22 Instagram marketing tips for small businesses

You have only 3 seconds to make users interested in your Instagram page. Bio is the first thing they see on your page. Barely they will see anything more during these 3 seconds. That's why your bio should be clear and stylish. Try these small business bio ideas.

Let's look at the Instagram tips for small businesses on how to create a bio that will help to gain followers and even increase sales. 

Let's start the Instagram tips list from the account name for your business, which is a username. It is a unique name people use to find you on this network. But remember, once their brain starts hurting too much attempting to remember it, they give up the idea. That's why your username should be easy to recall. 

Short and catchy usernames have higher chances to remain in users' memory. Here are two main tips to make up a good Instagram account name for your small business:

We are not done with the names, there is another tip for a small business on Instagram. You can add a profile name. This gives you one more chance to be found by your proposals.

An Instagram profile name is the words that help users to find you even if they don't know about you. When they search for a product or service they type simply what it's called in the search bar. Profiles that have these words in their profile names will be suggested. 

That's why you should use keywords in your profile name. If you sell macarons, then add this word, if you are a groomer, mention it in the name.

An Instagram bio is as small as the 150 symbols you can write in it, here is a tip on how your business can make the most of it.

150 characters may sound like it's too little. But in fact, users are unlikely to read a longer text about you when they are on your page for the first time. Read the next Instagram tip for small businesses, it's about fleshing out the details wisely. 

150 characters in your Instagram bio may be not enough to describe your business offer. This text is just for drawing users' attention. You should send them to your landing page, where they can learn more about your product or service and buy it. 

Here is the tip for your small business on Instagram: use a link in bio tool to create a landing page in a matter of minutes. Just choose a landing page template and customize it, and you are ready to go!

Look at the landing page added to the profile we showed above. It is made on Taplink. You can sign up and create a similar one in less than 10 minutes using this template. 

One more small tip for your business on Instagram: use a 7-day trial on Taplink to make an Instagram landing page for free. 

Business Account on Instagram allows you to add more information to your profile. This is, for example, a clickable location, contact buttons, quote in your bio. Thus, you get more opportunities to tell about your small business and to receive orders. 

What's more, you get Insights. You can track such metrics as likes, comments, reach to understand your audience. This will make your marketing strategy more effective. 

Business Account also lets you boost your Instagram posts. Once you launch the advertising, you reach more people, and this brings you more likes and followers.

Here is an Instagram tip for your small business that will increase your online customers' trust. Verify your account to prove you are the brand you claim to be. The blue checkmark you get after the verification indicates this. Users know that and they are more likely to subscribe.

Stories are great for communicating with your audience and thus, increasing your engagement. You definitely should take advantage of this feature to develop your small business on Instagram. Here are some tips for inviting followers to interact.

GIFs in Instagram Stories catch users' attention and are a way to join trends. The app regularly adds new GIFs on hot topics. Show that you watch the latest news and follow the most popular matters.

This Instagram tip will help you to involve the modest of your followers in the interaction with your small business. Ask questions in your Stories adding text or stickers.

Post questions, poll, quiz, emoji slider stickers. Since they make it easy to react or reply, users will do this more often.

Add text inviting Instagram users to react or message you in DM. This is a way to start dialogs with your customers. Close communication like this is good for your customer loyalty and brand reputation. 

There is another business tip that you can use in Stories to make Instagram users interact. Ask your followers questions on the topic of your next posts. For example, ask:

The questions let you increase engagement and show you care about what they want at the same time.

You can let your Instagram followers know about your new post by reposting it to your Stories. Then, there is no chance they miss it. The post in Stories will be clickable, and users can tap it to view the full version.

People often watch Instagram Stories with the sound off. And you appear a fish opening its mouth in the videos. Add subtitles to appear a sensible human. Users will understand you are telling them something and can read what exactly. 

Since users can understand what your story is about, they are likely to watch it to the end. And if you want them to do something, like to vote or react, they are likely to do this too.

Highlights are essential to every small business on Instagram, so here is a tip for it. Save information your clients may need there. They will easily find it since this section is at the top of your profile.

Highlights are Stories saved on your Instagram profile page. first, you need to post a story, then open it and tap Highlights:

As for Instagram tips for your business, create individual Highlights with information of different types. These may be contacts, addresses, product collections.

Think about the names and the covers of your Highlights. They should tell users about the content. For example, if you show products in highlights, set the product photos as the covers and write the type of products in the names.

Use Highlight covers of the same style. Then your page will look neat and stylish. Read how to choose and set Instagram Highlight covers. 

