Instagram is the leading social network where people come to inspire and get inspired. It will not be an exaggeration if we say that people come here to buy.
A study led by Meta showed that the platform is the top media platform to connect with brands.
Half of the users say the platform helps them discover new brands and over 44% of people shop weekly on Instagram.
This blog will show you how to use Instagram for business in 2023 and grow your brand.
Let’s get started.
Set Up Instagram Account for Business
Switch to a Business Account
The very first step toward your success is to switch to a business account. It’s easy to do and free for everyone.
If you already have a personal or creator account, you can still switch to a business profile by going to settings and selecting “Switch to Business account”.
Add Business details in the bio
Your bio should be able to tell your audience what your business does and how it can help them, Income Artist recommends. You have 150 characters to show your brand voice and tell about your brand. Here are some of the important things to look after:
Profile Photo
Your profile photo should look professional and should be 320 by 320 pixels in dimensions. Most brands use their logo and that works best.
Bio Link
Add a link to your blog, landing page, or a new campaign. Viewers of your profile will be able to click the link and check your latest offers, or blog posts.
Contact Information
You can add a contact button to your profile by entering your contact information in the profile.
Action Button
You can add an Action button to allow users to book a call or order items through your profile.
Story Highlights and Covers
Story Highlights are a great way to increase the credibility of your business. Brands use this space to share customer testimonials, compelling brand stories, product demos, and more. Add some spice with a purposefully built cover for your highlights.
Connect Product Catalog
To tag products on the Instagram content or to add products in the Instagram ads, you need to add products to a catalog.
You can do this in Commerce Manager. Click Get Started, then select Create a Catalog, and then click Get Started again.
Select E-commerce and then click Next. Click Upload product info and then click next. Now click View catalog and then click Add items to start adding products.
Enable Instagram Shopping
After your catalog has got products, now you can enable the Instagram shopping feature. Here is how to do it.
- On your profile page, click the burger menu (three parallel lines) in the upper-right corner.
- Click Settings, then Business, then Set up a Shop.
- Then click Get started and follow the prompts to submit your shop for Instagram review.
- You can check the status by going to Settings, then Business, then Shopping.
- After you get approval, go to Settings then Business then Shopping, select your product catalog and click Done.
Know Your Audience
A business should always be keen on knowing minute details about its target audience. A commonly used strategy is to look for demographics (age, gender, profession, location, etc).
Diving deeper into psychographics is where the real gem of data can be found.
You should ask questions like this: what are their problems, what is their goal in life, which family events do they celebrate the most enthusiastically, which seasonal festivals do they enjoy most, etc.
Finding answers to these and similar questions will help you create a winning marketing strategy and exceed your goals.
Create Content Strategy
Once you have done fair research on your audience, it’s time to create a content strategy that aligns with your marketing goals as well as that caters to the expectations and aspirations of your audience.
Insta users love to engage with content that is relatable, interesting, or provides valuable information.
A comprehensive Instagram content strategy includes all of these elements by using different content formats; image posts, carousel posts, reels, and stories.
If you are a new account, then consider to buy Instagram followers to start building your audience right away. It will give you results fast and save you a lot of time and energy.
Schedule the Content
As a business owner, you have to deal with a million things throughout your day. The last thing you would want is to stress yourself every day to think of novel ideas, create attention-grabbing content, write captions, and publish.
Thanks to the latest social media scheduler tools, you can bulk create and schedule your posts, reels, and stories and they will be automatically published.
It saves you a ton of time and relieves the pressure of missing out on the chance to publish content daily – which is very effective in keeping your audience engaged.
Tag Products
Tagging products in your content makes it easier for people to learn more and buy. You can add up to 20 products in a picture post.
To tag products on a post, you need to create your Instagram post or Reel as you normally would. Then when you are done, don’t tap “publish”, rather tap on “tag products”.
Users can tag products from their shop or from others’ shops, which is a great way to cross-promote or collaborate.
You can tag the products using the Product link sticker in Stories.
Track and Optimize
For business accounts, Instagram provides access to their built-in analytics tool which helps monitor and gauge which content is doing great and which isn’t.
There are third-party analytics tools available as well. Regardless of which tool you use, the important point is that you need to monitor closely which type of content is resonating most with your audience.
Analytics will give you vital information like which content is bringing in more likes and comments. You can then take their information to create more similar content to grow further.
Besides that, you will also get to know which format is attracting users outside of your existing follower base.
Stay in Touch
This one is critical. People will start ignoring you if you ignore them. Instagram is no different when it comes to the vitality of engaging with your audience.
You should never expect to grow and succeed on the platform if you focus on blasting your profile with a crazy number of posts and reels and forgetting about checking the comments section or your inbox.
Consider Instagram as your online shop where your existing customers will come to buy again, as well as potential customers that get to visit your profile for the first time.
Your existing customers may have concerns about the orders and they may be looking for support. Or people may want to know about your new product line and the expected release date.
Final Words
While Instagram is becoming more competitive with each passing day, you can’t sit behind and wait for things to get easier though.
This blog has covered 6 actionable tips that can help you achieve your marketing goals and make your mark.
Spending some time in researching your target audience and planning an appropriate marketing strategy can help you win in the long-term and grow your brand.
