In September 2017, Instagram announced that its business community had grown to 2 million advertisers, just six months after reaching 1 million advertisers earlier that year in March. In June, Instagram hit one billion monthly users—almost an eighth of the world’s population.
If you are here, I assume that you understand the importance of Instagram visibility and sales for your small business.
I will not bore you with further statistics about Instagram and rather dive into how you can make more sales with Instagram.
The Instagram business profile
First impressions matter, a study by Microsoft concluded that the human attention span has shrunk by 25% in just a few years dropping to eight seconds. What that means for you is that you have eight seconds or less to grab your target audience’s attention. Consumers are also turning to Instagram instead of Google to search for brands.
Your Profile needs to represent what you do, have to offer, and optimized for Instagram search.
Profile name – While it is good to use your business name, take it a step further by including the type of service you offer so when someone searches for your product, your page comes up.
Example
Funke Olotu – Abuja Blogger.
Bet shoes – Male shoes in Abuja.
Profile photo should be clear, it can be your brand logo or a picture of yourself. This depends on the services you offer.
Bio – Easy to understand, straight to the point, and tells your audience what you have to offer.
Location – this is important so the audience knows what to estimate in terms of deliveries and managing time expectations.
Url Link – The URL section of your bio is the only clickable link you can add to your Instagram page, so make sure you’re using it properly. You can use feed link or Link tree to generate a link that can contain other links.
Look authentic on Instagram
Since the pandemic hit, reports of scams targeting Instagram users have risen, people are desperate and you do not want your business to be perceived as fake.
Here’s how to look real on Instagram
1. Have a human presence – who is the person behind the brand? What is your story? This also helps your audience connect with you better.
2. Stop excessive use of stock pictures – anyone can create an Instagram business page and upload stock photos. Investing in good product photography helps show your products in a more relatable way.
3. Do not post a lot of posts in one day – Seeing over 8 posts posted on a new Instagram page screams desperation to sell, it lacks strategy and you don’t want to be that.
This brings me to my third point
Influencer Marketing
This is a sure-fire way to be seen as a trusted brand and also reach new people. Consumers today don’t trust traditional advertising – they trust people. Recent research shows that consumers trust personal recommendations above brand advertisements.
Small business owners believe that they need to have a lot of money to start influencer marketing, while you need money, some micro-influencers won’t charge as high as the bigger influencers. The key to making this work is selecting influencers in your niche.
Caption & Hashtags
Certain words can be a turn-off for your audience or not actionable enough for them to take action, when you have identified your target audience, it’s easier to know what they need and wants to hear.
Hashtags are an excellent way to get your business in front of millions of people. However, you should avoid using too many hashtags in your posts. Even if the maximum is 30 hashtags, you don’t have to use up to that. Your posts may appear spammy and low-effort when you do.
Sponsored ads
Instagram ads are important for your business to reach more people, as a small business, you do not have to have a big budget to run ads on Instagram. if you want me to write a detailed post on how to run Instagram and Facebook ads let me know below.
Conclusion
Figuring out how to sell on Instagram will take some practice to determine what methods work best for your small business. Following these tips will make the process a whole lot easier by eliminating a lot of the guesswork for you.