Every business needs to set up an Instagram account to promote their goods and services. Advertising should be a key part of any business’s strategic plan for success. Having the best product or idea means nothing if you have no customers.

With over a billion active users globally Instagram serves as a tool to target prospective clients while giving you the opportunity to expand your brand awareness.

Why Set Up a Business Account?

When setting up your account you will want to create a business account as opposed to a personal one. Doing so gives you access to more tools that will help your business grow on Instagram.

Create a Brand Profile

You will want to set up a polished profile page for your business. This will be the first impression that your company makes so you will want to create a clear concise message about your brand through text and images.

Images are key on Instagram so you will want to spend some time considering what your profile picture should look like. People will often click on your imagery if they like it. This will bring them back to your profile where you will have your business name, bibliography, and contact information.

Spend Time Participating on the Platform

You need to be able to spend time managing and updating your account on Instagram. Don’t think that setting up an account is all you need to do to be successful on this social media giant.

Creating content that is true to your brand and will get you noticed can be hard work. Generating multiple posts and communicating with your followers by answering inquiries will help build your reputation on the site.

Do not post to simply appear active and engaged. Think about your key demographics and tailor your posts to them. You will want to make sure that you provide additional value to your target audience or your content runs the risk of becoming irrelevant.

Connecting with like-minded individuals and following key influencers in your business arena will help you grow your followers (fans). To interact with the community on Instagram you can send direct messages, tag your photos, and comment on other people’s posts.

Getting Targeted Feedback

Use hashtags when you post your images or stories. Using a hashtag makes things more searchable on Instagram. If you are looking to find pictures of chocolate cakes. you type #chocolatecakes to find all the related posts. While you can have several hashtags listed per post it is best to use only a few that are highly relevant to your brand.

Picking a few specific hashtags ensures that the traffic you drive to your profile is full of quality leads.

Advertising or Selling

Businesses can use Instagram to directly advertise. You can purchase different types of ads to run on Instagram; including, video ads, photo ads, and carousel ads. You can direct these back to your Instagram page or your actual webpage.

Businesses can pay influencers, people who have a huge amount of followers, to promote their products or services to help increase your sales revenue.

In addition, if you have actual products to sell you can generate sales through Instagram. Small businesses are able to sell their physical products through a shoppable post if they have an Instagram business account.

Final Thoughts

Any business serious about growing their revenue stream should think about setting up a business account on Instagram. Important information can be gleaned from interacting with your potential customers. This information can help you pinpoint your client’s needs and provide you with an efficient strategy to grow your business.