By Kritima
The constant use of social media across the globe has created many social media network marketing techniques for people with small business. Just like Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites, Instagram has also joined the trend and has become a popular platform for people to increase their branding, and customer engagement. Instagram today has been a significant tool for business communication. There are many ways you can use Instagram for small business. Some of the best ways to do so are listed in this article. That’s why read till the end!
Instagram and Small Business
In 2022, Instagram is ranked as the 4th most popular and biggest social media network globally. And according to the popular website Demandsage, 2 billion people use Instagram daily. Similarly, among those 2 billion active users of Instagram, today 90% of them follow at least one business.
Likewise, 1 in every 2 people uses this app to discover new brands, products, and services, says blog.hubspot.com. Knowing this fact, many large business have started to include Instagram in their marketing, so why should small business lay behind? Small business can also gain a lot of benefits from it.
Why is Using Instagram for Small Business Beneficial?
Although starting a business can be easy, its marketing is what ensures the brand’s longevity. The success of any business, rather it is small, medium, or large depends on the marketing strategy. Large business have no such problem with marketing as they have already created their name as a brand but small business struggle with this a lot. Due to a lack of proper knowledge, they lay behind. Many still think that Instagram like social media is only for chatting, video calling, and entertainment purposes. But this is completely wrong. From a business mind perspective using Instagram, you can easily:
- Increase organic traffic and SEO rankings
- Saves your time and money
- Increases sales and brand awareness
- Expands your professional network
- Reach out to new audiences
- Get important updates about the ongoing trend so that you can evolve within
- Get 3Hs- Honest, Helpful, and Honorable feedback from customers around the globe
How to Use Instagram for Small Business
When a small business is started, money for marketing is not usually allocated. Today many small business owners usually don’t have the time and budget for expensive marketing campaigns. In such cases, unpaid social media marketing can be very beneficial. As they help your customer base grow without a big budget or dedicated marketing team.
And Instagram is the most suitable platform to do so as you just need a free account and a smartphone camera that’s all. They have a lot of tools to help you.
That’s why, for an in-depth way to grow your small business, below we have listed some ways you can use Instagram for your small business.
1. Create a business account
On Instagram, you can easily make a new business account or can even convert your existing personal account into a business account to grow your business. Using a business account, you get to access a lot of useful tools like:
- Ability to access built-in insights about your account and its performance
- Get analysis about your post performance, audience insights, and follower activity
- Add links to your Instagram stories
- Schedule your post ahead of time
For success in every business, strategy is very important. Beginning with a separate company account will help you build your brand’s profile and enable you to plan and put much of our Instagram marketing advice for small companies into action.
2. Basics: bio and caption
Bios and captions are what we small business owners neglect the most. Whenever new customers visit you, what they notice first about your account is your bios. Therefore for creating a brand having a good proper bio is very essential. The Instagram bio gives a clear insight into what your account offers to others and what they as an audience should expect.
The same goes for having a good caption too. A good Instagram caption helps in the improvement of user engagement. Similarly, it adds context to your image and improves the visibility of your post with proper # hashtags.
That’s why for building your brand recognition on the platform, it is unquestionably important to have good bios and Instagram post captions.
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3. Frequently see what your competitors are doing
You only are not the one who is running a small business on Instagram. Like you there are hundreds and thousands of people. They all are your competitors. Check out what other small and medium businesses like yours are doing on Instagram to get ideas. Note the type of content they share, the hashtags they employ, their use of visual cues, etc.
This is another way to find out how they’re doing. How many people interact with their posts? This will inform you of the effectiveness of their Instagram marketing approach and provide you with suggestions for what to do and what to avoid when developing your own Instagram marketing strategy.
4. Create a content calendar and post regularly
Having a well-scheduled post is another useful tool in branding your small business. After creating a business account on Instagram, it’s time to make a decision about the content you want to post and to plan it strategically. Make a strategy for your posts at least once a week, if not for several weeks at a time.
Select a suitable theme for your content and plan the posts for a month. Make catchy and attractive posts about various events, products, or national days, festivals, and holidays. Add appropriate captions and lots of hashtags. Be constant while posting. Post regularly. This saves you time, doesn’t it?
5. Create an ad account
Get the business outcomes and clients you care about on Instagram by running advertising straight from Social Media Management, from inspiring creativity to motivating action. Instagram makes use of the same potent marketing resources as Facebook.
As with Facebook advertisements, you can then build up, manage, and measure campaigns. You can even earn money from it. Setting up an Ad account gives you ever-increasing opportunities and builds a following for your brand. Moreover, you can also create free ads and increase customer engagement.
6. Use hashtags adequately
Hashtags are an important aspect of Instagram algorithms. They help in expanding your Instagram audience and getting more reach as well. Your post will show up on the website for the hashtag you used while using it. If you include a hashtag in your Story, it can also show in the associated hashtag Story, which is displayed on the hashtag page.
Instagram hashtags are a great way to build a community online and motivate people to engage with your brand. You can add up to 30 hashtags on a regular post on Instagram and up to 10 hashtags on a story.
7. Make videos
Instagram prioritizes images and graphics, but videos are beginning to overtake them as the primary form of content. Therefore, consistently incorporating videos into your content mix can increase engagement and aid in the brand definition.
