3 Ways to Promote Your Home-Based Business on Instagram

Are you looking for Ways to Promote Your Home-Based Business on Instagram?

There is no question about the potential of Instagram as a marketing platform for solopreneurs. Hootsuite states that out of its 1 billion users, more than 81% make use of the platform to look for products and services. This means that there are a lot of opportunities for home-based businesses to market their products and make sales directly through Instagram.

However, marketing your business on Instagram can seem overwhelming, especially if you have no prior experience. To help you out with this, we have put together a list of effective marketing strategies that you can use to promote your home-based business on Instagram. 

 

• Make use of Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is a type of marketing where you get endorsements or product recommendations from people with a social influence in your industry. Before the boom of social media, influencer marketing was quite difficult. You require extraordinary budgets to get celebrities to endorse your products which made influencer marketing impossible for solopreneurs. 

Platforms such as Instagram, however, have made it much easier to find and connect with influencers. Statistics from Sprout Social show that 87% of users claim that an influencer has convinced them to make a purchase. This shows how valuable influencer marketing can be for your business.

Having said this, the next question is: how do you go about influencer marketing as a home-based business? Here are the first few steps that you need to take:

• Make a list of top influencers in your industry that are a good fit for your brand. You can use a service such as Grapevine Village to help find influencers. We recommend reading this excellent guide from Neil Patel on how to find the right influencers on Instagram as well.
• After shortlisting influencers, reach out to them to let them know that you are interested in working with them. We recommend that you list down some ideas on how you can work together. For example, you can suggest that you give freebies to the influencers for review. In return, they post about your brand. Alternatively, you can ask the influencers themselves if they have any ideas on how to collaborate.

Here is an example of a post from an influencer, Jessica Mercedes Kirschner, for a small business, Organique. If you look at the traction this post has received, you can get an idea of how valuable influencer marketing can be to get your business name out there.

• Post Instagram Stories regularly

Instagram stories are an excellent way to promote your business. Stories allow you to post multiple pictures or videos together in a single story. These stories disappear 24 hours after you post them. Instagram states that over 500 million users create or watch stories every day. Out of these, 58% of users said that they were more interested in a brand after they watched their story.

Now we know how important Instagram stories can be for your business. Here are some tips on how to use stories effectively:

• Time your stories well. Since stories appear for 24 hours only, the time when you post a story is critical for reach and visibility. One study from Hubspot shows that posting on Monday to Friday from 11 am to 3 pm (CST) has the highest chances for engagement. However, the optimal time may vary according to industry and region. 
• Make an impact early. There are thousands of stories out for your followers to watch on Instagram so you must stand out. That is why you should make sure the first 5 seconds of your story are as engaging as possible. For example, you can start with an exciting announcement such as “We are launching a 50% flat sale!” to capture the audience’s attention. 
• Include a geotag. Adding a geotag to your Instagram stories can help you reach out to audiences that are within your geographical area. If you are targeting the local town or area, then geotagging can help you drive more engagement from nearby people who your business can serve. 
• Use polls whenever possible. Polls are a great way of making your stories more engaging since customers feel like they are a part of your decision-making process. Let’s assume you are a homemade eatery: you can create a poll with a variety of dishes and ask your audience: “what dish should we launch next?”. To illustrate, here is an example from @perfectionchocolates asking their audience for feedback on one of their products:

• Make use of the right tools. Even with the right ideas and strategy, it can be difficult to create a high-quality, eye-catching Instagram story without an expert designer. This is where graphic design tools such as PosterMyWall can help you out. PosterMyWall offers a great variety of free Instagram story templates that you can customize within minutes for your next Instagram story. The best part is that all the templates are free of cost. Even people with no design skills can quickly create high-quality Instagram story posts with the tool.

• Post more video content

 

Instagram has historically been centered around pictures but in the last couple of years, video content has been gaining a lot of attention too. Videos provide you with a great opportunity to increase the type of content you share. It also increases your chances of getting more reach from your audiences. 

With the stories and live videos, Instagram is making a push towards video content. The maximum limit is 60 seconds, which makes the task less complex. All you need is a phone or camera with some creativity to create quality video content to engage your followers. 

Here are a few ideas for the type of video content you can post on Instagram:

• Live videos. If you want to showcase a business event you are hosting or wish to interact directly with your audiences then live videos are a great way to do this. Instagram has a maximum limit of 60 seconds. This makes creating live videos much simpler since you have a short time frame to work with.
• Instructional videos. Create videos that help your audiences understand your products or services better. It can be anything from a simple explainer video of your product to a detailed guide on how to use your products. A good example of how to do an instruction video can be taken from this post from Wahlpro.

 

Ways to Promote Your Home-Based Business on Instagram

Creating a following on Instagram does not happen overnight. However, once you do create a following, Instagram users love to engage and are typically very active. So, after you get the ball rolling, you will notice that your brand will build itself organically. Check out these Instagram stories templates to get you started.

Start putting the strategies we have shared in this blog post into action and you will see how Instagram can be useful as a marketing tool for your business.

 

Promote Your Home-Based Business on Instagram is a feature post