How To Use Instagram For Business: The Best Strategies Guide

Whether you are a big brand or small business yet to get any traction in the market, social media presence is paramount. Even big brands that boast exclusivity have realized that their brands do not stand out much without social accounts. Of all these social accounts, Instagram has quickly become a favorite for most businesses. After all, with a billion active users across the globe and at least 100 million photo shares each day, it is huge!

Any business that wants to exploit this marketing goldmine can benefit from these 7 strategies:

Setting up a Business Account

Rather than using a personal Instagram account, switch to a business account instead. Personal accounts are great if all you want to do is share photos and create memories with your loved ones. However, they do not have analytics. Business accounts, on the other hand, will show you how many people interacted with your content. In addition, the analytics grow over time and even break down the demographics of your audience. As a result, it becomes easier to know if you are making a mark on your target audience.

Defining an Audience

Who is your target market? You may already know that Instagram is most popular with people aged 25-34 years. This group follows trends and always wants to know what is in and what is out. However, to get their attention with your products, you must first create a sense of popularity. People want to work with businesses that other people love. That is why many businesses opt to buy Instagram followers at cheap rates instead of building their audiences from scratch. Once your target audience thinks you have traction, they also start following you, spiking organic growth. Growing from nothing was way easier ten years ago. But now, with millions of businesses fighting to get a market share, you need to employ some help.

Linking Your Accounts

If you already have other social accounts like Twitter and Facebook, you can ask your audience to follow you on Instagram. Moreover, with a business account, you can connect your profile to those social accounts. So, everything you post on Instagram automatically gets posted to the other accounts. It makes posting less work, and thanks to scheduling, you can even create your content in advance.

While you are at it, make sure your bio pops. People want to skim through the bio and immediately know what you do. So make it simple and even post a website or link in the bio where people can access your products and services. If your bio is vague, you will have difficulty convincing people to pay attention to your page.

Engaging your Audience

Marketers know one thing- most times, the audience is not ready to buy. So, why do they keep marketing? The goal is to ingrain their brands in people’s minds. Once the idea has been drummed in repeatedly, people begin to associate a product with a brand. For example, when you want to drink soda, what comes to your mind? Coke? Pepsi? These are big brands, yet they do not tire of engaging their audiences and coming up with new ways to advertise their products.

By engaging with your audience, they will keep you in mind. Then, when they are finally ready to make that purchase, they will highly likely come to you. So, how do you stay on their minds?

• Instagram stories: Did you know that you can interact with your audience all day? Stories last for 24 hours. Here is an example of how it can work. Suppose you have new shoes coming in the next week. You can start posting teasers of the new designs, asking your audience to guess when the shoes will drop. Or you can ask them to show up on the launch day and get a discount. Then, as the day nears, you can start counting down with your audience. Likely, out of 100 people, you can get 5 who will take you up on the offer and come to the store.
• Instagram feed: Many businesses make the mistake of not managing their feed properly. It is not uncommon to go through a post’s comments and seeing many unanswered questions. Customers often post comments like, ‘how much is this? Where are you located?’ etc. If a potential customer realizes that you do not respond to the queries, they may feel that you might not serve their needs. Take time to go through user comments and respond timely. It could earn you sales. People want good customer service!
• Direct messages: Always check your messages and respond to customers promptly. It can help you clinch a sale even if it may not be immediate.

Entertaining Your Audience

Photos are no longer enough to get people to follow your page or even like your posts. Instead, people want some entertainment. You may have noticed that more businesses are now using reels. These short videos are engaging, informative, and highly entertaining. Plus, they make it easier for you to rank on the explore page, enabling you to reach even more people.

For example, if you sell shoes, you can post a reel showing several ways people can pair the shoes. This creative marketing will make the ad more visual and will encourage more people to buy the shoes. Or they can start sharing the post, and soon enough, someone will come asking about the shoes.

Studying your Metrics

An important aspect of business accounts is the analytics which shows you who interacted with your content. So, how can you use these numbers to your benefit? First, start by tracking the posts that get the most engagement. Engagement comes down to likes, comments, and even saves. You should try and create posts that are like what users respond to the most. For example, if you realize that your audience prefers when you are witty, go with that. If they love videos, incorporate more videos in your feed. If they love stories, post more stories. Go with the flow, and you will be sure to grow your audience and get more sales.

Hiring an Influencer

If you can hire a celebrity to endorse your product, that is one way to connect with a bigger audience. Thankfully, even small businesses can now hire influencers to market their products. These individuals have large followings and can direct more people to follow you and even buy your services or goods.

Instagram keeps evolving, and if you can keep up with the trends, you will be sure to retain and grow your customer base. All the best!