So, you have finally clicked the link to know how to generate business from Instagram, right? And the most important thing is that you want to acquire the information as soon as possible. Well, I won’t stop you from doing that anyway, but it’s important for you to know the basics first.
You all know Instagram as one of the most popular social media platforms that can be used to capture, edit, and share special moments of your life. But do you know that it is also one of the best business-building platforms? You might know that for a long time, or you don’t. So, today I have decided to walk you through the best way to generate business from your Instagram account.
But before we begin, I would like you to understand how the customer acquisition process works in the digital world. Let’s have a look at the details below:
The Online Journey of Customers from Prospects to Buyers
The online customer acquisition process is divided into three parts:
- Prospects
- Leads
3. Conversions
Let’s see how the whole system works.
1. Prospects
Prospects are the possible customers that show interest in your products or services during online communication. They develop an interest in your offerings through social media posts, blog posts, or PR. Once you have drawn their attention to your products, you have successfully completed the first step to generate leads using social media.
2. Leads
Leads are the interested customers that provide you with personal information like name, phone number, and email id for future communication. Yet, to get that information, you may need to offer them a free eBook, brochure, or something else that adds value. This will help you establish a good relationship with your potential customers that could result in conversions soon.
3. Conversion
Conversion happens when your potential customer finally turns into a real customer. That means they have finally purchased your product or service and are ready to use it.
Remember, the journey from leads to conversion may take some time and you will have to be quite patient in that period. This is because after someone has shown interest in your product, they might not buy it immediately. They can take some time to verify the authenticity, durability, and pricing of your product. So, now it’s your responsibility to communicate with them (through calls or emails) and make them trust what you are selling through relevant content, amazing results, and genuine reviews.
This method is very effective when it comes to the best way to generate business from an Instagram account.
With that complete, now it’s time to gain a deeper insight into the top 5 ways to generate business from an Instagram account.
How to Generate Business from Instagram
1. Create a landing page that converts
A landing page is a purely product-focused page that entices visitors to take action. Now that action could be anything such as newsletter subscription, brochure download, product booking, and many more. But most of the time it is focused on increasing the sales of the products or conversion rate.
This is the reason why your landing page should be designed as nicely as possible. A few things you can do to achieve that goal is put beautiful pictures, compelling content, and an actionable CTA on your landing page. Once you have done that make sure it is easily scannable and delivers a seamless visual experience. In any way, visitors should find content on your landing page that they expect by seeing your ads or emails.
Here, you can see the landing page of one of the best shoe companies in the world Nike. They have turned their feeds into clickable landing pages using some tools and now it looks quite astonishing. Isn’t it?
So, you got the first answer to how to generate leads from Instagram, right?
Now let’s move onto the second method right away.
2. Add Action Buttons to your Instagram Account
This is one of the best ways to generate business from an Instagram page where all you are supposed to do is add a few necessary details to your profile. You can add your email id, phone number, and address to your Instagram Business profile so that people can contact you whenever they need.
Not just that, you can also include other action buttons in your profile that packs a lot of punch. For example, Book, Reserve, and Get Tickets buttons that are more focused on lead generation.
Just follow these steps to add action buttons to your profile and it’s done.
- Go to your account page and click on Edit Profile.
- Click on Contact Options and then you need to select Add an action button.
- Next, select the button that you want to add to your profile with its provider.
- Finally, add the link to your business website with the selected provider.
Keep in mind that these action buttons help a lot to generate business from Instagram.
In the picture below you can see how Sportello restaurant has added a couple of action buttons to its profile.
3. Modify the link in your bio
Once your Instagram account is active and running, it’s important to use business-focused features to its fullest potential. Here I’m talking particularly about the link space in your bio that is quite beneficial to generate leads from Instagram. You must insert a valid link there that indicates customers of its purpose. That purpose could be anything from shopping to subscription and anything in between.
Take note that Instagram provides you options to change that link as many times as you want. So, you don’t need to worry about that.
Let’s see some tips to optimize Instagram bio links:
- Create a short link that has your brand name in it.
- Promote that link through posts that you share mentioning “link in bio” in it.
- Place a strong call-to-action button above your Instagram bio link.
For instance, you can have a look at the bio links of Versed and Free People that encourages visitors to buy their products.
By the way, this is one of the easiest ways that entrepreneurs use to generate leads using social media.
4. Make your products shoppable for customers
You can do this by tagging your products in Instagram stories and posts. This will help your prospects find the products easily and then they can buy them from there. This way your sales and engagement with potential customers will gradually increase and it will be an easy task to generate business from Instagram.
In case, people click on the product tags but don’t buy for the reasons best known to them, you can save that information as leads collected on interested customers. Using the same information, you can find out what products your prospects like and whatnot. And once you are ready with the results you can target ads to customers who have shown interest in your product.
But before you reach there, you need to create shoppable Instagram posts first. To do that first you will have to figure out whether or not your Instagram account is eligible for creating shoppable content. When your Instagram account is eligible for that, create a Facebook Catalogue using Catalogue Manager or Facebook Partner. Once you are happy with your catalog, connect it to Instagram and sign up for Instagram Shopping. Now you are ready to add product tags to your posts or stories, wherever you want.
To get a glimpse of the shoppable content, you can look at the product-tagged story of Athleta:
So, the thing is you can get business from Instagram as much as you like by applying this great trick.
5. Activate the “Swipe Up” feature when you post stories
Another place where you can put the link to your business is Instagram stories. To do this, you can use a popular feature on Instagram “Swipe Up”. This is an impulsive action taken by visitors to find the details about a particular product and buy. However, you can use this feature for many other purposes as well by entering a suitable link for that.
Since Instagram stories can be seen quicker than the link in bio, it has a higher chance of completion. Apart from that, it brings in better results based on the number of people who view it. Thus, it’s important for you to link a good landing page here as well that entices your visitors to make a quick purchase.
To understand it better, you can take a look at the Instagram story of Athleta:
All you have to do to add an Instagram story with a “Swipe-up” feature is to:
- Swipe right from your feed or simply click on the plus icon on your profile picture by visiting the My Profile section.
- Upload the content you want.
- Tap on the little chain icon and then insert your link.
Bonus Tips to Generate Business from Instagram
6. Partner with Highly-Followed Influencers
If you want to generate leads from Instagram that have a higher chance of converting into your customers, partner with an Instagram Influencer straight away. They will provide you high-quality leads that will be the best return on your investment.
All you need to keep in mind is to choose an influencer that has a strong brand reputation among the masses and most importantly, he or she is a credible person.
For better understanding, you can see this post from Bandgi Kalra – an Instagram Influencer.
7. Organize an Instagram Contest
The next result-oriented method to get business from Instagram is to run an Instagram contest. Ask your followers to review their products or services, complete a survey or tag their friends on your posts to win an amazing prize. Till the time your contest is over, you will have tons of leads to follow up with.
In case you want to see a recent example of an Instagram contest, have a look at the below post by Slice:
What is the Best Way to Generate Business from Instagram Page?
So, this is the end of the blog and you still don’t know what is the best way to generate business from an Instagram account, right? Well, it is really difficult to choose the best when you know so many techniques that produce wonderful results. Still, I will suggest you try out each method one by one and compare the results yourself. I’m sure you will find the perfect answer to your question very soon.
This post might have consumed a bit more time than expected but I hope it delivered you the value you expected. Instagram is surely one of the best business-building platforms in the world and these reasons are enough to prove that.
Do you have any questions about how to generate business from Instagram? Drop it down in the comments below.