0

Proven ‘Must Know’ Instagram for Business Tips Before Starting

720
0

Instagram for Business

We are in the 21st Century, and business marketing strategies had evolved from physical to virtual. Instagram is rated as one of the best marketing social media sites, and businesses have flocked to utilize the services offered there. However, if you are looking to engage in fruitful marketing, there are a few tips about marketing in Instagram that you must know before you start.

Image Source: Instagram

First of all, let us walk you through a few reasons why you stand to gain by using Instagram as your marketing partner.

The site has over 800 million monthly users, which creates a wide customer base for the user. It also has over 60 million photos shared every day, and around 1.6 billion likes every day. This is more than enough reason for you to venture into Instagram marketing, and the following tips will ensure you waste no time right from the start.

The world wide web is huge, and yet you had stumbled on my site looking for something. I hope you find it as we had taken huge efforts to create them. Best of all, its FREE! Hence, some of our content may include affiliate links (i.e. whenever you click on the links and purchase, I earn a small commission at no extra costs to you!). No worries! Some of these links may look like phishing, but I assure you they are not! Lastly, the affiliation does not affect my reviews towards them. Enjoy!

9 Instagram for Business Tips

  1. Switch Your Instagram Profile From Personal to Business
  2. Utilize all the Free Tools Offered on Instagram for Business
    1. Instagram Stories
    2. Stories Highlight
    3. IG Reels
    4. Instagram Live
    5. Instagram Shop
  3. Supplement with Third-Party Tools. Freemium Ones?
  4. Know Your Hashtags to Maximise Discovery
  5. Run Surveys for Continual Follower Experience Improvement
  6. Engage with Contests, Giveaways & More!
  7. Visual Ads Still Work!
  8. Use Sponsored Ads for Enhanced Traffic
  9. Make Use of Instagram Influencers

1. Switch Your Instagram Profile From Personal to Business

This is the first but exceptionally important step. With an Instagram business profile, many more features are unlocked. For instance, a you can create business ads without using Facebook’s advertising tools. Having a business profile also makes it easy for potential customers to contact you from the Instagram page directly with a dedicated call-to-action button. The buttons available are Call, Text, Directions, Email, Book, Get tickets, Start order, and Reserve. If you are in the sales line, you know how important how a smooth and easy experience affect purchase. So, get going! What more? A business profile also provides the analytics into your posts’ impressions and reach to help you assess the effectiveness of your marketing strategy on Instagram! More on these tools in the following points. So, read on!

2. Utilize all the Free Tools Offered on Instagram for Business

Instagram for Business Tips: Business Tools
Image Source: Instagram

Yes, don’t start without knowing what Instagram have to help in your business. Luckily, we are here to offer some tips for your business in Instagram! Everybody knows that Instagram is for posting pictures, but pictures speak a thousand words! Not forgetting that we are marketing strategists, so we got to make the full use of it. Some of these tools that we will elaborate more on are as follows; Instagram Stories, Stories Highlight, IG Reels, Instagram Live, and Instagram Shop.

2.1 Instagram Stories

Instagram posts once posted are available in your album which allows your followers to view them anytime. Contrarily, Instagram Stories are photos or videos which are available only for a limited time of 24 hours! That means, once you posted it, only your loyal followers will get to access and enjoy this limited-time exclusive content. Is it some offer coupon? Is it the release of some merchandise? Or a teaser to some new products? Whatever it is, go creative and tickle your followers. Let them get excited and talk about it. Here is the beauty and power of social media!

2.2 Stories Highlight

You have good Instagram Stories and you want them stored in your account for future followers. Try Stories Highlight! This feature can be very useful, particularly for Stories that mark a certain milestone. After all, these Stories can be lengthy videos. Use it to categorise your collections to various brands, audiences type, tutorials and many more! Think from your followers’ perspective. Then, make it easy for them to find the videos they wish to see!

2.3 Instagram Reels

On the other hand, there are IG Reels. Somewhat similar to TikTok, these are short 15-seconds or 30-seconds videos that are stored in the account. What can you use Reels for? Well, same as TikTok! Use it to create challenges for your followers to ride on, or ride on one challenge yourself! Our point is; get creative. Mix and match your posts type. Don’t forget the traditional ways of video advertisements too!

2.4 Instagram Live

Yes, like YouTube and Facebook, you can do a live broadcast in Instagram with Instagram Live. Live sessions can go up to 1 hour, and they are never recorded! Again, this feature functions well for exclusive content that you only wish your followers to see. It can be scheduled before hand and announced. So, our tips for your business in Instagram is this. If you are looking for engagement, this feature will show you who your serious followers are, and even, warm ready-to-buy leads. Schedule a 1-hour sale maybe? or Auction?

2.5 Instagram Shop

Instagram for Business Tips: Shop
Image Source: Instagram

Ecommerce are booming in 2020. Whether you already have an online shop or not, this feature will complement your ecommerce strategy. The only commitment being you need to spend time and effort to manage it! Instagram Shop allows you to create your product catalog. Then, you can tag your photos where the products are showed to allow your followers to get full details on that product directly. Or if they wish, to checkout directly. All you need here is a Facebook Shop account, or Shopify. To learn more, this LINK will help.

