The perfect Instagram Profile – give your profile a makeover

Having your Instagram Profile set up the right way can make a HUGE difference in the number of followers you attract and the sales you make from your Instagram Profile.

In this blog post, I want to walk you through how to create a great instagram profile and what to pay attention to.

WHY OPTIMIZE YOUR INSTAGRAM PROFILE?

Why should you pay attention to your instagram profile and give it a regular makeover? Here’s why: if someone checks out your profile, they will take about 3 seconds to get a first impression and decide to follow you (or take another action) or… leave! So you need to use all the real estate you have on your profile to explain who you are, what you do, and why people should care, in these 3 seconds!

Ideally, you would like to make sure that anyone who is an ideal customer to either follow you OR take an even more direct step towards purchasing from you or working with you. And this is what your profile needs to be set up to achieve!

QUESTIONS TO ANSWER BEFORE YOU GET STARTED WITH INSTAGRAM

Before even opening an Instagram account, you should first get clear on these questions:

• What is your goal on Instagram? What are you trying to achieve?
• Who is your ideal follower?

You can then take the answers to these 2 questions as the input for the next step: creating your high-converting Instagram Profile:

HOW TO CREATE THE PERFECT INSTAGRAM PROFILE

Here’s an overview of the instagram profile and the parts of it you should be paying attention to:

1. Your name. Many entrepreneurs use their username (which is the name all the way at the top “paulienpierik” in my case) as their name and this is a missed opportunity! The name on Instagram is searchable (meaning people can find your profile through a keyword search if your name contains these keywords). I recommend you use a different name from the username, so you can be found and so you can add additional information to your profile.To give you an example, if you search for “business coach” my profile shows up in the Instagram search results, because I use that keyword in my name. So make sure to use that opportunity!
2. Your profile picture. Your picture makes up a HUGE part of the first impression on Instagram, so make sure it matches your brand. If you are a service provider, I always recommend you use a picture of YOU and not your logo. If you are a product brand, it depends on the goal of your profile whether you should use your own picture or your logo: is the product very much attached to YOU as the brand owner? Check out this article I wrote in my group all about how to optimize your profile picture to make a great first impression. It includes a free worksheet, whoop whoop!
   
3. Your category. When you create your business profile (which you want to have on instagram, because it allows you to see insights and run ads), you can choose a category for your business. This category as such is not super important, but it will help your readers (and instagram) understand more about what you do in the short period they take to check out your profile. And since your bio text can only be short, this is an additional place where you can add important info.
   
4. Your bio. Your bio makes up a super important part of your profile’s first impression, together with the profile pic. Ideally the bio should include: who you are/ what you & who your ideal customer is & why they should care. If there’s still room for more, then you can add a fun fact / something personal / something that makes your followers feel like they know you personally.
   
5. Your link(s). You can only place 1 link in your Instagram bio (I don’t know who invented the whole 1 link policy to be honest, but hey) and this is where you should place it. If you add links in any other place on Instagram, they won’t be clickable (they cannot even be copy-pasted). If you want to give users more than 1 link to check out (which I recommend you do), then you can use a tool called linktree. Linktree allows you to create a small popup where you can add a list of links. I recommend you use 3 or 4 links (enough options to send the potential customer to the right place, but not too many to give them decision paralysis). Include links to your newsletter, links to other places where followers can connect with you and links to your products or services.
   
6.  Your action buttons. You can add these buttons to your profile to give customers the option to take additional actions, like email or book a call. I personally never use those, but it is worth adding links in there to optimize the chance that customers will contact you!
   
7. Your highlights. Your highlights are the place where you can store your stories, so they don’t disappear after 24 hours. Highlights are also a perfect place to show your brand values and create a visual impression of your brand.
8. Your grid. Your grid is the meat of your profile, your content. The main goal of the grid (when it comes to making a first impression) is that is show cases your brand (what you are about). It does not have to be super slick; it is more important that a visitor understands what you are all about. This will help them decide whether they want to follow you. For business brands it is important that the grid looks branded, not like a personal profile, so your followers immediately understand that you are a business.

That’s it: 8 things to optimize on your instagram profile! Enjoy optimizing yours :-).