5 ways to boost your Instagram business

With social media and the internet evolving each day, a lot of entrepreneurs are taking their businesses online; trying to level up their game, and rightly so, because as a customer in today’s date, telling your friends about the cool new business you recently made a purchase from becomes as simple as tapping two buttons to share a post or send a profile. Instagram is the most popular social media app to run a business on among today’s generation and there are a lot of new innovative ideas coming up on the app. If used right, a well-constructed Instagram Business account could do wonders for your company.

But how does someone who’s already on the app and not getting the expected response take their business to the next level? What are the most effective ways to boost an Instagram business account?

The internet will point you towards all sorts of generalised solutions. You might have already come across advice like:

• ?Invest in your photography (Plan your photos, take a good picture, shoot square photos, use filters and editing.)
• Use Instagram advertising.
• Feature photos of people to get more likes.
• Create posts based on words and try to feature videos.
• Use Hashtags or Location tags.
• Post consistently and do it when your fans/audiences are most active.
• Use sponsored ads.
• Captions are important, make sure you put some thought into them.
• Set up an Instagram shop.
• Engage with your followers.
• Optimise your profile.
• Conduct Instagram contests and giveaways.

These tips will definitely help you gain numbers. But how do you gather a loyal following? More importantly, how do you keep these people engaged through your page?

According to our research, the following points have proven to be the best ways to grow business on Instagram:

1. Devil’s in the details- Authenticity:

Ideally, this is something that one needs to plan and cover before they even make their first sale but you need to ensure that you have enough details to put on your page so that it seems legitimate. A majority of unsuccessful online businesses lack information or basic details. You have to think like the customers. As a buyer, anyone would want to make sure that the business that they plan on buying from is legitimate and won’t scam the customer.

Any business requires trust and rapport to be built with the customers. With budding entrepreneurs and more traditional businessmen taking their business to Instagram or other internet portals each day, the times are changing and trust becomes all the more important. Good relations go a long way and word of mouth travels twice as fast on the internet. Not everyone likes shopping online because there lies a severe lack of trust in not being able to pick a product off the shelf, get an idea of its quality and decide whether or not it’s worth your buck. Doubts pertaining to delivery times also arise often. There needs to be a way for the customers to reach out to you easily, more importantly, you need to show that you are available to answer any inquiries. As an Instagram start-up, the most vital part is getting them to trust you and proving your authenticity.

2. Get with the times, create a website, it’s cool:

Having a website helps a lot and is one of the best ways to promote your small business. Many businesses thrive on Instagram through reels or by gaining a basic understanding of the algorithm. This, however, is not enough because while it does boost your numbers and following, it does not prove your business’s metal; fake followers are a real thing, they can be purchased and your customers know this. Having a website becomes a part of having a legitimate business. It also increases consumer reach and the business’s credibility. This fact-checked data from 2022 goes to show why the business needs a website :

·? ? ? ? Less than 64% of small businesses have a website.

·? ? ? ? Up to 80% of people research a business/company online before interacting or making a purchase.

·? ? ? ? Only 17% of small businesses invest in SEO.

A lot of small business owners feel that their operation is too small to require a website. This will also give you an edge over your competitors and help your audience trust you.

3. Get some skin in the influence game- Invest:

The Instagram influencers-small business bond is one that gets stronger every day. Investing in your Social media page is very important for every small Instagram business, especially if you’re trying to take the next step and kick things up a notch. You could do this in a vast array of ways. Everyone’s familiar with the concept of influencers and what they do, so how can you as a social-media-based e-business benefit from their work?

When you have an influencer consuming your products and posting about them, you get to channel and take advantage of their large fan following for the benefit of your business. Influencers will influence, and people seeing these influencers’ posts will want to be like them.?

This means consuming the same or similar products and buying from the same businesses. Influencer marketing is said to offer the highest return on investment and helps the business expand its reach more than any other method. You put yourself on the influencer’s list of trustworthy, premium businesses.

4. Be a Team Player- Collaborate:

By collaborating with other content creators and connecting with other small businesses you’re establishing a good name for yourself in the community. As a small business entrepreneur, especially on a public platform like Instagram, you face a fierce degree of competition. It definitely doesn’t hurt to keep this competition friendly. Not only do customers love seeing their favourite brands collaborate but you and the business that you’re collaborating with get to access each other’s reach and grow mutually, putting this on the map among other highly valuable Instagram marketing tips. These good relations can also be very helpful in certain cases like losing your account due to any reason as the friends you make in the community can help you get that reach back for your new account by asking their followers to support you.

5. You gotta keep pushin’ P(roduct)- Expand:

One cannot stress the importance of product research in expanding a business's product line enough. This is the step that has to be extremely well thought-out because if you mess this one up you could potentially waste the money that you invest in your business. It’s also important that you don’t rush this step because it requires thorough market research. You don’t want to introduce a product that the buyers aren’t looking to pay for. Market research might seem intimidating at first but it’s actually not all that. To get an idea of what’s trending and what isn’t, try taking a look at other businesses that are doing well, interact with your followers, and conduct polls and surveys on your stories, asking them what they’d like to see more of or what they would like to see you do differently. The customer is your most valuable resource for market research and if you listen smartly, you could be looking at your next lucrative line of products in no time.

Have you tried these yet? We’d love to hear about your experience with our tips for Instagram Business!

All of these tips are a product of our well-tried and thoroughly-tested methods. We at Cranberry Design Studio, one of Pune’s best digital marketing agencies, are here to take care of all your Digi-marketing needs.