How to have a successful instagram business

Complete Guide + 18 Strategies

With over 2 billion monthly active users as of Q4 2021 (up 200% from 2018) Instagram is both the O.G. and trendsetter of social media marketing. Instagram has shaped the landscape of social commerce, the creator economy, and how brands use social media for over a decade.

So how can you use Instagram marketing to grow your business in 2023?

Do you need Instagram ads (or worse: dancing Reels) to be successful? How can you best use Instagram’s shopping tools?

Find out how to use Instagram to grow your business online, no matter your industry or goals.

What is Instagram marketing?

How to set up Instagram for marketing

18 tips for a winning Instagram marketing strategy

Why use Instagram for marketing?

3 Instagram marketing tools

Bonus: Claim your free pack of 15 creative Instagram post templates made by Hootsuite’s professional graphic designers. Easily customize them in Canva, and start getting more engagement today.

What is Instagram marketing?

Instagram marketing is the practice of using Instagram to grow your brand awareness, audience, leads, and sales. As the favorite social media platform of people ages 16-34, Instagram is a highly effective marketing platform for brands, entrepreneurs, and creators.

Instagram marketing strategies include:

Organic content: Photo, video, or carousel posts, Reels, Stories
Paid content: Instagram ads, including Stories ads, Shopping ads, and more
Influencer marketing
Shopping tools: Shop tab, Product tags and catalog, Live shopping, Instagram Checkout, Shopping ads

How to set up Instagram for marketing

If you’re just starting out, here’s what you need to do to set your company’s Instagram account up for success.

Set up an Instagram Business profile

To use most of the marketing tips featured here, you need an Instagram Business account. It’s free, and you can create a new one or convert your existing Personal account.

If you have an existing Personal account, skip to Step 3.

Step 1: Download Instagram

You can only create an account using a mobile device.

Get it for iOS
Get it for Android

Step 2: Create a Personal account

Tap Create new account. Follow the prompts to enter your email and phone number and choose a username and password. You don’t need to fill out the rest of your profile right now (more on how to optimize it later).

Step 3: Switch your new account to a Business one

Go to your profile and open the menu. Go to Settings and choose Switch to professional account near the bottom. Select Business as the account type and follow the prompts to convert your account.

Get verified

Most companies aren’t verified. Research shows 73.4% of creators or brands with over a million followers are verified, but only 0. 87% of those with 1,000-5,000 followers are.

You don’t need that little blue checkmark to be successful on Instagram, but having it can help you earn trust and stand out.

To apply for Instagram verification:

1. In the app, open the menu. Click Settings, then Account, then Request Verification.

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2. Fill out the form.

After submitting the form, you’ll receive the answer as a notification within Instagram in about a week. Instagram will never email you, ask for payment, or contact you any other way.

If your verification request is unsuccessful, you can try again in 30 days. If it’s approved, hooray and welcome to the super-elite Insta club.

The tricky part of getting verified is having enough third-party content to prove you’re well-known enough to warrant needing verification. We cover tips for getting that supporting content in our complete guide to getting verified on Instagram.

Try Instagram ads

Expanding your marketing strategy with ads can have a big impact. Even simple ads can earn results, like coffee retailer Country Bean’s 3 week campaign which resulted in a 16% sales increase.

There are two ways to get started with Instagram ads:

The easy way: Boost a post

You can turn any existing Instagram post into an ad by clicking the Boost Post button. You need to have either a Business or Creator account, though.

As you probably guessed, this is exactly like Facebook’s “boost” feature. Now that Meta owns both companies, you’ll also need to connect your Instagram account to Meta Business Suite.

After clicking Boost Post, follow the quick prompts to set your budget, narrow your target audience, set a duration, and boom—you now have an Instagram ad.

You can customize the targeting options or have Instagram automatically target your ads. Boosted posts are a good way to dip your toe in the advertising pool, so if this is all new to you, stick to auto mode.

Go big: Launch a full Instagram ad campaign

Step 1: Log in to Meta Business Suite

Click on Ads in the left menu, then Create ad at the top right.

Step 2: Choose a goal

Remember Choose Your Own Adventure books? It’s like that, but for marketing.

For a first campaign, Automated Ads are a good option. Instagram will try to get you the most results with the least budget possible, and they auto-adjust your targeting and bidding strategy as they learn more from your audience’s reactions. It’s like having a 24/7 robot assistant.

If you want to experiment with ad targeting yourself, or have a specific goal, try out one of the other options, like focusing on leads or traffic.

Step 3: Create your ads

The prompts to complete your ad vary depending on which goal you pick, but generally the next step is to create the ad creative. For example, this is what the next step is for the “Build your business” goal.

For a well-rounded campaign, you should have at least 2-3 ad groups, each containing 3 or more ads.

Most ad formats have an option to allow Instagram to switch out your creative assets automatically to optimize ad performance. It’s like having a real-time, built-in A/B testing process. Add multiple creative assets for each ad to take advantage of this.

Try to include a mix of photo, video, Stories ads, Reels ads, and Catalog and Shopping ads if you sell products online. Test out different ad copy and calls to action.

And, ensure you have ads for each stage of your buyer’s journey, from consideration all the way to conversion.

Step 4: Define your audience

Take a shot every time you read “define your audience” in a marketing blog.

Targeting is critical to your ad’s success. Meta Business Suite gives you five options:

You can target:

An Advantage Audience (Recommended for newbies!): This is Meta’s AI-optimized audience based on your existing account audience, and updates itself automatically as your audience grows or changes. It analyzes what interests and demographics your followers share.
People you choose: Create your own audience from scratch, including location, demographics, interests, and more.
People who’ve previously engaged with posts or ads: Create a retargeting campaign to remind people who already know you about your offer.
Page Likes: Targets your existing Facebook Page and Instagram followers.
Page Likes and similar: In addition to your existing audience, this will also expand to target people the algorithm thinks are similar to them to bring in new leads.

