Boost Your Business: 23 Ways For Small Businesses To Use Instagram

Being a business owner can be difficult, but it does not have to feel that way. With the right tools and strategies, you can focus your time on what matters most, building relationships with customers, and providing them with the best possible experience.

You’ve probably seen the power of Instagram by now. From customer complaints to a business going viral, the platform provides numerous features for small businesses. It is ideal for small businesses because it is a visual medium that allows you to share your products and services with customers in a fun and engaging way. 

Keep reading to find out more on how to use Instagram for your small business, from making the most of their features to excellent ideas for increasing your digital presence.

Why Use Instagram For Your Small Business?

What comes to mind when you hear the word “Instagram”? Did you immediately think of photos? Instagram is best known for being a photo-sharing platform. However, your Instagram business ideas don’t have to be limited to photos and Instagram videos views.

According to Instagram’s own research, 81% of users say the app helps in product and service research. You don’t want to lose a lot of customers just because you’re not on the network. When your Instagram presence is properly planned and managed, it provides numerous benefits to small businesses. Continue reading for tips on how to make the most of your small business’s Instagram account. 

Instagram can be used for much more than just photo sharing, from advertising to offering expert advice and motivation to running competitions and building relationships with your followers. These Instagram business ideas will increase your brand’s visibility and customer base.

• Set up Your Instagram Business Profile

Take a look through your Instagram profile once you’ve been set up as a business account. New features and settings are added on a regular basis, sometimes without notice. It never hurts to see if you have any new elements to test out. 

Other essential business profile considerations include updating the business categories, hours, location, a contact method, and linking any service or product catalogs. Also, double-check that your profile elements, such as your bio and profile picture, are consistent with your overall social media branding.

Instagram is a visual platform and your profile’s “look” is important. You want your audience to instantly associate your content with your brand. Using specific color palettes, fonts, and an image style that is consistent with your message can help with this.

• Optimize Your “Link in Bio”

Social media managers have developed innovative strategies to fully utilize Instagram’s single link field. “Link in bio” is often mentioned in posts; use this link to direct readers to a landing page that combines recent content with evergreen links to your most important product and service pages.

The landing page strategy is appropriate for you if your small business shares multiple offerings and wants to offer many links to customers. Customers should be provided with the most important information by small businesses via a link in their bio.

• Share Your Location Details

Assist people and show them where you are! Perhaps your business is difficult to locate or is obscured by other nearby structures. You can show people what to look for when looking for your business on Instagram. You can show them where to park, or where your exact business location is. 

You can post a picture of your front door, so people know they’re in the right place. Sometimes businesses have an almost identical exterior or name; by posting a lot of pictures of your location, you can be sure that people won’t have to look hard or roam around to find your place of business. 

• Engage Your Customers With Questions 

You can ask and answer questions, but you should make your Instagram followers respond every now and then. Give your followers a chance to answer and engage with your brand. This has the potential to increase social media engagement and brand awareness. 

If someone follows your brand on a whim and doesn’t know much about it, such posts give them an idea of what your brand is like. Spend some time showcasing the character of your brand and your personal values. People will remember this when they make a purchase in the future.

• Geotag Your Posts

When you add a geotag to a photo, you are effectively pinning your location to that photo. This tag allows your photo to be found whenever another Instagram user clicks on the same geotag on another photo. Geotagging is, thus, an excellent way to increase your following and interactions. Adding your location via geotagging helps users know where to find you, especially if your brand’s office is open to customers. 

If your Instagram followers know you are nearby, they are more likely to connect with your business and engage with your Instagram page. This is especially true if they live or work close to your business.

Because the tagged photo “lives” in the tagged location, adding a geotag to your photo increases your visibility. As a result, your tagged photo will appear whenever someone searches for photos taken in a specific location.

• Use Instagram Hashtags

On Instagram, hashtags are simply words or strings of words preceded by a “#.” Hashtags are searchable and clickable, so using relevant hashtags will assist other Instagram users in discovering and engaging with your content.

