Everyone knows that Instagram is on a roll; it has not only crossed the milestone of one billion active monthly users in 2018 but also become a favorite hunting ground for businesses with more than 25 million business profiles having been hosted by companies, large and small. That not less than 80% of Instagram users follow at least one business profile daily makes it even more of an attractive destination for businesses trying to engage customers and raising brand awareness.
Even though Instagram reports the highest level of user engagement among all social media channels, and allows brands to market their products and services to a more targeted audience, getting started on Instagram for business can be a daunting task unless you know how.

Making Your Instagram Business Successful
Here are some practical and useful tips for brand managers trying to ride the social media boom, especially Instagram:
Publish Value-Added Content
The only reason why people will invest their precious time on following your Instagram account is that they will get to see some amazing visuals along with information that is really valuable to them. Even though Instagram has the highest rate of engagement among all social media channels, you really can’t take it for granted that you will have a steady stream of visitors without you having posted content that is entertaining, engaging, and informative. It is very important for you to stay focused on delighting your customers in such a way that customers automatically become motivated to look out for your content.
While using images of your own products is always a good idea, it is not necessary to do it all the time as audiences can feel bored and think of your account as being too sales-oriented. Rather, if you play around with a theme that has a direct connection with your product, you will have far more flexibility in offering them entertaining engagement. What you really need to keep in mind that users want to be entertained with high-quality photos and videos not forcibly educated on your product features. Content that entertains as well as educates strike the best balance and allows you to grow the number of your Instagram followers rapidly.
Follow a Consistent Theme across All Your Instagram Posts
One of the most important elements of being successful with Instagram is that all your posts have to be thematically uniform to lend your brand visual strength. Just like the individual pages of a website of a company are tied together with a common theme to present a uniform look to the user, your Instagram posts too should be thematically uniform. The square dimensions of all Instagram photos already make the job easier for you. All you need to do is to create an aesthetic appeal that can be carried forward to all your posts to create a unified theme- this can be done very easily with a color combination that can be inspired from your brand or logo colors to make them look uniform.
You can also use a filter to make your posts look more appealing – by using the filter consistently on each and every post, you can make it a property of your Instagram account and users will immediately know that a particular post is by you. However, a unified theme is not only about the design and the aesthetics but also about the adoption of a tone of voice that is consistent, about the use of photo captions, and about the use of hashtags. While diversity in the content of posts is welcome, having multiple themes only serves to confuse the users regarding brand identity.
Engage Proactively with Your Audience
It is important to understand that brand promotion can never be a one-way street. It is vital that you take into consideration the user feedback on the many aspects of your business.The best way to get to know what your followers are thinking is to engage with them. You can directly ask for their opinions making the process interactive and fun or respond to their comments, queries, and observations. As a responsible marketer, it is very important that you never let an opportunity go of interacting with your followers.
When businesses interact with Instagram followers, it helps them to feel valued and more connected to your brand and business. When brand loyalty is established, it automatically boosts the number of conversions and adds to the business profitability. Organizing contests and polls on a variety of topics and giving them attractive prizes and freebies goes a long way in building engagement. The simpler the contest, the better the participation and impact; for example, a tag-a-friend contest with an attractive prize will contribute greatly to increasing the number of followers and traffic to your website.
Including Filters and Editing Photos
Ever wonder why some photographs simply look so great? It most likely has to do with how it’s altered. Altering photographs just takes a couple of minutes and can greatly affect the quality. Because of Instagram worked in apparatuses and channels, altering photographs is exceptionally basic. Pursue these tips to make that photograph of your custom made lunch resemble a culinary perfect work of art. To begin with, begin with an incredible photograph (utilizing our tips above). No measure of altering can fix photographs on the off chance that they have poor creation or lighting. Consider utilizing different applications to alter your photograph.

Recognize the image from above?
