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How to promote products on instagram


9 Actionable Tips for 2022

Article by Matt Smith

Learning how to sell on Instagram offers businesses of all sizes incredible opportunities to reach their target audiences and drive sales.

Last year, eMarketer reported that Instagram is estimated to have 1.074 billion users worldwide in 2021, 73.5 million more than what it had in 2020. 

From major brands to local mom-and-pop shops, businesses around the world are driving results with Instagram. According to one report,, 80% of Instagram users make a purchase decision based on something they saw while browsing the app, Instagram

If you haven’t already started selling on Instagram, you may be missing out on a huge opportunity.

Interested in learning more? Here are nine proven tips to help you learn how to sell on Instagram.

1. Optimize Your Instagram Profile and Bio for Instagram Selling

How to sell on Instagram for free? It’s simple, optimize your Instagram business profile.  

The Instagram business profile is becoming the new homepage as more and more consumers are turning to Instagram instead of Google to search for brands. 

This means you should be spending as much time and effort curating a beautifully designed Instagram profile as you would creating your website.

Your Instagram business profile should include a:

  • Profile photo: Choose a photo that is on-brand (like a logo) and makes your company easy to identify.
  • Well-crafted bio: Your Instagram bio is incredibly important. It should include a clear description of your business that speaks to your audience. Let them know exactly what you have to offer.
  • Link to your shop: The URL section of your bio is the only clickable link you can add to your Instagram page, so make sure you’re using it! This is a great place to drive traffic from your individual posts and stories. Creating a unique URL for this section will also give you the opportunity to track visits to your website from Instagram.

Love Crochet is a great example of a well-crafted business profile:

Their profile includes a beautifully designed and consistent aesthetic as well as an eye-catching bio and branded profile photo.

Your Instagram business profile is often the first point of contact a customer will have with your brand, so it’s important to make a great impression and entice people to follow your business. By creating a consistent brand story and aesthetic, you can turn new customers into devoted followers, which means they’ll only be a few steps away from investing in your products.  

2. Use Instagram Ads to Reach Your Target Audience

With continued changes to the Instagram algorithm and heightened competition on the platform, it’s important to use what works. Namely, this means that Instagram ads are critical to Instagram marketing strategies for businesses.

Once you’ve set up a business profile on Instagram, you can decide how much you want to spend, where you’d like your ads to be seen, and how long you want them to run. Instagram provides a variety of targeting options, so you can choose the ones that best suit your business’ needs.

Running your own Instagram ad campaign isn’t that difficult, but it can be intimidating to many small business owners and influencers who haven’t done it before. Fortunately, it’s not as hard as you think!

The easiest way to run ads is by promoting posts you’ve shared on Instagram. Just select the post you want to boost and hit the “promote” button.

Instagram will automatically pull in a “similar audience” that you can share the post to, but you can easily create your own audience in the app by choosing an interest, age range, and gender(s).

Once you’ve set up your audience and budget, make sure to give your ad one last look-over before hitting “Confirm.”

You can start with a small budget and run your ad for a few days to test things out. To track how your ad is performing, click “View Results” in the bottom left corner of your ad. Remember, Instagram ads can take practice, so make sure you continue to tweak your boosted posts and audiences until you get the results you want.

The best ads to drive Instagram sales for your business are ones  that clearly explain how to make a purchase.

Consider @thebouqsco. In the example below, they use the call to action “Shop now and save” in the caption followed by a short description of the offer. They also use “Shop Now” as a call to action for the button text to encourage users to make a purchase.

 

Basically, The Bouqs Co. simplifies the buying process. The ad makes it super clear what they are offering without any distractions. It’s important you keep your messaging simple, so you don’t distract users from the ultimate goal of your post.

3. Selling Through Instagram Story Ads

In March 2017, Instagram released advertising in Stories, offering brands yet another paid opportunity to reach more people. These immersive, full-screen ads let your business use targeting that makes your ads personally relevant to the people you want to reach.

While photo ads will likely retain their top spot well into 2021, Instagram Story ads should see the most growth based on the rise in Instagram Stories usage. These ads pop up in between Instagram Stories of accounts you follow and can make a large impact on potential customers.

You’ll notice a small “Sponsored” tag in the top right corner and a call to action (“Learn More”) at the bottom of these ads. Again, adding an additional call to action at the bottom of your ad can also be helpful for those interested in learning more.

You have a choice in Instagram ads to create either a video or a photo. Whichever you choose, make sure your initial clip is attention-grabbing. You’ll need to catch the eyes of those who quickly swipe through stories.

Instagram Stories have become a great way for businesses to make deeper connections with their followers and show off their brand’s personality. They offer you the chance to connect with your followers on a daily basis (and without cluttering up their feed). Make sure you’re not missing out on this great opportunity to connect with future customers.

Instagram Stories continue to explode in popularity, and the feature has more than 500 million daily active users – that’sdouble what Snapchat has! So, it’s no surprise businesses are continuing to find new and creative ways they can sell using this feature.

