The Complete Guide to Instagram for Small Businesses

On Instagram, there are around 1.4 billion active users on the social media platform. This means that Instagram should be part of your marketing strategy to reach all of these people.

But how do you use Instagram for small businesses? There are many different ways you can incorporate Instagram into your social media marketing, but it can be difficult.

Keep reading for the ultimate guide on how to start establishing your online presence to improve business growth.

Set Up a Profile

Many businesses might not feel like something as simple as setting up an Instagram profile is necessary advice, but if you don’t set it up correctly, then it’ll be a struggle to succeed.

As a business, you should set up a business account. When you do this, you unlock new settings and features that will help you grow your account and have more information on it.

These features and settings are always changing, so you should always check back to update those settings and features.

You’ll also be able to add in other information for your business, like locations, contact methods, linking, and hours. You’ll also be able to include product catalogs and services. Since Instagram is switching to an e-commerce platform as well, having your business account set up will be important.

You’ll also be able to have a contact button on your profile. This will let people have an easy way to email you or ask questions about your business. This is important when you’re trying to create a sales funnel.

Write a Good Bio

When you’re setting up your profile, writing a great bio is also important. This is one of the first things that will introduce you to new followers and audiences, so make sure that you take advantage of all of the space.

You may want to include a link to a website, and then you can have the link be a landing page of different content and links to your products or services.

While Instagram will only let you have one link in your bio, there are other tools that you can use to give you more options.

You also want to try and find a way to include hashtags or keywords to optimize your profile. That way, if people are searching for the industry your business is in, your account might pop up in the search results.

Optimize Your Bio

After you’ve created your profile, you need to optimize it so that it shows up in your searches. To start with, choose a profile photo that will be consistent across all of your social media platforms.

This will make sure that people can easily recognize your company and the brand. When you upload your picture, make sure that it’s 320×320 pixels. Keep in mind that it’ll still only upload as 110x100x pixels.

It will also be framed in a circle, so make sure that you consider that when uploading your photo.

Next, you’ll be able to upload all of your contact information. You need to ensure that people have an easy way to contact you without having to leave your profile.

You should include at least an email address, but it’ll also be better if you include a physical address and phone number as well.

You can also include an option for people to get directions to your address if you want them to come to visit you.

You’ll also want to personalize the action buttons as well. To do this, you’ll need to have an account with an Instagram partner. This will let people book appointments.

To add these, you can hit the Edit Profile button and then scroll down to where you can customize the Action Buttons.

Create a Strategy

Now that you’ve set up your profile, you need to start creating a strategy for how you’re going to use Instagram. If you don’t have a strategy, it can get very easy to get lost and forget what you’re supposed to be doing.

You’ll need to do your homework to make sure that you’re creating good content that your audience will like. However, it’s also important to post that content at the right time.

So to start, figure out who your target audience is. This will help you design your content.

To figure out your target audience, ask questions like where do these people live? What interests do they have? What age group are they in?

You can also figure out who your target audience is by doing market research. You can also start by looking at your competitors to see what audience they’re targeting.

Once you’ve done that, set goals for your business. This will guide you in the future when you’re wondering why you’re doing all of this.

You should make sure that your goals are timely, measurable, attainable, specific, and relevant.

Track Metrics

If you want to get more followers on Instagram, you’ll need to track different metrics to ensure that you’re on the right path in terms of your strategy.

These metrics will be different for each business, but the data can give you a lot of information on if your funnel is working or not.

First, you should focus on metrics that are around awareness. This will be something like follower growth rate, accounts reached, and post impressions.

You’ll also want to track your conversions. In addition to that rate, you’ll also want to track things like how well your paid ads do, the cost per click, and the bounce rate.

You’ll also want to track which actions a customer takes, what customers repeat, and any retention that you have.

You’ll also want to track the basics, like how many likes and comments you get on each post. You may even want to track shares and saves as well.

