Instagram for most businesses functions as a landing page and storefront. If you’re not optimizing your profile section it’s probably killing your discoverability and conversions.
Your profile page has a few key elements that are the most important:
- Your Profile Image
- Your Name
- Your Bio
- Your Highlights
- Your Pinned Content
In this blog we are going to cover the first four items, if you need help identifying what type of posts to pin to your profile, check out our blog: “What your 3 Pinned posts on Tiktok and Instagram Should Be”.
Profile Image
If you’re going to use a photo, make sure it’s crisp and clean. If it’s of the business owner, I usually opt for a headshot.
No selfies, no filters.
You can remove the background to change the background color to match your brand colors.
If you’re going to use your logo, use an icon.
One of the biggest mistakes business owners make is using their primary logo that has horizontal text. In order to make it fit they have to shrink it so small that nobody can read what it says. Not only does this lose prime real estate they could be leveraging for brand awareness, but it also is likely hurting your credibility as it looks significantly less professional.
Not sure which to use? If you’re a solopreneur operating a service based business, 9/10 times I recommend a photo of yourself. If you’re a product based business, then I’m likely going to recommend your logo.
Name
Most users don’t know this… but your name on instagram is what’s searchable, not your username. When your potential customers are searching for solutions and businesses on instagram, this is what you need to leverage to rank.
So what should your name include?
Instagram recently increased the characters allowed – thank god!
Here’s a general formula:
Business name, product / service, location
Saturday Media | Content Marketing | Raleigh, NC
Shark Creative | Brand Designer | Seattle, WA
Bio
Your bio should answer the following:
- Who your target audience is
- Who you are
- What you do
- Why we should trust you
You don’t need to explicitly answer each of these questions in order to effectively communicate them.
One I love is @honeywavecreative on Instagram, here’s why:
Her bio:
Helping service providers grow their biz with brands and websites Built in a Day
Amazon Prime of Website Design
MBA | Multi 6-Figs | 300+ Websites
This tells us that her target audience is service providers, she does branding and websites, her unique value proposition and tagline is that she builds each in a day “Amazon Prime of Website Design” and gives credibility in her last line. You could also mention press here as social proof “ft. in @forbes @msnbc”.
Highlights
Last but not least, your highlight reel.
There’s a ton of opportunity here to dive deep on what makes you and your business unique – and showcase social proof.
The #1 must have a highlight reel is customer reviews and content.
This builds credibility, as viewers can identify with and connect with your customers. They see themselves in the before, and can picture themselves with the ideal results after.
Other highlights could include
- A detailed overview of each service or product you offer
- Behind the scenes of your last launch
- Your last in person event
- Your team
- Press you’ve gotten
What’s next?
Next is your pinned posts (you get 3!) which you can read about in our blog post here!
Looking for a content strategy that connects with your ideal customer and converts? Contact us – we’d love to chat!
