A lot of people have one question in mind that can they make money from it? If yes, then how to earn money from Instagram? Initially, it might seem tough to you, but once you start, you would enjoy doing it; all you would need is a lot of creativity. Over the past couple of years, it has evolved as a powerful marketing platform tool that influencers and businesses of all sizes use to reach their target customers. As per the reports-
More than 60% of people use Instagram to discover new products 80% of people follow at least one brand Around 200 million looks for a business profile every day 66% of profile visits are from non-followers.
How many followers are required for making money on Instagram?
When you think of the question, ‘How to make money from Instagram?‘ the first thing that comes to mind is how many followers are required. But, don’t worry, the number is easily reachable. There are many factors on which your followers would depend, such as the niche and how easily you can directly tie it to a product category, how engaged your followers are, and the revenue channels you explore. Various people are making money from just 1000 followers, but if you can make 10,000 followers, it can be a turning point for you. The more followers you will have, the more brands would reach out to you for sponsorships. For doing this, you would have to build relationships and keep your audience engaged, as that is the only way to attract brands. Make such content that is different from your competitors, as that is the only way to gauge the attention of different brands. When you have enough followers, what extra would you do to earn money from it? Let us have a look.
How To Earn Money From Instagram
Just like making money from other platforms requires an investment of time and effort, the same goes for Instagram as well. Although, it is not that tough, and the best part is that you do not need millions of followers to make money from it. It also depends on various factors such as channels you choose, niche, how engaged you are with your followers, etc. Let’s dive in into the pool of Instagram to see the multiple ways of making money through it:
1) Become a Social Media Influencer
Becoming an influencer means that you are able to influence your audience and change their opinion on trends and products because of the status and trust you have built with your online presence on Instagram. Once you have built the trust, you can use your Instagram profile to promote all sorts of products from all kinds of brands. Brands prefer partnering with influencers to do sponsored posts as they help in increasing brand awareness about their products. As an influencer, you need to create user-generated content and can also link your other social media accounts to spread the word about brands and products they love. To reach this level, you need to grow your Instagram followers, and you would have to come up with posts that create strong engagement from your followers. Combining Insta posts with other marketing efforts to raise their revenue, such as email lists, Pinterest accounts, etc., can help earn even more money. There are a lot of influencers who make thousands of dollars for every sponsored post. Although it takes a lot of time and hard work, it is attainable for sure.
2) Do Affiliate Marketing on Instagram
You can become an Affiliate for numerous brands and earn commission on whatever you sell through your link. On Instagram, affiliate links can be seen in the form of a promo code or a trackable link. Affiliate marketing is more sale-based than just increasing brand awareness. Using promo codes can be the best option as you would incorporate them into your posts, plus you can earn commission on every sale. Commission can start from 10% and go up to 30% per sale; the rest depends on the mutual agreement between you and the brand as it can be either a pay-per-click or cost-per-acquisition model. Many people make money through affiliate marketing; all you need to do is create engaging posts so that you can promote the product without seeming pushy. Remember that on every post, you need to state that they can purchase the product through the link in the bio. Try and join the highest-paying affiliate programs as their commission rates are high, so you would be able to make a good amount of profit. You can opt for affiliate networks like Awin, Clickbank, Impact, ShareASale, OfferVault, Peefly, MaxBounty, etc. Also Read: How to Make Money through Affiliate Marketing
3) Sell Physical and Digital products
You can also open your online store and sell whatever you like, and this is one of the best ways to make money. You can either sell your own products or create a store where you can sell products of different brands. Over the last couple of years, Instagram has transformed into a powerful sales creator for numerous e-commerce brands. It is not important to sell physical goods only; instead, you can also sell photo filters, poster photos, animations, videos, or other virtual products. You can put an exciting caption on every post and refer the readers to visit the link in your bio. These days numerous people are using Instagram to purchase products; because of such great response, Instagram has launched various business account features such as the shop button, in-app checkout, shoppable stickers, and product tags so that shopping can become easy and quick. The best part is that you can launch your business account by linking it to your existing personal account, which makes promotion easy, plus the user interface also becomes quick. While launching your Instagram online shop, do not only contact large-scale influencers for promotion but also partner with micro and nano influencers with thousands of followers as well because they have a trustworthy, consistent relationship with their followers.