If you’re new to ads, use the Advantage audience option. Want to learn more about perfecting your ad targeting? The info in our Facebook ad targeting guide works for your Instagram ads, too.

Step 5: Set your budget

Whichever targeting option you pick, you’ll need to set a budget and duration. You’ll see the predicted results of your choices on the right side in estimated reach and clicks.

Step 6: Launch

Lastly, choose if you want your ad to appear only on Facebook, Instagram, or Messenger, or across all three platforms. We recommend running it across all.

Click Promote Now to save and launch your Instagram ad campaign. Woo!

Running a successful ad campaign is a huge undertaking. Check our in-depth Instagram ads guide for tips on creating great ads in 2023.

Add an Instagram Shop to your account

Instagram Shopping tools are a must-have for ecommerce businesses. 44% of Instagram users shop weekly on the platform, and 1 in 2 use Instagram to find new brands.

Tips on using Instagram Shopping are in the next section, but you need to add the Shop tab to your Instagram profile first.

This allows you to create a fully shoppable product catalog directly on Instagram, as well as tag and link to products in your posts and Stories, and more.

Source

Step 1: Ensure you meet Instagram Shopping requirements

Brands using Shopping features must adhere to Meta’s merchant policies. You’re probably doing all these things correctly anyway, but it’s a good idea to review Meta’s commerce policies first before applying.

Step 2: Sign up for Commerce Manager

To create your Instagram Shop, you need to have a Meta Commerce Manager account. You need a Business or Creator Instagram account first, then you can sign up one of two ways:

Through your ecommerce platform

If your website runs on Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, or other major platforms, you may only have to click a button to set up your Instagram Shop.

The process is different for each, so check out Meta’s list of supported platforms to find instructions for yours.

Manually through Commerce Manager

Don’t use one of those? It’s easy to sign up from scratch.

Click Add Account. Click Next on the following page to start the manual set up process.

First, choose a checkout method:

Checkout on your website.
Checkout directly inside Facebook and/or Instagram. (Recommended, but currently only available for U.S.-based companies.)
Checkout via direct message on WhatsApp or Messenger.

Select the Facebook and Instagram profiles you want to create your Shop on, then click Next. Create a new product catalog, and click Next again.

It will prompt you to enter your website URL and the countries you ship to. The final page is a summary of all your information. Ensure it’s accurate, then click Finish Setup.

Step 3: Wait for approval

Instagram reviews new Commerce Manager applications manually, though you should hear back within a few business days.

Eager to learn while you wait? Learn how to tag products in your scheduled Hootsuite posts, and the next steps to optimize your Instagram Shop.

18 tips for a winning Instagram marketing strategy

1.

Set S.M.A.R.T. social media goals

You know, the specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound yada yada yada type goals. What do you want your Instagram account to do for your business?

A few common examples are:

Lead generation
Brand awareness
Recruitment

But, your goals are as unique as your company. The important point? Have some.

Learn how to set effective social media goals that directly connect to your marketing strategy.

2. Optimize your profile

There’s a lot to cover here, so check out our full step-by-step recommendations to optimize your Instagram profile.

At minimum, ensure yours has:

An intriguing Instagram bio that sums up your brand.
A call to action to click your bio link.
A high quality profile photo (a headshot or logo).
Stories highlights and well-designed covers.

The great thing about digital marketing is nothing is set in stone. Don’t sweat about making the perfect Instagram profile. You can always tweak it later.

Remember: it’s what’s inside that counts (most). As in, your actual Instagram post content.

3. Up your graphics game

Instagram is a visual platform. While no one’s expecting a small business to have the same resources as a megacorp, you still need to create eye-catching posts that attract your audience.

Besides hiring a professional photographer to take your product shots—which you really should—try:

Sourcing inclusive stock photography, like Vice’s Gender Spectrum Collection and others who showcase the full range of the human experience. (Here are more stock photo sites.)
Popular Instagram Reels ideas. Not sure where to start? Try a Reels template.
Use graphic templates to up your style without spending a lot. Hire a designer to make them, or use an app like Adobe Express.

4. Champion user-generated content

The best way to boost your Instagram for free? User-generated content.

Encourage your followers to share photos or video of your products. Not every shot will be an Ansel Adams-worthy one, but you can’t beat the authenticity of real customer photos and stories.

Instagram makes this easy with the Tagged tab, which shows all the posts other users tag you in. There’s a hack to make it so only the crème de la crème are visible: Enabling manual approval for tagged photos.

So instead of a jumbled mess, you can curate user-generated content that fits your aesthetic.

Source

5. Develop a brand aesthetic

Speaking of style… have one. While your audience isn’t going to hand over their wallets solely due to good looks, make an effort to create a cohesive-looking profile.

Why? Because people will see one of your posts in their Instagram feed and instantly know it’s from you before even seeing the account name. They’ll recognize your style. That’s branding at work.

6. …But don’t be too concerned with aesthetic

Yes, having a recognizable look helps you attract the audience you want, but style without substance isn’t a strategy. 58% of Instagram users say they like it more when brands share candid, unpolished content.

Don’t let the fear of your content not looking “pretty” enough stop you. Post it anyway.

7. Have a distinctive brand voice

One thing that always needs to be on point, raw or not, is your brand voice.

Your voice comes through everything you communicate, such as:

Post captions
How you come across on video
Key terms you use
How people speak on camera when representing your company
Your bio copy
Text in videos or Reels

Besides what you say, it’s how you say it. Are you casual and fun, or serious and scientific? Keep things light with jokes, or stick to the facts? There isn’t a wrong way, but you need to stay consistent.

Your brand voice and tone is a key part of your social media brand guidelines.

