{"id":1226,"date":"2019-08-21T18:03:41","date_gmt":"2019-08-21T12:33:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rzplearn.com\/?p=1226"},"modified":"2025-02-13T09:01:25","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T03:31:25","slug":"start-your-business-on-instagram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/learn\/start-your-business-on-instagram\/","title":{"rendered":"Steps to Start Your Business on Instagram"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are you an aspiring entrepreneur at the crossroads wondering where to start off? Then, this one\u2019s for you!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Building a successful business is easier than it used to be. Social media is the fuel that is powering young entrepreneurs, for better or worse, and Instagram is sitting pretty, right on top of that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instagram has boomed in the last couple of years. Statistically speaking, Instagram is the highest engagement platform with over 25 million businesses registered on it, recording about 4.2 billion likes every day. Instagram is the reason why an entire profession called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153influencers\u00e2\u20ac\u009d got created. It\u2019s a pretty happy place, you see.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, what is the recipe for creating a business from scratch on Instagram?\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><strong>In this article, we\u2019re going to be analysing the different steps that make a successful business, based on different success stories. Let\u2019s begin!<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Step 1: Building a strong profile<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><b>Pro-tip: Your business begins at &#8220;Get Started&#8221;\u009d<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Though Instagram is generally fair to everyone in terms of making them look \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cool\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, you really can\u2019t do much with an incomplete profile. This means that you need to make sure that every detail is filled out in the right way to make it work effectively.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1229 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-2.png\" alt=\"optimize stroge instagram profile\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1047\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d6xcmfyh68wv8.cloudfront.net\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-2.png 1200w, https:\/\/d6xcmfyh68wv8.cloudfront.net\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-2-300x262.png 300w, https:\/\/d6xcmfyh68wv8.cloudfront.net\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-2-768x670.png 768w, https:\/\/d6xcmfyh68wv8.cloudfront.net\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-2-1024x893.png 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Account name<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Ideally, your business\u2019 name is your account name. Make sure your Instagram account name is in sync to your business\u2019 name in other social media, to avoid confusion.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Username<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Your username should be the same as your account name, just without the spaces.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Profile picture<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: It\u2019s best to stick to your company logo for your profile picture for customers to easily recognize your brand in a sea of posts.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Website<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: This will be the only clickable URL on your profile. Most businesses either use their website or link to their latest campaign\/promotional offer. Refrain from using long links in your bio. Instead, you can use URL shorteners like <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bitly.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">bit.ly<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for creating short links.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Bio<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Arguably the most powerful way to make a first impression for your business, a well-written bio can be life-changing for your business. You can choose to write just about anything that will draw the attention of the user to what you\u2019re selling. This can be a catchy slogan, a trending hashtag, a mysterious one-liner or just plain old hype.<\/span><\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Step 2: Drafting a powerful business strategy<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once you\u2019ve set up your profile successfully, you need to draft the right business strategy to set things in motion. Curating a business strategy from scratch is relatively easier when you have the smaller things set in place. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1230 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/d6xcmfyh68wv8.cloudfront.net\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-3.jpeg\" alt=\"plan powerful business strategy\" width=\"653\" height=\"493\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d6xcmfyh68wv8.cloudfront.net\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-3.jpeg 653w, https:\/\/d6xcmfyh68wv8.cloudfront.net\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-3-87x67.jpeg 87w, https:\/\/d6xcmfyh68wv8.cloudfront.net\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-3-300x226.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 653px) 100vw, 653px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here\u2019s how you can get that done:<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">#1 Setting up your business<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First things first, choose the nature of your business&#8211; is it a product or a service? Your answer to that can change the course of the strategy you are building.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While the product cycle generally seeks instant gratification, the service cycle generally takes a longer route. The product that you are selling can either be a physical or virtual product. Depending upon your final product, you will have to make a decision on how it will be delivered to the customer. But more on the logistics part later.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">#2 Choosing the right pricing<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pricing is everything on Instagram. One of the ways to stand out from the sea of competition on Instagram is to rightly price your product. Too expensive can mean lesser traction and too cheap can undermine the value of your brand.