4) Make money through Dropshipping products
Just like e-commerce, you can earn money through Instagram as well by advertising the products that you dropship. The concept of dropshipping means that the owner can sell the products without owning a physical store. This concept is trending nowadays and is revolutionizing the current market. All you would need is a supplier who would deliver your products straight away, which means no hassle of holding a costly inventory of products. Whenever a customer places an order, the supplier would deliver the product directly to the customer’s address. Dropshipping renders a lot of flexibility, which is why many people prefer using Instagram as their primary channel of advertisement because the risk is minimal in experimenting with which items would have good demand. The best part is that using Instagram is free, so you need not pay anything extra for promotion. There are numerous e-commerce platforms where you can launch a dropshipping store, such as Shopify, Oberlo, etc., and most of them are free. It would help if you searched for the niche and then test which product sells more and continue with that. You can make money with less than 10,000 followers with Dropshipping.
5) Provide Social Media Marketing Services
By now, you must have realized that Instagram has strong sales potential; therefore, more and more brands are using this platform to advertise their products, increase brand awareness, boost sales, and reach out to potential customers. For doing this, you will have to improve your engagement rates, create a solid following and monetize your account. All this can be done easily by posting creative and unique content regularly and remembering that it should be engaging. You would be amazed to know that more than 25 million businesses and 2 million advertisers are on Instagram. It has built a world of possibilities for e-commerce, and numerous entrepreneurs have entered into Instagram for marketing because the competition is growing and social media marketing services are in massive demand. Brands need different social media marketing services, which means that if you have good traffic and followers, they might contact you, and if you advertise them well, you can earn a great amount of money through it every month. It would solely depend on the strategies and techniques you employ, so learn from successful online entrepreneurs and be patient, as it would take time before you start making money.
6) Sell your photos online
Instagram is a photo-sharing app at its core so you can sell paintings, drawings, animations, and other image or video-based virtual products. You would be amazed to know that more than 100 million photos and videos are uploaded daily on Instagram. Still, a lot of businesses need polished photos to upload for their brand so you can even sell your photos and videos as well. As per the reports, UGC is 35% more memorable than other media. Hence, enterprises want to publish content that is created by their customers. Thus, it can be a great opportunity for Instagrammers to make huge money from it. If you are a master in photography, then you can create a business account to sell your pictures and stock photos. You can also list your photos in marketplaces like 500px, Twenty20where brands, and publishers might license them. While taking pictures, try to be creative, original and include some fun elements in them (if required) so that you get a good value of your pictures as they would get more attention than the boring ones. Thus, if you have a passion for photography, you can sell your work on Instagram and make money through it. Also Read: How To Start Online Reselling Business In India?
7) Sell Instagram caption services
Good in writing caption? If yes, then you have got the answer to “How to make money from Instagram?” Numerous small businesses use Instagram for promoting their products and services, but only some of them have the expertise to write enticing captions. So they look for creative specialists who can write captions for their business at a reasonable price. If you have those skills within you, then you can sell your services to these enterprises. But, for doing this, your Instagram page must be pretty impressive and prove your creativity. The more unique and engaging content you would post, the more and more people would contact you for your amazing work. If you apply for a part-time or freelancing job for writing captions, then it is essential for you to put captions that generate the most engagement in your portfolio. People who would hire would for sure want to see your work; hence your portfolio or Instagram account can be the best places to demonstrate your work. Here, you do not charge per word, but you can easily earn around $50 and much more for one caption. The earnings here would totally depend on your creativity plus the brand that you are working for.
8) Promote your business on Instagram
You can use Instagram to promote your business without spending much. A lot of business owners are using the power of Instagram to the fullest for promoting their products, so why not advertise your own product and amplify the sales. Irrespective of the nature of business, you can use Instagram for promoting it, plus it also increases customer engagement. Capturing your audience and targeted customers becomes easier with Instagram as it is based on visual content. The response that you get from Instagram would depend completely on the quality of content that you post. Therefore, while posting the photos or videos, you have to ensure that you justify them with the product as if you are unable to create the awesomeness of your products, then it might have a negative impact. You can create a business account or can also build a shared relationship with influencers to get more popularity and engagement for your business. For doing this, first, start working on effective content, which is excellent pictures and videos, and ensure that they should be engaging and alluring. The second thing is that you need to be regular in posting them, plus put an interesting caption along with them. As it will contribute to the overall growth of your brand, that can help increase the sales tremendously.
9) Become a Brand Ambassador
Sponsored Ads are working great on Instagram, but a lot of companies yearn to create long-term relationships with their influencers. Therefore, they look for brand ambassadors who can advertise their products or brand regularly. For influencer marketing, Instagram is the most preferred and the best place for users to search for brand ambassador programs and collaborate with different companies to promote their products. You would be happy to know that big brands also send free products to the influencers and brand ambassadors to review the product first and then promote it. If you also wish to become a brand ambassador, you would need to have many followers for it. If the brands select you, you would have to sign a contract with them that includes the time duration, number of posts you would upload, etc. But, you can earn around $40000-$50000 as a brand ambassador, which is a huge amount. So, if you strive hard and can make a good number of followers, you can for sure become a brand ambassador and earn a decent amount of money by just promoting the product through your Instagram page.