8. Use Reels

It seems like all you see when you open Instagram now are Reels, and there’s a reason for it: They get engagement. We conducted an experiment that found a significant correlation between posting a Reel and an immediate boost in overall engagement rate.

Some may not get many views and that’s okay, because when one of yours does go a lil’ bit viral? It’s all worth it.

Anyone can be successful with Reels, it just takes practice. We’ve got tons of resources to makes yours reel-y (ugh) good:

Instagram Reels in 2023: A Simple Guide for Businesses
Instagram Reels Algorithm: Everything You Need to Know
Instagram Reels Tutorial: 10 Editing Tips You Should Know
15 Unique Instagram Reels Ideas for Your Business

9. Use Stories

Reels may be newer, but Instagram Stories aren’t going anywhere. Popular for more informal content, Stories allow you to develop relationships with your audience in a unique way.

It doesn’t take a ton more work to see a big effect, either. A year-long study found that when companies shared one Story per day, it resulted in a 100% retention rate.

Not only that, but 500 million people use Stories every day. I’m not great at math but having 100% of your audience remember your content, with a potential reach of 500 million people? That’s a no brainer.

If you need tips on what to share in your Stories, check out our Instagram Stories guide for businesses and how to create effective Instagram Stories ads.

10. Create useful Stories highlights

Stories only last 24 hours, but your Stories highlights can live on forever.

Highlights are great for communicating lots of information quickly in the format most people prefer these days: Short video. 61% of Gen Zers and Millennials prefer videos under 1 minute long.

Plus, adding Stories highlights is a way to repurpose your Story content and keep it working for you.

Try adding a temporary highlight for a new product launch or event. Leave up always-relevant ones like FAQ or ordering information.

For effective Stories highlights, ensure you have:

Short, clear titles
Cover designs that fit your brand
Only your best content featured in them

Source

11.

Use Stories tools

Instagram makes it easy to link to your products or services (whether you have Commerce Manager set up or not) and engage with your audience.

Access the ever-expanding Stories toolbox by tapping the smiley sticker-thing:

Be sure to try out:

Product tags: If you have an Instagram Shop, you can easily tag your products in Stories. Users can tap the product name and checkout in-app.
Links: Useful for directing people to any URL, but especially so if you don’t have an Instagram Shop. You can still link out to your products on external sites.
Questions: Get quick and valuable feedback.
Gift cards and more: Depending on your account type, users can purchase gift cards or order food delivery directly from a Story.

Hootsuite makes it easy to schedule Instagram Stories in advance, including all the special tools and features you need.

12. Stay up to date on hashtags

To hashtag or not to hashtag? Is it nobler to suffer the highs and lows of the algorithm, or take arms against a sea of content?

You can add up to 30 hashtags per Instagram post. But a 2021 experiment we did showed that using more doesn’t get more views. Last year, Instagram’s official @creators account recommended no more than 3-5 per post.

What about in 2023?

A casual experiment I ran on my account this week showed an opposite effect. I loaded up on hashtags, using between 15-20 per post, and most of my (albeit small) reach came from those hashtags.

So what does this tell us?

TL;DR: Science is hard, no one knows how many Instagram hashtags are “the perfect amount,” and you should regularly experiment with this.

Check out our Instagram hashtag guide for tips on what’s working right now.

13. Reply to comments and DMs

Engage with your audience! Reply to their comments, messages, carrier pigeons, etc.

Because a higher engagement rate looks good on your analytics reports, right? No! Reply to your followers because it’s the right thing to do.

Yes, it also boosts your engagement rate. But more importantly, it encourages your potential customers to start conversations with you. Over time, those conversations become the foundation of their perception of your brand and greatly influence purchase decisions.

Hootsuite Inbox allows you to stay on top of all comments and DMs across all your platforms in one place. Assign conversations to team members, track responses, and ensure no one falls through the cracks. See how efficient it is to foster genuine engagement with Inbox:

14. Try Instagram Live video

Live video doesn’t need to be scary. It’s a powerful tool for Instagram growth and deepening your relationship with your audience.

Try:

Hosting a workshop or class.
A Q&A session.
Product demos.

Source

Our complete guide to going live on Instagram covers how to do it and ideas you can try today.

15. Partner with influencers

Influencer marketing is still going strong in 2023 and projected to grow more every year. In 2021 alone, influencer marketing accounted for $13.8 billion USD in value.

Don’t forget your most valuable influencers: your employees. Starting an employee advocacy program can boost your profits 23% and internal team morale. Win-win.

Learn how to maximize your ROI with our free Influencer Marketing 101 guide for businesses of all sizes.

16. Run contests and giveaways

What do people like? Free stuff!

When do they want it? All the time!

Sometimes the best strategies for Instagram are the oldest. Contests can boost your organic reach and give you tons of user-generated content.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Colorbar Cosmetics (@lovecolorbar)

Contests don’t need to be expensive. Give away free products in a simple raffle by having users like and comment on your post, or partner with someone else in your industry to split the cost of a larger prize package.

Get inspired with creative Instagram contest ideas, and a step-by-step process for running giveaways.

17. Measure your ROI

You see the positive comments customers leave, the sales coming in, and your follower count going up. But how do you put a number on it? What are the real results of your efforts?

Measuring your ROI, or return on investment, is important for reporting to your boss, but it can also help you justify establishing or increasing your paid advertising budget.

It’s also the only way to know if your marketing strategy needs a tweak, or if you should double down on what you’re doing.

Rather than sifting through each platform’s analytics dashboard and attempting to assemble the full picture yourself, lean on Hootsuite Impact instead. Impact pulls together data for all your organic and paid content across every platform in one place, giving you powerful insights whenever you need them.