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Make sure to understand the market trends including the original product value, discounts and gratification and the most important of them all, shipping prices. Even shipping prices play a crucial role when a customer makes their decision, especially in e-commerce.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">#3 Identifying your target audience<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first step to succeeding in your target audience circle is to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">know them<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Do your <a href=\"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/learn\/what-is-market-research\/\">market research<\/a> and understand what your followers are looking for. This can help give a voice to your brand.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The best way to get there is with extensive market research. You can check out other profiles that are popular in your field. Market, advertise and keep innovating to stay on top of the game. Consider all factors while roping in your audience&#8211; this includes metrics like age, gender and other engagement factors. It is important to understand the trends that are high-flying and base your strategies around that.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">#4 Solving shipping crisis<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><b>Tip: This is just for entrepreneurs who are looking to sell a physical product. Applies mostly to e-commerce merchants.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When it comes to building a business online, especially on Instagram, shipping is a big deal. Instagram accommodates business profiles almost unlike any other social media, with more than<\/span><b> 80 percent<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the users<\/span><b> following <\/b><b><i>at least<\/i><\/b><b> one business<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In e-commerce, shipping is one of the most important things to consider. You will have to approach an insurance company that provides insurance for lost\/damaged goods in transit. You will also have to calculate handling fees that will include the packaging+bubble wrap charge. In case you have to ship your product internationally, you will have to calculate the handling fee according to the cost and weight of the item.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once you have your shipping asks in place, half your woes are sorted and you can go ahead and plan the next need for your business.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Step 3: Marketing your product effectively<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The real success of your product is when it actually sells out as much as you want it to. A great product can go unnoticed without good marketing. The essence of marketing is to effectively measure the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">impact<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of your product on your audience.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Good marketing can be a relatively easy task when you do the steps right. Here\u2019s a detailed analysis de-mystifying the finer text in successful marketing stories:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">#1 Competitor analysis<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s always a good thing to be aware of what your competitors are up to. There is no denying that there\u2019s always a lot to learn from them and their Instagram strategies. Apart from the learning curve, you can also find out what you share in common with them. Some other important reasons to keep a check are:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your competitors will make you invariably wary and will help you to keep your strategies alive.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An analysis of other achievers is indispensable for any marketing strategy and it will help you to make a <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SWOT<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Strength-Weakness-Opportunity-Threat) analysis.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It leads you to creative ideas that you can use in your business.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It provides you with an idea if a certain approach\/trend implemented by your competition worked well or not.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">#2 In-platform engagement<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instagram has a horde of new features and the list keeps getting longer with new innovations being introduced every day. You won\u2019t believe how many ways there are to market your product well inside the app. From influencers to hashtags, let\u2019s explore the different ways you can attract users to your profile, and ultimately, buy what you\u2019re selling.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1231 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/d6xcmfyh68wv8.cloudfront.net\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-4.jpeg\" alt=\"effective marketing strategy\" width=\"1300\" height=\"1300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d6xcmfyh68wv8.cloudfront.net\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-4.jpeg 1300w, https:\/\/d6xcmfyh68wv8.cloudfront.net\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-4-370x370.jpeg 370w, https:\/\/d6xcmfyh68wv8.cloudfront.net\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-4-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/d6xcmfyh68wv8.cloudfront.net\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-4-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/d6xcmfyh68wv8.cloudfront.net\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-4-768x768.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/d6xcmfyh68wv8.cloudfront.net\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-4-1024x1024.jpeg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1300px) 100vw, 1300px\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Instagram stories and IGTV<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Stories and IGTV are a great way to capture the eye of your audience. Stories feature right at the top of the app and IGTV in the Explore Tab, so they\u2019re highly accessible for users to scroll through and spend their time on. Use different peculiarities like <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">boomerang<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, face filters or even the live feature to get your voice across to the young and savvy.