Instagram is set to have 2.5 billion active users by 2023, which means having an Instagram account for business is of utmost importance and it may very well prove to be an ideal platform for business.
Setting up an Instagram account for business is the need of the hour as a means to help your business tap into the unlimited potential of the platform. Ultimately, this will help businesses acquire and retain their customers.
An Instagram business account can be set up with ease and is free to do so. In order to run a successful business on Instagram, some best practices need to be adopted to optimize reach and engage the audience.
Three types of Instagram profiles
There are three types of Instagram profiles, and while the generic features available for Instagram are the same for all three, there are additional features for each subsequent profile.
The Personal profile is for personal use and needs no strategy as the personal accounts are only to connect with one’s social circle and keep updated on each other’s lives.
The Creator profile was recently introduced for individuals who are creators, notable figures, and/or influencers engaging in brand promotions and influencer partnerships. The creator profile is a bridge between personal and business profiles.
The Business profile accounts have the most access to features available on Instagram. It helps grow a business’s presence and in turn, drives more customers and sales to the business.
6 Steps on how to make Instagram Account for Business
To understand how to make Instagram account for business follow the steps mentioned below.
1. Create an Instagram Business Account
To set up an Instagram account with a business profile, a new account can be set up or an existing account may be converted into a business/professional account. If you are new to Instagram or looking to set up a new account from scratch, follow the steps mentioned below
- Download the Instagram application on your mobile device from AppStore for ioS or PlayStore for Android devices.
- Once downloaded, open the application and Sign up
- Log in with Facebook or enter an email address with administrator credentials if you will need to have multiple people access your business account for operational purposes.
- Fill out your details and set a password. Use your Facebook login credentials if you choose to sign up with Facebook.
- Click Next and you are done setting up your new Instagram profile.
The steps are the same to convert an existing Instagram account into a business account or to turn the new profile you just set up into a business profile.
- In the upper right corner of your profile screen, you will see the drop-down menu. Click on that.
- Go to Settings. If you see Switch to Professional account. Click on that.
- If you don’t see it immediately then go to Account.
- Now click on Switch to Professional account.
- Click on Continue.
- You will see an option to select a Category for your business, select the one most suited to your business.
- Click Done.
- Click OK and your business category will be confirmed.
- Click Business.
- Click on Next.
- If you wish to add your contact details then add those and click Next. If you don’t want to add your contact details then click on Don’t use my contact info.
- If you have a Facebook business page for the same business, then it is ideal that you connect your Facebook business page to your Instagram business page for utmost convenience and to take full advantage of the features available for business profiles across these platforms.
Your business account has been set up on Instagram.
2. Create a laser-focused Instagram Strategy
Identify your target audience
Like all businesses, an Instagram account for business needs to have a strategy as well to maximize profit and gain the most out of your profile. The first step in curating a laser-focused strategy is to Identify your target audience.
To do so, it is important to understand Instagram’s demographics. An example of demographics would be that 60% of the users are women and most of them are under the age of 30. Equipped with this knowledge, identify the market segments ideal for targeting your audience and what type of content they most engage with.
This can be done by understanding who your existing customers are, who your potential customers are, and who your competitors are targeting. This helps you direct your social media content strategy and helps you generate content that engages with your target audience.
Establish Goals and set appropriate Objectives
Outline what you want to accomplish and how Instagram will assist you in achieving your business goals by setting Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART) objectives. For example, you want to generate more sales, get more traffic on your website, or ensure high customer satisfaction.
Key Performance Indicators tracking
The KPIs or Key Performance Indicators are the metrics on which we measure the success of the social media strategy we have set up for our Instagram business profile.
Each business sets its KPIs concerning the goals they are looking to attain. These goals vary based on the stage of the customer’s journey that they are targeting - Awareness, Engagement, Conversion, and Customer.
Curating a Content Calendar
A well-organized content calendar ensures a successfully executed Instagram strategy and helps schedule adequate time for creative creation with no deadlines missed.
The more prepared you are, the better you'll be able to provide consistent content and react to unforeseen situations.
3. Best Practices to optimize your Instagram Account for Business
There are multiple ways to optimize your business account on Instagram. Some best practices used by the best Instagram accounts to follow for business are mentioned below.
- Optimize Bio: Focus on delivering as much information as possible without overflooding your Bio section.
- Optimize Profile Picture: Add a profile picture most relevant to your business. Do take into account that profile pictures are presented as circular thumbnails.
- Clickable Link: You may only have one place to share a clickable link if you are a business just starting, so be sure to add the most relevant clickable link here and keep updating it as and when needed to correspond with your content.
- Contact Details: Do add the ideal means of contacting your business. You may do so by linking your Whatsapp number, redirecting them to emails, or adding a contact button to call or message you. You may also direct your audience to your Instagram inbox.
- Action Buttons: This can be a secondary call to action button which can direct your customers to schedule consultations or appointments with your business. In order to have this feature, you need to have an Instagram account with one of Instagram partners.
