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Instagram is one of the best tools to implement for your small business strategy. With over 2 billion active users, each and every post is a chance to visually connect with your audience; and more importantly — drive new sales. If you’re hesitant and how to use Instagram to grow your small business and engage customers – this guide is for you.
Understanding Instagram’s Potential
Instagram is one of the best platforms to create buzz around your brand. Around 80% of marketers plan on using it for influencer marketing alone, in 2024.
Several years ago, Instagram lacked a substantial amount of buyer and seller features, focused on simply pushing entertaining content to the right eyes. Today, over 70% of online shoppers choose Instagram for their next purchasing decision.
In addition to the suite of new commerce features, video content on Instagram, in the form of Reels, has surpassed every other type of post, generating an average reach rate of 30.81%.
- Did you know? Instagram Reels generate 2x more reach than any other type of content on the platform – recorded in 2023.
Video content on Instagram, compared to photos or graphics, provides a unqiue opportunity to visually tell a story, increase your engagement rates, and access a broader audience. Luckily, Instagram marketing for small businesses has never been easier; let’s find out how!
Setting Clear Objectives
Before posting any content, define specific, measurable goals for your business’s Instagram account. This could be in the form of follower count, number of leads generated, or total engagements.
Define your business goal, and have a clear understanding of how to get there through your content.
- If your goal is to gain followers, you should plan on posting content that’s valuable and educational.
- If your goal is to increase engagements, your content should be funny, relatable, or interactive.
- If your goal is to generate leads or drive sales, your content should show off the true value proposition that underlies your product or service.
There are a multitude of social media strategies to employ, but start by aligning yourself with one business goal, and one implementable strategy. Follower count is a great first metric to track — if the number goes up, you’re doing something right!
Develop Your Brand Identity
If you already have an Instagram account setup for your business; great! If not, go ahead and set that up now. Hootsuite has a great guide on setting up Instagram for business in 4 steps.
Now, is it immediately obvious what your business does at first glance? Brand identity and brand consistency are key factor’s when marketing your small business on Instagram. The best way to build an audience of followers and customers that keep coming back is to really nail your branding.
When you use colors, use the same colors. When you create graphics with some text, use the same fonts, each and every post. Over time, your Instagram page will look more and more cohesive, and your followers will come to appreciate the recognizability of the content you post.
1. Update Your Profile Picture
A profile picture on Instagram is extremely important as a business owner. Regardless of how you brand your company, use your most recognizable asset and center it in the photo. Keep in mind that profile pictures on Instagram are typically displayed quite small in the app.
2. Include Your Slogan In Bio
A catchy bio is a great way to engage new customers. If you can fit your business slogan into your Instagram bio, it will do wonders for your brand awareness. If you don’t have a slogan, try to describe your product or service in a catchy way – something that is memorable.
An Instagram bio is not the place to be wordy – keep it short and sweet.
3. Set Your Links
If you want to convert followers or visitors into customers, you need to give them somewhere to go after landing on your Instagram profile. LinkTree is the most popular service for small business owners as it allows them to store all of their external links in one place. Plus, you can customize your LinkTree page to match the branding of your other social media platforms or website.
4. Consider Story Highlights
Story highlights are a way to feature past Instagram Stories into a collective gallery. These show up at the top of your Instagram profile. Consider a way that you can group together your past stories to tell a story about your company, showcase behind-the-scenes — anything you want!
Plan Content and Create
Instead of posting content to your Instagram page at random, think about a consistent posting strategy that you can stick with. On Instagram, businesses are seeing the best results by posting 2-3 times per day. This seems to give the best return so far in 2024.
These numbers might seem daunting to a small business owner looking to market their Instagram page, but utilizing a simple scheduling tool can help.
Be realistic — if you can only afford to make a handful of posts each week. Do that, but be consistent with it. Content calendar tools are available online, usually for just a few dollars a month, and they allow you to create all of the content you want to post for the week and schedule it out.
Grow With Your Audience
The biggest mistake you can make with marketing your small business Instagram is failing to engage with your followers and customers.
Use this three step growth strategy:
- For each post, use a few relevant hashtags to your business. Collaborate with other companies on Instagram that are posting similar content to you. Engage with their communities, too!
- Spend some time each week to analyze the Instagram algorithms. What kind of content are my competitors posting? What posts of mine are getting the most engagements? These are all great questions to ask that will force you to better understand the platform.
- Engage! Respond to every comment you receive, utilize polls and questions to your Instagram Story each day. This gives your followers an opportunity to engage with you in a natural way.
If you aren’t getting the engagements or visibility on your posts – the worst thing you can do is give up! Keep posting, keep researching what works, and have fun with it!
Measure Success And Adapt
It feels good to get that first comment or direct message from a customer. The advantage to using Instagram for your small business is that it’s easy to tell what content is working, and what isn’t.
When you get a comment or engagement, look at that particular piece of content and dissect what made it engaging. Then, you can replicate the strategy you used for future content.
Regularly check in on your Instagram insights. Instagram will show you various graphs and metrics for how your content is performing. If you find that your engagements are low for a particular month, it might be a good idea to revisit the kind of content you’re posting.
Finding successful businesses on Instagram in your industry is a great place to start – analyze what they’re doing, and replicate it in your own way!
Let An Agency Do The Heavy Lifting
The most important aspect to a small business owner is time — it seems like there’s never enough time in the day to get through that pesky to-do list.
Adding a consistent content strategy to your responsibilities can seem unrealistic. If your budget allows, you might want to consider hiring a company or agency that specializes in small business growth on social media. While it can be pricey, usually it’s worth the investment. By working with an agency, you free up more of your valuable time, while having peace of mind that your brand is growing through consistent content.
At Tradebank, we have marketing agencies that will grow your social media channels for little to no cash. If budget is your blocker, Tradebank might be the next best solution to growing your brand online. We have thousands of business owners in our network, that trade their products and services for things in return; no cash involved.
Conclusion
Instagram is a fantastic tool for small business owners looking to market their products and services. But like any social media platform, it requires a strategic approach to creating content. Analyze your goals, research the content your competitors are posting, and replicate what’s working with your own branded twist.
We encourage you to experiment and find what works best for your particular industry or niche. Ultimately, it’s your brand, and it’s your story to tell.
