How do I create an Instagram business account?

What is it?

Instagram is widely used by businesses to grow their brand and connect with customers easily. A business Instagram account is free and offers additional features that help you better showcase and grow your business.

With a business account, you get access to Instagram Analytics, which gives you valuable insights into your followers and your performance. You can view statistics such as reach, impressions and engagement. This data will help you better understand your target audience and tailor your content accordingly. This allows you to respond to your followers' interests in a more targeted way.

In addition, a business profile allows you to advertise on Instagram. You can promote posts or create ads to increase brand awareness, drive more traffic to your website and boost sales. Instagram offers different ad formats, such as photos, videos, carousels and stories. You can target your ads very specifically to certain audiences, e.g. based on location, age, interests or behaviour.

Another advantage of a business account is that you can schedule posts, link products or services directly and add contact details, such as your address, phone number and email address. It also makes it easier to set up promotions and collaborations with influencers.

In short: with a business Instagram account, you get the most out of this platform to grow your business.

What are the benefits?

Instagram's business account offers numerous benefits.

Instagram shopping
Instagram shopping allows you to promote products directly on Instagram. Tag products in your posts and stories to enable shopping features and direct customers to your website to make a purchase.

Instagram Analytics
View valuable data and statistics to optimise your Instagram. You get data like number of profile visits, number of impressions, reach and demographic information. You get insight into which content resonates best with your followers so you can adjust your strategy.

Promoted posts
Increase your visibility and reach new potential customers by promoting your posts. You can set a budget and target audience to increase engagement and traffic.

Contact button
Add a contact button to your profile. This will make it easy for customers to contact your business. The contact button can be set up to call, text, email or message your business.

Branded content
Tag other brands you collaborate with to increase your visibility. When you tag a brand, your post is more likely to have greater reach.

Instagram ads
Create ads to promote your business to a new audience on Instagram. You can do this with both photos and videos. Choose from different ad formats to achieve your marketing goals.

Schedule messages
With a business account, you have the ability to schedule messages. Ideal to use when you go on holiday. For example, as an influencer, you can keep sharing content about a particular collaboration during your holiday. You can also use this feature to schedule your content for a certain period of time. This way, you make more efficient use of your time

Roadmap

How should I switch to a business account?

1. Click on your profile picture at the bottom right
2. Go to the menu icon (☰)
3. Click on tools and settings for creators
4. Click on change account type
5. Click on switch to company account
6. Click on switch

To display or hide company information on your profile, go to your profile and tap 'Edit profile'. Under 'Public company information', go to 'Display profile' to choose whether to show or hide your category label and contact details. Then tap 'Done'.

How do I optimise my profile?

Now that you have created your Instagram business account, you can start optimising. By optimising smartly, you will ensure visibility with potential customers. Here are a few tips to make the most of your business page.

Connect to your Facebook business page
By linking your Instagram business account to an existing Facebook business page, you can run ads on both platforms and get additional analytics.

Choose a category
Choose a category that best represents your business, such as retail, restaurant or professional services. This will help Instagram understand your business and show your content to the right audience.

Add contact details
Enter essential details such as your business e-mail, phone number and a physical address. This information will be displayed on your public business profile.

Enable messages
Enable posts so customers can contact you directly on Instagram. Make sure you check posts regularly and respond immediately.

Conclusion

An Instagram business account offers numerous opportunities to make your business professionally and strategically visible on social media. Thanks to the extra features such as statistics, advertising options and contact buttons, you can better meet the needs of your followers and attract new customers. By setting up your profile properly and cleverly optimising it, you will get the most out of your presence on Instagram.