Instagram Stories provide the perfect opportunity for businesses to engage with audiences on a more frequent and personal basis. Many brands use Instagram Stories to capture their products in action, promote special offers, or showcase new items.

In 2017, Instagram graced users who had 10,000 followers or more with the ability to add links to Instagram Stories, which was great news for retail brands and publishers. This is a huge Instagram trend right now and can help you grow your email list, sell products, drive traffic, and more.

When adding a link to Instagram Stories, you’ll notice a small arrow and “See More” text appear at the bottom of your image. Since this small text may go unnoticed, you can add text directing users to “Swipe Up” (or something similar) for added visibility.

The Instagram algorithm now takes into account all the interactions you receive on your Instagram Stories as well, such as replies and shares. The more that a user interacts with your Instagram Stories, the more likely your posts will conquer the Instagram algorithm and show up in their feed.

A great Instagram hack to get around the algorithm is to take advantage of Instagram Stories engagement opportunities, including the polling feature or “Swipe Up” option (that is, if you have over 10,000 followers).

We’ve also been seeing a lot of micro-influencers telling their followers to DM (direct message) them for a direct link to the product. This is a great way to drive people to your inbox, build relationships with your followers, and ultimately increase the chance of your posts showing up on their feeds.

These are all great tactics to drive your customers to check out your product and to make sure you stay relevant with your audience.

5. Build a Shoppable Instagram Feed to Start Selling

Shopify’s shopping feature integration is also a huge win for businesses on Instagram. According to Shopify and TechCrunch, “Instagram is already a ‘significant’ driver of Shopify merchant store traffic, so being able to convert said traffic right on the platform instead of round-tripping could result in a big boost of additional sales.”

Instagram’s shopping feature allows businesses to tag products that are available for sale and lets users purchase them directly within the app.

Shopify plugins like Shoppable Instagram Galleries makes it easier than ever for your business to make sales. The Instant Purchases feature lets visitors add items to a cart and buy the products directly from images on your feed. Businesses can create a custom gallery to showcase their products and add the gallery’s link to their Instagram bio.

Creating a shoppable Instagram feed with a "link in bio" tool, such as Shopify’s Linkpop, is a popular strategy for businesses looking to drive sales through Instagram.

Here you can see the custom URL in @MeUndies’ bio, where they can direct users through post captions and Instagram Stories:

Linkin.bio is a landing page that resembles your Instagram feed and displays your posts as clickable images that you can link directly to a product page. This makes it easy to build a clickable, shoppable feed that links your audience straight to your content. You can also link to multiple websites and pages without changing the link in your bio:

When one of your followers clicks on the link in your bio, they’ll be taken to a mobile-optimized landing page that resembles your Instagram feed and displays your Instagram posts as clickable images. When your followers visit your Linkin.bio page, they can click on any of your Instagram posts to visit the product page that corresponds with the photo.

Shoppers love a good sale or promotion. Instagram is the perfect place to promote a sale, new product launch, or discount code exclusively to your followers. You can either add your promo information in a caption or in Instagram Stories, encouraging users to click the link in your bio to take advantage of the offer.

If you’re running an Instagram-exclusive promotion, you also can create a teaser on your other social networks to drive traffic to your Instagram business profile. Promoting exclusive Instagram-only promotions (for example, a special discount code for your followers) among your other social networks will encourage audiences to follow your Instagram account to make sure they don’t miss out on future offers.

7. Establish Partnerships with Instagram Influencers

Instagram influencers continue to be popular given that collaborations and sponsorships have nearly replaced digital ads and are a huge part of social media marketing strategies today. 

Consumers today don’t trust traditional advertising – they trust people. Research from Nielsen shows that consumers trust personal recommendations above brand advertisements.

The easier it is for a customer to picture themselves using your product, the easier it will be to sell to them.

Influencer marketing gives brands a unique opportunity to reach an engaged audience. Although it may initially seem like a risk to invest large amounts of money into influencer marketing, it’s important to consider exactly what you are paying for.

Consider advertisers that spend upwards of $5 million (excluding production costs) for a 30-second Super Bowl commercial to reach more than 100 million viewers who may or may not be the brand’s target audience. A series of Instagram posts by a fashion blogger with 500,000 followers and a cult-following could sell out an entire product line within 24 hours. 

If you don’t have the budget to partner with a big influencer, consider finding a micro-influencer. These influencers have a significant, but not massive following, usually ranging anywhere from 1,000 to 100,000 followers.  

Micro-influencers are typically much more willing to do an “in-kind” agreement, trading products for promotion. If you’re a small business, investing in micro-influencers could be a great way to help drive potential customers to your page.

It’s important you spend more time thinking about your strategy and campaign goals before getting started on your influencer marketing campaign. Setting up crystal clear goals will drive initial planning decisions and help you determine the best fit for your partnership.