Relevance is the secret to growing your hashtag following. Not every popular hashtag will promote your business. Make sure the hashtags you use are appropriate for your post’s objectives as well as the aesthetic of your Instagram account.

Knowing when to avoid popular but generic hashtags is a key element of the art of choosing relevant hashtags. While incredibly popular, hashtags like #nofilter, #tbt, or #selfie, for instance, definitely won’t help you draw attention to your brand.

These trending hashtags might receive hundreds of Instagram likes from other users, but they’re not likely to increase your following or attract the audience that your brand is trying to reach. When it comes to hashtags, less is more—as long as you know how to choose the right ones to attract meaningful responses.

• Utilize the Save Post Feature

This strategy may be useful for improving your Instagram content strategy. Instagram allows you to save posts and organize it into a collection to view later. While it is not required to create collections, it is recommended. This feature can be used for research and inspiration in a variety of ways. Some collection ideas are as follows:

• What your competitors are posting
• Saving photos for visual inspiration later
• Saving some excellent captions
• Saving great ideas for future posts 
• Customer feedback
• Posts from both happy and unhappy customers
• Saving posts made by potential influencers

As you can see, there are numerous options available to you. If you find yourself thinking, “Oh, this is a good post,” save it to get inspiration later. 

• Use Highlights To Showcase Your Business

Instagram’s stories highlight feature allows you to share even more about your business. Highlights keep your Instagram stories alive by displaying them on your profile after they would normally disappear. When it comes to highlights, it is best to begin with the basics, such as:

• About: Make a few posts on your values, working hours, and brand.
• Location Highlights: If you have more than one business location, share details and pictures about each one of your locations. 
• Customer Feedback or Posts: Report customer feedback by creating an appealing post that highlights reviews about your business from maybe your website or another social media page. 
• FAQs: Share information that customers frequently ask about. This also saves you time when responding to customers, as you can direct them to the relevant Instagram highlight.
• Highlight Product/Service Features: Create an overall Highlight or create one for each product or service. You simply can’t fit everything into one post. Here, you can dive deep into details.

Now that you’ve mastered the fundamentals, it’s time to get creative. Content topics you’re already creating in your feed are a good place to start. Are you doing a series on each employee? Make an Instagram highlight of everything. 

Perhaps you work as a cake baker. Demonstrate what you do for the client by going behind the scenes of your process. Show the steps you go through to make an entire cake. You can add the design process of the cake to your highlights. This will grab the customer’s attention. Have a good time with your Highlights. This is where your brand’s personality can shine.

• Create Instagram Guides

Guides, like Instagram highlights, allow you to compile your favorite posts into a single piece of featured content. However, there are some significant differences. The format is more editorial, almost as if you were reading an article. You can save photos and posts from your own feed as well as feeds from others.

Instagram guides are a series of related posts that you curate to provide your audience with useful information. Each article in a manual contains a link to either a regular Instagram post or a product page where users can make a purchase. Instagram guides are a wonderful feature that can boost sales and increase brand recognition for your business.

•  Focus On Writing Great Captions

The main purpose of captions is to provide context to your Instagram image or video. It’s what makes the image more appealing, and for marketers, it can mean the difference between users taking action and forgetting every word.

The first line of your caption is what grabs people’s attention and determines whether they will expand and proceed to read more. You should double-check the rest of your caption in addition to the first line to make sure it is interesting. The caption can also include your brand and product names or general terms related to your business.

•  Use Instagram Live Frequently

Going Live helps business owners connect with customers on a personal level and will give your business more visibility. Instagram Live has many advantages. The most notable is that followers are notified when an account they follow goes Live. 

