Instagram for Business: All You Need to Know

An in-depth guide for leveraging Instagram’s features for business.

Instagram is among the top social media platforms in the world and Instagram for business is among the most popular digital marketing solutions for companies of various sizes and industries. Instagram provides numerous opportunities for brands to engage with customers, build brand awareness, and drive sales. However, effective usage of the platform requires an approach that takes into account its particularities, unique features, and user behavior patterns.

In the article, we will explore the benefits of using Instagram for business, best practices for achieving more sales, and high audience engagement by utilizing the platform’s features to their fullest potential and go through the process of setting up an Instagram business account. By the end of it, you will get a deeper understanding of how to take advantage of the capabilities of Instagram for business.

Table of content

Benefits of using Instagram for Business

Enormous audience reach

Instagram has grown in popularity in recent years, particularly among younger groups. The platform now has over 2 billion monthly users globally, making it one of the world’s most popular platforms. For businesses, this means a hardly ignorable potential of new engagements with with with their target audience and expansion of user base.

Furthermore, several studies have revealed that Instagram has a particularly high impact on purchasing behavior, with 83% of users claiming that the social media has helped them discover new products and services, and 80% reporting that they have purchased a product or service after seeing it on Instagram, while half of the users say the platform helps them discover new brands. These figures highlight Instagram’s importance for companies trying to improve their key business metrics, such as total sales and conversion.

Advanced business-oriented options

With the introduction of Instagram for business, features, such as Instagram Shopping and Instagram Ads, have made the platform an even more powerful tool for businesses to reach their target audiences and drive sales. Additionally, the visual nature of Instagram makes it a particularly effective platform for brands in creative industries such as fashion, beauty, and design, as they can showcase their products and services in a visually stunning way that captures the attention of their target audience.

Instagram Ads feature comes with sophisticated social media advertising targeting possibilities, including age, hobbies, activity, and geography. Businesses may determine what segments of an audience have the highest potential of converting into long-term clientele. Additionally, Instagram lets companies target individuals who have already seen or heard of their brand. Custom audiences based on Instagram post interaction, client email lists, Instagram video views, and more are available for retargeting.

Thanks to Instagram’s extensive stats, which include link hits, leads, and conversions, businesses can get the most out of their Instagram marketing efforts by using A/B split testing to determine the best-performing ad approach.

Increased brand awareness

Instagram assists in raising brand awareness in several ways. For starters, by developing a visually appealing and consistent profile, businesses may establish a brand identity that followers can readily recognize and remember. Engaging with followers via comments and user-generated content also aids in the development of relationships with the audience and long-term brand loyalty. Using Instagram features like Stories, Reels, and IGTV to produce compelling and interactive content may also help enhance engagement and reach.

Multiple monetization strategies

Instagram provides companies with multiple ways to profit from their activities on the platform:

• Direct sales: Instagram has evolved to enable on-platform e-commerce sales. The Shop tab on Instagram’s home page helps users to discover and purchase from brands directly through their Instagram profiles, posts, or stories.
• Shoppable posts: Instagram offers shoppable posts, which let businesses add tags to products in their photos that include a product description, price, and the ability to «shop now,» which takes users to the item’s page in the Instagram store.
• Partnerships with brand ambassadors: Brands can partner with their loyal fans by means of sponsored posts and affiliate marketing. These partnerships help to increase social trust, which is directly related to lead generation and sales.

How to create an Instagram Business Account

Now let’s see a step-by-step process of setting up a company’s Instagram account for attracting leads and clients.

1. First of all, you’ll need to switch your account to Business type. From Profile, tap the three lines in the upper-right corner to access the menu. Select Settings, Account, and then tap Switch to an Instagram professional account. Select a Category and use the slider to choose whether to show it on your profile. Choose the Business type of account, add or edit relevant contact details, then use the slider to choose whether to show your contact information on your profile. If relevant, don’t forget to add a button allowing customers to book or reserve appointments or make orders.
2. You can also connect an Instagram Business account to a company’s Facebook Page by following the prompts in the Instagram app. This is necessary in order to use Instagram shopping features or run ads on Instagram.
3. Link product catalog: to make it possible to run certain types of Instagram ads and tag products in posts and stories, a product catalog connected to an Instagram account is required. It can be set up in Facebook Commerce Manager. If your brand already has a shop on an ecommerce platform like Shopify, click Connect a partner platform and follow the appearing instructions to create your catalog. Otherwise, click Upload product info, name your catalog, and click Next. Click View catalog to open your catalog, then add items.
4. Turn on Instagram shopping. Social commerce on Instagram is impossible in its fullness without setting up a shop. From the upper-right corner menu of your Instagram professional account go to Settings, then Business, then Set up a Shop. Follow the prompts and submit your shop for review. Once approved, go to Settings > Business > Shopping Settings to select a relevant product catalog and make the items available via your company’s Instagram shop.