While working with an influencer, it’s important to make the paid partnership feel as natural as possible. Sitting an influencer in a chair to talk about how great your product is will likely come off as an advertisement and will quickly lose your viewer’s attention.

For example, lifestyle blogger Jacey Durprie’s partnership with Biossance aligns perfectly with her brand, as she frequently shows off her morning routine, productivity, and favorite products. She keeps it conversational, asking her followers their favorite “beauty hacks” and shares one of her.

The partnership feels very natural without looking like a typical advertisement.

Whichever route you chose, influencer marketing is here to stay. It’s a great way for you to tap into a niche, build brand awareness, and, of course, drive sales.

8. Use the Right Hashtags

If you really want your brand to gain traction on Instagram and reach entirely new audiences, then you have to master the art of the hashtag.

Hashtags can be great for putting your brand in front of potentially millions of people. However, it’s important to not use too many hashtags in your posts. Doing so can make your posts look spammy and low-effort.

It’s much better to focus on a couple handfuls of highly trafficked hashtags. This will increase the chances of the right people seeing your posts. After all, you’re not targeting just anyone – you’re targeting your specific audience. By carefully choosing your hashtags, you’ll ensure that the people finding your posts are in your target demographic.

One simple trick to find great hashtags is to see which ones are being used by influencers in your niche. Keep in mind that many of these hashtags may have millions of posts, so if you choose these hashtags, there’s a good chance your post will end up getting buried. Try to find hashtags that are used by influencers and receive a lot of attention, but watch out for hashtags that might be used too much.

For example, the hashtag #travel currently has more than 406 million posts:

So, if travel is your niche, this might not be the best hashtag to use since it’s so oversaturated.

It’s better to get a little more specific. Take #backpacking. With 12 million posts and counting, it’s  still a popular hashtag, but it’s much more targeted than #travel and attracts a certain type of audience.

When choosing your hashtags, think about your specific niche, and build your hashtag selection around that. This is a much better approach than simply using any old popular hashtag.

9. How to Sell on Instagram: Nail the Caption

The caption is another integral element to any Instagram post. A caption can make or break a post. If you havea compelling image but a weak caption, your post may not do too well, so this is an area you definitely need to pay attention to.

Your caption can actually do a lot. First and foremost, it can relate to the viewer. Apartment Therapy excels in this area with captions that relate to a specific emotion without trying too hard.

Second, captions can serve as calls to action. That doesn’t mean that you need to be pitching a product in every post, though. You can encourage people to interact with your brand in other ways, like visiting your site or checking out a video.

For example, travel brand Away encourages people to interact with their posts using fun, unique prompts:

If you’re having trouble thinking of great captions, check out our list of more than 200 Instagram caption ideas.

Conclusion

Figuring out how to sell on Instagram will take some practice in order to determine what methods work best for your business. Following these nine tips will make the process a whole lot easier by eliminating a lot of the guesswork for you. 

While learning how to sell on Instagram can be a little intimidating at first, it’s a lot easier than it seems. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll be off to the races, drawing in tons of new people who just might turn out to be your next customers.

Summary: How to Sell on Instagram in 2021
  1. Optimize your profile and Instagram bio for sales
  2. Use Instagram ads to reach your target audience
  3. Start selling through Instagram Stories Ads
  4. Create Instagram Stories with product links
  5. Build a shoppable Instagram feed to encourage purchases
  6. Run exclusive Instagram-only promotions

Start selling online now with Shopify

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Want to Learn More?

  • How to Do Instagram Influencer Marketing
  • A Beginner’s Guide to Instagram Shopping
  • How to Make Money on Instagram
  • How to Get Followers on Instagram: From 0 to 10k Followers

How to Promote Your Instagram: 13 Ideas that Work

It’s time to rethink how to promote your Instagram account.

Why now? Because the platform’s rapid evolution and growth mean that what worked in the past isn’t going to score you the same sort of engagement today.

Based on recent Instagram stats, the visual space is becoming more and more crowded with brands fighting tooth and nail for more customers.

As a result, it quite literally pays for brands to have as many tactics as possible to promote Instagram to their target audience.

In this guide, we’ve broken down 13 totally actionable ways to do exactly that. From optimizing your posts and profile to rethinking your approach to content promotion, any combination of these tips are fair game when it comes to Instagram promotion.

13 Ways to promote your Instagram Page

1. Ramp up your content production

There’s no shortage of Instagram content you can publish to fill up your feed.

Customer photos. Memes. Bite-sized videos.

And that doesn’t even scratch the surface of what’s available to you.

To figure out what performs the best among your audience, you’re going to need to experiment. That means ramping up your content production and posting more frequently.

Publishing to Instagram at least once a day is within the platform’s best practices. Heck, major brands like TopShop and H&M post up to three times per day (if not more often).

As you roll out more content, it’s crucial to squeeze more engagement out of your following by understanding the best times to post on Instagram.

And speaking of which, that’s also why Instagram Stories are so valuable. Off-the-cuff content via Stories essentially allows you to “skip the line” and appear front-and-center in people’s feeds. Not only that, but you can freely post Story after Story without worrying about spamming your fans.

