How To Grow Your Small Business On Instagram

Are you using Instagram to flourish your small business but don’t know how to excel?

If so, you have reached the right place! For all the small business owners out there who are still trying to grasp the ins and outs of Instagram while wondering how to grow your small business on Instagram, you’re not alone.

About 62.7% of Instagram users follow or research brands and products on the app, making it the third most popular activity on the platform. But that’s not all. Instagram’s own data reveals that a whopping 70% of shoppers turn to the platform when they’re looking for their next purchase. Utilizing this information, you can make the most out of Instagram’s potential to take your business to new heights.

With thousands of brands vying for attention on Instagram, standing out can feel overwhelming. But don’t worry; this guide will walk you through setting up your Instagram business profile and offer tips to give your small business a competitive edge.

So, let’s start selling on Instagram! But first, you need to set up a professional Instagram account to unlock the business side of the ‘gram.

Setting Up a Professional Instagram Account

First things first, as a small business owner, your Instagram marketing journey for how to grow your small business on Instagram begins with setting up a business profile.

A professional Instagram account (also called an Instagram business account) can help you market products and services on the platform by offering marketing capabilities, valuable insights, and promotional features.

Now, you must know that simply creating an account won’t do anything for you and your brand. You must create a profile with a catchy bio and profile picture that resonates with your brand’s overall message and aesthetic.

This is how you can start:

Setting Up an Instagram Business Profile

An Instagram Business Profile is free to use. Let’s see how you can create it:

Step 1: Sign up if you’re new to Instagram to create an account. If you already have a personal account, then log in with your credentials.

Step 2: Next, switch your personal account to a business profile. To do so, click on three horizontal lines at the top right corner of your profile.

Step 3: Click Settings and Privacy > Account type and tools > Switch to professional account.

You’ll see this open:

Step 5: Select a category that best describes your business and then click on Done.

#Tip: Choose a username and profile picture that reflects your brand.

Your username and profile picture are key to making a strong first impression. Choose a username that’s simple and closely matches your business name. For starters, avoid using numbers or special characters that can make it harder to find.

Note: Instagram does not allow special characters in usernames except for ‘.’ and ‘_’.

For your profile picture, use a clear, superior-quality image that represents your brand. A brand logo is generally the most suitable option for a business account’s profile picture.

2. Crafting a Compelling Bio

Creating a catchy bio is all about being concise and engaging. And how do you do that?

• Introduce your business with a bio that reflects your brand’s personality.
• Keep your bio concise by using shorter, digestible points instead of long paragraphs.
• Use niche-specific keywords to communicate clearly what your business offers.
• Include a link to your website or landing page for easy store access.
• Add emojis or line breaks to make your bio more visually appealing.
• Include a strong call-to-action to encourage users to take the next step (e.g., visit your site, sign up for a newsletter, or shop).
• Provide clear contact details like an email address or phone number for easy communication.
• Include product teasers or announcements about new releases and upcoming sales in your bio to attract and engage customers.
• You can also highlight any humanitarian initiatives your brand supports.

3. Setting Up Action Buttons on Business Profile

Setting up action buttons on your Instagram business profile is a great way to make it easy for customers to engage with your brand. These buttons, like “Call” or “Visit the Shop,” appear directly on your profile. You can link your mobile number, email address or online store’s website.

With the help of action buttons, Instagrammers can contact you or buy products with just a tap.

Curating Content Strategy for Instagram Business Account

Did you know that over 60% of Instagram users are aged between 18 and 34? With such a large portion of the platform’s audience in this key demographic, it’s clear that curating a well-thought-out content strategy is crucial for reaching your target market. Let’s see how:

1. Know Your Audience

Knowing your audience is key to maximizing your impact on Instagram as a small business owner. Here’s how to make it work for you as a small business owner on Instagram:

• Use Instagram Insights: It will give you detailed data on your followers’ demographics, like age, gender, location, etc. You will also gain access to behavior insights, such as when your target audience is most active and what content they interact with. Based on your Insights, craft detailed personas that represent your ideal customers.
  
• Tailor Your Content: Once you know who your audience is, create content that speaks directly to them. If your audience engages most with video content, start producing more videos and reels. Likewise, if they respond well to educational posts, share tips and tutorials related to your products or services.
  
• Use Polls and Posts: Small businesses can get to know their audience better by using Instagram’s ‘Polls’ feature. Ask questions about their likes, dislikes, or preferences to gather insights directly from your followers. This will help you understand what your audience wants while also increasing engagement and showing that you value the audience’s input.

