How To Get Instagram Followers for Your Business Success

If you run an online business, you might always have sales and profits at the top of your priority list. But when you bring your brand to Instagram, there’s something a bit more important. You can’t promote your brand on Instagram without having enough followers. That’s why it’s super important to know how to get Instagram followers for your business.

So, aside from sales strategies, you also need to come up with a social media strategy to increase your followers. There are plenty of ways to do that. If you have a sizeable marketing budget for your biz, you can go for paid growth methods. And if you run a small business with a pretty tight budget, don’t worry. There are plenty of growth techniques that are absolutely free as well.

Today, we’ll take you through these paid and organic growth strategies to help you increase your business’s Instagram follower count. Do you want to see your business succeed on IG? Keep on reading to learn how to lure in potential followers.

Why It’s Important To Know How To Promote Your Business on Instagram

There are plenty of ways to advertise your business and reach customers. You can do traditional ads on TV and in the daily paper. Or, you could go the more modern route and invest in online promotions on the leading social media platforms. You have many options there, too, from the classic Facebook to the younger, trendier TikTok. But why should you learn how to promote your business on Instagram?

First off, Instagram is known to have a huge user base. According to data analytics company Demand Sage, the platform has about 2.4 billion active users around the world each month. The projection estimates that this number will grow to 2.5 billion in 2024.

Because of how big Instagram’s user base is, it’s a lucrative channel for businesses that want to reach more people. It even allows brands to reach potential customers from all around the world. That’s awesome if you want to go international with your brand.

Instagram is also the ideal social media platform for promoting lifestyle brands. The app has always had a reputation for being an “aesthetic” visual platform. If you want to show off beautiful products and photography for clothes, art, food, travel, and more, Instagram is best.

The platform also has plenty of content types to play around with to elevate your brand’s storytelling. From videos to photo posts to Instagram Stories, your promotional content can engage people in different ways.

Instagram is an amazing place to promote your business. But before you get started on that, you need to work on getting followers first.

How To Create a Business Instagram Account

Most users (even brand owners) might start with a personal account when they first join Instagram. But it’s important to make the switch to a business account as soon as you can. By doing so, you get access to tools that are exclusively for professionals, businesses, and influencers.

Not only can switching to a business account give your brand’s IG page a more credible, professional vibe. It also makes optimizing and promoting your content way easier. Here are just some of the features you’ll have access to only with a business account:

• Instagram Insights that tell you how your content and overall page are performing in real time.
• Business categories displayed on your profile to let people know which industry you belong in.
• The ability to share your contact information with anyone who visits your page. IG’s contact buttons for businesses can lead interested clients and customers to your email address, phone number, or address.
• Instagram Ads Manager, where you can set up and run paid ads to reach your specific target audience.
• The trendy “swipe up” feature on Instagram Stories.

Are you interested in switching to a professional account to try all these features? Here’s how to create a business Instagram account if you’re coming from a personal page, step by step.

1. Go to your Instagram profile.

2. Click on the hamburger menu (three horizontal lines) at the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

3. Click on “Settings and privacy.”

4. Scroll until you see the “For professionals” section and click “Account type and tools.”

5. Select “Switch to a professional account.”

6. Swipe through the next pages to read the must-knows about professional accounts.

7. Select your category according to what type of business you run.

8. Finalize your decision to switch to a business account, and you’re all set!

How To Get More Followers for Your Business on Instagram: 4 Paid Growth Methods

If you want to get a higher follower count on your page fast, we suggest turning to paid growth methods. You’ll see much quicker results if you pay a premium to get the job done. It also allows for more accurate and efficient targeted marketing.

So, if super swift expansion is what you’re looking for, get ready to invest cash into your brand’s IG growth. Here’s how to get more followers for your business on Instagram if you have some marketing money to spend.

1. Run Ads Promoting Your Products

The easiest way to get new followers—if you have the money for it—is by running Instagram ads. You can set up creative ads according to your budget and target audience to ensure they reach the right people. Then, you can easily adjust and manage those paid ads through Meta’s Ads Manager.

Instagram ads can help boost your visibility on the platform, making you more discoverable to potential followers. The ads work to direct users to your IG page, making it more likely for people to follow your page. And since you’re the one defining your target audience, placements, and ad schedules, you know you’re getting your money’s worth.