This instant communication is especially important when trying to stand out on the network. Here are a few suggestions to get you started on Instagram Live:

• Have a Live Q&A: Instagram has a Q&A feature that changes the story post to reflect the associated sticker. You can have a Live Q&A session or take questions from followers about specific products.
• Conduct A Live Interview: You can also conduct an interview on your Live feed with another account or someone influential. This will attract people to your page.
• Go Live Behind The Scenes: Give a tour of your workspace or demonstrate your creative process. Give access to anything that might pique people’s interest in your business.
• Promote Your Product or Service: Promote your products or services by showing them live. Your viewers will also be able to give you feedback on Instagram comments.

•  Use “Followers-Only” Promotions 

Everyone is fond of a good sale. A followers-only promotion will make your customers feel special to be part of your Instagram page. A limited-time followers-only promotion also gives your followers a reason to stay engaged and keep themselves informed about the next sale. 

Use the countdown Stories sticker to create a buzz or to run a flash sale so that the promotions are unpredictable. This way, your followers will wait in anticipation of the next big sale. Followers-only is a great way to attract new Instagram likes. 

•  Arrange Instagram Contests

You can use an Instagram giveaway to gain more followers, increase brand awareness and trust, and collaborate with market influencers. Contests make it simple to gain followers. To enter the contest, ask your followers to follow your brand. 

You can increase brand awareness by asking your fans to tag their friends. If done correctly, this will have a domino effect! Friends will tell their friends, and you will eventually have people who recognize your brand. You can use contests to popularize your hashtags and also promote your brand and products. 

•  Make Your Posts Engaging 

Your clients will turn to you for professional guidance. Don’t disappoint them! Instagram can be used to educate or advise your followers. You should do this on a regular basis so that it blends in with your page and provides your customers with interesting and engaging content to read.

You can ask your customers an engaging question that will turn into a discussion about your product or services. You can then jump in with your expertise and provide insights to your followers. You can also use your post to answer your follower’s questions. This will help build a rapport with your customers. 

•  Host A Brand Giveaway!

Hosting a giveaway is an excellent way to organically grow your Instagram account. Free stuff is something that people enjoy even more than a good sale. Depending on how you structure the giveaway, it may result in additional post engagement. Add requirements such as saving a post, commenting on a post, or sending it to a friend, in addition to asking people to follow your account.

Instagram contests are a good strategy for small businesses to expand their followers. You can also collaborate with other small businesses that serve a similar demographic to increase brand awareness. 

•  Boost Your Sales With Instagram Shopping

If your business relies on product sales, Instagram’s Shopping features could be ideal for you. Instagram is constantly introducing new e-commerce features in order to support businesses on the app. Businesses can now tag shoppable products in feed posts and Instagram Stories, as well as have an “Instagram Shop” discovery tab on their profile to showcase in-stock products.

Instagram Shoppable Posts enable users to purchase featured items by viewing “tagged” products in posts, whereas Instagram Stories and Product Stickers are tappable stickers that can be used to make your stories content shoppable.

•  Use Your DMs To Build Customer Relations 

Community building takes time, and one aspect of it is making that connection between you and your customer. What better way to accomplish this than through personal messaging? Nearly three-quarters of consumers expect a response within 24 hours on social media. Increased DM usage does not imply only responding. You should also interact with the customer through their own feed and stories.

Two-way communication is necessary for creating a community and gaining devoted customers and followers. Marketers need to react and respond to what people are saying; it is not enough to simply observe. Build exceptional customer service for your followers. This will help build trust between you and your customer. 

•  Use Keywords To Appear In Search 

People must first find you on Instagram before they can follow you. However, not all of the text on Instagram is searchable. On Instagram, only two fields contribute to search results: name and username. Your name can have up to 30 characters. You should include your most relevant keyword, which will help followers easily find your brand.

Your Instagram handle is your username. It should be somewhat the same as the handle you use on other social networks, as this helps people find you. Use your brand name or a variation of it that people are likely to search for when looking for your brand.

•  Collaborate With Influencers In Your Niche

Collaborating with an influencer is sure to bring more followers to your business. You can increase brand awareness by working with influencers. One of the reasons influencer marketing works so well is that it places the relationship in the hands of the brand. 