The takeaway here is that Instagram moves much quicker than it did a year or two ago in terms of content. Brands should ramp up if they want to keep up. To create content that your audience will love, make sure you have a comprehensive strategy in place and are using data to create more successful content. Download our Instagram marketing strategy guide to learn more.

2. Cross-promote your Instagram posts across other networks

The effort it takes to snag the perfect snapshot and craft a clever caption isn’t something that should go to waste.

Cross-posting your content to other social platforms is a no-brainer to get even more of an ROI out of your Instagram presence.

For example, you can promote your Instagram content across the likes of Facebook and Twitter to maximize your content’s reach.

Although cross-promotion is a smart move, bear in mind that each social platform has its own best practices. For example, Instagram tends to go heavier on the hashtags while you might want to craft a slightly different description for images posted to Facebook.

Sound time-consuming? It doesn’t have to be.

Sprout Social’s Asset Library enables you to store images, videos and text in a centralized location for use across multiple social networks. Quickly find, edit and publish directly from the Asset Library to deliver engaging posts that are tailored to whatever network you’re using.

And don’t forget to make your job even easier by using scheduling and publishing tools.

Ana Laura Montaño González
Community Manager

Sprout’s Optimal Send Times simplifies things further by scheduling content to post at the times most likely to generate engagement from your audience.

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3. Focus on people-centric content

Although Instagram is a place to score sales, it is still first and foremost a place to share experiences.

The popularity of selfies on Instagram speaks for itself, as does customer photos and pictures of people using products in real-world settings. Much of the appeal of Instagram is that brands are capable of advertising in a more human way without bombarding followers with messages that scream “BUY NOW!”

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A post shared by Penguin Books (@penguinbooks)

And on a related note, this is exactly why user-generated content such as customer photos are such a goldmine for brands. Not only do folks on the ‘gram love it when brands shout them out, but customer photos represent marketing firepower that proves that people dig your products.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Penguin Books (@penguinbooks)

But in order to spot and curate user-generated content for your feed, you’re going to need to understand how hashtags can help you promote your Instagram.

And that leads us to our next point.

4. Experiment with branded and industry hashtags

Brands both big and small should create a hashtag to encourage sharing and promotion on behalf of their followers. Doing so doesn’t have to be rocket science, either.

For example, Ernie Ball displays their #iplayslinky and #colorsofrocknroll hashtags loud and clear in their bio.

In turn, they use the tag to promote their own posts in addition to thousands of loyal fans promoting the brand organically.

See how that works?

Beyond your own hashtags, you should try to promote your Instagram using more general, community hashtags specific to your industry such as #6strings (music) or #unicornhair (beauty). Tacking on extra tags essentially makes your posts searchable by tag-followers and instantly increases your reach.

As noted in our guide detailing how to use hashtags across every social network, engagement peaks at approximately nine hashtags. Although you can certainly use less (or more), the takeaway here is that you should at the very least add something.

Don’t forget to take advantage of hashtag analytics tools. Sprout lets you track and analyze hashtag performance to find out what’s resonating with audiences and optimize usage.

And with Sprout’s Advanced Listening, you can move beyond quantitative data to find qualitative insights related to hashtags, allowing you to fully understand campaign performance and measure share of voice. Additionally, you can identify related hashtags to dive deeper into the brand-relevant conversations consumers are having on social.

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5. Tag brands, followers and locations whenever you can

Tagging is a surprisingly effective way to promote your Instagram.

And no, we’re not just talking about hashtags.

For example, you can tag other brands and accounts in hopes of a shout-out yourself. Given that notifications ping anyone who receives them, relevant tags are a subtle way to encourage promotion.

Likewise, it’s both courtesy and within Instagram’s best practices to tag anyone you might be regramming. Chances are they’ll be thrilled to be featured in your feed and will share the news with their own followers.

Don’t forget to tag locations, too! For example, if you have a physical location for your business or regularly attends events, location-specific posts allow you to explore new potential fans and followers.

6. Publish Instagram content on-site

When it comes to ads, what better billboards than your own customers?

Featuring Instagram content on-site is a brilliant way to increase conversions. Why? Because when people see purchased products in real-world settings, they know that the brand in question has satisfied customers. Consumers can better visualize and understand a product for themselves when they see it “in the wild.”

Thus the rise of lookbooks and brands featuring user-generated content on product pages. For example, Casper uses an Instagram slideshow on-site to show off their satisfied sleepers.

Of course, this all circles back to the need to promote your Instagram hashtag.

In addition to their Instagram bio, #TopShopStyle is plastered across the brand’s site and marketing emails to increase their tag’s exposure. The end result is more user-generated content and people promoting TopShop organically.

7.  Carve out your creative trademark

Creativity counts on Instagram.

Having some sort of niche or theme is a great way to both inspire your Instagram content and make yourself stand out from the crowd.