18. Experiment!

Last but not least, don’t wildly follow every Instagram marketing tip you read on marketing blogs. 🙃

Seriously: You need to experiment. Every audience is different. Maybe your peeps hate live video. Maybe they’re only online at 3pm on Wednesdays. Maybe they will give you their first-born child for a free sweatshirt.

Evaluate your performance often and set aside time to run experiments to see which tactics work best for you. Don’t worry, we have a free social media audit template to help out.

Why use Instagram for marketing?

Need a bit more convincing? Here’s how Instagram marketing can help you grow your business.

Instagram Shopping tools can boost sales by 300%

44% of Instagrammers shop weekly on the platform. Since launching basic shopping tools in 2018, like linking to products from Stories, Instagram is now a complete social commerce solution.

Brands can achieve up to 300% more sales with a combination of Shopping tools and ads.

People spend 30 minutes per day on Instagram

Instagrammers spend 30 minutes per day on the app, which is fairly average among major social platforms, but it’s the session length that really stands out.

People spend about 18 minutes per session, which beats out the average Amazon shopping trip (13 minutes), Twitter scroll (14 minutes), and YouTube session (7 minutes). Surprisingly, also the average session on Pornhub (14 minutes).

Now that’s real engagement.

Source: Hootsuite Digital Trends 2022 Report

Instagram ads reach almost 1/3rd of all internet users

Instagram ads can reach up to 1.48 billion people. That’s 29.9% of all internet users and 23.9% of everyone over age 13 worldwide.

Instagram ads also significantly impact brand sentiment: 50% of people say they find businesses more interesting after seeing their ads on the platform.

Source: Hootsuite Digital Trends 2022 Report

3 Instagram marketing tools

1. Hootsuite

Lil’ biased here, but Hootsuite really is a great choice to manage all your social media marketing. We have all the basic tools you need, like scheduling, planning, and analytics, as well as advanced capabilities to take you even further.

With Hootsuite, you can schedule posts for Instagram (Posts, Stories, and Reels), Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Pinterest. from one intuitive dashboard. Think of all the time you can save not switching between 7 apps to post content!

Hootsuite also offers detailed analytics comprehensive reporting, as well as a calendar view and content creation tools that allow you to publish the best content possible.

That’s not it. Every Hootsuite user gets access to custom, fully personalized recommendations for the best times to post content for maximum reach, impressions, or engagement.

Try Hootsuite for free

Check out everything Hootsuite can do for you:

2.

Notion

Notion is like if a notebook and a spreadsheet had a baby. A Gen Z baby ‘cause it’s digital-first.

You can add anything to a Notion page that you add to a document, like text, images, etc. But its real power is databases, allowing you to filter and sort your info in multiple ways, including on a calendar, in tables, or with Kanban boards, to name a few.

It’s what I use to plan my social media content (before I put it into Hootsuite, of course) and I love how easy it is to edit on mobile. Plus, if I had ~~friends~~ a team, everyone could collaborate in the same Notion workspace, too.

Check out Notion’s template gallery, or make your own content board from scratch.

3. Adobe Express

Adobe Express is a free online tool to create great-looking social graphics and more. You get additional features if you already have an Adobe subscription, including Adobe Stock access and more.

With Hootsuite’s Creative Cloud integration, you can view all your Adobe libraries directly inside Hootsuite, and edit photos in Hootsuite Composer. It’s a perfect pair, especially if you already use other Adobe apps like Photoshop or Illustrator.

Manage all your Instagram marketing alongside your other social platforms with Hootsuite’s time-saving tools. From a single dashboard, you can schedule posts, Stories, and Reels, engage with your audience, and measure your social ROI. Try it free today.

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How to Use Instagram for Business in 2023: 6 Pro Tips

How to set up Instagram for business in 4 steps

Using Instagram for business: 6 tips

FAQs about using Instagram for business

Instagram is the top media platform for building relationships with brands, according to a Meta-commissioned Ipsos study. And half of Instagram users say the platform helps them discover new brands. Even better for brands, 44% of users shop weekly on the platform.

If you’re not using Instagram for business purposes, those potential new customers might never find their way to your products or services.

Here’s how to use Instagram for business growth in 2023.

How to set up Instagram for business in 4 steps

1. Switch to a Business account

You need to create an Instagram account first, then convert it to a business account. If you have an existing personal or creator account you want to convert, that works too. It’s free and anyone can do it.

You can have up to five Instagram accounts, so go ahead and keep your personal Instagram account personal if that’s what you prefer.

From your profile, tap the hamburger (three lines) menu icon in the upper-right corner.
Tap Settings. Some accounts may see Switch to professional account on this menu. If you do, tap it. Otherwise, tap Account, then tap Switch to professional account.
Tap Continue (you may need to tap it multiple times as Instagram previews the available features of a professional account).
Select a Category and use the slider to choose whether to show it on your profile, then tap Done.
Choose Business (unless it makes sense for you to choose Creator), and tap Next.
Use the slider to opt in or out of promotional emails from Instagram for professional accounts, then tap Next.
Add or edit relevant contact details, then use the slider to choose whether to show your contact information on your profile, then tap Next (or tap Don’t use my contact info to skip this step).
If you plan to connect your Instagram business account with a Facebook business page, follow the prompts to connect your account to your Facebook Page. This is technically optional, but it’s necessary in order to use Instagram shopping features or run ads on Instagram.
Tap the X in the top left corner to close this window and return to your profile.

Learn more about the difference between Instagram business and creator accounts.

