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Instagram marketing for small businesses

Instagram is for work people want to look at.

If what you make, fix, style or serve looks good in a photo, this is where it gets seen. Here is how to run it in about an hour a week without turning into a full-time creator.

Time:
About 1 hour a week
Cost:
Free
Your ShopCustom cakes · DaytonOrder nowDayton, Ohio128 likes14 from nearby

Is it worth your time?

Worth it if

  • Your work is visual: food, hair, landscaping, remodels, things on a shelf.
  • A good share of your customers are under 50.
  • You or someone on the team will take a photo at work a few times a week.

Skip it for now if

  • Your work is hard to photograph and customers find you by searching, not scrolling.
  • You are already stretched keeping one other platform going. One done well beats two done badly.

Step one

Set it up once

Do these in order, in one sitting if you can. After that, the only work is the weekly rhythm further down.

  1. Step 1: Switch to a business account

    In the settings, switch to a professional account and choose Business. It is free, adds contact buttons to your profile and shows you how many people see each post.

  2. Step 2: Make your name searchable

    Put what you do and where you are in the name field: “Rosa's Bakery · Dayton” rather than just “Rosa's.” People search Instagram the way they search Google.

  3. Step 3: One line and one link

    Say who you are for in a single line, then point your bio link at the one thing you most want: book, order or join your email list.

  4. Step 4: Save the answers people always ask for

    Post your hours, prices or menu, how to book and where to park as stories, then pin them to your profile as highlights so they stay put.

  5. Step 5: Tag your location every time

    Add your town or your business as the location on every post. It is how people nearby who don't follow you come across you.

What to post

Four kinds of post cover everything a small business needs.

  1. 01

    A photo of real work

    A finished dish, a fresh cut, the truck in a driveway. Your own slightly imperfect photo beats a stock image. Take it near a window.

  2. 02

    A short video

    Ten to twenty seconds of the work happening: icing a cake, a pressure washer cutting a clean line. Short videos are how people who don't follow you find you. No dancing required.

  3. 03

    Stories for the day-to-day

    Stories vanish after a day, so they can be rough: today's special, an appointment that just opened up, a box being unpacked. This is where regulars keep up with you.

  4. 04

    Several photos that answer a question

    Put a few photos in one post: three ways to wear it, the steps of a job, before, during and after.

Get a post idea →Caption templates →

A rhythm you can keep

About 1 hour a week
Monday
One hour: write and schedule three posts
Tue · Thu · Sat
A post goes out
When something happens
One story, straight from your phone
Every day
Ten minutes answering comments and messages

Mistakes to skip

  • Graphics full of text. People scroll past flyers. Show the thing itself.
  • A wall of hashtags. A few specific ones, including your town, are plenty.
  • Posting and leaving. Answer every comment and message.
  • Chasing followers. Fifty locals who buy beat five thousand strangers who never will.

Do this today

Look at your profile the way a stranger would. Can you tell what you do, where you are and how to buy within five seconds? Fix the name, the one line and the link.

Businesses that get the most from Instagram

Each page ranks every channel for that kind of business and gives you the first jobs to do.

Read next

The other channels

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