How to optimise your Instagram bio.

Crafting an effective Instagram bio optimised for small business marketing can be a challenge, to say the least. Summarising your business, what it stands for, and how to purchase your products and services in under 150 characters is no small feat. But don’t stress, we've broken down the elements that make up a successful and effective Instagram bio to get you on track for social media growth and future sales!

So first things first, why does your Instagram bio even matter?

Your Instagram bio plays a crucial role in your customer journey as in many cases, this will be the first thing they see when clicking on your profile from a sponsored post, hashtag, or the explore page.

Those 150 characters will be the first thing they will look for when trying to work out what you do and how they can purchase your product or service.

Let's say you own a bakery and your feed is filled with delicious looking baked goods. You’ve managed to capture the perfect melt-in-your-mouth Instagram posts but you've forgotten to put the location of your store in your Instagram bio.

The user isn’t going to bother DM’ing you to ask where you're located, instead, they're most likely to click back onto the explore page and continue on their day, doughnut free and yearning for a baked treat. Here you are completely unaware that you’ve missed out on a new potential customer.

Okay okay, so we now know your Instagram bio is important. How do we get started?

1. Name and username

Your name and username is your brand’s identity and a way for people to find your profile. In a lot of cases, you will want your name and username to be the same as your brand name. In some instances when your brand name is long, stick with a commonly used abbreviation for your brand name in your Instagram username and use the longer version in your Instagram name in your bio.

For example, St Ali Coffee Roasters has @st_ali for their username and St. Ali Coffee Roasters in their name in their bio. This means when someone stumbles across the store and wants to tag their café in their Insta #coffee shot, they can easily find @st_ali when searching for this in the search bar.

2. Profile Photo

Just like your name and username is your brand's ‘identity’, your profile photo is the visual accompaniment. This photo should be the brand identity or logo you typically display throughout your business's communications. If you don’t have a logo or package shot to use here, this should be a visually pleasing image that tells a story about your business and what you are trying to sell.

See the @thegrounds - they have placed their logo in their profile photo and it looks clean and very recognizable. Users will click through from their profile and land on The Grounds' landing page and won't think they've taken a wrong turn. Everything in their branding from their website through to their social media is consistent and recognizable.

3. Website

This is your conversion tool where all your hard work comes to fruition. This is also the only place on the platform where you can actually have a click-able link so be sure not to waste the opportunity.

When in doubt, simply paste a link to your website. However, it is a much better idea to use a tracking service like linktree or link in bio. These apps allow you to have a direct link from the post to a page on your site, meaning users don’t need to dig around your website to find what they are looking for and instead are taken directly to the featured content or product.

4. Category

Don’t forget to click on a category. This part can help to define what your products and services are and as it is placed directly under your business name, it frees up space within your bio to write more about other aspects of your business.

5. Call to action buttons

You can also free up more space in your bio by creating clickable call to action buttons. These buttons allow users to take a particular action directly from the mobile app.

6. Contact Information

Make the most of the email and call buttons, again allowing you to free up space in your bio to talk more about your business and what it is all about.

7. Instagram bio

Okay, this is the crucial bit here. The 150 characters really need to define what you do, what you’re trying to sell, and why users should love your business over your competitors.

We've split the bio into three lines to give you a clear guide on how to make this the most effective for your business.

First line:

Who are you and what are you selling?

Second Line:

Where are you located?

Third line:

How can people buy your products or services?

A great example is @lucyliumelbourne’s Instagram bio as it clearly defines who they are, what they are selling, AND it also tells users where they can book a table.

Another great example is @aesopskincare. As they are located in many stores throughout Australia they have used their extra characters 'otherwise used for location' to explain what they are selling, what they stand for, and why you should buy them.

The three highlighted core values “founded in 1987”, “vegan”, and “cruelty-free” are important aspects of the business that people might instinctually connect to and want to buy.

To wrap it all up...

An effective Instagram bio can not only help to propel your social media audience but can convert followers to potential customers. It's simple to do and may just free up some time you might spend otherwise answering various DM messages for more business info.

If you think you might like an expert to optimise your Instagram bio, please get in touch at hello@thesocialdeli.co

We also have plenty of social media services and as we can work virtually as well as in-person we can reach you throughout various locations around Australia including Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, and Canberra.