800 million.
That’s how many active monthly users Instagram reports.
Just imagine how much your business would change if you could harness even a tiny fraction of that number.
It might not happen overnight, but if you stick with consistent posts and great content, you can slowly bring new leads to your business. Here are some proven methods to get you started.
1. Set Up Your Optimized Business Instagram Account
If you go to Instagram for your business, the account must be separate from your personal account. Keep in mind that marketing has to do with the public, not with you so that selfies and snapshots of your trip to Costa Rica must stay personal with you. They are not relevant to your customers and will not give you sales!
2. Take The Link in Bio Approach
Instagram does something more differently than Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest; the social network does not allow you to link back to your site with each article you create (unless you are running an advertising campaign on Instagram). As such, there is no way to route traffic to a particular website directly.
With one exception… When you set up your profile on Instagram, there is a space in your bio that you can include a link. When you post an update to pull traffic to your site to generate leads, sales, or registration, you can direct users to your profile link using a common phrase reference “link in bio”.
3. Increase Your Results Using Instagram Ads
One of the quickest and easiest ways to start creating potential customers with Instagram is to launch an Instagram advertising campaign. This is a great option if you do not have many Instagram followers, but you want to quickly generate leads. It is also perfect for brands that have many followers and want to facilitate access to your website for those users because each ad is clickable.
You can precisely target the type of user who would make it ideal lead. Some popular targeting options include job title, industry, interests/hobbies, and geographic location.
If you are already familiar with creating Facebook advertising campaigns, launching an Instagram advertising campaign will be difficult. Facebook owns Instagram and both social networks share the same ad development dashboard.
You can easily use the same target audience you created for your Facebook ads on Instagram. If you have not posted Facebook ads yet, after running an Instagram ad campaign, it’s logical that Facebook becomes a logical place to see the content of your ad.
4) Mix business with pleasure
Nobody on Instagram will stay engaged if your pictures are drab and dull. Try posting a mixture of colorful pictures with inspirational quotes about every two to three posts. Remember, Instagram is a visual medium — if your pictures don’t stack up, you’ll fail even if you execute every other strategy perfectly.
5. Use Relevant Hashtags.
Although it seems obvious, there is still a lot of confusion about the efficient use of hashtags. Some people choose not to use any hashtags or fill each image with 30 irrelevant hashtags.
Here’s a case: Imagine them as a keyword. Have a good choice and use enough to be recognizable. Try to incorporate important hashtags for greater exposure, also some less used hashtags as well.
If you want to include the abbreviations that are used in your industry, be sure to check what those abbreviations can lead to on Instagram. All shortcuts do not match what you think they are, and then click to see the content type. Another tip is to spend some time analyzing the best hashtags for your niche market. For example, foodies can use #foodporn instead of #lunch.
6. Call to action button
As more and more people continue to interact with businesses on Instagram, call to action buttons make it easier for people to turn discovery into action. These buttons can be used to direct visitors to Reserve, Get Tickets, Start Order or Book through third-party partners without having to leave Instagram.
7. Shopping Made Simple
Use the shopping feature to add a product sticker to any story with customizable text color. When a shopper taps on a product sticker, they’ll be taken to the same product details page that they see when they tap on a shopping post in the feed. From there, they can see additional product images, details, similar items, as well as visit your website to complete a purchase.
Instagram will soon be rolling out a topic channel for shopping in Explore. The shopping channel will be based on each user’s specific shopping interests – and will display shopping posts from a variety of businesses that the user may like, giving them the opportunity to discover new businesses. The shopping channel in Explore is currently testing and will roll out globally over the coming weeks.
As Instagram continues to evolve as a marketing platform, it’s essential to have a thorough understanding of the landscape and measurable insights into what is most effective for your business. If you can successfully tap into your Instagram audience, and create a strategy that’s both artistic and tactical, you’ll quickly see growth in your Instagram account and your business’ sales.
