How to start making money on Instagram? Part 1

Who would have thought that Instagram would become such an effective business platform and network, with over 1 billion followers. users around the world. While some were skeptical about the app, others successfully posted their projects, started selling and making money on Instagram, gaining an audience even at a time when competition was not so great, and advertising budgets were not required at all. 

While everyone was laughing at bloggers, they were gaining subscribers and, today, a 15-second story can cost such a blogger from 100 thousand rubles. The income of the most popular current blogger is $1.48 million. The numbers are impressive, and the question “how to start making money on Instagram" is becoming more and more relevant for both personal brand bloggers and company representatives.

It would seem that he took a couple of photos, threw a couple of posts, wished everyone a good morning in Stories, turned up subscribers – if you want, immediately 10k. And voila! However, it is unlikely to succeed in taking and launching sales, especially with such an attitude towards a serious platform. If you want to break into Instagram 2020 and firmly occupy your niche, grow followers and, most importantly, monetize the whole process, reach high earnings – for which, in fact, you are reading this article – you will have to work hard.

Just say “puff hard”, especially if you are interested in figuring everything out on your own. You will need a lot of time. You just need to be persistent. The scourge of all “beginners” and burning accounts is that many people think “starting” Instagram is easy and fast, but when they encounter the real state of affairs, they begin to give in. And all why? You need to understand, spend time, which of course is never enough. But if you undertake it, make two promises to yourself: to do it qualitatively and to do it to the end. Don't give up and don't give up. There are several stages in creating and planning a beautiful Instagram account. To study each in detail, we divided the topic into three articles. Read the
second and third parts here.

In this article, we will tell you how to make an Instagram account really selling, where to start in order to make money on Instagram, what steps you need to go through before you call people; how to make competent positioning, how to formulate USP, how to find the target audience (potential customers), how to draw up a profile and how to prepare interesting content.  

1 Instagram account positioning

Positioning is, first of all, a form of presenting information about you and how you can be useful to the audience. Moreover, it is the main stage in the formation of a personal brand. It will depend on it, first of all, how subscribers will treat you, what “viewers” ​​you will attract to your page, what image will be associated with you and how the target audience will treat you.

With clear positioning, it will be easier for you to create an account, compile a photo collection and think over a content plan. Simply put, at this stage you form your model of behavior on Instagram.

Positioning, main directions:

Personal blog

It is also called personal. And for good reason – it's not about a product or service, it's about a person. About a person, his lifestyle, interests and personal opinions. 

Of course, today this form of positioning is the most popular, which is not surprising. A person is interested in a person. Especially if this is a famous individual – what could be more interesting than to look "behind the scenes", to find out how a star lives without makeup.

In addition, the user shares moments of life, experiences and experiences with his audience, in return receiving a high loyalty credit and increased interest.

A personal blog is perfect for those who are a specialist in a certain field or a versatile person who can show their life in all colors, provided that they want to make money on Instagram.

Thematic Community

Gathers in its virtual space people who are interested in certain topics.

As a rule, at the start, content is filled by administrators, as subscribers grow, content is generated by the participants themselves and used in publications. Subsequently, such communities advertise goods or services that cover the needs of the audience.

Creating a popular community is a laborious process. Finding a hot topic for today, tomorrow and perspective is not so easy. However, in the end, the contribution is worth it – authors who write guest posts like to connect to such communities, thereby receiving their portion of “attention” and increasing the interest of users within the community. In this case, the “observation” of the audience and loyalty to an authoritative opinion, and hence the product that he subsequently offers, work well.

Image account

A thematic community created not so much to make money on Instagram, but to increase brand awareness.

In such an account, the idea of ​​the product, its best characteristics and the additional effect of brand ownership are actively promoted. There are also promotions, sweepstakes and other interesting activities. The main task is not to sell right now, but to convince them that they need a product of this particular brand. In addition, Instagram is a great platform for getting feedback from users – so the company can directly communicate with people, find out the reaction to a new line of products and identify new requests.

Commercial shop page

Created for direct sales. In the feed of such an Instagram, mainly products, characteristics and prices are presented.

Marketing such a page can be considered more aggressive because it calls for a purchase. The format is considered more difficult in terms of promotion, as people enter the social network, first of all, to relax and communicate. Few people like sales "on the forehead." If the commercial page is not supported by useful infotainment content, then it will be interesting only at the time of the need to purchase.