2. Create High-Quality Content

Once you have identified your target audience, the next step to grow your business on Instagram is to work towards creating content. These tips will help you create content that speaks to your audience without having to spend tons of money on expensive equipment and editing software.

Tip 1: Shoot Professional-Looking Photos and Videos

As a small business owner, it’s never advisable to invest in expensive equipment. You can simply use your smartphone to shoot content. However, keep the following things in mind for the best outcomes:

• Always shoot in natural light when possible. Early mornings or late afternoons provide the best lighting. Avoid harsh midday sun as it can cause shadows.
• Use a tripod or a stable surface to avoid shaky footage. For photos, take multiple shots to ensure the perfect one.
• Follow the rule of thirds by placing your subject off-center for a more balanced image. Experiment with angles and perspectives to make your content more dynamic.

Tip 2: Use apps like VSCO, Lightroom, and InShot for Editing

• VSCO offers filters that give your photos a cohesive look. You can adjust exposure, contrast, and saturation to enhance your images.
• Lightroom provides advanced editing tools like color correction and detail enhancement, which is perfect for refining your photos.
• InShot is great for editing videos and adding music, text, and transitions to make your content more interesting.

Pro Tip: Instagram’s algorithm shows posts based on user engagement, likes, comments, and how relevant the content is to their interests. Small businesses should post high-quality content regularly to get the algorithm on their side. Also, interact with your followers through comments and stories. This activity signals to the algorithm that your posts are valuable, helping you reach a larger audience while also giving you an edge over your competitors.

3. Plan and Schedule Your Content in Advance

To grow your small business on Instagram, it’s important to plan your content. This way, you can maintain a steady content flow and avoid last-minute scrambles. Small businesses can use many tools and resources to plan and schedule their content.

The top three content scheduling tools that small businesses can use are as follows:

1. Later comes with a drag-and-drop interface to schedule posts and visually plan your grid.
2. Planoly allows you to plan posts and stories and also helps with hashtag management and content ideas. You can take a 7-day free trial to see how it works for you.
3. Buffer social media content calendar allows you to schedule your stories and manage your hashtags and campaigns.
4. Meta Business Suite: A free tool by Meta that offers scheduling posts and reels anywhere across Meta, including Instagram.

Finally, when you create a content calendar to plan your posts for the week or month, make sure you add a mix of content types for diversity.

Utilize Instagram Features to Their Maximum Potential

About 46.8 million people in the U.S. are expected to make purchases through Instagram in 2024. This is a golden opportunity for small businesses to fully utilize Instagram’s features to attract potential customers and grow a business on Instagram.

Here’s what small businesses can do to make the best out of this opportunity:

1. Use Stories and Highlights

58% of people reported increased interest in a brand or product after seeing it on Instagram Stories.

With Instagram brand Stories boasting a good completion rate (the percentage of users who watch a Story from start to finish), it’s clear that people are engaged. To make the most of this, incorporate interactive elements like stickers, polls, and questions. These features enhance engagement and conversions by encouraging audience interaction and making your content more impactful.

Stories disappear after 24 hours, but saving them as ‘Highlights’ keeps your best content visible and easy for new visitors to discover.

2. Explore Reels

Instagram Reels generate 22% more engagement compared to regular video content. To tap into this increased engagement, create short, eye-catching videos using trending audio and effects. The more current and relevant your content is, the more likely it is to resonate with young viewers. To maximize your reach, stay on top of the latest reel trends and features. Learn about the latest ecommerce marketing trends that you must follow to stay ahead in the game.

Every day brings something new to Instagram, like trending challenges or audio clips, and the algorithm favors content that taps into these trends. By jumping on them early, you can increase your visibility.

Participating in timely trends like seasonal themes or industry events helps keep your content relevant. Also, stay updated on new Instagram features, like Reels and Stories-related updates. Remember, Instagram now shows the number of viewers on your Reels, helping you track engagement.

#Tip: If you have a Shopify business, you can easily connect your Shopify store with Instagram in a few clicks!

3. Utilize Instagram Shopping

Instagram Shopping is one of the most powerful features small business owners can use to drive sales directly from the platform. It offers various features that make it easy for people to shop your brand’s photos and videos directly on the platform. You can even set up an Instagram Shop with this.

Instagram Shopping includes several features designed to help businesses sell products directly on the platform. These include:

• Your Shop
• Collections
• Product Tags
• Product Detail Pages
• Ads with Product Tags

You can also easily set up your product feed on Instagram and access it to display collections on your Instagram Shop, ads, etc.

