One of my YouTube viewers, Karen,
recently asked me if I could share some Instagram tips for restaurants,
or local brick and mortar businesses. If this is you, if you have a local shop,
whether it's a hair salon, a yoga studio, a dental office,
a restaurant, you're in the right place, because in today's video,
I'm going to walk you through how you can use arguably the world's number one
platform, Instagram,
to grow your business organically for free and bring in more foot
traffic to your shop.
And be sure to stay until the end where I'm going to share the number one thing
you can do with your account so that it will continue to grow no matter what
changes happen with the Instagram algorithm. So get cozy and let's dive in.
As I walk you through how to grow your brick and mortar business on Instagram,
I'm going to cover three areas. The first being your profile, then your content,
and then your strategy.
So let's talk about creating the perfect Instagram profile for your brick and
mortar business.
The first thing you'll want to do with your Instagram profile is give it a bit
of a makeover. So the first area I start with is your profile picture.
A lot of times people will put their logo as their profile picture,
but most logos are very busy.
And when you look at an Instagram feed, your profile picture is tiny.
You'll barely be able to see your profile picture.
So if you have a busy logo,
I would recommend to not use that as your profile picture,
but instead choose a lifestyle image. Maybe,
if you're a restaurant you're known for one really great dish: pizza,
maybe that's the image that you want to use in your profile picture. Now,
if you really want to use your logo, maybe don't use your entire logo,
but use a favicon version of it. Here's an example of what I mean.
For more information on how to create a profile picture that really pops in the
feed, check out this video right here.
The next stop on the profile makeover is the name field.
Now this field is actually searchable and a lot of business owners will simply
repeat their business name in this name field, because it makes logical sense.
However,
you can be a little bit more strategic and put key words that your target
people would be searching for on Instagram, AKA, your location.
You are a local based business.
So for sure you want to get your location, your city,
your neighborhood in your name field. Take a look at how The Academy does it.
Their username is @theacademytoronto, but in their name field,
they've put Toronto martial arts.
That's because they want to be found if anyone is searching for Toronto martial
arts on Instagram. Next,
you're going to want to write a bio that really stands out because your bio is
your first impression.
I have done a full video on how to write a bio for your business,
which you can check out right here. Now because you are a local business,
a brick and mortar shop,
be sure to add your address and your contact info into your
profile.
This is a feature that's especially applicable to you because you want to drive
people into your shop. So be sure to make this really clear on your profile.
Last but not least on your profile. Let's talk about highlights. Now,
Highlights are saved stories that live right below your profile
and they can live there as long as you want.
I have done a whole video on highlights right here you can check out,
but just a few tips here for you as a local business:
make sure that some of your highlights include your hours,
your location,
product or service highlights frequently asked questions and maybe even your
team. Okay, now that we've given your profile a bit of a makeover,
let's talk about your content.
What can you post as a local business to attract local people?
My first tip here is to use local hashtags. So again,
think about your city, your neighborhood,
what are some hashtags or phrases that people use in your community?
Go ahead and search those hashtags. Make a list of them.
Find 30 hashtags that are related just purely to your location,
your city or your neighborhood,
have these hashtags handy for when you're posting to your feed or your stories
and add them to your posts. That way when someone is looking up #Atlantamoms,
for example, if your business is relevant to that audience,
your posts are going to be found for that hashtag.
Next let's talk about your Instagram stories and content features that you have
there because there are quite a few features that are designed just for you,
a local business.
The first sticker you can use in your stories is the location tag.
This is perfect for you. Be sure to be adding your location to your stories.
And then when someone is looking at the page for your location,
your stories have a chance at being shown to new people.
If relevant to your business,
you could look at adding other stickers like gift cards or food orders last but
not least.
My favorite method to use stickers in stories is to simply tag other relevant
accounts. So for example, if you are a yoga studio,
why not tag the juice shop down the street and give them a shout out?
What happens next is the juice shop will be able to reshare your story to
their followers. Therefore getting more exposure in front of their audience.
Now I know that might sound complicated,
but this visibility method is tried and proven, it works.
And I've actually broken down this whole system right here in this video.
Go ahead and check it out.
I also teach this method inside of my product Story Vault,
which I'll link right below this video. Continuing on content,
other content that you as a local business can make to grow your business on
Instagram are videos. I'm talking Reels, and IGTV.
Here's an example Reel that a coffee shop made to grow their business.
And here's a snippet of an IGTV,
which is a much longer video than a Reel from a yoga studio.
Last but not least when it comes to content on Instagram,
one relatively new feature that you can experiment with is Instagram
guides.
If you run a local business with a physical address or a physical location,
you could make a places based guide that will actually collect user
generated content from people who have tagged your location.
If this sounds intriguing at all,
check out my full video on Instagram guides right here. Okay.
We've covered your profile. We've covered your content.
Let's talk strategy as a local based business.
One thing that you should consider is collaborating with other influencers in
your area. So for me, I'm mostly in Toronto.
I can go ahead and find Toronto bloggers or Toronto influencers
who I can collaborate with,
maybe even pay or offer my product to for free in exchange for a shout out
on their channel. Check out this account, @BrazilianFoodie,
who does tons of collaborations with Toronto based restaurants.
[Upbeat Techno Music].
Now what's the number one thing that you,
as a local brick and mortar business can do with your account,
no matter any algorithm changes that happen?
You'll want to engage proactively with your current and prospective
followers. That's it, it's just that simple.
Sometimes as local brick and mortar accounts,
we feel like we need tens of thousands of followers to get the customer inflow
that we really want.
But the truth is just with even a thousand followers and cultivating
relationships, you can drive sales and drive traffic into your shop.
For more on this strategy go ahead and check out my video right here on how to
boost your Instagram engagement. So there you have it.
All the latest and greatest strategies for you as a local brick and mortar
business to grow through Instagram. Now,
if you're feeling a little stuck on content ideas,
whether it's for your Instagram stories or even your captions,
I have something really cool for you. Two things, actually.
One is Story Vault.
Story Vault is 800 done for you Story ideas that you can
use to grow your local brick and mortar business.
You get 400 B2B ideas and 400 B2C.
So chances are you're going to want the B2C ideas.
Go ahead and check out StoryVault.co or I'll leave the link right below this
video. Now, if you're good with your Instagram stories,
but you want some help with your captions, I got you there.
How would you like 300 done for you Instagram caption templates?
Caption Vault comes with 100 caption templates for a service-based business,
100 for a coaching business and 100 for product business.
So for you as a local brick and mortar business,
you probably offer services or products.
So if you're curious about getting caption templates done written for you,
I'm talking over 20,000 words already written for you.
Go ahead and check out CaptionVault.co. And again,
I'll leave the link right below this video. To ease and revenue.
I'll see you in the next video.
Thanks for watching today's training on Instagram for local brick and mortar
businesses. If you liked it,
don't forget to subscribe and hit the bell so that you don't miss any future
trainings just like this one.