For example, Yeti is known for its feed full of high-res photos of the outdoors featuring adventures enjoying their products.

Meanwhile, oVertone boasts a bold color-coded feed based on whichever shade of their product their currently promoting.

If you’re stumped as to what your creative trademark should be, don’t sweat it. There are tons of Instagram apps (such as VSCO) which can help you add some creative flair to your photos. By using consistent gradients, colors and filters, you can make your feed feel more, well, you.

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A post shared by VSCO (@vsco)

8. Work with influencers to extend your reach

As we mentioned earlier, Instagram benefits from being a platform where brands can essentially publish ads without shoving them in their followers’ faces.

Enter the rise of influencer marketing.

Simply put, influencer marketing entails a paid relationship with another Instagram account with a sizeable, engaged follower count. Influencers’ audiences should ideally mirror your own or allow you to tap into a new sect of users that you’re trying to reach.

Influencers are akin to ads in the sense that the relationship does indeed cost money. However, finding the right influencer can be an incredibly cost-effective way to both sell products and grow your following.

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A post shared by HELEN BERKUN (@helen_berkun)

Brands can spot influencers through hashtags and manual searching, or you can try Instagram analytics tools such as Tapinfluence or search an in-depth database related to your business.

Remember: when identifying influencers, just make sure they have a following that actually engages with their content. Engagement rate calculators such as this one from Phlanx can help give you peace of mind about any influencers in question.

9. Rethink how you present your products and promotions

This is a simple tip but is definitely something worth mentioning. And it relates to that other kind of Instagram promotion – the one with fun giveaways or sale items and can be incredibly valuable for your brand when done well.

So when you promote your Instagram in these instances, it’s crucial to present your content as must-see.

Instagram thrives on anything and everything “new.” Anything you can do to create a sense of hype is a major point in your favor.

For example, check out how Glossier hypes up their much-requested eye cream by surprising their followers a day before it drops.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Glossier (@glossier)

Uniqlo publishes hype-heavy Instagram promotions and content, including calls-to-action for followers to check out their exclusive merch.

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A post shared by UNIQLO Global (@uniqlo)

Pinup Girl also does a great job of highlighting why their products rock and allows their brand voice to shine through in the process.

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A post shared by Pinup Girl Clothing (@pinupgirlclothing)

As a rule of thumb, think “so what” before you hit “publish” for your promotions on Instagram. Doing so will ultimately encourage you to write more compelling captions.

10. Run a contest or giveaway

Here’s some food for thought: brands that run contests grow their followings 70% faster than those that don’t.

You might notice that many brands’ contest and giveaway-related posts receive insane amounts of engagement and that’s no accident. Done correctly, social media contests can result in followers and fans although they can also attract freebie-chasers. We recommend running a one-time contest promotion on Instagram to test the waters and determine whether or not contests are something you want to try for the long-term.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Birchbox US (@birchbox)

11. Optimize your profile for promotion

As you work through how to promote Instagram to new fans and followers, “looking the part” is essential.

This also applies to brands looking to attract more attention organically.

Let’s take a look at what makes an optimized Instagram profile. The good news is that there aren’t too many moving pieces of your profile itself to worry about.

Orlando’s East End Market is a prime example of a simple yet optimized profile. For starters, their username “eastendmkt” is short and sweet, all the while easy to find for locals searching for it.

Their bio also ticks the boxes of an optimized profile, including a clear profile picture, compelling bio, branding hashtag and trackable URL. Everything about this Instagram bio lets us know what to expect from their feed and likewise that we’re in the right place.

They also feature their email and phone number which is something to consider if you’re running a business account. East End also regularly tags other businesses and events to expand their profile’s reach. Oh, and not to mention their awesome visual content that their local followers love.

12. Take advantage of Instagram Stories and its latest features

Stories are by far Instagram’s most popular feature.

Used by over 500 million users daily, brands should take advantage of Stories as often as possible when promoting on Instagram. For many businesses, this means publishing user-generated photos and behind-the-scenes content. The beauty of Stories is that you don’t have to worry as much about your visuals being polished or “perfect.”

That said, creativity still counts when it comes to Stories. Among Instagram’s latest features, Stories are always at the center of them. For example, new interactive stickers such as the new Quiz sticker represent fresh ways that brands can engage with followers for a more unique and interactive type of Instagram promo.

Keeping up with Instagram means staying active and on top of its latest features. If you’re regularly publishing to Stories and watching what other brands are doing, you’ll always be in-the-know.

13. Consider running a paid campaign

Last but not least, don’t neglect the potential of paid promotion on Instagram.

After all, social media at large is becoming increasingly pay-to-play. As part of Facebook’s insanely in-depth ad platform, you can use Instagram’s eye-popping ad options to win over new customers.

There are plenty of Instagram success stories out there including this example from Dunkin which cleverly uses both Stories and video to grab the attention of users.

