Why & How to Setup Instagram Business Profile?

Setup Instagram Business Profile: Are you facing fierce competition in the world of business? Do you want to survive and lead? Guess what? You can make this possible with Instagram!

Instagram has become a popular medium to operate a business. As visuals have become a conduit to convey messages and tell brands’ stories, nothing can beat this platform’s functionality.

People no longer believe in visiting physical stores for purchasing products because ‘going digital’ has proved to be a boon. It has paved the path to more accessible and convenient purchase and replacing them without much hassle.

Why Instagram? Undeniably, this platform has massive followers and is increasing with each passing day. 2020 marked its 10th birthday with almost 1.082 billion users. Amongst them, nearly 200 million visits one business profile daily, and 130 million clicks on shopping posts each month (and that is a whopping number!).

Keeping personal profiles aside, it is the business account we want to discuss in this blog. Those who are unaware of the latter, let me introduce it to you.

This remarkable account, meant only for business owners, comes with a diverse range of incredible features, letting a brand spread its wings and reach millions of people.

If you wonder whether to set an Instagram business profile or not in 2021, you are in the right place! This blog will surely clear all your qualms. Read on.

Why setup Instagram business profile?

Imagine you run a pizza business; you need to display your products, right? In a brick-and-mortar store, people get to see the menu, but what should you do when you use Instagram as a business?

A simple text or line cannot rouse the excitement that a picture of juicy, cheese-loaded pizza can create. The visualization is so tempting that you feel like ordering one right now!

This is where you can utilize your business profile. You gain the right to use various features, tools, and functionalities that open the gateway to reach customers and fetch more conversions. But that’s not all; you need to understand WHY you need a business profile in the first place!

Let us find out together.

Getting found or noticed

Before the debut of business profiles, the only way people can check a business account is to click the website link provided under the personal profile. Now, in business profiles, a contact button pops up once you have included the contact details.

Like this:

The users need to click the contact button and choose how to contact you (call, email, or opt for direct message). Use relevant hashtags under the images so that appearing on the feed section becomes easier.

Track your brand’s performance

When you are rolling out your marketing strategies, you need to understand what favors your situation and what is not.

What is the use? This will help you to refine your strategies and find the ones that tune better. When you create a business profile, you automatically get access to a set of Instagram analytical tools– referred to as Insights.

Insights give you detailed information about your followers, how many ‘profile visits’ you got, if the post has engaged any action, or if the image is saved, and more. If you look at the above picture, you can quickly figure out the top locations, age brackets, the best time to post a picture, and gender ratio.

Measuring performance metrics has also become simpler. Ask me how?

• By measuring likes, shares, and comments.
• By checking customers’ visits on your website.
• By reviewing the revenues and conversions generated.

The above image is a clear picture of how a brand is performing. Following this, the marketers can determine the strategies’ impact or opt for some different approaches, such as changing the post’s time, targeting a new bunch of audience, posting new content, and so on.

Is there any bonus? Yes! You can track Instagram stories analytics, as well. Below is an example.

How can you check Insights? Go to your account and press the ‘graph’ icon present in the top right corner. You will find impressions, reach, actions taken, and other metrics that will help you boost content and marketing tactics.

Make money with ‘shoppable’ posts.

Instagram has launched shoppable posts, making it easier to shop products directly from one Instagram post.

Now, what is a shoppable post? Let me explain.

You often come across ads on the feed with links that take you directly to the website for you to purchase the product. Check the below image. When you tap the image, you get the option ‘View Products.’

Click that, and you will land on the shop section where you will be asked to ‘View on Website.’ Press it, visit the website and buy your favourite pullover bra.

No matter what business you own, you can drive more sales and conversions through shoppable posts. You can choose the feed’s images, tag products, add a filter and place an attractive caption.

Plus, when users tap the products, they see more information, such as pricing, product details, and links. Like this:

Grow your reach with ads and promotions

By the above point, it is already perceived that ads are a crucial part of the Instagram feed. When you create your business profile, you get access to ads and promotional posts. Like Facebook ad campaigns, Instagram ads are similar, setting which you can run campaigns and track them.

Do you know that maximum people take action after viewing the ads? Whether they want to make a purchase or visit your website, the ads prompt them to do so. If you have not started using ads for your audience, now is the time. It is worth considering adding them to your marketing strategy this year.

As you penetrate the market, it will become a lot harder to compete and get high engagement on a post without any paid strategy. Optimising marketing strategy with paid advertising can skyrocket Instagram engagement, fulfilling your dreams!

