How To Make Money On Instagram in 2023

Humans by nature are programmed to socialize. People always look one way or the other to connect and interact with people. With digitalization taking over, people connect with others digitally. 

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Instagram is one of the very popular social media platforms loaded with billions of daily active users. Many users wonder how to make money on Instagram. Here’s how:

Social Media is a way of life for youngsters nowadays. Digital tools are the new marketing trend and an excellent place to make money. Social media is a digital platform that allows us to create the content of our choice and share it with the public. It may be used for entertaining people, create new contacts, grow your business, and much more. There are enormous social media apps available currently.

The types of social media platforms are:

• Social Networking (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)
• Microblogging (Twitter, Tumblr)
• Photo sharing (Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest)
• Video sharing (YouTube, Facebook Live, Periscope, Vimeo).

Statista.com states that 2 billion users relied on Social media apps in 2015. Since then, social media and its users have grown exponentially.

The number of people who use social media age-wise :

Instagram:

Instagram is a unique app that allows you to post videos and photos. It was launched on October 6, 2010.

Instagram was designed by Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom . It has tremendously grown over the years. There are nearly 1 billion users by July 2018.

Instagram is an entirely visual platform. Facebook relies on text and pictures whereas Twitter relies on text alone. It is very popular because of its expanded compatibility and improved versatility with mobile phones.

In Instagram, the users can create both personal and business accounts. The following option lets you follow the accounts that you are interested in. Once, the user posts the image or video, the followers can view, comment, and like them.

The app has a better content display. It gives you an amazing shopping experience. It has become a hub for e-commerce businesses.

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 Let’s talk about the features of Instagram:

• Image editing
• Location tagging
• Private messaging
• Push Notifications
• Group messaging
• Hashtags
• Filters
• Instagram stories
• IGTV
• Reels.

• Image Editing:

Once you are ready to post the photo on the Instagram app, upload them in the app. Open the photo in the app, choose the filters available, there are some simple editing tools to edit the snap. Once your image is ready, you can upload them to the Instagram profile.

• Location Tagging:

When you turn on the location tagging on Instagram, the photo you upload would mention your live location. There is no extra work to tag your location in the caption. It helps your engagement rate on Instagram and will give you more exposure and attract customers with minimal effort.

• Private Messaging and Push Notifications:

Instagram allows you to send messages to your friends or business accounts privately in their DM(Direct Message).

Push Notifications are messages notifying you about the activity of your friends. You will receive push notifications from all the accounts that you have “logged in” on Instagram.

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• Group Messaging:

Instagram allows to you send messages to a group of friends/people.

• Hashtags:

A hashtag is a method to connect social media content to a specific topic, event, or conversation.

• Filters:

Filter in Instagram allows you to edit the photos with one click by applying pre-set edits in the app.

• Stories:

Instagram stories are videos or photos that appear as highlights in your profile and do not show up in the feed. It automatically disappears after 24 hours.

• IGTV and Reels.

IGTV is Instagram is a standalone video application that is mainly useful for long videos. Whereas, Reels are mainly for shorter-length videos mostly of 30 seconds.

Instagram updates its features frequently and its popularity increases day by day. One of its very recent updates is “Camera and activity on the home tab have been replaced by reels and shop tab”.

“High Visibility of post” is the main advantage of Instagram and thus making it a sterling business platform. It gives the user an amazing shopping experience.

There are different techniques to make money through Instagram. Different brands are creating awareness of their product in many ways. They approach the influencers. The users become an affiliate for the products. Different businesses rely only on Instagram for marketing and selling their products. People sell their best quality photos and make money, etc.

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Be an Influencer: An Influencer is someone who can motivate the audience to take action. Influencer marketing is the “MYSTICAL POWER” and the future of Marketing. 

Every person starts an Instagram account with zero followers. It takes a certain amount of time and effort to increase the number of followers. An influencer is a person who inspires you and lets them follow your style. The brands approach the influencers for marketing their existing products or new products. There is mutual benefit for both the brand and the influencer. A study reveals that 94% of people believe that Influencer marketing is an effective campaign strategy.

The richest Instagram Influencer is Dwayne Johnson, The Rock, USA. He earns $1,015,000 per post. In India, Bollywood Actress Priyanka Chopra earns $271,000 per post.

    There are different types of Influencers:

• Fashion Influencer
• Fitness and Sports Influencer
• Cook or Chef Influencer
• Celebrity
• Books
• Photographers
• Gaming

Case Study 1: Celebrity Influencer

Sameera Reddy is a celebrity influencer. She is the mother of 2 children. She has an Instagram account with 1 Million followers. She posts lots of fun stuff under the hashtag #messymama. Her content is fun and it also inspires a lot of new mommies.

Her Instagram account- reddysameera.

This type of influencer would have built a good reputation with the audience. Brands will approach them for promoting their products.

In her post, we can see the Paid partnership tag. Vinod Cookware has partnered with Sameera Reddy for promoting their Cookware products.

The actress also has mentioned the Vinod Cookware product in the post, where the user can directly click and jump to the product page and buy them.

