Businesses on Instagram have emerged and grown to a large extent since the increase in popularity of the online platform.

There are many factors that have turned Instagram into popular social media for business with over 1 billion monthly users. Whatever the reason, you can now learn how to start an Instagram business and make it more successful.

I’ll explain to you how to use special Instagram business features and which strategies to adopt. In addition, I prepared some profitable Instagram business ideas that will help you define your niche and start monetizing your account.

Let’s get started.

How to Start an Instagram Business?

In order to start an Instagram business today, you have to take several fundamental steps.

Let me explain to you how to set up your Instagram account, develop a viable content strategy, and establish your brand image. In the next section, I’ll also share with you some practical Instagram post ideas for businesses.

Step 1. Create an Instagram business account 

A business account on Instagram has several advantages:

• It shows that you are professional and there is a framework of strategic efforts behind your account.
• You can access Instagram analytics and see the feedback and responses of your audience to your posts and stories.
• Adding contact information is possible only through a business Instagram account. 

Your business profile includes a profile picture, username, and bio (explain your business in a few words, highlighting the benefits and unique features).

Optionally, you can add your website or social media links (f.e. Tik Tok, YouTube) to the bio. Also, pay special attention to the section ‘Highlights’ where you can save all your featured stories and divide them into categories.

Your profile picture should signify the brand of your business so that everyone remembers your logo. In addition, your username should be easy to remember and easy to search for so that people can find you easily when they search for a particular keyword. 

Step 2. Create captivating posts

One characteristic of Instagram is its picture-based nature which has attracted many users from different age ranges. High-resolution photos, infographics, designs, etc., are great sources for your Instagram posts. Using these sources, you can engage your followers successfully. 

So, if you have products to sell, you can share high-quality photos of them and share them on your Instagram feed. If you have services to offer, you can rely on designs and infographics. 

Find a lot of amazing examples of captivating posts in the next part of this article.

Step 3. Use hashtags

In comparison with Twitter, Instagram allows for more hashtags per post. While you can only add four or five hashtags in a Twitter post, you can add up to 30 hashtags per Instagram post. 

Adding hashtags to your posts or stories gives you more channels through which you can get more engagement from the audience who search for those hashtags. 

Choosing hashtags needs to be strategic to be effective. Hashtags that are so widely used are not effective for your post as they put you at the risk of being buried under loads of upcoming posts each minute. 

On the other hand, choosing hashtags that are not so popular is still useless as you will not reach many audiences. Here’s a special Instagram hashtag guide for you.

Step 4. Organize offers and promotions

One awesome way to increase the engagement of your account and make the audience know your brand is to offer discounts and promotions. 

People, in general, like getting things for free and it is highly likely that they will take part in your promotion. Just remember that you should add the link to your promotion in your caption so that your audience will know where to go. 

In addition, adding a link to your caption will also increase the traffic to your website landing page.

Step 5. Constantly track your performance

Going your own way and not tracking the results of your performance will gradually lead to failure as you have eliminated the role of your audience preferences in your performance. 

You have an audience, no matter small or large, with a distinct sense of taste for content. If you do not consider their preferences, they will cease being a follower because they do not get what they want from your page. 

The built-in Instagram analytics provide you with detailed information about the behavior of your audience. Therefore, you can track them just like you do on your website. Such information helps you in creating a more comprehensive plan for your Instagram marketing strategy. 

If you have difficulty tracking your performance or managing your account, you can use the ready-made Instagram management services. 

What Are the Specific Instagram Business Ideas?

In this section, we will introduce some exciting ideas on how to use Instagram for small business. You can take a look at these Instagram business categories and choose one of them based on your skills and capabilities. 

1. Graphic designer

Graphic design is one of the most widespread professional Instagram account ideas and top-rated Instagram business categories. 

Instagram is a perfect platform for showcasing your portfolio. In addition to your stylish personal website, you can provide an easier way for your audience and clients to check out your work using Instagram.

You can organize your page as @razvanvezeteu is doing it:

2. Food blogger

If you are managing a food account, one of the best Instagram post ideas for your business would be a new cake or pastry recipe. These are great ways to attract the attention of your audience and shape a community of followers. 

Easy recipes with a few ingredients have a lot of fans as people have less time to devote to cooking during the day. Later when you attain a large number of followers, you can expect affiliate marketing offers and make money accordingly. 

Enjoy this ‘sweet’ example by @miss_gruenkern:

3. Artist

Artists are running the most successful businesses on Instagram. No matter the field of art you are using, Instagram can become your digital gallery where you can get a lot of followers. 

Later, you can announce your physical exhibition or gallery and organize an event where your followers can come and see your work and become your clients. 

Look at the @obeygiant profile for inspiration:

4. Makeup artist

Being a makeup artist is another popular Instagram account idea since people care about beauty. You can post photos of your work, create tutorial videos, do interesting yet creative makeup such as Halloween makeup, bride makeup ideas, share beauty & skincare tips, overview and compare beauty products, etc.

Here’s a beautiful example by @katiejanehughes:

5. Traveller

If you travel a lot, you can simply turn your hobby into a profitable business and start making money out of it with advertising. 

Travel brands, tourism agencies, hotels, restaurants, recreation centers, etc. like to get their brand known so they are happy to pay travelers to post about them. 

Thanks to this Instagram business category, you have a lot of interesting subjects to post about and it is easy to find a large group who will be engaged with your account. 

I bet you’ll like this appealing example by @ptuxerman:

6. Fitness сoach

If you’re a professional athlete, you can start a small business on Instagram as a fitness coach and share your experience with other sports enthusiasts. 

Great Instagram post ideas for fitness coaches are about healthy meal plans, workouts at home, an overview of sports products, etc. With such content, you can also cover additional blogging platforms, including YouTube and Tik Tok.

People would like to get professional training plans or a special diet for free. For this reason, programming for personal trainers is fundamental if you want to design great workouts for your clients. Therefore, it is highly likely that you get a lot of followers interested in your niche.

Here is a brilliant example of a fitness coach profile by @jenwiderstrom:

7. Meme maker

If you have an unbeatable sense of humor and a creative mind, meme-making is one of the best small business ideas on Instagram. There is always a large audience for such pages as people need fun and entertainment. 

Later on, after attracting a solid base of followers, you can start monetizing your page via affiliate and influencer marketing techniques.

@fuckjerry are real masters of the meme-making craft with over 15,7 million followers:

Conclusion

As Instagram is growing remarkably among people of different ages, you can launch your own small business on Instagram as well. Just knowing what you want to do and how to start an Instagram business is enough to get you as many followers as you might need. Therefore, you can make money on Instagram by sharing your skills and producing engaging content. 

These easy social media marketing tips for dummies will help you define the strategy and take the first step in this fascinating endeavor.

Author Bio

I am Parichehr Parsi, a born writer, and a freelance copywriter in the fields of travel, fashion, and Instagram marketing. I currently write for Realtormate and online magazines in Italy and I love reading, writing, and researching. Find me on LinkedIn!