Ultimate Instagram Marketing Strategy For Small Business – 2022

Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms in the field of marketing. There are 800 million monthly active users, 500 million daily active users, on Instagram. Therefore, there is a massive number of influencers on the site with followers. Therefore with these huge opportunities, you can make your own brand on Instagram. So as that here are the powerful steps you need to take, in order to create Instagram Marketing Strategy For Small Business.

Without a strategy, you will post on social media platforms to post. It can be difficult to get results on social media without understanding what your goals are, who your target audience is and what they want.

The very first things;

With over 95 million posts shared daily on Instagram, it’s no surprise that small businesses need an active part. Starting from a social platform can be a bit overwhelming. Instead of trying to figure out what it means to go online for days or weeks, Instagram offers an easy-to-understand guide to everything you need to know about marketing for small businesses.

Why use Instagram for business?

Instagram has a huge potential for marketers with 500 million daily active users. Most of the Instagrammers like to connect with brands. Even though there are different social media platforms, so why use Instagram? Instagram is considered to be the best social media platform to work with a brand that has the ability to connect with your followers. It is visual, simple and attracts the younger generation more than other social media platforms. It can go beyond the scene. In addition to showing powerful photos to your followers, you can create a social media profile that highlights the mission and purpose of your brand, showcases your products, and captures leadership and sales. Instagram may seem small, but it’s a powerful tool to use no matter what your business.

• On Instagram, brands regularly connect with 4% of their followers. Networks such as Facebook and Twitter account for less than 0.1%.
• There are 130 million Instagram users in the United States.
• Instagram has at least 25 million business profiles.
• 90% of Instagram users follow at least one business and 83% of users say that Instagram has helped them find new products and services.
• For all those users to choose from, Instagram is an important place for business. It’s for big, well-known companies as well as small moms and pop shops and entrepreneurs.
• It is reported that 70% of Instagram users have viewed a brand on the platform.
• 62% of users follow a brand on Instagram.
• You can use Instagram to keep your followers updated on sales and special promotions. Therefore, you can run a promotional advertising campaign to raise awareness and increase your website traffic.
• Make an impression with live posts and stories.
• Effectively engaged with customers.

People surveyed say they see brands on Instagram as follows,

The formula for Instagram success

The success of the Instagram campaign depends more than just publishing a few good looking pictures. When you put this raw material together, your business can give Instagram good results. You can take a look at the successful brands stand out on Instagram such as Recess, Teva, Haus, etc. You must also have these features:

• Clear vision and strategy
• Familiarity with your audience
• Consistent frequency
• Clear visual style

Choose 1-to-2 main goals

Even if you are completely new to Instagram, whether you are ready to share your first post or have already set up and hope to increase your presence on the platform, it is important to start with clear goals in mind. Goal setting helps you define your strategy on Instagram and create content that will help you achieve your goals. It is best to choose one or two targets for your Instagram profile, either from the list below or a custom target you like. Here are the most popular ones that every brand tend to use,

• Build your community
• Increase brand loyalty
• Increase awareness of your brand
• Showcase your products or services
• Advertise to potential customers
• Showcase your company culture and values
• Share company news and updates

Age and gender of internet users on Instagram

Understanding Instagram statistics is key to understanding your users. When you do, you can create a smart Instagram marketing strategy that will lead to leadership, sales and an audience dedicated to your brand.

1. Age

About half of young people between the ages of 18-29 (53%) use the Internet using Instagram. Here is the complete breakdown of age groups,

• Between the ages of 18-24, 75%
• Ages 25–29, 57%
• Between the ages of 30-49, 47%
• 23% of 50–64-year aged ones use Instagram.
• 8% of people 65+ use Instagram.

