Instagram has changed the way that businesses generate leads. When used correctly, you can use it to generate leads for your business. The only problem is that there are a lot of tools out there and a lot that claim to help you. I’ve created this list of the best tools for generating leads on Instagram to help you if you don’t know where to start!
What are the best lead generation tools for Instagram? Or better yet, are there any? These are all popular questions asked by many business owners and online marketers. The simple answer is yes, these do exist. But before we get into that, let us first look at what even constitutes a lead generation tool – more importantly, one for Instagram
In this guide, I’m going to share with you my top Instagram lead generation tools that you can use to find leads and build your Instagram prospecting list. I used these tools in 2018 to land $100,000+ of deals – and you can use them as well.
In this guide, I share some lead generation tools that you can use on Instagram- including my go-to prospecting tool that makes it super easy to request people’s emails! These tools are great if you’re in a field like Insurance or Financial Services and you use Instagram to prospect for clients. Hope these help! Let me know what else you want to see in the comments below!
What is Instagram Lead Generation?
Lead generation is all about creating and building interest in the services and products your company is offering – SO much interest, in fact, that potential customers will give you their contact information! When they do this, that customer information is called a lead.
But customers aren’t always willing to give up their contact information that easily, right?
Therefore, leads can be gathered in several ways, such as:
- Directing users towards a landing page with a lead form where people can sign up to receive a discount
- Offering your audience a downloadable e-book or guide – also called a lead magnet – in exchange for their contact information
- Creating a giveaway or competition in which users need to enter their details for the chance to win – either online or in-person
That’s not all, though – there are a number of additional ways brands can score new leads. Sometimes brands might just offer to share discounts or deals in the future, or for a customer’s birthday. Often this is enticing enough for potential customers to subscribe, especially when they’re buying high-priced goods or services like luxury handbags or discounted holidays.
Sometimes content such as blog posts and tutorials might be a compelling enough reason for customers to turn into subscribers. It really depends on how effective your lead generations strategy is.
Whatever your lead generation method is, once you have collated a bunch of new leads, your strategy should be all about trying to convert those leads into fully-fledged customers.
Make use of Instagram ads
The first method that comes to our mind when talking about acquiring leads on Instagram is using ads. This is probably the simplest technique to start with. Remember that creating ads on Instagram requires you to have a business account, which means having a Facebook profile since all the Instagram ads are created right on Facebook.
So, go to the Ads Manager and click “Create.” Choose lead generation as your objective.
Then, you need to design your ad, define your target audience, decide upon the duration and budget for your ad campaign. Follow this step-by-step guide to create an advertising campaign.
Craft a perfect bio
Your bio on Instagram is kind of an elevator pitch, which helps you make the right first impression on your audience. Every potential client who considers your company would use your profile bio to judge your authority and credibility. Besides, it’s another chance for leads to get in touch with you and interact with your brand following the link. So, don’t undervalue this powerful tool and do your best to write a relevant bio. Below we shared some useful tips for you to have them at hand.
- Use your brand name. This is the first element people see when visiting your profile. Use your brand name as your account name so that users could easily find you. If this name is already taken, put it in the first part of your username.
- Add a recognizable photo. It will definitely strike your clients’ eyes. Ensure the photo is consistent via all channels your brand is present on to associate it with your company unconsciously. Take a professional photo of high quality and let it reflect your main message. Stick to up to 200*200 pixels size to display well on users’ smartphones.
- Select the category. It’s displayed under your name and helps you realize what your company does. This is an optional element. Although Instagram suggests only a few categories, there are thousands of them. If there’s no relevant category, start typing it and choose the appropriate one. It should best describe what you’re doing. You can update the category anytime.
- Write a relevant description. It’s the heart and soul of your Instagram bio. This information lets people know what your brand is unique about and what makes it stand out. You have up to 150 characters to make users familiar with your products and services. To make your description especially valuable, use keywords. Although they have no impact on Instagram search, they are handy for your target audience. They should reflect your business’s essence and address your clients’ needs, problems, and values. This way, you’ll sort out the people who’re really interested in your brand.
