4 Profitable Small Enterprise House owners on the Instagram Campaigns That Actually Labored

Especially for entrepreneurs with tons of non-social media to-dos on their plates, it can be difficult to keep track of Instagram trends. It seems like there are updates to the algorithm, new strategies to encourage growth, and additional features every other week. While these insights and tools can be powerful ways to grow your business, they can also overwhelm your social media strategy.

To avoid the noise about making the best use of the platform, we went straight to the source and spoke to four women about the most effective Instagram campaigns they’ve ever launched.

Whether you’re looking to gain followers, increase sales, or serve your audience more extensively, take a page out of your playbook knowing they’ve worked for business owners like you – no matter what changes may come on Instagram.

Strategy # 1: Create guides for your audience

Shang Saavedra

owner of Save my cents, a platform that aims to transform people’s financial lives one penny at a time.

The most effective Instagram campaign I’ve started: Create “Instructions for opening and financing investment and retirement accounts worked well for me. One reason this campaign is so successful is that this information is not widely spread. People are really scared of investing and think that it is really complex. In fact, opening these accounts only takes a few minutes.

The growth that I experienced as a result: I’ve run some of these campaigns over time and they are shared and liked more often than many of my other posts. I got really good feedback too – my followers actually took the advice and opened their accounts. This showed me that my account was making a real impact.

Strategy # 2: Team up with others

Lexie Smith

Founder of THEPRBAR Inc., an online coaching platform and resource hub designed to help motivated entrepreneurs and professionals increase their impact, influence and sales.

The most effective Instagram campaign I’ve started: I led and worked with eight other coaches in complementary areas to launch a listing campaign called The Empower Project. We all contributed a valuable freebie and promoted the campaign on various channels – mostly on Instagram. We only asked for accounts to follow all participating trainers and to provide their email address. The campaign was extremely successful for everyone involved and cost nothing.

The growth that I experienced as a result: We all got hundreds of targeted emails and followers from the campaign without spending a penny. Getting a qualified audience was more important to us than just aiming for great vanity metrics.

Strategy # 3: create pictures to make sharing easier

Bonnie Chen

Social media and content at Dreamers & doers, an influential community and PR hype machine that supports and empowers exceptional women entrepreneurs.

The most effective Instagram campaign I’ve started: Dreamers & Doers helps our members get visibility in the media and every time they are featured in one of our partner publications I create pictures to help them get the news far and wide.

Recently 33 of our members were featured in an article on BlogHer and I created custom images for each of them with their photo and a quote from the article. This enabled them to easily share the news of their feature on their own social platforms. We also posted these images on our Instagram Stories and tagged each member, which made it even easier for them to share and build Dreamers & Doers brand awareness among their various audiences.

The growth that I experienced as a result: Our members loved that it was so easy to share and 70% of them shared the pictures on their networks. As a result, we saw an increase in followers, profile visits and click thoughts on our website for several days. The additional visibility for both dreamers & doers and our members made this simple initiative a great win-win situation!

Strategy # 4: Build trust through user-generated content

Marissa Pick

Founder of Marissa Pick Consulting LLC, offers strategic consulting with a focus on digital transformation, content marketing, social media strategy, personal branding and more.

The most effective Instagram campaign I’ve started: The most effective campaigns I’ve worked on are the ones that incorporate User Generated Content (UGC) and help showcase the brand. Consumers trust user-generated reviews and content more than branded content. When a brand is able to present success and a product through the eyes of its end user, a natural commitment follows. Brands will see increases in followers, engagement, and responses.

The growth that I experienced as a result: One of my clients worked on starting his Instagram as the main component of his entire campaign, but it resulted in minimal traffic. After using clear calls-to-action, paid media, and UGC, the channel rose to nearly 9 percent of the top referrals in traffic to the website. The percentage of total traffic from social media channels to the site also grew, but the engagement, interaction, and UGC sparked massive growth for this account.

When it comes to your own Instagram journey, perhaps the most powerful piece of advice we can give is to just get started. Whether you’re experimenting with some of the strategies above, or using them as inspiration for another creative idea, it’s important to start somewhere and see what resonates with your unique audience. You never know what might prove successful for you and your business.

All of the individuals featured in this article are members of Dreamers & doers, an award-winning community and diverse ecosystem that empowers exceptional women entrepreneurs through PR opportunities, authentic connections, and impactful resources. Learn more Above Dreamers & doers and subscribe to his monthly Digestion for top corporate and career resources.