How to Use Instagram for Business
Quick answer: Instagram for business works best when you use its visual format to showcase products and services creatively and build brand awareness. Start by identifying clear goals and your target audience, stay active to keep followers engaged, and create posts tailored to the people you want to reach, since the platform’s largest user groups are young adults.
People tend to spend approximately 53 minutes a day on Instagram (HubSpot, 2017) In a month, Instagram has more than one billion active users and 500 million daily Instagram Stories. This goes to show that Instagram is the next best place to establish your online presence on social media.
If you don’t already know, Instagram wins audience engagement with visually-appealing photos and videos. It is the place to showcase your company’s products and services in a more creative way. This allows your business to expand your brand awareness, which can foster brand recognition within users.
Identify Your Goals & Target Audience
Being an interactive social media platform, it is important to be active and constantly keep your followers engaged. However, no marketing strategy is successful without clearly identifying your goals and your target audience. Be sure to keep that in mind when creating new posts. The largest group of people on Instagram consists of people between the age of 25-34 years old, followed by 18-24 years old (Statista, 2020).
Other than your eye-catching photos, captions are vital in capturing a potential customer’s attention to read your post, view your profile and subsequently, follow you on Instagram. A compelling caption should have a starting sentence that can hook people in to continue reading the rest of your post. Followed by what you actually want to say, or your main purpose of the post. Next, a call to action, be it a question or an interesting fact that would prompt people to comment. And lastly, add some hashtags relating to your post! Although it would be better to add more hashtags, around 3-5 hashtags would suffice. Too many would be too overwhelming and insincere.
On top of that, it is important that you always reply when you get a new comment or a direct message! Being available and ready to help is a great way to establish a more personal bond with your customers.
Keeping a consistent colour scheme across all your posts is one way your audiences can recognise your brand.
Instagram Stories
It is another feature you can use to market your business. They last for 24 hours after posting then disappears! Be it promoting your new products and services or just engaging with your followers in that instant. Instagram Stories has these stickers for your story that can serve as a call to action, such as a poll, question, or quiz stickers! They help you understand the preferences of your target audience better and get up close and personal with your customers.
Contact 90 Degrees Asia if you would look to boost your Instagram Business page with objective-drive engagement.
Look out for our next article on Instagram Ads and Analytics.
Shop for your social media template at the 90 Degrees Asia store
Key takeaways
- Instagram’s visual format suits creative product showcases.
- Set clear goals and define your target audience first.
- Stay active to keep followers engaged.
- Tailor content to the platform’s core age groups.
Frequently asked questions
Why should businesses use Instagram?
Instagram is highly visual and drives strong audience engagement with photos and videos. It lets businesses present products and services creatively, which helps build brand awareness and recognition.
Who uses Instagram the most?
The article cited Statista data from 2020 showing the largest group of Instagram users is aged 25-34, followed by 18-24 year olds.
How do I set goals for Instagram marketing?
Decide what you want to achieve, such as brand awareness, engagement or website traffic, and define who your target audience is. Use these goals to guide your content and measure results.
How often should a business post on Instagram?
Consistency matters more than volume. Being active regularly keeps followers engaged, so choose a posting rhythm you can sustain with quality content.
Want help applying this in your market? Talk to 90 Degrees Asia about B2B marketing across APAC.
