There are more than 2 billion monthly active users on Instagram worldwide.
And so many people are tapping into that audience and making money off the platform.
So how can you, as a business owner, get in on that?
We see so many videos on how influencers make money on Instagram, but how can your business make money on Instagram?
That’s exactly what we’re covering in this post so stick around.
Today, we’re going to talk about how to make money on Instagram specifically as a business owner or entrepreneur.
And, we’re breaking it down into our top 6 methods. Let’s get started!
6 Methods On How To Make Money On Instagram
1. Partner with an influencer
Now some of you may be like, “Wait a minute- you just said this post was for business owners, not how to make money being an influencer.”
That is correct!
As a business owner, you can partner with influencers to put your brand in front of their thousands or millions of followers and drive awareness and sales.
We have an entire Instagram influencer marketing post that you can read next, so we’re not going to spend too much time talking about it again here.
But if you did read that post, then you know that businesses are making $5.20 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing.
So if you’ve never dabbled in influencer marketing before, we would highly suggest you read that post next to see if it could be a good fit for your business.
More often than not, it is a pretty lucrative option for small businesses…
…to quickly earn some brand-consumer trust, large quantities of brand awareness, and most importantly, direct sales.
2. Sell your products directly via Instagram
Both last year and this year, Instagram has been making a huge push to transform itself.
From solely being a photo-sharing app to doubling as an eCommerce platform for creators and small business owners to take advantage of.
So if you want to know how to make money on Instagram and if you sell products, you definitely want to get them listed on IG.
That’s because you’re just giving people another quick and easy way to purchase from you.
For a lot of consumers, a big objection they often have to purchase from a small business for the first time is that they’ve never heard of it prior.
They can feel hesitant about inputting their payment info into a website that may look simplistic, dated, or less than polished.
Instagram, being a widely used and well-trusted app, helps to bridge that gap between consumers and your business.
This so that they feel confident and comfortable purchasing from you.
After they’ve purchased from you once, it’s infinitely easier in their mind to do it again in the future.
But having them purchase from you on Instagram that first time can help them get over that initial hump.
If you want to learn how to set up Instagram shops, you can read this post next.
3. Run Instagram ads
36.2% of B2B decision-makers use Instagram to research new products or services.
And 81% of people, in general, use Instagram to help research products and services.
So it’s safe to say that whether you’re B2C or B2B…
…you can find your audience in a buying mindset on Instagram, and you can capitalize on that by delivering Instagram ads to them.
A conversion campaign will send people from Instagram directly to your website.
With this campaign, you can track either website sales or lead form completions depending on the nature of your business.
And because Facebook owns Instagram…
…you can run a super optimal, targeted, and efficient conversion campaign on Instagram from the Facebook Ads Manager.
Now, we have several posts on Instagram ads here in our blog.
So we recommend you to read the ones that look like they will best answer any questions you have about that.
Otherwise, for this post, it’s just worth mentioning that Instagram ads can make for a profitable means to make money on Instagram.
4. Play the long game
What do we mean by this?
Well, in addition to some of the methods we’ve mentioned so far on how to make money on Instagram that leads to direct and immediate sales…
…it’s also important to keep the marketing funnel and people’s buying journey in mind.
As we alluded to earlier, a lot of people will need to get more familiar with your brand and build trust with you before purchasing.
Instagram is a great way to do that by creating posts for people who are in the awareness and engagement phase of your marketing funnel.
It’s absolutely free to post content on Instagram.
So you can implement a smart posting strategy to offer brand-transparency and build that brand-consumer trust organically.
Now if you have no idea what we’re talking about with the awareness and engagement phase…
…or what your marketing funnel looks like, better read this post after.
This post will tell you what kind of content to create based on where people are at in your marketing funnel.
But ultimately, if you’re leveraging Instagram to fuel your marketing funnel with new, qualified people…
…you can expect customers to come out of that the further along they move down your funnel.
Now before we move on to our last two money-making methods, we want to quickly remind you to check out our new social media ads training course.
If you want to make the most of your social media ads, this is the perfect course for you.
5. Sell shoutouts on your page
Depending on where you’re at in your small business journey, you may have thousands or even hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers already.
And other Instagram accounts may want to work with you and take advantage of that.
Here is an example of what this could look like.
Let’s say you sell yarn and knitting supplies and you have 10,000 followers.
An up-and-coming influencer who does how-to-knit tutorials on her Instagram page…
…but does not have a ton of followers yet may reach out to you to see if they can pay you to mention their account on your Instagram.
It’s almost like the reverse of influencer marketing where someone is paying you to mention their account on your page…
…instead of you paying them to mention your business on their page.
It can be a quick way to make some cash on Instagram, but you just want to make sure that you’re obviously not promoting rival businesses on your page.
In this yarn business example, the business owner partnered with an influencer who is in the same industry.
And therefore has content their followers would probably like, but the influencer is not going to steal any business from the yarn supply store.
If anything, the influencer is going to get people more interested in learning how to knit and that will lead people to purchase their supplies from the yarn store!
So when this method is done well, you can not only make immediate cash from the person you’re selling the shoutout to…
…but it can also drive more customers in the end.
Now if you’re wondering how much you should sell shoutouts for, the general rule of thumb is that you charge $0.01 per follower.
So if you have 5,000 followers, you can charge $50 per post that you create mentioning the account you’re working with.
But this can vary depending on if you’re doing more than just a feed post such as an additional Instagram story, Reel, etc.
6. Monetizing your Lives
If you didn’t catch our latest new Instagram updates post.
You may have missed the news that Instagram has released badges people can pay for to use during your Lives.
Instagram said,
“By enabling badges, you can get paid for the Live content you’re creating.
Your viewers can purchase badges in increments of $0.99, $1.99, and $4.99…
…and as supporters, they receive a unique thank you message, and extra visibility in your Live.”
So you can get paid just for going Live- and going Live is free!
If you’ve never done a Live before and are a little nervous about it…
…or if you don’t know what Lives are really, here’s our live streaming post for you to check out next.
But it’s definitely worth looking into the more followers you get as another tool to monetize your audience on Instagram.
So those are the top 6 methods on how to make money on Instagram!
If you’re looking for Instagram marketing services to work with, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us today.
Other Instagram Marketing Resources
- How To Plan A Cohesive Instagram Feed For ANY Business
- This Is What Instagram Says To Do For Big Reach
- 8 Instagram Metrics Every Business Should Monitor
- Fresh Ideas For Instagram You Can Use to Market Your Business
- Instagram vs Pinterest: Which is Best for Your Business?
- How to Take Instagram Photos That Amaze Even the Best Photographers
- Is an Instagram Pod the Latest Revelation in Advertising Your Business?
- Top 10 Benefits of Instagram for Business
- Planning Instagram Feed: How to Create an Aesthetic One For Your Brand
- Creating Content on Instagram: How to Create Content from Scratch