The ins and outs of successfully marketing your small business on Instagram.

When you build your social media brand and join the Instagram community, your small business can automatically tap into millions of engaged viewers eager to get ahead of the next big trend. But just how do you go about making your presence known on this crucial platform? The following suggestions can get you started on the path to a level of visibility and success beyond your wildest dreams.

Chart your course.

As with any endeavor, success depends on determining the goal you want to achieve and then working to make it happen. When it comes to creating your Instagram strategy, it therefore makes sense to be clear about your intentions. To that end, reflect on what you believe this site can do for you, such as the following. 

• Elevate your rapport with your customers.
• Increase awareness of your brand.
• Drive more traffic to your website.
• Boost your profits.

Being aware of your focus will clarify the customer population to whom you are reaching out, the content you feature, and the overall tone of your messaging.

Polish your profile.

This is what people see when they are scrolling through Instagram. Make sure your profile contains crucial elements such as a picture, business name, category, and a full set of contact details. It is important that your username reflects what your business does and that your profile image shows your company logo. The key here is to be easily found and quickly and accurately classified to avoid frustration, confusion and the dreaded click-away.

Brandish your bio.

You don’t have a long time to captivate potential customers scrolling from one Instagram page to the next, and your bio is your one and only golden opportunity. Akin to your website’s home page, your bio lets people know who you are and what you do, separates you from your competitors, and gives you a forum to share details about promotions or product launches. It also contains links people can follow to learn about your company, sign up for email offers and shop for products.

Raise your brand appeal with a giveaway.

Making it big on Instagram is all about likes, shares, and comments. The more you get, the greater will be the numbers of people who respond and are organically attracted to your page. And who among us can resist a fun giveaway? Especially if it’s associated with a product that is intrinsic to your identity that will get people talking, liking, and sharing, you will find that this simple strategy will explode your sales and set your online payment processing on fire.

Elevate your multi channel presence with geotags.

If you have a physical store, you can use an Instagram geotag to let your online customers know where they can make an in-person visit to your brick-and-mortar shop. Additionally, Instagram organizes all of the posts under a specific tag under one searchable tab. As a result, anyone searching for your location will instantly have access to anything you have posted: product demos, photos, contests, etc.

Utilize the power of user-generated content as free advertisements for your business.

As necessary and often fun as it can be to run your own Instagram page, you will inevitably run out of ideas. That’s when you should crowd-source all of the genius that your amazing customers are ready, willing, and able to contribute. Generally, it comes in the form of videos or images of someone using one of your products or visiting your store. When you feature this content, it provides unparalleled social proof to potential buyers that real people use and love what you have to offer — so much so that they are motivated to post about it.

Incentivize visitors to follow you.

In the Instagram world, your status is frequently based on how many followers you can boast. Having just a few suggests that you don’t have much that’s unique or worthy of attention while a steadily increasing stream into the five, six, and even seven figures bestows upon you a credibility that no amount of paid advertising can bring. To motivate people to follow you, share a discount code for followers only that gives them discounts or free gifts at checkout. Make your codes even more appealing by sharing them in stories that will automatically disappear after 24 hours. After all, no one wants to miss out on a good deal.

Harness hashtags.

Hashtags are the guideposts of Instagram. They’re what enable you to find and begin to participate in discussions relevant to your brand. What’s more, they assist customers in finding your business. For these reasons, you should develop a branded hashtag that you encourage customers to use whenever they post content about your company.

Use micro-influencers to widen your reach.

As a small business owner, you probably don’t have the money in your budget to hitch your wagon to a mega-celebrity’s star even if that person is a well-known consumer of your brand. However, micro-influencers with less than 10,000 followers can provide you with an affordable and effective way to piggyback on someone else’s orbit. These minor luminaries give you yet another way to boost your credibility beyond the traditional advertising that most of today’s consumers are unlikely to value or follow.

Instagram has quickly become a powerful hub into which even the smallest of companies are connecting with a great deal of success. Combine a smart profile with great content, intelligent referrals, and links to Instagram’s ecommerce tools, and your visitors will soon become devoted followers and paying customers who go on to provide free advertising of their own for your brand.