Instagram, when utilized to its full extent and alongside a comprehensive marketing strategy, can be an incredibly powerful marketing platform for small business owners, entrepreneurs and e-commerce retailers.

You may already have some familiarity with Instagram, you may even already follow some businesses (large or small) on Instagram. The purpose of this post is to help you learn to utilize Instagram to its full potential and help you make sales.

There are 3 parts of Instagram Marketing we are going to focus on in this post to get you started:

Creating Winning Instagram Content
Finding the Right Instagram Hashtags for Your Business
How to Gain Instagram Followers

All you need to begin is a registered account with a suitable username. Note: Although each situation is always different, in most cases I would recommend that the account you use for marketing/promoting your business is separate from any personal account.

The most important thing to remember:

First and foremost, Instagram is for sharing beautiful images. No one wants to see their favorite platforms become inundated as a sales channel or advertising platform. This, as with ALL social media marketing is imperative to remember.

1. Creating Winning Instagram Content

If Instagram is all about sharing beautiful images, that’s going to be the key to your content. Whatever you are going to be promoting or sharing on Instagram, you’ll want to find a way to make your photos unique and appealing. Here are a couple possible topics to get you started.

Showcase your products

People who sell physical products can thrive on Instagram. Find ways to photograph your products in fun, creative or beautiful ways:

Product In Use (i.e. a little boy wearing your crocheted beanie)
Product set amidst a scene or backdrop (i.e. handmade sandals on the beach)

Even if your product isn’t necessarily tangible, for instance, if you’re a fitness trainer, your “product” would be the results of your work.

Show “Behind the Scenes”

Showcase the people you work with or who are a part of your business.
Show the process of creating your product.
Show off your workspace.

Let people feel like they are getting a glimpse into your lifestyle, your business and the real work that you do.

Feature the individual things that make your product unique

Is there a special story behind the materials you use? Is there a certain reason you got into this business? Illustrate these special circumstances, these unique stories and the things that make your business unique in pictures.

Inspirational quotes with beautiful backdrops

This style of post is a staple on Instagram. If you’ve spent any time on the platform, you’ve probably seen a good share of these inspirational quotes. Share quotes that will strike a chord with your followers, that help you get through the day or that are related to your business or product.

2. Finding the right Instagram hashtags for your business

Hashtags are your best friend on Instagram. You can use a large number of them and they help spread your image to other people who browse that hashtag.

A lot of sites will recommend using generic hashtags that are wildly popular on Instagram, such as #love or #followforfollow. I will argue that it is a much better use of your time to research and brainstorm keywords that are most applicable and targeted to the audience you want. While wider reach with generic keywords may get you more likes and follows, the vast majority of these will most likely never become your customers or care about your content, and are therefore do not provide value to your account.

So, what hashtags should you be using? I’ll provide you with two examples here.

First, let’s imagine someone who sells handmade beaded jewelry on Etsy.

This person will probably post a lot of photos of their finished jewelry, their workspace, their inspirations, their method, materials and pieces while they are in progress.

Let’s say for today’s post they have a beautiful close-up picture of a woman wearing a recently finished necklace, now available for purchase. Here are my recommended hashtags. (In parentheses I’ve included how many posts Instagram states there are for this hashtag):

#etsy (11,986,614)
#etsyjewelry (341,988)
#etsyfinds (925,172)
#jewelry (28,406,790)
#jewelryforsale (247,242)
#handmade (60,800,635)
#handmadejewelry (3,188,998)
#beads (2,871,379)
#beadedjewelry (151,331)
#fashion (313,611,121)
#necklace (12,526,723)
#style (183,503,922)

Second, I’ll use one of my own Instagram accounts, @NebraskaBison

I use this site to promote my e-commerce company which sells bison meat. Most of my photos are images of cooked bison, in order to showcase my product in use, make people hungry and how the variety of things that can be made with a meat that is not quite mainstream. Here are the hashtags I use in many/most of my posts:

#bison (311,659)
#steak (5,862,833)
#burger (6,975,574)
#grilling (958,022)
#leanmeat (25,231)
#lean (705,056)
#healthy (83,326,056)
#healthyfood (19,407,499)
#healthyeating (12,794,874)
#healthycooking (398,851)
#protein (13,761,946)
#farmtotable (658,235)

So you can see how many available hashtags can really add up and help people find your content. Hopefully this will give you some ideas on how to come up with hashtags for your own business and what kind of keywords relate to the images you are sharing.

Tips for finding more hashtags:

Find an established account in the same industry / niche as you. Look into their posts and look at the hashtags they are using. Use any that are also applicable to your posts.
Using the ‘search’ feature on Instagram, type in a hashtag relevant to you and other, similar hashtags will pop up as suggestions.
Using the ‘search’ feature on Instagram, search for one of your most relevant hashtags, along the top of the search results, there will be a bar with “related” hashtags.

3. How to gain Instagram followers

At the beginning, before you gain your following, it can feel a bit weird publishing to no-one. Even if you are utilizing hashtags, it can take awhile to get a handle on Instagram, and while you may be getting some likes, it may take a bit longer to start getting some follows.

The key is to keep at it and stay consistent in putting out great images. Once you have a good bit of content built up in your profile, you’re ready to implement my favorite tactic for getting new Instagram followers:

Engaging with your community!

My task is easy, since I have quite a niche product: bison meat. If you’ll notice above, #bison has 311,659 posts. Every few days, I do a search for #bison and I go through and like all the newly posted pictures of peoples’ bison creations. If someone has something that looks particularly scrumptious, I make sure to drop a comment to let them know.

Not only has this method proven to give me new followers, it also helps build brand awareness as each user gets a notification showing that my profile liked their photo, but it has also directly led to sales – which is, after all, the whole reason for Instagram marketing!

Find a way to engage with your own community with Instagram marketing. The best way to do this, is by liking and commenting on photos in your targeted niche.

Ready to get started?

Obviously, Instagram marketing isn’t going to be for everyone. If you’re a local dentist office, I’m sure there are likely many better outlets to reach your clients and spend your marketing time.

However, if after reading this post you believe Instagram will be a great way to grow your business, then get to it! Hit the ground floor! Start planning those posts! Let’s see what you’ve got. And comment your username below and I’ll be sure to check it out!