Instagram has become an unbreakable part of digital marketing. The fact that it is among the most popular social media networks worldwide supports this claim! For many businesses how to use Instagram for business is a quest to achieve a final goal. With its vast user base and diverse features, the platform offers endless opportunities to create impactful marketing campaigns.
However, Instagram marketing can be tricky and confusing for newbies to crack. That’s why numerous digital marketing service providers are expanding their services and becoming experts by learning to use professional accounts. Don’t worry! Instagram marketing features aren’t rocket science. You can easily get the hang of them and use them to expand your business.
I have come up with a blueprint that will guide you to use Instagram for marketing your business.
Detailed Guide on How to Use Instagram for Business
The reason Instagram professional accounts stand out from personal accounts is the features it provides. You can leverage the Instagram algorithm with the provided features. These features allow you to showcase the true potential of your business and create a unique identity in the market. Let’s explore the standard approach to use Instagram for business in any industry.
1. Create an Instagram Business Account
You can create a new business account or convert your personal account into a business account with easy steps to get more views on Instagram. If you already have a personal account you can skip to step (IV).
- You have to “Sign up” for a new business account after you download the Instagram app on your iPhone or Android phone.
- Use your business email account or an email address assigned for social media platforms. You can log in through a Facebook business account if you already have one.
- Select a username and password. You have created a personal account.
- Tap on the hamburger menu(three lines) and select “Account type and tools” under the “For professional” category.
- Select “Switch to professional account” and tap on continue four times.
- Select a relevant category for your business account and tap on “Done”.
- You will get options: “Business” or “Creator”. Choose the “Business” option.
- Add or modify relevant contact details. You can skip this step if you want.
- Next, you will get an option to connect with your Facebook page.
- You will be asked to set up your professional account in 7 steps, which include detailed information about your business. You have an option to skip this page, and your business account is ready.
2. Define Marketing Goals and Target Audience
Setting up clear goals and targeting the right audience can narrow down vital marketing requirements, ensuring you use Instagram for marketing your business.
The SMART(Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) goal-setting approach helps you decide the important factors of your Instagram marketing campaign and answers your question about how to use Instagram for business. The approach ensures that marketing goals align with business objectives. Businesses mainly focus on brand advocacy, loyalty, and online growth as their marketing goals.
The very foundation of marketing strategy is to identify your target audience. Consequently, understanding the target audience for different industries can help you successfully promote your brand and increase sales. Customer behavior and patterns can lead you to create perfect digital marketing campaigns, allowing you to communicate with them through an impactful marketing strategy.
3. Plan a Content Strategy
Your content strategy must be customer-oriented. The ideal content strategy is the correct balance between content type, frequency, and genre. Utilizing a content calendar can ensure marketing continuity, multiple campaign timelines, and clarity among team members. Use a social media strategy template to plan out different campaigns for multiple business accounts and streamline the Instagram scheduler to line up weekly or monthly content.
Plan a variety of content, such as photos, videos, stories, reels, and IGTV and use Instagram for marketing your business. Avoid overwhelming the target audience with frequent and similar content. You can experiment to find out what works best for different clients. Choose the frequency, best time, content type, and genre based on the dynamics of social media marketing for different industries.
4. Focus on Follower Engagement
You have to come up with intriguing social media content ideas for optimal follower engagement. Direct and indirect interactions keep followers interested in business accounts, making this approach one of the most effective methods to use Instagram for business. Fostering interactions with quizzes, polls, questions, live sessions, and other forms of interactive content builds stronger follower connections.
Another way to keep followers interested is to get them involved with likes, comments and messages. This responsive practice allows one-on-one connections with followers, which makes them feel special and valued. Social inbox by RecurPost helps you navigate centralized social media activities on a single unified dashboard without missing anything.
5. Invest In Instagram Ads
Instagram ads help businesses from various industries reach a wider audience. You can experiment with various types of ads to check effectiveness based on your target audience. If you want to primarily use Instagram for marketing your business, you can optimize photo ads, video ads, carousel ads, collection ads, explore ads, hopping ads, and reel ads. You can also use stories for your business advertisement.
Instagram ad revenue worldwide is expected to reach $71 billion by the end of 2024, proving to be one of the most powerful strategies to use Instagram for business.
6. Strategize Creator Collaboration
Collaboration with industry-specific influencers and creators is a powerful way to use Instagram for business marketing. To ensure success, it’s essential that your target audience aligns with the influencers you partner with. For a comprehensive guide on how to effectively execute these strategies, check out our detailed post on Instagram Influencer Marketing. This will help you reach new followers, increase your social media presence, boost engagement, and build trust on the platform.
After identifying suitable Instagram biggies, you can execute influencer marketing, affiliate marketing, and referral marketing. With paid partnership labels to tag, you can join forces with famous celebrities and use Instagram for business. The creator marketplace is becoming popular on Instagram because followers feel connected with individual faces instead of faceless brands.
