Thereafter, you need to track the right performance metrics after aligning your goals to any one of the following four stages in the customer journey:
Ø Awareness
Ø Engagement
Ø Conversion
Ø Customer.
Furthermore, you need to create a content calendar. Hence, now when you have decided your audience and goals, it’s time to plan to publish content on Instagram with your specific purpose.
You can create a well-planned social media content calendar that will make sure that you will not miss important dates and events. And it allows you to create some creative posts as per the schedule because planned content is always more creative than last-minute unplanned content.
Moreover, you should always publish your content when your followers are online because posting when people are active is the best way to improve your account’s organic reach. However, an Instagram business account allows you to check the days and hours when most of your followers are active, so you can plan to post your content accordingly. And, please don’t forget to write good business captions for Instagram posts.
Step – 4 Get Some Unique Instagram Post Ideas for Business –
As we all know Instagram is all about beautiful pictures and videos so make sure you post regularly the visuals that catch the attention of everyone and come up with some unique Instagram Post Ideas for Business.
For instance, you can post about your business products or services, you can also try showcasing customer stories, or behind the scenes to highlight your office life and the people in your company..
If you’re short on ideas then look at other brands for inspiration. However, having a theme in Instagram posts make it visually appealing. So, make sure you take out a theme for your Instagram business account.
Once you decide your themes, you can create a consistent visual look. However, one thing you need to make sure of is to take great photos that stop someone’s thumb at your picture only.
Here is a few more tips that can provide your posts even better reach…
· Write Compelling Business Captions for Instagram
· Post Stories Regularly and Try to Post Some Casual Content on Stories
· Other then the posts, you should be trying other formats as well such as:
ü Use Instagram Carousels
ü Make Reels at least thrice a week
ü Post IGTV Videos
ü Go live on Instagram whenever possible
ü Leverage the Feature of Guides etc.
· Post Consistently to Show Your Audience that You’re Serious about your business.
Step – 5: Engage With Your Audience –
If you want to win in this game then the key to getting success here is to gain engagement on your profile. And for gaining engagement, you yourself would need to engage with other people’s profiles.
Plus, you can respond to comments on your posts or reels as well as the mentions of your business on Instagram. If you do so then your users feel motivated to keep engaging with your brand. However, there are a few more tips to increase engagement and these are as follows:
1. Use the right Instagram Hashtags for Likes
Hashtags undoubtedly help you make your Instagram content easier to find because hashtags are searchable. That means, when someone searches for a hashtag, they can see all the associated content with that particular hashtag.
So, putting up the right hashtags with the help of Instagram A hashtag generator can put your content in front of people who don’t follow you. However, you can consider creating your own branded hashtags as well.
2. Promote Your Business Account on Other Channels
In case you’ve had a good following on other social media networks then you can promote your new account on those channels so those people can know about your Instagram business account.
While promoting, you need to make sure that you tell the audience that what kind of content you’ll share on your Insta profile, so they definitely give your new account a follow.
You can moreover, include your Instagram handle in your emails. Plus, use the Instagram logo for business cards, flyers and event signage, etc.
3. Contact Instagram influencers
The famous influencers of your niche have big followings, so you can consider collaborating with them so that the people who are interested in your business may know about your business and can contact you.
However, if you’re short on budget then also you can reach some micro-influencers who have small but dedicated followings. They have a big influence on the audience so if they suggest your brand then their followers will definitely try your brand once.
4. Try Your Hands on Ads –
This is the last but most impactful tip is that you can try using Instagram ads for your business because by investing in ads you can get your content in front of a more targeted audience. And, you can reach a wider audience as well.
However, Instagram ads campaigns can be run for any specific goal, such as:
· For increasing your overall visibility on Instagram.
· For promoting your sale using shoppable Instagram posts.
· For driving engagement with an Instagram contest etc.
Get Started Now-
Instagram might seem difficult but it’s not, in fact, anyone can master it. However, it’s all about using the right techniques and strategies. Use the above-mentioned Instagram for Business Tips to build your following and then your followers over to your website and make more sales. So, get started now using Instagram to grow your business today.