- Make use of hashtags. Incorporate clickable hashtags into your Instagram bio to boost customer engagement, collect clients’ reviews and user-generated content, promote your sub-brands, sister pages, and partners. After a user clicks on your hashtag, they’re redirected to its discover feed so they can explore all the content available. This will help trust your brand and make their first purchase, and loyal clients can share brand content.
- Include a powerful call-to-action and link. A CTA tells customers what they should do to benefit from using your service. Don’t underestimate the real value of this button. You can change it anytime to match your current business goals. If you have a big catalog of products, you can link to your website so that every user could choose the necessary product; if you’re promoting a time-limited campaign, encourage users to check out your offer; if you’re running a content, motivate users to participate in it. You can also nudge customers to share photos and videos of using your product so that you can collect user-generated content.
Check out an example of an informative bio below. Luxy Hair is a store providing hair extensions. This is clear from their description. The company explains that they help get long and full hair, which is delivered worldwide. They offer free shipping and an option “Shop now, pay later” to encourage more leads. Also, the brand uses relevant emojis to attract users’ attention.
They also provide a link to a website where users can find the answers to their questions, take the quiz, read useful articles, and watch tutorials. Everything is in one place.
You can create this kind of a link page for your Instagram bio in 15 minutes without any technical skills. SendPulse provides an easy-to-use drag and drop landing page builder for free. You can create your page from scratch or choose a pre-designed template and edit it to your liking. Add subscription widgets, buttons, links, payment options and track your link page performance with the help of reports.
Below you can see how creating a landing page in SendPulse looks like. You need to drag the necessary elements from the left to your layout and design them on the right.
Follow this step-by-step guide to create a landing page for free.
Add a call-to-action button to your profile
Adding a CTA to your profile makes it easier for your potential clients to take the first step. They can order food, reserve a ticket, book a beauty appointment directly from your profile. To add a button, you need to choose a website you want to connect to your business profile. First, create an account with the necessary app to integrate, for example, Acuity Scheduling, Appointy, Booksy, Fresha, GoDaddy Social, TableREquest, etc.
To add a CTA button, click “Edit Profile,” then scroll down and select “Contact Options,” and click “Add an Action Button.” You’ll see the list of third-party apps, choose the necessary one. After that, enter the link of your account with this app or any link you want to redirect your customers to after clicking the action button and tap “Submit.” Congrats, now the action button is active.
Below you can see an action button of Burger King. After clicking it, a user can immediately make an order.
Design a landing page that delivers
Congratulations! Someone has clicked on your link. Now you need a landing page that won’t make them regret the decision.
Hootsuite put together a guide for Instagram ad landing pages, and many of the tips apply here. The page should be scannable, create a seamless visual experience, and have a content that matches what people are expecting to find. Whatever promise your call-to-action sets up, your landing page should deliver.
For some brands, that means using tools that turn feeds into clickable landing pages. Shoe company Toms does this with a link to its website in the upper right corner.
Madewell takes a similar approach, but makes its feed more shoppable, with posts that itemize and link directly to its products.
Other brands elect to link to specific pages on their website. Take design house ban.do, which swaps out links depending on what it’s promoting. Around the holidays, a gift guide is a great idea.
Here are some handy link-in-bio tools.
Use the “Swipe Up” feature on Instagram Stories
Another place where Instagram lets people embed links is Instagram Stories. If your account has more than 10,000 followers, this is a feature you should use to your advantage. (Need more followers? We’ve got several tips that actually work.)
Not convinced? One-third of the most viewed Instagram Stories are from businesses. Plus brand-led Instagram stories have a completion rate of 85%.
Stories can be tend to be more effective than a bio link, since all it takes is a swipe to act on an impulse. Remember, don’t make someone regret the impulse. A good landing page is needed here, too.
How to add a link to Instagram Stories:
- From the feed, swipe right, or tap the plus icon by your profile picture in the top left corner.
- Capture or upload your content.
- Click the chain icon and add your link.
