Do you know you can use Instagram to promote your business?

You can use Instagram to boost consumer interaction. It is a cool way to engage with your consumers on a casual level. Do you know that approx. 500 million users are active on Instagram every month, and approx. 4.2 billion photos are liked every day? You can have marketing success by using Instagram for business, if you use it in the right way. Here is a checklist to help you out:

#1. Use a link shortener to monitor traffic

One of the most important things marketers need to know is how much traffic their instagram account is driving to their website. As, Google Analytics can’t help you in tracking the traffic to your website from Instagram account, you can use customized link shorteners like bit.ly and goo.gl to track the number of clicks you’re getting on your site through your Instagram account. Add a bit.ly or goo.gl short link of your website URL in the bio.

Use a different bit.ly link every time you want to target a new landing page and campaign to track successful traffic leads continuously.

#2. Be Strategic With Your Bio Link

Instagram is spontaneous and fun if you’re using it for your personal use. But if you’re using Instagram for your business purpose then you need a good strategy. Add URL of the landing page of your website that you want to target to get leads, gain subscribers to your blog, promote your ecommerce site, and entries for giveaway, etc.

#3. Use trending hashtags

Users can find posts related to trending hashtags such as #LoveWins, #photoftheweek, #beautiful, etc. using Instagram’s Explore feature. If these trending tags are relevant to your brand make sure to include them in your posts to aid discovery. Instagram has also introduced the feature to search by emoji.

If emojis make sense for your brand’s strategy, find a way to incorporate them in your posts. It will help you get discovered by varied audience.

#4. Mix videos and photos

Instagram is about visual storytelling, but by sharing a video you can actually bring your story to life.

Video is one of the best ways to engage with fans, grow your following and drive traffic. It can generate three times more inbound links than text posts. Make sure to include videos along with photos in your Instagram posting strategy.

This allows you to feature your product in the center of the video, without coming off as a sales pitch. Encourage your fans to create their own videos and post them on your page as various brands like GoPro, Nike, and Maybelline do. The key here is to make it about your audience rather than your business, and you’ll quickly see a surge in followers!

#5. Leverage Sponsored Ads

Sponsored ads are offering brands a whole new dimension to target their audience. Earlier, people who follow the brand would see photo updates, but now brands can promote their products to anyone within their target audience.

This feature of Instagram is at the beginning phase and only selective brands (brands as Instagram partners) are using them right now. This feature will be available for other brands soon.

If you want to promote your brand, be ready with engaging and creative content by keeping the demographic in mind.

#6. Direct Users to Your Most Valuable Content

While Instagram now allows marketers to add clickable links in their carousel posts, the URLs in photo descriptions aren’t clickable.

To direct your followers to your valuable content, you can use the link section of your Instagram account’s bio. With this, you can direct your followers to your website homepage, your blog or you can link your most current content, whether it’s a blog, article or promotional content.

For example, take Mashable’s Instagram account. In the description of their latest upload, users are encouraged to click through to the link in Mashable’s Instagram bio. Clicking this link will take them to an article related to the Instagram photo.

#7. Post consistently

Regardless of the number of users following you, make sure to post consistently on your Instagram account. This gets your brand seen regularly by your followers. Posting engaging content consistently will help you to get more become more regular customers.

#8. Perfect Instagram posting time

Each and every brand has a different perfect time to post on Instagram to get more followers and likes. Use analytic tools to monitor the best time for your brand i.e., when your photos are getting more likes and comments. Look out for your best hashtags and track them to know when and where your hashtags are being used. Then post your fresh content at those most active times to get more followers.

#9. Crowdsource photos

Ask your followers to submit their photos about how they are using your product. This will definitely help you to get more business gain customer insight. It’s easy but it’s kind of risky for your brand. Run an Instagram photo contest to lure lots of consumers to give you their photos with your products.

#10. Ask for comments on your photos and videos

If you want more engagement on your posts, ask for it. Questions open up conversations. Ask your followers what they think about your brand, the latest post you’ve shared on your page, and more.

These tips can really help you get connected to your audience in a better way. Try them out, and see how authentically successful your visual marketing can be. For more digital marketing insights and services, talk to us!