2. Add business information to your bio

In 150 characters or less, your Instagram bio should describe your brand and showcase your brand voice. We’ve got a full guide to creating an effective Instagram bio for business (complete with templates), but here’s a quick video to walk you through the basics:

Also be sure to make the most of the other components of your Instagram business profile:

Profile pic: Most brands use their logo. Your profile photo displays as 110 x 110 pixels (cropped to a circle), but it’s stored at 320 x 320, so that’s the size you should upload.
Link in bio: Link to your website, your latest blog post, a current campaign or a Link Tree.
Contact information: If you didn’t add contact info during your account creation, you can do so at any time by tapping Edit profile. Instagram will then add a Contact button to your profile.
Action buttons: If relevant, you can add a button that allows customers to book or reserve appointments or to order food. To use this feature, you need an account with one of Instagram’s partners. Tap Edit Profile, then scroll down to Action Buttons.
Story highlights and covers: Instagram Story highlights are another way to maximize your profile real estate by providing more information about your brand or your products. Organize Stories into saved collections, then add some polish with Highlight covers.

3. Connect your product catalog

To tag products in Instagram content, or to run certain kinds of Instagram ads, you need to create a product catalog. You can do this in Meta’s Commerce Manager.

Head to Commerce Manager and click Get Started, then select Create a catalog and click Get started again.
Select Ecommerce, then click Next.
If you have a shop on an ecommerce platform like Shopify or Big Commerce, click Connect a partner platform and follow the prompts to create your catalog. Otherwise, click Upload product info, name your catalog and click Next.
Click View catalog to open your catalog, then Add items to start adding products.

We’ve got a whole post on using Commerce Manager if you’d like more details on how this tool works.

4. Turn on Instagram shopping

Once your catalog is full of products, it’s time to turn on Instagram’s shopping features.

From your profile, tap the hamburger (three lines) menu icon in the upper-right corner.
Tap Settings, then Business, then Set up a Shop.
Tap Get started and follow the prompts to submit your shop for review.
Wait for approval. You can check the status of your shop at any time by going to Settings > Business >Shopping.
Once your shop is approved, go to Settings > Business >Shopping, select your product catalog and tap Done.

We’ve got a full blog post explaining everything you need to know about Instagram Shopping if you want to focus on this particular aspect of using Instagram for business.

Using Instagram for business: 6 tips

1. Research your audience

A good social media strategy starts with a sound understanding of your audience.

Instagram’s audience demographics give you an overall picture of who uses the platform. For example, 18-34-year-olds represent the largest ad audience on the site.

Source: Hootsuite Global State of Digital 2022 (October Update)

However, that doesn’t mean your specific audience on Instagram will be made up of 18-to-34-year-olds. For example, looking at the audience insights for my own Instagram account, I can see that my audience skews older than the Instagram average:

Source: Meta Business Suite

You can find demographic information on your existing audience using Instagram Insights, Meta Business Suite, or Hootsuite Analytics. But if you’re just getting started using Instagram for business, you might not have a large enough following to gain meaningful insights here yet.

In that case, take a look at the demographics of your audience on other social channels and of your existing customer base. While this won’t translate exactly to Instagram, it should give you a sense of who’s interested in your business and what you have to say.

Understanding your audience puts you in a better position to create targeted content and business captions for Instagram that resonate. Since audience research is an important foundation for your content strategy, we’ve got a whole post dedicated to helping you find your target market.

2. Figure out your content mix

Now that you know who your audience is, you need to determine what to share with them. Rather than posting random content whenever the mood strikes, you need to develop a content strategy that speaks to your audience and keeps them engaged, all while contributing to real business goals.

While you should certainly post some promotional content to get people excited about your products and drive sales, you also need to provide content that builds community and sparks engagement.

That might mean including user-generated content or other curated resources, sharing insider expertise about your industry, or joining in on a trending meme. (But tread carefully here – only join in on trends that are appropriate for your brand voice.)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Wendy's 🍔 (@wendys)

Look for opportunities to develop themes or regular installments that you can build into a series. “Content buckets” allow you to check certain boxes without having to overthink creation. The more planning you do upfront, the better you’ll be able to produce regular content and respond to last-minute or unplanned events.

3. Schedule your content in advance

From Reels to Stories to posts, there are many options when it comes to Instagram content.

The best way to create a unified strategy is to schedule your content across all Instagram surfaces (and other social platforms) using a content calendar. Or, take it up a level and schedule all your content to publish automatically at the right time using a tool like the Hootsuite Publisher. Yes, you can even schedule Stories and Reels in advance.

Start free 30-day trial

The added advantage here is that you can create your content in dedicated blocks of time and schedule it to post at the best time for your audience. Even if that time is outside business hours, on the weekend, or in the middle of the night.

4. Tag products

When you share content about your products on Instagram, tagging makes it much easier for people to learn more or buy. You can tag up to 20 products in a photo feed post.

To tag products, create your Instagram post or Reel as usual. Then, on the final screen before posting, tap Tag products. You can tag products from your own shop or someone else’s, which creates great opportunities for collaboration and cross-promotion.

Source: @reitmans

In Stories, you can tag products using the Product link sticker.

Source: @allbirds

5. Track your results (and learn from wins and losses)

With an Instagram business profile, you have access to the platform’s built-in analytics tools to help you understand how well different types of content perform.

There are several other analytics tools available, including Hootsuite’s, that can track longer time frames, automate reporting and make it easier to compare Instagram metrics across other social media platforms.

Try for free

No matter which social media marketing tools you use, the important thing is to check in regularly to learn what kind of content resonates best with your target audience. You’ll start to see patterns about what generates the most engagement, as well as what kinds of social media content increase views beyond your existing follower base. (Hint: Try Instagram Reels.)

Use these lessons to hone your content strategy over time.

6. Treat Instagram as a customer service channel

Success on Instagram requires you to engage with your followers rather than just blast content out and hope someone likes it. One important component of this two-way communication is monitoring your DMs for questions, comments, and customer service requests.

Instagram business accounts have access to a couple of DM features that make managing customer service easier on the platform. First, your inbox is divided into Primary and General tabs to make it easier to keep track of your messages. And second, you can create saved replies to commonly asked questions that you can access via keyboard shortcuts.

