If you’re looking to promote your website, it’s well worth considering Instagram. With over a billion monthly active users, an array of engaging features, plus plenty of high-quality visual content, it’s ripe for getting your website seen.
Read on to discover how to use Instagram to promote your website in this guest post from Rodney Laws.
Focus on high-quality and relevant visuals
If you want to drive traffic from your Instagram to your website, your content needs to be on-point. The platform is all about visuals, and as such, you should focus on producing high-quality engaging content to suit.
Even amateurs can get started with this. Smartphones have a good camera and editing options built-in these days, and there are plenty of free resources to help you improve your photo skills. Otherwise, look to free stock photo sites for some inspiration to help guide your ideation.
The type of content you’ll produce will vary depending on your website’s niche, so start with your target audience. What kind of thing do they want to see? Identify their pain points and create strong visual content that caters to that.
For instance, let’s say you sell your arts and crafts through your website. To pique your followers’ interest and give them a peek behind the scenes of your process, include photos of your finished work as well as in-progress shots.
Combine your posts with a strong call to action that directs users to your website. Instagram doesn’t allow links in captions, so direct users to the link in your bio instead.
For a quick inspiration fix, check out your competitor’s Instagram accounts and see what they post. If it works for them, it’ll work for you too.
Make the most of a diverse Instagram hashtag strategy
Hashtags are the bedrock of an effective promotional strategy on Instagram. Users look to hashtags to connect with the content, accounts, and topics they care about, and the same applies to your website too.
Identify hashtags related to your website’s niche with a good hashtag research tool. Hashtagify is the most common, but there are other options available. These are easy to use — simply put in your relevant keywords and the tool will throw back a selection of related hashtags.
Don’t just opt for all and sundry with your hashtags, though. Use a combination of generic and specific hashtags to drive more diverse traffic to your promotional posts. For instance, if you run a beauty blog, a generic hashtag would be #makeup, while a specific one would be #makeuptipsforblondes.
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Get the basic elements right
If you want to use Instagram to promote your website, it’s important to get the basics right.
For starters, ensure your Instagram profile is up to scratch. Include a link to your website in your bio, and use a clearly-defined logo for your profile picture. Use the same logo across all your channels so people instantly recognize your brand.
Your bio itself should concisely convey what your brand is about: what work you do, what you can offer your audience, and so on. Short and snappy is key here.
It’s worth spending some time crafting the best captions for your Instagram content too. Use your first sentence as a hook that keeps users locked in, so it must be interesting.
And while you might read conflicting advice about the ideal caption length, if you want to unlock more likes, comments and reach, strive for quality over quantity. As long as it delivers value and keeps your followers engaged with your post, then it’s fine.
Look into Instagram ads to go the extra mile
While it’s entirely possible to craft an entirely organic promotional strategy on Instagram, if you’ve got the budget for it, a paid ad campaign will take it that extra mile.
Paid Instagram ads offer the added benefit of letting you target specific audience demographics based on their interests. This means that you can deliberately show your ads to people who are likely to be interested in what your website offers.
There are several different types of Instagram ads. Images, video, and carousel all offer you plenty of creative scope for promoting your website directly to your target audience. Plus you can track the success and analytics of each ad so you know what works, what doesn’t, and how best you should finetune your strategy.
Collaborate with influencers to get your website seen
Influencers were once solely the domain of big brands with big budgets.
But with the rise of micro-influencers (social stars with a modest follower count but closer ties with their community), influencers are now an accessible marketing channel that virtually every business can take advantage of.
Identify influencers that your target audience is likely to engage with — this useful guide is a good start. The key is to find those whose followers have an interest overlap with your niche. For instance, if you run a tech and gadget review blog, your chosen influencer might review a particular type of gadget, such as smartphones.
Work with your chosen influencer to create sponsored content promoting your website. This might come in a variety of forms — Q&As, product reviews, and so on. Remember to allow your influencer creative control over the content, as they know what works with their audience and, as a consequence, how to communicate with them too.
With the tips outlined above, you’re ready to start driving traffic from Instagram to your website. Follow the advice listed here, and you’ll enjoy a social marketing strategy that delivers for your website again and again.
Other Articles You’ll Enjoy
- How to Integrate Social Media Into Your WordPress Site
- How to Make Your WordPress Site More Shareable on Social Media
About the Author
Rodney Laws is an online entrepreneur who has been building online businesses for over a decade. Rodney uses his experience to help fellow entrepreneurs start and run their own companies. Find out how he can help you by visiting EcommercePlatforms.io or heading over to @EcomPlatformsio.
I totally get it.
You’re a freelancer or solo business owner. You need a website (or maybe you need to update the one you’ve got), but you don’t speak Geek and you just want to get it done.
You know that WordPress can make that website-building-thing a whole lot easier for you, but you’re not sure where to start. Or maybe you’ve bounced around a bunch of “helpful” sites and social media and now you’re more confused than when you started.
You just want to cut through the clutter, put up a site that will help you grow your business, and get back to the things you’d rather be spending your time on.
You need The WordPress Beginner’s Blueprint.
Hi Rodney. I’m Jonah from Hashtagify.me. I’ve just read your article and want to thank you very much for introducing our tool to your readers 🙂 Appreciate it a lot!