First familiarize yourself with today’s Instagram ad specs, then make sure you have the tools necessary to see how your paid efforts stack up against your organic Instagram presence.

Allison Gates
Creative Manager

Sprout’s paid tools for Instagram empower you to gain insight into the ROI of your overall strategy or compare the performance of individual campaigns to optimize appropriately. Easily highlight your top campaigns by video views, conversions, impressions, engagement and more.

And with that, we wrap up our guide!

More ways to expand your Instagram reach

Instagram offers brands plenty of routes for content discovery and connection with audiences. Make sure you’re covering the essential best practices with these guides:

  • Get more authentic Instagram followers with these 10 tips
  • 9 Instagram post ideas to spice up your account
  • How to regram on Instagram
  • How to get more Instagram Likes
  • How to craft an impactful Instagram bio for business

So, how do you promote your Instagram?

When it comes to Instagram promotion, you have plenty of tactics to experiment with.

And hey, that’s a good thing.

Making sure that your feed stands out means understanding the platform’s best practices and evolving alongside Instagram itself. Sticking to the tips above, or developing new Instagram post ideas can help you maximize your engagement as you promote your Instagram to new followers and customers. Start a free trial of Sprout Social to test out our Instagram tools hands-on.

Promoting Instagram in 2022 - Marketing on vc.ru

Good afternoon! Lyudmila is in touch, a marketer at Altcraft. Instagram already has 1.3 billion users, photo and video content service is one of the top social networks in the world and continues to grow. Instagram brings money to brands and bloggers - it is the most effective platform for influencer marketing in 2020-2021. Bloggers earn up to $10,000 from one advertising post. Brands increase the audience, increase loyalty and sales - 90% of Instagram users are subscribed to commercial accounts.

57,836 views

Instagram is a rapidly changing social network with unpredictable algorithms. There is huge competition here, but the question of how to promote Instagram for brands and bloggers remains relevant. We tell you what will work and what will not work in 2022: how to promote a blog on Instagram using free and paid promotion methods.

Before the start of promotion

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It is useless to start development without strategy and account preparation. Therefore, first:

  • Set up an Instagram profile so that the user immediately understands what your account is about and what you offer.

What's important:

  • A name that matches the theme of the account.
  • Description in the profile header: USP, benefits, name (if the account is an individual).
  • Location, if you run an offline business or work in a specific area. nine0016
  • Link to the site or your other materials.
  • Page navigation in live stories: prices, location, FAQs and other information.
  • Clean your account from inactive subscribers if the profile has been maintained for a long time. Subscribers who do not respond to your content in any way are bad for promotion.

Example. Instagram sees: only 10 out of 1000 subscribers watch your content. The social network understands that the content is uninteresting and stops showing it. Subscribers by themselves are not an indicator of the success of an account, it is important to involve the audience. nine0038

  • Switch to a business account to get statistics and analyze audience reactions to content.
  • Prepare a development strategy. Any promotion is a plan and regularity. One-time actions will not bring results. Define goals - why do you need promotion on Instagram, what do you want to get: subscribers, sales, advertisers, or something else. Prepare a content plan with regular posts, stories and Reels.
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    Free promotion methods

    Reels

    Reels is a short video format (15-30 seconds) that Instagram launched worldwide in the summer of 2021. The social network also promised to promote the video format. Therefore, now Reels is the most effective way to promote your account for free. Social media gives Reels an outside reach. If stories and posts work for an existing audience (although posts also sometimes get into recommendations), then Reels has more opportunities. Getting a million views for an account with a couple of thousand subscribers is real. nine0003

    Another advantage of Reels for promotion is the lifetime. Stories disappear after 24 hours, the post is shown for a couple of days, and Reels “spins” even after a while. Also, one video in Reels can “pull” others along with it: the social network sees that a particular video is interesting to the audience and shows the previously created ones.

    Examples of Reels

    Commenting

    Don't confuse this method with spam comments for everyone. Popular, but meaningless, remains automatic commenting. With this method, there are situations when the inscription “what a beautiful photo” appears under the mourning post with a candle, or there are off-topic comments. You shouldn't do that. nine0003

    Unsuccessful automatic commenting

    How to gain followers on Instagram through comments:

    • Comment thoughtfully and to the point. Communicate in a friendly and honest way - try to make friends, and not advertise yourself.
    • Chat in the comments under the posts of personal accounts of ordinary users, bloggers and brands. A user with a small number of followers is more likely to notice you and visit your page. Major bloggers and brands are unlikely to subscribe, but other subscribers will see an interesting comment. nine0016

    Hashtags

    Promotion with the help of hashtags is a legal promotion method that is unlikely to give huge coverage, but it will still attract some part of the audience. Instagram has a separate search for hashtags and a subscription to them.

    Which hashtags to set for promotion:

    • Thematic, which relate to your field, and localized, if you are tied to some territory.
    • The topic of the hashtag should match the topic of the post and photo, then Instagram better understands what your post is about and shows it to the right audience. nine0016
    • Do not choose high-frequency hashtags from 500 thousand. The more often a hashtag is used, the less likely your post will be seen.
    • Check the relevance of hashtags. If they were last used two years ago, they don't work.

