1. Be clear about your brand and create content your followers will love
Being clear about your brand and message is essential; who does it help and why do they need it? Have a steady mix of content such as tips/advice, motivational quotes, questions and personal stories that resonate with your followers. Always offer great value.
Engagement is key – always make sure you reply to comments and think about what you are posting. The perfect engagement post is one that someone will want to share.
It’s up to you to figure out what your customers want to see. What are the themes or styles that they would connect best with? Once you know what works, create content that reflects that and your business by sharing images, relevant news, facts/stats and offers/promotions.
A good way to find out what your customers are looking for is by researching what your competition is posting. If you’re way ahead of the game, then look to popular blogs and websites in your area of expertise.
2. Use strong calls to action in your bio, images, and comments
You can make use of the bio section in your profiles by using a strong “call to action” and direct viewers to your sales page. You have up to 150 characters, so a fun snappy CTA works best.
I direct people to my home page, where they can sign up for a freebie, I change this every now and again. My email subscribers get all the highlights and the best content.
If your business sells physical goods, then posting photos of what you selling is an obvious strategy. But less obvious is using the comments section to tell people what to do, show people behind the scenes and don’t forget to show your face and say hello. If you provide a service then create some packages and get them to check out your website.
Lastly, you can make use of the images themselves to drive up engagement. Tools like Canva make this so easy, you can brand your images and create some interesting materials to share. You don’t always have to push to sell. “Warming up” your audience is a long term strategy to sell. Have some fun and it’ll pay back!
3. Post all the time.
Instagram is a numbers, experience tells me it definitely favors accounts who post more regularly. This can be incredibly time consuming so repurpose content, pull apart old blog posts, transcribe your videos, share facts/stats, create a series of steps or tips and post one a day, collaborate, mini Q&As and client/customer feedback.
4. #Hashtags
Hashtags are extremely powerful for creating awareness of what you’re up to. Think of them as a “search” tool that helps viewers find topics and ideas they’re interested in.
Every time you make a post, write a caption before posting up the photo. I would suggest doing some research into hashtags before you create a new post, make a list in your phone in the notes that you can copy and paste in. You can have up to 30 hashtags, I suggest you use them.
5. Share and share return
This is a tactic whereby you share and promote other peoples work on your page or do a shout out I’ve you’ve bought something from a small business. You can even share other players products or services in your area with similar or slightly larger accounts.
You can repost their images (don’t forget to tag them) and then, over time, they’ll start doing the same for you as the number of your followers increases. You can DM their account to ask them to help you do this after you’ve shown some love.
Having other accounts share your content is BIG! Creating a team (or ‘syndicate’) of partners all cross-promoting each other’s work is great for exposure, brand awareness, and building authority in your space. It will grow your account – FAST!
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