Instagram is a social media platform that can be used to market any kind of business. But most people fail to realize that talking about your product or service on Instagram can be more than just posting a picture with a caption. Yes, your photographs and videos are great and should be shared, but there are plenty of other ways that you can promote yourself and your business through Instagram. This could include articles, how-to guides, or other information that can serve as a lead magnet for potential customers.

Now, let’s look at how to earn money online from Instagram. However, before jumping into that, let us understand how much money you can earn from Instagram.

How much money can you earn on Instagram?

You would be astonished to know that while superstars are reaping an astronomical amount of Instagram money for each post, influencers with fewer followers are not far behind in terms of their earnings. ​​According to a recent study, influencers with around two million followers can make about Rs 49,725 from each content post. 

Content creators wondering how to make money online should note that with over 80,000 followers, they can easily earn about Rs 14,843 per post. Creators with 10,000 (or more) followers can get Rs 6,531 per post.

How many active followers do you require to earn?

“What if I have only 1000 followers?” Don’t worry! If you are wondering, “can I earn money from Instagram” with only 1,000 followers, the answer is yes! While the follower count does matter, it is more important to have high engagement. It makes little difference if 10,000 people follow you, but only 1,000 of them are active. Engagement is essential; you want fans who will like, share, and comment on your postings.

How to make money from Instagram?

For those keen on making money on Instagram, here are the top five opportunities:

1. Brand partnership

As per recent data shared by Global Statistics, Instagram is the fastest-growing social media platform in India. But there is more to the world of Instagram than just sharing your pictures and videos. You can get brand partnerships where you need to share products or services offered by a particular brand. The brand will compensate you for promoting their items.

2. Creator fund

Facebook recently said that by the end of 2022, they intend to invest over one billion USD on initiatives that allow content producers to earn for their work. The Creator Fund is one of these schemes; it enables you to make money from your work through IGTV Advertising, Instagram Live Badges, and Bonuses.

Instagram TV, also known as IGTV, is a great platform for you to monetize your videos with advertisements. You receive 55% of the advertising income from each IGTV watch. Live Badges function as a virtual “tip” that viewers may provide to creators throughout a live stream.

When you reach specific milestones as an Instagram creator, bonuses provide you with monetary benefits. Some of the milestones for the bonus programs are completing a certain number of lives, signing up for IGTV Ads, or producing a certain number of Instagram Reels.

3. Instagram online shop

If you have a business, then it’s time you take it to an instagram online shop. Similar to an e-Commerce platform, an Instagram shop is conducted entirely within an application. Its catchphrase, “post, tag, sell,” describes how it operates. After setting up your shop, provide the product descriptions, pricing, and photographs. Users may then find your products and buy them without quitting the Instagram application.

4. Driving traffic to your website

Higher your viewers, higher your sales! The more Instagram users view your content, the more likely they will purchase stuff from your website. This is why you must use Instagram to indirectly increase your website traffic and earn more money online.  

5. Offer marketing services

You could be qualified to work as an independent Instagram creator if you have experience with marketing on Instagram, writing captions, or creating content. You may earn a handsome profit by offering advice to other businesses to enhance their Instagram marketing strategies. 

In a nutshell

At the end of the day, Instagram is about people and businesses, especially new ones just getting started on Instagram. So for every new creator or business owner asking, “when can we get money from Instagram,”  – remember, you need to build a community to drive sales and engagement through them. So, to see your business grow on Instagram, focus on improving your account and building your brand. And once you’re happy with how things look, it’s time to start using Instagram as a marketing platform.  

Frequently Asked Questions

The post 5 Ways to Make Money From Instagram appeared first on PayU Blog.

Great news: millions of small businesses, startups, freelancers are successfully using Instagram to sell their products and services. As diverse as handmade embroidered gifts, plant table cards, wedding merchandise, or custom painted stationery, businesses are growing audiences by sharing their stories.

The truth is, there are real and easy ways to crack it big. Check out three broad ways to get started. If you have a working laptop and a stable internet connection, you are ready to go.

But before that, let’s briefly look at why Instagram is an absolute giant force to reckon.

Instagram: World’s Greatest Platform

No kidding. Not Facebook, not YouTube, not even Twitter or Snapchat. De facto, Instagram is the world’s most powerful social media platform to make money.

On engagement metrics, Instagram is better than Facebook. On influencer marketing, it gets more billing than YouTube. Moreover, compared to YouTube, Instagram supports multiple content formats. Instagram has posts, brand stories, promotional posts, IGTV videos, testimonials, live videos, etc. Even as a news source, Instagram has a leg up over Twitter. What’s more, if you compare Instagram with emerging Snapchat, advertisers and marketers still put their faith in Instagram for its reach and impact.

Let’s also look at some fascinating data points that not many are aware of.

Unlike any other platform, the gender mix on Instagram is 51% female against 49% male. It makes Instagram an ideal, fertile ground to sell the most diverse range of products and services.

What’s more? Unlike any other platform, a massive two in three people interact with brands here. Even more impressive is that a whopping 90% of users follow at least one business account, while two in three visits come from non-followers.

Considering millions of business accounts sit idle, with basic planning and little initiatives, you can grow your reach quickly, in a few months if not weeks.

Let’s get to the three musketeers of the Instagram world that would help you generate more engagement, drive more traffic and stimulate more sales.

Create a Business Account

It seems pretty straightforward, right? Wrong! For not setting up and not optimizing their business account, business owners score low-quality points, can’t get their ads approved or run them as they wish. They neither get access to analytics nor can add links to stories or tag products. What’s worse, they can’t even schedule or boost a post.

Completing a new business account or switching to one from personal is easy. Just visit your account settings, switch to a professional account, select the business account, select your type of business, and you are done. The best part? It’s free. How to advertise and promote.

