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When people visit your profile, they expect to feast.
But what if your profile stinks like rotten fish?
Despite their appetite, they’ll turn up their noses and move on.
They won’t see your Instagram video that took 3 hours to make.
Images designed to lure them to your website will have no visitors.
You’ll miss out on the follow too.
Most importantly, your business will step farther away from making money on Instagram.
You deserve better.
According to Instagram, 90% of users follow a business.
How many of them will follow yours?
It starts with optimizing your profile to the point that users salivate for more.
Here are 7 steps to optimize your Instagram profile in a few minutes.
1. Change your Instagram profile to a business profile
Whether you’re a celebrity or you run a business, you need to upgrade your account to an Instagram business account.
With over 200 million Instagram business accounts, many businesses are taking advantage of this feature.
What advantage?
First, a business account gives you access to more data about your post performance. For instance, you can see details such as reach, impressions, and interactions.
Second, you get more details about your audience.
For example, what time are they online? What’s their location? These and more data will help you relate better with your audience.
Third, you can add an industry/niche, office location, and work hours to your profile. This is especially beneficial if you run a local business.
Apart from your other local SEO efforts, this helps potential customers find your business location without much stress.
Activating the business account feature also helps to run customer support.
That’s because Instagram allows you to add a contact button to your profile.
Thanks to this button, customers and prospects can send messages to your Instagram DM, email, or as text.
As a result, you can make your social customer support more timely.
To switch to an Instagram business account, click on the hamburger menu at the top right corner of your account page and select “Settings” at the bottom of the page.
Then, on the settings page, click on “Switch to Professional account.”
On the next page, you can choose to switch to a business or creator account. After selecting a business account, you’ll have to connect to your business’s Facebook page.
Once you’re done with the switch, you now have more capabilities to attract new followers and buyers.
2. Use your business name for account and username
Your business name is your most important brand element.
So, if your Instagram username and account name are not your business name, stop reading after this section.
Visit your profile and make the change.
Apart from brand awareness, there are other benefits to using your business name.
In some cases, a potential customer already knows your business. So, they just enter your business name into the Instagram search box.
Using your business name will help you rank high for those searches.
To edit your name and username, click “Edit profile” at the top of your profile.
On the next page, you’ll find your name and username at the top.
You can edit them to your preference.
Here’s a business that uses its brand name for its handle and account name:
Everlane is a growing brand that uses its brand name for both its account name and Instagram handle.
If your brand is still small, you can add a relevant industry keyword to your account name or Instagram handle.
This is to attract users who may be interested in your work but are unaware of your brand.
3. Use a profile image that represents your business best
In some cases, your brand name can match that of 3 or 4 other businesses. So, how do you differentiate your business?
One way to achieve this is to use your brand logo as your profile picture.
If you’re an influencer or have a personal brand, your image will do the job.
This way, when a visitor lands on your profile, they’ll be sure the profile is for your business.
For example, when you visit the Mercedes-Benz Instagram profile, the logo is unmistakable.
Another way using your logo helps is to differentiate your business in Instagram search.
So, when a few businesses have the same name, your business will be identifiable through the logo.
That said, your profile picture doesn’t have to be your logo all the time. For instance, if you’re running a campaign or promotion, you can use a profile picture that reflects your campaign.
For some important human rights campaigns, this is one way to show your audience that your business is more than just about making money.
If you want a professional profile image yet, you can hire a photographer to take one.
For a logo, you can engage an internal or external graphics designer.
Services like Looka and LOGO.com can also help you design a simple logo for your business.
Once you have your image, the next step is to upload it to your profile.
To do this, click on your profile image.
Now, your business will look professional to prospects.
You can also watch what your competitors are doing. This will give you more ideas to implement in your account.
4. Optimize your bio with keywords and hashtags
When an Instagram user visits your profile, they want to know what your business is all about.
But, most importantly, they want to know the benefits they can derive from your products or services.
Unfortunately, you have only 150 characters to summarize all the wonderful things about your business.
To attract more users to follow and engage with your content, you need to dwell on the benefits they’ll gain.
Furthermore, you should use business-related hashtags that your audience is likely to put in Instagram search. This will help them find your posts and, consequently, your profile.
Here’s an example from JuniperOats:
Here, she has incorporated important business keywords and hashtags.
Another vital part of your bio is to feature a call to action (CTA). For people visiting your profile, what do you want them to do before leaving?
Your CTA can be to follow your account, enter an Instagram giveaway, or visit a landing page for an offer.
To manage the real estate in your bio more effectively, you can employ emojis. In some cases, a single emoji can represent a word that contains 5 or 6 letters.
Furthermore, using emojis makes your business look like you have an exciting outlook.
To edit your Instagram bio, click “Edit profile” at the top of your profile.
Once you finish making your changes, click “Submit” at the bottom of the page.
With an engaging bio, you’ll pull visitors down the page to see more.
5. Add a dynamic link in bio to your profile
Do you like having a single link in your Instagram profile?