2. Location

• 28%– urban areas
• 26%– suburban areas
• 19%– rural areas

3. Education demographics

• 31%– Have college experience
• 24%– College graduates
• 23%– High school grads or less

4. Income demographics

• 28%– less than $30,000
• 26%– less than $30,000
• 26%– $50,000–$74,999
• 23%– $50,000–$74,999

#1. Setting up an Instagram business account

Before we get started, it’s important to note that Instagram is meant for content at the moment. To stay with your audience, you need to invest in the resources you need to publish regularly. The best way to keep your followers engaged is to keep your Instagram profile engaging. Before you start with Instagram marketing, you need an Instagram Business Account or an Instagram Creator Account. If you already have one, go to the tips below. If you already have a personal account, you can convert it into a business account. Below, we dive into how to build and maintain a successful Instagram profile.

1. Download the Instagram app

Unlike other social networks, posting content on Instagram can only be done using the mobile app. So the first step is to snatch your smartphone, find Instagram in your app store and download it.

• For iOS
• For Android

2. Sign up

Once you have downloaded your app, open it. When you open the Instagram app, you have two options to create your account, login with Facebook or sign up by phone or email. Be sure to sign up with a business email. So your Instagram profile is not linked to your personal Facebook account.

Then tap to create a new account on ios or sign up with email or phone number on android. Then enter your email or phone number and tap Next. After that create your username and password. Next, fill out your account details. Under the full name, enter your real business name so visitors can identify your profile. This name will appear on your profile. It’s not the username of your account. Your user name should be your company or small business name.

3. Switch to a business account

Tap the hamburger icon at the top right on your profile. Tap Settings, then Account. Switch to a professional account.

#2. Optimize your Instagram profile

Remember that your Instagram profile is essentially your homepage on the platform. Because it allows you to share small details about your business and add some traffic to your website. In this section, we will guide you on how to get the most out of your Instagram profile and how to get the most out of it.

Public Profile

You need to make your Instagram account public. that means anyone in the world could view your profile and posts. While creating an Instagram profile for a business, here’s what you need. If someone wants to see your posts, follow your brand. Otherwise, if you keep your profile private, no one who visits your profile will be able to view your photos, which will prevent them from following you.

Recognizable & Searchable @Username

Start by making sure your username is recognizable and easily found as your business name. If your business name is already used as a username, try to keep your business name as the first part of your username so that people looking for your business are more likely to accept you. For example, Madewell uses the user name, @madewell.

Picking the right profile photo

Now is the time to select the right profile picture. Your profile picture is your first impression of a new visitor. For this reason, keep your image in line with your brand and visual markings. So consider using your logo or another familiar image. Instagram profile pictures are automatically cut into circles, so make room around the corners of your image.

Consider that all profile photos should be a perfect square of 110 x 110 pixels. you do not need to be frustrated, as Instagram will crop your Instagram profile picture into a circle on your feed. If you have a headshot as your Instagram profile picture, the background you use for your shoot is really important. Remember that your profile picture on Instagram shows your personality and brand at the same time, then you can stand up against the competition by working on a few props related to your headshot. Take a look at the Teva’s and Madewell’s profile pictures. They use the simple logo with contrast on their profile.

Unlike many brands on Instagram, JetBlue shares a more unique, but brand-specific colour scheme than their logo.

Optimise your bio

Next, optimise your Instagram bio. The Instagram bios have a maximum of 150 characters, so here’s a straightforward, concise summary of who your target is and why people should follow you. Therefore, tell your audience about your business using a hint of personality. Instagram bio cannot be searched, so don’t worry about keywords or hashtags.

One of the biggest frustrations people have with Instagram is that the app is not a good platform to browse a website, Twitter page or anywhere else. This is because you are not allowed to click the URL anywhere other than the Website box on your bio. That’s why you need to add a link to your business Instagram Website box on Instagram bio. This makes it easier for people to go directly from Instagram to your website, blog or specific business.

Add Action Buttons

In addition to your URL, action buttons are a great way to get a secondary call to action to your Instagram profile. To add actional buttons, it is at the bottom of your profile and highlights the story above. Action buttons or call-to-action work best for appointments, bookings, tickets, and online orders. They use third-party software to make it easier for followers to click and complete the process, go to your website and do it manually, and skip or skip the process.

