The Ultimate Guide to Business Instagram Accounts

Table Of Contents

• Introduction
• Benefits of Using Instagram for your Business 
• Guide to Generating Business via Instagram 
• Posting Business Instagram Account-Tailored Content
• Conclusion
• Key takeaways
• FAQs

Instagram, an app once known as a photo-sharing platform, has become an essential tool for everyone, especially for branding and marketing for businesses. According to Hootsuite, Instagram has nearly one-billion users, and about 112.5 million use the Instagram platform every hour. In 2021, Instagram announced nearly 35 million business Instagram accounts. Given the massive number of Instagram users, we see why businesses are now relying upon this digital platform for marketing. 

This sudden business paradigm shift where brands branched out to social media platforms to survive happened during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In a decade of this social media platform’s inception, Instagram has constantly upgraded itself for the better. Before the pandemic, Instagram was used by brands and creators to either host charities, chat with their fans through the Live option, or post video blogs. However, as soon as the COVID-19 wreaked havoc on the economy, Instagram came to the rescue. Here’s how!

As per Forbes, around 8.67 million businesses worldwide, excluding small businesses, were shut down in 2020. Instagram rolled out special features and updated its algorithms to help businesses stay afloat, relevant to the market, and expand. People could fulfill their dreams of owning a business thanks to Instagram Business Accounts, which created waves and helped people realize their dreams.

In case you have still not joined the bandwagon, in this article, we will address questions like how to create an Instagram business account, why do you need it, and much more. 

Benefits of Using Instagram For Your Business

According to UK Daily News, Facebook gave $100 million as a grant for small and medium-sized businesses to grow, especially for business Instagram accounts. So, let’s address the elephant in the room: what is a business Instagram account, and how does it differ from regular user accounts? 

Business accounts on Instagram are a way to tell your customers that you are an authentic and unique brand. Also, as soon as you switch to a business Instagram account, the social media platform knows about your brand status. Hence, it offers multiple business tools essential for generating demand and converting quality leads. 

These are some of the benefits of the cutting-edge tools that business Instagram accounts can enjoy: 

1. Boost post

According to a study, traditional Instagram posts reach only 7% of your total followers. Thus, it seems like you have no control over who can view posts. However, with business Instagram accounts, you have access to a broader audience as per your brand’s needs. There is an option to Boost a post on Instagram and select the kind of audience and regions you want to attract for a nominal fee. As stated by Instagram, the tool’s algorithm gets upgraded nearly every day to help business pages effectively reach a wider audience. 

For example, if you are a business that offers products for women like makeup accessories and female hygiene products. In that case, you can specify while boosting the post that you want to generate demand amongst women and mention the age group you want to target. Instagram will boost the post precisely as per your given instructions. And voila! You can now garner more potential leads than ever before!  

2. Add website/product/services links to your stories

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This is a new tool that Instagram has added to its special features for business Instagram accounts. This tool enables you to add the links to your blog pages, products, and services in your Instagram Stories. 

But you may have a query in your mind how does the Instagram Story feature help a business when these stories disappear after 24 hours? 

According to Techjury, above 510 million active Instagram users use the Instagram Story feature. Also, more than 73% of the users watch Instagram Stories daily, whereas approximately 88% of the total active users post Instagram Stories every day, as stated by Business Insider. Although the content of the stories disappears after 24 hours, these numbers speak volumes about the opportunities to attract more attention from customers and affect your brand’s marketing and sales. 

The new feature helps customers visit your website by clicking on the link on your story or swiping up the story directly while watching it. 

Note: You can add the links only if you have more than 10,000 followers in your business Instagram account. There have been ongoing debates about decreasing the number to benefit small-scale businesses and gain a better organic audience. 

3. Gain audience insights

Instagram analytics have changed the marketing game forever. The social media platform offers you real-time native analytics that helps you understand your customer and their preferences to optimize your marketing and branding game. 

These are some types of insights that Instagram gives you: 

• The number of people who clicked on your product after coming across your post. 
• People who visited your Instagram account and website through a paid campaign.
• A number of people who have replied and shared the post amongst their peers and stories.
• All about the demographics and age range of people who have shown interest in your brand.
• The number of people who followed you after reading your brand’s content.
• The time range when your content attracted more active viewers. 