I’ll bet your answer is no.
You’re probably frustrated that you can’t get Instagram users to your web pages.
Initially, many businesses changed the link in their bio before every post.
This way, they can get visitors to each web page at a time.
But this is a stressful process.
And they only use a link relevant to their latest post.
Today, businesses now have options to use a dynamic Instagram profile link.
This link will lead to a landing page containing links to your website pages.
So, you can get more people from Instagram to your blog posts, landing pages, and product pages.
To achieve this, you need an Instagram tool.
Here are 4 popular Instagram link in bio tools you can use to set up these dynamic links:
- Linkin.bio by Later
- Linktree
- Sprout Link in bio
- LikeShop Link in Bio
You can check out my full list of link in bio tools for more options.
Here’s an example of a dynamic link in bio by Aerie:
Clicking the link in their bio will take you to a landing page containing their posts.
When I click on one of the links, there’s a popup of products in the post.
Ecommerce companies can use this to sell more products on Instagram.
Apart from that, other websites can link to important web pages.
Once you set up your dynamic link, you need to edit the website box in your profile.
Click “Edit profile” to access the box.
Note that you can only edit your website through your smartphone apps.
After entering the link, click “Submit” to complete the process.
Using a dynamic Instagram link in bio means you can link to many pages at once.
6. Use Instagram story highlights to display your products
What do profile visitors see below your Instagram bio link?
If it’s just your Instagram posts, you’re missing an opportunity to engage visitors.
Instagram story highlights let you keep stories on your profile.
For as long as you want.
What benefit can your business gain from this feature?
You can use Instagram story highlights to show off various aspects of your business operations, such as:
- Product display
- Reviews
- Customers
- User-generated content (UGC)
- Employees
- Behind the scenes
In a nutshell, an Instagram user can get to know your business’s values, products, and how you help customers solve problems.
Even if this user has never heard of your business.
So, you can convince an Instagram user to follow your account or buy your products just by what you have in your stories highlights.Let’s see this example from Itele, a footwear company:
These elements, like reviews, size chart, and factory, will appeal to a potential shoe buyer.
There are also FAQs that answer questions a shoe buyer may have.
Once you land on this account, the company starts convincing you about its products.
But there’s more.
You can create story highlights that fit what your ideal buyer is looking for.
If you want more ideas, read this Instagram stories highlights ideas post.
How do you create Instagram story highlights?
Navigate to the top right corner of your profile and click the “+” icon.
Doing this will bring up options of what you can create.
Click “Story Highlight” to continue.
On the next page, select the stories you want to add to your highlight.
Then, click “Next.”
After that, select a cover for your highlight and enter your preferred name.
Lastly, click “Add” at the top right corner of the page to complete the setup.
After your highlight goes live, you can edit to remove or add more stories.
To do this, tap the story highlight and select the 3 dots at the bottom right corner.
This is vital for aspects of your business that change with time.
Instagram story highlights let you tell your business’s story to Instagram users.
Ensure you tell a captivating story.
7. Implement a beautiful Instagram aesthetic
There’s nothing as eye-catching as a beautiful Instagram aesthetic.
Profile visitors see 15 Instagram posts, and it looks like a single work of art.
It compels them to scroll through your posts.
An Instagram aesthetic is simply the way your Instagram posts look collectively on your profile.
Beyond its beauty, you can use an aesthetic to build curiosity.
If you upload a piece of a puzzle at a time, people want to know the end result.
Businesses execute beautiful Instagram aesthetic by:
- Forming objects
- Using a single color scheme
- Using two color schemes
- Interchanging two content types
Whatever way you want to create an Instagram aesthetic, you need proper planning to pull it off.
So, you have to define some of your brand elements.
These include:
- Brand colors
- Brand fonts
- Style guide
- Instagram templates
If you already have these elements, then creating a beautiful aesthetic will become easier.
To create an Instagram aesthetic, you can use a social media scheduling tool.
This way, you’ll see your Instagram aesthetic before your audience sees it.
Check out Pallyy or Later to do that.
If you already use a scheduling tool, use it to build an Instagram aesthetic.
See this Instagram aesthetic example that forms an image:
On this page, 12 to 15 posts form a single image.
It looks big and catches the attention of anyone who visits the Instagram profile.
Here’s another example from Jason Peterson:
He uses a color scheme that’s consistent in his posts.
A beautiful Instagram aesthetic keeps people longer on your profile.
In return, they’ll likely see more of your posts and tap the “Follow” button.
Conclusion
Your Instagram profile is your first impression on a potential follower and buyer.
Making a good impression is critical.
Implement these 7 steps to give your Instagram profile a boost.
The beauty of it is that you can visit your profile now and make those changes in a few minutes.
And I need a favor from you.
Do you know anyone who will benefit from this post?
Please share it with them now.
Samuel writes long-form guides to help businesses and entrepreneurs achieve better results from their marketing activities. He also writes for marketing and SaaS companies that want more leads and customers. Get in touch with him to discuss your content needs.