Hashtags are a tool to let more people on Instagram know about your small business. But your rivals probably know this and add hashtags under their posts too. Here are a few tips that will help you to overperform them.

Sometimes you better hide hashtags you use to promote your small business on Instagram. And it's not always about aesthetics! Hidden Instagram hashtags in comments and captions may improve your metrics.

If you have less than 5K followers, or their number is between 10–100K, you should hide hashtags. Add 3 or more lines between the caption text and the hashtags. Add spaces, characters, or emojis in the lines.

Do not aim to be shown to users on a page of a high-frequency hashtag. This does not guarantee you will be shown to a lot of people.

Why? First, if you have a small account on Instagram, your posts are unlikely to appear on these hashtag pages. Second, the frequency indicates a hashtag's popularity among people who post. And it may not be a hashtag that people often search for.

Use mid and low-frequency hashtags instead. They give you better chances to be shown to users on the hashtags' pages. 

Starting challenges is also a tip for increasing the number of people your small business reach on Instagram. That's because you encourage users to post in their accounts about your brand. Their followers see your name under the posts, and may even go to your profile to subscribe or buy the product. 

Besides, users do not usually add only one hashtag under their Instagram posts. When they take part in your challenge, they add your hashtags and other ones that are common and popular. Other people will find posts with your hashtag when they search for popular hashtags. Thus, they can know about it and tap to see more alike pictures.  

The more people see you on Instagram, the higher are your chances to get more likes and followers. These tips will help you to increase your reach for free and grow organically. Read all the way to increase your reach here.

This is definitely the Instagram tip for reach increasing to start with. Post them regularly to let more people know about your small business. Upload at least one video per day. 

Remember about the video quality. The picture should be sharp and clear. And there should be a concept. Make your videos fun or useful. Then, people will not only watch but also like them. And they will get to your Instagram profile page where they may subscribe to you.

The next tip is to add location tags to your Instagram posts. Like hashtags, they let more people on Instagram know about your small business.

A user can type a location in the search or tap the location tag above someone's photo. They will get to the page with all posts which have this location tag. If you added this location tag to your post, the user will see it on the hashtag page. 

Ask another small business or influencer on Instagram for collaboration. You can make a post together using the Collab feature, go live, or just post about each other in your accounts. 

Collaborating is beneficial for both parties, that's why brands usually eagerly accept the offer. Your audience will know about them, and their audience will know about you. So, you both reach more people and may gain followers. 

Choose a brand that has the same fame as you on Instagram. Bigger brands are unlikely to agree for collaborating with you. Collaborating with smaller brands, you will not get great results. 

All right, we know it's all about sales. All this fun with increasing reach, gaining followers, and getting more like is for making money in the end. Here are tips that help small businesses to sell more on Instagram. 

You can show your product in posts. However, you can't add a link that would take users to where they can buy it. The next Instagram tip for small businesses solves this problem.

First of all, make sure you have a good business bio on Instagram. There should be a link that directs users to learn more about your product or buy it. 

Then, when you promote a product in an Instagram post, write the caption that invites users to follow the link in your bio. This is the easiest way to let people buy when you have piqued their interest with a post. That's because all Instagram users know how to get to your bio and find a link in it. 

Seasoned marketers use this tip regularly in big and small accounts to promote businesses on Instagram. Use it too: make sure you give a clear direction to users on what they should do to get your product. You don't want them to think themselves, they may come up with leaving you in favor of your rivals. 

Describe your offer and add a call-to-action:

Add a link to your landing page where they can book or buy after the call-to-action. You can do this in Stories and your bio. In posts, you can't add clickable links, but you can invite users to follow the link in your bio.

The next marketing tip for your small business is to add a clickable location to your Instagram bio. This is a link that opens in a map application on users' phones. Thus, they can know exactly how to get to your store. What's more, they can create a route in the app.

Even if you don't have an offline shop, you may want to add a location in your Instagram bio. For example, if you provide delivery through a particular state only. Then, your followers can know whether they should buy your product.

The last business tip on the list is to pin the most important Instagram post to the top of your profile. These posts will remain first in the grid no matter how many new posts you add. Your profile visitors will not miss them!

You can even arrange pinned Instagram posts in banners. This is very useful for a business. For example, you can make sales banners.

Instagram is more than a platform for sharing beautiful and precious moments of your life with friends. The social network is a business tool that can increase your sales. 

Competition on Instagram is barely less intense than offline. Your rivals are already there to grab your prospects' attention and money. That's why you need to stand out.

These 22 Instagram tips for small businesses are what can help you to outrun your rivals on social media. Still, you have to work on your product and content quality and make up a good social marketing strategy. Then, you will get more followers willing to buy.