Instagram can be beneficial for businesses because it allows companies to share photos that represent their brand, connect with current customers, and find potential clients. With more than 2 billion users, customers for your business are certainly users of the platform. There are many ways to use Instagram to target your customers and make sure your business is successful. Utilizing hashtags, staying active, and using high-quality photos are just some of the easy ways you can make your business stand out.

Why Use Instagram?

There are so many social media platforms out there but Instagram is recognized as one of the best for brands to connect with their followers. It is visually appealing, simplistic, and is more popular among a wide audience than other social media platforms.Your Instagram presence should not only feature eye-catching photos, but also depict your brand’s mission and goals. This will give your followers a better understanding of what your brand is all about, and what you’re striving to accomplish. Show your products and capture leads and sales. Instagram can be a great asset for your business, big or small!

Photos

Platforms like Instagram place a greater emphasis on photos than on other forms of social media content. There is a lot of stuff on Facebook that can make it easy for people to miss a photo. With Instagram, your photo is the most important thing! Make sure it’s sharp, clean, and provocative. This means that your photo should be high-quality and make your followers think. On Instagram, people can scroll through photos. If a photo does not catch their attention, they will scroll past it. Your photos should be captivating enough to make people stop and take the time to read your post. You should click on your ad if you want people to see your website or your ad’s caption.

Writing Copy

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, you don’t need anything else. Photos might be able to tell the whole story, but captions are just as important. Once your photo has grabbed your user’s attention, you need to have an interesting caption to keep them engaged. Ask your followers a question or engage with them in another way. If you only post pictures, people may not comprehend how you want them to interface with your brand or what motion you desire them to take. Here are some tips for planning your holiday marketing strategy:
  • Start early. The sooner you start planning your campaign, the better. This will give you plenty of time to come up with creative ideas and make sure your campaign is well-executed.
  • Define your goals. What do you want to achieve with your account? More sales? More brand awareness? Greater customer engagement? Once you know your goals, you can develop a strategy that will help you achieve them.
  • Know your audience. Who are you targeting? What do they like? What do they need? What motivates them? Knowing your audience will help you create a campaign that resonates with them.
  • Be creative. Instagram is a great place to get creative with your marketing. Think outside the box and come up with unique and memorable ideas
One way to get people engaged with your content is to ask them questions in the form of comments or likes. In order to be successful, your captions should encourage people to either take action or engage further with the content.

Mobile Usage

Since 80% of social media browsing is done on mobile devices, Instagram should be a mobile platform. You should have no doubt in your mind about building a presence on this platform. While users can view Instagram as a web page, they can only post photos using a mobile device. Although it may appear to be a disadvantage to some business owners, the way people shop has changed since the introduction of smartphones. Building a presence on the device that’s with most people 24/7 is a great way to be where they are.

Instagram is Linked to Facebook

Instagram is owned by the social media company Facebook, but the two platforms are still distinct from each other. The main reason is that it increases your reach. If you use both Instagram and Facebook, you’ll be able to reach more people than if you just used one or the other. You can connect your Facebook and Instagram accounts so that your posts appear on both platforms. This way, you can reach both your Facebook and Instagram audiences. You can run an ad on both Facebook and Instagram by using Facebook’s advertising platform. If you post content on Instagram, you can also have it automatically post on Facebook. It can be very helpful to link your social media accounts together because it can save you a lot of time and help keep your accounts consistent with each other.

Advertising on Instagram

Why use Instagram you ask? One word: Advertising. If you’re not advertising your business on Instagram (or Facebook), you’re missing out on a lot of potential revenue. While posting great content on your page is a good start, it will only reach your followers. To reach people who don’t follow you and to boost your social media presence, create ads. With Facebook ads, you can specifically target demographics and locations, link directly to your website or landing page, and collect data. You can run ads aimed at specific groups of users, or you can target ads at people who have already shown an interest in your product. Retargeting ads are beneficial because they help capture customers who may have been shopping on your site but left before completing a purchase. This means that you can target people on both Facebook and Instagram at the same time! Can’t figure out where to start with your Instagram advertising campaign? Check out our guide on how to create a campaign that is profitable and drives sales!

Collaborate with Influencers

Why use Instagram to collaborate with other people? A relationship with an influencer can help you reach not only your own followers, but also the influencer’s followers. It is unlikely that you will have the same followers as someone else in your industry. It’s important to build relationships with influencers that have a large, engaged following and are well respected in their industry in order to… You could get posts advertising your restaurant along with a fun tailgate. Making your brand recognizable and reliable by association is beneficial. Letting them try out your products is also beneficial. If they have a loyal following, and they review your product, they can become an ambassador for your brand, and help you build brand awareness.

