Eight proven tips for growing your small business and converting your ideal customers to regular clients.
Social media, the ultimate gift of the digital age, has ushered in an era of direct sales that has helped launch millions of small businesses online. In a way, the Internet has leveled the playing field for entrepreneurs across the globe. And if there’s a platform that has best captured the essence of this evolution, it’s Instagram.
A viral piece of content on Instagram can get your small business as many eyeballs as a Times Square billboard — without drowning your ledger with marketing costs. All you need is a professional Instagram video editor and a relatable idea. But there’s a difference between a video going viral and your business taking off.
Running an active Instagram brand account with the limited resources of a small business is hard. The success of your marketing plan depends on two factors: IG’s algorithm and your content. While you cannot control the former, you can certainly work on the latter.
Heads up! Here are the best Instagram tips for your budding small business:
Focus on the first impressions
Set the tone right with a profile picture and bio that humanizes your brand. In the gloomy days of online fraud and dissatisfaction, the biggest thing that an Instagram customer seeks is authenticity. As a small business, you get the chance to use your voice and fill the corporate void left by big companies and their mechanical impressions.
Aim for an outlay that enforces authority, sincerity, and the trust expected from any online business.
Find your ideal customers.
Traditional marketing mediums like billboards and TV ads are all forms of one-way communication. But with Instagram, you can start a dialogue with your prospective clients. Find your ideal customers by going through your competitors’ follower list/comment section, using proper hashtags, locating accounts on geotags, and posting interacting content that exerts a response.
Don’t forget to engage with the comments and never miss a DM. Your prospective customer is looking for you; cross the bridge to reach them.
Slide into the DMs
The second step of the cold outreach is interacting with people interested in the kind of product/service you offer. Send disciplined and personalized DMs with marketing techniques such as discount offers and scarcity alerts to your ideal customers.
The worst outcome of a cold DM is being left on scene — which far outweighs the chance of gaining a new follower or creating a sales conversion.
Stick to the basics
Ogilvy’s marketing mantras still work on Zuckerberg’s Instagram. Prepare clean caption copy, keep the descriptions short, and don’t overload a single post with a day’s worth of information. Your prospective customers are human beings looking for ways to make their lives easier. Post content that presents your product or service as the singular solution to their problems.
And remember never to commit the unforgivable mistake of being boring.
Invest in your progress
In for a penny, in for a pound. So if you see a piece of content performing well with the audience, do not shy away from investing in IG’s promotional tools to push it further. When it comes to individual posts, Instagram has some of the best methods of tracking engagement.
Small businesses must track progress metrics and prepare a measured response — as the window of action is fleeting.
Know your audience
The most interactive demographic on Instagram are men aged 18-25 and women aged 25-34. While your product/service may not be relevant to this subset of users, you can still tweak your content to gain traction with them.
Onboarding one active Instagram user as your follower is better than luring in 5 inactive ones.
Play by IG’s rules
Instagram’s algorithm favors the accounts which post high quality, original, and interactive content. Therefore, prioritize the quality of your posts over the frequency of your posting. Additionally, embrace every new feature, hop on trends, and maintain a feed that suits the aesthetics of your ideal customer.
Lastly, try out out-of-app software and apps for editing your videos. Invest in a professional Instagram video editor like InVideo, which has thousands of templates and tools to turn your average videos into Insta-worthy content.
Play the long game
Perhaps the best marketing tip for your budding small business is to build authentic relationships with your followers. Post content that helps people not shy away from freebies and giveaways, humanize your customer service, and stay consistent with your posting schedule.
Play the long game and set achievable targets for your business. Instead of producing content to go viral, structure a coherent feed that looks prepared to handle the customer overboard.
In conclusion
Often, the face behind a small business’s Instagram handle is a solopreneur juggling thousands of tasks at hand. Yet, as challenging as establishing your brand on IG, the results make it worth it. A planned Instagram marketing campaign balances the customer retention ratio with new conversions. So strike the perfect balance by following these tips and watch your small business grow.