#3. Create compelling content

When you creating your content on Instagram you need to think that what type of content aligns with your brand and also what your audience wants to see from you. Therefore, as you are holding a small business, identify your niche clearly. Being able to determine who, what and why your Instagram brand is a very important step in creating your content. If you know your brand and the content you want to reach your audience, you can create the right kind of content right from the start.

If you use images other than photos, such as infographics or animations, make sure they are crisp, clear, easy to read, and catchy. Therefore, you are not sure about what to post here are simple ideas.

Types of Instagram Posts

• Images– The most common post on Instagram is an image. When posting pictures, share different photos. Diversity shows that your brand is different and connects your followers in different ways.
  

• Reposts From Employees– Reposting photos from your employees is an easy way to heal genuine content and humanize your business. Not only does your audience connect with your brand, but they also “bond” with your employees.
  
• Educational Posts– Educational posts offer little tips on how and when to do something. Photos or videos usually present instructions in a way that is quick and easy to follow.
  
• Behind-the-Scenes Posts– This type of post gives you an overview of some of the businesses that people don’t usually see. It’s vital that they don’t get on stage, so authenticity is the key.
  
• User-Generated Content– Similar to employee relocations, user-generated content is content derived from your fans and followers. Your tagged posts and posts with your brand hashtag are a good source for UGC.
  
• Motivational Posts– A motivational post combines a simple look with an overlapping quote or text. These posts encourage your audience and increase your brand value. Effective is to try to post these economically to avoid the cheesy look.
  
• Influencer Posts– Influencer Post uses the reputation of a celebrity or public figure to promote your brand. This post often includes a perspective of the influencer who uses or interacts with your product. One of the main advantages of a powerful post is that they gain more audience attention.
  
• Videos– Instagram video clips default to play without sound. Therefore, you can use professionally edited videos.

Create a visual aesthetic for your brand

Instagram is all about the visuals. Therefore, it more important to have a recognizable visual identity. First, think about what you show in your post. In some cases, the content will be clear, just think a clothing line may display its clothing and a restaurant may post photos of its food. So once you have decided on a content theme, go for a consistent visual look. That means consistent colours and filters and the overall aesthetic that is easily recognizable as your fans scroll through their Instagram feed.

Take amazing photos

For Instagram to work for your business, you need to have good photos. But you do not need to be a professional photographer and you do not need a lot of equipment. A crowded background with different subjects in a frame distracts the focus of your shots. It can confuse even your audience. Therefore remove distraction by cropping them. You can take the advantage of negative space, on the other hand, the empty space around your subject. Placing a negative space around your subject will draw the desired attention to your image and give it a crowded look.

Remember that the human eye is naturally drawn to symmetrical shapes and objects. Sometimes, it is better to break one-third of the law and direct the vision into your frame. Another definite symmetry that catches the eye of the leading photographer. Even though the people are also drawn to patterns. Man can create a natural pattern like a flower or a vine on a tile or wall. Therefore, to make things really interesting, break down the pattern with your subject.

#4. Utilize Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories allows users to publish your artwork more frequently than ever. There are over 500 million daily Instagram users use Instagram stories. Stories usually contain less polished, more organic images and videos. Like Snapchat Stories, the Instagram story disappears after 24 hours. The stories are all about authenticity. Your Instagram feed should contain polished photos, and the stories can be a little rawer. Use the feature to view your brand or display your company culture behind the scenes. Stories are also a useful tool for showcasing the live events of your business host or participant as this feature is more sensitive.

We love Instagram stories because they provide another way to get content that is not a nuisance in front of your audience. Instead of publishing a large number of pictures and videos, you can diversify your content by spreading it across IGTV and stories.

That being said, we recommend not overdoing it with stories. So do not post more than four in 24 hours. To give you a framework, most businesses post 2.5 stories a week to Instagram. Make sure you use stories for shopping promotions, quick videos and fun sections. Of course, use the interactive elements that the story provides. Be creative with gifs, polls and more. When stories include stickers, those videos are 83% better than those without.

