Everything you need to know before starting Instagram for business

Sahail Ashraf posted on 3 June 2023

Instagram is a powerful tool for brands. However, it is easy to rush in and make a ton of mistakes. Avoid this by using the following pointers.

If you haven’t yet started using Instagram for business, hold your horses. Too many brands enter the space with a poor strategy or a lack of knowledge of how to use the platform. This post will show you exactly how to get started in the very best way.

You need goals

Setting social media marketing goals for Instagram is essential for success in today’s online environment. Goals help to keep your efforts focused and provide motivation to keep going. Goals also allow you to measure your performance and identify areas for improvement. 

Instagram provides an excellent platform to reach potential customers, build relationships, and create brand awareness. With the right goals in place, you can maximize your efforts on Instagram and ensure that your campaigns are as effective as possible. 

Setting goals helps you to stay organised, keep track of progress, and measure success. You can track progress by setting specific objectives and then tracking your progress towards them. This allows you to understand what’s working and what isn’t, allowing you to optimise your efforts. Having goals also helps you to stay focused. 

Whether it’s simply building traffic, or just brand awareness, having goals in place will keep you on the right track.

Content schedule

Having a content schedule for Instagram is essential for any business looking to build and maintain a successful presence on the platform. A content schedule allows for consistency, allowing you to post regularly, ensuring your followers are regularly updated with your content. It also helps you stay organised and on-track, as you can plan ahead and make sure every post is relevant, informative and engaging. 

Additionally, a content schedule allows you to track your performance, as you can easily measure the success of each post. With a content schedule, you can also better plan promotions, giveaways, and other activities that will help increase your followers. Furthermore, a content schedule can help you save time, as you can batch content creation and scheduling ahead of time. 

Finally and most importantly, having a content schedule allows you to create a better experience for your followers, as they can rely on your content and know when to expect your next post.

Consistency works

If your brand does not have a consistent style, you won’t be remembered. It’s all about sticking to a style and theme that signals your brand and its message.

Here are a few things you have to do:

• Start by choosing a set of colors, fonts, and images that accurately represent your brand. 
• Create a style guide with these assets and stick to it throughout all your posts. 
• Use the same filter for all your images to maintain a consistent look. 
• Create templates for your posts and use them to create a consistent look. 
• Invest in a quality camera and lenses to ensure consistent quality for your photos. 
• Use the same type of caption for all your posts. 
• Use the same hashtags for your posts to increase visibility.

Make brand style part of your regular routine and your audience will grow on the platform.

Make the bio work for you

The bio section on your Instagram is vital. It is the key place because people will check it out if they are interested in finding out what you do. So it has to be perfect.

Make sure, first of all, that you write as much as you can in the bio. The more content here the better. This is because so many brands don’t do this, and you need to stand out.

Make sure you also complete all of the fields in the bio too, so that your audience gets a full picture of what your brand is about.

Take care with captions

Captions will always be a big part of Instagram. When the algorithm points users to your content, the caption will be part of the reason why. Make the captions you use relevant and interesting to your audience.

This requires planning. Going back to the content schedule idea, plan captions alongside your long-term planning for content. This will both focus your thinking and ensure you have SEO-friendly content too.

If we were to add anything else, we would be complicating it for you. Just plan carefully with goals, schedule your work, and get the brand style consistent. You shouldn’t even post anything until you feel ready with the above pointers.

If you are involved in social media marketing for a client or for your own business, do yourself a big favour. Try out Locowise for the best set of data and tools you will find. And if you want to master Instagram marketing, get in touch.