Quick Takeaways

• Connect Instagram business accounts from Facebook or vice versa for ease of ad management.
• Manage multiple Instagram accounts from one brand. Helpful to serve niche product lines, geographies, etc.

Advertise on Instagram

Now get as many likes, comments, and engagements as you want. Boost any post. Select your audience. Allocate your budget. Add links, clickable buttons, catalogs, photos as required. Then schedule and release. It’s as easy as that. Your ad will now appear across users’ feeds, stories and reels. The advanced advertising tool offers curated ad formats to sail you through design challenges. It also helps you track the performance of the campaigns.

Quick Takeaways

• Got two ads from the designer? Not sure which one will lead to more sales? Test which ads perform better with free tools from Instagram.
• Control your ad, budget, design, text anytime, even after the campaign is launched. Run the ads long if they perform well, or hold on to them if they aren’t.

Engage with Influencers

Instagram and influencers go arm-in-arm. Though celebrity and mega influencers grab the limelight, their cost versus return mostly leaves a lot to be desired. However, due to Instagram’s favorable “creator” policy, nano and micro-influencers generate high engagement and conversions. And, a variety of small businesses love them.

Small businesses cannot afford top influencers like Virat Kohli or Deepika Padukone. Throwing millions at celebrity influencers cannot guarantee results these days, and there might be product-personality conflict or issues with influencers overshadowing the brand. There might be product-personality conflict or issues with influencers overshadowing the brand. Thankfully, top influencers don’t promote everything under the sun.

Instead of traditional ad placements, sponsored placements are organic, trusted, and score well on engagement metrics. Reels, stories, Messenger, or IGTV, a sponsored post can be a great fit across all the content features.

Though influencers’ remuneration varies, here is a ballpark figure for a rough estimate. According to a report on NDTV, an average micro-influencer with 5,000 followers and 25 sponsored posts a year can make Rs. 50,000 a year.

Quick Takeaways

• Should you invest in influencer marketing? Considering content creation consumes time, labor, skill, and production costs, you may begin with nano and micro-influencers. How about Rs. 5000 a post to start with?
• Niche, friendly and relatable voices command a strong level of intimacy with their followers. By engaging with them, small and medium businesses can make the most of their precious budgets.

Conclusion

With over 1 billion users and 200 million businesses, Instagram is the most influential medium of our generation. By getting their business started on Instagram, merchants, freelancers, startups, SMEs can explore a world of opportunities. To make your presence felt and help you make money quickly, make use of the top three strategies for you that we have rounded up.

The post How to Successfully Grow a Business on Instagram? appeared first on PayU Blog.

Ways To Get More Instagram Followers

Getting followers on Instagram is not tedious if you follow the right ways. And here, we have curated a list of things that you can do to increase the number of your followers:

1. Post at a Consistent Time

Your posts will drive more traffic if you are consistent with the timing you post the content. This way, people will know when you are most likely to post the content and can look forward to it. You can use a social media scheduler to time your content and match it with your other posts. 

2. Optimise Your Account

One that looks good sells more. If you want people to trust and follow you, you must optimise your Instagram account. It would help if you had a concise but catchy bio, a profile image that describes you best, and a link to your brand’s homepage. Also, try not to keep your username too complex. It should be simple and search-friendly.

3. Promote Your Account

How will people know that you have an Instagram account until you tell them? Promoting your account comes top and foremost in the list of ways to increase Instagram followers. You can add social media buttons to your website. Or you can also promote your account via other social media sites. It will give you more acknowledgement and drive traffic to your account.

4. Know The Best Time To Post Content

Posting at the best time can change the statistics of your account completely. If you post at the best time, you can outsmart the algorithm of Instagram, and your content will get live on the top of your follower’s home feed. In addition, it will help you garner more attention from people all over the world.

5. Avoid Fake Followers

Although it seems like an easier way to buy off the followers, fake followers will decrease the credibility of your account. On the other hand, if you have an account with thousands of followers but zero activity, people will deem your profile fake. And either way, you are not going to receive any ROI from the fake followers. So, why do it and risk the trust of your possible real followers? Instead, try and increase Instagram followers organically. 

6. The post What Your Followers Like

If you want to increase Instagram followers fast, you need to learn what type of content your followers like. You can do it by observing the views and likes of your content. For example, post more content like that if any of your videos get more views. It will keep your followers interested and also bring traffic to your profile.

7. Be Specific With Your Hashtags

So many content creators don’t give importance to hashtags, which is not a good practice. Hashtags help your post get discovered by more and more people and garner attention to your profile. Make sure that the hashtag that you are using is not too congested, or your post will get lost in between the ocean of other posts.

8. Create Engaging Content

If there is more activity on your profile, more people will notice it and then follow you. So, create contents that encourage people to comment, share, or like. For example, you can create a poll or ask a question in your story that will prompt your followers to react. 

Conclusion

Getting Instagram followers is the milestone to getting your small business or startup successful. It will extend the recognition of your brand or content to a wide range of people and garner their attention. So, you must extend your social reach to make your business visible.

Also read: How To Successfully Grow A Business On Instagram?

Frequently Asked Questions

The post Top Tips To Increase Your Instagram Followers appeared first on PayU Blog.

When you hear the term ‘best time,’ it is referring to the time on which if you post on Instagram, it will have more chances of getting likes and being among the first posts on the Insta Feed of your follower. Posting at this time increases the probability of your post gaining attention. And if you manage to hold that attention, your followers will increase. So, let’s find out what are the best times to post on Instagram and why it is important.

Why Is Timing Important for Instagram Posts?

Instagram is a huge social media platform. Billions of users are using it, and they receive a substantial number of posts every day. So, in these situations, if you don’t post on Instagram at the best time, your post might get lost in the ocean of other posts that go live daily. And even if you are posting some of the best content in the world, you might not receive the attention that you deserve. So, it is very vital for every content creator who wants to be known to the world to post at the best time.