How to Post to Your Instagram Story

Instagram offers three options for posting your story. You can tap the camera in the top left corner, tap your story above yours, or swipe right to access the camera. Use the camera settings such as,

• Type
• Music
• Live
• Superzoom
• Focus
• Hands-free

And also you can use the term of Instagram story highlights. Instagram stories are archived as Instagram stories within 24 hours and sent to an Instagram profile. Under Instagram Bio, you can find them in small circles. Highlighting stories is a great way to showcase your best stories and mail them to your account semi-permanently for your followers to see. Your ads can be linked to external websites, which are useful ways to display products, services, promotions and more.

#5. Consistent, Regular Posts

An optimized Instagram profile is an engaging one to drive traffic. Since photo quality is so important, you don’t have to worry about posting to your Instagram account several times a day like many other social media networks. Instead, focus on creating high-quality content, then publishing it to your specific audience at the right time. According to the Eastern standard time, here are the best times to post on Instagram.

• Monday: 6am, 10am, and 10pm
• Tuesday: 2 am, 4 am, and 9 am
• Wednesday: 7 am, 8 am, and 11 pm
• Thursday: 9 am, 12 pm, and 7 pm
• Friday: 5 am, 1 pm, and 3 pm
• Saturday: 11 am, 7 pm, and 8 pm
• Sunday: 7 am, 8 am, and 4 pm

This is usually the best time to post, and if you want to get the most out of it, it’s best to find your personalized best times based on your unique audience. So as that you can use Instagram insights.

#6. Write compelling captions

Instagram can be a visual platform but that does not your captions can be ignored. The caption allows you to tell the story that makes the photo meaningful. They can make your followers think, laugh and feel connected to your brand. To create a powerful caption, you need to develop clear brands. The most important thing is consistency. Do you use emoji? Do you have grammar guides that follow your brand? What hashtags do you use? A good set of style guidelines will help you keep your captions different and brand.

Instagram captions can be as long as 2,200 characters, so you can use them for everything from quick descriptions to detailed stories. This means that without tapping more, only the first two lines of your text appear in the Instagram newsfeed. Following caption lengths are recommended for Instagram captions.

• Organic posts: 138–150 characters
• Instagram ads: 125 characters

How to Write Instagram Captions

• Don’t rush the process– Your content should be timely but dynamic. Instagram recently changed its algorithm in order to organize a user’s feed to showcase what they likely find engaging. The visibility of each post depends on the number of likes and comments that your posts receive. Therefore, take the time to create content that makes your customers happy and engaging.
• Engage, engage, and engage some more– Include a call to action in your caption because it will encourage your followers to like comment, share your post. And also you can use your caption to direct people to your bio link. Not only that, you can include Geotag.
• Find your Instagram voice– Remember that every social media platform has a distinct voice that workers differently on each other.
• Consider the caption length– It is better to create a caption with 2200 characters. Regardless of length, users can only see the first 3 to 4 lines. They need to click more to see the rest of the caption. Therefore, always keep the most important content visible at the beginning of the topic.

#7. Use Instagram Hashtags

Hashtags are usually used to focus on events, conferences, pop culture, entertainment or counter-themes, and are a great way to make your content more visible. Captions on Instagram are not searchable but Hashtags are searchable. When someone clicks on or searches for a hashtag, they see all the content associated with it. This is a good way to get your content in front of people who are not already following you.

You may want to consider creating your own brand hashtag. A branded hashtag reveals your brand and encourages followers to share photos that fit that image. It can be a good source of user-generated content and encourages the community among your followers. And also Instagram allows you to include 30 hashtags.

#love, #instagood, #life, #beauty, #smile, #photography, #style, #follow, #instagram, #lifestyle, motivation, #like, #design, #family.

• Include hashtags in your first comment– It’s normal for brands to include their hashtags when they first comment on their posts, so your caption is not crowded and targets more tags. Check out how Madewell does it below.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Madewell (@madewell)

• Encourage others to use your hashtags– Apart from your Instagram bio, remember to promote your hashtag throughout your marketing campaign. This provides a great opportunity to regularly appear in a follower’s feed.
  
• Run Hashtag-Based Campaigns & Promotions– The easiest way to do this is to encourage your audience to tag relevant content with a branded hashtag – similar to a file system and help everyone in your community add UGC to you.
  

