Instagram Marketing: The Ultimate Guide for Small Business Owners

1. Class Intro: Let's be honest. Does the Instagram profile of your business resemble this? What if I told you that it can be easily converted into something like Hi, I'm Deanna, it over the fence. Can I run a marketing agency and hungry? But my amazing team, we help small businesses such as hotels, bars, and restaurants from all over the world, from Bali to Australia, to tackle their social media game and use Instagram as a sales Magnite. I need to take a look at my humanity began this beautiful boutique hotel in Bali. Just after one year of working together, they had to bring in their booking team to handle their Instagram message. Because over 60% of their bookings are now coming from Instagram alone. You might say, not easy because they already had a couple of thousand followers. But believe me what my marketing agency, I only had 50 followers when I land is one of my biggest clients. Okay, so now that you know that we're super amazing, believe me when I say that, you can make it happen to your already here because you're probably a small business owner and I get your struggles. He worked nonstop. You're probably posting on Instagram, but without any strategy and you know how important it could be. Meaning you don't know what to post, when to post it. And you're overwhelmed by competition. And overall, when it comes to social media, you just feel like, what if I told you that you can learn everything you need to know in just under 45 minutes. In this class, they're going to learn about social media marketing, about Instagram, and how to create a successful marketing strategy for your business. Will learn about SEO, highlights, hashtags, and I know that you're busy. So I'm going to share tips and tricks. What I use with my own agency that saves me a ton of time each day and wait for it. You can use it also for free to join me and my marketing manager Jante, on this short but spicy journey. And let's get your Instagram together. 2. Class Project : Stop what you're doing right now and take a screenshot of your businesses Instagram account, just as it is. Make sure to involve your Instagram bio and the layout of the whole feet, just as it's shown here. During this class, you'll be asked to do as a class project, which will involve taking two screenshots, are actually three if you are the two white to my gym. One right now and the second one dress right after you've finished this class, you'll already see some change to your Instagram bio even highlights maybe, but you will still real growth and potential once you start posting regularly based on everything you learned here. So set your timer for six months right now and take another screenshot in six months and kind of check what has happened. How is your Instagram now? Is it pretty, does it represent what your brand is? And come back here and shared with us and share it with me in the comments. What you think happened, makes sure to watch the videos till the end because that's where the bloopers are going to be. 3. Content Ideas for Every Industry: When I start working with the small business, they often ask me, what on earth could we possibly posting about? I see small businesses struggling with this a lot. They don't know what to post, one to post it. And when they do publish something, it's usually without strategy. So for this reason, I'm going to hand out a list of content ideas that you can use in your business. Whatever the business at the ends. That's right. Whether hairdresser or someone who trained stock. This one is for you. For example, let's say you're the owner of a boutique hotel in Bali that's focused on individual travelers. They wanted to go surfing and do yoga. Your target audience is defined already. And some content types seem pretty obvious, right? Such as the rooms, the premises, yogurt, shall and breakfast. And that's amazing. Until a certain point if you're going on and on about your services. People get bored pretty fast. People are much more crafted these days. They get bored quickly. And to be honest, they don't like to be sold too. Don't get me wrong. We do want to buy. We just don't want to feel like we got fooled into buying. In other words, don't sell tau. So hear me out. Next time you are about to publish something about your services. Do it in a way that it actually contains valuable information for your audience, aka content number one, educate your audience, meaning address their pain points. What questions do they have before requesting your services? You can even go through your messages and see what people have been messaging you about privately. That means those pieces of information were not found on your website or your socials are going with our example here. Your target audience is people surfing heading to Bali. Explain how they looks like if they get a surfing package, what is a beach break? When is the ideal time to go and learn surfing and Bali? Or if you're an e-commerce store, showcases people using your product Content-Type number to introduce your staff. At this restaurant here, we tried to show everyone who's involved and get this. A few weeks ago, I got a call from a newspaper that wanted to feature us. And the journal has told me that he loved their socials and how we are showing people working in the kitchen. We're usually hidden, but