Start Planning Content

Now that you’ve started doing some research, you’ll have to start planning your content as well. To do that, you should start creating content pillars.

This will give you an idea of different themes of content that you can post when you’re trying to schedule content.

After you’ve created your pillars, you’ll need to decide what content you want to post and figure out how to do it strategically.

Share Content

Now you’re ready to start sharing content! This is the main thing that will help you get noticed and generate more followers.

There are all kinds of different ways to share content on Instagram, but sharing your feed is the most important factor.

The type of content you post will depend on what industry your business is in and what your audience is interested in. But for example, if you sell products, you could post product photography.

this is important in the retail business. Instagram will give you a platform to showcase your product portfolio.

Use Hashtags

Hashtags are a great way to promote your business for free and group your posts with others that are just like it.

You can include up to thirty hashtags on your ost, but you should do research and figure out which hashtags are best for your post. It’ll also depend on how many followers you have.

You’ll also be able to see how many people found your posts through hashtags, so you can see which hashtags are generating more followers.

Keep in mind that you should use hashtags that are related to your content and aren’t spammy. This will ensure that you have good-quality followers as well.

You should also put your hashtags in the comment section. To keep your captions easy to read and clean, you should put them in the first comment right after you post them.

You should create a list of hashtags that you want to use, and change out different ones to see which group works best for your posts.

Post on Instagram Stories

While posting content to your feed is important, you shouldn’t forget about Instagram stories. There are millions of people who watch stories each day, and this can be an easy and casual way to reach those people.

The algorithm is also easier to show up to followers on your Stories rather than in your feed. This can be a casual way to share some information quickly.

This format is also important for storytelling. When you create a good brand story, then you will engage your audience from start to finish, and you’ll get people to start viewing your Stories consistently.

Also, if you have more than 10,000 followers on your Instagram account, you can include links to make it even easier to convert those viewers.

Explore Other Types of Content

In addition to Instagram Stories, there are different ways that you can show off your brand.

To start, you’ll need to focus on making Instagram Reels. This is Instagram’s version of TikTok, and they are very popular on the app. The algorithm is even favoring these types of videos more than photos or still posts.

Instagram Guides are also great at showing your authority in a subject matter. You can share products, how-to’s, and company news in these guides.

You can also include Instagram IGTV videos. These are like reels, but they’re meant to be in a longer format and share different content like a TV show.

You should do these if you have ideas for different types of recurring content.

Engage With Audience

When you do post content, hopefully, people start interacting and engaging with your posts. You must start engaging with them.

Respond to all comments or mentions that you get so that users will feel more motivated to interact with your account in the future.

Some people will automate this engagement by using a bot. However, this can destroy your brand, and sometimes it’s very obvious that you’re not the one responding to other people’s comments.

Use Instagram Live

Lastly, make sure you utilize the Instagram feature of Instagram Live. One of the biggest benefits of this is that your followers will get a notification when your account is Live.

This means that you’re already keeping your account in your followers’ minds’, which is important when you’re trying to always stand out amidst all the other accounts they follow. But what do you do during your Instagram Live?

To start with, you should run a Q&A feature. This is where you’ll use an associated sticker or story or post that you can answer all questions on. This is a chance to reflect on different factors, and you can use it as a way to be authentic and talk to your followers.

You could also do a piece where you go behind the scenes to give your followers a feeling that they’re seeing something secret.

This can be a great way to show things that normally people won’t have public access to. This is also a great incentive for them to follow you for exclusive content and access to other factors.

You could also interview someone who also has an Instagram account. This will give you a chance to interview them and see what they’re passionate about.

But they may also share it with their followers, giving you more exposure.

Discover More Tips for Instagram for Small Businesses

These are only a few tips for Instagram for small businesses, but there are many other factors to consider like creating consistent content.

We know that being a small business owner and marketing your business can be overwhelming sometimes, but we’re here to walk you through it all.

If you’re interested in more content that will make your business more successful, explore our website!