Do you have a dedicated audience on Instagram? Want to convert your Instagram followers to leads?
In this article, you will learn how to combine CTA (Calls to action) with Instagram features to get more leads for your business.
Contents
1: Link your profile bio to a lead generating landing page
In order for Instagram to generate leads, you must ensure that your profile is optimized correctly.
Your Instagram profile should have all the key components ready. Upload a good profile picture and write a good description that explains who you are, what you do and why the visitor should care about your company.
In addition, the URL and action buttons should be formatted correctly for easy use.
The link in your Instagram bio is a gold mine for collecting leads. Write your profile description to include a call (CTA). The link itself should point directly to the landing page for your download, registration, opt-in or other offer you have. Make sure the landing page contains a form to gather detailed information about your lead.
2: Include a CTA in your Instagram posts
To get the most out of your bio link, it is best to create content in your feed that drives users to that link.
@HubSpot launches a new feature in their free version of the software and encouraged their target audience to click on the link in their bio to see the news and register an account. This call is simple and effective as it appeals to their existing target audience and drives traffic to the site which is optimized to generate leads through free software.
There are many creative ways you can use the link in your Instagram profile to collect leads, depending on how you use your website and what lead capture technology you have.
For example, if you use a pop-up to collect email addresses on your site, you can use your bio link to send visitors to a blog post or information page.
To get more reach for your CTA post, encourage your followers to share it in their Instagram stories. Most users know how and can share a regular Instagram post to their story. When a user shares your post in their story, your post can be clicked and viewers can visit both your post and your profile directly from the Instagram story. This helps you reach new audiences, all thanks to your existing followers.
Pro tips: For an accurate measurement of your Instagram lead generation, use a dedicated landing page on your website with a URL shared only on Instagram. Then, go through your site analysis to see the number of visits from Instagram as well as the behavioral flow and/or conversion of visitors after landing on this page.
3: Share Instagram stories to generate leads
One of the first things to think about current lead generation in Instagram Stories is to use swipe up links to drive viewers to a specific link they can click on.
Pro tips: If you regularly use swipe-up links in your stories, you can save them on your Instagram highlights to create a gallery of content that people can visit long after the story is uploaded. This content continues to drive opt-ins or registrations to your lead magnet.
The Swipe up link is currently only available for Instagram company profiles with more than 10,000 followers and verified accounts. So it is not applicable to everyone.
But there are other ways you can use Instagram stories!
Add a CTA to your story
Although you may not be able to use the swipe-up link in your stories, you can still encourage viewers to click on the link in your bio, as you do in a regular post.
4: Broadcast on IGTV to generate leads
One of the best marketing features of IGTV is that your video descriptions can be long and can contain a clickable link regardless of your followers size! So anyone can add a clickable link to the video description.
There are many ways to use a lead magnet as your link in the IGTV description.
You can include a link to a free PDF download that provides more information on the topic being addressed in your video. Or you can link to an opt-in page for a coaching video with more information on the topic of the IGTV video.
Remember that IGTV is a channel that people use to watch video and that they do not necessarily open or read the full description. For best results with IGTV video description links, make sure you invite viewers several times during the video to receive your download or additional information by clicking the link in the video description.
5: Combine IGTV and Stories for effective lead generation
Many accounts that do not qualify for the swipe up link in stories have the option of inserting a swipe up link into their IGTV channel. In this situation, follow these steps to generate leads:
- Create a video for IGTV that covers the topic related to your homepage or opt-in. Be sure to mention the link in the video description.
- Include the link to the homepage in your IGTV video description.
- Design a post (or series of posts) for your Instagram stories that mention or discuss the topic of your IGTV video.
- Post a swipe-up link to your IGTV video in a story post.
- Refer people to the swipe-up link to watch the video.
This method will drive users from your Instagram story to your IGTV channel and video, and finally to your homepage.
Of course, this requires some extra steps from both you and the viewer. But the quality of the leads you generate with this strategy will ensure that they are some of the most likely to convert.
Pro tips: Instagram lets you create a teaser of your IGTV video that you can share directly to your Instagram story. This creates an instant link back to your IGTV video so that the image can be used in the same way to drive traffic to your IGTV channel.
Conclusion
Instagram is not a platform that marketers prefer for lead generation.
Unlike Facebook, LinkedIn and other platforms, Instagram does not offer the ability to include links in posts, nor does it offer the usual tools for generating leads. And as a visual platform with truncated captions in the stream, most users are not looking for links or alternatives to click on.
Most marketers understand the value of lead generation. We appreciate the opportunity to take followers from our social media and into our own platforms.
And while other companies can bypass the option of using Instagram for leads, these tips can start using your Instagram profile as another lead generating tool for your business.
Instagram has various creative ways to drive leads for your business. In the end, you want to direct users to the link in your bio, use the swipe up link in your stories, or use your IGTV video descriptions to drive traffic to your landing page.
What do you think? Are you surprised at how you can use Instagram for lead generation? Or are you already using some of these methods for your business? Please share your thoughts or tips in the comments below.