pay a huge role in a successful restaurant behind the scenes. For one, it was a no-brainer for us that we wanted to give them credit on our socials. But it also doubles as great content. Content-type. Number three, use your juicy UGC Mimi, user-generated content. This one builds a lot of trust that you know, that over 92% of online customers rave reviews before making any purchasing decision. People might be tabbing, you're ready on their personal account, and sometimes you get notified and sometimes you don't. So there is this little trick I use to find potential UDC out there. I had to the Instagram search console right here and search for our name either as a hashtag or as a location. You will be surprised to see how many times you were mentioned and you have no idea about it. I tried to check this every once in a week. Content-type number for tapping into the previous one. Poster review. To be honest, when I'm lazy or have no quirky content plan, I go to reduce. This is my go-to content, so easy. You just copy paste one of your reviews from Google or Facebook. Easy, really effective content idea. And if by any chance you could make it a video review, even more amazing. For example, for salty Breeze Bali, We ask the guest after they stay for a brief review, three out of six would say yes. And it works like a charm Content-Type number five, before and after and makeover when I'm lucky enough to start working with the business from scratch from the very beginning, I always tell them to take photos from the start. Even if it's ugly, even if it's messy, you're starting a new restaurants and it's a whole mess. To a photo. It's going to be super useful later on when you're reflecting back on the past, showcasing where you came from and where you are now, people resonate with this kind of Princess Diaries content and other insider tip here. If you have to be honest, usually the before photos or are not that pretty. So try to showcase your after photo first. Also, I have this dentist account where these before-after photos are essential. But they didn't want to spam people with scary-looking missing teeth all over. So what we did here, we created a Caruso for the before-after images. This way, our feed doesn't look like it's a scene from Walking Dead. But whoever is interested can check out the transformations only with the swipe. Content-type number six, storytelling. Storytelling goes along way. Share your founding story, how you start it. The obstacles you had to overcome. People love these. Even now you're more likely to remember the stories and the examples I've been telling you. For example, as a teenager, I was volunteering at this beach volley festival. It was a ton of fun and a ton of work, long hours and the sun had a crisis after crisis. And as a volunteer, I was working for free. And at the end of the tournament, organizers came up to me and offered me to pay me money. I was stunned because I was supposed to be there for free. So sometimes I tell my clients when they really don't want to budge that. Imagine if I weren't so good for free. Imagine what I could do what your business if you actually paid me Content-Type number seven, holidays, achievement celebrations, or world something they, starting something new is always exciting. Take advantage of it. Don't sue me. But one of my clients who recently started their business, I've been advertising for about six months, about the beginning. And it worked like a charm. People love novelty. Step number eight, behind the scenes. Peeking behind the curtain is always exciting. We know that we're incurring. So I like to add this in the story then sometimes 11 performs particularly well. I will add it as a feed post as well. Content-type. Number nine, create FOMO. A good old fear of missing out is always good. Like here, barley is waiting for you. Content number ten, inspirational content. So whenever you feel like you have no idea what to post, make sure to refer back to this list right here. Educate your audience, introduce your staff UGC review. Before, after him make covers storytelling, holidays, achievements, celebrations and something they behind the scenes. And inspirational content in general, don't be shy to add a little personal touch and don't be afraid to showcase your personality like I'm doing now right here. But after a while, you will see what kind of content performs well and just keep on doing that. If you have any questions about this class, feel free to ask me in the comments. 4. Instagram Feed Know-Hows: When I start working with a brand new client, I always initiate a two, three-hour long branding session where we kind of go through the whole identity of the brand. This helps our agency to kind of set the goals and create the whole identity and actually get the tone of voice right? Now I'm going to share this little secret with you to this little cheat sheet I use in my agency. Later. First, I want to show you how important this part really is. So do want to play a game. I bet you can name most of these brands in just a split second. Okay, Let's go. Most likely said Nike and Starbucks. And Coca-Cola. For this one, Red Bull. And for this McDonald's, right? If you're a pro, just buy the bottle, you can tell that this is a bottle of Jack Daniels. You naughty thing. Well, it's not a coincidence that you can name these brands so quickly. This