3. Supplement with Third-Party Tools. Freemium Ones?

For a long time, Instagram does now allow post scheduling and it proves to be a hassle for Instagram Marketers. Nonetheless, whatever challenges you may faced in Instagram, know that there are often third-party tools available to make your life easier. If you are looking for a scheduling and monitoring tool, try SocialPilot. Its not free, but a paid plan allows management of other social media channels too. Like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest too! For a freemium Instagram scheduling tool, try Tailwind. Use Tailwind to find the best hashtags and reach the right audience!

socialpilot

4. Know Your Hashtags to Maximise Discovery

Instagram, like most other social media channels, are all about hashtags when it comes to finding content. So, you got to use the right hashtags, and use them wisely. Never spam them as you want to look professional, right? Again, you can use Tailwind to monitor your hashtags and find the right ones. The right ones meaning relevant hashtags with decent amount of traffic. Alternatively, try Flick.

5. Run Surveys for Continual Follower Experience Improvement

Instagram for Business Tips: Survey
Image Source: Opinion Stage

We sounded like a product manager on this, but how true? Followers can come and go, but surely you want them visiting regularly, and engaged? After all, if you are running an Instagram Shop, a survey can be serious in converting your followers into leads and customers. You can run surveys that run outside of Instagram, but there are tools like Opinion Stage that integrates nicely within the platform. Above all, this tool is free!

6. Engage with Contests, Giveaways & More!

Engagement does not come on its own especially when you are a small brand. It needs a little bit of push in the form of motivation. And, if you had been reading our previous pointers, you know how much we emphasize on engagements. Also, don’t see contests as just a ‘quick’ way of getting followers. What we need here is an integrated all-round strategy. Contests like this can generate buzz leading to new followers. Would it lead to leads? Likely not, but its a way to warm your followers. We say you got to try it! Tools such as Wishpond provides more than contests tools. They also have built-in email marketing, form builders and page builders. Click on their link to learn more. For a freemium tool, try SweepWidget. Multiple entries can be submitted via various ways such as following the page, reposting, liking and more!

Wishpond

7. Visual Ads Still Work!

Instagram for Business Tips: Designed Ads
Image Source: Canva

While social media is all about generating that viral content, do know that ads still work! Some followers follow your page because they want to know the latest promotions so they can take advantage of it! So, give it to them! Post your promotions every now and then, although the bulk of your Instagram content should still be non-promotional and ‘fun’ content. You can design on your own, or if you need inspiration, try Canva’s huge library of Instagram templates. The tool itself is freemium. The ready-to-use templates makes publishing any sort of promotions possible within minutes! Have more doubts about Canva, read what we got to say about it HERE.

Instagram for Business Tips: Sponsored Ads
Image Source: Mediakix

Sponsored ads are a sure way for you to get your target audience’s attention, and the best thing about them is that you do not have to break your bank to use them. You can set aside an ad budget that guide you on how much you can spend on ads daily. Your brand then has unlimited ability to reach more clients than when you had to rely on your followers to see your updates. Some of the sponsored ads you can use include photos, videos, carousels, stories, and stories canvas. People always have this concern on how to know if a campaign is successful. Well, it got to start with a goal and end with a measurement. Even if you do not get good metrics, you definitely gain insights! We say go for it!

9. Make Use of Instagram Influencers

Instagram for Business Tips: Influencers
Image Source: therock Instagram Page

The most assured way of getting a huge following on Instagram is using influencers who already have a large following on the site. People are likely to purchase products supported and promoted by influential people such as celebrities and social media influencers because they trust them. Identify a few influencers, partner with them, and watch your sales grow as your brand gains popularity. Huge brands such as Starbucks use influencers such as Alyssa Lenore, Will Taylor, and Chelsea as of Late to market its products.

Final Comments

The bottom line in Instagram for Business is knowing what you wish to achieve with it and how to do it. While the complete ways of Instagram for Business can never be documented anywhere, we hope our tips have been a good starting point. It is most important to inculcate a learning mindset, to be open to new knowledge and to always explore. Remember, marketing campaigns are never stagnant. It is a constant work in progress!

Activities

What other Social Media Marketing are you keen on? TikTok? Pinterest? Snapchat? Click on the links to learn more.

Time to contribute your own! COMMENT below your #1 Instagram for Business Tips or Hacks to inspire the next reader!

If you would like more Instagram for Business tips and strategies from us, LIKE and SHARE this article!

HASHTAG #Instagram #DonutAtwork

Exclusive e-book by GetResponse and Joanna Wiebe

Donut Atwork We are the Team from Donut Atwork. Bringing you Tutorials, Reviews and Tips from WorkTech for you to achieve wonderful things!

LEAVE YOUR COMMENT

Your email address will not be published.

error

Enjoying Donut Atwork? Tell the World!