How to use Instagram for Business

Now, let us explore how businesses can use Instagram’s features to effectively promote their products or services and maximize social media presence via high-quality content.

Research audience

Developing an effective social media strategy requires a solid understanding of its audience. This can be achieved by analyzing an existing customer base, learning what traits are common among the majority of subscribers on other social media, and examining the activities of competitors on Instagram. Understanding the audience’s demographics enables a brand to create content that has values resonating with it.

Set up content plant

Having no plan means mediocre results at best, since it is crucial to produce unique content that covers various topics relevant to the audience and is created with consideration of the current moment and ongoing trends.

• First of all, set up guidelines for the brand’s aesthetics and make sure that posts remain consistent. This will make your content both stand out and easily recognizable by Instagram users.
• Use high-quality images from stock libraries and/or create your own. Sharp imagery that is pleasant to view is a key to success on such a visually-oriented platform as Instagram. If you’re promoting a product, think of unique and creative ways to highlight its usage, including Instagram Stories and IGTV live streams.
• Employ social monitoring: keep an eye out for the mentions of the company’s account, products, and relevant hashtags. Repost stories, like posts and reply to comments to make it clear to the followers that you care about their experience interacting with your brand and using its products or services. The already mentioned Instagram Stories and IGTV are excellent ways to conduct polls, host FAQ sessions, or how-to masterclasses.
• Keep up with the latest trends. Take notice of your competitors’ activities, and follow your favorite brands to stay current with social media trends while maintaining your brand’s unique identity.
• Onboard social CRM. By employing a CRM with extensive support of social media channels you’ll be able to interact with Instagram followers directly from the CRM system, viewing each follower as a potential lead, as well as comparing the effectiveness of Instagram activities with those on other platforms. For example, with Umnico social CRM, you can manage conversations across all popular social media within a single interface, track employee performance, and streamline the process of converting leads into loyal customers.

Interact with audiences

Today, it is hardly enough for a brand that seeks to use the full capabilities of Instagram business features to simply broadcast its content at regular intervals. The current trend favors two-way interactions, with a company inviting its audience to participate rather than simply observe. This can be achieved by polls, asking the community for opinions, showcasing suggestions on product usage devised by customers, and so on. Reposting stories and reacting to comments contribute to the development of a community feeling and encourage the appearance of more user-generated content, which is a win-win situation for both the brand and its clients.

Tag products for easy shopping

One of the sure ways to facilitate more followers’ activity is tagging products from a brand’s Instagram shop that are present in your content. Instagram allows tagging of up to 20 products in a feed post. To tag a product, create a post or Reel, and on the final screen before posting select ‘Tag products’. By the way, you can tag products from other shops as well, which is useful for collaboration and cross-promotion. Use the tagging feature to make your offerings more discoverable to the followers and shorten the customer journey. This way, things get even easier than in real life: a client can potentially buy a product with a couple of taps on its ad!

In case you wonder…

Here are answers to frequently asked questions about the use of Instagram Business.

Is Instagram for business available for free?

Yes. While a personal profile is enough for casual use, running a business on Instagram requires a free Business account. The only potential cost comes from optional paid advertising to boost your reach.

Is Instagram worth it for small businesses?

Definitely. Instagram's audience is projected to reach 2.5 billion in 2024, and the social media platform offers tremendous potential for small businesses to connect with a massive audience. Plus, the Business account unlocks valuable features like analytics, insights, and contact buttons, helping you build a loyal following and even drive sales directly through the platform.

Which Instagram's account type is best for business?

You might wish to select a business account if you plan to use Instagram for marketing, selling goods or services, or reaching a big audience. Features like Instagram Insights, contact buttons, swipe-up links in Stories, and the capacity to use third-party scheduling and analytics tools are all available to business accounts. Additionally, business accounts can access Reels and Stories' entire music catalog.

Conclusion

It can hardly be questioned that Instagram sits on top of the social media mountain, among Facebook and Twitter. The incredible size of the active audience and extensive business features make the platform a unique tool for companies to reach new clients, strengthen relations with existing ones, and even sell products directly on it.

Since the best results of using Instagram for business can be achieved by making it a part of a larger social media mix, conducting customer communication through multiple social apps and devices can get overwhelming for employees. Businesses may link their Instagram accounts using Umnico’s Instagram CRM. The secure and stable communication service allows companies to effectively evaluate their Instagram marketing strategy and manage customer engagement. The best part: all Umnico functionality is available for free during a trip period.

This content has been updated on December 27, 2023