To use Instagram for business, think about how you use the app on a personal level. You’re savouring your carefully curated Instagram feed. This is a mix of people you know, brands, and content creators.
Following those business accounts was entirely up to you; no one forced you to do so. Then you choose to keep following them whenever you see one of their posts or Instagram Stories.
Here are some of the best Instagram for business tips.
Table of Contents
Decide why you’re using Instagram for business
It’s critical to have specific objectives in mind before engaging in any form of marketing. In terms of social media, Instagram is no exception. To get the most out of Instagram marketing, ask yourself, “What are we trying to accomplish?”
The following are typical Instagram business objectives:
- Boost brand recognition
- Organize a group
- Display the company’s values and culture
- Products and services can be sold.
Make a list of your objectives and keep an eye on them. Consider your written objectives as a formalised version of a gut check. Because you can always go back and check to see if what you post is serving those objectives, it encourages you and your team to be more deliberate with your Instagram content.
Improve your online presence
Think of your Instagram profile as your company’s home page if you’re using it for business. Be sure to make an excellent first impression with your 150-character profile, which includes a link and a few call-to-action buttons.
The first step is to make the switch from your personal account to an Instagram business account. Instagram’s business accounts have additional features that allow you to expand your profile, track content performance, and even sell products on the platform.
Make sure your Instagram bio is on point. You should have the following information in your profile:
- What your company does in a nutshell
- Your category/industry
- Your brand’s personality should shine through in your tone of voice
- Contact information (phone number, email, address, etc.) and other relevant data
Make a connection
It’s important to remember that the only place on Instagram where you can include a clickable link is in your bio. Your homepage link can either be static or dynamic, depending on how often you update your site’s content.
Action Buttons are clickable buttons for specific calls to action, such as “Book Now,” “Contact Us,” or “View Shop,” that are available to Instagram business accounts. Increase the number of links in your profile and make it more convenient for fans to contact you by using Action Buttons.
Finally, keep in mind your grid. Whenever someone visits your profile, they’ll see a list of your most recent posts in a grid form. To ensure that your feed is always visually appealing, try to avoid sharing posts that are visually similar back-to-back.
Discover your visual style
It’s all about the pictures on Instagram. However, what works for one company may not be appropriate for yours. To ensure that your business page’s aesthetic is consistent, create a set of branding guidelines.
Pay close attention to the combination of colours you use. Some of the most popular Instagram accounts tend to stick to a limited colour palette, which helps them to establish a distinct style.
The font you choose for your Instagram posts should match the fonts on your website and other marketing materials, especially if text is a major part of your feed.
Consistently post
Keep your target audience in the loop with regular posts by sticking to a posting schedule. If you’re on Instagram, you’re likely to be interested in content that’s fresh and relevant to you.
Because of the way Instagram’s algorithm works, users can expect their timeline to be personalised in real time based on the activities they engage in. In order to gain the attention of your followers, you need to post on a regular basis to ensure that they see your content. A higher percentage of your content will appear in users’ Instagram feeds if they engage with it more frequently.
In the event that you are too busy to post regularly, you can schedule posts in batches so that your account never goes dark. In addition, scheduling allows you to experiment with different posting times more easily. On Instagram, there is no single best time to post. However, there may be ideal times for reaching your audience.
In order to expand your audience, use hashtags
As a means of categorising content on many social media platforms, hashtags have become the norm. By using hashtags, Instagram users can find new content and people to follow. Posts with more than 11 hashtags are more popular.
People save hashtag groups on their phones so they can copy and paste them into their posts before they go live, but this can be time-consuming.
Engage with community
Your Instagram profile should not be a constant sales pitch when you use it for business. Instagram is a social media platform, so learn how to use it. Responding and demonstrating that you’re paying attention is critical when someone takes the time to share their thoughts with you. It’s a great way to build a strong following on Instagram by replying to comments.
In addition, using engagement prompts is a great way to get people talking. Using Instagram Stories interactive stickers like polls, questions or sliding scale rankings is a fun way to engage your followers.
As a post caption, use it to ask questions and encourage readers to respond in the comments section. Even though it’s corny, think of it as a conversation you’d have in real life. Instead of conversing with someone, you’d be talking at them. If you’re running a business on Instagram, you don’t have to post everything yourself. You can show your fans you appreciate them and get more people to interact with your brand by using user-generated content (UGC), which includes anything that is created by a fan or contributor. Request permission to repost some of your community’s favourite moments and experiences with your brand on your own Instagram channels, and encourage your followers to do so.
Remember that your fan base is unique, and you must tailor your content to reflect the preferences of your followers. Learn how to calculate and track your Instagram engagement rate so you can keep an eye on what’s working for you.
Experiment with various content types
So much more exists on Instagram than just photos. The platform now features a wide variety of content types, including:
• Video
• Reels
• Stories
• IGTV
It’s also critical to post a variety of content if you want to broaden your audience and increase interaction on the platform. Content types that people are most likely to interact with are shown to them by an algorithm based on their interest level. As a result, if a user frequently engages with Instagram Reels by liking and commenting on them, they can expect to see an increase in the number of Reels in their feed.
Reels and Stories are two of the most popular types of content on Instagram, but each type has its own advantages and everyone has their own preferences. It’s important to use a variety of content types if you want to get the most exposure and interaction.
Make sure your captions are excellent
With the right use of captions, you can take your content to a new level. Captions can be used as a platform for storytelling and microblogging, according to some users. Others use them to add a brief, attention-grabbing headline to a blog or social media post. Captions can also be used to ask questions and elicit responses from viewers. The options are virtually limitless. It’s critical that the copy is consistent with your company’s image.
Do analysis of data
Dig into your analytics on a regular basis as one of the best Instagram for business tips. Monitor your content’s performance on Instagram if you want to gain more followers, keep your audience engaged, and promote your business.
This is a good start, but you can only use Instagram Insights on your mobile device. Besides that, you’ll have to open up each individual post in order to see metrics like likes and comments as well as shares and saves.
Make sure to keep track of metrics that tell you something important. Are you using Instagram solely for the purpose of boosting your self-esteem, or are you using it to promote your business? Metrics that tell you what keeps your fans coming back to your content and paying for your products and services will give you more actionable insights.
Assume for the sake of this example that you post a tutorial video on Instagram’s IGTV. Likes are a more passive form of feedback, whereas saves and shares indicate that people found the tutorial to be helpful and would like to return to it in the future. When it comes to brand awareness marketing, new followers and likes are important metrics. Results must be viewed in light of the goals for which they were originally intended.
Use Instagram to your advantage
With a video of a puppy, it’s easy to win the hearts of your social media followers. Most Instagram users already follow a few brands on their personal accounts, which makes it easier to build up an Instagram profile for a business. Rather than copying your favourite businesses, consider what makes them special and allow that to serve as inspiration for your own work. Incorporate these ideas with the pointers we’ve provided in order to come up with an Instagram marketing strategy that is uniquely tailored to your business.