Hootsuite Inbox makes it even easier to manage your DMs by allowing you to assign messages to the appropriate team members. If you really want to take customer service on Instagram seriously, a tool like Sparkcentral allows you to integrate Instagram with your CRM.

FAQs about using Instagram for business

Is Instagram free for business?

It’s free to set up an Instagram business account, promote your business, and even set up an Instagram shop.

The only fees for Instagram business accounts are ad costs if you choose to run Instagram ads, and selling fees if you use Commerce Manager to allow your customers to check out and complete their purchase within the Meta platform.

So, there is no fee to use Instagram Shopping to tag products and direct users to your website to buy them. However, if you use Meta’s native checkout through Commerce Manager, you will pay the following selling fees:

$0.40 for shipments up to $8.00
5% for shipments of $8.01 or more

Instagram is waiving these fees until 11:59 PST June 30, 2023.

How does Instagram work for business?

As you’ve seen in the Instagram for business tips throughout this post, Instagram offers many useful features for businesses. Some of the most important features only available for professional accounts are:

Instagram Insights for audience demographics and details about how your content performs
Instagram Shopping to tag products in your content
Instagram Direct features to better manage DM communications

But on the whole, Instagram for businesses works just like it works for creators or personal accounts. Create great content that inspires, informs, or entertains your audience to grow your following and build community around your account.

What are the disadvantages of using Instagram for business?

For most businesses, the benefits of using Instagram for business far outweigh the disadvantages. That said, there is one important disadvantage that’s especially important when using Instagram for small business development.

For micro businesses, it can be tempting to use Instagram as your entire business presence. But this puts you at risk if you ever have an issue with your account, like being hacked, locked out, or blocked. It’s a good idea to also have a website you control where you can continue to make sales and grow your audience if there’s ever a problem with your Instagram business account.

Save time managing Instagram for business using Hootsuite. From a single dashboard, you can schedule and publish posts directly to Instagram, engage your audience, measure performance and run all your other social media profiles. Try it free today.

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MAER Blog - How to run Instagram for business

Almost every local business now has its own Instagram account. Everyone who earns with their skills and abilities finds their clients on Instagram. Global brands have also appreciated the potential of this social network and are actively working here. 90% of the companies included in the "Interbrand 100" (a rating of the world's largest brands) have their own Instagram accounts.

Hundreds of millions of people visit Instagram every day – there is an audience for almost any business. To find their customers in this social network, it is important for entrepreneurs to understand how to properly manage Instagram for business.

Your Instagram account can become a full-fledged platform for sales and attracting your target audience. To do this, you need to figure out how to design a page on Instagram for business.

Is it worth it to create a business page on Instagram?

Do you doubt whether you need to go to Instagram with your business project? Here are a few reasons why you should create an Instagram business account.

Instagram is a steadily growing network. Over 60% of Russian-speaking Internet users come here to buy goods or services or find information about new products. In 2019sales via Instagram accounted for a quarter of the Russian online trading market, and this is not the limit.
Designing an Instagram page for business is cheaper and easier than creating an online store or website from scratch. This is especially true now that consumer demand has shifted online.
Instagram has the most loyal business audience, and almost any product is successfully sold here: from agricultural machinery to underwear.
On Instagram, you can use both paid and free marketing tools to promote products and services - and there are more than 20 of them!
With every new update on Instagram, there are more and more opportunities for business and sales.

How to create an Instagram profile for business?

There are several ways:

Explore the information on the web for free and choose what is right for you. Decide if you are willing to put in the time and effort to find really relevant and worthwhile content.
You can find an example of your competitor's Instagram business account and analyze how it works for them. Keep in mind that what works and brings results to others may be useless for you.
Get trained and master the tools and techniques that are suitable for you on Instagram in order to start earning as soon as possible.

Rules for maintaining a commercial account on Instagram

Business on Instagram is first and foremost a business. And in any business, the system is important. Therefore, the design of an Instagram account for business should begin with the study of the basics of marketing. This is the base on which you will build all your future work in this social network.

Here are the main steps to take if you are planning or already working on Instagram:

Step 1. Product development.

Before you start designing your Instagram page for business, decide:

what exactly you sell and what your client buys;
what need does it cover and what problem does it solve with the help of your product;
in what situation the client needs your product, and where he is ready to receive information about it.

This information will help you understand how to create an Instagram profile for business and how to build further communication with your potential customers.

Step 2. Analysis of the target audience.

First, let's deal with the terminology.

The target audience is those people who are ready to buy your product at your price in the near future.

Determine who exactly you want to work with and analyze:

who are these people;
what is important to them and what is not important in the context of your product;
where and how they are ready to receive information about your product;
what persuasive words they respond to.

Divide your target audience into actual (who you currently have) and planned (who you plan to attract) and work with each segment separately.

Step 3. Detachment from competitors.

Analyze your direct and adjacent competitors:

find out who solves the same problem of your client as you;
determine the strengths and weaknesses of competitors;
think about how you can get rid of them.

Tell the client about your advantages and why it is more profitable for him to buy from you, and not from them.

Step 4. Choosing a strategy.

Decide what your account means to you:

Your further actions will depend on the choice of strategy, including the registration of an account on Instagram.

After these steps, you can proceed directly to the design of your page on Instagram for business.

How to create an Instagram profile for business?

It is important that the design of an Instagram account is understandable for the client: he must understand what exactly he can get here and what his problem or task is to solve.

Consider how to make the right business page on Instagram.

Creating a nickname

This is the name that users will see, it is also the login. May contain latin letters, underscores and dots. Nickname must be:

Examples of the name of a business account on Instagram that contain the same letters repeated several times, several underscores or dots will be unsuccessful.