We have considered 4 main directions in the positioning of the Instagram page, however, there are much more varieties. Accounts can be mixed in direction and perfectly perform different functions, but for a start it is better to stop at one clear positioning. If you still can't choose one direction, try to combine two, today this format is very popular; in addition, the combination of a personal blog with sales and a thematic blog with a store is great for making money on Instagram.

Having determined your positioning option, it is easier to write an account description, think over a promotion strategy, plan a content plan and a strategy to attract users. 

You can find interesting business ideas here.

Instagram account types

From a technical point of view, on Instagram you can choose one of 3 account types:

Personal account

It is primary and perfectly performs a communicative function among friends, but no more.

Initially, everyone had one personal account, as well as functionality, but when the platform began to grow and gain popularity, business representatives began to experience inconvenience within the personal account type:
– the user could not contact the account owner from the application;
– the lack of statistics and official promotion methods limited the development of the brand on the Instagram platform. 

It was during this period, when personal accounts were the only ones, that mass following and mass liking services became popular, the use of which now is a violation of the rules of the social network, which is punished by Instagram in the form of blocking and being sent to a “shadow ban”. Whether irrevocably or not is a matter of luck. In order to give commercial pages the opportunity to make money on Instagram, Facebook is creating a new type of account called a Business account.

Business account

Creating a new type of account is becoming the main communication channel for many companies in the world. Instagram rolls out features such as:

Statistics. It opens up the opportunity to analyze your subscribers, their behavior, interaction with the page and specific publications.
"Hot buttons". A convenient way of communication appears in the form of a “call” button. You can also add an address and email. Promo posts from the phone. A business account allows you to run ads directly from the application, bypassing the complex Facebook manager . 

shopping tags. The tag available for the online store category. It can be added to the photo, when clicked, the name, price of the product and a link to the site appear.

How do I switch to a Business account?

Step 1. Go to the main page of the application, open the menu in the upper right corner, go to "Settings".

Step 2. Select the "Account" tab and click "Switch to a professional account".

Step 3. In the window that opens, select the type of account you want to switch to: Author or Business.

Step 4. In the welcome window that appears, click Continue.

Step 5. Select an account category that will be displayed in the profile under your name.
You will be offered recommended categories, to find the right one, use the search to find the most suitable for your business. If you are a blogger, the most suitable options are “Personal Blog” or “Public Figure”.

Step 6. Fill out contact information. It will be available to all users, it is desirable to specify it immediately.

Step 7. Link the page to Facebook. Previously, this procedure was mandatory, today you can do without binding.

Author Account

The Instagram audience is conditionally divided into 3 groups: ordinary users, commercial representatives and bloggers. In 2019, a new type of account “Authors” was introduced for the latter, the advantages are as follows: 

Statistics. You can track detailed subscriber growth statistics on a daily basis, unlike a business account that only allows you to see weekly growth. Such statistics show exactly where the subscribers came from – from advertising, posts with hashtags. You can even see statistics on published posts and stories on a specific day. 

Brand collaboration. The sponsored post branding feature is now official and can be configured in the “Author” section. This feature also helps to make money on Instagram.

Sort messages. In the author's account directive, you have the ability to distribute incoming messages by tabs: “ Main”, “General” and “Requests”.
New messages go to the "Requests" folder, after you accept the request, you will be offered a folder to transfer the message. So, you yourself can determine who falls into the main section, who into the general. In addition, for each tab, you can enable/disable notifications.

Flexible account management. The author account offers more categories to choose from, so, for example, you can choose the category “web designer” or “architectural designer”. Also, in this type of account, you can enable and disable contacts.

2 Target audience

Formulating the right positioning is an important step, now you clearly understand how you will be presented to the public and what benefits you will bring to them.

It remains to determine the portrait of your audience – who are these people who will follow you, buy what you offer? To sell, you need to clearly know to whom; if you want to make money on instagram, just pointing your finger at the sky will not be enough: “Well, probably my audience is women 25-35 years old.” So it doesn't work. You need to know a lot more about your audience. What problems and pains do they have, what solution can you offer them? But first, you will need to attract subscribers and make sure that they stay with you.

• Target Audience – A group of people with common characteristics who meet the purpose of your ad by performing the desired action.

Main characteristics of the target audience

As a rule, the main characteristics can be defined in three categories: demographics, interests and behavior.

Demographic, answer questions: age, gender, income, profession, education and geolocation.

Interests show what products attract the audience, what content and activities they are interested in.

Behavior reflects which sites and publications people with matching hobbies visit.

