People do not trust micro accounts. The more followers you have, the more active your new subscribers will be. We will tell you how to promote an Instagram account from scratch.
According to statistics, more than 1 million Instagram users browse this social network at least once a month. It's easy to get lost in a profile among a large number, especially if you have recently created it.
Posting content, videos and a product is not enough to get a lot of customers. You need to promote your Instagram account as well. Popularity brings high reach, better stats, and new subscribers.
1. Prepare your account for promotion
Before you attract users to your account, you need to do some work in advance.
• Analyze your audience (age, gender, interests, etc.), understand which pages they have subscribed to and what bloggers follow. The better the company knows its target audience, the more accurately targeted ads are prepared, the more relevant the bloggers and partners you choose. This means better advertising results on Instagram and less spending.
• Watch your opponents. You should be aware of companies that offer similar products and services. Analytics tools will help in monitoring them. You'll understand the differences between you and their companies, and you'll know about their sales and discounts, contests and giveaways, and what they post. Study how subscribers interact with this or that information to find out your advantages to being successful in Instagram promotion.
• Add 9-12 posts and create a content plan for the future. If the account appears empty and has design errors, it does not raise confidence, and speaking from personal experience, few users will sign up for it.
• Switch your account to a professional. The account has personal limits. For example, you cannot see the number of visitors, follower stats (their weekly growth, geographic location, age, gender) and statistics (eg impressions and reach for every photo, video, and Instagram story). In the personal account, you also cannot launch targeted ads. In general, there are quite a few differences between the professional accounts. For example, the creator profile provides daily statistics, while the business account provides - weekly.
To switch to a professional account, open Settings, then go to Account, click on Switch to Professional Account and choose Business (if you're promoting a business on Instagram) or Creator, which is for celebrities and influencers.
2. Don't be shy about asking your acquaintances and friends to sign up for your account
One of the first milestones for Instagram promotion is to gain at least 50-100 followers so that the account doesn't look empty. This is definitely what gives credit when users come from other bloggers, targeted ads, or Instagram search.
So ask your colleagues, friends and relatives to sign up for your account and add posts about your profile in your feed or Instagram Stories. They are more likely to repost your Instagram content than to think of their own.
3. Mention your Instagram account in all your social networking posts
If you have already created audiences in other social media, you have a list of mailing newsletters - write about your new account. Offer a discount, gift, or helpful checklists – thus, they'll be more than willing to sign up. For example, a beauty salon can post on Facebook:
"Good news! We have an Instagram account. Now we have another social media platform to notify you of opening hours and discounts and post reviews and useful information. We are sending out a certificate of 50% off any beauty treatment to new subscribers! Follow us!”
Remember, you can't launch targeted ads in other networks to invite users to your Instagram profile – social media moderators don't approve of them, except for Facebook of course, since Instagram belongs to Facebook.
4. Be active in other social network accounts
Comment on the posts of the pages your target audience often goes to. It is better to comment in the posts of large companies with more than 100,000 subscribers, more people can see your comment.
For example, you promote a business on Instagram that provides foreign language lessons. Search for language profiles and respond to user comments. Remember that your goal is to introduce yourself and get the audience's attention, not to sell your lessons.
For example, you can answer a user who asks in comments about student books – we teach our students through this or that books. And it is better if you explain why your company chose this educational material, but do not mention your company name, otherwise it is very obvious that you are commenting to advertise and promote your Instagram account.
Keep in mind, if users mark your comment as spam, it may restrict your account. Therefore, do not make your comment an obvious advertisement.
5. Invitation to continue
Go to the account of a competitor, blogger, or company that your audience follows, and send messages to users inviting them to sign up for your account.
You have to assess whether the result is worth the effort. The method is often used for small businesses on Instagram, where the budget is limited. If you have the money, there is a better value for them. For example, launch targeted ads or ask bloggers to promote your account on their account posts.
Using mass following services to save money is a bad option. Accounts containing the link will be banned sooner or later.
6. Subscribe to competitors' followers and like their posts
Go to the profiles with your target followers and choose the right subscribers. Like and follow their posts Some users will be curious to know who liked their content. And if your business profile is really interesting
7. Add hashtags
Place relevant hashtags under each post.
For example, if you run a car maintenance service in Cairo, add the hashtag #CarMaintenanceInCairo. Hashtag collecting services, like Best Hashtags, make it even easier. Besides, you can add campaign hashtags when collaborating with bloggers.
8. Host contests to promote Instagram
Collaborate with other profiles your audience follows to host a contest and present a prize. Then the deal will be beneficial to you and the bloggers:
You gain more subscribers on your brand profile.
They raise the engagement on their profiles and withdraw the prizes you pay.
Choose accounts with more than 5 thousand followers in order to promote your Instagram account. Otherwise, there may not be many participants.
9. Ask the blogger to promote your blog
Choose bloggers or business accounts that post content related to your industry, or who your audience resembles by any characteristic (age, gender, interests).
For example, you produce youth clothes. Find bloggers who post on social life and fashion. Flower shop owners can collaborate with personal blogs about weddings and preparations for them.
Of course, the larger the blogger, the more you pay. Small bloggers (less than 10 thousand followers) will not help much in gaining subscribers, because their profile visits are not high.
If you ask for Instagram account promotion from several bloggers at once, it will be difficult to know where a new subscriber came from. You have to go to his profile and check which blogger he is subscribed to. If there are many new followers, it will take a long time. This is a reason to avoid asking for promotion from multiple bloggers and influencers at the same time.
At the beginning of promoting your Instagram account, evaluate the effectiveness of the blogger by the cost of the subscriber. Divide the total expenses by the number of subscribers who showed up for 2-3 days after the start of the campaign.
For example, you spent $1000 to advertise on Instagram and got 500 new followers. So, the subscriber's value is 1,000/500 = $2. The number depends on the topic and audience. For example, the expenses of inviting a teenager are much lower than the expenses of inviting a businessman. From time to time (not more than once in 3 months), ask for an Instagram account promotion from a blogger or influencer account that can attract cheap subscribers.
10. Use targeted ads
Targeted advertising is an effective method but requires money to attract new subscribers. The important thing is to define your goal. It means the parameters that distinguish your audience among all Instagram users. You should know your gender, age, location and interests. Select it when setting the campaign.
Another important thing is choosing the right target. It is set in the first step of the ads account in Facebook Ads Manager. To get more followers (not likes, comments or views), choose Traffic Considerations.
Estimate the average cost for a new subscriber the same way you did for blogger promotion. Analyze and use the most profitable method for you.
All manual methods for gaining more subscribers are proliferating over time. For once, it takes a lot of effort. Second, Instagram has some limits on account activity. That's why it can be easily blocked. So, if there is no money to promote on Instagram at all – that's okay. If you have money to spend, and you want instant results without risk – likes, comments and invite to your account are just an add on for bloggers and targeted ads.
As for working with micro-influencers, I recommend careful observation before selecting some of them. The monetization of the desired promotion is milk and honey for lazy bloggers, so do not neglect to check their accounts for cheating subscribers, likes and comments. And remember that the theme of the brand and its vision of things should be close to you. Then the chances of gaining a new target audience are higher. Conversion rate and follower count can be increased through raffles and contests.
Conclusion
Promoting Instagram accounts requires a lot of effort, time and money. For example, you need to understand who your audience is, where and how to look for it. Then you understand what accounts are good for collaboration and drawing prizes, who bloggers they work with and how to adjust target settings.
I don't recommend group like and group follow services for Instagram promotion. Instagram may ban the account, and you may not get it back. In addition, you will not know the real number of followers interested in your account and whether you are good at managing your profile.