This cannot be said for most advertising methods: put out an ad and hope someone sees it and buys what you’re offering. Influencer marketing allows you to connect one-on-one with your target audience in order to gain greater credibility.

•  Consider Advertising Your Business

Instagram ads can be a powerful way to quickly gain new followers by putting your content in front of people who would not otherwise see it. Not just Instagram, you can advertise your Instagram business on other social media platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook. You can use Facebook Ads by going through the Facebook Guide.

Use demographics, location, and even key behaviors and interests to target your audience. Advertising your business will not only promote your business but also help increase followers and likes on your Instagram page. 

•  Use Instagram Reels To Promote Your Business

Instagram Reels, like other social media features, allows you to create short videos to increase popularity of your business by appealing to your target audience. You use uploaded content, text, audio, filter, and editing tools to combine and edit video clips to create entertaining videos in Reels. Try to make your content as interesting as possible to garner Instagram reel likes and Instagram reel views. 

Instagram Reels’s “Remix this Reel” option, which allows users to record their video adjacent to another user’s video, has gained popularity. This has resulted in trending moments while also encouraging collaboration and engagement with a community of followers.

However, it can be challenging to gain reel views to attract audiences organically. You can buy Instagram reel views with PayPal or a credit card and increase your views to boost your social media presence. 

•  Feature Photos Taken By Customers

Encourage customers to use hashtags specific to your brand or tag your product or service to see what customers are saying about you. Feature this content on your Instagram business page. This will be useful to bring in more followers to your page. 

Talk about building brand loyalty while also sourcing great content! This not only makes your followers feel appreciated and special, but it also feels more genuine.

•  Use Instagram Analytics

One of the best Instagram business tips we can give you is to look at your analytics on a regular basis. If you want to grow your Instagram following, keep your audience engaged, and promote your business, you must track how your content performs.

Instagram’s built-in analytics tool, Instagram Insights, is a good place to start. You can check key metrics for each individual post, your likes, comments, shares, and saves. This will give you a good idea of the areas you need to improve to make sure your business runs smoothly. 

Transform Your Small Business With Instagram

Making an Instagram account is easy. You will want to have one for personal use and a separate one for your business. Learn how to have a few Instagram accounts through the Instagram official website. 

For small businesses looking to increase their presence on Instagram, the strategies discussed in the article are a terrific place to start. There are various ways to engage with your customers on Instagram, which can increase your chances of getting more followers and customers. 

For small business owners wishing to increase the scope of their social media marketing initiatives, Instagram is a fantastic, cost-free resource. It will take some time and effort, like with other marketing initiatives, to determine what would work best for your brand. Utilize our advice to launch your own Instagram account for a small business and begin gaining followers!

FAQs

Q1. Do I need an Instagram marketing strategy?

Your business’s marketing strategy should include Instagram as a key component, working along with your content, email, and other social media marketing initiatives. Come up with relevant Instagram content for your business to develop an effective marketing strategy. 

Q2. How do you lose followers on Instagram?

If you’re losing Instagram followers, it’s likely that you’re posting content that your followers find monotonous. You will lose followers if you share a random collection of posts with no direction or intention.

Q3. How many hashtags should I use on Instagram?

The general consensus is that 11 hashtags is a good starting point. However, the most common number of hashtags used on Instagram is between one and three. You’ll need to conduct some testing to see what works best for your specific business.

Q4. How do I get people to buy my products on Instagram?

Use Instagram Shopping to add product tags to your photos and videos on your feed and stories to encourage people to purchase your products. When they tap on a product, the name of the item and its price are displayed.

Q5. Is Instagram good for small businesses?

Instagram for small business is a powerful (and inexpensive) way to expand your company. Instagram allows you to reach new customers, stay connected with existing ones, and even make sales directly from the app, making it the ideal platform for marketing your small business.