In this age of e-commerce, a business cannot sustain itself without a vibrant online presence. Instagram is an indispensable platform for the fast online growth of all business organizations. It presents a crucial opportunity for small companies with a limited advertising budget. There are several ways to grow your business on Instagram:
Write engaging captions
Interesting captions can help you engage your audience. If you explain an image or video in a storytelling style, it increases the stay time of a visitor. The Instagram algorithm identifies it as a positive factor and boosts the reach of your content.
If you write one line of content on a visual, the visitor will move on within seconds. But engaging captions can make him stay for a bit longer.
Use the power of hashtags
Hashtags play a crucial role in expanding the outreach of your content. Using relevant hashtags, you can display your content to people other than your friends or followers. You need to use a combination of popular and niche-specific hashtags.
If you only use hashtags with thousands of posts, your audience will never find your content. It is likely to drown in the sea of competition.
Also, make a list of hashtags closely related to your brand. It can save you considerable time and effort. It prevents the need to search for new hashtags each time you post content.
Using different hashtags in each post helps you identify which combination works best for you.
Write compelling bio
Don’t write the Instagram bio to fill the words. Use this space to attract your audience and introduce your brand. It needs to be direct, comprehensive, and concise.
An Instagram bio of a small business needs to have the following elements:
- Keywords relevant to the business
- Optimized link of its website
- Contact information
- The voice of the brand
- Emotional hook for the audience
- Emojis
- Call to action button
A compelling bio persuades your target audience to follow you.
Shoutout from influencers
Getting shoutouts from influencers relevant to your business also helps in fast growth. It gives you an instant reach to your target audience. An influencer presents your offer in a gripping way.
These influencers promote your brand on their account in return for product or money. Influencers’ prices vary depending on their audience size and engagement rate. You can find such influencers using tools available for influencer marketing. Some websites also bridge the influencers and businesses.
Micro-influencers are your best shot if you want to grow your small business with Instagram. These influencers have a small yet highly niche-specific audience, and they charge you less money. You get a better return on investment.
Engage with your audience
Engaging with your audience is essential to growing your small business with Instagram. Simply having followers is not enough. You need to have a deeper connection with them. It creates business opportunities.
Try to start a conversation when someone comments on an uploaded photo or video. Show your audience that you care for its feelings. It encourages other followers to engage with your content.
When there is a good engagement on your content, the Instagram algorithm boosts its outreach.
Post content consistently
Visibility is essential for the growth of business on Instagram. If your audience does not hear from you in a while, it’s likely to forget you. You are also less likely to generate business.
After posting content consistently for some time, you need to do some analysis. Try to understand what kind of content is getting the best response. Also, identify the most responsive time for your content. It can help you improve the engagement rate on your account.
Don’t make any compromises on the quality of content. It needs to be impeccable; otherwise, your audience will likely ignore it. Use eye-catching colors and graphics to grab your audience’s attention.
Connect with other social platforms
One of the ways to grow your business on Instagram is to connect it with other social channels. You divert traffic from these channels to your Instagram shop. It increases your chances of generating business.
Once you establish this connection, the content you upload on Instagram replicates on other social channels. It increases the outreach of your content without any cost or effort.
Grow through advertisement
Another way to grow your business on Instagram is through paid advertisement. It is an effective option if you think your content’s organic reach is insufficient. You can target a specific audience with paid ads. It increases your chances of getting leads.
Ads on Instagram allow you to target an audience based on interests, age, and demographics.
Instagram stories for business growth
Instagram stories are a potent tool to increase your reach as they have the most viewership on Instagram. You can engage your audience by adding a fun element to stories. Ask them a question or share some intriguing fact. Try to extract feedback from them.
Instagram stories highlights are another unique feature for businesses. It enables companies to showcase their products, milestones, or recent events.
Analyze engagement on your content
You need to identify your target audience to grow your business on Instagram. Instagram analytics are excellent at producing this information. Once you have discovered your audience’s age group and interests, you can target them through more exclusive content.
You can also reach out to a similar audience through paid ads.