What is the Best Time to Post on Instagram 2023?

There had been several observations carried out on this view. At first, people used to think that the best time to post on Instagram today is the time when the majority of people are online. If you post when your followers are online, then it will gain more attention from them, right? No, wrong. Even though it is a factor that decides whether your post will garner more eyes or not, it’s not the only one. Especially not the dominant one. 

Instead, soon people realised that the Instagram algorithm was more lenient towards the posts that came live in the early hours of the morning. That means if you want more views on your posts, you need to exercise the strategy of “rise early and post.” You will be able to outsmart your competition this way and garner the attention of your followers. 

• Best Time to Post on Instagram on Monday

On Mondays, the best time to post is 11 am IST. Other than that, you can also post at 10 pm IST. The worst time to post on Instagram on Mondays is around 11 pm IST. If your goal is to be known by more and more people, avoid posting at this time.

• Best Time to Post on Instagram on Tuesday

On Tuesdays, try to post around 10 am IST. Other than that, you can also post around 2 am, 6 am, and 9 am IST. Avoid posting around 11 pm IST.

• Best Time to Post on Instagram on Wednesday

11 am and 1 pm IST are the best times to post on Instagram on Wednesdays. You can set your posts with a social media scheduler to go live at your decided time so you don’t miss the possible traffic on your account. 

• Best Time to Post on Instagram on Thursday

On Thursdays, the best times are 11 am to 12 pm IST.  And the worst time to post is 11 pm IST.

• Best Time to Post on Instagram on Friday

The best times to post are 7 am, 11 am, and 1 pm IST. Avoid posting around 10 pm IST on Fridays.

• Best Time to Post on Instagram on Saturday

The best times for Saturdays are 6 am and 11 am. And the worst time to post is around 4 pm.

• Best Time to Post on Instagram on Sunday

The best times to post on Sundays are 6 am and 8 am. And the worst time to post is around 6 pm.

Conclusion

It is vital for the people aiming to garner more attention from Instagram users to post at the best time. It increases the chances of your post being on the top of your follower’s home feed. Try posting at the best time and avoid posting anything around the worst time.

Also read: Top Tips To Increase Your Instagram Followers

FAQs

The post The Best Time To Post On Instagram | 2023 appeared first on PayU Blog.

An Instagram bio is a short synopsis using up to 150 characters to encapsulate the essence of your product or you. It tells your audience who you are and has to capture your brand’s character and personality while your Instagram posts demonstrate what you do.

Why Is Creating An Instagram Bio For Your Brand Important?

Research shows that 93% of Instagram users follow at least one business globally, and 210+ million users visit an Instagram business profile every day. The people are active customers who make frequent purchases from online platforms. 6 in 10 users login to the media platform daily with average spending of 53 minutes surfing Instagram. 79% searched for more information about a product or a service. 46% of the people made a purchase. So the importance of using Instagram bio in marketing your products and services cannot be underestimated. 

Whether it is Instagram Bios for small businesses, Instagram bios for entrepreneurs, Instagram bios for businesswomen, or Instagram bios for online businesses, the advantages and the importance of Instagram Bios cannot be underestimated.

Analyze The USP Of The Brand And The Metrics Of The Target Market:

• What are your brand’s metrics?
• Is the brand personality serious, funny, and informative?
• What is the product’s end-use?
• What are the metrics of the target market for the brand?
• How can you create a lasting impression about the brand in the mind of your target audience? For repeated views and clicks.
• Is your business well known, locally, nationally or internationally?
• How to get in touch with you?
• Sharing content, registering for an event or providing the facility to make a purchase

First impressions matter as it determines whether the customers just view your Instagram bio and never return, or they follow you and become your lifelong customers. Small business Instagram bio ideas, Instagram Bio Ideas for Entrepreneurs and Instagram Bio Ideas for online businesses can have an external link, a hashtag, and a user name. Instagram bio ideas for business pages, Instagram Bio Ideas for online businesses and Instagram Bio Ideas for businesses run by women include the following:

• Photo of your profile: This should epitomise your brand. It should be recognisable, of high quality, and consistent across all your social media networks. The maximum size should not exceed 200X200 pixels to convey a clear image. Include your logo wherever possible. 

• Your username should be clear, visible and associated with your brand and company. Use business names where possible. Usually, users just try to search by typing in your user name. A photo profile is a primary Instagram bio idea for businesses and for entrepreneurs, online businesses, small businesses or businesses promoted by women. 

• Profile description: This is the heart of the Instagram bio. It should encapsulate the features of your brand, product or company philosophy. It should be compelling enough to stimulate customers to take action. It could also be fun to draw the attention of the customer immediately. Your Instagram bio becomes more likeable and recallable. Small businesses and businesses need to be promoted. You can also introduce your online business using this Instagram Bio idea for online businesses feature.

• There should be a clickable URL: This is not allowed on Instagram anywhere outside the website field. You can use this facility to drive customers wherever you want traffic to flow on your website. You should not miss your one shot to link your URL to a website that provides a more detailed description. Having your website is a pre-condition. A clickable URL is critical for Instagram Bio Ideas for online businesses and Instagram Bio ideas for small businesses.

• The particular business classification under which your company, product or brand falls is an important Instagram bio idea for entrepreneurs and Instagram Bio Ideas for small businesses.
• Call to action button: This is the most important feature which enables your customers to communicate with you directly. It could be a street address, email, telephone number, book an appointment etc. It should also include your hours of operation, where you can be contacted. It could also contain a line such as a shop at our summer sale with an embedded link that leads to the sale page on your website. A Call-to-Action button is a crucial Instagram Bio Idea for business pages and Instagram Bio Idea for Entrepreneurs.

• Story Highlights: This is also an essential part of the Instagram bio as it contains story highlights as clickable thumbnails. It can be used in the future highlights that you create. It consists of a custom image or icon and the story itself. Is it going to be fun and playful or informative and serious? This part has to be consistent across all platforms. This Instagram Bio Idea for online businesses and small businesses has to be uniform and ubiquitous across all social media platforms.
  