Branded videos can significantly influence the platform. They give you the chance to engage your target audience on an emotional level by narrating your brand’s history and outlining your unique selling proposition. Video is frequently considerably more successful at expressing emotion than text, whether used in feed content or through Stories.
However, making excellent videos can be scary. Many social media managers don’t use video marketing effectively because they think it would be too expensive to invest in. But, for a small business, it can be very beneficial.
8. Respond to comments
When you run a business on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or any other social media platform, you must respond to all social media comments. Having a business in social media, and relying on social media marketing put small business owners at high risk. It is a high-risk and high-gain factor. As, here customers, and users are in power.
All eyes are on you when a client criticizes you online. A consumer complaint can be turned into a positive social media post depending on how you respond politely and quickly. In fact, these connections can help you get more devoted clients and perhaps draw in new ones.
So, your brand’s future relies on your customers. So, be interactive as much as possible with them. Reply to their comments, and DM them.
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9. Collaborate with small business and influencers
For growing your small business on Instagram, collaborating with other small business and influencers has proven to be a very beneficial and valuable asset. Everyone benefits from working together with brands and influencers on social media. A broader audience is exposed to you and it can be a lot of fun to launch if you partner with another Instagrammer to have them review your product, conduct a competition with you, take over your account, or create joint content.
Influencer marketing for small businesses may significantly raise the bar for a campaign, increase brand recognition, and reach new audiences without breaking the bank. And it’s not only for the big brands.
However, working with influencers on Instagram may be challenging since, in addition to finding the ideal influencers for your company, you also need to define campaign goals and deadlines, monitor and evaluate your progress, and oversee your budget.
10. Conduct frequent giveaways
The Instagram marketing tool is all about interaction. How much you succeed in effectively interacting with people around Instagram, determines how much you will be popular there. And, for interacting what can be more useful than doing giveaways? Even if it’s 10 years later, giveaways will still be a great marketing tip just like it is right now.
Conducting frequent giveaways on Instagram is often called marketers’ secret nuclear weapon marketing. People are more attracted to brands that conduct frequent giveaways with incredible prizes. By having frequent giveaways, you can grow your Instagram following and encourage the social sharing of a specific post.
11. Be up-to-date with ongoing trends
There really are trends in social media, and keeping up with them will keep your business fresh and relevant. This is another situation where remaining involved with your followers and keeping an eye on rivals and influencers is beneficial. Adding your brand’s voice to the conversation, whether it’s a particular meme, a hashtag campaign, or a particular type of content, can do a lot for your small business.
By keeping up with trends, you will constantly learn new tools and new ways to be efficient. This will give you more options to choose from, which will allow you to try more things out and use them to come up with fresh ideas. This guarantees that whatever you come up with will be modern and perfectly with the ongoing trend.
12. Use highlights
One of the most useful yet highly ignored features of Instagram is the highlight feature. Many of us don’t know that this feature can benefit you a lot for your small business growth. You can choose groups of Stories to display directly on your profile page using the Highlights feature. They’re a fantastic approach to highlighting the core values of your company and maximizing the impact of the outstanding material you create for your Stories.
13. Conduct Instagram lives
As said earlier, the Instagram algorithm works on interaction. The best feature of Instagram Live is the opportunity for genuine real-time connection with your audience. No cuts, edits, or gimmicks allowed! Your followers are more likely to believe in you and your brand when they see you being as genuine about your company in the present.
One of the strongest strategies for driving significant interaction and patronage on Instagram is Instagram Live. Going live on Instagram will enable you to establish a more personal relationship with your viewers and give them a chance to participate and express their opinions. Just like planning your post content, plan your life being day.
14. Follow new accounts and periodically unfollow them
Yes. Following new accounts and periodically unfollowing them is also a way for small businesses that don’t have more prominent followers on Instagram. In order to connect with more potential clients and get on people’s radars, you should follow new accounts.
Often, people will follow you back straight away, but if not, they may do so after seeing that you consistently like and comment on their content. While we’re on the subject of reasons to follow new accounts, it’s crucial for your small company to occasionally unfollow Instagram accounts.
You shouldn’t include this in your small business marketing strategy every day, but you should do it once a month. Go through your followers and unfollow any profiles you don’t interact with frequently.
15. Track your Instagram analytics
Although this comes last on our list, it is equally important as making a business account for any small business. The secret to attaining your objectives is understanding your clients. Knowing your audience is essential for producing interesting content, increasing sales, and even improving the customer experience.
Making a better product and staying ahead of the competition depends on understanding the hows and whys of your customers. Instagram analytics separates your clients based on their precise location, gender, age, and demographics. You can utilize this information to target these markets with your marketing strategy.
Additionally, Instagram analytics go deep and aid in your comprehension of the sentiment and most popular search terms among your clients. Similarly, using this data, you may also create a keyword or hashtag that works for your business and target audience.
Summing Up
Social media like Instagram can provide small business owners with an easier way to understand their customers. They play a dominant role in business too. A business can use Instagram to promote its goods or services. Instagram has a visual-based strategy, which is what sets it apart from other social networking platforms. Similarly, As Instagram is entirely focused on photos, Instagram marketing is a successful strategy for product promotion, as the saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” So, what are you waiting for? Open Instagram and brand your business now!!!
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