Starting Business on Instagram

Aug 16, 2018 | instagram, news, social media, technology

Instagram has become one of the most popular social media platform among the youths . Instagram has become the second-biggest social media platform in the world with over 800 million active users . More than 95 million photos and videos being shared every days . With such  a big audience being available for you to sell your services and products. It has become essential for businesses to move to Instagram . Reports show that more than 80% Instagrammers  follow at-least one brand including brands like Nike, Adidas ,  Puma, M&M’s and so on.

The business industry has seen a shift in marketing strategies with more emphasis being laid on online marketing than offline marketing . Now over 25 million business are currently operating on the app.It is better than Facebook and Twitter because of these two main reasons –

  • it is more intuitive mode of communication with the potential customers .Studies suggest that images have better impact on an individual than plain text.
  • And it has a younger audience which is the target audience for most of the businesses .

Getting Started on Instagram

The first step is to create a business account or to switch to business account from personal account if already using Instagram. A business account enables you to get insights about your stories, posts and followers .

It is beneficial in the following ways-

  • Get real-time analysis of the performance of your posts and stories.
  • Insights of the followers an how they interact with your content.
  • You get a contact button to help the audience contact with you via phone, message, etc. whatever you seek

Keep in Mind

Whether its a small business or large enterprise, it’s  important to add detailed information about your profile such as your location, opening hours and phone number, this adds credibility to your account and also makes sure the customers know all the necessary information about your business.

The bio should be clear and concise, describing what it is you do/offer and include a clear call-to-action. Two free links such as bit.ly and linktree are shortener  tools you can use on your profile to embed links and track how many visits and clicks you get.

You an image like your logo , one that is recognisable by the users when they visit Instagram . Acuity Scheduling and youcanbook.me are free booking tools are also available  that let you take appointments from your followers and outline your offerings on a landing page

Promoting the Business

To boost the sales of your business it is very necessary to engage with your customers and market the products and services effectively. A similar approach  has to be followed in Instagram and this can be achieved in the following ways-

  • Paid Ads on Instagram- In addition to building a strong Instagram profile and engaging followers through regular posts, brands can reach audiences through Instagram ads. More than two million companies use Instagram ads to reach audiences, engage followers, and promote their products. If your company is ready to join them and start advertising on Instagram, read on for everything you need to know. There are different types of ads that businesses can use to market their products-
    • Photo Ads – Tell your story through a clean, simple and beautiful creative canvas. Photos can be in square or landscape format.
    • Video Ads – Get the same visually immersive quality as photo ads, with the added power of sight, sound and motion. And now, you can share videos that are up to 60 seconds long in landscape or square format.
    • Carousel Ads – Add another layer of depth to campaigns, where people can swipe to view additional photos or videos in a single ad.
    • Stories Ads – Complement your feed content with ads on Instagram Stories. Connect with over 400 million accounts using stories daily
  • Announcing Sales and Discounts – One should use promotional graphics to let its users know about any sales and discount . Much revenue need not be spend for this purpose , free editing software like Snapseed ,etc. can be used . You can create custom made promotional flyers with free and easy to use design tools such as Canva and Desygner if you’re not selling physical products.
  • Customer Testimonials – Customer testimonials and case studies are considered the most effective content marketing tactics which help your brand promote credibility. 88% of consumers trust online reviews written by other consumers as much as they trust recommendations from their personal contacts. This can be a repost of a customer saying they’re happy with the service or sharing a written review (converted into an image) that’s been submitted. Photo and video testimonials help increase your social media engagement, as visual content is more than 40 times more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content. Perhaps offer a discount/gift card to customers who submit their testimonials? Before and after pictures are posts that perform well on Instagram and social media in general so try and incorporate them in your posts if that applies to you.
  • Maintaining Regularity –  Posting frequently lets your audience know when to expect new content from you. Keeping a consistent schedule ensures you maximize engagement too.
  • Reposting Content of Followers – Reposting content of the followers that gave a positive feedback after using your services and products is far more memorable . Content is the king across all Social Media Platform and one cannot get a more authentic content than the post of followers using the products and services .

We at Colossus 360 can help you build Instagram Strategy for your business for more details drop us a line here