How to make a good instagram page for 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 2022?

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: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps a fitness influencer used to grow from 0 to 600,000+ followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.

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 2022.

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.

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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.

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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.

Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps a fitness influencer used to grow from 0 to 600,000+ followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.

Get the free guide right now!

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 2022: 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

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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 2022?

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.

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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 2022 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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Creative Instagram tips: How to make posts and reels stand out

Learn how to make inspiring Reels, photos and carousels that can bring your brand to life and help grow your community.

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ON THIS PAGE, WE'LL HELP YOU:

Create engaging posts, step by step.Get inspired by real small businesses.Continue growing your business.

Share a post in just 3 steps.

Learn the basics of posting entertaining Reels and captivating photos.

Create engaging content

STEP 1

Create engaging content.

Every post is an opportunity to connect with your community, whether it be in a Reel, photo or carousel.

Get discovered with entertaining, original videos.

Engage viewers with transitions and effects.

Emphasize key points with timed text.

Bring your clips to life with audio.

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Photos

Show off your products with eye-catching imagery.

Highlight unique features by showing products in use.

Keep colors consistent with your brand.

Use natural light for bright, balanced photos.

Carousels

Tell a deeper story with up to 10 photos or videos.

Feature eye-catching content on the first slide.

Mix photos and videos for a compelling narrative.

Try different angles to highlight benefits.

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STEP 2

Write a compelling caption.

Once your content is ready, it’s time to craft a caption that captures what your post is all about.

Lead with the most important information.

Use a consistent and personal tone.

Keep copy short and to the point.

Encourage action with simple, direct text.

STEP 3

Add helpful tags.

You’re almost ready to post! Adding tags before you share helps customers discover and learn about your business.

Use hashtags to make posts more discoverable.

Tag partners to bring them into the conversation.

Add your location so customers can find your business.

Try product tags to make it easier to purchase.

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Ready to create your next post?

CREATE A POST

Get inspired

Get inspired by small businesses like yours.

Now that you know how to create Reels and photo posts, try different posting styles to discover what resonates most with your audience.

Continue growing

Continue growing your business with posting best practices.

Use timesaving tools and helpful tips to make the most of each Reel and photo you post.

Stay organized with a content calendar.

Plan when, where and how your posts will appear in advance, so you can create content efficiently.

Learn how

Entertain your audience using Reels.

With tools like effects, music, and stickers, Reels can help you creatively share your story.

Learn how

Reach more people when you boost a post.

Turn any post into an ad that encourages potential customers to take the next step with your business.

Learn how

Track post success with Insights.

Get a detailed breakdown of how people engage with your posts and discover trends across your followers.

Learn how

Start creating your next post.

CREATE A POST

9 tips for proper profile design from OdesSeo agency

How to create a business account on Instagram. Transformation on the example of the BarakaOil case.

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So you've decided to promote your business on social networks and the exciting moment comes when you need to create a page and fill it with content. You come up with texts and you like them, you take photos for the visual that you like, you call your page the original name in English, because it's fashionable. Chances are you're carefully watermarking every photo and dreaming of launching ads soon, anticipating floods of traffic and conversions. Friends, if you really think so, and at least one of the above makes up your overall picture of the design of a business page on Instagram, then I suggest urgently restoring such a picture. This article is just for you.

The concept of Instagram has successfully fit into that period of time when the text is inferior to the picture and video content. And if you decide to promote your business on this particular social network, then the priority should always be on the side of visual design, these are the rules of the game of the omnipotent social platform.

Using the BarakaOil case as an example, I will tell and show through the prism of what you need to create content for a selling page on a social network and how it should look.

But before we start, a little before and after magic:

Love your product and think like a person who needs this product.

This is a fundamental rule, and it must intersect with any action you take when designing the page. If you delegated the creation of an SMM page to a specialist, then he must be imbued with your product, understand the pains of the target audience and create content with the thought of whether potential customers need it? Not you should like it, not the SMM manager - your target audience should like it.

I will name the page after you. The username and page profile name.

It would seem that a very insignificant column, just a formality for identification. Meanwhile, manicure and eyelash masters proudly write “Nails”, “Lashes” in the “profile name”, thinking that such a name adds +100 to the level of services and will strike potential customers on the spot. Cosmetics stores come up with fanciful names bordering on fantasy to stand out from the rest. And the rule remains simple: the username, like the profile name, is indexed when searching. The username and profile name should at a glance answer the question of who you are and display you in the search for the requested word.

