7 Steps to an Unforgettable Instagram Profile for your Business
Star Castle Studio provides artful entrepreneurs and makers with tips and custom-created visuals needed to beautifully run a professionally branded business and make an unforgettable impression online.
If you're an online business owner, like me, you probably spend a lot of time on Instagram. It's now become an essential tool for business, making it easier than ever to network, showcase work, find inspiration, engage with new people and more!
Your Instagram offers a glimpse into your business: so is it sending out the right message to potential leads?
You wouldn't walk into a networking event looking ruffled and all over the place. In today's online world, it's now become just as important to make sure your profile isn't the ugly ducking in the room. With consistent, branded visuals your brand can make an unforgettable impact on Instagram and finally start resonating with the people you've been dying to reach!
When someone new lands on your Instagram profile, you've got a few seconds to make an impression. Our attention spans are shorter than ever and it's key you hook people right away! You only have 150 characters (your bio) to write about who you are and what you do, so it's crucial your visuals are doing the heavy lifting of telling this story – after all a picture is worth 1000 words!
There are 3 main visual aspects to consider when upgrading your Instagram profile.
• Your highlight covers
• Your profile pic
• Your feed/grid (photos)
Each one is an opportunity to make an impression. Consider your Instagram profile as a restaurant: your profile image would be the free bread you get at the table, your highlight covers would be the appetizer, and your photos would be the main course. All should work together to illustrate your unique brand aesthetic, but each has a different purpose and best practices.
1. Branded Highlight Covers
Instagram's story feature is currently one of the most popular features of the app. Generally, users post more 'authentic' and 'raw' content here as it stays visible for 24 hours. That way, you're able to build relatable content (no script, no makeup, etc.) without the permanence of having it stay forever visible on your profile. Instagram highlights, however, allow you to curate, group and sort the stories you choose – and keep them visible for anyone visiting your profile, at any time.
Many businesses strategically share common themes of their content as highlights, and hope that viewers will watch and learn more about the brand and/or the people behind it. No matter what story highlights you come up with, you want people to actually watched them! Strategic highlights offer a deeper look into your business and they're a great way to connect and let your brand's personality truly shine! The best way to encourage a click-through is with gorgeous, on-brand highlight covers.
GET PEOPLE TO ENGAGE WITH YOUR CONTENT
Someone is much more likely to watch and engage with that content if it catches their attention visually. Have imagery that matches up with the theme of each highlight. For example, if you're sharing about your little one to connect with other mompreneurs – consider having a baby rattle or a bottle graphic. Something that gives the viewer an idea of what that group of stories is about, and entices them to check it out. Once visitors are watching your story highlights and getting to know more about your brand & business, you'll find more people start reaching out via DMs, commenting on your posts, and following your account!
Some recent custom highlights I created for clients.
Notice they’re all super unique to each individual brand aesthetic!!
Want your own custom highlights made?
I offer 5 for $100 here!
2. Memorable Profile Picture
Your profile pic will always show up pretty small on Instagram's interface. Intricate logos and/or small type will be lost when people are scrolling through their feed. Make sure it's legible, clearly yours, and eye catching. If you run a personal brand, maybe you're an artist, coach or a speaker, it's a great idea to choose an image where your face is clearly visible.
If possible, include a brand relevant, eye-catching detail (wear a hot pink top, sit on a bright beach towel, etc.). This will help grab viewer's attention and entice them to click to your profile. If you're more of a corporate company, use your logomark, emblem, or an abbreviated form of your logo. Something recognizable, that doesn't include too many details. Checkout @soulshineastrology to see this 'less-is-more' approach in action!
3. Cohesive Feed/Grid Photos
When you branded your business (whether on your own or with a designer) you probably considered the feelings, emotions, and style you wanted your brand to embody. Are those shining through your Instagram photos? Step back a bit to look at the big picture (I call it 'zooming out'), rather than getting fixated on each individual post. Overall, are things flowing well (no clashing colors, no cut off text, etc.)? Do your photos look like they were posted by the same account?