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Madewell (@madewell)

• Match your hashtags to the right photo– You can do research for your hashtag, find the similarities within the images. If there are similarities there might be an opportunity to branch out.
• Vary hashtags across your content– Once you find popular hashtags related to people, you will be tempted to continue using the same hashtag in each post. But in the end, you have to add a few more changes.
• Study your competitors and top influencers to find the best hashtags.
• Familiarize yourself with Instagram lingo and general, “evergreen” hashtags.

#8. Follow people and get social

By this time you have a complete profile, have shared a few articles, now is the time to start following people, and then they will start following you. From your profile page, go to the options page. Under the fallow page, there may be two options,

• Facebook Friends
• Contacts

Tap one of these two, and Instagram will connect with Facebook and your address book. If your phone stores past clients and contacts, you can see their accounts. Instagram will show you all your friends on Instagram in your contact list. Follow other accounts and start commenting and linking with their notes. That’s how you motivate people to start following you again. As you post more and follow more people on Instagram, go to the page to find out who likes your photos, who started following you, who commented, or who you mentioned in a post.

#9. Find and define your brand’s story

Once you’ve set up and ready to go, it’s important to decide what the purpose of your Instagram business account should be and keep it in the message. A small business owner can use Instagram to establish and expand their growth through relationships with Instagram and followers.

#10. Build Your Reach

Your small business Instagram marketing strategy is to increase your reach, brand awareness and brand goodwill. No matter what content you post, these should be your goal and the metric you focus on the most. If you find that there aren’t getting likes or shares for your pictures and videos, it’s time to retool your strategy.

And also another key element of creating reaches is the connection. So as that you need to actively manage your account and connect with other users. Therefore, start conversations, respond to people who comment on your posts. It will showcase that you are an active part of the Instagram community. And also makes your brand feel more genuine and more relevant, especially to young people.

You can post everything you want on Instagram for free, but you also have the opportunity to pay to promote your content. Depending on your budget and your target customer, this is worth the cost. However, it is not necessary to create the following.

#11. Share The Right Information

Your small business Instagram marketing effort should attract customers. That means you need to let them know how to find you on Instagram. Your Instagram account should include complete information on how to contact you.

Most important fact to remember is that adding a link to your website. Instagram visitors are more likely to click than call. You can add a quick professional bio get into a career so that stumbling customers on your Instagram page can know exactly what your business is and what it can offer.

#12. Follow Influencers

Consider that one of the best ways to use Instagram for small business marketing is to find industry influencers. Influencers have huge followers and have the power to direct their followers to certain brands. They are common in the healthcare, food and fashion industries but you will find influencers everywhere for your niche. Follow them and connect with them. And also mentioning an influencer’s brand will give you a lot of energy to grow your business. You can also create sponsorship posts with influencers. They can be expensive but they offer you a lot.

#13. Don’t be too “salsey”

Obviously, you want to drive sales. However, this does not mean that all the thing that you post should be a product promotion. Because it will annoy your audience. So be funny to your followers. Just post pictures of your employees and do not stray too far from your brand image.

Also, 46% of users say that if brands are posted frequently, they will not follow a brand on social media. That relevance is even heavier when you consider that 7 out of 10 people do not follow a brand. People do not like to be associated with ancient or ridiculous brands. Your profile may not be the whole story but the brand refresh on Instagram helps your overall understanding.

#14. Go live

The Instagram social media platform has a live broadcast feature. Live videos offer you the opportunity to connect with your audience. And also they can comment while you broadcast. So make sure to respond to those comments as best you can. You can try to get live broadcast features from other sectors to promote your brand.

#15. Run targeted ads

The biggest barrier to small business advertising on social media is cost. When you do not have a large budget, it can be a little difficult to justify spending money on advertising. But Instagram ads offer a good opportunity for small businesses because it is extremely affordable. Getting started is simple, especially if you already have a Facebook advertising account built into a single platform. However, instead of reusing the ones you like for Facebook, we recommend creating custom image assets for Instagram ads.