Last updated on 16 April 2024

Instagram Lead Generation: How to Leverage Instagram for Business Leads?

Instagram is one of the leading social media platforms where B2B companies promote their brands and generate quality leads. Its diverse content formats allow marketers to discover potential buyers in different stages of the buyer's journey. If you get Instagram marketing right, you can grow your sales and generate more revenue. Read on to discover the tactics you can use to attract high--quality leads on this platform.

As a B2B company, you may be wondering whether Instagram lead generation can work for your business. The reality is it can. Your target audience is already using Instagram. Statistics show that over 50% of buyers follow companies on Instagram, making it one of the most preferred platforms for following brands.

As a B2B marketer, you can use Instagram for a wide range of marketing activities including lead generation, content marketing, and customer retention. You can leverage innovative tools like Instagram stories, search & explore, and hashtags to engage your customers and prospects and keep them updated about trends in your industry.

In this guide, we discuss why businesses need Instagram leads and share some of the most effective strategies you can use to attract high-quality leads on this platform.

Why Your Company Needs Instagram Lead Generation

With over 2 billion users, Instagram provides B2B companies with a unique opportunity to position themselves as thought leaders in their industries. Here are some lead generation benefits that this social media platform offers B2B marketers:

Brand Visibility – Being one of the most popular social platforms, Instagram allows you to place your brand in front of a wide audience.
Brand Story – You can leverage the visual aspect of Instagram to showcase your brand’s personality, share behind-the-scenes, and company culture images to build trust and loyalty.
Connect with Prospects – You can use Instagram to connect and show potential buyers the value your products or services add to users and demonstrate your commitment to excellence.
Drive Web Traffic – Instagram allows you to add links to your website on posts and profiles. This encourages prospects to visit your website and learn more about your company. You can also increase ad clicks that lead to your website by targeting your audience with relevant ads.

Tactics for Generating B2B Leads on Instagram

Instagram combines word-of-mouth and visual inspiration to generate leads and acquire customers. Below are 9 tactics for generating quality B2B sales leads on Instagram:

1. Publish Instagram Lead Ads

One of the highly effective Instagram lead-generation tactics is lead ads. Instagram ads allow you to reach the right audience and generate leads within a short time. Advertising helps you to gather valuable details about your audience and build a list of potential leads. To leverage Instagram lead ads, you’ll need to connect your Facebook page and Instagram business profile. From the Facebook ads manager, you’ll be able to build ads for Instagram through a simple process that involves:

Defining your target audience
Selecting ad placement format
Selecting bid type – either optimize for link clicks or leads
Choosing ad format and creating a lead form

After setting these up, you can test and tweak your ads to attract the right leads consistently.

2. Maximize Instagram Stories

Instagram stories are popular among users, with stats showing that 500 million users view or create them every day. Businesses create about a third of the stories that are viewed most on Instagram. This presents a great opportunity for B2B companies to reach their target audience and generate leads.

To attract B2B leads, leverage Instagram Stories like swipe-up links to direct users to a landing page. You could also save your stories and highlight them right below your profile. This allows your followers and new visitors to quickly find relevant content. Here’s an example showing how TailwindApp showcases its products to potential buyers with Instagram Stories.

Source: TailWindApp Instagram

3. Maximize Hashtags for Wider Reach

Another tactic that works well in Instagram lead generation is the use of hashtags. Using hashtags, you can categorize content on social platforms. Adding them to a post makes it easier for your audience to find the content that interests them. On Instagram, you can use them to start conversations, track current events, and promote your brand or products. To generate quality leads on Instagram:

Find Relevant Hashtags: Research to find hashtags that are most relevant to your audience and brand.
Combine niche and popular hashtags: To reach a wider audience, you need popular hashtags as those get more views. Niche hashtags are critical for connecting with prospects who are interested in specific topics.
Add keywords to posts: Include relevant keywords to Instagram content, this makes it visible when users search for topics.

As a rule of thumb, your goal should determine how you use hashtags. For lead generation, focus on niche-related and company-related hashtags.

See how Odoo uses hashtags in the image above. Prospects that are looking for email solutions are likely to search for ‘efficient email tools’ or ‘efficient tools for team productivity’. These keywords would match Odoo’s hashtags and make its posts more visible.

4. Make the Most of Your Instagram Profile

When it comes to Instagram lead generation, your company’s profile can enhance or undermine your efforts. A poorly crafted profile reflects a lack of professionalism in your company. To attract quality leads on Instagram, ensure your profile captures important details in your bio like:

Company name, recognizable logo, and profile picture
Link to your website to drive traffic to your website
Clear contact details

You can create a separate Instagram lead generation landing page and add a link to your profile. If you have a special offer or event coming up, this strategy can help create a buzz around it.

