Do you want your brand to be visible for more people and your sells to grow? Then you should know that Instagram is the right answer to this question. Knowing that this social network has over 300 million users each month (this means it has more users than Twitter), many brands think that Instagram offers you the possibility to interact with a wide community of people and earn customers that periodically come back for more products and services.
Hence, to successfully promote your business on Instagram you have to focus on people using this social network, not on numbers. Mainly, they are shoppers. Many studies have revealed that 70% of users have searched at least one time for a brand on Instagram and 62% of them followed a certain brand only to track its activity. In other words, if you post the right photos, users will assimilate your marketing message without being necessary to come up with all kinds of sales and spectacular offers. Thus, you’ll convert the passive buyers who trust in you.
If you don’t know how to promote your business on Instagram, don’t worry – we’re going to give you any information you’ll need.
Create an optimized Instagram profile for your website
First of all, your personal account must be separate from the business profile. The consumers are not interested in your personal photos, so they won’t bring you sells. Also, if you want to promote your business on Instagram, optimize your profile: add the link to your website in the ,,bio” section (,,Biography”), that can be found on the upper side of your profile page, right behind the profile picture and name. This is the only place where you can add an active link.
Be easily recognized by a consistent name and profile photo
Your Instagram name should be the same with the one you show on other social networks and on your official website. Also, you should know that your profile picture is like a business card, so this must represent your brand by all the means. For example, you can use your brand’s logo that will become known by all your followers.
Add interesting information in ,,Bio”
When people want to follow you, they have to access your profile. For this reason, you should have a very interesting ,,bio”, that shows them you’re a serious brand and you’re going to post unique and very special photos. If you don’t know what should you write, then you can go for the classic formula: tell them who you are, what are you doing and what are the advantages of your brand. Try using a natural language, not too formal, but neither too informal, so you don’t show the Instagrammers you are there just to sell your products. Also, you don’t have to use hashtags because they’re not searchable, so they don’t have any value. Of course, if you want to promote some offers on your website, the launch of a new collection/ products line or any other campaign, you can periodically change the information in ,,Bio”, but you must always have a link attached.
Promote your site through appealing posts
You’ve heard that a picture is worth a thousand words, for sure, so you should use this information to successfully promote your business on Instagram. However, always remember that, even if this social network is full of buyers, you don’t have to transform your activity into an abusive promoting campaign. Many of the Instagrammers are influenced by their friends’ activity on the social networks, but almost 38% of them are influenced by the brands they see there.
The images you upload must show people how wonderful your products are, but try not exaggerate with abusive descriptions or even with magnified text inserted on the photos! Be creative, learn how to own your business and don’t be too assertive. The most important advice is to have high-quality photos, made by a specialist or at least a person who has interesting ideas and an impressive creativity. You must know that 67% of the people on Instagram think that a good photo is more important than a sophisticated description and sometimes, it can be more important even than the buyer’s reviews.
If you promote your business on Instagram, at least do it like a pro! This way, there will be a lot of people who will visit and follow your profile and all this traffic will transform into sales. Upload appealing and unique photos that have something to say to the world. Create a true relationship between your brand and your Instagram followers and when they will be ready to buy specific products, they will know where to come because they already know you and trust in you.
Size Your Photos for Professional Quality
You’ll see that Instagram automatically crops the photos and makes the images square, within a 612 x 612 pixels frame, so you should keep this in mind when you choose the photos you want to promote on your Instagram profile. Try to avoid awkwardly cropping them because you’ll simply affect that professional vibe you want to create for the brand. You can use Photoshop to size them to 1024 x 1024 pixels and the quality will remain untouched when reduced to Instagram’s parameters. Also, if you don’t want to crop your photos because you know that every single detail is very important, there are plenty of free apps, like InstaSize and Squaready, that allow you to keep the rectangular shape of your photos.
Edit your photos
Did you know that almost 70 million photos are uploaded on Instagram each day? With so much visual competition, you really have to stand out from the crowd and promote your business like a master! Show people unusual content, photos that are unique and full of meaning. Instagram already offers you the possibility to edit your photos through many in-app filters and adjustments, but you can try many other apps (Snapseed, VSCO, Pixlr etc.) in order to create a professional image. The secret is to stay consistent so your photos can instantly be recognized as fitting your brand’s style.
Also, when you decide it’s high time you promoted your business on Instagram, don’t forget these tips: brighter photos receive 24% more likes than the darker ones; images with blue as dominant colour generate 24% more likes than photos with red as dominant colour and images with a single dominant colour receive 17% more likes.
Create unique lifestyle photos that represent the brand you are promoting on Instagram
Since your Instagram account isn’t a direct sales market, you have to create a very appealing feed, that has nothing in common with any other Instagram profile in this whole world. The ultimate trick used by many brands is to promote your business through lifestyle photos. Mainly, you have to use life-inspired backgrounds and capture all kinds of life moments that could make your followers visualize your products.
In marketing terms, by presenting not only the products but also the culture and the lifestyle that have formed around your brand, you will strengthen the feeling that you aim to promote.
Offer exclusive promotions to your followers
You may offer your followers exclusive offers, intern announcements, and special bonuses. Knowing that almost 41% Instagram users confess they follow a certain brand only to profit from the advantages it provides, it’s high time you gave them what they want!
How to obtain more followers
Even if your photos are really good, you have to own a strategy when you start to promote your business on Instagram, because you want people to discover your profile and follow you. We’re going to share with you some techniques to raise up the followers number.
The Instagram feed changes very quickly and the images you have just uploaded may disappear as fast as you can count to ten. Hashtags are the only way you can help your photos to remain in the feed as much as possible. They classify the images in communities related to key words and help them stay there forever.
Most of the pictures on Instagram contain at least one hashtag, but it’s better to have at least 5 hashtags for each photo. Of course, don’t forget you want to promote your business on Instagram, so you have to choose a representative keyword for your brand. For example, if you are selling necklaces, earrings, and bracelets, don’t use a #tshirt hashtag, because your post won’t satisfy the users and no one will ever access your profile. Also, no matter what your language is, try using English hashtags, because they are the most frequently searched.
Of course, you can create your own hashtag, so the people who will use your products to add it in their own hashtags list. At the beginning, this may not help you too much, but when you will be widely known, it will give you the chance to successfully promote your business on Instagram.
Repost your followers’ tagged photos on your own profile
Including your users’ content on your own feed promotes good feelings and they will feel more and more confident to use your products (65% of instagrammers say they feel honored when a brand mentions them). You can use apps like Regran to quickly and simply repost the pictures of your followers, but never forget to tag the owner!
Also, it’s very important to answer the comments and messages you receive from your Instagram followers!
Measure your Instagram success to continue growing
If you see your followers number goes up, don’t rest on your laurels! Continue to promote your business on Instagram in the same way! You should analyze your success, do a research on the audience and keep the same strategy that brought you this success.
More than this, it’s very important to know the best days and hours when you can share your pictures. The best time to post to Instagram is Monday at 6:00 p.m. and you should post more than a picture per week… almost six to be more specific. You can share your pictures at this time, but you should keep one or two for another hour, as you must target more categories of consumers and promote your business on Instagram as good as you can.
Remember: Instagram is the tool to promote your brand identity. Soon, customers will be coming to you, just be patient and you’ll see the results.