Profile cap design

The hat is your calling card. The visitor of the page on Instagram sees it first, so it is important that the person understands what this account is about and what he can get here. Show in header:

who you are, what you offer and how you position yourself;
what can be useful for your potential buyer;
what customer need or problem you are solving.

The main task of the profile header is to attract a new audience. This is the entry point to your Instagram account. The header should not only arouse interest in the visitor of your page, but show that here he will find a solution to his problem.

Pay special attention to the avatar - you can use a photo or logo. The image of your face or product must be clear, without small details in the background. The logo should be well read and stand out in the Instagram search results against your competitors.

Design highlights (eternal stories) Instagram for business

Highlights is a great tool that helps you collect important information for your potential customers in one place. If you want to design a business page for a store, categories of goods, terms of purchase, payment, delivery, reviews, special offers can be placed in eternal stories. Make sure that in the eternal stories there is only relevant information.

It is important not only to make a beautiful cover for highlights in the same style (you can do this task yourself even without the involvement of a designer), but to think about what your client’s next target action should be after he has viewed the eternal stories.

Instagram feed color and style for business

“The main thing is to design a business profile beautifully, in a single style, and sales will go,” such “recommendations” can often be found on the Web and in many training programs. That doesn't work. Beautiful Instagram business pages are not a guarantee of sales. It is possible to design a page on Instagram for business very beautifully and ideally, but this is not enough to buy from you.

It is necessary to design a business profile in such a way that it conveys information about your product to the client and helps him complete the target action you have planned - subscription, direct request, purchase, etc. The visual and color scheme of the Instagram account should be subordinate to your task.

You can design the Instagram page in one style that matches your activity. However, keep in mind that your Instagram account is not only your wall, but also your subscriber's feed. Therefore, choose a color scheme and style that will arouse the interest of a potential client if he sees your post in his feed.

Before you decide how to run Instagram for business in one style, think about how it will help you achieve the planned results and increase your sales.

Content creation for Instagram

Instagram is a showcase for your store, so your account should contain not just beautiful photos and interesting texts, but selling content that reveals the consumer qualities and characteristics of your product. It should be clear to the audience what exactly you are selling. Photos, videos, posts are tools that should help your potential customers make a purchase decision.

When maintaining Instagram, rely on the interests and preferences of your potential customers. Write texts based on their expectations and needs.

If you decide to create a business profile, avoid professional and complex expressions in communication with the client. Speak to the audience in their language.

Do not get carried away by publishing posts about the “inside of your business”: the process of creating a product, the nuances of production, etc. - such texts do not always affect the increase in sales, but they will attract the attention of your competitors.

Content planning

How to maintain a business page, what to write and when to write so that people buy from you? Here are some tips for creating a content plan for Instagram:

Write down your ultimate goal - what result in the form of profit you want to receive. Create a sales plan that will lead you to that goal. Based on the sales plan, develop a content plan for your commercial Instagram page: this way you will understand when, how much and what kind of posts you need to publish.
Keep in mind that not everyone needs regular posting. Do not write posts just because you "urgently need to publish something." Each text, video or photo should meet your objectives and serve as a route for the client, along which you will lead him from the first touch to the target action you need.
The timing of posts on Instagram for business depends on the preferences of your target audience. Post at different times and you will see in what period the audience perceives information about your product better.

How to design Instagram for business beautifully and in the same style?

Instagram photo content is the eyes and hands of your client. Remember what exactly the buyer pays attention to when choosing a product, what is important for him to see and what he wants to touch. These qualities of the product should convey your photos. Therefore, it is important not only to design a business profile beautifully, but to place photos in it that will illustrate the characteristics of the product that are important for the client and help him buy.

Do I need to post my personal photos on Instagram for business? Consider how important it is for a customer to know who they are buying from. Draw an analogy with a regular store - does the look and what the seller of hats or a realtor influences your choice? How relevant are photos of food or your dog in your feed if you sell coats? Publish personal photos only when you are sure that they will help you increase your profits.

How to maintain and promote a business account on Instagram?

Aspiring entrepreneurs are wondering: how to maintain a business profile on a social network in order to attract a solvent audience and sell your product?

To figure out how to run Instagram for business the right way, study and test the marketing tools of this social network and choose the ones that are right for you.

Here are examples of tools that will allow you to get your first thousand active subscribers from scratch in a couple of months:

Leave comments only from your business accounts and only to the point. Express your opinion with reason, otherwise there is a risk of being banned.

Put low-frequency hashtags where you will "hang" in the feed for several days. For example, in the hashtag #children's clothing, among several million publications, no one will see you, but with the tag #children's clothing, where there are 200-300 thousand posts, there is a chance to light up. Use tags under your posts that are used by your target audience. Don't forget about geolocation if you're interested in a territorial feature.

You can learn how to correctly select tools for your business on Instagram in the “Social Media Marketing” program.

Despite the fact that Instagram severely bans those who exceed the following limits, this method still allows you to gain about 10 targeted followers per day. For a start, it's not bad. Especially if you know exactly who you would like to work with.

Massliking.

This method still allows you to attract new subscribers and increase activity among those who already follow you. Leave likes with your potential customers and many will come to you with reciprocity.

Use stories, videos, and live streams as part of your Instagram client journey. Transfer customers from stories to accounts and vice versa, influencing their purchase decision. Try to keep your stories and live broadcasts always in the first place with your subscribers.

Mutual PR.

For mutual PR, choose accounts where your target audience is. Check them for cheating subscribers and likes. Rate the comments - how alive they are, who comments, so that they are not the same people from post to post.

Use these free Instagram features for your business and then move on to paid marketing tools like targeting or blogger advertising.

Contrary to popular belief, there are no single templates and strategies for how to design and manage Instagram for business.