  This part should answer the key questions:
  
  • What does your company/product/brand do best? 
  • What is the USP of your brand? 
  • What makes you different? 
  • How do your company/product/brand answer a customer’s needs?
  • How are you superior compared to other competing products or brands? 

Online businesses and small businesses need to differentiate themselves, and this Instagram bio idea is essential for small businesses and online businesses. Using this Instagram Bio, you can make your story witty, compelling, humorous, or valuable to your potential customer. Online businesses can also offer some free resources on their company website to increase the number of clicks. 

• Your Instagram Bio should work as a search engine: Emphasise the keywords and the power of association of each word. Your word choice about your company, product, brand or slogan has to draw maximum attention amid the noise of the social networks. Instagram bio ideas for businesswomen can include their philosophy with special offers if the product is a make-up brand or kitchen product promotion. 
• Hashtags: Instagram bio allows hashtags, so use the most popular or branded hashtags in your Instagram bio. This will encourage your followers to use these specific hashtags while posting content relating to your Company, product or brand.
• Unique Fonts: Use a handpicked font and writing style to make your product/brand stand out. Your fonts should only be readable and attractive. Many apps are available on the smartphone that allows you to change your fonts. Using a unique font makes your brand stand out.

• Sufficient Spacing: Give enough space between every word. Use emojis, asterisks and spaces to make your content stand out and look stylish. Ensure you follow this guideline in your Instagram Bio Ideas for your business page.

Conclusion

Use the various Instagram bio features outlined above to make Instagram work for your company/product or brand, whether you are an entrepreneur, a small business owner, an online business or a businesswoman trying to promote your company, your product or your Brand. Whether you are a freelancer or a brand, use Instagram-bio ideas to make your social media connections and establish your brand. PayU can be your payment platform partner, connected to your Instagram brand page, which can seamlessly facilitate receipts of your online payments.

FAQs

The post Instagram Bio Ideas – Your Connection Towards Your Brand’s Success appeared first on PayU Blog.

Yes, marketers are gorging over the most ‘engagement-oriented’ app for promotions.

Yes, there are millions of Instagram business tools out there.

Yes, you are in the right space, because you want make the best use of Instagram business!

With your Instagram marketing in place, we now bring yet another most searched topic: using Instagram business tools for marketing.

Today, using Instagram for personal account is pretty easy and quick as compared to the business account. Are you facing the same issue? Don’t worry! We are here to help you choose exceptionally intelligent Instagram business tools for your business.

12 Must-Use Instagram Business Tools For Marketers

To begin with, there three important elements of Instagram:

• Profile Bio

• Pictures

• Hashtags

Trust us, once you get these 3 points correctly, no one can stop your business from ruling Instagram.

We have listed the top Instagram business tools to assist you with content creation, editing, scheduling, analysing and much more! These tools are segmented into 6 use cases for your convenience:

1. To Click & Edit Pictures Like a Pro

Instagram is a visual medium. What appeals to the eyes is consumed rather sold instantly. Hence, putting up good product or service pictures on your Instagram is of utmost importance.

If you skim through Google Play or App Store, you’ll find a bunch of apps promising best quality pictures. But which ones you should opt for your business undoubtedly:

• VSCO: This app is used by leading marketing firms and influencers. The fun, professional and unique effects or filters it enables. Their photography app is one of the most powerful in the market.
• Snapseed: This app is of great value and importance if you are always on the run. It is easy, simple and creative for candid clicks

Both these tools are mobile based applications and have free as well as paid services.

2. To Create Exceptional Content

Now that you have clicked pictures and edited them well, it’s time to make amazing post or content. The 2 most feasible tools include:

• Canva: It is a free, handy and easy to use application (mobile + web). It has thousands of customisable templates and lakhs of stock images of your choice. Choose the best ones for your business and publish undeniable content. You can also create amazing Instagram stories on Canva!
• Repost: It is not necessary to create original content at all times. You can also “repost” someone else inspiring and top performing post on your handle via the Repost app. This will help you boost your Instagram engagement and followers as well. Instead of creating content leverage what’s already existing because, it will always benefit you.

3. To Run & Evaluate Contests

In order to keep your audiences engaged at all times contests are always enduring. Instagram is a very hyper active social media channel, hence to keep your life sorted, you can make use of:

• Wishpond: The app supports photo and hashtag (#) contests on Instagram. You can also use the app to creatively design contest landing pages, highlight prizes, approve and deny entries and so on. The app has a 14-day free trial eligibility after which, it is chargeable.
• Comment Picker: If your contest is about asking people to comment in order to win prizes then, this is the apt tool to use. It randomly picks comments and your winner is selected! So, no need to spend hours evaluating comments.

4. For Competitor Analysis & Scouting Influencers

Competitor analysis is an integral part of any business hosted on any platform. Hence it is essential be on the top of your game. Hunt the top-rated influencers that suit your business perfectly. To perform this activity efficiently, you can make use of:

• Buzzsumo: Influencer marketing is a powerful way to reach target audience without pinning hopes on paid media. Buzzsumo tool enables you to find, evaluate and analyse Influencer outreach for laying better business strategy.
• HypeAuditor: The tool makes use of advanced AI to analyse any Instagram account on the basis of true followers, demographics, etc. This is a good way to keep an eye on your competitor!