10) Drive Instagram Traffic to your website
If you have your own business and have created a website for the same, then Instagram can be a great platform for promoting it. Start by creating awareness of your brand among your followers, post creative pictures related to your business niche, and use that to allure thousands of visitors to your website. Whenever you post a picture or video, do not forget to mention the link to your website on it. The major benefit of doing this is that your customers would know more about your business and other things that you sell. So put the link in your bio, and this would help your visitors reach your website and increase the conversion rate. You can also mention the discounts, offers, and promo codes on your Instagram account as that is one of the best ways to attract more and more people. You can also run different marketing campaigns as that can help increase your followers as when they get offers which no one else is giving, they would for sure come up to your Insta page and ultimately to your website. These were some of the ways on how to make money from Instagram. But, these are just the significant ones, but there are a lot more ways of earning through it, so you can choose one as per your interest and number of followers. Also Read: 14 Ways to Monetize your Website apart from AdSense
How much money can you make from Instagram?
There is no limit on the amount of money you can make from Instagram as celebrities as millions of followers, so they are earning handsome money every month through sponsorships, views, etc. As per the reports, people have earned from $8400 to $1.2 million just for one post. You can understand how much potential it has, but you would have to increase the number of followers, grow your account, and maintain a good relationship with your followers. The more engaged you would be the followers and earnings. There is a very simple formula to calculate it: Engagement Rate= Likes + comments/Number of followers *100%.
How do I work with brands on Instagram?
Working with brands does not only help you earn a good amount of money and gives you a lot of popularity. You get to work with brands on sponsored ads as an influencer. This term has become really famous these days as in today’s time they are the tastemakers, trendsetters and people trust their opinion. Thus, you will have to build an online reputation by sharing great things online to become an influencer. A lot of brands search for influencers and partner with them for sponsored posts as it helps the world know about their product. Along with the number of followers, they also see the trust and engagement that you have with your audience. So, it is a time-consuming process, and a lot of hard work is required, but if you keep the quality of content good, it will not take much time for you to partner with big brands.
What to charge as an influencer?
It is tough to decide how much to charge as an influencer, especially as a beginner. As an influencer, you will have to create an Instagram post, story, or video, and there are times when you would also need permission for the brand to use the content on their site or in an ad. You can charge them either for a single post or for the entire campaign together. Some of the brands pay in cash, while some might give a free product, gift, service, or a combination of them. When you quote the price, keep in mind that you are giving them your audience on one of the most well-known platforms that you have made after a lot of effort. As per a report, more than 40% of influencers say that they charge around $200-$400 for one post. But, of course, this is just an idea as it would depend on the brand you are working for, the number of followers, and other such factors.
How do I find brands to work with?
If you have millions of followers, then the brands would find you themselves. But, if you are looking for brands to work with, you can also reach out to them directly. Numerous influencer marketplaces can help raise the chances of you being found-
- Fohr Card: You need to connect your Instagram account, Facebook, and other social media platforms for creating an influencer card that would portrait your different profiles and complete reach for brands searching for a partnership. On this platform, you would be able to see a list of brands and their requirement; if you fulfill the eligibility criteria, you can reach out to them. 2) Grapevine: You can list yourself on this platform if you have more than 5000 followers; it is a great platform where you get the opportunity to work with like-minded brands.
- Crowd Tap: This platform is just for people in the U.S. and is apt if you have a smaller audience. For earning rewards, you will have to do small content creation tasks.
- indaHash: On this platform, brands come up with different campaigns in which you can participate. For being eligible to be on this platform, you need to have a minimum of 700 engaged followers. Then, all you need to do is upload a picture with specified hashtags on Instagram and get paid. This was about some of the great platforms where you can find well-known brands to partner with. Now, let us know about some of the tactics to earn money on Instagram. Also Read: How to Earn Money from YouTube
Must-know tips for earning money on Instagram
Here are a few tips for you that would help you in making more money through Instagram plus would also keep your customers and audiences delighted:
- Find your niche: Always be clear in which segment you want to get in, define your angles. Even the big influencers initially started with one segment, and later, when they become renowned, they enter into different niches as per the demand of their followers. Opt for something that you like doing the most so that you can create a different post on it. If you select a niche that you are not interested in, you would not be able to deliver your best, so pick something that you really enjoy doing, such as cooking, traveling, technology, etc.
- Authenticity is the key: Make sure that your content is authentic and unique. For example, if you post repetitive content and something boring, nobody would want to see that, so come up with something real and creative.