is what we call in the marketing world, distinctive assets. These are specific element such as a logo, color, font, ascent, or even the outline of a bottle that trigger your memory and helps you identify a brand. Big companies try to use these assets consistently. And that's the same thing we wanna do in small scale. That's why this branding is so important. We discussed the brand colors, the fonts, the emojis we will be using also consistently. For example, look at the stories here. And here. You can easily set them apart, right? We have been using the same font, the same color, and outlines from the very beginning. So when we're posting the story, we want our followers to note that it's our brands. Without even thinking about it or checking the name, we want to create these mental shortcuts one story at a time. So now revealing my secret onboarding questionnaire. The funny thing about this is that clients actually love these sessions and thank me later on because it's the first time that they actually go deeply through their brand and it sets clear goals for them as well. So I'd recommend you to go through this list and write down your answers as well. What is the story behind your brand? Who is your target audience? What are your strengths and what are you giving a solution for? What are your current goals? Who are your competitors? Who are your partners? These are for defining your business purpose. The next set of questions identify your brand's identity, such as add three to five words that best describe your brand's identity or personality. At three to five words that best describe your brand's visual appearance. If my brand was a song, it's a B. If my brand was an animal, a car, which one would it be and why? Some questions are targeted at your feed layout. And the distinctive assets we have been talking about. Such as what kind of content you would like to see on your feet. Would you like branded hashtags? What is your color palette? Warm or cold? What is your language going to be highlighted like to add three to six emojis you'd like to use and three accounts that you like and the accounts that you don't like. Going through these questions will help you identify your brand and have a clear vision on what you would like to communicate about that later on. Don't worry if some answers seem silly. Tried to go with your instinct. What pops in your head, right when you think about your brand. Later on this series, I'm also sharing a few apps I use on a daily basis that helped me with branding and keeping my contents and distance. So feel free to check that out as well. 5. Optimize Your Instagram Bio: The reason this part of the series is super important because your Instagram bio serve as a landing page, as a website. And the attention span of our generation is short, I mean, super short, sharp. So it's extremely important. Distract the attention of your potential buyer because you only have a few seconds to get them hooked. You want to make sure that your Instagram bio is on point. I mean, look at it now. Is it obvious what you do? What are your selling? What is your account about? In this episode, we're going to go through the Instagram bio section so you can optimize it and get your customers to click on that follow button. There. We will talk about the name fields. The description field highlights, the contact field, the links, and your profile picture. I'm going to use one of our clients as an example called Liquid Lines create it. Did you know that the name field right here is actually search optimized. The biggest mistake you can make is to have these two name fields identical. Currently, potential clients are searching for you and you're missing out because you're not being shown in the discovery feed. See how the name here is liquid lines creative. But the other part States photographer Australia. Whenever I look at an Instagram account, This is the first thing I noticed. And I can immediately tell if the one who's handling the social media has any idea or not, tried to think of a couple of strong words that describe your business and you my extra tip at the city or the region through located at, let's add to our second talking point the description field. Staying with her example, when you look at this account, you can immediately tell what it's about. Liquid lines as a minimalistic friend, Chief Photographer, focused on the serve outdoors and beach lifestyle. And you can shop the frame and on-prem print prints on the website. You need to be short and onto the point here, no clutter. Next up highlights. You can add as many as you want, but on one blip, only five can be seen on your feet. When you're wondering what to add here, try to think of it as the hamburger menu on your website. What would those be? In our case, for example, we listed the photos, illustration. She's selling. Reviews always include these because they build customer trust and how you can order these prints and cetera, make the journey of your customers Swift. Spare day time, gathered the most important information for them in an easily accessible way in order to keep them. What's included here is important, but it also has to be visually appealing and easily understandable. Notice how we use the brand color palette here as the highlight covers. Our next important asset is the contact button. Always add the contact button. I see this happening a lot of time. Don't write your contact details in the description. You'll wasting valuable characters there, there is a dedicated place, your email and phone number, and add them right there. Last but not least, links. This is where most of the selling happens. So don't forget to add the link leading to a website booking side or whatsoever. Currently you can only add one link to your Instagram bio, but that doesn't stop marketers, does it? With certain apps such as willing three, you are able to add multiple links with only one click. Lastly, your profile picture should also be brands align. And easiest way to do so is to add your logo as your picture. Any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments. 