If you have a small business that you’re running, then you will understand the importance of stretching every dollar of your marketing budget and making them count. It is common for small business owners to look past social media and focus on other things they consider more important. However, social media platforms offer incredible reach such that you can’t neglect them. Instagram is one of such massive social media platforms with more than 1 billion active users monthly. So it’s one that you can’t ignore.
There are several ways to use Instagram to market your small business at no cost and leverage this platform to convert leads and attract more customers.
Post content every day
One untold yet important rule for marketing on Instagram is to post videos or photos every day. Ensure to have fresh content on your profile or business account every day, as this is the best way to put your business out to more Instagram users and win over more customers. To get the best results, make sure to post content not less than two times and not more than ten times every day. Of course, the volume of content you post every day will depend on your audience and the kind of business you are running.
Use UGC
UGC – User-generated content – refers to content that users and customers create rather than brands. It includes all types of content such as text, images, videos, reviews, etc. For Instagram, it is mainly videos or photos that users post or send to brands. Your small business needs to use UGC for three main reasons: it promotes authenticity, creates trust, and encourages purchasing decisions. Users are more than 2x likely to attest to the authenticity of UGC compared to content created by brands. A brand that posts UGC is considered credible by users because people use the brand’s products or services that they know. Knowing other people who also use this brand’s products or services puts them at ease and makes the purchasing decision easier.
Hashtags
The use of hashtags on Instagram is not a new strategy. However, it remains an important one. Adding hashtags to your caption or comments gives your brand more visibility on the platform. Although you can add as many as 30 hashtags, it is more effective when you use between three and 10 for each post. You must also ensure that all the hashtags are relevant to the context and content of the post. Finally, ensure you put your company hashtag too.
Link in bio
One way to use Instagram for your business is to guide people to your company’s website. Unfortunately, it is impossible to have clickable links within your post’s caption on Instagram. So, you can add the link to your website on the bio part of your profile. This link can take them directly to your website homepage, and you can also update it frequently so your followers can get to current event pages, sign-ups, or promotions.
Interact and engage with your audience
This may be tedious, but it is also very crucial for your business. Interacting and engaging with your users on this platform allows them to connect with the brand that puts you on their minds whenever they want to make purchasing decisions. It is equally vital that you interact with other brands as this increases your brand awareness. You can do this by frequently liking and commenting on your followers’ posts and other brands that you may be able to collaborate with. Your level of interaction shows the audience that there's a human behind the brand account, and they will find it easier to connect.
Instagram stories and IGTV
Your Instagram story is an essential tool for your small business Instagram marketing. While it is only visible for 24 hours, saving them to your profile ‘highlights’ allows your followers to view them any time. It has several benefits for small businesses such as:
o It’s at the top of your follower’s feed, so it is easy for them to view, giving you more exposure.
o It makes it possible and easy to experiment with content types such as videos, photos, live streams, and boomerangs.
o Features like stickers, text, and filters make the content more exciting.
o You can share and repost UGC within seconds.
o You can tag other users, making collaboration and influencer marketing easier.
Instagram’s IGTV allows you to create long video content. These videos can either be 60 seconds short of 60 minutes long. It is a different platform to give your video content more visibility and appears in the user’s feed like a 60-second video.
Use analytics
All of the tips mentioned already in this article are very crucial and can help promote your business. However, an extra crucial tip – extra crucial because it allows you to know how well or how bad you’re doing – is analytics. Suppose you don't use analytics, even after combining all of the previous tips. In that case, it will be impossible to know whether the tactics you’re implementing are working or not, and this information is crucial for your small business marketing.
Conclusion
Instagram marketing is crucial for small businesses because it is effective, and you can do it for free. This article discusses seven ways to use Instagram for your small business marketing.
Author Bio
Charlie Svensson is a fast, engaging writer providing assignment help at college paper help. In addition, he is skilled in content writing and blogging. The favorite topics of his posts are education, social media, marketing, SEO, motivation blogging, and self-growth. Excellent adaptability of skills to reach diverse audiences.