    An example of thematic hashtags

    How many hashtags should I put? There is no single answer. Instagram allows you to add up to 30. But such a “canvas” does not always work. Irrelevant hashtags will reduce reach and minimize the effect of relevant ones. Therefore, experiment and do not copy the same hashtags from post to post - this is inefficient. Another social network may think that you are a robot and block your account. nine0003

    Cross promo

    This method will not fit the query "How to promote instagram from scratch". An account for cross-promotion or mutual PR should already have an audience.

    What we do next:

    • We are looking for an account with a similar or related theme and with approximately the same number of subscribers.
    • We exchange content, for example, we make guest posts, live broadcasts or joint marathons.

    An example of a successful cross-promo is a sportswear brand account launching a marathon of fast workouts with a fitness trainer.

    Promotion on other platforms

    If you are actively running another channel (Youtube, Yandex.Zen and others), invite the audience to subscribe to your Instagram.

    Important! Users should understand why they need another account of yours. It is unlikely that subscribers are interested in watching the same content. Work with different formats and themes. nine0130

    An example of such a promotion method from a blogger with a promoted Youtube channel with expert information. The girl offers to subscribe to her Instagram, where she shares her personal.

    Instagram promotion on the blogger's Youtube channel

    User Content

    Works for brands and individuals who want to promote their account.

    An option for a brand is to invite users to post a photo with their product and a special hashtag. Then the brand reposts these publications to its page. nine0003

    For personal accounts, tag brands. Then there is a chance that the Instagram page will be reposted to the brand account. It turns out win-win - the user gets more coverage, and the brand gets more content.

    Location

    Adding locations to the account description and posts to Instagram promotion is an additional way. This is especially true for local businesses and events. Just put a location and wait for thousands of subscribers will not work.

    Paid promotion methods

    Targeted advertising

    Instagram's official advertising is an opportunity to reach an audience with specific interests. If the algorithms themselves decide who to show your Reels or post to, then in advertising you set the audience yourself. Instagram offers to advertise in the feed, stories and Reels.

    Examples of targeted advertising on Instagram: in the feed and in stories

    Advertising is set up on Instagram itself or through the Facebook advertising account (if the account is linked to the page). For advertising on Instagram, goals are available: visiting an account, a website and increasing engagement - more messages. The audience can be selected automatically or configured, but the criteria are limited. nine0003

    Setting up an advertising campaign on Instagram

    There are more opportunities to designate an audience in the Facebook advertising account.

    Possible goals of an advertising campaign in the Facebook advertising account

    The downside of advertising on the social network is an impressive list of restrictions that are constantly changing. For violation of the rules, advertising is stopped, and sometimes the account is blocked without explanation.

    Advertising with influencers

    Influence marketing remains trending in 2022 as the blogging market grows. Therefore, Instagram promotion through opinion leaders is still relevant. Advertising among bloggers, famous personalities and experts is more trustworthy and is perceived as a recommendation of a familiar person. Advertising options for influencers: native (does not look like advertising) or direct.

    Advertising with bloggers

    How not to promote on Instagram

    If to the question: “How to promote an account on Instagram”, someone offers cheating and giveaways, then run. Gray methods of promotion will not only not be useful, but will also destroy your account. Read about them and forget. nine0003

    Giveaway

    Giveaways are influencer contests in which you need to subscribe to the page and all giveaway sponsors in order to participate in the prize draw. Subscription is a prerequisite for the draw. This is how sponsors gain a new audience, but after the draw:

    • users unsubscribe because their interest is a prize, not a sponsor's page;
    • Instagram algorithms see a large number of unsubscribes and reduce profile coverage; nine0016
    • it is difficult to save such an account.

    Even during a giveaway, the gathered audience is ballast. Prize users are not involved in the content. For Instagram algorithms, this is a sign of irrelevant content.

    Cheat bots and comments

    Instead of live subscribers, you get fake accounts - bots that create the appearance, but in fact "drown" the account. For algorithms, the more subscribers, the more engagement should be. If the subscribers are bots, there is no activity from them. Instagram sees an uninteresting account and does not show it not only in recommendations, but also to subscribers. The social network also fights against bots and suspicious activity, bans accounts that are engaged in cheating. nine0003

    Activity chats

    They create the illusion of involvement, show social networks and other subscribers interest in the account. These are groups where users gather who like, comment on posts and watch each other's stories. The main disadvantage of the method is an irrelevant audience. If this method is still possible in an account from scratch, then after growth it will most likely harm - you will not see real involvement and interest in the content, so you will not understand how to improve it.

    nine0002 Mass following and mass liking

    The essence of the methods is subscribing to multiple accounts that can be the target audience or/and likes to posts by different people. The goal is to draw attention to your account: the user will replace your activity and subscribe in response. But the methods are no longer relevant: users do not respond, but Instagram punishes for such promotion. The social network has a limit of subscriptions, unsubscribes, likes, comments, marks, and even the number of publications. For suspicious activity, the user receives a ban. If you resort to the help of automated third-party services, the risks of losing your account forever increase. nine0003

    Summary

    Start promoting your Instagram account by creating a strategy and profile packaging: a clear description and location designation.

