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Instagram promotions are created out of the existing posts on your Instagram profile. In 2021, reaching a wider audience and hitting the engagement and number of followers you want is increasingly difficult. There are more than a million creators on Instagram, so if you’re new to the game, you’ll experience huge competition. That’s why it’s handy to have a solid Instagram promotion strategy.

That’s why today’s material is dedicated to Instagram promotions. In this article, we will consider in detail all the various stages involved in promotions from A to Z, including: 

• How to create and design a profile for a business or blog;
• How to create content for posts and stories, as well as write texts/captions;
• How to use advertising for promotions;
• How to analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of promotions;
• What services and programs to choose for Instagram promotions.

How to promote on Instagram: step-by-step instructions
In this article, we will address the key steps that you need to follow for your business promotions on Instagram. 

If you already have an Instagram account and noticed a drop in coverage or engagement, we recommend checking your account for bots — they may be ruining your potential and reach. As a rule of thumb, the more engaged and active your audience, the better your sales. 

Creating an account and connecting a business profile
If you’re starting your promotion from scratch, the first step is to register your company’s page on Instagram. You can do this either from your phone or a desktop.  

The next step is to switch to a commercial profile. To do this, create a business page on Facebook (we even have an article devoted to just that! ). Then, go to the “Settings” section of your Instagram account and switch to the business profile of your organisation.  

Instagram business accounts have several advantages over normal profiles, such as: 

* access to statistics (views, likes, comments, engagement, reach, etc.); 

* contact buttons (phone, e-mail and driving directions); 

* category selections (a special block in which you can specify the scope of activity); 

* company address display (by clicking on it, the customer immediately gets to the page with a map). 

Regardless of your content and what you are promoting, the first thing you need to do is go to the company’s account and design it.  

The page design (header profile) 

How to link your .ART domain to your Instagram account Read More

Your main page header is the first thing the user sees when visiting your account. You need to fill out this section correctly to help catch your visitor’s attention. In the header, you need to complete 6 main items: the name, account name, description, profile photo, stories and contact information. 

Your username
This is a unique set of characters (for instance, our nickname on Instagram is artdomains), as well as your URL (in our case it is art.art). It is also a good idea to use your company name, first or last name, a keyword or a link to a region. To change your nickname, click “Edit profile” and change it in the “Username” field. When finished, save the changes. If the nickname is already taken by another account, a corresponding notification will appear, and you’ll have to pick another one. 

Account name 
Here, you can enter a brand name, a keyword that potential customers can use to find you, or a product name. For personal blogs, it is better to use memorable and/or catchy names or your real name. If you choose a relevant keyword, your profile will be more demand-driven and searchable. To change the account name, click “Edit Profile” and enter the text in the “Name” field – you can even use emojis for that extra fun touch. The maximum length for your account name is 30 characters, and you can change the page name no more than twice in 14 days. 

Description 
Your description should contain the basic features of your business: the types of products you offer, the benefits of working with you, and your USP (unique selling point). You can also include a link to a website.  

Profile Picture
There are two important things to keep in mind when choosing your profile picture: first, the definitive version of the image will be presented to the audience in the form of a circle, which means that the original version will be cropped at the edges. Second, the avatar should always be relevant to the services you offer (or with your brand as a whole). 

Contact details
To make it easy for people to reach you should they have any question and/or enquiries, you should provide them with your contact details. Simply go to your profile settings and enter your phone number, email address, and website. If you do not have a website, you can put a link to your messenger profile. You can also duplicate the phone number in your profile description. 

Profile header samples
If we take a hair salon as an example, what exactly would we have to specify in the header? It is best to specify a list of basic services, a phone number (because not everyone pays attention to the “Call” button), a call to action (such as including a link to book an appointment). We also advise you to fill in the information in the header on your desktop, as it will enable you to break the description into paragraphs and highlight specific parts of it. 

Filling it with content
Instagram promotion is primarily based on creating attractive visual content. It encourages subscribers to become familiar with the visual element that accompanies the sales pitch: non-standard photographic work, comprehensive sales texts and calls and messages from potential customers. 

Key characteristics of graphic content for Instagram: 

* High quality: use natural lighting: the light should fall on the subject of the photo, and, as a result, the images will be clearer and brighter. When processing the photos, use built-in Instagram filters or a program like VSCO to help achieve the best visual results.  