Audience types

One company or even a blogger can have several target audiences. In this case, the division goes into two types of audience:

Main target audience

The audience in the form of the most "hot" and valuable customers. More than 80% of all content and advertising is directed to them, because they are: a) the most active, b) the most solvent.

secondary target audience

Users who may be interested in your products, but will not be as active. If you have several product lines, this may be the group that is interested, just not in the main product, but perhaps in a separate line. Or, they just aesthetically like your content/team/personality, useful articles.

Summarizing the above, we can draw the following conclusion:
a clearly defined target audience helps to reach exactly those people who are most likely to be interested in your products and services. In this way, you can target your advertising campaign in a very targeted way and avoid budget drains. In addition, you can work with several audiences separately and offer each group the product that best suits their interests, demographics, and behaviors. 

How to define the target audience?

At this stage, the most interesting begins. In order to find your target audience, you need to study your potential customers. In targeted advertising, there is the concept of “A / B testing”, but more on that later. To get started, you can choose small focus groups, conduct online or offline surveys, and involve your acquaintances and friends. Among them, there will certainly be those who are potentially interested in your product and, in addition, may even be very useful.

Start with current customers – those who have already bought something from you. Analyze what these people have in common. Record the main features.

Monitor your competitors. Track what forms of communication and creatives they use to attract customers, how they communicate with their subscribers. Take the best ideas, adapt to your business!

Chat with friends and unknown experts. Find out their subjective opinion about your content, listen to comments, take into account criticism – this is the case when an outside view will help you become better.

3 Filling and designing the page on Instagram

The stage from which blogging is often started, which is a big mistake. As you can already see; only after determining the correct positioning, finding and analyzing the target audience, you can start designing and filling content. By this point, you will already know: which visual is paying more attention, which design performs its function better, what kind of content users are interested in and how to present it.

To say that the visual component of the profile is more than a business card is to say nothing. Opening your account, in just a few seconds, a potential client evaluates the aesthetics, atmosphere of your page, and most importantly, looks for an answer to his question, more precisely, a solution, more precisely, an additional service.

Not just a product, but the sensations that he will receive by purchasing it. This is the key task and “fishing rod” of any successful account.

If in three letters, the first thing a user should see in your account is the USP.

USP (Unique Selling Proposition) – a product or service that solves the client's question/task/pain, clearly distinguishing you from other companies/blogs.

Of course, the USP should be written in letters and be at the forefront already in the profile header, we will return to this later. But its understanding should already be at this stage, because when planning your photo feed, you can already highlight some themes in your design or take the main concept of the photo series. Let's talk about everything in order.

Filling your Instagram account

The process of filling the profile, conditionally, can be divided into the following stages:

1. Nickname and username;
2. Profile cover or avatar;
3. Instagram page description
4. Active links;
5. Hot buttons;
6. Design of Highlights,
   IGTV and instagram feeds. 

1 Nickname and username

The simpler, the better. The nickname should talk about your field of activity, as it is displayed in the profile header and indexed by search engines. (You will be found faster if instead of “Ivan Ivanovich” you indicate “Photographer Ivan | Moscow”). Provided that the name can be written in both Cyrillic and Latin. Nick only in Latin.

To make it easy to find you, the profile name should be unique, memorable and simple. For a business page, of course, it is more logical to indicate the name of the trademark, with a prefixed short description (@detmir_shop). For a personal page, it is also advisable to choose the most simple and understandable name that conveys the essence of your activity.

Here are a few more examples: @flowers_cafe and @my_cake_kiev. It would seem that a couple of words, and from them it is already clear what it is about. If there is a keyword in the nickname, Instagram algorithms will raise you to the top of the search engine.

It is important to note that the account name should not repeat your nickname. Your task is to keep within 30 characters. This is where the USP comes in handy, revealing the subject of the account and your benefits. Add keywords that reflect your area of ​​activity, tell us who you are:

Online store for children's goods.
Food blogger. About restaurants in Moscow.
Lawyer. Consultations.
Stylist. Wedding hairstyles

Indicate the location if you are interested in an audience with which you will have to build offline communication. This will help you make money on Instagram and not only. And of course, you can specify your real name, pseudonym. In your niche, over time, already your name will start working for you.

2 Avatar

Main profile photo. Despite its thumbnail, it is often used to choose whether to go to your account or not. If your competitor's avatar is more interesting, despite the fact that the page name will more respond to the user's request, he will click on the competitor's photo. The rule is the same – simple, unique and tasteful.

