Instagram brings up a lot of new opportunities for marketers trying to advertise their products or services. It may be an excellent tool for attracting new Instagram followers, engaging with them, and increasing sales.
Instagram can also help you promote new products and boost brand recognition. 130 million Instagram users engage with commerce posts each month. Instagram allows you to market your business and goods in a nice, real way to your consumers without being pushy.
Why market on Instagram?
The visual aspect of Instagram distinguishes it from other social networking networks. Instagram is the ideal medium to promote content if you have a business that benefits from the design of your product or if you offer a service with a visible result.
How to Create an Instagram Business Account?
On Instagram, you can convert your personal profile to a business account to access features that can help you grow your business.
Note: you may only have five Instagram accounts at a time.
To switch your profile to a business account:
Step 1:Go to your profile and tap Menu in the top right-hand corner.
Step 2:Tap Settings. For some accounts, the Switch to professional account option will be listed directly under Settings.
Step 3:Tap Account.
Step 4:Tap Switch to a professional account.
Step 5:Tap Continue.
Step 6:Select a category for your business and tap Done.
Step 7:Tap OK to confirm.
Step 8:Tap Business.
Step 9:Tap Next.
Step 10:Add contact details and tap Next. Or tap Don’t use my contact info to skip this step.
Step 11:If you’d like, you can follow the steps to connect your business account to a Facebook Page associated with your business. This step is optional, and will make it easier to use all of the features available for businesses across the Facebook family of apps. At this time, only one Facebook Page can be connected to your business account.
Step 12:Tap X in the top-right corner to return to your profile.
Identify Goals and Objectives
For goal-setting, we prefer to use the SMART acronym:
Specific: Instead of a general aim, give specific metrics and milestones.
Measurable: Choose goals that can be tracked and measured using analytics and insights.
Attainable: Be reasonable in your expectations. It’s quite unlikely that you’ll gain a million followers in a week.
Relevant: Stay aligned with your industry, business, and outlook.
Time-bound: Set a deadline for yourself to achieve your objective.
1. Set your goals for Instagram
First and foremost, make a list of your Instagram goals.
What’s more, guess what? You may use Instagram for a variety of purposes, including posting product photographs as well as sharing user-generated material (UGC).
It’s not so much about the sort of content you share as it is about why you share them. You can assess your performance and use Instagram Analytics tools if you understand why.
2. Determine your Instagram target audience
Before you start marketing on Instagram, figure out who you want to target. Draw on other marketing methods if you have them to keep your efforts consistent. Age, location, gender, income, hobbies, motives, and pain areas are all important considerations.
3. Conduct a competitive analysis
Start by looking at your top competitors’ Instagram profiles if you already know who they are. If not, look for comparable accounts by searching for phrases relating to your business and sector.
Examine linked accounts to discover which posts have the most interaction, what popular hashtags they’re using, what captions they’re using, how often they publish, and how rapidly they’re expanding. As you begin to develop your account, you may use this data as a guide.
4. Create an editorial calendar
You can save time and manage your Instagram presence by creating an editorial schedule. Fill in various Instagram post kinds on your calendar, then prepare your descriptions, hashtags, and publishing timings ahead of time.
Your editorial calendar is also an excellent way to keep track of any important events you want to promote on Instagram, such as new product launches or special discounts. Instead of scurrying for last-minute postings, you can keep an eye out for real-time chances using an editorial calendar.
5. Build a consistent brand on Instagram
Consider your brand’s personality to figure out what this looks like.
What are the core values of your company? What does your brand mean to your consumers and employees? Are you fearless, brash, edgy, or daring?
Your audience may be confused by random or fragmented information, and you may lose followers as a result. Maintain a consistent brand look on your Instagram account to avoid this.
6. Grow your Instagram follower base
It takes a lot of time and effort to build a following. You might be tempted to go the easy route and purchase followers, but don’t! Purchasing followers will not result in more interaction, which is what you need to ensure that your posts are viewed.
Make sure your username is easily searchable and identifiable.
People can’t follow you if they can’t find you! Complete your bio. It’s the final thing someone sees before deciding whether or not to follow you, so be sure to include information about yourself and your work.
Growth Strategy for your Instagram Business Account
Instagram is so different from other prominent social media platforms, it requires a unique marketing strategy. Begin by defining your brand’s style.