- Build trust with transparency: You should follow the ad regulations as if you work ethically, your audience will trust you and recommend others to follow you.
- Offer excellent customer service: If you are selling products online through Instagram, you also need to ensure that you offer great customer service as customers have high expectations for brands on social media. For example, reply to them on time, deliver the products as per the specified delivery date, go live on Instagram for queries, etc. Making such efforts would increase sales and build good customer relationships
- Promote your work on other platforms: You should link your Instagram account with other social media accounts for promoting your work. For example, you can create a blog or YouTube channel to grow your content marketing, as that would help you reach a larger audience.
- Stay updated with the latest trends and competitors: It is essential to keep a tab on both to help you stay ahead of others. Always monitor your competitor’s posts and what they are posting so that you can do something different and better than them. Also, if you are updated with the latest trends, that would automatically give you an edge over others. These were some of the tips on how to make money from Instagram. These tips would help your account grow smoothly and swiftly.
Facts about Instagram
You have learned a lot about making money, now is the time to know some facts on Instagram:
1 billion users are active on Instagram every month. It is almost three times the US population. 60% of Instagram users go on the platform to search for new products. 500 million users post atleast one story every day Around 995 photos are uploaded to Instagram each second 71% of US businesses use Instagram for branding and marketing. 1% of Americans past the age of 65 use Instagram. 50 percent of Instagram users (500 million people) follow at least one business account. The majority of Instagram users are aged around 25–34 at 33.1% worldwide. There are 2 million Instagram advertisers each month 61% of brands are planning to increase their advertising budgets for Instagram in 2022.
Also Read: 26 Best Instant Personal Loan Apps in India
Requirements for making money on Instagram
For making on Instagram, it is paramount for you to understand a few things and follow them for better results:
- Master Instagram for business: On Instagram, you can make two types of accounts- personal and business. Thus, if you want to promote your business, do sponsorships, etc., create a business account as you get numerous different features on it, plus it also gives a nice impact on the followers and brands.
- Create an Instagram shop: If you launch an Instagram shop, it will help you amalgamate your product catalog with your profile. The major benefit of this feature is that you would be able to advertise your products straight away to Instagram users through your stories or posts, in the Explore tab, in a special Shop tab on your profile.
- Read about Instagram do’s and don’t’s: This is an important point as you should know well about their rules. They have numerous conditions on how to post, types of content you can post, the number of posts you can upload in a day, the number of hashtags to include, etc. If you follow these rules, it increases the possibility of making more money through Instagram. As per the data, the best time to post on Instagram is around 11 in the morning on Wednesday and Friday. They have other such rules, so always read carefully before starting a business account and promoting your content.
How to make a strong following on Instagram?
One question puts a lot of people in a dilemma: you should create followers before selling products or after you start selling? Does it confuse you as well? The answer is very simple, with even a couple hundred followers, you can start selling and eventually grow your account. Here are a few points that can help to make a strong following on Instagram:
- Refine your Instagram profile: The foremost thing that you need to take care of is that the username should be less than 30 characters; it should be similar to the username you use on other social media platforms. The good part is that the name is searchable by a keyword. You should include only 150 characters in your bio and include the link to your website for better response and optimizing your account.
- Create a unique hashtag: It is a great idea to make a unique hashtag; for example, if your name is mandy’s bakery so create a hashtag #mandysbakery. The benefit of doing this is that whenever you want to see conversations about your brand, you can see that by putting your hashtag. You can also use this hashtag for promoting your brand both online and offline. Only 30 hashtags are allowed per post, but it is recommended to use only 5 -10 hashtags for your niche.
- Use captivating captions: The content that you write beneath your Instagram post is a caption. It would be best to write a compelling caption as it gives your followers more appeal and information. In addition, reading interesting captions makes readers keener about the product, which can help increase sales.
- Run contests: Run contests and giveaways as that would help attract more and more people. Whenever you start a contest, make a new hashtag for that and promote it to make it more exciting. Use different techniques such as asking people to post a photo with your hashtag to participate in the contest. Do remember to comply with all the rules of the contests and do not break them for anyone. Just be creative and see how it would help increase your followers.
- Create Instagram Stories: Posting Instagram stories has become a major part of Instagram nowadays. You can create different stories and post them, as that can help you build an audience. Create unique stories, make them fun and exciting so that people wait for your stories; if you are able to make that connection, then in just a couple of months, you would see a massive rise in the number of followers. Recommended: 12 Best Stock Portfolio Trackers For aspiring entrepreneurs who wish to earn money, Instagram is a goldmine. This is a world of possibilities for creators where they can reach a large online audience and have the doors of success open for them. The doubts regarding how to make money from Instagram, must have become clear, so be creative, post regularly and increase your followers to earn more and more.