The list is quite long, but these are some fundamental features that every brand must keep checking to scale their business through digital marketing. A business Instagram account will help your brand only if you know how to create tailored content as per your customers’ preferences.

4. It offers you shoppable features to turn your Instagram post into an eCommerce post directly

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People have reported that developing a website is challenging and comes with an expensive price tag, because of which, many small businesses tend not to have an e-commerce website. Furthermore, poorly developed websites may have bugs, causing customers to experience lags while shopping on them. 

Instagram noted this problem and designed a new tool that helps brands post Shoppable Posts featuring a product with its price tag. Consumers can buy these products directly through Instagram within a few clicks. Customers do not have to worry about fraud and phishing attacks since they use legal bank portals secured for usage. This has helped many small businesses shift to e-commerce and increase their sales exponentially. According to Pancake Digital Solutions, nearly 35% of business accounts use Shoppable Posts. 

5. Ability to get verified by Instagram with a blue tick

After you build your brand as a Business Instagram account with a suitable organic reach, you can apply for a blue tick and get verified by Instagram. We all know the importance of a blue tick on Instagram. It not only represents the brand’s authenticity but opens up more avenues for brand expansion and collaborations. 

All you need is to switch to a Business Instagram account and slowly develop trust and awareness amongst viewers and customers, gain a good number of followers and then apply for the blue tick. Also, the blue tick suggests that your brand is registered and legal to function. 

6. Add your website as CTA to create trust and authenticity

Business Instagram accounts give you an option to mention your website on your bio. Customers can visit your website for more information about your brand or view the products if they have come across your products and loved them. This increases the footfalls of the website and increases awareness which works wonders as this option creates trust amongst customers. 

Guide To Generating Business Via Instagram

Before we jump further to know about content and Instagram marketing, let’s learn how to create a business Instagram account. 

With the new UI/UX of Instagram, shifting to a business account would hardly take more than five minutes. 

1. First, log in to your existing Instagram account. 
2. Open your profile and check the right corner of your phone screen. Tap the three-bar-like icon. 
3. You will get ‘Switch to Business Account’ for some accounts directly under the options Settings. But if not, then follow the remaining steps. 
4. Now, click Settings which should be on top of the list. 
5. Then, click on Accounts and go through the list once. 
6. Now, check for the option ‘Switch to Business Account’. Click it. 
7. Then, a new dialogue box opens where you have to click ‘Continue’. 
8. You will get another dialogue box to mention the business type. So, fill it in accordingly and click ‘Done’. 
9. Now, Instagram also gives you an option to choose ‘Creator’ or ‘Business’. If you are an artist or creative content creator, you can select Creator. Otherwise, select Business and ‘Done’. 
10. Next, you need to fill out a form to input details like your official email-id, phone number, and business address. These three are mandatory for scrutiny. But, if you wish, you have the option to Display Your Contact Info on your profile. 
11. Next, you get an option to Connect Your Facebook Page. Many experts recommend connecting your brand page so that you can use all the Facebook business tools, too, without hassles and gain better reach. But if you wish, you may skip this step. 
12.  Your Business Instagram Account is ready to use! But before you click on the cross, check the final dialogue box where Instagram has added some small tutorials on using the business tools. You can go through it and have a better grasp of them. 
13. Once you have gone through all tutorials, click the Cross option on the upper-left corner. Viola! You have successfully created a business Instagram account.

And that’s how to create a business account on Instagram! 

Posting Business Instagram Account-Tailored Content

Now, let’s talk about what content you should post to create better brand visibility as a professional Business Instagram account. 

1. Scroll Stopper Content

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No matter which path Instagram takes, in the end, it is still a photo-sharing, visual platform. And as fast you understand the importance of this fundamental feature of Instagram, the better your brand will expand. People love visuals that are high-quality, pleasing, humorous, and relatable. With the highest engagement rates among all social media platforms, Instagram has surpassed Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Posting only quality content is therefore crucial. If it’s a picture, ensure that it’s a high-end picture with the right angles and features. If it’s simple content, ensure that’s it’s relatable. If it’s a meme, ensure that the meme is related to your brand, and customers can understand it. 

Content has the power to strum the right chords of consumer behavior. How do you know that your viewers like the content? Well, if a post gets shared, liked, and comments. This means that your content has been able to generate engagement which is what you seek to increase brand visibility. 

