How To Get Started With Instagram For Business

When it comes to Instagram, it helps to have a strategy.  Sure, you can post whatever you like and add photos or videos randomly, however, the lack of structure and organization won’t really help your business grow.

You need to develop a plan and you’ll want to work that plan relentlessly if you hope to see results from your business Instagram account.   Here’s what to do….

Determine your target.  This is the first task on your to do list.  Decide why you want to have an Instagram account.  Here are just a few: Are you looking to connect with influencers?  Are you trying to get more followers?  Are you hoping to grow your email list?

Choose just one or two goals for the last quarter of 2020.  After that, you can stop and re-evaluate. If your goals aren’t working for you or you are not seeing the results you’d hoped for, you can switch up your efforts then.

Define your Audience. Once your goal is set, seriously think about who you are trying to reach.  Your ideal client.  Is your product or service geared toward new mothers, business owners, course creators etc.?  Are your customers located in a certain area?  Do they frequent certain establishments?

The more you know about your ideal customer, the easier it is to stand out in their feed.  If you are still not certain about your customer avatar, now is the time to get clear.  Here’s a handy FREE one page sheet to get you started.  My Avatar If you have previously established your Ideal Avatar, then take a look at it again and make sure it is still current.  Does it need to be updated or tweaked based on any new information you’ve learned about your community?

Create a goodie for your followers.  Once you know who your audience is, you’ll want to design an offer that’s sure to appeal to them.   This item should be related to your products or services in some way.

Examples:  If you are a web design agency, then you’ll want to offer a checklist of questions to ask your web designer or a list of what your website needs to represent your business well on line.  Remember, that if your opt-in gift isn’t related to your industry, it’s going to confuse your followers.  They may even skip the opportunity to become subscribers, if your opt-in does not sync with your business.  If you can share a coupon code or discount that works well to get new subscribers on your list.  This is an especially good marketing technique for sellers of tangible items such as clothing, makeup etc.

Build a landing page. Once you’ve set up your autoresponder for your mailing list to deliver your free goodie, it’s time to house it somewhere.  I recommend Convertkit.  CLICK HERE as it’s easy to use, will give you the ability to create landing pages, send emails, build forms, set up automations,  etc.  Use Convert Kit to create a landing page.  It’s a single page on your website that’s designed to feature your free opt-in.  There are no sidebars, menus, headers, or links on the landing page.  The idea behind the design is that visitors are faced with only two choices:  sign up for your free gift or click away.  This makes landing pages a great way to convert casual visitors into mailing list subscribers.

Typically, you want your landing page to feature 1-2 photographs describing your offer, a few bullet points, which highlight the benefits of the item or offer, and a sign up form.  I recommend not making your page too long.  A section with 100-word paragraph or less will do nicely. 

Add your landing page to your bio. Now that you have a dedicated page for your free offer, put that link in your bio.  This is the only place on Instagram that you’ll be allowed to pace a working link.  So, make sure it’s the page where you want to direct traffic and inquiries.

Some brands us a free service called LINKTREE that creates a page with multiple links for you.  This appears useful at first—you can link to your free offer, your shopping cart, your website home page all at once.  But the myriad of choices may overwhelm your followers and they may not take action and sign up.  It’s smarter to link to a single opt-in page if you’re serious about growing your email list.

Design visual content. Now you have all the pieces set up properly and in place.  You can begin promoting your new offer on Instagram.  A simple way to do this is to design 3-5 images that tease subscribers about it.

Post these images on Instagram and invite your followers and visitors to click on the link in your bio for access.  When they click, they’ll be taken to your landing page, where they may join your mailing list.

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