Instagram is a gold mine that small business owners may fail to utilize. For a platform with 1.4 billion users in 2023 alone, it sure is a waste not to utilize it for your business.
It may have started as a picture-based app, but Instagram quickly evolved into a fully-fledged platform, providing a variety of content types. In 2018, it even released IGTV (Instagram TV), a standalone video application where you can share fairly long videos.
All of these make Instagram a fertile soil for small and large businesses alike. This guide shows you how to get started, and how to maximize your marketing using the app.
Disclosure: This content may contain a few affiliate links, which means if you click on them, I will get a commission (without any extra cost to you).
Establishing Your Instagram Presence
To establish your Instagram presence, you need to switch your account to or create an Instagram business profile so you can utilize the available marketing tools. To do that, follow these steps:
Step 1: Create or Switch to a Professional Account
Through the Instagram App, navigate to your profile settings by tapping the profile picture at the bottom right section of your phone screen. Once open, click on the menu in the top right corner (the three horizontal lines).
A drop-down menu will open. Scroll down to the “For Professionals” tab and select “Account Type and Tools).
From there, you can either create a new professional account or switch your current account to a professional one.
If you already have many followers, you should switch your current account to a business one instead of starting from scratch.
Step 2: Establish Your Business Parameters
Upon switching to or creating a professional account, you’ll have to choose a niche. Don’t stress over this one, as the available options aren’t too specific.
For example, all types of health-related professions like physicians, dentists, and pharmacists will end up choosing the Health/Beauty option.
Step 3: Finalize
After you select the niche, Instagram will ask you to choose between creator or business accounts.
Choose the latter, then you’ll get to review the information you entered and add additional details like phone number, address…etc.
You may also connect your Facebook page to your Instagram account at this point.
Understanding Your Audience
You can opt for just creating ads and relying on the Instagram algorithm to deliver them to the right people. However, this won’t provide maximum turnover unless your ads consistently reach the right people which are your target audience.
As such, you need to identify them so you can craft content tailored to their preferences (including pain points that need answers).
That said, any brand on Instagram will have two types of audience; current audience, and potential audience.
The current ones are already following your feed and are likely to post and share your content more often. The potential ones can run into your posts occasionally, but they’re not actively engaging with it or following your brand yet.
Your target is turning all the potential audience into the current audience. To do that, you need a multidirectional approach of analyzing your current audience, crafting compelling content, getting inspiration from competitors, and listening to your audience through comments and DMs.
Strategizing Content Creation
Understanding the target audience and tackling the numbers belong to the planning aspect. Unless you follow that with valuable content creation, it won’t be fruitful.
Content Types
Let’s start with the type of content you can publish on Instagram, and how you can utilize each to resonate with more people.
- Instagram posts: Prioritize high-quality images paired with catchy captions. Try to use a mix of lifestyle shots, product or service photos, behind-the-scenes glimpses, and so on.
- Stories: Limited-time content that offers a more casual, real-time interaction can resonate better with your audience. Use polls, quizzes, countdowns, and interactive stickers to boost engagement.
- Reels: Short reels are entertaining and informative. They can also appear in anyone’s feed as they endlessly scroll, giving you random chances to attract the target audience. As such, don’t be afraid to be creative, and get some inspiration from other reels with similar business offers or target audience.
- IGTV: Instagram TV allows you to create longer videos for up to 60 minutes to provide in-depth information about your product or service. These videos must be well-edited and visually appealing to provide value to your audience.
Lightricks’ Videoleap and WeVideo are two efficient video editing apps that I highly recommend. If you’re new to video editing, the AI features of InVideo would be a big help in making your video.
Organizing Your Content
Your content shouldn’t be haphazardly published. It should prioritize planning, scheduling, and consistency.
- Planning: Define your content themes, goals, and target audience. Use tools like content calendars or scheduling apps to plan your posts, stories, reels, and IGTV videos in advance.
- Scheduling: Determine the best times to post based on your audience’s activity and engagement metrics. Schedule your content to maintain consistency and reach a wider audience. Aim for early mornings before 7 am when people are scrolling before work, or post 9 pm when people are winding down and browsing their phones.