<\/span><\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Hashtags<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Instagram is the sole reason that hashtags are back as a talking point. Hashtags primarily perform as identifiers and are recommended to people who might be interested in what you\u2019re selling. Using a campaign-specific hashtag helps you measure the reach of the campaign, depending upon how many people reiterate it.<\/span><\/b><\/li>\n<li><strong>Comments<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Comments play a huge role on Instagram. You can mention other businesses or even comment on users\u2019 posts to increase visibility. Derive inspiration from other players and make sure to also appreciate the good work you see on the platform.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>Collaboration<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:\u00a0 The best thing about Instagram is how you can leverage cross-functional friendships to help you with your business. Whether it means \u00e2\u20ac\u0153mentioning\u00e2\u20ac\u009d other business to get more reach or utilising serial influencers to capture your audience, collaboration can do wonders for your business if done right.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">#3 Paid marketing<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Like any platform, you can enable paid advertising in order to boost your posts. These sponsored posts can be advertised through retargeting your users according to their interests.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can experiment paid advertising in different styles like carousel ads, stories, swiping-up stories or good old posts. The unilateral UI of Instagram is guaranteed to get the attention of the user.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Don\u2019t forget to wrap up a good ad with an equally powerful, yet short call-to-action. Sometimes a good CTA is enough to charm the user to give you the benefit of the doubt.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Step 4: Setting up payments<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once you have sorted the product, business and shipping side of your business, the next important thing to set up is your payment mode.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1232 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/d6xcmfyh68wv8.cloudfront.net\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-5.png\" alt=\"set up payment method to accept\" width=\"1838\" height=\"1248\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d6xcmfyh68wv8.cloudfront.net\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-5.png 1838w, https:\/\/d6xcmfyh68wv8.cloudfront.net\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-5-300x204.png 300w, https:\/\/d6xcmfyh68wv8.cloudfront.net\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-5-768x521.png 768w, https:\/\/d6xcmfyh68wv8.cloudfront.net\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-5-1024x695.png 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1838px) 100vw, 1838px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many Instagram businesses rely on unsafe, unregistered modes of payments. This can lead to a lot of chaos in the process.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you use a regulated platform of payment, you can not only streamline your business but also pave the way to faster methods of selling. Believe it or not, most shoppers will get discouraged if they do not find a reliable mode of payment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We\u2019re here to help you analyze the different ways where you can transform the way you look at regular, clunky payments. Here we go!<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">#1 Payment Links<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Don&#8217;t have an app or website for selling? Now let your customers pay online through payment links. Payment Links are the easiest and most efficient method to streamline payments for those without a website. This is applicable to most Instagram businesses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Payment Links can be an easy substitute for cash-on-delivery and point-of-sale payment methods in your business. For example, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/payment-links\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Razorpay Payment Links<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> directly integrates into your ecosystem giving the best experience for your <a href=\"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/learn\/what-is-a-business-model\/\">business model<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Share the payment link over Instagram DM or other social media platforms and provide your customers with a quick checkout option.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All they have to do is click on the link to make the payment. Yes, it\u2019s that easy!<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">#2 Payment Pages<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A payment page is a page that is set to accept payments for you, without you having to host it. All you need to do is provide customers with the link to your designated page, where they can make their payments securely.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Payment pages are especially useful during \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sale\u00e2\u20ac\u009d times for businesses on Instagram. If you\u2019re expecting a lot of payments to be made during the discount season, you can redirect your users to a secure page which leads to seamless money processing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For instance, this is what we provide for businesses: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/payment-pages\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Razorpay\u2019s Payment Pages<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is the easiest way to accept payments with custom-branded hosted pages. With zero coding, you can take your page online and start accepting payments instantly. You can either select from a template or create your own custom-branded Razorpay Payment Page with no integrations or coding. In a few clicks, you can take your page online and start accepting payments.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As Payment Pages are part of Razorpay\u2019s core platform, the pages are secured by an industry-standard 100% <a href=\"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog\/what-is-pci-dss-compliance\/\">PCI DSS compliant<\/a> &amp; certified solution and thus guarantee a smooth and secure experience.