How to Grow Your Small Business on Instagram?

There was a time when businesses could flourish with just word of mouth and didn’t need much attention on the marketing end. But things have changed since social media has come along, and now you best know how to grow your small business on Instagram to survive.

Every day millions of businesses advertise their products and services on Instagram to reach their potential customers and boost sales. Even famous brands like Nike, Chanel, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, etc., admit Instagram’s supremacy and advertise their products there.

It means that if you don’t establish an online presence on a social media giant like Instagram, you will probably lose your customers to other local businesses in no time.

Now, at this point, you might wonder, why does it have to be Instagram, and how can I use it to boost my business? In upcoming sections, we’ll explain the importance of Instagram as a cornerstone of e-commerce and give you strategies to uplift your business using Instagram.

Why Should You Use Instagram for Your Small Businesses?

It’s 2022, and Instagram now has approximately 1.13 billion users, and this number is projected to reach 1.2 billion by the start of 2023. Now, no matter what kind of product or service you’re offering, chances are that you’ll find its potential audience on Instagram.

From gaming to engineering, business solutions to music composition, you’ll find people with different interests and walks of life on Instagram, and you can approach them easily to spread brand awareness and increase your sales. Here are some interesting facts that will show you how Instagram can be helpful for your business:

• More than 72% of Instagram users purchase a product after watching it on their feed.
• It’s Gen-Z’s favorite platform, and as this generation is famous for impulsive buying, you can generate good revenue by targeting them.
• Instagram has 500 million daily users who, if effectively targeted, can become your potential customers.
• More than half of Instagram users follow at least one business, and it could be yours too if you successfully build your presence there.
• Instagram secures more engagement than any other social media platform, which is excellent for businesses.
• About 5% of Instagram users have big fortunes, and if you manage to target them, you’ll get yourself some rich clients.

All of these facts prove that among all other social media platforms out there, Instagram is the best to boost your business online, and you need to start marketing your business on this platform right away if you plan to take your business to a new level.

So now that we’ve established that Instagram can surely help small businesses thrive, it’s time we share some wisdom with you and give you strategies to grow your business on Instagram.

How to Grow Your Small Business on Instagram?

Statistics show that more than 52% of small businesses use Instagram to market their products and services, which means that there’s quite a competition for you to face on this platform. That’s where these experts advised strategies come in.

If you apply them consistently and correctly, your business will start getting attention from the target business and will grow substantially as time passes. Let’s begin.

1. Set Up Your Instagram Business Profile

To grow your business on Instagram, you first need to make your Instagram business profile, and for that, you need to make an Instagram business account. Business accounts are different from standard Instagram accounts as they come equipped with advanced features like analytics which gives you useful insights.

To make an Instagram business account, just go to your account settings and click on Switch to a “Professional Account.” Doing this will convert your standard account to a business account, and now you can finally set up your business profile. Here’s how you can do it:

• Write a catchy and descriptive Instagram bio that describes your business in a cool way
• Set your account to public so people can see your content easily
• Add contact info and active hours
• Create an FAQ section
• Highlight the locations in which your business is active

Once you follow all these steps, your Instagram business account will finally be ready to go live and grab the attention of your target audience.

2. Grow Your Audience

After setting up your business profile, the next thing you need to do is attract your potential customers and grow your audience. Now, for that to happen, you need to secure as many followers on your account as you can. With a strong follower base, it will be easier for you to market your product and build your business’s reputation.

But now the question is, how to increase Instagram followers on your business account as soon as possible. Well, there are tips you can follow and strategies you can implement to achieve this goal, but the fastest tactic that most experts recommend is to buy Instagram followers from the most trusted agency in the market, which is Media Mister.

For several years, Media Mister has been standing tall as a beacon of quality and trust when it comes to providing Instagram followers. We understand how important followers are for the survival of small businesses, and that’s why we always:

• Deliver authentic Instagram followers
• Provide followers in a genuine time frame that sits well with the Instagram algorithm
• Guarantee positive followers retention rate
• Make sure to keep your prices affordable, so anyone can purchase our packages easily

So, now you can secure as many followers as you want in a matter of days with the help of Media Mister and take your business to a whole new level.

3. Optimize Your Bio

A business account’s bio is like its introduction, which gives a viewer everything he needs to know about your products or services. That’s why it’s vital that you focus on creating a catchy and descriptive bio that can enchant a visitor and make him check out your profile. Following are a couple of things that you can do to optimize your bio:

• Instagram bio has a limit of 150 characters, so keep it short and try to describe your business within this limit. It’s a challenge, but it has to be done.
• Try to embed a call to action in the bio to make a viewer go through your whole Instagram feed and explore your products.
• Add the link of your other Instagram account in your bio, if you have any.
• Search for keywords relevant to your business and add them to your bio to expand your account’s searchability.

Most business owners don’t take the bio section seriously and just write random stuff in there, which is a stupid move. Don’t make this mistake, and follow all the above instructions to write a compelling bio that can contribute to the growth of your business.

4. Post-Great Content

The key to success on Instagram is posting aesthetic and attractive content that forces people to stop scrolling and interact with your content. To create such great content, you’ll have to push your creative boundaries and come up with new ideas.

No matter what kind of products or services your business offers, you need to present them on your Instagram account in the most attractive way possible, and for that, you need to improve your product photography and design. Hire professional photographers to ensure high-quality pictures.