Setting Up Instagram Shopping and Tagging Products

Let’s see how you can set up Instagram Shopping:

Step 1: Ensure Instagram is right for your business.

Check the Commerce Eligibility Requirements and make sure your products comply with policies. Your business must have a website domain for direct sales, and you should be in a supported market. Confirm your Instagram profile is a business or creator account, connect it to Facebook, and set up a Business Manager account to manage your shop.

Step 2: Choose your onboarding method.

You can set up Instagram Shopping through Commerce Manager, a supported platform, or directly within the Instagram app.

Step 3: Complete your shop setup in Commerce Manager.

Select a checkout method for customer purchases, choose your sales channels (Instagram, Facebook, or both), and add products by linking or creating a product catalog. Finally, review your shop and submit it to Instagram for approval.

#Tip: The key to making Instagram Shopping work is to create shoppable content that feels natural. Instead of bombarding your followers with blatant sales posts, integrate your products into lifestyle content that tells a story or showcases how they can be used in real life. For example, if you’re a clothing brand, you might create posts showing how to style different pieces together, tagging each item so viewers can shop the look instantly.

Engage with Your Audience

Let’s see how you can engage with your audience:

1. Responding to Comments and Messages

• Take the time to reply to comments and messages. Replying shows your followers that you value their input, and a simple act like this can turn casual followers into loyal customers.
• You can use Instagram’s Quick Replies feature to manage your responses, especially for frequently asked questions.
• Use Meta Business Suite to set up automated responses for Instagram DMs to quickly resolve customer inquiries and provide timely support without manual effort.

2. Encouraging User-Generated Content

• Always encourage your followers to share their own content featuring your products or services. User-generated content is authentic content for your brand with no added effort.
• Create a dedicated Highlight for the user-generated content on your profile. Sharing your followers’ posts will make them feel valued and the content will act as social proof to potential customers.

3. Running Contests and Giveaways

• Hosting contests and giveaways can increase engagement and attract new followers. However, make sure to set clear rules and objectives so participants know what to expect.
• Lastly, to make contests easier to manage, use tools like Gleam or Woobox. These platforms help you track entries and make sure the whole process runs smoothly.
• The best time to do constests and giveaways is during the holiday season. It’s when people looks for best deals, which will help amp up your sales.

Learn more about finding the right audience by creating Facebook Lookalike Audiences.

Collaborations & Influencer Marketing

Instagram continues to dominate the influencer marketing landscape in 2024. If you’re just starting and want to work with influencers to promote your small business, you can begin by cold-emailing them. Besides, you can try out the following methods to get optimum results:

1. Find Right Influencers

To find the right influencers for your brand, you can also use platforms like AspireIQ, Upfluence, or Influencity. These tools can help you identify influencers who align with your brand’s values and have the right audience for your products.

#Tip: It’s not just about follower count. The key to a successful influencer partnership is finding someone with strong engagement rates and an audience that matches your target market. Analyze potential influencers’ posts to see how actively their followers engage with their content. Also, make sure their audience aligns with your ideal customer.

2. Build Successful Collaborations

Let’s say you’ve successfully found the right influencers for your brand. The next step is building a collaboration that benefits both parties and drives results.

A well-crafted partnership agreement is the foundation of any successful collaboration. It should outline the expectations, deliverables, timelines, and compensation for both parties.

Be clear about the content you want the influencer to create, where it will be shared, and brand guidelines. Also, outline what the influencer will gain payment, products, or cross-promotion.

Measuring the Success of Collaborations with UTM Codes and Discount Codes

Once your partnership is underway, it’s important to measure its success. You can do this by using UTM codes and discount codes.

UTM codes are small snippets of text added to a URL that tracks where website traffic comes from. By giving influencers unique UTM-coded links to share with their followers, you can track exactly how much traffic they’re driving to your website.

Analyzing Performance and Adjusting Strategy

Let’s assume you have set up a business account, planned the content, and you’re posting it regularly. Next what?

You can’t just keep posting without knowing if it’s actually working for your small business. It’s essential to check if your content is hitting the mark and resonating with your audience. Analyzing your performance and adjusting your strategy accordingly are the two steps to thrive and make the most out of this social media platform.

Step 1: Using Instagram Insights

Using Instagram Insights is key to how to use Instagram for small business. Start with Account Insights to track your reach and engagement, which shows how well your content is performing and who you’re reaching.

Next, check the Content Insights to see the metrics for each post to identify which types of content resonate most with your audience and where you can experiment with different formats. Monitoring reach by content type also reveals what’s working for both followers and non-followers.