- Curate Story Highlights and Highlight covers: You can create highlights on Instagram with the relevant links you want to leave for your audience to be able to access as and when needed. It helps drive more audience to the goals set for your business. Creating appropriate highlight covers makes these appear more professional and easier to understand the content of the highlights.
4. Create shareable content for your Instagram Business Account
Business identity
Like humans, businesses have personas too. They have a personality, a style, a combination of brand colors, and visual guidelines that a brand must adhere to in order to ensure consistency and familiarity, and create an unconscious association with the brand and its identity in their audience’s mind.
Visuals and Editing
To take eye-catching pictures and videos ensure that you are taking your photos in natural light. Depending on the type of business you have, post videos and reels of the relevant products or services. For instance, if you are into catering, post food pictures; jewelry if you deal in accessories, and so on.
Do make sure that you use tools readily available online and oftentimes for free to edit your content for optimal viewing.
Also, keep an eye out for your competitors and the content they are generating to always stay relevant in the market and ensure you are competing smartly with your competition.
Relevant and engaging caption and copy
This is where you can develop a relationship with your audience and/or share relevant information. Make sure to short, precise, and relatable captions and if needed a short copy with your intended call to action to drive your audience where you want them to go. Do make sure that they are in line with your brand voice and brand identity.
5. How to engage your Instagram Audience
Your audience must relate to you, for this purpose, you must engage with your Instagram audience.
There are various ways to engage with your audience on Instagram. Some of them are:
- Responding to Comments and engaging with your audience.
- Using story stickers such as tap stickers, question stickers, polls, sliders, quiz stickers, etc.
- Resharing user-generated content on your stories where you are tagged by customers with reviews or using your products.
- Using appropriate hashtags for your business and products.
- Promoting Instagram business across social networks to benefit from multiple platforms with the same business profile.
- Influencer Marketing to get your business endorsements and have the influencer’s following redirected to you.
- Responding to inbox queries promptly and setting up auto-generated responses.
- Running Instagram Ads and campaigns.
6. Analyze the performance of your Instagram Account
The Instagram Analytics tool can be used to track the results of the content being posted, the ads and campaigns being run, and so on. You may adopt the A/B testing methodology to test what works best for your business with your audience.
It is simply a test run of two variations of the same thing based on your research and analyzing which of the two works best for you to adopt for future engagement.
The benefits of an Instagram account for business
Having an Instagram business account benefits a business by giving it an additional platform to create demand for it. Furthermore, it gives more legitimacy to your business and the links are easily shareable via Instagram directly or externally, and products in posts can be tagged as well.
It also gives you more analytics to better base your business strategy on and it gives you the option to add clickable links to your stories to redirect traffic wherever you need. Instagram adverts are another major asset to your business and you can even schedule your posts in advance to ensure smooth and consistent operations.
Things to consider when you post on your business account
The first and foremost thing to consider when posting on your business account is your target audience and your brand identity. Only post things that are relevant to these. You also need to be sensitive to the kind of content you are posting and ensure that you are following the user guidelines set out by Instagram.
It is best to refrain from posting information that is not verified or content that infringes on any copyrights. Ensure that what you are posting is visually appealing and has a call to action and a solid point it is driving home.
Do not post just for the sake of posting or to state a personal opinion on a business profile. Keep it strictly professional.
How you can use the Markaz App and Instagram to earn passive income
With over 10,000+ products listed on the Markaz App’s marketplace across several categories from various brands and manufacturers, Markaz is the rising star in social commerce providing a safe and steady space for individuals to generate incomes and providing a platform to bridge the gap between wholesalers and resellers.
Markaz App enables resellers to earn with zero investment. All a reseller has to do is get a link from a wholesaler as listed on the Markaz App and share it with their audience on their social platforms. Whenever someone purchases an item through the unique link shared by the reseller, the additional markup as set by the reseller will become their earnings.
The best part is that Markaz App ensures maximum convenience both to the reseller and the buyer by taking care of the shipping and payments themselves. This ensures there are no delays and strict quality control.
In order to utilize Instagram to optimize Markaz App sales, there are multiple things a reseller can do. They can:
- Share a clickable link to their stories on their business profile.
- Boost this to reach the maximum audience.
- Tag products and add relevant links to the article in their Bio’s clickable link.
- Share their affiliate links via Instagram Direct to interested customers to purchase the products using these links.
- Redirect the customers to their WhatsApp business account where they can have clickable links in their business catalog.
- Redirect their audience to their Facebook page with the links to purchase from Markaz App.
Concluding Remarks
Instagram is one of the most lucrative social media platforms with over 200 million businesses. With the right social media strategy and understanding of your target audience, your business can increase sales and acquire a lot more customers.
This blog caters to those looking to set up their Instagram business profile and shares tips and tricks to become one of the best Instagram accounts to follow for business. Setting up an Instagram business account is just the beginning of your business and you need to use many other strategies to fully benefit from your Instagram business account.
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