13 ways to promote your local business on Instagram you cannot afford to miss out on!
Local businesses are the soul of Indian market, not only just the Indian market but they are the real spirit of trading and economics in any country.
Local businesses are usually operated by few members, most of their work depends upon the whole-sole owner of the business. They specialise in either of the things like product or services which they provide. It is difficult for a local business that has limited resources and budget to spend to expert in all the fields required for running a business like marketing, HR, financing etc.
Marketing for local business usually has single face that is mouth publicity. Local business more than enough times provide a product or service equivalent to any international or national brand but the problem they face even after having a researched product is that of a class marketing or publicity.
People run behind brands. Most of the times its not the cost we pay for the product but for the tag that comes attached with it. This gap of recognition as a brand for any local business is one of the main challenge that it faces while establishing itself.
In the modern era, social media has become a platform to market any business to a level that it equals to a brand. Sometimes local business come out with great ideas that they might supersede a well establish brand.
Are you a business owner? If yes, then this article is something you cannot afford to miss out!
13 ways to promote your local business on Instagram
1. Start with the basics- profile creation and bio-optimisation
Starting with the basics, the rule is to have an Instagram business account. The business accounts are specially designed by the company to assist you in analysing and growing your business over the application.
Creating a public business account is the foremost step to begin with. Instagram provides you with insights and detailed analysis of your growth over the platform, it also provides you the system of collaboration and working with others over the platform.
2. Study your competitors!
Once you get your account it becomes immensely important for a local business to make a list of competitors and analyse their accounts. Study brands. Study brands even from other genres which might provide you with unique ideas that your competitors might not be aware of.
Study the hacks! Know what kind of content people appreciate and want to see on their feeds by studying the views, the likes and even the comments.
3. Create your style
It is very crucial for local business to find out what they are and what does their business represents in order to create a unique style or signature style of your social media page.
From setting up your bio to all your details and description to deciding the creatives, font, and style everything must go with the type of your business.
Finding the theme and creating a perfect template for all your post is a cherry on the cake.
Instagram works with those who work on it. It is absolutely necessary for you to put up daily posts or more if possible. The algorithm of the platform pushes you forward organically if you are a super active business.
The audience also prefers to follow pages and accounts that keep a updating a lot of stuff and are active in their field. Your viewers become loyal to you once you show them that you deserve it.
Putting up stories and posts that they can relate is something you can always offer but also providing a variety of content is super attractive.
5. Apply best Instagram practices like going with the trend.
If you want to reach a large audience in a short period of time then follow the trending.
Be it a trending song, a trending reel, or a trending meme, it will all help you boost your growth. Knowing the trends and fitting your business into it is a task that requires high creativity but once you learn how it is done it is nothing but magic for your business’s growth over the platform.
Do not forget to associate your business with it or else it might appear vague on your profile!
The aim for establishing your local business online is to make it reach to the target audience which holds the potential of being your customers or consumers.
Using hashtags creates a niche, the content goes to the people that are actually looking for it. For example, if you are a furniture shop owner then using hashtags like #furniture #(your city) #color #furniture type and many other might help your posts grow.
Don’t forget to use a trending hashtag, this does not ensure that your content will go to those definitely looking for it, but it might go to a large number of audiences.
If you find difficulty in it, you can get a hashtag expert who professionally takes care of this concern and look after your local business brand.
7. Cross-post to increase Instagram engagement and brand awareness.
Cross promote your brand, work with indirect competitors that might have a large pool of target audience.
Collaborations work both ways it is helpful for both the accounts and in practicality is crossing the audience of both the accounts for mutual benefit.
Cross promoting your Instagram brand with your meta or twitter audiences is a really smart move with high ROI.
8. Introduce faces on your pages.
Make your content people centric. Introducing faces on your profile gives it an authentic look. It makes your followers feel that you are a genuine account. Including emotions and smiles on the page makes people connect with it. It is easy for a local business to get people on their account, customers usually easily agree for this.
On the other hand, when you post your customers or consumers on your page it makes them feel important and associated with your brand. This idea is fruitful as it increases the customer retention rate. It also appeals other potential customers to become a part of the page and subscribe to your facility.
9. Invest in branded content Instagram Ads
If your local business is established over the software and feel the need to move one step ahead, you can work on link generation.
Advertisement is a sponsored way to bring in footfalls at your space. Creating a perfect draft for your ad which covers all the aspects in one content is necessary for any advertisement.
Running brand awareness campaigns and noting the response you receive on it can help in initial stages. If you receive a good response over your brand awareness campaigns then you can go for link generation part which creates enquiries and foot falls.
10. Run tasks and give aways
Engaging real time audience is major challenge that many local businesses face. Therefore, to take care of engaging your audience it is necessary that you run tasks and provide give aways.
This idea has proved to be beneficial for working as a sample or tester. People willing to use your product but doubting its quality or value are assured of its worth.
This type of content also helps you analyse your followers or current audience presence. If you get a good response on such activities, then this is indicative of an active audience which could be your potential clients.
11. Consider Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is a wide aspect. People follow their role models or inspirations and when a role model advertises or consumes any product then it induces a deep curiosity about that product among the followers.
You can go for paid promotions with influencers that work for your genre. For example, if you own a local business like a café you can collaborate with a food industry influencer that promotes other restaurants or café.
Influencers works on various basis, sometimes in cash other times in kind. Analysing which influencer would be best for your brand is a crucial job to do. Try negotiating with various influencers and you will automatically understand what works best for you.
12. Launch your shop!
If your business is product oriented then Instagram provides you the shop facility! Add Instagram shop to your profile for the people who want to discover your products. People can directly buy your products from Instagram shop.
Create an aesthetic which best suits your brand. An aesthetic shoot for your products and their complete portfolio with all the details that will attract even more audience. It also reduces the hectic to search for products over other applications.
13. Invest in professional Instagram management services
Busy business owners may find it difficult to keep up with the software and work professionally over it. Therefore, not compromising on the “brand” creation part it becomes necessary to work with specialised agencies that provide the aid work.
Conclusion
Keeping all the above-mentioned points in mind it is necessary to remember that every business is different. Do not keep a tight mindset that something that worked for someone might work for you too.
Expect the least from this un-predictable platform because there is no guarantee of a height or depth that you can reach. Also, it is nearly impossible to predict the time in which you could get a certain amount of audience on your page.
Working continuously over the platform will definitely result in growth because putting efforts fetches response over Instagram.
