How to Maximise Instagram for Business: 4 Tactics You Should Implement Today

Using Instagram for business is one of the most beneficial marketing tools you can use. It helps you grow your brand awareness, connect and build relationships with your audience and even convert followers into customers.

However, when you’re really looking to get more followers for Instagram, it can be challenging to know the best ways to do so. Should you pay for ads? Hire a service? Outsource your Instagram management entirely? There are many different options for how you can grow your following, and we’re going to outline the four most effective tactics that you can even start implementing today.

1. Make sure your bio is optimised

In order for someone to follow you, they have to visit your profile before they hit the “follow” button. While they’re there, they’ll see your bio and your feed – and what they see might impact their decision to follow you. So, review your bio and your profile to ensure everything is updated, engaging and ready to have the right people choose to follow you.

Here’s what to check:

Photo and username

If you have an Instagram account, you already have a username, and you probably have your photo uploaded already. Take a look at them to make sure they’re good choices, though. Your username is one of the first things people will see in connection to your Instagram account, and it’s what they’ll see every single time they see one of your posts. Does your username make sense for your brand?

Then look at your profile photo. For most companies, this will be a logo. However, if you’re a personal brand, please include your photo. People trust other people more than they trust brands, so if they can connect with a person through your profile photo, that can often convert better.

Review your link

You get one clickable link on Instagram, so make sure it doesn’t go to waste! Take advantage of this excellent real estate with a link in bio service so you can link to multiple places at once. This way you won’t have to worry about having your audience feel behind if the link you mentioned in a post three days ago has already been replaced by something newer. People may want to check out your website before they follow you (if you have one), so make sure that link is included, too.

Include a CTA

Do you have a clear call to action on your profile? Instagram now offers easy-to-use buttons that say things like “Text” or “Contact,” so you can use those if they apply to you. Otherwise, you’ll need to use some of your precious bio space to ask your followers to do something, like downloading a freebie or visiting your site.

Focus on your bio

Now that you’ve checked the rest of your profile, it’s time to look at those 150 characters that you get in your bio. This is where you get to showcase who you are and what you do, as well as why someone should follow you. Instagram lets you choose a business category, which can help people to find you on the platform as they’re searching. Add hashtags if you feel like it, and use emojis to cut down on words if you can make it work.

When you optimise your profile (and specifically your bio), you’re giving your audience a glimpse of why they should follow you. You’re making sure that people who do choose to follow you’re ready for your content and will likely engage with it. Updating your bio is great, but it’s only the beginning of ways to maximise your business Instagram.

2. Invest in Instagram ads

This tactic does require some budget, but it can pay off well in the long run. Instagram ads will help you get your content and business name in front of more people. There are many types of Instagram ads: video ads, Story ads, carousel ads and photo ads. Depending on your brand and your Instagram strategy, any of these can be effective.

• Video ads are a good choice because the video is very popular right now.
• Story ads allow you to appear where many Instagram users are already spending a large amount of their time.
• Carousel ads allow you to showcase multiple products or angles through a variety of images.
• Photo ads are the most basic, but they also blend in the best with an Instagram feed, which can help them look natural.

To create an Instagram ad, you have to go into your Facebook Ads Manager (because Facebook owns Instagram). From there you’ll be able to create the target audience for your ad. The good news about running ads on Instagram is that you can be very specific with who you’re targeting. The downside to this is that some audiences can be expensive.

The actual cost of the ad depends on the type of ad you’re running and the audience you’re showing it to, as well as your industry. For example, automatic ad placements in the fashion industry being shown to women ages 18-30 in the United States cost $4.13 per 1,000 impressions.

After you choose your target audience, you’ll choose your ad format and then add the specifics, like your creative, copy and CTA links. If you’ve done your research to determine the right audience to target, Instagram ads can generate a significant ROI. Instagram ads are fourth in conversion rate, behind Facebook, Vimeo and YouTube. Using the automatic ad placement option is a good way to optimise that ROI since the algorithm will know where to put your ads for the best results.

3. Use automation tools

Using Instagram for business is a great strategy, but it can also take a lot of time if you’re trying to use it in many different ways. Luckily, there are also many different kinds of automation tools to help you meet those needs. You can automate your posting, your follower growth, analytics and more.

Posting consistently allows you to serve your current followers well, follower growth helps you expand your audience, and analytics show you what’s working and what isn’t.

By automating each of these tasks, you’re able to free up your time to do something you actively need to do. You can plan your Instagram posts in bulk and then schedule them using one of the many content scheduling platforms that exist.

Depending on what you need, you can find platforms that include a drag-and-drop feature, a preview of your feed and optimal posting time suggestions.

Automating your follower growth is an excellent decision, but it’s one that you need to make carefully. There are many sites out there that “sell followers.” You want to avoid those websites at all costs. They can’t truly deliver what they promise, you’ll probably end up with an increase in fake followers, and you could violate Instagram’s terms of use.

Instead, find a real Instagram growth service that doesn’t guarantee you a certain number of followers. Choose one that uses non-spammy engagement marketing tactics that allow your potential followers to make their own decisions.

Finally, analytics are a key part of your Instagram strategy. When you’re able to see your metrics and how your audience is responding to your posts, you can better create content that they want to see. You’ll learn the best times to post, what style of posts your audience likes, and what value they want to get from you. By automating this, you can save time by still optimizing your content strategy.

4. Leverage the power of user-generated content

Our fourth tactic that can help you improve your presence on Instagram for business is to add user-generated content (UGC) to your content plan.

UGC is content that your followers, fans and audience create and post on Instagram themselves. Then, you’re able to go back in and repost it to your page. Potential customers (and potential followers) like to see information about a brand come from someone other than the brand itself. Many people view influencers as more trustworthy than brands, because it’s obvious that brands would speak highly of their own products.

If you don’t have customers currently posting about your product or service, don’t worry! That doesn’t mean you won’t be able to use this strategy. Instead, you can ask them to create UGC that you can then re-use.

The easiest way to encourage your followers and fans to post UGC is by creating a campaign or a contest around it. Ask your followers to create a post showing them using your product, and then offer them a chance to win something. Some people will do it simply for the chance to appear on your page, others would be motivated by something like a gift card or a product from you.

Another way to collect UGC is to promote a branded hashtag that you create. This doesn’t have to be tied to a certain campaign, so you can use it to generate UGC posts over time. Launch the hashtag with a campaign or contest, and then continue to encourage your followers to use the hashtag, even after the campaign is over. That way, whenever you want to add some UGC to your Instagram content, you’ll have plenty to scroll through to find your favourite.

Implementing these Instagram for business tactics

With these four tactics, you have plenty to work with to optimise your Instagram account. Don’t feel overwhelmed with these ideas, but pick one that you want to implement today. Then, as you have time, continue to grow and bring on the others.

We would recommend starting with optimizing your bio. After all, if it’s not ready to convert visitors to followers, generating more views and sending people to your profile might not be an effective strategy. Once your bio is optimised, you’re ready to go!