Snap seed is a free altering application that enables you to apply impacts like HDR and tonal difference just as change brilliance, complexity, and immersion. VSCO is likewise another prominent altering application with various free channels that look like famous film stocks. (When you transfer your altered photograph to Instagram, it’ll naturally trim your photograph into a square. To transform it back to the first width, press the symbol the two outward confronting bolts.) At this stage, you can include extra Instagram channels — however, don’t go excessively insane.
Each Instagram channel has its very own character that can definitely change a photograph. Next, have a go at changing your photograph lux. As indicated by Instagram, “Lux adjusts the presentation and gives genuinely necessary splendor” to photographs. Lux make can make your picture progressively lively and bring out subtleties. To do this, press the sun symbol at the highest point of the screen and change the level. Make any last changes utilizing Instagram altering devices. Press Edit to change your photograph’s arrangement, splendor, differentiation, structure, and the sky is the limit from there. Press next when you’re set to include last subtleties and distribute.
Employ Influencers to Increase Your Reach
Building a large base of followers by the brand posting good content can be quite a tedious process taking a long time for the results to show. By leveraging the power of an influencer, you can increase the brand awareness and reach of your brand to target audiences that were previously untapped. The impact of using influencers is quite large and quick because these influencers typically have a very large number of followers over whom they exercise a lot of influence. Some of the world’s top Instagram influencers have a follower base running into millions of followers; however, even by using some of the smaller followers, you can increase the ambit of your brand marketing significantly.
The fees charged by the large influencers can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars per post endorsed, so it may be more realistic to work with micro-influencers who have fewer followers but a higher rate of engagement with specific audience niches. According to Social media examiner, influencers with followers between 10,000 and 50,000 have the best engagement rates. Influencer marketing has emerged as a viable alternative to Instagram advertising because it is usually simple to create marketing campaigns that are more targeted and therefore, more effective. The real trick is to identify influencers with the correct profile of followers who form the brand’s target audience so that the conversions are higher.
Conclusion
For businesses to be able to use Instagram to generate more brand awareness and sales successfully, it is essential to create a loyal base of followers. By paying attention to the sort of content that they prefer and addressing followers with a consistent theme, it is possible for marketers to engage their target audiences. Using influencers to quickly increase the brand reach and boost sales can be very effective.
About the author
Kristen Smith has been working on the importance of social media in marketing with thousands of real Instagram followers for her postings. You can visit how to use Instagram for business 2018 for more information.
Priya Sharma says
All the mentioned tips are very beneficial for me as I have my own business account on Instagram for my small business. I will surely apply these ideas to make a successful Instagram account. Thank you for the informative article.
Lorraine says
I love to see consistent theme on IG profiles, this tells me a lot about the brand. This tells me that they pay attention to details and that they care about the quality of the content they share with their followers.
Honey00 says
As usual, the quality goes beyond quantity, it’s the same for products, photography and influence. It’s well said in this article, paying attention to the details is something that will payout to you, something that will scale up our businesses.
Drew says
Engaging with your followers is beneficial on so many levels. But that’s not easy when you are starting with a small brand. Followers usually are not interested to interact. It takes some time to stimulate them to engage with your content.
Alexandru says
If you have enough budget to spend them on influencers that will reach your target audience, this is can be more effective than promoting posts on IG and spending the same amount of money.
Fatima says
First of all, thank you for the great article, especially with the eye-opening part where you have explained how proactive engage works and contributes our business, great piece.
Fabinho says
Create desire by promoting the things that can really help users, don’t lie, don’t make fake statements, underline the main things and you’ll succeed on Instagram.
Dante says
Definitely, your follower is your king 🙂 If your goal is to make your business successful, you have to make your followers happy. They have to feel valued and well treated by you if you want them to stick around and appreciate your business.
Shanika Brooks says
The cost of buying Instagram followers is discussed in this article. And the essence is that the cost depends on the type of followers you buy. Real Instagram followers are expensive but perfect for your business.