* A captivating storyline: accompany the photos with an interesting story about the product, the history behind making it, or the team that helped make it happen.  

• Share relevant quotes or tweets;

* Different formats of visual content – don’t forget to make the most of Videos, reels, and collages – you don’t need to solely focus on photos. Just make sure whatever you share is relevant and helps uphold your brand!  

* Consistency and coherence – make the most out of a consistent colour scheme and make sure that all your posts uphold the same brand values and aesthetics (you don’t want to be all over the place). Your potential customer needs to be able to look at your feed and within 3 seconds understand what your product or service is all about

Texts for posts
Make sure that your posts are accompanied by relevant text. For example, hashtags help you achieve this by simplifying the process of finding the desired product. It is worth mentioning that you shouldn’t use the most popular hashtags, as your content is more likely to get lost amid hundreds of thousands of posts. 

Here are some ideas to help you tackle hashtags: 

* Develop your own tag structure (for example, create your own brand hashtag), so you don’t only increase brand awareness but also influence the promotion of the product as a whole; 

* Don’t place too many words in hashtags (no more than 3); 

* Utilise similar hashtags to your competitors and figure out your hashtag ‘niche’  

Hashtags for Instagram promotion
How to use geolocation for posts  

Geolocation is a tool that allows you to mark the location where a post’s photo was taken. To “enable” the function in the post, you need to click the “Add place” button in the caption box and enter your geolocation. 

You not only can use the place where your organisation is based but also popular places in your city (shopping and entertainment centres, places of cultural interest, parks and squares etc.), which will help you reach a larger audience. If the search does not give you the right geo-location, you can add your geolocation via Facebook. 

Services to help your Instagram promotions
Instagram tends to ban accounts the use third-party services that don’t meet their terms and conditions. These are usually automatic services that use mass liking and following.  However, if you use the right services, don’t abuse them, and use them correctly (if you connect a proxy and follow the limits), they can be incredibly helpful. Here are some popular services:

* Hipolink – A service for Instagram in which you can combine all your links, social networks, and messengers on a single page. In the free version, you can add one link, one social network, and one messenger account. On paid tariffs, the number of links, social networks and messengers is not limited. 

* Trendhero – a smart analytics tool that can check Instagram influencer accounts for 90+ metrics, including follower quality and engagement. 

* InstaHero – a service that helps you analyse your Instagram followers and clean it up from bots and spam. 

How to quickly promote your Instagram page from scratch 

When we say “from scratch”, we mean from the starting point of 0. Instagram is a social network that can be easily scalable, and, as a result, profitable for your business.  

Here is a list of additional recommendations that you can use to push your account to its fullest: 

1. Track all the latest changes and trends in the world of digital and social media.
2. Stay tuned — some updates may only be superficial additions, while others can seriously affect the entire network.
3. Experiment — test different posts and see how they perform.
4. Perform end-to-end analytics – count how much profit you have made from the customers you attract via Instagram.
5. Automate — use scheduling tools and delegate routine tasks to your subordinates.

Analyse your metrics 
It’s vital you track your Instagram promotion metrics to help you understand what works and what doesn’t. 

* Reach – the number of subscribers who have read the content of the post;  

* Impressions – the number of times your post or ad appears to users; 

* Profile views — the number of users who visit your profile page; 

* User engagement – this is about “measuring” the audience’s interest in a certain type of content. The formula is as follows: 

(likes + comments + reposts) / the number of followers  x 100  = Instagram engagement rate 

* The number of clicks – people that clicked on your website using the link placed in the account header; 

Regularly checking these metrics helps you determine where your weak points lie and draw appropriate conclusions and plan the necessary actions to adjust them. 

For example, a small reach suggests that you create unengaging content that isn’t engaged with, thus lowering your reach in the algorithm. The way out: based on statistics, identify the posts with the highest coverage and try to do the rest of the posts on the same principle. Or imagine a scenario where you have a low rate of profile views. A solution would be to invest in official Instagram ads. 

These are just some of the tips we have for you regarding Instagram promotions. Please make sure to continue reading our blog for fresh advice and inspiration to help elevate your Instagram account.