Instagram & Small Business: How to Succeed
As one of the most powerful online platforms, Instagram allows plenty of opportunities for small businesses to reach their ideal audiences.
What’s more, with the new shopping options, e-shops, and regular businesses can now sell directly from the app.
However, the ever-growing number of users makes matters all the more difficult for small businesses just starting out their Instagram endeavors.
To help you develop and improve your Instagram strategy for small businesses, here are the 3 crucial steps you can take starting today.
Build trust
First and foremost, it’s essential to understand what entices users to follow a small business on Instagram, and eventually buy from them.
Well, in the case of a visual social media platform like Instagram, the first impression always counts. But, let’s leave the content matter aside for now and tackle the most important reason people decide to buy from a brand.
The trust factor undeniably plays a crucial part when it comes to purchasing decisions. To reach this holy grail for businesses, you have to dedicate most of your time on Instagram to building relationships.
- Reply to comments, DMs, and mentions on time to show your business’s human part.
- Organize giveaways and contests to show your appreciation for the audience.
- Solicit and promote user-generated content to showcase your dedicated audience.
- Post photos of your employees to show the people behind the brand.
Whatever you do, make sure it reflects the values you want to be associated with your brand.
For a more in-depth guide of how you can turn your Instagram followers into returning buyers, be sure to browse around this site.
Create a plan
Once you’ve understood how to build trust, it’s time to prepare an Instagram strategy to take your small business from okay to Insta approved.
To make a strategy that successfully combines your small business’ vision and a creative display appealing to the Instagram audience, you have to have three crucial things figured out.
First of all, you need to be clear on your business mission, and how you can highlight this in every piece of content you post. This includes tone, branding, and overall messaging.
Another important fact when preparing your Instagram strategy is to understand what your audience wants to see from you. Explore similar small businesses and competition to get ideas.
Finally, think of an authentic element to show what’s unique about your small business. This could be anything from how you write your captions to the feed organization and the colors or filters you use.
Execute
Finally, it’s time to put all of the planning into action. Of course, you can switch things up and add new elements as you go. But it’s always important to remember the best practice steps when it comes to implementing a solid Instagram strategy for small businesses.
Share the best quality content that reflects your brand and speaks to your ideal audience at the same time.
Post when your audience is most active. There’s no one general best time to post on Instagram. It all depends on your audience, their time zone, and their personal preferences. To make sure your content catches your audience’s attention, check your analytics when scheduling your posts.
Add the right hashtags. Hashtags are still your best bet when it comes to achieving Instagram success as a small business. The best way to go about this is to pick a couple of the most popular Instagram hashtags and prioritize the somewhat more specific ones. Depending on your niche, location, and your audience’s preferences, the niche-specific hashtags can make more impact in driving the ideal followers, and ultimately – buyers.
Nail the captions. Strategically written captions with adequate Call-to-Action are imperative when it comes to guiding your audience further through your sales funnel. Ask the right questions, teach, intrigue, and inspire action.
Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash
Contributed posts are advertisements written by third parties who have paid Woman Around Town for publication.