Utilize Instagram stories and highlights

Your business can use Instagram stories to give your followers a behind-the-scenes look at what you do. Show people new products before they are released or take some risks. People love to see the inner workings of a business. You can use your Instagram story to give followers a look at what goes on behind the scenes! If you own a restaurant, you can show how your food is made fresh every day. You can use your Instagram story as a test run to see if you want to post about something or try new marketing tactics. You may be uncertain about how a tour of your business’ backstage area will go over. You can try using a story to engage your audience, and then check to see how well it worked. You can also create a poll for people to vote on. Do you have a favorite Instagram story? You can save it and turn it into a highlight on your profile. The highlights feature can be used by customers to see processes, answer frequently asked questions and more! The best thing about it is that your highlights won’t disappear after 24 hours like Instagram stories do. You get to choose when highlights come and go. Milk Bar uses highlights to show fans a variety of their favorite stories. They also make sure each highlight has an engaging icon.

How to promote your Instagram for free

  1. Tag, tag, tag!
The whole point of social media is to be social. Tagging people and other brands on Instagram is a great way to get more engagement on your posts. Tagging your posts with locations can help you connect with potential customers or partners, earn follows, or simply provide information about your brick-and-mortar location.
  1. Choose your hashtags wisely 
Some people are biased against hashtags. The cause of this bias is, in part, due to people using 30 hashtags per post. The same goes for those who use irrelevant or sketchy hashtags merely to gain attention. But, when used properly, hashtags can help more people to discover your business. To use them the right way, do your research on hashtags, including:
  • What hashtags your competitors are using.
  • Which influencers your audience follows in your industry. • What content your audience engages with the most. What hashtags your audience uses when searching for content related to your industry, which influencers your audience follows in your industry, and what content your audience engages with the most can all help you better understand what your audience is interested in.
  • Look for less crowded hashtags that are relevant to your business. These hashtags will give you the potential to stand out.
Testing out different options on your upcoming posts will help you figure out what works best. If you want to encourage user-generated content, you could create a branded hashtag that people can use when posting about your business. This can create buzz about your business and increase your following. Plus, it gathers together all content created by your audience in support of your business, which can persuade people to follow and buy from you.
  1. Encourage user-generated content 
User generated content (UGC) can benefit your business in ways that other content cannot. For example, Instagram UGC is often posted on users’ accounts, which introduces your business to their followers. Future followers and customers are more likely to trust the recommendations of friends, family, and connections than what you say about your business. In other words, each piece of user-generated content is a vote of confidence that belongs to you and only you. If you and a competitor offer similar products or services, you can still set yourself apart by gathering customer testimonials and photos. Ask your happy customers to film a short video or take a picture of themselves using your product, then post it on your social media platforms. This will show potential customers that you have satisfied customers and that your product is enjoyable to use.
  1. Use Instagram Video
If you already produce videos for platforms like Youtube, it makes sense to start using Instagram Video as well. With the head of Instagram announcing that the platform will be focusing more on video in June 2021, there is no better time to start than now. If you use Instagram’s topic-based recommendations, people who previously knew little to nothing about your brand could be introduced to it. This is incredibly valuable when you realize that it may be the only effective way to reach a certain segment of your audience on Instagram. Some people prefer video content, so you’re more likely to reach them using Instagram Video than by only posting photos or stories.
  1. Cross-promote on your other social sites 
Do you post content on other social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or TikTok? You should try using your Instagram content on those platforms too! You’ll probably need to change it a bit to make it work better on those platforms, but it can be a good way to get people interested in your account on those other platforms. There’s no need to be shy about sharing your best Instagram photos and videos – go ahead and post the link to your profile, or even invite people to connect with you on the platform.
  1. Spotlight your Instagram profile on your website
People who visit your website are already curious about your business. By directing them to your social media accounts, you can show them how you engage with your audience and the people behind your business, which may make them more likely to purchase something from you. Adding social icons to your website or embedding your Instagram profile are both great ways to get people interested in the content you post and encourage them to follow you.
  1. Include the link in your marketing emails
When doing email marketing, include a link to your Instagram profile in the footer, as well as any other active social media pages. Sometimes it can be effective to draw attention to your Instagram account specifically to spark interest in what you are doing there.
  1. Mention your account in person
The in-person route can take many forms. For example, you could mention your Instagram handle: The store’s signage should include the name of the business, its logo, and potentially other relevant information such as the store’s hours.
  • On your business cards or flyers.
  • While chatting with customers at your physical location.
You should try to talk to others about what you do on a day-to-day basis. You can earn more followers and customers by doing the things listed above.