Instagram has over 700 million monthly users, many brands are finding ways to interact with the Instagram community and earn personally invested customers who keep coming back for more

But it’s not just the numbers you should care about. It’s about adding value to your customers

Instagrammers are shoppers. Iconosquare’s 2015 Instagram study shows that 70% of IG users report having already looked up a brand on the platform. Plus, 62% of users follow a brand just because they like it!

If you post the right Instagram images, consumers soak up your marketing message without any hard sales pitches from you; hence, your magic spell for appealing to customers without “selling to them.”

1. Set Up Your Optimized Business Instagram Account

 

If you’re going to Instagram for your business, your account must be separate from your personal one.

Keep in mind that marketing is all about the audience and not about you, so selfies and snapshots of your yourself with the significant other should stay personal. They’re not relevant to your customers and won’t get you sales!

In fact, “you” should rarely appear on your brand’s IG page, or even not at all. We’ll get to more about what to post in the next section.

First, here’s the rundown on how to optimize your professional Instagram presence for greater customer appeal.

• Include a Link to Boost Traffic to Your Site
• Stay Recognizable with a Consistent Name and Photo
• Include an Informative and Interesting Bio That Hooks Followers

2. Craft Better Contents

Instagram is all about images. It’s literally what the platform is built on. If you’re not putting out high-quality images, that’s the first thing you need to change.

You don’t need an amazing camera to take great photos, either. Most smartphones now have cameras with more than enough quality.

Some of the most important are:

• Pick a theme for your feed and stick to it.
• Post consistently.
• Take a lot of pictures. Practice makes perfect!
• That said, don’t post them all. Aim for quality over quantity.
• Keep your edits simple.
• Shoot from different angles and take advantage of good lighting.

3. Reach a Larger Instagram Following

 

Even if you’re posting awesome images, you need a strategy to get people to even see them and start following you. Here are some techniques to grow your followers list and show off your brand to more potential fans:

Include Hashtags to Widen Your Discoverability

Instagram feeds change fast, and your content can get buried quickly. Hashtags are the only way to increase the shelf-life of your Instagram posts. They lump your posts together into communities linked by a keyword, remaining discoverable forever.

Most posts include at least one hashtag (88%), but don’t go overboard on a single post. Engagement has been shown to go down on posts with more than 5 hashtags. Plus, it’s a cluttered look and risks coming off salesy.

Share Your Followers’ Tagged Photos on Your Own Profile

Including your users’ content on your own feed promotes good feelings, which are then associated with your brand (65% of Instagrammers say they feel honored when a brand mentions them).

Plus, followers will keep checking your feed to see themselves or their friends

4. Leverage Videos and Stories

With the recent release of Instagram Stories, you can now take Snapchat-style video to send out to your followers. Of course, you’ve always been able to upload videos to your feed, but are you taking advantage of it?

According to April 2015 research by Locowise, only 10.81% of Instagram posts are in video format. Yet, they get 17.51% of all comments!

To make the most out of your Instagram videos, try these tips:

• Just like with images, shoot video in great lighting.
• Get a tripod to keep your camera or smartphone steady as you record.
• Shoot behind-the-scenes footage to make your followers feel special.
• Capture your products in action — especially if you get a customer using it.
• Show what you see through your eyes. Try to capture your brand’s life.

5. Boost Engagement on Instagram to Strengthen Customer Relationships

So you’ve shared the content and you’re growing a following, but how do you solidify that following into loyal, paying customers? By engaging!

If an Instagram photo is shared with 10,000 followers, it will get an average of 331 instances of engagement. That’s a towering statistic compared to Twitter, which would receive only 7 interactions for every 10,000 followers who saw the tweet.

By closing the gap in communication between online buyer and seller, Instagram offers the opportunity to enhance your customer service, receive direct feedback from consumers, and create relationships that convert visitors into loyal customers.

Here’s how to maximize your engagement:

Write Active, Inviting Captions

Your image is the pièce de résistance of your Instagram posts, but without an effective caption, you might not get the full potential of engagement and response from your followers.

Many brands include a simple call-to-action or direct question to provide that extra invitation that opens up conversations about your post.

Jumpstart Your Instagram Engagement with Contests

What does your business get out of contests? Well, you earn more followers, increase engagement, and reward your most loyal consumers. With 17 times the engagement of Facebook, Instagram has become a unique and ideal place to run contests.

In fact, 70% of Instagram users have already taken part in a contest, or report that they would.

Respond to Notifications and Shout Out to Followers

It may seem obvious, but don’t leave the conversation one-sided. Responding to comments, thanking followers for their tags, and proactively following and liking other users’ content is a sure-fire way to get more engagement in return.