In recent years, Instagram has proven itself to be an incredibly valuable platform for established entrepreneurs and small business owners to connect with potential customers. It has more than 2 billion monthly active users, which means it’s an opportunity to build an engaged following, drive traffic to your site, and eventually sell more.
But it’s not enough to just create an Instagram account. To be different, your content has to be great, and your strategy has to be effective. This article will explore practical tips for using Instagram to grow your business.
Crafting An Instagram Strategy
Before posting your first photo or video, it’s important to develop a clear Instagram strategy. This will help guide your actions and ensure you are working toward specific goals. Here are some key questions to answer:
What Are Your Goals?
Be specific about what you want to achieve. Do you want to drive sales, generate leads, or raise brand awareness? Setting SMART goals will help focus your efforts.
Who is Your Target Audience?
Research your ideal customers deeply. Define their demographics, interests, pain points, and where they spend time online. Tailor your content and messaging to resonate with them.
What Is Your Content Strategy?
For organic growth on Instagram, posting high-quality, valuable content is extremely important. Set out what you’re going to share in the coming months according to your goals and audience preferences.
How Will You Engage With Your Audience?
Simply broadcasting content is not enough. You need to actively engage with other users through comments, messages, hashtags, and more. Build relationships and community.
Growing Your Instagram Followers
Attracting and retaining engaged Instagram followers is key to Instagram’s success. But getting followers is not as simple as buying fake ones or following/unfollowing other accounts. Here are effective tactics to grow your reach organically:
Leverage Existing Networks. Tell your friends, family, email subscribers and existing social media followers about your Instagram account. Cross-promote content across channels. Offer an incentive for them to follow you.
Use Relevant Hashtags Strategically. Add a variety of popular and niche hashtags to make sure your content will appear in the results of a search using the tags. Engage in conversations in your industry.
Run Giveaways and Contests. Make users like, comment, share or follow to enter contests. For increased discovery, they require tags and hashtags. Prizes that actually benefit your audience.
Post Consistently. At least once a day, post high-quality content. Consistency gets you top of mind. If, after all, your analytics show optimal times for posting, take advantage.
Follow Competitors and Influencers. Liking, commenting and sharing their content makes you engage with complementary accounts. In return, this exposure can lead to the following.
Use Geotags and Location Tags. Enable geo-location on your posts so they appear in location-based feeds. This connects you with local followers.
Creating Compelling Instagram Content
Your content is the foundation for engaging your audience and accomplishing your goals. From photos to Stories to Live videos, here are tips for creating content that converts:
Showcase Your Product or Service. Give followers an inside look at what you offer through demos, user-generated content, behind-the-scenes footage and more. Make it visually compelling.
Share Your Brand Story and Mission. Use an Instagram bio link to drive traffic to your “About” page. Share your origins and purpose through captions and Instagram Story highlights.
Post Educational Content. Position yourself as an industry thought leader by posting tips, how-to’s, listicles and other educational content. Offer value beyond the sale.
Run Polls and Q&As. Crowdsource content ideas and encourage engagement by asking questions in captions or Instagram Stories. Respond to feedback.
Go Live. Broadcast live videos to engage followers in real-time, reveal your brand personality and increase visibility. Enable saving to IGTV for replay potential.
Leverage Influencer Marketing. Partner with nano or micro-influencers to tap into their engaged niche audiences. Require branded hashtags and links back to your profile.
Instagram Tools and Apps for Business
While Instagram provides a user-friendly platform, third-party apps offer added functionality to save time, streamline workflows and glean additional analytics. Here are some top tools for business:
Content Creation Tools
- Canva. Create professional graphics and designs.
- Over. Add stylish text overlays to photos.
- Later. Schedule Instagram posts in advance.
- Inshot. Edit and enhance videos.
Hashtag Research Tools
- Display Purposes. Discover high-performing niche hashtags.
- Ritetag. Analyze hashtag performance over time.
- TagOmatic. Recommends hashtags based on keywords.
Analytics and Insights
- Iconosquare. Track key metrics and engagement.
- Inbeat. Get intelligent analytics and competitor benchmarks.
- Socialinsider. Identify your most valuable followers.
Management and Publishing
- Hootsuite. Manage multiple social profiles in one dashboard.
- Buffer. Schedule posts, engage followers, and analyze performance.
- Planoly. Visual planner for organizing Instagram content.
Driving Business Results on Instagram
While growing your followers is admirable, Instagram is only useful if it contributes to your business’s bottom line. Track these key metrics to quantify Instagram’s impact:
Sales Revenue. Connect conversions back to Instagram content via the use of trackable links, unique promo codes, and pixels. They offer special discounts for purchase.
Website Traffic. Link your bio and link it in posts/Stories. Here, we tag Instagram as the source of Google Analytics using UTM parameters.
Lead Generation. Use call-to-action buttons to direct traffic to landing pages, contact forms and lead magnets. Make an offer they can’t refuse in exchange for their email address.
Brand Awareness. Get a measure of impressions, reach & engagement rates. Check to see how your demographics compare to other channels in terms of follower growth. Ask your survey followers about brand familiarity and sentiment.
When you keep posting content that is valuable to your audience and goals, you can use Instagram to generate measurable results for your business. Grow your community, define your strategy, and track performance over time. Customer and data feedback should steer your approach. Use Instagram’s powerful features whilst investing in great quality video and photography that engages with your audience.
Keys to Success on Instagram
Building a presence on Instagram does not happen overnight. By implementing these best practices, you can set your brand up for long-term, sustainable growth:
- Show Up Consistently. Post daily content to stay top of mind with the Instagram algorithm. Scheduling tools help manage this workload.
- Respond to All Comments and Messages. This level of engagement builds loyalty. Follow up on questions and concerns promptly.
- Get Creative with Instagram Stories & Live. Leverage ephemeral content to reveal your brand personality. Use interactive features to engage.
- Make Content Shoppable. Share products with tags and use shoppable posts to generate straightforward conversions. Give limited-time promo codes.
- Partner With Micro-Influencers in Your Niche. Partner with influential persons and try to increase your reach to a targeted audience.
- Analyze Performance Data. Find your best-performing content using analytics. Keep double down on what resonates.
To be successful on Instagram, you need to have an intentional, long-term strategy of value, relationships, and execution. Brands that have welcomed Instagram for what it is — its visual nature and its interactive features — keep reaping exponential rewards.
Conclusion
Instagram is a great platform for entrepreneurs to get brand awareness, engage with their customers, and drive sales. However, if those same small businesses keep producing great value content and using the beauty of stories and live video, they have the ability to do the same things that bigger audiences can: foster real relationships and create tangible ROI. The opportunities to grow on Instagram, with a strategic, long-term approach, are endless.