After that, use your imagination to create brilliant post designs that highlight your product and give an aesthetic and cool vibe. Don’t forget that millions of businesses are competing for attention on Instagram, so you need to step up your content game to beat your competitors and grow your business online.

5. Geotag Your Posts

Geotagging is a feature that allows you to share the location from where you’re posting the content. Make sure that you always add the Geotag of your business’s location whenever you post something on your timeline.

By doing this, your business’s location will be saved in your followers’ subconscious due to repeated exposure, and chances are they might visit your outlet whenever they visit that area, which means that they also might make a purchase and boost your sales.

6. Post Consistently and at the Right Time

As a business owner, you need to share your products and services with your audience consistently so they don’t forget what you’re offering and check out your business.

Research has shown that businesses that consistently upload posts and find the best time to post receive more attention from their target audience compared to those that post sporadically.

Start by making a posting schedule and try to upload at least 5 to 6 posts in a day. Also, keep an eye on the hours when your audience is most active and upload your content within that time frame to get maximum exposure and engagement on it.

7. Host a Giveaway

Giveaways are a great way to attract an audience and promote your products or services easily. Basically, all you have to do is announce that you’ll be giving away a prize to some lucky followers. You can select them randomly or set criteria and pick them according to that.

Once you shortlist the winners, send them your products or vouchers for whatever service you provide as a gift. This will not only encourage other people to follow you to win a prize in the future but also encourage the winners to share your business with their friends as well.

In short, with the right use of this strategy, you will be able to increase your brand awareness and give your audience a taste of your products as well, which will contribute to the growth of your business eventually.

8. Use Business Hashtags

Hashtags are also another important element that helps your business profile appear in front of the target audience and in search results. How? Because they work as pointers for the Instagram algorithm, and it identifies a post’s genre through its hashtags.

It means that if you put in the right hashtags in your posts that are relevant to your content and business, the Instagram algorithm will identify your post’s relevance to a specific niche and will recommend it to users interested in that niche or in those hashtags.

So, adding right hashtags is quite vital to improving your business’s exposure and searchability. Also, you can add up to 30 hashtags per post, but that’s overkill. Try to add only the ones that are most relevant to your content so the algorithm doesn’t mix your post with other niches.

9. Engage with Your Followers

Remember that it might be easy to secure followers thanks to Media Mister, but it’s hard to keep them engaged, so they don’t leave you and start following some other business. Therefore, as a business owner, it’s your duty to engage with your followers in order to retain them. Here are some things you can do to engage with your followers:

• Always check the comments section of your posts and try to reply to all the comments.
• Answer all the questions asked by your followers
• Ask your audience to share their review of your products
• Reply to their Direct messages
• Stay active most of the time so you can connect with your followers at any time.
• Use Instagram live to communicate with your followers.

With the effective use of these tricks, you’ll be able to keep your followers engaged, and it might even help you reach more potential followers and increase your brand awareness.

10. Use the Save Post Feature

Ask your audience to save your post to watch later. Once a user saves your post, chances are, he will visit it again to see the product and might visit your site to purchase it. Therefore, experts recommend that you should encourage your target audience to use the save feature. You can embed a call to action in your post to trigger a save action.

‘Save the post and decide later’ use a CTA like this, which convinces a user that if they are interested in the product, they can save it for now and decide whether to buy it or not later. In most cases, users buy the products they save on their Instagram account, so if you execute this strategy successfully, it will really help uplift your sales graph.

11. Go Live Frequently

Instagram live sessions are a great way to interact with your audience and listen to their suggestions and complaints. Experts say that live sessions are the best when it comes to forming a bond with your dedicated customers and followers, so you try to go live frequently.

12. Offer Followers Only Promotions

Offer a perk to those who follow your account, and it will increase your number of followers by a great margin. 40% of Instagram users say that they will follow any account as long as they get some benefit from it.

So, if you offer to give a discount voucher, gift hamper, free samples, etc., to those who follow your Instagram profile, your business’s online presence will grow substantially.

13. Posting on Instagram Stories

More than half of Instagram users prefer to get their updates from Instagram stories instead of the feed. Therefore, while you post on the Instagram feed, also make sure to upload stories as well to establish your presence where your audience is.

For more insights, check out our article on 30 Engaging Instagram Story Ideas to enhance your storytelling.

14. Posting on Instagram Reels

Video content is one of the most engaging content types on social media, and that’s what makes Instagram reels an important tool that you need to master. Make short, engaging, and aesthetic Instagram reels to present your products or services in a fresh new way in front of your audience.

You can take ideas from your competitors or some other famous brands in your niche. For example, Nike is famous for creating extraordinary Instagram reels, so go check them out and learn. After that, create your own marvelous videos and grab the attention of your audience.

15. Use the Direct Message Feature

Of all the methods you can use to engage with your audience, the direct message feature is the most effective and straightforward. Have an important announcement or an exciting offer? Share it with your followers by sending them a direct message.

Sending a direct message will ensure that they see what you have to say, even if they miss all your posts and stories. Also, it makes your audience feel like you’re trying to approach them on a personal level, and they show more interest in your business this way.

Conclusion

A 2017 survey showed that more than 52% of small business owners use Instagram to grow their business, and while it clearly shows how much competition is out there, it’s better to stay positive and attempt to build your business’s reputation by using the tactics we presented.

It might take you a year or two to finally start getting some benefit from promoting your business on Instagram, but we assure you that it will happen eventually if you don’t give up and keep applying these strategies consistently.

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