Look at the other example for paid partnership with Pampers. The actress has mentioned the Pampers Instagram handle in the post. The users can directly click them and shop for the product. This is one way to increase the sales of their product. The actress is mentioned as Messy Mama on Instagram and most of the mommies will be automatically be persuaded to buy the product for their children. The actress has earned trust over the years for her audience.

Case Study 2:  Fitness and Sports Influencer:

PV Sindhu is an Indian Badminton player. She was the first Indian woman to win a Silver medal in Rio Olympics in 2006. She was presented with Padma Shri Award (India’s 4th Highest Civilian Honour) later that year.

Her Instagram account is – pvsindhu1. She has 1.7 million followers.

In her post, Sindhu has posted a sponsored post for Li-Ning Junior Rackets. In this post, the product page has been mentioned. Also, the racket can be purchased from the online store- Amazon (the link for Amazon is also mentioned in the post). This would be easier for the users who can click the link and purchase the product.

 How to become a successful influencer:

Being an influencer takes a lot of effort and time. It is about Content, trust, interest, and engagement.

Content 

Content is the king of the article. Rich quality content wins the heart of the followers. The content should keep the followers engaged and it should be trustworthy.

Audience

The influencer should have deep and intimate knowledge of their audience. The audience should be kept engaged. So, they would win the trust them.

Be consistent

A successful influencer should be consistent in the posts. To stay on top of Instagram and see growth, it is important to be consistent. The influencer should pick a schedule to post, the feed. The audience should be aware of when you will be posting.

Also, Instagram stories are trending. Make sure to show on the stories daily.

Caption:

The captions in the post should be eye-catching, that the user would not scroll through without reading the post. It should encourage the reader to stop and pause and read the post.

End your caption with a call to action. That should tempt the audience to like, comment, and share the post. Ask for feedback or start a conversation related to the post. Once the feed is shared across, it will gain popularity and the sales of the product mentioned would double up.

Stand ahead of the crowd:

Create video content that would increase the visibility of the post. Video content would grab more attention among the audience than the photos which would lead to more comments to the feed. Interact with them and increase your presence on Instagram.

Have a healthy relationship with other Influencers.

Insta Shoutout or IG shoutout is a method in which one influencer promotes another influencer on their Instagram account. This would mutually help each other.

   There are different types of shoutouts:

• Paid Shoutouts- This is the method in which you pay the user to shout out for your brand.
• S4S- Shoutout for Shoutout is where you shoutout for the page and in turn they shoutout for your page.
• Voluntary Shoutout- This is a condition where you shout out for a page or a brand when you are really happy in using their brand.

An Instagram Influencer thus can earn the money and trust of the audience. There are other types of Influencers called Micro-Influencers.

Micro-Influencers:

Micro-Influencers are social media users with fewer followers compared to celebrity and public figure influencers.  Micro-Influencer usually has fewer than followers up to 100,000. However, the rate of audience engagement is high.

Brands partner with micro-influencers to increase their brand awareness. In a survey, 82% of the consumers accepted that they would purchase the item that is recommended by the micro-Influencer.

The main job of a Micro-Influencer is to write a post about the product offer, publish the review, and share the product with their social community.

Micro-Influencers are more affordable than celebrities. Celebrity Influencer costs $7500 per post, whereas Micro-Influencer costs $500 per post.

• Be an Entrepreneur:

Instagram is a great business opportunity.  The main leverage of your business on Instagram is that you can sell your products directly on the platform without your own website.

• A recent example is Parna Hydroponic Farm. They have started this organic Hydroponic Farm where you get fresh micro-greens and Kombucha.

They have mentioned the products, recipes, and information about storing the products. There is a link in the Bio and when it is been clicked it’s been redirected to their Whatsapp Business profile. The doubts and the information, the rate of the product can be known from the chat. The payment for the product can be done through available payment gateways that the Bio mentions like Google pay, Paytm, Instamojo, etc.

• You can sell the products through DM’s (Direct Messages). It might not look streamlined business tactic. However, it would establish a connection between the seller and the customer. An example of one such business is Ilandhalir Aadaiyagam.

• This business is a typical example of selling products through DM(Direct Message). The payment is made through Payment Gateways such as Google Pay, Paytm, etc.

• Instagram has an option that allows users to sell the products by filling up a form. The form will be mentioned in the Bio. The user has to fill up the form, where the details about the product, the photo of the mentioned product, the payment screenshot would be attached.

          One example would be @Vastara_thelabel.

You can keep track of the forms, check for the payments, and send the customers the products. This technique would be useful, however, it is time-consuming and it would be difficult to keep track of the forms when the business grows eventually.

The key aspects to be considered when planning to be an Entrepreneur in Instagram are:

• The profile photo must reflect your brand and the quality of the photo should be good.
• The name of the profile should contain a keyword.
• Your description should contain the target keyword.
• Add the latest offer and Call To Action link in your Bio.
• To fine-tune your bio use Line breaks, Emoji, and custom fonts.
• Thus, Instagram is a great place to grow your business.