Instagram Insights helps you gauge your account’s performance by providing data on several important metrics such as:

• Accounts Engaged: It measures the level of interaction your posts receive, including likes, comments, shares, and saves.
• Accounts Reach: This metric shows how many unique users have seen your posts. Monitoring reach helps you understand how effectively your content is spreading beyond your immediate followers.
• Total Followers: This metric tracks how your follower count changes over time. Sudden spikes or drops can help you identify what’s working and what needs adjustment.
• Post Insights: Review data on individual posts to see which ones generated the most engagement or reached the widest audience.

#Tip: You can use Facebook pixel to track customer activity on Instagram.

Step 2: Adjusting Your Strategy

Once you’ve gathered insights from your Instagram analytics, it’s time to refine your approach. Here’s how to do it the right way:

• Monitor key metrics closely. If a particular type of content, such as reels, consistently performs well, prioritize creating more of that content.
• Similarly, look for patterns in the data. For example, if posts shared at a specific time get more engagement, adjust your posting schedule accordingly.
• Highlight customer testimonials through posts, stories, and dedicated highlights.
• A/B tests different elements of your posts to see what performs best. This could include varying captions, images, posting times, or even call-to-action.

The key takeaway here is that you must make decisions based on data and data only. Plus, you have to do this continuously. ”Test, Analyze, Adjust, Repeat!” 

Advanced Tips and Tactics

Let’s take a look at some additional strategies for better business outcomes on Instagram:

1. Utilize Instagram Ads

With Instagram ads making up 9.8% of all U.S. digital ad spending in 2024, this platform is a goldmine for small businesses. Here’s how you can make the most of Instagram ads:

• Use Facebook Ads Manager to create laser-focused ads that reach your ideal customers. Use the right keywords and call to action.
• Target based on your audience demographics, interests, and behaviors. Go a step further and retarget those who’ve visited your website or left items in their cart.
• Experiment with different types of ads like video ads, carousel ads, user-generated content, photo ads, etc. Determine what hooks your audience and adjust the campaign accordingly.

2. Utilize Instagram’s Carousel Posts

A useful advanced tip is to leverage Instagram’s Carousel Posts. These allow you to share multiple images or videos in a single post. Use carousel posts to tell a story, showcase a range of products, or break down complex information into bite-sized pieces. This format increases engagement by encouraging users to swipe through and spend more time on your content.

Conclusion

The answer to the million-dollar question: how to grow your small business on Instagram is understanding your audience and creating content that resonates with them. Use Instagram Insights to shape your strategy, create engaging content, collaborate with the right people and be very consistent in your efforts.

Start applying these strategies and keep a close eye on what’s working. The more you fine-tune your approach, the more you’ll see your followers and sales grow.

FAQs

Is Instagram good for small business?

Yes, Instagram for small business is an excellent platform for to showcase their products and services to a wider set of audience. It is also beneficial for increasing brand visibility and facilitating engagement with the target audience.

How to increase Instagram followers?

As a small business, you must focus on organically growing your Instagram followers. Post relevant and engaging content regularly, collaborate with the right influencers and engage with your audience daily. You must refrain from buying followers on Instagram at all costs as it affects the credibility of your business.

Which Instagram account is best for small business?

A Business Account is best for small businesses. It is free of cost and offers tools like analytics, ad options, contact buttons, etc., to help your small businesses grow and manage their presence.

How to promote small business on Instagram Story?

You can use Instagram Stories to share behind-the-scenes content, announce special offers, run polls or Q&As, and link directly to your products or website.

How can I optimize my Instagram profile to attract more followers and potential customers?

Use a brand logo as a profile picture and create a brief but crisp bio. You must also add contact information and include a link to your website.

What type of content should I create to engage my audience and promote my small business on Instagram?

Create content that showcases your products, shares customer testimonials, and offers valuable tips or tutorials. They can be short videos about product specifications, stories about people who have already bought from them, reels about the behind-the-scenes of their business, polls to understand customer psyche, etc.

What strategies can I use to engage with my audience on Instagram effectively?

Responding to comments and messages is the best way to engage with your audience. You can further host giveaways, ask questions in your captions, and use interactive features like polls and quizzes in Stories.

How can collaborations and influencer marketing help grow my small business on Instagram?

Partnering with influencers who align with your brand allows you to tap into their established audience. Collaborations can also authentically introduce your products or services, as followers are more likely to trust recommendations from influencers they follow.