An easy way to achieve a cohesive look & feel is consistency.
If you post a quote every week, create a branded template you can use to speed things up and keep things on point. For extra spice: build a few versions that feature different hues from your brand color palette. Creating a consistent look doesn't have to mean creating complicated designs either. Maybe each of your posts include a simple border and the same editing style (checkout @outofmybloominmind to see how she cleverly uses white space to create a strong, consistent aesthetic)!
‘ZOOM OUT’ REGULARLY TO SEE HOW YOUR PROFILE, AS A WHOLE, IS LOOKING.
My favorite app for doing this is preview. Preview It's super simple to use, free to download, and even allows you to write up captions, save hashtags, schedule posts, and more! It's been a total game changer for me, my business, and how I tackle social media. I mainly use this app to move things around and make sure nothing looks totally out of place. It's also super helpful for me to ensure I'm not posting super similar pictures too close together.
For example, you could upload your newest batch of headshots and then know exactly how many graphics you need to create and add between them in order to not look like you're pulling from the same photoshoot for every post. Write out a bunch of captions on different photos when you're feeling particularly inspired, and then have content that's ready to post whenever you want – the possibilities are endless!
4. Be Consistent
GET NOTICED BY POTENTIAL CLIENTS/CUSTOMERS
Another bonus to consistently gut-checking that your posts align with your desired aesthetic, is that you start building brand recognition and familiarity with your audience! Whatever your brand offers, consider the fact that a prospect needs to have at 7 'touches' before they'll take action to buy a particular product or service.
That means you need to be showing up and sharing consistently to really make an impact!
Eventually, your audience should be able to see a post-pop up on their feed and immediately know it came from your brand. That consistent 'touch' of putting your brand out there through consistent visuals builds up the perception of your business and helps build up trust in what you deliver.
5. Ignore the trends
That popular preset, the gold scissors, that 70s style font... if it doesn't match your brand's intention and the feeling you want to convey to your audience, don't be swayed by your 'shiny object syndrome'. Stick to what makes your brand unique – it's the secret sauce to really standing out and getting noticed online.
While this post is mostly focused on creating impactful visuals for your Instagram, there are two key strategy points I think need to also be mentioned in order to get your profile working for your business: your ‘link in bio’ and the ‘call-to-actions’ you include in your captions.
6. Strategic Link in Bio
You get one clickable link on your Instagram profile. Unlike Facebook, where you can add links to individual posts, you're limited to one hyperlink, back in your main bio. Make sure this link is as user friendly as possible. It's a win to have someone click it, so if they do, make sure it's a home-run and they find exactly what they're looking for.
Many businesses rely on linktree to list all their frequently mentioned links in one place, but as a website designer I discourage this tactic for my clients. Adding a simple Instagram page on your website increases foot traffic to your site (hello boosted SEO) and provides the additional chance for a visitor to click through to elsewhere on your site!
Checkout my ‘link in bio’ Instagram page for inspiration!
7. Clear 'Call-To-Actions' (CTAs)
Just like a conversation you want to continue, never leave things stagnant in your captions. Social media is meant to be social, and people are looking to be engaged and inspired – use that to your advantage! For sales/promo posts, be super clear on where you want readers to go or what you want them to do (i.e. checkout my latest blog post, direct message/DM me, click the link in my bio).
For less straight-forward posts, end your caption with a question or a simple prompt. Throw the ball in your viewer's court and make it as easy as possible for them to throw back. Who knows? Maybe that conversation about their favorite 90’s song will turn into a lifetime friendship? That's the magic of social media and the interconnected world we live in. Don't miss out on these potential opportunities to connect – not just with potential clients/customers, but also just human-to-human!
Have a brand you love but are unsure how to implement on Insta?
I'd love to help you get everything looking branded, beautiful and unique to your business! Get totally custom graphics, made just for you, so your business never goes unnoticed!