5. To UseTheTrending Hashtags Of All Times

• Focalmark: It is an intelligent tool designed specially for finding hashtags relevant on Instagram. It uses human research and ranking algorithm to suggest apt hashtag for your brand.
• Autohash: This particular tool smartly makes use of computer vision algorithm to suggest hashtags relevant to your pictures

6. To Schedule Posts

This is one thing every marketer looks for – how to schedule posts on Instagram? Well, the answer is right here. Leave all your worries at bay and handle your business or ‘vacay’ peacefully with these tools at your disposal:

• Later: This is an epic tool! It not only schedules your Instagram posts but also auto posts them at the set time. Later is also epic because of the acute analysis it provides for your posts. You can auto post videos as well using Later.
• Preview: Want hashtag suggestions along with the ease to auto post on Instagram? Preview is the app for you. Create your Hashtag groups, discover and schedule the best time to post for your audience and much more on this app. Preview is available on android in select countries only, whereas it is easily available on iPhone globally.

These 12 Instagram business tools may seem quiet over the top or at first. You might think they require too much prep, but to be honest, it will make your life much breezy.

Keep Instagram post sharing on other social media channels ‘on’ for optimal results. So, before you resume your Instagram marketing activities, do check these Instagram business tools to grow quickly on social media.

With all your marketing efforts for your business in place, it’s a good idea to have an all-in-one payment solution in place as well. Now to enjoy the best payment gateway experience and grow your business effortlessly!

Recommended Reads

Benefits of Instagram business

Expert’s Guide To Instagram Content Strategy

How to promote business & drive sales on Instagram

Instagram marketing strategies

The post 12 Must-Use Instagram Business Tools In 2019 appeared first on PayU Blog.

A good Instagram content strategy gets the attention of readers, however, a great content strategy keeps them engaged for long. Having such a strategy is particularly essential in the beginning to tap readers, fans, followers and eventually, customers for your business. Once you discover an arrangement that works for you, you just have to follow the lead. Let’s get started on this journey to discover your Instagram Content Strategy.

Key Pointers To Instagram Content Strategy

Are you looking out for content strategies that will bring you, new followers? Or to keep your audiences engaged? Or for more? Use these amazing tips to get them anchored to your profile for good!

1. Posting Creative Photos Or Videos

Understand the objective of your business and what defines your brand. Conceptualize how you would like to present these objectives in your Instagram content, be it photos, videos, posts, stories, hashtags, etc. For example, PayUmoney uses similar visuals like colors, fonts, and dedicated logo to stand out as a distinct brand to the audience.

Using consistent visuals, helps you build your visual brand voice and create your version of the brand story. Keep your content creative and colorful, featuring your products and services to the best.

In addition to that, use Instagram stories! Instagram Stories are gaining popularity day by day. This new feature by Instagram lets you publish photos, videos for 24 hours after which they disappear. These stories have some amazing features such as adding stickers, hashtags, location, polls, gifs etc. that make them attractive and interactive. Not only this, but they also provide the “Swipe Up” outbound link feature on sponsored stories (available to Instagram accounts with more than 10,000 followers).

Here’s how to use Instagram Stories:

• Be creative, be spontaneous, and keep buzzing.
• Post behind-the-scenes, live videos, Q&A, new product launch glimpses, campaign promotion posters, etc. on these stories.
• Direct viewers to various landing pages using ‘Swipe Up’ and thus increase revenues.
• Make the content easily readable and viewable making it appropriate for better understanding.
• Keep the best of your stories for longer with ‘Story Highlights’

This will provide the opportunity for more people to see and engage. However, be careful not to deviate from your brand voice.

2. Creating Perfect Post

Captions are one of the most important parts of your post, and also, often the overlooked ones. Though there is a limit of 2200 characters for the caption, brands must put in efforts to make it worth reading.

They are part of your brand story and contribute massively to generate customer connection and hence interaction. Viewers don’t just read ‘description’, they look out for a story which is interesting, builds a mood, showcases an experience and inspires them for action.

Here’s how to write Instagram Captions:

• Place the key information of your message in the first few lines of your message. Ideally, it should not be more than 2-3 lines.
• Ensure the language used is not bombarded with jargons, but is simple, creative, user-friendly and most essentially, relatable to your brand context.
• Induce a User Generated Content in your caption like asking questions, asking to share an opinion or feedback etc.

This will encourage your customers to come on board for communication with your brand and give them the feel of belongingness. However, do not get personal. You are given this feature for a reason, make most of it!

3. Using Apt Hashtags(#)

Hashtags make you They help you connect with new viewers and followers. Hence, research appropriately to understand the popular ones for your audience and use relevant ones in your post. For example, your business is related to Fashion, type #fashion and you will get the search results (as shown below) along with a number of public posts for the hashtags.

If you wish to create a hashtag of your own i.e., branded hashtags, keep them relevant and easy to remember. Promote them on all your social media platforms like Facebook Page/ Groups, Instagram Page, Twitter Page etc. This will ensure discoverability, increased engagement, and better recall.

Pro Tip: For better results, use a mix of popular hashtags (to drive traffic) and branded hashtags (to promote the brand); at least in your initial Instagram journey.

For example, PayUmoney uses its branded hashtag: #PayUmoney with popular hashtags like #BusinessTips, #TuesdayThoughts for their Tuesday post campaign

Geolocations: Geolocation or location tagging allows users to search, tag, comment and engage with your content associated with the particular location. Organizations promoting travel and events can particularly leverage this feature for user involvement. The physical stores may also create a location for their store through a Facebook check-in and use it on their Instagram account.

It is recommended to use this location in every applicable post for audience engagement. Also, you may use the geo-tagging sticker in your Instagram stories to promote your store and thus, the brand.

Instagram Insights For Your Business

Use and find out what makes your audience interact with you. Note the posts that drive maximum engagement, refurbish your content accordingly and keep optimizing. Be regular in posting your content as it creates a routine for followers to check updates on your different products and services on that specific day or a specific time. Hence, you make the customers come to you on the exact day and time you want.

Content will always be the foundation of your Instagram Business Profile and distributing it, is the next stage. The beauty of Instagram is, it allows you to directly connect to your profiles on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, providing you opportunities to cross-promote your content across various other channels. So gear up and formulate that winning Instagram content strategy which captivates your audience!