For a personal profile, it is better to put a portrait, to appear, so to speak, to a potential client with a “face”. In addition, you can look for an original angle – try it, people are interested in watching people, not accounts. 

Today, art avatars are in trend – hand-drawn portraits. Ideally, your main photo should reflect the essence of the business and be at least relevant. Of course, fashion is worth following, but do not forget that it is fleeting and do you need a “like everyone else” profile? Set your trends, look for original ways of self-expression, starting with a simple avatar. 

If we talk about a business page, it is better to put a logo on the front line here, for obvious reasons – it is recognizable. Or be recognizable. You can add the most popular product, but rather a happy “owner”. Again, photos with real people are more attractive to the human eye.

3 Profile description 

Also referred to as "Biography" (abbreviated Bio).
150 characters and basic information about you, your uniqueness and usefulness.
All the most important things can be put capaciously and accessible. When writing a description, answer the following questions:

Who are you – your company?
What do you do?
How and in what way can you be useful?

Feel free to put your USP and call to action – it can be a link to a website or a lead page. Or, a simple call: “Subscribe if you want to be aware of all the events in the IT industry!”. As an option, add a link to a corporate tag, information about promotions, discounts, and new products. Add emoji, they set the mood well and place accents. The main thing is not to overdo it. You can also use the original fonts, to help the relevant services and applications. Such small nuances will help you make money on Instagram.

4 Links and multi links

Officially, you can put only one link in the profile header – to the site, lead magnet, blog or messenger, you decide. It is possible to create a multi-link using services like Taplink or make a business card page, which is what most people do now, in addition, the “taplink” format does not look as aesthetically pleasing as compared to neat landing pages.

5 Account buttons

For business accounts, the ability to add a feedback button is open. Choose from email, direct or call. Cafes and restaurants can now add "Food Order". If you have offline points – do not forget to indicate the address; By clicking on the link, the buyer can go directly to the map and visually see your location.
This feature will help you make money on Instagram, provided that you do not forget about it.

 6. Actual stories

Actual Stories, aka Menu, aka Highlights Stories or just H highlights. They are a kind of “albums” from saved Stories, which can be conveniently used as sections: “About the service”, “Price”, “Reviews”. You can put the ones that you think are necessary and correspond to the request of customers. Therefore, choose a theme and come up with a creative cover – the design of the Actual menu should be combined with the overall concept of the page, in some cases set the tone.

7 IGTV tab

IGTV is TV on Instagram or YouTube video on the Instagram platform. Great for long videos – maximum length is 60 minutes. Add saved broadcasts to IGTV. It is desirable to maintain the design in the general concept, choosing a beautiful cover for each video, instead of a freeze frame.

8 Tape

As soon as users didn’t “mock” and get creative over a 3-column layout. As long as the trends don't change. And at first, people published frames “now/today”, later they made a single layout design and this picture was “sawed” into photo posts. Of course, it was fashionable, planned, but it became too stereotyped and “correct”, but it became “too much”.

The next option was thematic signatures on each square, sometimes in DIFFERENT fonts. In 18-19, the boom fell on “presets” – photo filters that allow you to keep the tape in the same style and color tone. However, this format also loses its uniqueness – the same photo processing deprives accents.

In a word, there are many options for the visual design of the tape. It is important that the photos still correlate with the topic of the posts and the overall positioning. And in the trend – the return of "random" frames, as real as possible and made as if the photo was not staged. In a word, your “LifeStyle”.

You can plan the layout in advance, in applications like UNUM or Preview. The most popular, simple and high-quality photo editor Adobe Lightroom. 

Conclusion

A beautiful, understandable and selling Instagram can bring amazing results, with it you can make good money on Instagram. Now you know the main and necessary steps in filling and designing an Instagram account. In addition, a truly high-quality Instagram will help to make a loud statement about itself and attract not only subscribers, but also regular customers.

Let's summarize the basic steps to the perfect Instagram:

1. Choose a simple, memorable nickname and username.
2. Put your portrait or company logo in the avatar.
3. Write a description of the page, including USP, positioning and call to action. 
4. Add active buttons for quick feedback.
5. Specify a link to a site or a multilink.
6. Make a selection of Highlights sections.
7. Download IGTV, come up with creative covers.
8. Consider the photo content of the main feed.

How to make money on Instagram? Where to look for clients? How to connect Pixel to Facebook and how Instagram 2020 algorithms work – in the next article.