2. Visuals! Visuals! And Visuals!

It’s essential to be professional when you have a business Instagram account. For example, if you have to attend a business meeting, you don professional attire. Likewise, your Instagram page is also the face of your brand. So, it’s important to zero down on a particular theme, style, and pattern that reflects your brand much! After switching to a Business Instagram Account for the first time, you have to decide on color palettes and grid styles.

This makes your profile page aesthetically pleasing, attracting more customers and viewers. Check out some best brand pages of your niche and list down what are the unique things they do that make their page visually appealing. This falls under Competitor Research, which gives you a fair idea of which style may work for your Business Instagram account. 

3. Engage with your audience

Everything goes to waste if you fail to engage with your customers. The Business tools will generate engagement, but your brand needs to step in to keep the engagement going. There are various ways to create engagement and keep your customers and viewers happy. 

• Share customer reviews in Instagram stories and tag the user. Also, you can save all the customer reviews in ‘Highlights’.
• Reply to most of the comments in your posts. 
• Try to reply to Direct Messages, especially if they inquire about the product.
• Schedule Live sessions once a week where you connect with your followers and viewers and talk about trending subjects or new products of your brands. 
• Conduct Q&A sessions once in a while and reply to them. This is a nice way to conduct a customer survey while creating an engagement. 
• Once in a while, try to post humorous content like memes, tweets, stories, etc. 
• If you want to sound more authentic, you can even show some clips of your office as ‘Behind the scenes’ or some funny content about your team members. 
• You can also show some clips about the manufacturing of your products. Many organic brands have used this tip to show that their products are authentic and trusted for quality.

You can engage your audience only when your content offers solutions and information. But it takes time to groove with the beat of Instagram. So, you have to do some trial and tested methods to understand which kind of content works best for your viewers. 

After learning how to create an Instagram account for a business, you should adopt this method.

4. Consider influencer marketing

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We all have heard about influencer marketing. According to Bigcommerce, 68% of the brands worldwide have spent substantial marketing funding on Influencer Marketing. Influencer marketing is now a Billion dollar industry. Influencer marketing has gained momentum because viewers can relate to them quickly. Their reach far exceeds that of conventional campaigns. Also, the influencers campaign the product as if they have used it. So, customers take the content as a product review rather than an advertisement. And that’s why brands gain more sales through influencer marketing. 

For example, a new skincare brand has launched a new product. Now, you have come across the product through their ad campaigns. But you are still not sure about the quality of the product. But if your favorite Influencer uses the product and reviews the quality, that sure will impact your consumer behavior. 

Also, many small and medium businesses gain visibility through influencer marketing which otherwise would have been shadowed by big brands’ ad campaigns. So, what are you waiting for? Check out which influencers are good in your niche and slide to their DMs with a good proposal pitch! (You can even email them!) 

5. Implement an Instagram Ad Campaign

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Instagram offers excellent Ad Campaigns tools! Not only do they offer you great AI Insights about your consumers, but you can even use those metrics and run paid Instagram campaigns. According to Pew Research, Instagram Ad campaigns have a great potential to reach above 850 million users. That’s a massive number that brands need to consider. 

The Instagram Ad Campaign tool is easy to use, and you don’t have to be a Master with a degree or even a technical geek. The Ad Campaign tool is so user-centric that it enables you to decide the metrics like the demographics and age range you want to target, number of days, particular niche, number of people, and so on. Also, these ad campaigns are cheaper and have proven to convert leads better than traditional advertisements. 

Conclusion

Having learned how to make a business Instagram account, we hope you can now use it effectively. Also, once you understand the true power of a business Instagram account, all you need to do is switch your account type, and voila! You are now on the pathway to a successful business! 

Key Takeaways

• Instagram has a better engagement reach than other social media platforms. 
• Business Instagram Account gives you access to business tools that are easy to use. 
• Instagram has rolled out special features to support small and medium businesses. 
• Always be consistent with your content and try to post visually appealing pictures. 
• Try to engage with your customers as much as possible. Use Q&A sessions and reply to viewers’ DMs. Reply to their comments. 
• Try out Instagram ad campaign tools to direct your advertisements to a particular niche of your liking and as per your budget. 

FAQs