- Consistency: Stick to a regular posting schedule so your audience always sees your content on their feed, helping you stay top-of-mind. Consistency builds trust and reinforces your brand awareness. It’s also better for the algorithm, as it signals that your profile is active.
To rid you of manually scheduling your posts, you can use Tailwind as your basic go-to Instagram tool. It’s got an IG tracking tool, a post generator, and scheduler, automating a big part of your content marketing on Instagram.
Tips For Engaging Content
Instagram is a platform where professional content and visual quality are key. The more effort you put into your content, the more engaging it will be.
- Prioritize high-quality imagery: Use professional photography or design tools to create aesthetically pleasing content. Investing in good lighting is also a good idea to make your photos stand out.
- Aim for consistent branding: Unless you’re switching your brand logo or style, you should maintain a consistent visual style and color palette so users can start associating you with a particular style.
- Use graphics and text: Your posts should include eye-catching graphics and text overlays to make your content more engaging and informative.
Utilizing Instagram Hashtags For Discoverability
Finding your target audience begins with eavesdropping on interesting trends. While mentions of your brand are valuable, a richer understanding comes from identifying conversations within your niche.
To do that, start by searching hashtags and terms related to your niche/industry. This allows you to discover potential customers actively discussing topics similar to your offer, even if they haven’t discovered your brand or interacted with it yet.
Don’t shy away from using tools like Tailwind for hashtag finder because they have intuitive features that saves you time in your research.
So, expand your search beyond your immediate brand presence. Explore popular, similar products, industry jargon, and even potential misspellings of your brand name. This broader search might be a little exhausting at first, but the potential profit will make it worth it.
You should also utilize the Explore feature more to research your competitors. Find posts and ads of your competitors and gauge the sentiment of their customers. This will help you identify what your audience is looking for, what they complain about, and what they prefer.
Key Takeaway: Winning on Instagram starts with knowing your audience. Analyze current followers and target potential ones to tailor content addressing their needs. Complement that with strategic content creation by planning and scheduling visually-appealing posts, stories, Reels, and IGTVs with clear branding. Finally, unlock discoverability with hashtags. Research industry terms, explore popular products, and consider misspellings to find potential customers already discussing relevant topics.
Monitoring and Analyzing Your Performance
Instagram’s content analytics can show you so much about your current and potential audience. To access the analytics, open the Instagram App and click on “Professional Dashboard” under your profile picture.
The top two options are the ones you’re looking for, which are “Accounts Reached” and “Accounts Engaged.”
The Engaged Accounts are your current audience which you should strive to keep by continuing to meet their demands. The Reached Accounts are your potential target audience. For both accounts, you should check their demographics, identify what they are looking for, and rework it into your ads.
Note: The demographics data won’t be visible if fewer than 100 accounts interacted with your profile in the selected time period.
Lastly, checking Instagram analytics should be supplemented with reviewing the comments and direct messages. This may take more time than glancing at the analytics, especially if you don’t use automated third-party tools, but it provides more in-depth results.
As for what you need to do to get those results, you should gauge the ratio of comments (positive, neutral, and negative) to understand the overall sentiment. The same should be done for the DMs.
Altering Your Strategies
Based on the analytics and insights above, you should be able to identify trending and non-trending posts.
For example, your reels may have more positive insights compared to your detailed posts, suggesting that your target audience prefers quick and snappy vertical videos rather than in-depth posts.
That doesn’t mean that you should cancel or reduce your posts, but it does mean that your posts should be simpler and more appealing rather than detailed and professional.
Final Thoughts
When your ultimate goal is to sell products and services on Instagram for free, then keep in mind that success in Instagram marketing begins with identifying and understanding your audience. Once you do that, you should use professional tools to create compelling content that will keep your audience returning for more.
Avoid stale content by constantly being creative to invoke a sense of interest in your posts—all while monitoring your audience and checking the analytics to see whether you’re moving in the right direction. Lastly, it never hurts to check how your competitors are doing.
Don’t forget to invest in good equipment to enhance the quality of your photos and videos. Instagram is made for visual stimulation, after all. Most importantly, bookmark this post for later use. You’ll need it.