    The most promising free way to promote Instagram is to shoot Reels. Combine it with other methods: commenting, cross-promotion with accounts of similar subjects, use user-generated content and advertise your Instagram on other platforms.

    Put thematic hashtags under publications and geolocations if the account is tied to a territory - these are additional free promotion methods. nine0003

    To reach a larger audience, launch targeted ads or reach out to influencers who will remain a popular paid promotion channel in 2022.

    Do not use gray methods of promotion: giveaways, activity chats, promotion, mass following and mass liking. Promote legal methods - this is a reliable and proven way.

    40 tips on how to promote your Instagram

    1. Do not forget to put hashtags that will help increase the number of subscribers: #instafollow, #l4l (Like for like), #tagforlikes and #followback. nine0003

    2. Like as much as possible. For every 100 likes you give to random photos, you will get an average of 6 new followers.

    3. Run contest . The easiest way to do this is to post a themed picture and ask people to like it so they can participate.

    4. Start to promote profile on your pages in other social networks. Write what your blog is about and why people should read it and invite them to join. nine0003

    5. Be generous with likes and comments - this is the easiest way to attract new subscribers.

    6. Use common hashtags to make your photos visible in the global search. Among the most popular are #love, #instagood, #fashion and #photooftheday.

    @westwingde

    7. Time matters. Research has shown that the best time to fast is between 2 pm and 5 pm.

    8. Subscribe on people who use popular hashtags (#followme, #likeforlike) because many of them will follow you back.

    9. Remember, quality is important , not quantity. Monitor your profile and leave only beautiful and high-quality photos. Believe me, no one is interested in flipping through hundreds of photos of salads.

    10. Love the Mayfair filter. Track Maven listed this filter on The Fortune 500 Instagram as the best choice for marketers. nine0003

    11. Check that you have completed the biography section . Complete it with suitable words and hashtags, and also provide a link to your website. But remember: no spam! Otherwise, subscribers will lose interest in the profile.

    12. Ask questions to subscribers. This is a great way to connect with your target audience.

    13. Post on Sundays . It is on this day that people post photos a little, so your post will be seen by the maximum number of people. nine0003

    @nastiapoberezhna

    14. Be consecutive . Think about who and why you are doing this. The more clearly you answer these questions, the faster you will attract the right audience.

    15. Call people to action. For example, ask them to write their opinion about your photo in the comments.

    16. Don't be afraid to post often. It may seem that the more often the photos flash, the more indifferent the subscribers behave. But according to the Union Metrics program, there is no relationship between posting frequency and audience activity. At least negative. nine0003

    17. Follow suggested users. Go to settings and select "Find and invite friends" and then "Recommended users".

    18. Set geolocation to . This will be especially useful if you run an Instagram company. So you will have the opportunity to attract new subscribers-neighbors.

    19. Schedule publications using the Later program. Consistency never hurt anyone.

    20. Arrange with popular blogger to advertise your profile or product. So information about you will quickly scatter over the network.

    21. Studies have shown that blue images get 24% more likes than orange or red images. Post something blue and see for yourself!

    22. Let fasting on Wednesdays become your obligatory ritual. This is because posts get more attention and likes in the middle of the week.

    23. Write more often the word "comment" in posts. This encourages your followers to share their opinions and be more willing to join the discussion.

    24. Post photos showing 's face. According to research, such publications are 35% more popular than others.

    25. Tag in photos of people. Your post will also be seen by friends of friends.

    26. Remember the rule: the more light the better.

    27. If you have a business account, create corporate hashtag. So users will be able to specify it when buying a product. And it will increase your visibility on Instagram several times over.

    28. Share live photos. Show that behind the beautiful picture there are living people .

    29. Business trick: share photos of your followers mentioning your brand or product. This pleasant step shows that you value each client. In return, they will definitely share your photos in their feed. nine0003

    30. Brand yourself : Use your nickname for more than just your profile. A notebook, a case or a branded sticker on a car will surely attract the attention of potential subscribers.

    @romantimo3

    31. Invite Facebook friends to follow you. To do this, in the profile settings, select "Find friends on Facebook."

    32. People love stories. Share your experiences and thoughts, so you will gain their trust and establish contact. Just remember that the post should be emotional and bright, not snot in sugar. nine0003

    33. Tag people , even in stories, don't be lazy.

    34. Do not be shy in your posts to ask for likes . As practice has shown, such publications receive 89% more likes.

    35. Plan ahead not only the time, but also the content. Prepare your materials and only then start filling out your feed. For example, write posts for a few days in advance, and then publish them gradually.

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