How to Use Instagram to Promote Your Brand or Business

By Olivia Rahim | July 11, 2019

In the internet generation that we live in today, being online has become a habit and a part of our daily routines, rather than being something we do for fun or in our free time. When asked which site they spend most of their time on, three out of five adults will answer – ‘Instagram.’ 

The social media website and app which began as a platform for users to share photos is now perhaps the biggest social media platform in the world. Home to about a billion users, Instagram has recently seen the light of businesses and companies using this platform to promote themselves. And why wouldn’t they? Promoting your brand on Instagram is incredibly convenient, and it reaches more people than you could ever imagine. As of late, over 500 million people use Instagram actively every day. 

With Instagram’s new option that allows you to transform a regular account into a business account has paved the way for many brands and companies to elevate themselves on the platform easily. 

More and more brands are actively trying to interact with their customers to get them interested in the products/services they offer. Companies constantly keep coming up with techniques that have earned them a few very dedicated customers who keep coming back for more. However, that is not all; a recent study showed that over 70% of Instagram’s users have looked up certain brands and companies. 

Moreover, around 60% of users follow brand pages just because they like it. What this tells you is that customers expect brands to have a social media presence, it is a reflex in customers to turn to social media to get references about a brand, and having an Instagram presence will definitely benefit them, and the brand.

The customer receives the latest updates from their favorite business, whereas the brand can promote themselves and have a massive outreach. They can develop a stronger relationship with their customer and understand what they like and what they are interested in, all while promoting themselves. Another advantage of marketing through Instagram is that it’s cheaper than regular advertising, and it reaches more than twice the number of people. If someone clicks on your brand’s page, even if they don’t make a purchase, they will remember your brand, and they will come back. 

But how can you get them to return to your page? 

How can you create a commanding and strong presence on Instagram? With more than 25 million companies worldwide running Instagram pages to promote their brand, how can you get your company to rise to the top? 

After intensive research and referencing, we have shortlisted some tips, tricks, and strategies that online marketers swear by, and we hope that these will help your brand in creating a powerful Instagram presence. 

Have a Strictly Business-Only Account

Your potential customers are interested in what your brand has to offer; they are in no way concerned or involved in your personal life. So, ensure that you have a separate business account that utilizes all of Instagram’s business tools to promote your company. Remember, your customer is not interested in selfies from your recent family vacation, so keep those off your business Instagram account. They are not relevant to your customers and will not get you any clicks or sales. Your brand’s page is not about ‘you,’ it’s about your brand, so try your best to minimize or entirely eliminate anything personal from your business account. 

Make your brand’s account look professional. Tweak your bio and make it look more inviting as well as adept. Use hashtags, tag influencers, and others on your posts; this will lead more people to look at your account. Using smart yet simple language gives the impression that your brand is legit and reliable. Even if you use casual language, it should have an element to it that says, “This business is not a sham.” Most businesses use their company’s logo as their profile picture, if you’re doing that, ensure that it is at least 320 x 320 pixels and the same as the picture you’re using on other platforms, this allows customers to identify your brand easily. 

Be an Active Participant

Nobody would be interested in looking at a page that hasn’t posted a thing since the summer of 2016. To guarantee that a business Instagram page is extremely successful, experts suggest that you must be active on the platform 24/7, answering comments and replying to queries, and you should regularly be posting. However, it doesn’t end there; you should also actively follow other brands and influencers. Responding to customers’ comments almost immediately is a great way to gain more traffic and trust. 

You need to be involved and not just publish content and go, commit to a regular posting schedule. Many studies have observed that customer traffic happens at different times of the day for various industries. For instance, companies in the food and beverage industry have received much action on their posts around mid-day and noon and companies posting education-related posts do well around afternoon and evening. Your account’s ‘Insights’ option also tells you when your followers are most active so you can plan your posting schedule according to that.  The best way to assure all of this is being done is to hire a person to handle your company’s social media, which is what almost every big name in the industry has been doing these days. 

Decide On a Strategy

Blindly publishing content on your Instagram account is not going to work at all. After all, this too is marketing. And marketing requires strategies. It would be best if you clearly defined who your target demographic is and how successfully you want to make your content reach them. A vast majority of Instagram’s users are under the age of 40, and a massive portion of the users belong to the United States followed by India and Brazil. This gives you an idea on how to plan what to post and when to post it. How can you make your products and services appealing to a 23-year-old? Thankfully, Instagram’s business tools allow you to check your page’s analytics. These tools let you know who interacts with your posts often, where do they come from, what age group do they belong to, and so on. All of this information helps you optimize your marketing strategies. 

Like we mentioned earlier, your profile should be complete, and it should look authentic and professional. Always add your website link and a contact (e-mail address or a phone number) that your customers can use. 

Publish Interactive and Overall Great Content

One of the most important features that attract people to an Instagram account, business or not, is the type of images you post and how aesthetically pleasing they are to the eye. The best way to achieve this is to have a professional camera and someone who can click excellent pictures of your products. It is best to hire a professional photographer for this purpose. Most companies have a pre-decided feed, they have a clear idea of when to post what, and they should also ensure that it is attractive to the eye. Ensure that you have a consistent color/filter theme; this gives your page a unique and uniform look that will let your customers identify your page immediately. 

Re-sharing Instagram Stories of happy customers on your page is another way to get more instagram followers; using a specific hashtag can also do the trick for you. Lately, Instagram Stories have gained immense popularity amongst users, and studies show that about 40% of users have become curious about a product or service after seeing it on Instagram Stories. Use this feature to constantly put out engaging content that will bring in more followers and potential customers. 

These were some of the foolproof tips and tricks that will get your business Instagram account going. We hope this helped and we hope that you implement these tips for your business!