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">#3 Subscriptions<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Subscriptions are a boom in the e-commerce industry. They not only keeps the customers coming back for more, but also ensures that the merchant provides constant, unfaltering service to the customers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For e-commerce businesses that work on a <a href=\"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog\/subscription-business-model\/\">subscription model<\/a>&#8212; for example, monthly makeup boxes, it can be quite difficult to track the routine. With a subscription model of payment, you can truly achieve more than you think.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Offer your customers subscription plans with automated recurring transactions on various payment modes, through a platform that&#8217;s built for automation. Enable recurring <a href=\"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/learn\/what-is-payment-schedule\/\">payment schedule<\/a>, control the <a href=\"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog\/what-is-billing-cycle\/\">billing cycle<\/a> and get instant alerts on subscription activity with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/subscriptions\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Razorpay Subscriptions<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All you have to do is to link a plan to the customer. The agile billing system makes handling subscriptions a breeze with a powerful hosted solution that handles edge cases like card change, retries, email alerts etc.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can also create unique links from the dashboard for your Subscription plans and share with customers via SMS, email etc to turn them into subscribers.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Step 5: Ensuring customer success<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Incentivisation is a huge part of modern-day business, especially for the online retail industry. Owing to the high competition out there for merchants, it\u2019s important to come up with innovative measures to gratify your customer\u2019s purchase.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1233\" src=\"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-5.jpeg\" alt=\"instagram 5.jpeg\" width=\"1880\" height=\"1253\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d6xcmfyh68wv8.cloudfront.net\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-5.jpeg 1880w, https:\/\/d6xcmfyh68wv8.cloudfront.net\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-5-270x180.jpeg 270w, https:\/\/d6xcmfyh68wv8.cloudfront.net\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-5-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/d6xcmfyh68wv8.cloudfront.net\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-5-768x512.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/d6xcmfyh68wv8.cloudfront.net\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-5-1024x682.jpeg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1880px) 100vw, 1880px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After all, the real challenge is not making the customer arrive at your product, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">but stay for more.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the easiest ways to ensure customer satisfaction and success is to incentivise them. Customers love shopping and almost always enjoy the gifts they get after purchase as well. Here are a few ways to keep your audience wanting more:<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">#1 Referral bonus<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Regarded as one of the easiest ways to market your product, referral bonuses can help you effectively penetrate your target audience. Not only will the customer be rewarded for the same, but most referrals are also passed along in goodwill.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This gives the possibility of a higher customer retention rate for your product.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can track the effectiveness of your referral campaign by tracking the unique code that you will provide to every customer upon purchasing your product.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">#2 Cashback<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cashback is one of the most popular customer incentive methods in recent times. A cashback not just guarantees a discount for a product, but almost always has the customer coming back for more.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Customers love it when they\u2019re rewarded for their choice. And more so, for choosing YOUR product out of a million others out there. Generate target-specific campaigns laced with attractive cashback options to calculate the effectiveness of it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">#3 Giveaways<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Giveaways are the most popular thing in the influencer world right now. A giveaway is typical given to the winner of a contest\/trivia that the host conducts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some examples of contests which offer giveaways are:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Like and\/or comment to win<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Photo caption contest<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tag-a-friend\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trivia or skill-based contest<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">User-generated content contest<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instagram Stories contest<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scavenger hunt contest<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Giveaways help you leverage the connections that the winner has and gives a larger reach to your brand. Besides, it motivates people who care about your brand to exhibit their loyalty, whilst being rewarded.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">#4 Collaborations-Vouchers<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As we specified earlier, Instagram is a place where you can leverage friendships to build your brand. Collaborate with other brands to create a special campaign where you can provide the winners of your contest with their vouchers and vice versa.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This allows cross-functional collaborations across different parallels and thus gives more visibility to your product\/brand.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Step 5: Measuring success<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Taking measures to make sure you\u2019re winning is important, but what\u2019s more essential is to measure it. When you\u2019re succeeding at what you\u2019re doing, make sure to analyze what went right so you can replicate the recipe in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1234 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/d6xcmfyh68wv8.cloudfront.net\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-6.jpeg\" alt=\"measure the success\" width=\"1859\" height=\"1300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d6xcmfyh68wv8.cloudfront.net\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-6.jpeg 1859w, https:\/\/d6xcmfyh68wv8.cloudfront.net\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-6-300x210.