If the link will stay online long enough, consider adding the story to your highlights. This increases its visibility and gives second-guessers a chance to revisit.
Tailor creative around your goal
The best push for Instagram lead generation is a strong call-to-action. The two-to-six word phrases like swipe up, shop now, click the link in our bio, can pack a lot of punch—especially when paired with the right content.
Your visuals and your call-to-action should always work together to fulfill the same goal. If you’d like someone to click the link in your Instagram bio, your post and caption should entice them to do so. Your call-to-action should be the final push or nudge in that direction. Want someone to swipe up on your Instagram Story? Give them a reason to do it.
On posts, draw attention to your call-to-action with an emoji. In Instagram Stories, use stickers or text to give your audience direction. Make sure that your creative leaves room for these call-to-actions, and doesn’t overcrowd the “See More” icon.
Share valuable content consistently
A rule of thumb when it comes to marketing is delivering value to your target audience. When you share valuable content with your audience consistently, your brand will earn more credibility and trust.
As such, brand owners should focus on value-addition as opposed to being promotional. This involves sharing high-quality and informative content that resonates with your target audience.
By doing so, you’re bound to enhance the level of engagement, increase your follower count, and gain more leads. As a marketer, you’ll realize that the more value you provide, the more fruitful your lead generation efforts will be.
Engage with your audience
Engaging with your followers is arguably the most effective way of growing your Instagram account and generating more leads. If you’re not social, you will hardly enjoy success when it comes to social media marketing.
An easy way to increase engagement is by responding to comments and posts that feature your brand. Whenever your brand is mentioned, always respond with a thoughtfully crafted comment. Use relevant hashtags, emojis, GIFs, and related images to make your comments more human and engaging.
You can also ask some follow-up questions to keep the conversation moving. Anything that makes your brand appear more friendly and accessible on social media will win you more followers, and eventually, more leads.
Use Instagram stories and live videos
Instagram stories and live videos can be a gold mine for generating leads when used correctly. Thousands of users log in to Instagram every day to check stories posted by their friends as well as favorite brands.
You can use Instagram stories to share valuable content that resonates with the target audience. Instead of posting marketing copy or promotional content, focus on adding a human touch to your brand interactions by sharing testimonials from customers.
Creating videos that tell true stories on how customers have had a positive experience with your brand helps build trust with the online community.
Besides customer stories, you can also use live videos to answer questions or address concerns raised by your audience. All these tactics help generate high-quality leads that have a huge potential of becoming lifetime customers.
Is Instagram a good place to generate leads?
So far so good. But perhaps you’re wondering if Instagram is the right platform for generating leads?
Instagram lead generation can be super successful – but only if you do it the right way.
First of all, Instagram has proven to be one of the most effective marketing tools when it comes to raising awareness and prompting users to engage and take action.
Two out of three people said that Instagram enables them to interact with brands, in the “Project Instagram” survey in 2018
What’s more, a huge number of companies are using Instagram to not only grow their subscribers and gain more followers but also to turn prospective customers into actual buying customers.
Wanna see an example?
Popular British fashion brand, Pepe Jeans used its Instagram profile to launch a new campaign to “rejuvenate its brand using Instagram Stories”, according to Instagram.
Image Source: Instagram
As we can see, the campaign reached over 5 million people and gave the fashion brand a five-point lift in brand familiarity.
Even though Pepe Jeans is undoubtedly a popular brand already, this doesn’t mean that small businesses with more conservative budgets can’t find similar success on Instagram.
This is only one out of endless examples of brands that are using the power of Instagram lead generation.
Conclusion
Instagram is still relatively a new platform in terms of business marketing and advertising. However, there are many businesses that have already turned to Instagram to boost their brand recognition and get huge exposure. But with the rise of Instagram come a huge number of scams, frauds, and rip-offs focusing on getting users to install apps that can infect their phones or take over direct messages.
Generating leads for your business with Instagram ads can be difficult. These simple tools will help extract and organize clients from your outreach efforts so you can turn more of your prospects into buyers.