10 Tips to Use Instagram to Get More Leads and Sales

Instagram is one of the most popular ways both new and established brands use to promote their businesses. And chances are, you’ve also been using this platform to help promote one of your many online business ideas.

But how can you make your account get you more leads and sales for your business, especially when you’re still a small account?

Look no further than these 10 tips to help you use Instagram to get more leads and sales for your business.

Use Your Bio Link Well

A great Instagram profile is optimized with these three elements in mind:

• Profile image
• Content
• Link

The third one, your bio link, is often neglected by many small businesses. You only have one link on Instagram – so it’s up to you to use it well.

To maximize the link in your bio, you can use a tool like Have2HaveIt to help drive traffic from individual posts you share on your Instagram account.

With tools like this, each post becomes a clickable post, and it all works from a single bio link. Blavity uses Linktree to expand their single bio link on Instagram.

Here are 10 Tips to Create the Perfect Instagram Bio to Attract a Bigger Audience.

Ensure Your Website and Landing Pages Are Performing at Tip-Top

Remember that Instagram is only a part of the consumer journey. It’s important to make sure everything is in tip-top shape so your audience’s experience is as streamlined as possible.

Enter: your website and landing pages. It’s important that these are well-designed not only for aesthetics but also for functionality.

You can follow a few design tips for a high-performing website, so be sure that you’re constantly keeping up with updates and best practices.

Always Include CTAs in Posts and Stories

By including call-to-actions (CTAs) in your posts, you can get users to engage with your content and actually take action to become either a lead or a customer.

Some examples of CTAs you execute with posts and Stories are:

• Asking users to tag a friend
• Asking users to “Double-tap” (or Like) if they agree with the post
• Clicking the link in your bio to get a freebie
• Purchasing products highlighted in your post
• Responding to a Story using different engagement stickers, such as the Questions or Poll stickers

Maximize the Use of Hashtags

Hashtags may seem like such a mundane part of your Instagram experience as a brand. But in reality, these are an important tool in helping promote your brand with the platform and get discovered by users following said hashtags.

While hashtags help make your content easier to find for consumers, it doesn’t mean you should just throw out every hashtag out there. You still need to have a hashtag strategy.

A good start to start is to include popular curation hashtags from popular Instagram accounts. Using these gives you a chance to get curated or featured on their profiles, e.g. they repost your content on their feed and tag you, making you discoverable by their audience.

Also check for multiple hashtags that seem related. Use a balance of popular hashtags (with about 500,000+ posts) but especially mid-tier and smaller hashtags (about 100,000+ posts and down to 50,000+ posts, respectively).

Here’s a list of The Most Popular Hashtags: The Ultimate List you can use the next time you post something on Instagram.

Engage with Your Ideal Customers First

Sometimes you can reach the right leads and customers by reaching out first.

Follow your ideal customer, comment on their posts, and provide value in every interaction you have. Reply to their Stories, and overall aim to establish a relationship with them.

Careful not to take this step too far as you might appear spammy.
One benefit of doing this step isn’t just helping you get in front of possible customers – but you also may be able to identify possible influencers or promoters for your own brand. If these users and accounts respond positively to your interactions, you can consider adding them to your seeding campaigns.

Comment on Popular Related Niche Accounts

If you find related niche accounts, engage with their posts by leaving high-value comments that show your expertise or brand personality. This works because you can potentially reach your own followers among these bigger niche accounts.

So by commenting valuable points on these accounts’ posts, you show potential followers and leads that you too are an expert, thought leader, or valuable brand they ought to engage with.

Start looking for publications and media accounts whom you can engage with, not necessarily your competitors. Even influencers in your niche can be a valuable place to leave smart and engaging comments, especially if the influencer has an engaged following themselves.

Capture Site Visitors with an Irresistible Lead Magnet

A lead magnet is an offer you promote to customers in exchange for their email address or other contact information you may request. Doing this helps you build an email list that can help in acquiring customers online.

When you ask Instagram followers or users to click-through to your website, be sure you have a lead magnet waiting to capture their information.

This way, you can follow up with them in a nurture sequence that may eventually convert them into a sale. But we’ll tackle nurture sequences later in this post.

Some examples of lead magnets you can already implement in your business are PDF downloads, exclusive training videos, or even discount codes.

Always remember that your lead magnet must be of high value for your consumers. This must be irresistible so they’re given reason to engage.

Promote Your Lead Magnets on Your Feed and Stories

The content marketing 80/20 rule goes: create content 20% of the time, and promote it 80% of the time. The same is true with your lead magnets strategy.

You don’t need to create brand new lead magnets every single week or month. Use the ones you already have and keep promoting them on your feed and Instagram Stories.

With both, direct users to your link in bio, so that they can sign up to receive your lead magnets.

Be sure to experiment with different lead magnets over time to make the most of your campaign. While we said you shouldn’t create new lead magnets every week or month, a good rule of thumb can be to introduce new lead magnets for followers and users every quarter, especially as you’re figuring out what works best for your business.

For example, Nesha Woolery promotes a free masterclass on her Instagram profile.

Take Subscribers through a Nurture Sequence

Your end goal for connecting and capturing Instagram followers and leads should be to build a relationship between you and them – and eventually, this relationship will translate to users converting into customers.

You can do this by taking your new subscribers through a nurture sequence, which we briefly mentioned earlier. Creating an automated email nurture sequence with Wishpond is quick and easy.

In your nurture sequence, you want to always provide even more value than one would get, say, simply following you on Instagram.
Here are a few ideas you can use to build out your nurture sequence:

• Send use cases of your products for inspiration, such as a lookbook or a tutorial
• Create case studies that highlight what a customer did to get big wins (and include your product or service)
• Give exclusive tips to help them get a very specific win (e.g. How to Look Taller without Wearing Heels; 5 Cucumber Recipes for Feeling Rejuvenated Every Day)

You can take your nurture sequence to the next level by introducing rules and conditions that will help you turn new followers and subscribers into instant customers.

Review Your Campaign Performance Regularly

Amidst all the action steps you take to execute your Instagram marketing campaigns, it’s important to take a step back and review how you’re doing.

There are multiple social media analytics tools you can use to help review your campaign performance and data.

Data is power, and this couldn’t be more true with social media analytics. Use this data to help nurture your business as you plan for more data-driven campaigns to grow your brand.

Key Takeaways

It can be a lot of work to generate leads and sales as a small-time business owner. Thankfully, in today’s social media era, even small businesses can make more customers with a small following.

Focus on the right things, like getting in front of the right people and converting followers you already have, instead of obsessing over hitting a 5-digit following right away.

About the Author

Kevin Payne is a content marketing consultant who helps software companies build marketing funnels and implement content marketing campaigns to increase their inbound leads.

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