7. Track Instagram Analytics
Instagram provides performance insights for business and creator accounts. You can use this feature to keep track of marketing campaigns, including engagement, audience reach, follower growth, and website clicks. These overview details will help you understand strategies that work in and against the favor of your business account. Numerous business accounts use analytics reports to figure out the best time to post on Instagram.
The Analytics reports feature is one of the top-most features to use Instagram for your business. You leverage this information to bring real-time changes and modify strategies based on requirements.
8. Stay Relevant
If you are still deciding how to use Instagram for your business, the key is to stay relevant on the platform. Your relevancy and quality content will help you grow in the market. You can also create a unique identity as a thought leader and a trendsetter, which will make you stand out from the crowd and help you with word-of-mouth marketing.
Follow the latest trends on Instagram to become one of the first to grab and promote your business before the trend goes viral and loses its effectiveness. Also, learn how to schedule posts on Instagram to keep up with trending posts and make the most of the platform, ensuring that you use Instagram for marketing your business.
9. Maintain Consistency
A strong online presence is very important if you want to use Instagram for marketing your business. Consistent posting is the evident key to establish a solid Instagram presence. You have to post regularly and maintain a consistent brand identity to use Instagram for business. Schedule Instagram posts, schedule Instagram reels, and schedule Instagram carousels to ensure you are not lacking in your marketing campaigns, reducing the burden on manpower.
A consistent approach will reinforce your brand identity and keep your audience engaged. You can incorporate content marketing tools for regular or timely posting on Instagram and use Instagram for your business for brand hammering.
If you are looking to expand your business with new client accounts. You can use the social media campaign proposal generator before approaching a client and social media pricing calculator to provide service estimates.
Bonus Point: Industry-specific Marketing Ideas
Instagram has designed the following features keeping in mind the requirements of specific industries, encouraging them to cultivate their business on the platform, and enabling customers to utilize the platform without switching.
Instagram Marketing Ideas for Product-based Businesses
10. Leverage Instagram eCommerce
Instagram ecommerce is the newest form of the digital market for product-based industries such as cosmetics, apparel, electronics, medicine, stationary, etc. Many establishments advance their business targets by using this combination of marketing and selling products on Instagram. Additionally, businesses integrates eCommerce marketing automation to streamline processes and boost sales. The following list of eCommerce features can directly impact conversion and ROI.
- Instagram Shopping: Instagram shopping is a digital front door for brands to display, list, and sell products.
1)Instagram Product Catalog: Instagram Product Catalog provides information about your business and a detailed product list so that shoppers don’t have to switch between platforms.
2) Instagram Product Tag: The Instagram Product Tag feature allows business accounts to advertise and tag their products in image posts, carousel posts, and stories. Shoppers can instantly buy their desired products, encouraging many industries to use Instagram for business. The event industry can leverage this feature to tag event tickets directly from Instagram.
- Instagram Pop-up Shops: Instagram has produced Instagram Pop-up Shops especially to promote small online businesses, giving them an opportunity to expand their business and experience a physical store for a short time. Consequently, you can generate hashtag campaigns and leverage user-generated content to use Instagram for marketing your business.
- Flash sale: Flash sale is an eCommerce discount or promotional offer for a limited period of time. If you use Instagram for business, this time-sensitive sale to instigate impulse buyers can achieve small goals.
- Instagram Loyalty Program: This is a smart and innovative marketing strategy to use Instagram for business, currently available in the USA. Businesses run loyalty campaigns to keep bringing back customers and rewarding them with valuable rewards. These loyalty programs are usually point-based or level-based to promote Instagram eCommerce. Many users get an option to connect a loyalty membership account with an online shop.
Instagram Marketing Ideas for Creators/Influencers
11. Instagram Subscriber Service
Creators have the ability to influence crowds with their art and talent. Instagram is enabling creators to make money from the platform with the Instagram Subscription feature, which is still not widely available. If you are one of them, you can build deeper connections with the most engaged followers. This service allows you to share exclusive content and charge monthly fees from the limited number of users who appreciate your talent.
12. Utilize Instagram Broadcasting Channel
Instagram creators can easily expand their follower engagement with broadcasting channels. After meeting the eligibility criteria, they must create a broadcast channel on Instagram. Creators can share exclusive content such as announcements, behind-the-scenes(BTS), upcoming collaborations, and event details with anyone who has chosen to be part of the channel.
To Sum Up
Mastering Instagram for business is necessary to create meaningful connections, share brand stories, and drive profitable results. Strategically use Instagram for business, from intriguing stories to influential ads to thrive on the digital market landscape. Use Instagram for marketing your business to stay original and reach new heights. Are you ready to take your business to the next level with the endless opportunities on the platform?
Ruchi Dhimar is a skilled content writer with 4 years of experience. She is passionate about crafting compelling narratives, specializing in writing content for different industries.