How to grow your business on Instagram in 2022


 By 2023, Instagram is expected to have 1.2 billion users. Marketers know that Instagram has a lot of potential for small business owners to boost their marketing efforts."Seventy-eight percent of marketers are using Instagram," according to the social media marketing report published by Social Media Examiner in 2021.Sixty-four percent of marketers intend to increase their activities on Instagram over the next year, ranking it second in importance behind Facebook.

Instagram's potential is more dependent on how users act than on how many people use it:Instagram users enjoy interacting with brands.

According to Instagram, a brand is followed by 90% of users on the platform.In addition, 54% of Instagram users have made a purchase after seeing a product or service, according to Facebook-commissioned data for 2019.

How to promote Small business on Instagram


Small business owners who don't have the time or money for costly marketing campaigns will especially benefit from Instagram.You don't need a dedicated marketing team or a large budget to grow your customer base through unpaid social media marketing; all you need to get started are a free account and a smartphone camera.

Take a look at Southern Elegance Candle Company (SECC), a company with a strong Instagram following.

SECC generates over $100,000 per month through the use of social media to cultivate a committed fan base.

Instagram can become a crucial channel for you to grow your small business once you understand some fundamental best practices.

Using Buffer's collection of Instagram scheduling and analytics tools, you can visually plan your content calendar, schedule Instagram posts, carousels, stories, and reels, and make your profile a "must-follow."

Can Instagram succeed for your small business?

Whether you own a local bookshop, e-commerce store, landscape business, auto repair shop, or yoga studio, Instagram can help your business succeed.You can succeed on Instagram if your customers are on the platform.

However, if you only have time for one or two social media platforms, you must ensure that Instagram is popular with potential clients.There are a few options for finding out:

1.Ask your customers! The simplest way to find out if your customers are active on Instagram is to simply ask them!

Send a brief survey to your customers to inquire about their social media habits if you already have an email list.Inquire about their preferred channels and places to follow brands.

SurveyMonkey and Typeform are two free options for surveying your audience.You can even get ideas from a social media survey template on Typeform.Make it your own by asking it questions that will help you learn more about your customers.

2.Compare your target audience to Instagram's audience There are distinct subsets of people who are more active on certain social media platforms than on others.Compare the demographics of your target audience, such as age, gender, income, location, etc.and psychographics (personality traits like interests, values, and personality) with the social media platforms you're thinking about.

For instance, most people between the ages of 18 and 29 use Instagram, while most people between the ages of 50 and 64 use Pinterest.

(Right source, left source)Take a look at your rivals' customers. The customers of your rivals could also be new ones for you.Therefore, if businesses similar to yours are doing well on Instagram, your employees probably are as well.All you have to do is get posting!

Instagram might not be the best option for your business if none of your rivals are on it.However, if a number of customers have indicated that they would follow your brand on Instagram, create an account.You'll be the first brand in your industry to discover Instagram's potential.

How to get started with an Instagram strategy for a small business It doesn't matter if you're new to the platform and about to post your first post or if you're already established and want to grow your presence there. It's important to start with clear goals that will help you decide what kind of content to post on Instagram.

Instagram objectives for private ventures


There's a plenty of content you could post on Instagram.Laying out objectives will assist with characterizing your Instagram showcasing system and limited your concentration, making it much more straightforward to pick what to post!

The following are a couple of shared objectives independent ventures could pick:

Choose one or two goals for your Instagram profile and post content that is related to these goals. This will help them grow their audience, increase brand loyalty, increase brand awareness, and drive website traffic.

Once you know your objectives, it can be helpful to choose topics that will guide your content. These topics can be content pillars or themes that are in line with your audience.Your audience will know what to expect and be excited to interact with you if your brand is more consistent.Content pillars (also known as themes) can include things like behind-the-scenes content:

Tortuga, a manufacturer of travel backpacks, provides a preview of upcoming product designs here.The comment section was flooded with messages of support and criticism regarding the designs from brand followers.

Content pillars can also be based on interests, such as productivity:

Sunsama, a task manager app, regularly posts productivity tips like this one, frequently introducing their perspective on better work practices to promote their mission.

Your content pillars should be informed by the interests of your audience.Simply put, it needs to be compatible with your brand.It would not make sense for Sunsama's customers to post travel content as a to-do list app, even if they were really into travel.

Examples of Instagram content pillars to get you started:

Content from behind-the-scenes User-generated content Polls Giveaways Product demonstrations Educational (such as tips or tutorials) Culture-focused (showing the human side of your business) Customer stories Product launches Travel Productivity Motivation Food Exercise Mental health Body positivity Environmentalism For example, Girlfriend Collective posts frequently about diversity, body positivity, beautiful nature spaces, and sustainability in order to advance its mission.The brand uses user-generated content (UGC) to maintain a relatable tone and product previews to generate excitement prior to a launch.

As part of a product launch, Girlfriend depicts various body types in a natural setting here:

Headspace, a meditation app, posts educational content regarding mental health:

In this instance, Hairstory uses Instagram Stories polls to start discussions about self-care:

Choose the kinds of Instagram content you want to share Now that you know what your goals are and the topics you want to cover, it's time to start posting!

