Knowing the ins and outs of Instagram business is essential to paving your way to a successful digital brand. In this blog Cloud Cartel outlines the 5 Instagram business tips you should know before you begin marketing your business Instagram account.
Working in digital marketing ourselves, we understand how overwhelming social media platforms can be for businesses. Cloud Cartel works closely with numerous business owners from widely varying industries yet, each business owner expresses a similar dread when it comes to jumping onto a social media platform – and for good reason! It feels like each month there’s a new platform, a new algorithm and a new dance going viral. Let us tell you now, you don’t need to do any dancing to get your business out there, although… it wouldn’t hurt.
Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, SnapChat, Twitter, Twitch, Clubhouse, Discord… the list goes on. The spaces for digital marketing are endless. It can be tempting to quickly jump on all of them at once (or none at all). However, if you haven’t got the time (or a designated digital marketing person) this can lead to choppy posts with mixed messages, leaving your customers feeling confused and disengaged with your brand. The best approach is taking it 1 social media platform at a time and then slowly building your channels in a way that’s manageable and consistent.
Without further ado, let’s take the first digital marketing step together. Read further to discover the best 5 Instagram business tips you must know.
The first place to start: Instagram
If you’ve got a business, you’ve got an Instagram account. Instagram sees over 1 billion active users monthly and 500 million daily Instagram stories – that’s a whole lot of potential customers to share your product or service with. Whether you’re a café owner, school or you’re selling a product, Instagram has become an essential tool for marketing and connecting with customers.
Here, we’ve outlined 5 Instagram tips for your business that are easy to understand, quick to implement and will get you excited about getting on social media.
1. Register your Instagram as a Business Account
If you’re a business using Instagram, make sure you’re registered as an Instagram business account. You can do this by:
- Click onto your Instagram profile
- Go into settings (find the cog icon)
- Find “Account”
- Tap “Switch to Professional Account”
- You’re all set!
Setting your Instagram profile as a business account offers many perks such as seeing marketing insights (we’ll discuss below) and creating ads! This will be very useful later down the track when your Instagram page is ready to promote.
2. Use the bio to your advantage
You will see on your Instagram profile you’re able to include a short description of your business. This is 150 characters, which fills up very quickly so you must choose your words wisely. Depending on your business, will determine what you should write. Here are some points to consider when you’re writing your bio:
What do you offer?
You want to make it crystal clear what product or service you’re offering. State in the first line of your bio what your business is. Keep it clear and concise, this will make it easier for customers to understand your page.
What are your opening hours?
If you’re a restaurant, café, event space, shop etc. You must include your opening hours. Customers want to know when they can visit your business. If it’s difficult to find your opening hours, customers will move on and choose a competitor instead.
Where are you located?
If you’ve got multiple locations, ensure to list the different places customers can visit you.
Website link
The option to include your website link will present when you’re setting up your business account. Include your website’s landing page link so visitors can learn more about your brand.
If you’re running a promotion, you can alter this website link to the promotion’s landing page. But, just remember to change it back when the promotion ends!
Additional information
You will most likely have 1 – 2 lines of information left for your bio. Here, you can add any additional information that will be useful for your customers. Have a think about what makes your business unique and capture this in a few words. You might advertise delivery, additional services you specialise in or an award you’ve won.
3. Instagram Insights
Unlike personal Instagram accounts, business Instagram accounts have the ability to access digital marketing insights. These statistics are very useful in finding out who your audience is, what time is best to post, and which posts are the highest performing.
To understand how to use “Insights” to your advantage, click on the button you’ll see on your profile. You’ll see a date range on the top left of the page and different tabs you can click on. Explore these tabs to become more confident in reading the numbers. Here’s a little bit of information on each Insight’s tab to get you started.
Accounts Reached
Here you will see how many accounts you’ve reached within the date range you’ve selected. Scroll down to see how your business has performed (profile visits, website taps, email button taps, call button taps) over the selected time period.
Accounts Engaged
This tab records how your audience has engaged with your content. You can see your top performing posts, most popular stories and how many followers you’ve gained.
Total Followers
Where are your followers located? What age groups? Gender? And, when are these followers online and engaging with your brand?
Exploring Instagram Insights allows you to understand who your customers are and therefore create relevant and engaging content. From here, you can build customer profiles and brainstorm ways to connect with these customer profiles with content.
4. Get creative with content
Speaking of content, it’s time to get your creative hat on!
Getting a customer to follow your page is the first step, the next (and hardest step) is keeping them. You want to use a wide selection of imagery, video and captions to keep your customers engaged and excited about your brand. Check out these ideas from Later if you need some quick inspo.
We get it – when you’re busy running the physical business It can be mind boggling trying to think of content to post. But we promise, it’s worth it. Looking after your online customers can be just as important as taking care of the customers physically in your store.
To get started, look at what your competitors are doing, research what industry leaders recommend and brainstorm a list of ideas. Get your whole team involved, everyone has a different perspective. Plan your posts and see how your audience engages. Make alterations where engagement is low and think of ways to recreate a previous idea that performed well.
Stay on top of your posting, keep your voice consistent and have fun with it!
5. Connect with your audience
Now that you’ve got your Instagram business profile setup and great content being posted, make sure to engage with your audience. If someone comments on your picture, either give it a ‘like’ or reply with a comment. If you receive a message, reply within 24 hours. Ask your audience questions over feed posts and stories and let them know they’re being heard and your business cares.
Connecting with your online audience builds community and following. Each Instagram user that connects with your brand is a potential customer, respond to their engagement just as you would if in person. 30 mins – 1 hour a day, every day focusing on connecting with your audience does wonders with building your online rapport. You might not see this return instantly however, over time you will be amazed with the results.
We’re here to help
Social media platforms have become a rich tool for word-of-mouth marketing for businesses. Instagram is essentially one big hub of potential customers sharing products and services they enjoy and searching for more businesses to connect with. Considering word of mouth marketing is one of the most powerful forms of advertising, you’d be crazy not to get more involved on the digital marketing platform.
If you’re a business owner and you need help boosting your online presence, connect with us here at Cloud Cartel. We’re specialists in building websites, developing brands, delivering creative copywriting and managing social media platforms. We offer marketing packages specific to your business goals. To put it simply, we’re here to help your business succeed.
