If you are an active Instagram user, you might have already noticed that two types of content are widely popular on the platform – travel & food pictures and business promotions. In fact, small businesses are almost taking over the platform for not just marketing but also selling over it.
With hashtags and a great pool of Instagram influencers, there are a number of ways the platform can serve you in your business growth. If you don’t have a business account on Instagram already, here is a guide to get you started.
Steps are simple, effective, and give you more opportunities for business growth.
Instagram for business is a thing, and you need to create a business account for your business ASAP. While you can also use your personal account to market and sell your business products, a business account can provide you with data for better growth and marketing.
Instagram has dedicated accounts for different profiles – like a personal account, creator account, business account, etc. You can still use hashtags, sell your products or services, etc., even if you are not using a business account.
Your target audience is at the forefront of your business strategy, and this is why knowing your target audience is an integral part of your marketing. Suppose your content is not designed to meet your audience’s expectations. In that case, you will have difficulty engaging your audience. Without engagement, neither your audience is interested in your posts nor your business offerings.
While marketing a business on Instagram, you might not always be able to post contents that your audience likes. But with research and knowing what your audience would enjoy, you can design your posts in a way to attract their attention. Your posts at this point don’t necessarily have to focus on your business offerings. It can be about a trending event, a funny post, or anything that will keep your audience engaged, stay on your page, and recognize your brand with visuals or tones.
You can also use a poll to ask your audience for suggestions regarding your brand. For example, if you consider launching a new product, you can do a poll asking how many potential buyers would be interested.
Instagram was, is, and most probably will always be about visuals. Visual appeal is one of the things Instagram is most known for, and this is why setting a tone for your business is best or more accessible with visuals on your Instagram account.
Your page will look different from a makeup business account as a food business owner on Instagram. You might fail to pinpoint the difference at first, but there will be differences between the two such businesses considering the business pages are doing well.
Setting a tone doesn’t have to be all about visuals, though. Use Instagram features like text to set a tone. Sometimes, business accounts are strictly about announcing new launches, breakthroughs in their brands, or the industry. Sometimes a business-post can be about driving the audience to their blog site, and sometimes it can be about giving a daily insight into your everyday life at work. No matter the tone, make sure there is a goal, and that goal is met at the end of the day.
Hashtags are still playing an active role in categorizing your content and making it searchable over the platform. Hashtags are powerful enough to work with any business, and with the right hashtags, you might come upon people’s first results page.
While Instagram today recommends you to use 3-5 hashtags only for better results, there’s no reason why you cannot use more if you have a strategy that you think will work.
Instagram is also working more on semantic keyword searches. With this, even when you use very few hashtags, you have the chance to have higher visibility with the help of words in your captions. The platform works towards making words in your captions for images or videos searchable. This makes it easier for you to describe your post better or explore an idea while also ensuring that you don’t have to restrict to hashtags for visibility.
Most Instagram marketers fail to understand the importance of hashtag research. Since endless hashtags are allowed doesn’t mean you will go for #foodislove #foodislife #foodisgood hashtags. Not only are these very generic hashtags, but they also fail to target your ideal audience.
Maybe your post will gain visibility for a time, but hashtags like these are incredibly common enough to get lost in millions of other posts with hashtags similar to the generic ones. In fact, you will be surprised that many accounts will upload a profile picture and use the #foodislove without having no connection or relevance. Generic hashtags also attract spam comments, making your business look unprofessional to your ideal audience.
A hashtag tool can be your savior, plus how to use hashtags is another thing you must learn. While hashtags in captions are very common, you can also go for hashtags in comments or use invisible hashtags in stories.
High-density hashtags are often targeted but don’t hold back from using low-density ones because they have very low competition.
This is perhaps something you need to do with every social media platform. If you want people to remember your business or brand, post frequently. This is why social media management roles are highly desirable and in demand.
Regular posts designed in alignment with your business or with your website and physical store (if any) are an important part of regular posts. Your brand’s name, aesthetics, logo, etc., should come up often in your audience’s Instagram feed. Whether or not they open your post and read it thoroughly every day is not the point of consistent marketing, but it is whether your brand is memorable to your audience.
There is also a proper time for each business page to post every day. While not stocking to that time will ruin nothing for your business, adhering to the timeline will yield better results.
We have mentioned above that visuals are a significant part of Instagram, and images work incredibly on Instagram. But today, you also have the chance to use reels, short videos, captions, long-form texts, polls, etc., to work on a consistent posting strategy.
By working on different kinds of Instagram post content, you will have enough ideas for consistent posting. While the idea behind the post can be the same, different content types, bring out different sides of a product. For example, if your brand is launching a new lipstick from your makeup brand, an image during the launch will show the color, pricing, and shade properly. A short video can feature an influencer wearing lipstick in real-time. At the same time, a post can talk about the inspiration behind the new shade launch.
Also, note that reels or Stories last for 24 hours and are only temporary.
If you are a makeup brand owner, your page will likely have endless images, videos, and content about makeup products specific to your business. But your products don’t necessarily have to be the only content on your page.
You can also share stories about your brand, how your products are made, or about your team. Even celebrities today use Instagram to keep in touch with audiences personally, and they are no less than brands.
Start sharing stories about your day at work, or give a glimpse of your working culture to connect with your audience personally.
Another type of content that works serves as a marketing strategy is to share photos or even reviews of your customers who recently bought your service or product. This is easier if they tag you in any post they share about your product. Sharing a buyer’s post makes you credible and desirable among your audience and gives them a reason to trust you.
Partnering with a relevant influencer is a great way to connect with more potential customers. Many consumers come to know about new or small brands from their favorite influencers.
Data is the real deal for business on Instagram or any online platform. Data is the reason why you need a business account for marketing which otherwise would have been done with a personal account.
Data helps you decide when to post your content every day for better results, what to post, and whether your strategies are working or failing. You might think a post with long text or not-the-best photo will have lesser engagement, but you never know. Data may surprise you unless you start reading it to learn about your audience.
Learning how to manage your Instagram business account is not rocket science but is sure time-consuming and demands dedication. Knowing the time and idea of the content is also not enough, as copywriting is an important part of Instagram ads.
Are you serious about your Instagram business? It’s time you hired a marketing service.
Pratik Singh is an experienced SEO Specialist in JDM Web Technologies with nine years of experience handling the SEO project of both the on-page and off-page techniques and analyzing SEO campaign performance. Pratik Singh manages more SEO projects from mid and large-sized companies, and he is well-versed in monitoring keyword rankings and overseas organic search performance. Pratik Singh performs a complete website SEO analysis to provide better-increasing website content and build campaigns. With more than nine years of experience, Pratik Singh has proven SEM experience managing PPC campaigns. He also has a solid understanding of performance marketing, website analytics tools, customer acquisition, and conversion.
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