With all your marketing efforts for your business in place, it’s a good idea to have an all-in-one payment solution in place as well. Now to enjoy the best payment gateway experience and grow your business effortlessly!

Recommended Reads

How To Promote Business On Instagram & Drive Sales

3 Successful Instagram Marketing Strategies For Businesses

The post Expert’s Guide To Instagram Content Strategy appeared first on PayU Blog.

• Instagram keeps customers 10 times highly engaged with their brands compared to Facebook.
• 70% Instagram users are probable buyers as they have already purchased products online.

Driving sales on Instagram can be a task at times if not done right as almost 70% of the posts shared on Instagram go unnoticed! Hence, based on the above facts, in this blog you will see drilled information about;

How To Promote Business On Instagram Easily In Just 5 Steps!

#1. Create Instagram Business Account

The first step to drive sales is to create an Instagram business account separate from a personal account. If you already have a separate account for business, you can switch it to an Instagram business profile easily:

• Go to ‘Account Settings’

• Click on ‘Switch to Business Profile’

In addition to the above, you can also make your Instagram business profile more attractive and sales savvy by:

• Directing your profile visitors and followers to useful business links such as online store, website, etc. Place these links in the bio as that is the only place where you can insert links. Instagram is less commercial and more inspirational!

• Fill your description or bio (below your handle name) with great information: what you do? who you are? why you do what you do? etc..

Pro-tip: Shorten the links and make them trackable, so that you are on top of your business with valuable visitor insights. This will help you grow sales!

#2. Twist The Content You Share 

Content on Instagram has a very diverse, creative and vibrant approach! More often than not, businesses do get confused with what needs to be posted on Instagram? So, here are the top posts which get maximum likes:

• Posts with faces (they get 38% more likes comparatively!) & food
• Event-related posts
• Product posts
• Team pictures
• Behind the scenes images
• Short Videos
• Memes
• Other User Generated Content (UGC)

This social media platform is the place where you can be as creative as you can. Bring in ample of faces, colors, and moods to make the best use of Instagram.

Image Courtesy: Instagram

Shining some more light on UGC: It is a very strong content generation when it comes to media channels like Instagram where youth and businesses are the main targets. You can use UGC strategy to get more views, likes, and reposts on Instagram. For example, if you are a fashion designer and sell clothes on Instagram, you can put up posts of your clients or buyers wearing your creations. This will prove to be your testimonials as well. You can ask your clients or buyers to tag you in their posts as well. Use apps that enable you to re-post or re-gram UGC content which triggers word of mouth in the future.  

Image Courtesy: Instagram

#3. Run Successful Instagram Contests  

Running out of ideas on how to promote business on Instagram without seeming obvious? We have a solution! The contest is one easy way to promote business and drive sales subtly. Also, this way your brand gets recognition, engagement, and increased number of followers. 

Some of the most used contest ideas are: 

• Comment To Win (participants have to like your photo and tag 2 friends) 

• Like And Tag To Win (participants have to like your photo) 

• Type Your Email ID To Win (participants have to comment their email ID) 

• Tag Us To Win (participants have to post photos with your product + with a specific hashtag and post it on their wall) 

Image Courtesy: A brand on Instgram

Note: Run a contest only when you have a good number of followers. This is so, the number of people who are engaged to your post increases through the contest.  

Apart from these 3 sales strategies on ‘how to promote business on Instagram’, mentioned above you can also drive sales to your Instagram by:  

#4. Advertising On Instagram To Promote Business  

Instagram is a great place to advertise, especially if you have started a new business. This is because photos can drive sales without the need to say much about them. These ads come on the users’ news feed and it will not seem obvious to them, as they look very similar to regular posts, except with tiny sponsored tag on them. If you are posting on Instagram feed, you can advertise with photo, video, and carousel (which can be used to showcase more than one product in a go). 

Instagram Stories is a great way to post your content because your readers will find the post at the top of their feed always for 24 hours. When it comes to ads, you can post ads with photo or video, which also carries a tiny sponsored tag on it.

#5. Drive Sales With Instagram Influencer Marketing  

So do you know what influencer marketing means? Influencer marketing is a type of marketing which uses people with influence to convey your brand’s message to a large number of people. You can hire an influencer instead of directly marketing to a large group of people.

If you are looking for reasons to use an influencer, the most important reason will be to reach people who are having doubts or questions about using your product. To know in depth about Influencer Marketing check out Quick Insights into Effective Influencer Marketing. 

Instagram is slowly becoming one of the most used social media platforms, especially among people who shop online. Also, now that you know how to promote business on Instagram, you will be able to increase real engagement between your brand and customers. When these Instagram sales strategies are put into practice, you will learn how to promote your business and drive sales effortlessly.  

With all your marketing efforts for your business in place, it’s a good idea to have an all – in- one payment solution in place as well. SignUp on PayUmoney now to enjoy the best payment gateway experience and grow your business effortlessly!

Recommended Reads 

Instagram Marketing Strategies For Businesses

What Is Instagram?

The post How To Promote Business On Instagram & Drive Sales appeared first on PayU Blog.

Top 3 Instagram Marketing Strategy

The app has nearly 800 million active monthly users and 2 million monthly advertisers. Instagram for business is scaling up every second. Approximately 80% of businesses follow a business on Instagram. These are very good business numbers and they need to be put up optimal use! Check out these 3 Instagram marketing strategies which will help you organize your business on Instagram in the best way.

1.  Target Your Audience Wisely 

Just like any other plan or strategy, target audience plays the most important part of your Instagram marketing strategy. It is important to determine the audience you want to reach on Instagram. Before you narrow them down, it is crucial to be clear in your head about the objective of your business.