There are many types of ads on Instagram. You can go for the typical photo, carousel, and video ads that show up on people’s main feeds. But you can also spice things up with trendier ad types, like Story ads, Reel ads, shopping ads, and more. Whatever you choose to set up, these ads can boost brand awareness and give you an uptick in Instagram followers.

2. Invest in Influencer Marketing

Another way to expand your business’s Instagram reach and attract new followers is by investing in influencer marketing. By collaborating with influencers that your target audience loves, you can reach a wider group of potential followers. Plus, creators can also create buzz about your products and services, which can help with sales in the long run.

Many Instagram users trust influencers more than brands because they’re real people. That makes them more authentic and credible. So, if a respected creator paints your brand in a good light, their fans might give you a follow, too.

If you’re thinking of doing paid partnerships with creators, make sure you choose the right ones according to your goals. If you want to reach the biggest number of people possible, work with mega-influencers. But if you care more about tapping creators that have good engagement rates, consider micro-influencers.

But how much will these partnerships cost you? According to Statista, the average minimum fee per Instagram post for mega-influencers (more than one million followers) is $1,200. Meanwhile, for micro-influencers with 10k to 100k followers, the average minimum fee sits at $35.

3. Incentivize Customers for Posting User-Generated Content

You should also invest in efforts to encourage your customers to create user-generated content featuring your brand. User-generated content (UGC) refers to posts made by consumers that showcase a brand and its products and services.

Satisfied customers, not the brand itself, create this type of content, making it feel more authentic and genuine. It also allows more people to discover your brand. If a customer posts content showing off your brand’s products, all their followers will see it. That allows you to reach potential followers you wouldn’t otherwise have reached.

You might be asking—how does encouraging UGC cost you money? Well, it typically doesn’t. But if you want to inspire fans to make more UGC, you can do so by shelling out some cash.

You don’t have to pay your customers to make UGC for you. But you can incentivize them by giving out freebies and special discounts to those who post content about your brand. Instead of straight-up giving them money for their content, you “pay” them through these perks.

Make sure you advertise this on your page, too. If people know that you give gifts to those who make UGC, they might get inspired to make their own!

Another way to invest in user-generated content is by hiring a UGC creator to make authentic-looking content for you. This time, though, you’ll be straight-up paying the creator to do this.

UGC creators are freelance creators who produce branded user-generated content for a fee. Paying someone to create UGC is essentially like working with them rather than having it spontaneously posted. It’s kind of like an influencer sponsorship but more hush-hush, so the content still looks candid. You get UGC that promotes your brand without the hassle of convincing customers to do it on the fly.

4. Work With a Growth Service Like Path Social

If you want to grow your online fanbase, you can also put your money into an Instagram growth service. Don’t worry; growth services aren’t automated bots that give you fake followers or engagements. These third-party services use tools to promote your content and get more people on your page. If they like your content, these audiences might engage with your posts and maybe even give your account a follow.

Working with a growth service allows you to save time and focus on your business while still growing your page. Just make sure you enlist the help of a reputable one with lots of experience in the industry. Path Social is one such online growth service.

The Path Social team has spent a decade creating a proprietary targeting algorithm that pushes your content to real people. Just tell us who your target audience is; give us their age, location, gender, interests, and more. Then, we’ll make sure your content reaches their feed. Because our system allows more people to discover your business online, you’ll notice an increase in real, high-quality followers.

The best part is that working with us is completely safe. We never ask for your sensitive information, like your Instagram password. So, there’s no way for your account to be compromised.

Free Instagram Followers: 4 Instagram Marketing Strategies That Cost $0

Of course, not every business owner has unlimited cash to spend just to get new followers on social media. Many small business owners might be working with a tight budget. But don’t worry; there are also techniques to get free Instagram followers without spending a dime.

These free Instagram marketing strategies are more focused on the content you come out with to promote your brand. They might also not be as swift at delivering results, unlike the paid methods. However, these cost-effective growth methods allow you to build genuine, sustainable, long-term connections with potential followers. You can’t say no to that!

Do you want to know how to get followers for your Instagram page for free? Here are our four top tips.

Create High-Quality Content Your Target Audience Can Resonate With

You’ve probably heard this tip one too many times now, but we’ll say it again. If you put in the leg work to consistently produce high-quality content that excites your audience, you’ll get more followers.