1. Come Up With an Interactive Branded Hashtag and Couple Your Posts With the Right Hashtags
The hashtag can then be used by customers to share user-generated content. This allows people to search through all of your brand’s postings. It also makes it simple to search for photographs that you might like to re-post on your website.
Creating a hashtag that your business (and other people) can search for is effectively free promotion. When someone uses the tag in a photo, they are exposing your company to their followers.
Hashtags can assist visitors in finding your content. Hashtags, when used correctly, may help you increase the reach of your content and increase interaction.
2. Optimize Your Instagram Posting Schedule and Stick to a Product-Focused Content Calendar
You need to upload more material on Instagram to catch your audience’s attention. Otherwise, your material can get buried in a sea of postings, and you won’t be able to reach your intended audience.
Remember that Instagram now displays posts based on interests, connections, and timelines. This implies that if your audience is interested in the topic or has already connected with your business, they will see your postings.
3. Actively Engage Your Audience
If you want to boost your Instagram growth, you must engage your audience. It’s a must. Posting intriguing material isn’t the only way to increase engagement. In the comments area, you must also be proactive social media managers.
Encourage others to like, share, and comment on your content.
Spend time responding to their remarks as well. Avoid using general terms in your responses. Maintain a genuine and conversational tone.
4. Use Instagram Stories, Videos, and Live Videos
Instagram Stories and videos are fantastic for growing your Instagram following. They provide you the freedom to be innovative and engage your audience in novel ways. That’s not all, though.
Comments on video postings are 2.1 times higher than on text posts.
They also have a 38 percent greater interaction rate than image postings.
As a result, the more videos you employ, the more likely your material will be seen and shared by new people.
5. Leverage user-generated material
One of the most effective strategies to increase Instagram followers and engagement is to use user-generated material.
You may enhance your Instagram growth by utilizing the power of user-generated content (UGC). If you master this method, your internet exposure and awareness will skyrocket.
6. Run Contests and Promotions
To begin, determine what your target customers want or want. Offer discounts or run freebies for items or services that are in high demand based on the findings.
Encourage your audience to like your posts, follow your page, and tag their friends as part of your campaign. This method can help you develop your Instagram account significantly.
7. Tap into the Value of Influencers
With the support of influencers, Instagram gives your company the possibility to reach out to new customers.
You can also use your Instagram account to advertise your products and reach out to a wide target audience by using the power of micro-and nano-influencers.
You’re also more likely to gain credibility and gain the confidence of their audience if you use influencer-generated material.
8. Run Instagram Ads
Instagram’s ability to share data with Facebook is one of its most appealing features. As a consequence, you may utilize the same extensive psychographic and demographic targeting that Facebook offers on Instagram. You may use Facebook Ads Manager to target people who reside in a given country and listen to a specific band.
Instagram advertising includes photo advertisements in square and vertical formats, as well as video ads in square and landscape formats.
Instagram just introduced a carousel function, which provides a more dynamic advertising experience on the platform.
Making Money with Instagram Marketing
While top influencers earn millions every post, even individuals with a following of 1,000 to 10,000 people may use Instagram to supplement the income.
Three ideas for generating money with Instagram marketing to get you started.
1. Sell Your Products
You may begin earning money by selling any digital or physical goods that you create or purchase from providers.
Physical products necessitate the maintaining of inventory, which means you’ll have to spend money on a storage facility.
Not everyone, however, has the necessary beginning capital or cash to hire storage space.
2. Sign Up For an Affiliate Program
Alternatively, you may earn a commission by selling other people’s items as an affiliate. Many individuals and businesses profit from Instagram in this way. Use relevant hashtags in all affiliate posts to reach out to more people who could be interested in taking benefit of your offer.
3. Become an Influencer
You may start pitching businesses to promote their products and services in your posts after you reach the influencer level.
Companies frequently collaborate with influencers to generate sponsored content that promotes their products. An Instagram story or Instagram post that includes an explanation of the business or its products is a common sort of content.
Author
Rukkanna Gari Karunakar Goud
Hi, I am a marketing specialist with 3+ years of work experience in IT and marketing, and proven knowledge of digital marketing, market analysis, and e-commerce.