Alternatively, use a specialized platform like Linktree to create a custom menu that visitors can use to view preferred pages on your website. For example, you can provide links to relevant blog posts on your Instagram profile. This way, you drive traffic to your website and get more leads.

See how UnboundB2B integrates a linktree link on its Instagram profile to drive website traffic.

Source: UnboundB2B Instagram

5. Engage Your Audience with Ask-Me-Anything Sessions

Another Instagram lead generation tactic that works for B2B companies is going live with ask-me-anything sessions. B2B buyers are attracted to transparent brands. One way of demonstrating transparency is to share your expertise and guide your audience through live ask-me-anything sessions. These sessions increase brand awareness, position your company as a thought leader, and support your lead-generation efforts.

You can bring in an expert or influencer to attract more leads. If you don’t have a budget to support this, you can conduct ask-me-anything sessions with your employees – they can tell stories of what they do and give your followers valuable tips. When you go live on Instagram to interact with your target audience, you appear on their stories- it’s hard for them to miss out.

Instagram live videos create a sense of urgency because your followers cannot view them once they’re gone. Unlike YouTube and Facebook, they are not recorded and saved on accounts. Instead, Instagram notifies your followers when you go live.

6. Host Podcasts on Instagram

Podcasts are powerful tools that can boost brand awareness and generate leads for your business. Instagram is a great place to reach a wide audience with your podcast message and redirect potential leads to other channels. You can host podcasts on your Instagram page or advertise them on the platform to attract listeners and generate leads.

You can use this strategy to:

Post interviews with industry experts
Inform the audience about your next podcast topic
Share short clips from the podcast
Post behind-the-scenes content

A good example of a B2B company that utilizes this strategy to generate leads is Drift. The company’s content marketing strategy includes publishing podcast episodes on Instagram several times each month.

7. Maximize Results With Call-to-Action Buttons

Instagram provides call-to-action (CTA) buttons that help businesses guide their followers toward desired actions. Using these buttons, you can drive traffic to your website, increase engagement, and generate more clicks on links. To capture the attention of your target audience, craft your call-to-actions around their needs and interests. Important best practices that can maximize your sales strategy results include:

Using action language that tells prospects exactly what to do like ‘learn more’, ‘swipe up’, ‘contact us’, or ‘sign up’.
Using simple CTAs that are easy to understand.
Creating a sense of urgency to encourage action e.g. ‘don’t miss out’ or ‘act now’.
Using hashtags to reach a bigger audience and increase engagement.
Adding emojis to make CTAs stand out.
Supporting CTAs with visuals to grab the attention of your users and communicate value.

8. Build Genuine Relationships with your Audience

Even on social media, B2B buyers are always looking for authenticity. To generate quality leads on Instagram, you need to build genuine relationships with your target audience. A great way to make your interactions more human is to give your audience an idea of what goes on behind the scenes- the faces behind your products or services and what your processes entail.

This doesn’t have to be a cost-intensive exercise. It can be as simple as posting short raw videos or photos that your audience will want to interact with. Another strategy for building genuine relationships with your audience is sharing success stories from your customers. See how UnboundB2B used this tactic in the Instagram snapshot below.

Source: UnboundB2B Instagram

9. Promote User-Generated Content

Another Instagram lead generation tactic B2B companies use to attract potential buyers is leveraging user-generated content (UGC). This strategy can work well if your business has a limited content creation budget. UGC helps you to reach a wider audience and serves as social proof to power your word-of-mouth marketing. To encourage your followers to comment or tag you on their posts/stories:

Share photos showcasing products in everyday use.
Incorporate your brand into your customer’s lifestyles.
Run contests with lead capture forms to generate direct leads.
Incentivize your audience with limited-time offers for opting-in to your email list or posting photos of your product.
Repost genuine UGC content and tag the creators.

Use the free Instagram post generator to customize your posts and make them more attractive. You can also create a special branded hashtag to generate brand awareness.

Wrapping It Up

Any B2B company can use Instagram to generate quality leads. But even with the tactics for generating leads on Instagram discussed above, you’ll need to do more to realize your marketing goals. Start by crafting an Instagram lead-generation strategy then execute it fully. If you need expert help, reach out to us – our lead generation team is ready to support you to take your business to the next level.

FAQs

1. What are Instagram reels?

These are short videos that Instagram users create or film and upload on the platform. Reels allow users to share creative content, market brands, and their showcase personalities.

2. Which content types work best for Instagram lead generation?

Short videos, stories, live videos, infographics, and carousels (posts with more than one video or image) are the best content formats for generating Instagram leads.

3. How can B2B companies optimize Instagram profiles for lead generation?

You can optimize your profile by linking it to your business website, adding a recognizable logo, providing contact details, and adding links to blogs using platforms like Linktree to create custom menus.