Make sure every photo, video, and caption you put out on Instagram is original, creative, witty, entertaining, or thought-provoking. Don’t post uninteresting, low-quality content just for the sake of posting something online. Ensure that your content always enriches the lives of the people who see it. If it doesn’t intrigue people or catch their attention, it won’t make waves. And you always want people to find your content engaging.

If your content’s engagement rates skyrocket, the IG algorithm will prioritize your posts on the platform. That means more people can come across your content and possibly follow your account.

Aside from pushing your content out more, engaging posts can also help you build a stronger connection with your customers. They’ll remember authentic, relatable content that resonates with them. This is awesome for brand recall and maybe even fan loyalty.

Experiment With Different IG Content Formats

Instagram content is more than just pretty photographs. There are also a ton of other fun, trendy, creative formats you can use to spruce up your business page. Don’t limit yourself to typical photo and video posts on the feed. Expand your horizons and add other content types into the mix, such as carousel posts, Instagram Stories, and bite-sized Reels.

Experimenting with every creative format on Instagram makes your business profile look more dynamic and interesting. It allows you to do brand storytelling in so many unique, diverse ways.

This tells potential followers that you always keep things fresh on the platform. It gives them more incentive to follow your account.

Use Relevant Hashtags and Location Tags in Your Post Captions

Using hashtags and location tags in your content is a terrific way to reach people who don’t follow you yet.

See, each tag has its page on Instagram. Clicking on a hashtag or location directs people to that page. There, they can see all the top posts that used that tag. That means that adding relevant hashtags and geotags to your content increases the likelihood of people discovering your content.

Let’s take a closer look at the power of hashtags when it comes to Instagram growth. Aside from personal and business accounts, Instagram users can also follow their favorite hashtags. Now and then, the algorithm will show a few posts that use those hashtags on their feed.

If your posts perform well, the platform might push them out to people who follow the hashtags you used. Not only will this increase engagement for those posts, but it can potentially give you tons of new followers, too.

Just be sure not to include banned hashtags in your caption. Doing that will have the opposite effect. As a consequence, instead of boosting your visibility on the feed, the Instagram algorithm might limit it. Stick with trendy, relevant hashtags you know your target audience will be interested in.

Location tags, on the other hand, are especially useful if you want your business to gain local followers. Adding a geotag to your post allows you to connect with the local community from that area. It also makes your post more discoverable to those lurking on that tag’s main page. Make sure to take advantage of this feature if you’re a physical business wanting more followers from your local town.

Come Up With a Branded Instagram Challenge

Another way to get people to learn about your brand and follow your page is by starting an Instagram challenge. Think of a simple activity or task related to your brand that people can do for fun. Then, ask them to post it online and use your unique brand challenge hashtag.

This is a terrific strategy to try and go viral. When that happens, you’ll see new followers left and right. It also does so many other things to improve your brand health on social media. It helps you make a fun, emotional connection with your target audience and gain tons of online engagement.

Also, you don’t have to go as wild as the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge or the Spicy Noodle Challenge. The challenge can be simple, like posting an OOTD if you’re a fashion brand or a selfie with your products. The goal is to encourage people to do something fun so that more people can join and discover your brand. Hopefully, you come up with a challenge that goes viral and gives you tons of new followers!

Take Note of All These Tips on How To Get Instagram Followers for Your Business

There are plenty of ways to drive more follower growth for your Instagram business account. You can opt for paid techniques, such as ads, influencer partnerships, or hiring UGC creators and influencers. If you have a smaller budget, you can drive organic growth by focusing on creating engaging, high-quality content.

To give your biz the best chance at growing fast on Instagram, combine two or more of these strategies. Invest in what you can and work hard on your content. If you keep at it, you’ll reap the benefits of a high follower count and maybe even higher engagement rates.

Remember, one of the best strategies for how to get Instagram followers for your business is using a growth service. Path Social is one of the best in the market today. Our proprietary targeting tool helps you search for your niche audience. While you focus on your marketing efforts and running your business, we’ll promote your Instagram content to your potential customers. You’ll notice an increase not just in your followers but in overall engagement on your content as well.

Don’t lag behind your competitors. Build a solid community of followers for your business with our growth service today!