The username should be concise and easy to remember, since it is in Latin, there is no need to complicate it. And the name of the profile should describe, in the most accessible language for people, in the one that they are fluent in, what goods and services you want to provide. Just imagine that your target audience wants to find the coconut oil that you sell through the search, what will they write: "coconut oil" or "coconut paradise"? Obviously the first. So be obvious.

People are greeted by clothes or profile photo.

Along with the name of the profile is his photo, the picture should be informative, but within the framework of minimalism. If your product or service has a logo - great, if not - then choose an image that will logically broadcast along with the profile name the answer to the question: who are you and what do you sell. Do not add a lot of text, which will still be poorly viewed. Use your corporate font, if available. The image must be square, approximately 180 x 180 pixels, in png format, so as not to lose quality. You can use Over, Crello, Canva for cropping. These applications will also be most useful for those who do not use Photoshop, but want to create unique visual designs.

150 characters to convince. Profile description.

Use the language of your target audience in your profile description. Less pathos, gentlemen, many still do not know English and your "Beauty and Health" in the profile header will not give the desired results. Here you should briefly state the positioning, explain why you are better than your competitors and call the audience to action (“buy here”, “write to Direct”, “apply on the website in the profile header”).

Important! Instagram does not display all 150 characters, so make sure that the call to action is displayed on the main page without an additional click.

Find me if you can. Communication methods.

Do not ignore the communication buttons. Think about how comfortable it will be for your potential client to contact you and place an order. People don't like challenges, certainly not on social media, so make sure the information appears consistently on the page. Instagram has created convenient buttons in the description of the profile of business accounts - "Write", "Contacts", so make sure that they lead the audience to the current source. Don't turn your clients into detectives looking for a way to contact you, and they probably don't want to.

Relevant must be relevant to your audience. Those circles are Highlights.

Kudos to the developers who came up with the Relevant section. He, in turn, quickly acquired the function of a guide, product catalog and price list for business accounts. Just ask yourself: what questions might your potential customer face when viewing your page? The buyer is interested in your range of products, price, delivery terms, payment methods, guarantees, how customers respond to you. You individually decide what should be the number of sections, the main task is the logical and structured placement of answers to frequently asked questions. Your client does not need to frantically wait for feedback in Direct, he can get an answer to his question at 2 a.m., and all thanks to the right circles on your page. Predict your target audience, you know it, based on our first point. The main thing is that the information corresponds to reality and is relevant.

Please note that the name of the highlights section should be concise: 10 characters will be optimal, which will be completely displayed under the circle, otherwise the word will not be read completely.

Choosing the right sections of highlights and their names is only half the battle, the choice of the cover remains an important point. This is where your profile color scheme comes into play — a complementary series of elements, from the profile cover to the page feed. Recommended image resolution is 1080 x 1920 pixels, in png format. You can use icons of the same color and style, or you can make them multi-colored, the main thing is that they intuitively combine all the graphic elements of the page and do not stand out from the graphic style.

Examples for inspiration can be found on pinterest.com by doing something similar in Photoshop, but if you don't have enough skills, you can safely look for templates in photo stocks like shutterstock.com, pixabay.com.

Three comrades: image, text and master content plan.

The final element of a holistic image of the page design is the visual picture of publications, it is she who occupies most of the page and catches the eye. In order to get a beautiful combination of colors in images, use the theory of complementary or complementary colors, and for the right composition, make sure that adjacent pictures do not create sharp boundaries between themselves. Of course, it's more practical to discuss with the photographer or designer that all images should be color-corrected, which will make things a lot easier for you. I hope there is no need to focus on how important it is for the photographer to do his job with high quality and be able to fulfill the technical requirements.

Applications such as UNUM, Preview can be used to create a successful page color scheme. Using these tools, you can see how your photos will look in the selected order, you can compose images that will automatically adapt to the size of publications. In this way, you will be able to create the perfect color matrix for your profile.

Please refrain from watermarking each photo. Believe me, you won’t retain the authorship of the photos anyway, since removing such an inscription is a matter of minutes for a competitor’s designer. But your page will reek of cheapness and lose integrity due to inscriptions.

Unlike blogger pages that don't try to follow an image-to-text logic, it's preferable for a business profile to complement a particular image with appropriate text. The text of the publication should reveal the message and idea of the image, talk about the product in the photo. For this, a content plan will be useful, with which you can plan the order of publications and select the right text for each image. This is a handy thing, even the most creative person can be curbed by Mr. Content Plan.

According to my observation, no matter what product or service you advertise on a social network, photos where a person interacts with a product always have a greater response. There is nothing revolutionary here, it's just that photographs affect us much more strongly, where we can put ourselves in the place of a model, see the product in interaction. Purely subject photos can seem boring and will not inspire you to read the text under the publication, so it is always better to mix subject layouts and photos with people. Of course, this is not a universal formula, but it works in most cases.