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/d6xcmfyh68wv8.cloudfront.net\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-6-768x537.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/d6xcmfyh68wv8.cloudfront.net\/learn-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/instagram-6-1024x716.jpeg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1859px) 100vw, 1859px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are some ways to keep track of your success:<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">#1 Follower growth rate<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A high follower count can be a glittery boost to your brand credibility, but it doesn\u2019t say so much about the health of your marketing campaigns and Instagram efforts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your follower <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">growth rate<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, on the other hand, can be used as a solid determinant for measuring success. The rate at which your followers increase\/decrease can be used to calculate the efficiency of what you\u2019re doing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Determining your follower growth rate is simple. Here&#8217;s how:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Take the number of followers you gained over the last month.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Divide that number by the number of followers you had at the beginning of the month. For instance, if you gained 90 followers this month and had 1500 followers at the start of the month, your follower growth rate this month was 90\/1500 = 0.06, or 6%.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">#2 Engagement per follower<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With the updated Instagram for Business in place, engagement is THE most important metric to consider when measuring your performance. Tracking engagement is an essential element to monitor the interest of your audience.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A post that gets 30 likes may seem like a decent amount of engagement, but if your Instagram account has 30k followers, that&#8217;s hardly an engagement rate of 1%.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can calculate your engagement per follower on a weekly\/monthly basis. Calculating it on a daily basis isn\u2019t recommended since day-to-day fluctuations will most likely throw off your data.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Look at the total number of likes and comments you got during a specific time period and then divide that number by the number of followers you had during that time period to get a rough engagement metric.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">#3 Clicks per link<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Did you know you can monitor the number of clicks on Instagram for Business?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This can be especially useful when you put up specific links to campaigns in your bio. You can take your Instagram analytics to the next level when you create URLs with UTM parameters that tell your analytics platform where a particular visitor came from.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">UTM parameters are informational tags that you append to your normal URL.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">UTM URLs can be difficult to generate manually, but there are a number of simple tools on the internet that will generate these URLs for you.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With these UTM URLs, you can find out how these links are working for your business and ultimately understand the flow of leads to your business.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Conclusion<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instagram can be a great place to start your business from scratch. It\u2019s a fun platform filled with a vibrant audience and provides you with an artistic outlet that lets you connect with your audience, more than any other social media.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, keep in mind, if you want your Instagram marketing to be profitable as well as fun, you\u2019ve got to follow some steps to keep the metrics running right. Focus on these important steps, and you\u2019ll get a clearer picture of how you can run your business efficiently.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With this, we\u2019re signing off this (very long) article. We hope this helped you. Do let us know if we missed anything!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Happy Instagrammin\u2019, folks!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Also read: <a href=\"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/learn\/ultimate-guide-to-video-marketing-strategy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Ultimate Guide to Video Marketing<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Building a successful business is easier than it used to be. Social media is the fuel that is powering young entrepreneurs, for better or worse, and Instagram is sitting pretty, right on top of that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":151156464,"featured_media":1241,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1383],"tags":[2681],"class_list":{"0":"post-1226","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business-strategy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/learn.razorpay.in\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/learn.razorpay.in\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/learn.razorpay.in\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learn.razorpay.in\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/151156464"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learn.razorpay.in\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1226"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/learn.razorpay.in\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15758,"href":"https:\/\/learn.razorpay.in\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1226\/revisions\/15758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learn.razorpay.in\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/learn.razorpay.in\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learn.razorpay.in\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learn.razorpay.in\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}