In order for your business on this social network to make a profit, it is important not only to know how to properly set up an Instagram account for business, but also to build a system that will allow you to regularly increase profits and grow.

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How to run Instagram the right way: make your account successful

Instagram has evolved from a social network where people share news and photos of food to a blogging platform. The audience is used to quality content, and the competition is high: you compete with users from all over the world, because photos do not care about language or geographic location, and professional models, photographers, makeup artists and artists also actively use the social network. Of course, many do not know how to manage Instagram so that it develops and generates income.

But everyone has a chance to find their audience. Both schoolgirls from small towns and big brands with interesting content are becoming popular on Instagram. We figure out how to come up with a concept, take photos, write posts and maintain an Instagram account so as not to sink to the bottom of the algorithmic feed, but to find subscribers.

How to Instagram

Instagram is not just your page on a social network. Of course, no one will forbid sharing news with friends, we are talking about blogging on Instagram for a person or business, which will be of interest not only to your loved ones, but also to strangers.

Look at the pages of stars: they rarely combine photos with each other and generally bother with content, but fans are interested in any news from the life of idols. If you do not have a couple of million fans, you will not be forgiven for low-quality and uninteresting photos.

Start with an idea. Even if it’s hard to decide, and “taking pictures of everything that surrounds me” seems like the best way out, focus on a specific topic. Culinary blogs, profiles about proper nutrition, about dancing, about clothes, make-up - yes, Instagram already has it all. But you will do it your way. And people don't collect a list of subscriptions based on the principle "I already subscribed to a food blog, so I don't need another one."

Of course, if your idea is interesting and relatively new, it will be easier to move forward. But if you don't find one, don't give up. Maintaining Instagram is constant experimentation and finding a balance in content and interaction with the audience.

How to be in business? You need a concept too. Remember the character of the brand, decide on the tone of voice. Create value for subscribers: talk about topics related to your product. Consider that SMM from 2010, when beauty salons could post "10 hairstyle ideas" and get thousands of likes, is in the past. People won't subscribe to something they can google. Create authoring content: create a branded character or choose your storytelling style and list of topics you can cover.

Instagram profile design

At first glance, your account should be clear what it is about. Briefly formulate the topic of the blog in the bio and tell us about yourself. Typically, users enter their first name, age, and city.

How to get a business account to start Instagram?

The company account must contain contacts, information about the work of offline points and detailed conditions for ordering or recording. If you are unable to fit all the necessary information in your bio, you can use the multilink service.

Use emoji to highlight different information blocks in your bio. It is not necessary to choose bright and intrusive ones: dots, arrows, squares will look neat, but everyone will visually separate the text (name and topic of the blog) in meaning.

How beautiful to lead Instagram

There is an unspoken rule: profile photos must match. Open the pages of bloggers again: you will surely notice that the pictures standing next to each other were taken in the same tone or overlapped with each other in vivid detail.

A Facebook study showed that users spend 0.2 seconds per post on the mobile feed. Therefore, your posts should be visually cool and catchy at first sight. Let's figure out how to manage Instagram to be qualitatively different from others.

Photos must be of high quality, interesting and well processed. Instagram has its own trends - just try to bring photos processed in the Retrica app to your audience.

Follow Audience Members to find the visual style for your profile. See what content they post, what profiles they follow.

It is not necessary to use professional equipment, but you will definitely have to learn how to photograph and process images. See the photos you like, save them, don't be afraid to repeat, you're unlikely to be seen through, but you'll get your hands on it.

Layouts - a separate big topic. Think this is a joke? Try to create something similar yourself. You will find that you don't have many items that match. And those that exist cannot be organically placed in the frame.

To make high-quality layouts, bloggers buy accessories (candles, sparkles, postcards, fruits, garlands, frames, flowers) and spend a lot of time on them.

How to blog on Instagram

In 2017, a new trend appeared on the social network: users are interested not only in photos, but also in texts. Thematic blogs have appeared that talk about proper nutrition, makeup, motivation, parenting, or just about your life. And judging by the number of subscribers on such accounts and interactions under publications, users are ready to consume not only visual content in contact, but also read texts, even long ones.

Therefore, the desire to create and maintain an Instagram blog may be a good idea. But first, how to lead it? As with the concept of an account, a blog also needs one. Define a list of topics you write about, designate them in the profile header.

Follow the pages of users whose content you like. Pay attention to how often they publish posts, at what time they do it. How the audience is asked questions in posts, and what topics the audience is discussing more actively.

Instagram post contains up to 2200 characters. If your text does not fit in this size, move the part to the first comment, this is a common practice among bloggers. The problem will arise if there are too many discussions: then users will have to get to the first comment in the topic for a long time. Therefore, it is better to shorten the texts or split the story into several posts, publishing them under one hashtag.

How to broadcast on Instagram

Anyone can broadcast on Instagram. After the end, it will be available, like stories, 24 hours.

To start the broadcast, go to the news feed, click on your profile picture (just like when creating Stories). Select the option "Live" in the horizontal menu below. Now by clicking "Start" you will be able to broadcast live on Instagram.

How to attract an audience to a live broadcast?

Warn your subscribers about the broadcast in advance: make an announcement in a post or story. Pick a time when your audience is online. To do this, analyze the social network account in Popsters. On the chart "Activity / Days of the week" and "Activity / Time of day" you will find the most successful days and times for live broadcasts.

Wait for a larger audience, don't jump straight into the main topic of the broadcast. But at the same time, you can’t lose the audience who have already arrived: figure out in advance what will take the waiting time. Tell stories about the topic of the broadcast or arrange an interactive one: answer subscribers' questions or, conversely, ask them about something.

How to start Instagram?

Keep step-by-step instructions for maintaining an Instagram account:

Decide on a topic if you're blogging.
Learn more