Page design ideas can always be found on the Internet, nowadays everyone is stolen like artists, otherwise creativity would be driven into a corner. If you are tired of trivial accounts, then I advise you to be inspired by the Telegram channel, where atypical Instagram profiles are shared every day - oneday_insta (Insta account for every day).

And some boring numbers and analytics.

After designing the BarakaOil page and publishing 9 posts, we got a complete picture of the business profile, which is ready for promotion. Already a month after the launch of targeted advertising, the Reach rate of the account increased and became 10% higher than that of pages in this category, the Engagement Rate of Reach also increased by 5%.

The number of quality audiences increased by 30% with the prospect of rapid growth in the future. Interactions with advertising publications increased, publications began to be bookmarked more often.

We've seen firsthand how the look of a page can affect reach, especially on Instagram. This is only the first step on the path to successful promotion, but this step is fundamental.

Parting word or small call to action;)

While VR technologies have not yet captured the content component of popular social sales platforms, and video content is slowly stealing popularity from images, marketers and business owners should seize the moment, cultivate aesthetes in themselves and create a selling design for business pages. There is no time for bad taste, illogicality and subjectivity.

If you respect your business or you are a self-respecting SMM specialist, then rather start loving your product and think like a person who needs this product.

All beautiful profiles and large coverage. And for a pinch of inspiration and a portion of new knowledge, subscribe to Odesseo on social networks and follow the news of our blog.

Quality profile and content - how to start your business on Instagram?

Anna Kuznetsova

Updated by July 28, 2022

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Content:

Creating an Instagram business account: name, avatar, biography
How to take beautiful photos for Instagram using your smartphone
The best apps for photo editing and delayed posts

Instagram is a popular social network where the main content is photography and video.
Cafes, restaurants, boutiques, flower shops and all kinds of activities that can be “beautifully photographed” have long been cutting money from a single Instagram account.

This is not only an opportunity to share photos and videos with friends, but also a powerful tool to support brand loyalty, the ability to be closer to customers, know their interests and attitudes towards your product.

It is not necessary to rent an office, equip a store or have an Internet site to start a business, sell goods or provide services. A systematic approach, a little creativity and you can earn money with just one page on Instagram.

Before you start promotion, you need to do the preparatory work. Competent filling determines whether your buyer will find the product or service of interest on your page.

Let's start with the creation of a "skeleton" for the Instagram online store.

1. Creating an Instagram account: avatar, name, biography

Getting to know your account begins with a description of the page and a photo in a small circle: a catchy avatar, page title, a description of what you do and how to contact you.

How to come up with a name for an Instagram business account

Most likely, you have already come up with names for your business. Remember that on Instagram, the profile name is always written in Latin.

The name is the brand name, semantic power in one or two words; it is what describes your activity; what the user will score in the search to buy your product.

Need ideas for a company name? Read the article How to choose the right company name.

It is best if the nickname matches the names of the company and does not contain unnecessary words and commercial messages (official, the best, shop, etc.). It is also good if you have one nickname for all social networks. It will be easier for subscribers to remember or find you:

All social networks are consonant with the name of the Lamoda online store itself.

Avatar

Do not neglect the principle of “dress by clothes”.
Avatar is the main recognition attribute of your profile. The person by which you will be met, remembered and fall in love. The picture should be clear and not contain unnecessary details:

In the example above, the manicure studio adheres to the principle of simplicity and minimalism: picture and text on a white background.

You can't fit a lot of elements in a small photo size, it will look out of place and incomprehensible to the subscriber:

The flower shop uses an iconic logo, but the picture is cluttered and the font is chosen so that it is difficult to read the name. A photo as an avatar for a business account is also not the best option: the small size does not allow recognizing details or faces.

What then? How to look aesthetically pleasing for a subscriber at the first meeting, not to be full of your already established subscribers in the list, while perfectly conveying the essence of the activity?

The company logo is fine, but with a slight modification. The thing is, for the logo to look great on the profile page, it needs to fit nicely into the circle. How to do it?

Can be made by hand using graphic programs. Or create with Logaster and download a ready-made logo for Instagram. The required logo size is 110px x 110px.

How to create a logo online? The Logaster service will help you choose a logo from a dozen options for the name of your business:

You can change the font, color, arrangement of elements to create a unique and adaptive logo for Instagram:

After editing, save the created logo.

An avatar that is pretty in every sense should contain information that the subscriber needs. After all, it is by the description that a person will determine whether he is interested in your activity.