1. Instagram ADS:

A survey reveals that 130 million people shop on the Instagram app by clicking the shopping post tags. Instagram ads are an upcoming strategy that is used by a social media marketer to market the business.

Instagram was acquired by Facebook in 2013. After which, Instagram opened its advertising option in 2015. It reached 1 million advertisers by 2017.

If the ad is only to be displayed on Instagram, it can be added in between the feeds or in between the stories. Because it is a visual platform, it is the best way to showcase your products. The cost of placing the ads differs with various factors as to the placement of the ad, traffic, reach, etc.

How to create Instagram ADS:

1. You must have a Facebook page to run the Instagram ad. You can create a free Instagram Business page and profile.
2. You should select your AD objective, the target audience, and the AD format within the AD manager. After which, you can set up the AD.
3. The next step is to determine the budget.
4. Finally, you can publish your AD.

Instagram and Facebook use Data mining Algorithm that gives detailed and accurate information about the user. This algorithm then displays the Ads that are relevant to the user at a specific moment in time.

    Different types of ADS can be placed on Instagram:

• Stories AD:

The Instagram stories’ AD format length is 15 seconds video. It is an amazing way to showcase your products, offers, and engage your audience. Instagram story Ads are more fun. They are a real-time engagement strategy.

• Photo AD:

Photo Ads allow users to showcase products and services through images. You can add a CTA button in the post which allows the user to directly land on your business page.

• Video AD:

Video ADs on Instagram can be up to one minute which would allow the user to notice the important features of the product.

• Carousel AD:

Carousel ADs allow the user to swipe through a series of images or videos and the CTA button which would help the user directly land on the business page. The user can upload up to 10 images or videos.

• Collection AD:

Collection AD has the power of photos, videos, and direct-response marketing all in one powerful advertisement.

• Ads in Explore:

The new content and accounts can be explored through the Explore screen on Instagram. Here the ads appear after the user clicks the photo or video from Explore.

Advantages of using Instagram AD:

     Instagram Ads have 

1. The power to boost brand awareness
2. Engage and inform users about your product
3. Generate traffic
4. Better Customer Satisfaction
5. Boosts sales.

Thus, Instagram can drive awareness, increase your customers which in turn boosts your business sales.

• Sell your photographs on Instagram:

Every photo tells a story. Photography plays a big role in almost any industry and is used extensively. It is an ever-evolving inspiring field.

Instagram is made up of photos and it is a visually appealing app. Let us analyze the methods to make money through photos on Instagram.

1.  Sell your photos in your profile.
2.  Offer a paid service.
3.  Sell images in physical format.

• Sell your photos:

The business nowadays depends on the ADs to showcase their products and make people aware of the new products. Photos play an important role in increasing the sales of the business. These people might need high-resolution photos that are captivating and inspirational.

   The photos can be sold in two ways:

1. Sell Individual images
2. Sell thematic image packages.

Individual images can be very specific. Thematic image packages would represent a particular theme like Nature, Food images, Travel destination images, etc.

Once you become an established photographer, there are a lot of options to sell photos, rent a camera, sell photography-related items, etc. An example would be Jayanth Sharma, who is a professional wildlife photographer.

The photographer is the CEO of a toehold. in. The website offers photos for sale, cameras, and accessories for rent, workshops, etc.

• Offer Paid service:

Business relies on photos. In recent trends, photos offer excellent business opportunities. The Smartphone is one of the superpowers that the human has in hand. We click pictures often and they serve as a source of the tangible link to the past.

Instagram being a visual app gives photographers a fortune. The user can showcase the photos in the feed, stories, etc, and make a business opportunity out of it.  The user can offer paid services for weddings, birthday celebrations, parties, etc.

• Sell images in physical format:

The effective way to sell prints of photos is to inform the audience about the offer in the feed, stories, etc. The photos can be captioned innovatively which would grab the attention of many users. The available sizes and price of the photos should be clearly mentioned.

The users can be instructed to comment on the photos and message the seller about the size and quantity of the photos needed. The transaction can be done through available payment gateways like Paypal, Google pay, etc. Thus, photos change the size of the business productively.

• Affiliate Marketing:

The users with a large audience can promote and sell other user’s products or businesses’ products. The affiliate marketer would get an amount based on the clicks or sales they generate. They are

1. Pay per click – You will earn a small amount for every click that you drive to the website.
2. Cost per acquisition- You will earn when the actual sales are made.

The affiliate link is with discount codes which the influencer can post on the Instagram feed, stories, IGTV description, Instagram Bio. These are the affiliate link Hotspots for the influencers. The users can use the code and get a discount for the products. The commission rates would vary from 10% to 20%.

Case Study: Ramya Subramanian

The profile is of a South Indian TV anchor and celebrity Ramya Subramanian. She has endorsed a product and has mentioned the offer with which her followers can avail of the discount. This post would boost brand awareness and drive sales of the product.

Advantages of Affiliate Marketing:

• The best strategy to reach potential customers.
• Low-cost business idea.
• A secondary source of income.
• There are no investment and operating costs.
• Better brand visibility.

Thus, Instagram is a platform for a lucrative business opportunity