Perform a quick, extremely easy and most effective exercise to figure out the true ‘objective’ of your business on Instagram: Complete the Statement

I want to take my business on Instagram because………………

Pro-tip: Be brutally honest about your answer. Type the first thing that comes to your mind after reading the above statement.

Once you have found the objective it’s now the right time to move towards implementing that objective. The first step to do so is spotting and pulling out the right segment of the audience. Who is the ‘right set of the audience’? They are the ones your product or service has been designed for. For who you know will see your product once and will definitely stay with it or either instantly buy. They will be your loyal customers and fuel your cash-flow increasingly.

Some helpful factors involved in narrowing down the right segments of the audience for your Instagram business include:

a. Demographic – This factor helps you pick people belonging to desired age, gender, income, lifestyle and so on. For example: if you sell luxury men’s accessories then your desired:

• • Age group: 30 years and above 

• • Gender: Men & Women 

• • Income: Rs. 35,000 and above 

• Lifestyle: outdoorsy, socializing, etc.. 

b. Psychographic – In this factor a person’s attitude, interests, personality traits, values and so on. Keeping the above example in mind psychographic segmentation in your Instagram marketing strategy would include:

• • Personality Traits: Open, easy going, hard working, loves to socialize, stylish and so on 

• • Interests: Loves partying, fancy things 

• Attitude: always wants to upgrade in life 

c. Geographic – We know the world is a small place and social media is meant to make it even smaller. But let’s be practical! If you are selling men’s luxury accessories then it makes no sense to target audience living in tier 2 or 3 cities or villages. You need to be very watchful of the culture each city or region beholds.

2. Detailed Competitor Analysis 

The agenda is not to copy your competitors but to progress with the world and probably go 10 steps ahead of them. Make a list of all competitors in your space. Check their account regularly, make a keen note about what are they selling, which top brands are they selling on their Instagram account, how many people like, comment or tag their products and so on. This analysis will broadly give you a roadmap to create an effective Instagram marketing strategy for your business.

Apart from the factors mentioned above, there are a few specific factors you must take away from your competitors:

a. USP: Unique Selling Point is one exclusive factor which every business should possess. USP is the answer to a very prominent question: “Why should people buy my product or service?” Niche products, men’s office accessories or accessories from London, etc. could be your unique points. It differentiates one business from the other, so make sure your business is truly unique.

b. Time of posting: As per research, the below could be the best days and time to post on Instagram to reach out to more people, but you also need to know when and what are your competitors posting. At what time are they posting luxury men’s hygiene products and at what time of the day are they posting men’s perfumes?  

Image Source: CoScehdule

c. What are you posting?: Men’s accessories may seem like a very narrow business, but you can always inspire people to explore this segment more through your posts. Post relevant and aspiring content on Instagram.

 3. Posting Regularly

The trick is to never run short of content. [bctt tweet=”Keep your Instagram handle or profile buzzing with pictures and stories to tell. ” via=”no”] It’s good to stick to your business but do offer variety of content to your users. Once in a while, you can put up couple watches or perfumes instead of just men’s accessories. Talk and show what’s the trend. For example, some men may prefer fancy buttons today than wearing cufflinks. Remember, we are here to do business and not to spam your users. Here are some interesting Instagram statistics that will never make you fall:

• • Photos with faces get 38% more likes 

• • Second half of 2017  saw 28% increase in Instagram ads 

• • Weekdays are most preferred by Instagram users to engage 

• • 80% influencers prefer Instagram for brand collaboration 

• Instagram photos 36% more engaging than Videos 

 Instagram Payments

At present, businesses only post their products, ask users to comment or direct message to buy, ask buyers send payments and then the product is sent to the buyer. This only makes the entire payment process or the joy to buy a product disturbing. Let’s revolutionize and make this payment process simple with PayUnow. The payment process is exclusively designed for you to accept payments directly into your bank account without sharing any confidential details. Here’s how you accept payments in few easy steps:

1. Post your products on Instagram 
2. Ask interested users to comment  
3. You create a payment link on PayUnow 
4. Share that link with them on Instagram via direct message 
5. Your customers copy the link to a browser to pay 

The biggest plus point of using PayUnow to accept payments on Instagram is:

• • It enables your customers to pay using multiple methods like credit/debit card, net-banking, UPI, wallets and more without downloading any app. 

• Has no monthly limits on payments, so you can accept as many payments you want to.  

Use the best way to accept payments for your Instagram business. Know more about PayUnow.

Today, Instagram is growing stronger and users from other social media channels are moving here. So, it’s better to start now than wait for later and miss out on vital user segments. Put these Instagram marketing strategies to the best use. We understand your desire to keep growing your business endlessly, and hence we want to make accepting payments easy for you. Signup on PayUnow and accept payments from customers easily anywhere! 

Recommended Reads

What is Instagram for your business?(And it’s benefits for you)

The post 3 Successful Instagram Marketing Strategies For Businesses appeared first on PayU Blog.

Coca-Cola, Nike, Starbucks, you name it and you will find all small-big businesses on Instagram. Launched in October 2010, Instagram has definitely taken the world by a storm. A global hub of more than 800 million active users, Instagram can help you take your business to the new avenues of success.

“A simple, fun and creative way to capture, edit and share photos, videos, and messages with friends and family.”

– Instagram

Instagram For Your Business: All You Need To Know And More…

Instagram has pioneered a very sharp change in the way we filter and deal with the world around us. The photo and video sharing app is more than just a ‘for-personal-use-only’. It is big and it is business. Instagram is a global platform that allows businesses to inspire audiences, recruit new talent, showcase products, and services, and personify their content.

Whether you own a small or a big business, creating a business profile on Instagram and marketing it well seems to be the need of the hour. With an Instagram business profile, you can increase your brand visibility, drive sales and increase your customer base. Firstly, it’s essential for you to know the power of the app by getting well versed with its benefits.