How to fill in your Instagram profile information:

Add or edit this information by clicking the "Edit Profile" button at the top of the page. You need to clearly understand what exactly is important for a person to see on the page he is interested in: and provide this information in the description (products or services of the company, address, slogan, etc.).

1. Profile picture;
2. Biography;
3. Phone number;
4. Email;
5. Geodata.

Instagram page descriptions

Research shows that we remember 20% of what we read and 80% of what we see. But as information develops, people stop perceiving everything superfluous. Even if you have placed important information between the lines, a person can simply scroll through it. You have 5 seconds to grab the attention of a potential customer who has landed on your page for the first time.

Make sure that the required information is filled in the profile:

company name;
a brief description of what you are doing;
contacts;
coordinates;
link to the site.

If even before creating a profile you figure out how to correctly fill in the necessary information, then upon completion, you can safely forget about the need to update your biography or contacts. What certainly can not be said about the content itself. Here you need to always be in trend and be creative. Since photography is something that must be liked by potential customers of your business.

2. How to take good photos for Instagram using smartphone

All previous work will be appreciated and effective with good content on your page. In order to create it, it is not necessary to be a photographer, have expensive photographic equipment or contact professionals.

Here it is enough to know 3 basic rules of photo content:
1. Use a smartphone with a good camera;
2. Take pictures in daylight;
3. Always use the same photo editing filters to create a single account style (we'll also talk about mobile photo editing apps).

Decide what mood the profile conveys to your reader: calmness - pastel colors, minimalism (suitable for textile stores, children's clothing, etc.) or rich colors - energy, expression. To make the photos in the profiles harmonize with each other, place light, dark or photos with color accents in a checkerboard pattern:

Of course, this is not necessary and creating your own unique profile will be better than generally accepted templates. But if you are just starting out and there are no ideas yet, you can use this one.

Remember that a new user always pays attention to the profile as a whole, and not to individual pictures. And your subscriber is in the photo in the feed. Make sure to keep both of you interested.

3. The best applications for photo editing and delayed publications:

VSCO is a good set of ready-made filters. Choose the one that best suits your product. Experiment with multiple photos and filters. Do they harmonize with each other?

Download VSCO on iOS

Download VSCO on Android

Lightroom . Helps create a unified white balance on your Instagram profile.

Download Lightroom for iOS

Download Lightroom for Android

Of course, the program has much more potential, we advise you to study it to create your stylized account.

Snapseed . The program will help create an exposure or highlight the accents in the photo.

Download Snapseed for iOS

Download Snapseed for Android

UNUM . Create profile photo arrangements before they are published:

Download UNUM for Android

Download UNUM for iOS

Photos taken and processed. But this is half the work on the post. The next step is a description or text.

Text in posts

Decide on the purpose of your presence on Instagram: is it a platform from which you want to sell, or a customer connection tool (suitable for existing stores. Here Instagram is not the main source of sales, but in the future it can increase them significantly).

There is an option to hire a copywriter or SMM specialist. But the owner may well manage the business account. After all, no one knows your product, its properties and capabilities as well as you.

In fact, there is nothing difficult in writing texts for product posts. But still, always “try on” the text for yourself: what a person should think after reading and, most importantly, what to do.

In the text, give real benefits to the person, not characteristics that may not always be clear. For example: you sell portable batteries for phones. In the description you write 1000 mAh. But not always people know how much it is. And if you write: “1000 mAh - up to 5 phone recharges” - a potential client will evaluate whether the product suits him and save him from unnecessary thoughts. Here he sees the value of the battery and its application to his needs.

A post should always contain a call to action: order, buy, call.

Avoid template words and applications in the text: “best quality”, “lowest price”, “unique production”, “reliable service”.
Replace them with the actual properties of the product:

“best quality” for “80% of the composition is steel”;
“low price” - always write the real price, comparing yourself with competitors;
“unique production” – we make orders based on your preferences;
“reliable service” - 5 year warranty.

Without water, with real use cases.
In posts, try to balance between commodity posts and useful content. So you will look like an expert in the eyes of the reader, become an authority, build a trusting relationship.

Hashtags

Hashtags for the page are necessary for easy search of the necessary posts.

Alternatively, place a post with your categories in the profile header with an active link (instead of the company's website):

Create your own unique hashtags:

These work well for a range of products. For example, the tag #cupcake_Instabakery: the subscriber will be able to quickly find all the cupcakes you offer.

Geolocation

Decide where you want to sell your goods: if these are city limits and you have an offline store, geolocation is definitely needed.

But if you go to an audience outside your region, it's better not to set the location. This can scare away potential consumers. They will think that it is far away and will not pay attention to the goods.