Instagram is a great "free" tool that costs time and planning to successfully attract ideal followers and turn them into paying customers.

Use this guide to optimize your profile and implement an effective marketing strategy developed from experience.

I believe every small business should have an Instagram business account even if you are not actively using Instagram to market your business.

Why? Because Instagram is super popular at the moment and I don't want you to miss a customer who expects to find you there! 

This video will teach you how to create an optimized Business account on Instagram.

Remember, you have to have a Facebook Business Page before you can open an Instagram Business Account.  Don't have one? No worries! There is a step in the Instagram app that allows you to set up your Facebook Business page while you are setting up your Instagram Business Account.

In the video I show you how to optimize your name so your account shows up in potential customer's IG search.

I also go over the optimal format for your bio. 

I recommend only including one website in the URL field of your Instagram profile- one at a time that is (you can change it daily if you would like- just make sure it is updated with the best place for a person to do business with you).

I mention in the video, however, that if you just have to have multiple URLs in your profile, https://linktr.ee/ is a great tool to allow you to do that.

If you do plan to use Instagram to market your business welcome to the club. I love Instagram and the relationships it has helped me build with my audience.  One of my favorite parts? Instagram Stories!

As of July, 2019 experts agree, based on the current alogorith, that a perfect Instagram post:

1. Beautiful and aesthetically pleasing photo, video or word slide

2. A caption that hooks the reader

3. Optimization (il.e a geotag, 28 hash tags, tag another account)

But the perfect post isn't the same for everyone. Why? Because we all have different business and different ideal customer avatars, or people who we would like to follow us.

We can use our "Instagram Insights" or analytics  to find out what our customers have liked in the past to help us know what to post in the future.

I created an excel spreadsheet so you can sort through your data (download below)