Instagram co-founders Mike Krieger (@mikeyk) and Kevin Systrom (@kevin)

What are The 6 Major Benefits of Using Instagram For Your Business?

Once you create a business account on Instagram, you are eligible to reap the benefits mentioned below:

1. It is free!: You can signup and setup your account quickly and for free. Instead of spending huge bucks on hiring marketing agencies, be your own expert and spend wisely for promoting your business on Instagram.
2. To-the-point communication: As Instagram is a photo and video sharing platform, you get to convey your core communication message creatively.
3. Informal: Gone are those days when you had to oblige your audience with flowery and formal words. Use the young and creative app to influence your audience the way they like.
4. Connect with customers: Make use of Instagram for your business to reach out and engage with your customers directly. This will help you to get better marketing insights into your target audience, likes, dislikes, preferences and so on.
5. UGC: User Generated Content gives your audiences the liberty to understand your business better. This also helps them to trust you deeper thus creating an essence of loyalty towards your business in their minds.
6. Instant analytics: All the posts that you boost on Instagram from your business profile can be easily analyzed within minutes. This instant analysis of your posts will help you map effective marketing, content and sales strategy for your brand.

How You Can Use Instagram For Your Business?

It is not hidden, that Instagram was acquired by Facebook. The fusion of Instagram’s creativity and fun culture with Facebook’s accurate analytics and hassle-free business boosting tools, paved ways for many online businesses. To make the most of Instagram for your business use these 3 powerful strategies:

Instagram Content Strategy

Instagram is a very simple, creative and intimidating(initially) app. We all know that content is the king to promote any business. Therefore, it is important to draft a solid content strategy for Instagram in order to attract the right kind of audiences. More often than not, businesses end up asking “what should I post on my Instagram business profile?” Well, the answer is right here:

• Creative Photos/ Videos: As the app is a visual in-the-moment platform, go extremely creative with the product photos and videos that you wish to post. Variety is the spice of life, so strike a balance between the kind of posts to want to put up (product, behind-the-scenes, leisure pictures, etc.) Make use of unique filters available to you to enhance the photos, to set the mood and to give them that extra edge. Basically, the idea is to be informal and allow your audiences to be a part of your world.

• Perfect Post Caption: Caption your photos or videos well. A picture is worth 1000 words, but when it comes to business it is better to add a short and crisp caption so that your audiences know your business well.

• Apt Hashtags(#): It’s a good habit to stay on top of what works and what doesn’t to attract new followers. A relevant and meaningful # allows non-followers to find your content. If they like your content they will willingly hit the “Follow” button in your profile. Apart from discoverability, hashtags also allow you to track your marketing campaigns, contests and so on. It helps you to categorize content related to a specific campaign so that you can monitor the performance of those hashtags efficiently.

Instagram Marketing Strategy

Still confused about from where to begin? Here’s what you need to your rescue – an effective marketing strategy! Like mentioned above, the app is quite intimidating at the first because it is different from other social media platforms, but you need to start somewhere.

Instagram’s Official Profile

• Map target audience wisely: Every marketing strategy has mapping target audience as its top parameter, Instagram is no different here. Some helpful factors to consider while mapping your Instagram target audience include age, gender, location, interests, etc. Also, you can take a look at your competitor’s followers to make your audience mapping easier.

• Detailed competitor analysis: It’s good to know what your competitors are doing. If you already know your top competitors, scan their accounts thoroughly. Make a note of the type of posts receiving maximum engagement and likes. Start constructing your marketing and content strategy accordingly. The motive is not to copy your competitor’s strategy or to increase their ‘unfollow’ list. The agenda lies in progressing with the world and possibly leaping 10 steps ahead of the rest.

• Posting regularly: Keep your Instagram editorial calendar always full and busy with relevant content to offer your audience. Constantly spy the best time to post on Instagram, healthy number of posts and also post a variety of content.

Instagram Sales Strategy

At the end of the day, the sole purpose of any business is to sell their products and services to maintain a consistent business cash flow. To see your sales soaring high –

• Place useful links in bio: 37% of the Instagram audience decide whether or not to follow a business on the basis of the description. To avoid heavy spamming, the vibrant app has enabled placing business links only in the bio, placed right below your profile picture. Your post captions or any other content cannot be pasted with links. So, make your bio useful and attractive to your audience by correctly redirecting them to your website.

• Promotions: It is easy to promote or ‘boost’ your post on Instagram via Facebook within seconds. To make the most of promotions, make use of influential marketing. Each Instagram profile has the potential to influence a billion. As per estimates, $1billion is spent on Instagram influencers. Learn more about influencer marketing and put into action today!

• Run meaningful contests: #ContestAlert can bring you more results and followers than you can ever imagine! The exchange of goodies or free giveaways during contests is a great way to bring in a huge number of audience and alarming business.

Instagram Insights

All your efforts should end up with valuable results. You should know how your Instagram strategies and campaigns are performing. There are 4 basic Instagram insight metrics, you should keep an eye on:

• Impressions: Refers to how many times your ads appear on user’ screen.
• Profile Views: Represents the number of times your profile has been viewed.
• Followers: This metrics shows the number of followers you have gained and lost over the past week.
• Reach: Reflects the number of unique users who have viewed your posts.

Note: Instagram provides weekly insights for your business. Hence, you will not be able to access Instagram business insights of the past weeks. It is advisable to keep a record of all your business insights on weekly basis, to avoid losing out on any valuable insight into your business.

Does Your Business Have An Instagram Account Yet?

As success doesn’t come overnight similarly building strong Instagram prominence doesn’t happen overnight. Start now! The bright side of Instagram is: the app users are extremely active and love engaging with businesses creatively. So, snooze your doubts and put all, content, marketing and sales strategies in place to witness the power Instagram brings for your business!

Learn more about Instagram marketing strategies to grow your business.

The post What Is Instagram For Your Business?(And Its Benefits For You) appeared first on PayU Blog.