6. Instagram Hashtags: So hashtags have been the sneaky little things you've been hearing about. And these past years, we were wondering if they are really worth it or not. The answer is yes. With a clear marketing plan, it could be a super useful tool to reach your ideal audience. In this video, we're going to learn about what kind of hashtags you should use. Where you can find these hashtags, where you should put these hashtags and how many of them you should use. So basically imagine you're in a library and you're looking for books about training your dog, instead of having to go through every single label tags help you to find what you're looking for straight away. This is what hashtags do for your business on Instagram. They help people looking for your business find you. Let's say you're an owner of a boutique hotel. What kind of hashtags could you use for your business so your audience can find you? Let's group these. Number one location. Definitely add location tags to your posts. Add vigorous, such as the city are located in and even smaller segments such as referring to your region. All you in Bali, in Italy and Australia, it matters. See how we added Bali for the island and two for the region here. If you use Instagram on a daily basis, it overtakes Google's role and acts as a search engine. To just a few weeks ago, I traveled to Greece. I started searching for locations on Instagram to check out the place because it's sunny. What kind of restaurants or there could face to a checkout. And I did find a couple of cool places and we went there. So it can be very useful tag for YouTube number to calling out your audience. Let's stay with this hotel example. This hotel offers yoga and surf retreats and there is your audience right there. We made sure to add these niche words such as y, t, t 200, or I loved ones, ones, which are words specifically use by our target audience. Try to think with the head of your potential client, what do you think they wouldn't be searching for? Number three, your industry. Are you a boutique hotel and NFT artist, dog trainer. Added number for specifics. Is there something exciting happening on the photo that are you showcasing your hotel breakfast or your ocean view? Make sure to add it in the hashtags too. Okay, so now we've talked about what kind of hashtags you could use. And let's head towards to our next topic where you can find these hashtags. I have to level with you here. I don't do hashtag research every single time I post, I usually create three to five hashtag sets around different themes. As for this restaurant client right here, we have a general won it to rust and cocktails by night. And it all aligns with the content types we post. I usually create and save the sets and revisit them every four to six months. So head to your Instagram Search Console and type in dogs rule. You're going to see how many times they've given hashtag was used along with suggestions like dog through the house and dogs drool, cats drool whatsoever. I like to click on these and see what kind of content comes up. Does it align with my brand or is it completely irrelevant? Also, you don't really want to add too general or overuse hashtags like love and art. Look at love with over 2 billion posts on it. Otherwise you'll most likely won't get found or will disappear from the discovery page right here. Super fast as hundreds of others are using the same hash, those at the same time as you are. Referring back to the library here. If you search for a general term like dog, it will take you a long time before you get to. Why does my dog likes to chew on my shoe in general, try to aim at hashtags that have between five thousand and a hundred and fifty thousand hits. Our third topic is the golden rule for a number of hashtags. To be honest, there's no golden rule. I mean, currently you can use 30 hashtags in your posts and we've been adding thoroughly because that meant more potential discovery. But Instagram recently started experimenting with fewer hashtags, kind of forcing content to be as relevant as it can be. For now you're safe but using as many as you want. But if you feel like you can experiment as well with fewer hashtags, like five or ten at the time as well. Lastly, when you should use these amazing and super relevant hashtags you just learned about. Instagram said that you can add the hashtags either in your caption or in the comments section, and they will be equally effective. However, I like to add them in the first comment for two reasons. One, it doesn't mess up your caption aesthetics. Or if I'm first to add it to the caption, I tried to segment it like this to it counts as a comment, which is good for the algorithm. So basically two birds with one stone. Any questions? Feel free to ask me in the comments section below. 