Share links via Instagram stories

In 2017, Instagram added another helpful feature: adding a link to the Instagram stories. This has been proved tremendously powerful for entrepreneurs because now, they can utilise another innovative feature to bring in more conversion.

Your followers can click on the link and land on the blog, e-commerce store, or website. However, note that simply adding a link is not going to fetch traffic. It would be best to tell them why this link is so important and why they need to click it.

Check the image above. It prompts the audience to take action by ‘swiping up’ if they desire to get a perfect booty without equipment. This is an apt call to action to elicit curiosity and interest in peoples’ minds.

When you swipe up, you either land on a video or an enticing blog, increasing its views and likes – a perfect finish to a brilliantly planned marketing tactic.

How to set up a business profile?

Are you ready to make this big switch? Setting up a business account is as easy as ABC. But before you initiate the process, make sure that you have a business Facebook account set up already to take full advantage of the Instagram business account.

Here is how you are going to do it!

Download the app

Unlike other social media platforms, Instagram runs better on smartphones. So step one is to visit the Play store and download it. The layout may differ in Android and iOS devices, but the features remain the same.

Create an account

Do not use your personal Facebook account to open an Instagram account because you are creating an account for a business page, not personal. Use your business or work email address to open your profile.

Choose a username and fill other basics

In this step, you will be choosing a username and password. As this will be strictly business, the user name should be related to that and nothing vague. You can add your name, business name, or location. For instance, if you are a baker, you can have a username like, PerryBakery_NYC, TheJonasBaker_Paris, Jane_London_Baker, etc.

Instagram will automatically generate a name for you when you feed all the necessary information, so you do not have to fret about it at all.

Locate your friends and contacts

When you reach this step, you can give a pat on your back to have successfully created your profile. Instagram will provide you with the options to ‘Find Contacts’ or ‘Find Facebook Friends,’ allowing you to find your community.

There is also a ‘Skip’ button that gives you the freedom to move ahead of this step. You can find friends and followers whenever you are ready.

Pick a proper profile photo (should be related to your business)

The profile picture must be the brand’s logo or something associated with it. Avoid uploading selfies, group pictures, night outs, and other absurd images at all costs. Of course, you can use your picture as the head of the business, but it should be clicked professionally.

When you tap the ‘Add a photo’ button, you will be asked to import it from Facebook, gallery, and other options. You can get it from Twitter only if that is a business account. 

After uploading the picture, save your info, or you can hit ‘Skip’ again. Next, you can follow suggested accounts or accounts that are similar to your business.

Complete your profile

On the top right, you will find the profile button. Click on the edit and complete your profile. This is where you can put a clickable URL, making it uncomplicated to a website or e-commerce store.

As you get a limited character count in your Instagram bio, write briefly what the business is about and where you operate. If you are not getting a perfect, catchy statement, you can include it whenever it hits your mind.

Get your business part done

Here comes the part where you need to utilize the tools offered to you. Click Try Instagram for Business Tools and follow the guided instructions.

Connect it with your Facebook business page, and there you go! Now, start posting, get social, connect with people, and make your brand famous

Start uploading images

This is where the fun part begins! Start sharing pictures (of course that have to be related to your business) with relevant hashtags and crisp texts to get more engagement.

Remember that you are here to share your brand’s story and reach more audiences. Do not spam their feed with irrelevant images and hashtags.

Final words

The Instagram buying journey has made it incredibly busy for entrepreneurs to connect with their audience to sell their products and services. After you have set up the account, enjoy interacting with followers and answer all their product-related queries.

With a business account, you can:

• Get real-time metrics about your post, stories, and ads every day.
• Get comprehensive details about your followers.
• Motivate the audience to contact you regarding products/services via email, phone number, Snapchat, and direct message. 
• Interact with your followers directly through comments and messages.
• Make your brand discovered by more and more people by promoting the post. 

Once you get used to posting and socializing, you will start enjoying the platform. Utilize ads and promotional content to get the brand in front of global people, regardless of whether they are your followers or not.

Nevertheless, it would help if you kept yourself updated with the latest features and trends to come up with Instagram strategies that work fine for your brand. Nowadays, reels have become pretty famous that people are making the most of.

Want to show how to make a summer drink? Use reels! How to use makeup brushes? Use reels! These clips are fun, creative, and increase the brand’s visibility.

In short, on Instagram, you can try ‘this and that’ marketing option and discover what is working the best for you. What are you waiting for? Download it and dive in!