There are five different formats for Instagram posts:regular posts, Stories, Live, Reels, and IGTV are all available on Instagram.Regular posts and Instagram Stories are still the most popular ways to post on Instagram, but here is a breakdown of all of them:

Evergreen Instagram posts are those that are posted on a regular basis.Unless you delete them, they will remain there.These appear in the Instagram Feeds of your followers.

Stories on Instagram last for fifteen seconds and disappear after 24 hours.Stories are good for content that is more casual and current.

Instagram Live is recorded in real time and shows up in your followers' Stories feeds. This means you can see who joins and read comments as they come in.

Similar to TikTok, Instagram Reels is a 60-second short video that lets you combine multiple clips and add music and sound effects.

YouTube and IGTV are comparable.Videos of up to ten minutes (or sixty minutes if you have a verified business account with more than 10,000 followers) can be uploaded as long-form content.This is ideal for product demonstrations, instructional videos, and guided workouts.

8 Instagram best practices for small businesses Now that you know what kind of content you want to make, use these tips to succeed.



1.Make sure your Instagram business profile is set up correctly. On the platform, your Instagram profile is similar to your homepage.It explains to others what you do and who you are.

Start with the picture on your profile:Your brand must be easily identifiable.As your profile picture, use your logo or brand icon.

Evernote employs its well-known elephant icon:

Then include a bio:This ought to represent your company and demonstrate to potential customers what it does.You could describe your company or use the slogan or tagline of your brand.

In its Instagram bio, MATE the Label talks about its sustainable mission and the products it sells.

Add your link last:You can't link to every post on Instagram, unlike other social media platforms.Only one link is provided to you, and that link is in your profile.Although links can be shared in Instagram Stories by accounts with more than 10,000 followers.)

To increase traffic, most businesses include links to their homepage:

However, just like NikkieTutorials does, you can also update your profile with a link to a blog post, recipe, or YouTube video you mentioned in your most recent post.

Or on the other hand, you could utilize a connection in bio device to prompt a presentation page that has different connections your crowd may be keen on (like your landing page, late blog entry, and that's just the beginning.)

Followers of the food blog I Love Vegan's Instagram profile can access the recipe by clicking on photos from recent Instagram posts or by clicking on the link on the blog's homepage.

2.Be relatable without being pushy:It is not an advertisement; rather, it is a post.It must have content that people enjoy looking at.That could be your product or more general content, like a dentist talking about how to brush your teeth correctly.

Here, contemplation application Headspace posts about emotional well-being:

To make your account worth following, promotional content should be mixed in with a lot of non-salesy content.

3.Engage your followers Being successful on Instagram requires more than just posting pretty pictures.Engage with Instagram users who are interacting with you.

Keep the conversation going by responding to comments, following back, and liking their posts.It will encourage your fans to continue engaging with you and help you develop relationships with them.

4.Buy Instagram followers to boost your metrics can be tempting, but it won't help your business grow. Instead, grow your audience naturally.You won't interact with bought followers.And if people find out that you paid for followers, they might lose faith in you and not want to do business with you.

Instead, use high-quality content to attract new audiences.Place your Instagram handle near your cash register or at the bottom of emails to encourage current customers to follow you there.

5.Use hashtags to reach more people. People use hashtags to find the content they're interested in.Put them in your Instagram captions to reach more people and increase your number of followers.

You can do a search on Instagram to find out how many posts contain that hashtag, which is a good indicator of popularity, while brainstorming hashtags to use.Your hashtag won't get lost in the noise if you choose one with fewer than one million posts.

If you run a local business, you should think about using hashtags that are specific to your area to find people in your area.

6.Make use of Instagram Carousels to retarget the same users. Instagram Carousels are regular posts that contain a number of photos or videos all in one post.They go about as a little photograph collection and empower you to appear in your devotees' Instagram takes care of at least a time or two.

Here, four distinct looks of curly hair color are displayed using carousels by Hairstory.

If viewers do not scroll through the images, a subsequent carousel post with a different image may appear in their feed.

7.Regularly post Your audience can learn when to expect new content from you and develop the habit of interacting with you on Instagram by publishing frequently and consistently.The Instagram algorithm rewards you by placing your content at the top of your followers' feeds as they interact with you more.

You'll be able to get the most out of your audience without experiencing any lulls between posts if you stick to a regular schedule.Once a week is sufficient to begin.

8.By measuring your Instagram success, you can verify that your efforts are paying off. You must verify that your marketing efforts are paying off.Your engagement rate and follower count will be low at first because it will take time to build a following.Keep your spirits up!

Keep an eye on your engagement and followers to see if they are growing over time.Also, focus even more on what your fans want to see.

An instruction manual for using Instagram analytics is provided here.

Utilizing a social media scheduling tool can help you save time. Adding Instagram marketing to your workload is no easy task for owners of small businesses.You already have dozens of projects to manage as an entrepreneur.

Therefore, scheduling your posts in advance with a social media marketing tool like Buffer will help you save time.On Instagram, you can schedule posts weeks in advance so that you never go dark.

What's better?You can schedule up to ten posts in advance on each of your three social media accounts with Buffer, which is free.That should be sufficient for any small business to begin using Instagram.