7. Time and Energy saving Hacks: I like to save your life to say, we all like to save time. And with my marketing agency, I also like to save time. And there are a couple of apps that help me to do so. And they also saved me a ton of effort during my daily life. And they basically work for me while I'm out with my dog, Jiangxi walking gloss. They also have some freebies for small business owners. So let's get into it. You know how we talked about how important your feed looks. R is the first impression that people get when they had to your account. You want to make sure that they are hooked? My hat where the feed to a pretty anesthetic is going on with oh no, I can change the layout of the feet easily, making sure it's aligned. It helps me to see if the content is different enough that, for example, with our restaurant client, we're currently focusing on food staff do to Ras and the cocktails. So you can see how I tried to blend these types of contents around each other. I also get asked how you can decide what is aesthetically pleasing. A little tip that helps me create the clean is I mix up messy and blunt images after each other as shown here with liquid lines. And what also helps me is to kind of add similar colors on the opposite side to balance them out making it parallel with. Make sure that you keep the first one. I'm going to lock on the bottom right. Otherwise the feed would change with each post to publish. There are multiple app just like Bono do the same thing, but I just prefer owns layout and user interface. You can use it for free currently. But you can't add as many photos as you want, but he'll be good with that. Don't worry, next up later. This is my all-time favorite scheduling app. It is super useful. You can plan your content ahead, select the best time to post based on when your audience's live and scheduled it for multiple platforms such as Facebook and Instagram or even TikTok. They have a desktop and an app version. I usually create one month ahead as things can change and you might need to focus on something else. So you can literally just sit down for an hour at the beginning of each month and plan ahead, not having to worry about being up-to-date. You can use this for free as a small business owner without getting the analytics. And since Instagram itself has on other days, you're good to go with the basic free account. It's a great way to start here again, facebook has its own scheduling platform, which is also free, but I just prefer later because it's very user-friendly and the interface is just great. My next step is comm law. Some of you might have already heard about it. It's a very useful tool, super user-friendly. Again, very easy to learn, very easy to use. Do you need a new newsletter for your business? You need new flyers combo. I even send out my marketing proposals for clients and I even did my wedding invitations on it. There are other apps that I also recommend for you guys to use, such as Google Trends. If you're wondering what to post about four, thanks to grammarly, there are no more typos and my toast. And here's Trello to get you organized. And H project management or the already mentioned link tree, which allows you to add more than one link to your Instagram bio. Want to know more, let me know in the comments. 8. Bloopers: In other words, don't tell. So for the parcel, Greek god as much steel blast. Now, Content-Type number seven, holiday achievements. I'm testing. You may get to them with them. That gets them basically basically say something and offer freebies to clients. We just scored another client. Another client. Another new client. Hello, new client. We get to tonight. Okay. 9. Conclusion: Thank you so much for taking the time and joining me in this class. I hope you enjoyed it and that you can implement what we learned here for your own business asap. We went through a list of content ideas that can help you create a monthly content calendar. And we listed a bunch of content pillars that can be applied to almost every single business. I shared my secret onboarding questionnaire with you, which I use with my own clients to help me and then get a clear vision about their brand. Going through this questionnaire will help you clarify your brand's purpose. Your ideal audience is what kind of aesthetics you would like to use consistently later on. And in general, helps you answer the question, what do I want my brand to present? We also dive into the topic of your Instagram bio description. We discussed SEO that helps you get found by your target audience what you should write into giving a sections. We also talked about highlights here. We also touched the topic of hashtags. What kind of pastels you should use, and where, how many of them is ideal. I also shared a couple of apps, such as later, Canva, LinkedIn or grammar that can help you a lot with your daily social media and you can use it for free. Lastly, we have also talked about the importance of reviews. So if you have enjoyed this class, please make sure to leave a feedback at the end. It really makes a difference. And if you have any questions, just let me know. Thank you again for joining and see you next time.