Instagram

 Article written by Anjum Bhandari

We already know how huge Instagram is, It is a social network which cannot be ignored by business owners. Having Instagram as a part of your marketing strategy is becoming non negotiable, mainly because of the power Instagram holds to help business connect with their ideal clients all over the world.

 

Why Instagram?

Instagram has 1 billion active users out of which 500 million are active on the platform on a daily basis. With that many eyeballs, a business can achieve great success with a dedicated Instagram Strategy. And with a lot of businesses now going online, the power of Instagram Marketing is only going to increase.

Below we will discuss how you can market your business in the efficient manner.

Optimizing your Bio

First things first, your bio needs to be optimized because it acts as a first level filter to attract your ideal audience and also makes you and your brand look more professional. It plays a key role in converting your profile visitor into a follower.

A single glance on your bio and your profile visitor will decide whether or no to hit that follow button. So having a clearly written bio is crucial step to begin with.

Here is the step by step guide to optimizing your bio.

 

Profile Picture:  Your profile picture on Instagram is not expandable, which is why it is important to use an image which is clear and taken from smaller distance, preferably a headshot of yourself, otherwise you can use the logo of your brand as well.  Don’t use pixelated or blurry images.

 

Username: Your Username should be simple,readable and easily memorable. Don’t use complicated words, symbols,spaces etc in your username.

Name: This field on Instagram is a searchable one. Using keywords that define your niche perfectly in this section can be a great way to make your profile appear in the searches. You can also write your name here if at all you don’t have it in the username, but also include keywords by using a emoji or a symbol as a separator between your name and the keywords.

Short Bio: This section should be about who you help, what you help them with and a call to action to click the link in your bio. You can also use this space to showcase some credibility building factors such as any features ,awards or titles you have received. 

CTA/ Website/ Link in Bio: ​​You have an option to include a link in your Bio.Add your website here. Make sure to fill this with the latest thing that is going on in your business. Maybe you have a free workshop/sale coming up, include the link to that. If you have no website then at least include the link to your calendly where people can book a free discovery call with you/Whatsapp link etc If you have multiple links to add then use app like Linktree.

Contact Options:In the edit profile section of your bio, under profile information you have contact options. You get to add Email, phone number, Local Business Address(if you have one)  and Whatsapp Business Phone number.

Action Buttons: Instagram allows you to add buttons in addition to the contact options. These will help you connect your profile to other online services that your customers can use to interact with your business.

Content Strategy:

When it comes to marketing your business on Instagram, content strategy is the most crucial part. Your content should be doing the heavy lifting for you. It should help you appear as an industry expert, bring in new followers, nurture the existing followers and take them to the next step in the customer journey.

 

And how can you do this?

 

By creating content with purpose.

 

And the purpose is not only to get likes, comments and followers but also to get more sales, leads and inquiries in your DMs.

 

What does creating content with purpose mean? There are 3 main purposes your content should be fulfilling.

1. Bringing in new followers/ increasing reach

2. Likes, comments, shares, Saves / engagement or building a community.

3. Bringing in Leads, inquiries, generate leads and sales.

 

Don’t get stuck in the content creation loop trying to create content one after the other without any intention or purpose behind it. Have a content plan which will help you stay consistent and also intenmtional.

 

Here is how you can create a content plan:

 

Decide how many times in a week you want to be posting.

Let’s say you want to post 5 times a week. Now decide what type of content will

it be.

Ex: 2 Reels + 1 carousel + 1 post

3 Reels + 2 Post

Now you know exactly how many reels, posts, IGTV videos you need to be

planning and shooting for an entire month /week/3 months .

Depends on how ahead you want to plan and keep the content ready.

Instagram Stories:

An Instagram story is a feature which allows you to post photos and videos which are archived after 24 hours unless saved as a highlight on your profile.

 

It’s a great feature which helps you to connect with your  existing audience and build  the know like and trust factor which will help you turn them into a warm audience.

 

Stories have incredible options like engagement stickers, on screen texts, music, stickers which all makes it very intearctive and fun.

Engagement Stickers are the best when it comes to engaging with your audience, taking their opinions, involving them in any decisions and generating leads as well.

It is a great way to give your audience a sneak peak into behind the scenes of your business too.

 

If you want to find out more about the kind of story formats you should be using to generate sales from Instagram stories then you can watch my Free Training “How to sell using Instagram Stories” here. Watch the Training.

 

Engagement Strategy:

When it comes to Instagram, if content is the king then Engagement is the queen. Engagement is nothing but the interactions, the likes, comments, saves, shares, story replies, DMs you leave on other people’s profiles.

They help you get traction to your account provided you are engaging with the right accounts.

 

So here is what you can do:

• Identify 5-10 accounts in your niche who are already established. Turn on notifications for their posts. Start leaving meaningful comments on their posts.
• Identify the top engagers on these profiles from their comment section, the profiles who are engaging with their content on a regular basis and engage with them too.
• Identify Hashtags that relate to your niche and start engaging with the top and recent posts.
• Respond to the comments you get on your profile.
• Pick out 5 of our followers each day and engage on their content.

What this will do is, increase your reach and traction and also train the algorithm on who  it should be showing your content to, and with recent SEO developments on Instagram this will also train the algorithm to categorize your content with all of these similar profiles in your niche.

Pro Tip: Fix a time for when you would be doing this engagement and be done with it once the timer hits, otherwise you could be doing it all day.

 

Instagram DMs:

DM’s are on of the most powerful tools on Instagram. It helps you connect with anyone, anywhere in the world. If used to it’s full potential DM’s have proven to be a very effective sales strategy. Consider DM’s as a tool to take your customer through their journey from Visitor to a Buyer.

 

There are 6 types of DM’s you can send.

1.Text Based

2. Pictures/Images

3.Videos

4.Video Chat

5.Voice Notes

6.Group Chat.

 

Use DMs as a part of your funnel when you redirect people from your content and your stories in your DMs where the conversations begin.

 

If you have nailed down your content strategy, your DMs will be flowing with Inbound leads who will want to know more about your services/ products. 

 

With the introduction of features such as saved replies, ability to flag and mark chats as unreada nd unanswered the management of messages in the Instagram Inbox is also becoming very convenient.

Analyzing Instagram Insights:

Instagram Insights will be available to every business and creator account who has above 100 followers. You can use these insights to analyse how your content is performing, your reach, knowing more about your audience, your engagement rate and also when is the time your audience are most active.

Use Instagram Insights to analyse which of your content is resonating well with your audience and which is not and make changes to your content strategy accordingly.

 

BOTTOM LINE:

By now, you already know that using Instagram as a part of your marketing strategy is a no brainer. With it’s amazing features and content formats the possibilities to market your business on Instagram are endless.