Foundr - The Ultimate Guide To Growing Your Online Business Using Instagram PDF

The Ultimate
Guide To
Growing
Your Online
Business
Using
Instagram
Starting up a social media Can you relate to these concerns when it comes
account for your business can to Instagram? Have you ever thought, while
be intimidating. You have a

fiddling around with image filters and silly
hashtags, what is even the point of all this?
ton to do, after all, and while
you’re probably generally
If so, you’re not alone. With lots of conflicting advice
out there, and a sea of ever-changing opinions,
aware that Instagram could it can be very tough to know exactly what your
benefit your company, it takes

Instagram marketing blueprint should look like, and
time to create worthwhile

exactly how it will lead you to your desired outcome
(money).
content. It can also be quite

difficult to recognize
Well, that’s exactly why we’ve built this guide—to cut
through all the noise about how to use Instagram to
whether you’re getting a true

grow a business, and to get down to the core of what
return on investment.
we know works, based on our own direct, extensive
experience.
In fact, the content in this guide is sourced directly from Foundr’s
own use of Instagram, and exactly how it’s helped us to massively
grow our own brand in just a few years. We’ve personally grown
our account to over 1.3 million followers and have chronicled
every step along the way, including how our massive following has
translated into thousands of conversions and sales.
Here’s a look at some of our current stats:
Instagram is one of the biggest factors behind Can your own business see
Foundr’s success, and we’ve compiled the best of our
knowledge on the subject right here, all in one place. this kind of success?
Can your own business see this kind of success? While While every brand is different, we can
every brand is different, we can confidently say that confidently say that regardless of what stage
regardless of what stage or niche you’re in, any business or niche you’re in, any business can reap
can reap benefits from using Instagram. And we’ll show benefits from using Instagram. And we’ll show
you how. Consider this your blueprint. you how. Consider this your blueprint.
IS THIS GUIDE FOR YOU?
If you don’t yet have an If you’re active on Instagram If you already have a wildly
Instagram account but but need to spruce up your successful Instagram account,
want to start (and succeed content and conversion efforts, but aren’t sure how to turn those
with) one, we’ll give you the we’ll teach you new strategies followers into customers, we’ll
tools to do so. and methods to engage your show you exactly how. We’ve
audience. tested and improved all of our
own methods so you can be
successful on Instagram, too.
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CAN INSTAGRAM
CHAPTER
01
REALLY HELP YOU
GROW YOUR ONLINE
BUSINESS?
With 800 million users, Foundr’s success on Instagram alone and commitment, but we’ve put together
Instagram is not only

is evidence that the platform can work the strategies and tactics to guide you
wonders for your company. But helping through the process.
the third-largest social others succeed with Instagram is also a
media network in the

big part of our business, so we’ve seen it And once you see your engagement (and
benefit LOTS of our students. revenue) rising, you’ll see that it’s all worth
world, but it is also the

it.
The short answer to this question above
perfect platform for is: Yes, Instagram can help you grow your Before we dive in, we are going to cover
authentic promotion,
online business. You can certainly grow a some common questions we’ve received
business without Instagram, but it is a very from businesses and members of our
building an engaged powerful tool. In fact, if you are not using community. Perhaps you’ve asked these
community, and yes,

Instagram for marketing and growth, you time and again, so we want to answer them
could be missing a ton of opportunities. (per our opinions about and experience
increasing revenue.
Yes, the process of growing an Instagram with Instagram) before moving forward
account for your brand takes some time with this guide.
INSTAGRAM Question 4
FREQUENTLY
How long will it take to
build a popular profile?
ASKED Your timeline will depend on how much time and effort you put
QUESTIONS
into building and developing your Instagram community. The
strategies in this guide will certainly help you, as they did us.
Within the first few weeks of its existence, the Foundr Instagram
grew from 0 to 10,000 followers. And in just five months, we had
gained more than 110,000 followers.
But within that time frame, we had also shared 777 posts,
which is about five per day. It was a lot of work, and still is...but
we’re now up to 1.2 million followers. Also note that Instagram
is always becoming more competitive. Thankfully, it’s also a
Question 1 platform that’s brimming with virtually every niche community
you could imagine. It really allows you build strong connections
and loyalty, even if you’re well below Kardashian-level in terms
of size.
Why is Instagram so
popular? Question 5
The purpose of Instagram is to authentically connect with your

target audience through visual imagery. Consumer response Is it easy to get followers
to visuals is stronger than text, and visual data is more
memorable than words or sounds. and grow a community?
On Instagram, visual imagery can refer to product photos, Yes and no. In this guide, we outline a pretty clear road map to
customer features, videos about company culture, text images building a highly engaged audience and Instagram community,
with quotes, or more. Instagram as a social media platform, so you won’t be stumbling around in the dark wondering what’s
and marketing tool, offers brands lots of flexibility and options next. But we can’t promise that these steps will be easy. Getting
when connecting with their audiences. followers and growing your business through Instagram is work.
It requires a lot of research, time, and trial and error to figure out
Instagram is also primarily mobile. This makes engaging with what works for your specific business, niche, and target market.
the network inherently more intimate, creating more human- But once you establish yourself on Instagram, your business and
like interactions between consumers and brands. It also offers bank account will thank you.
businesses the chance to reach their consumer base on the go,
right in their pockets.
Question 5
Question 2
I already have Facebook,
Which businesses benefit YouTube, and Twitter
the most from Instagram? accounts. Should I add
Instagram?
Brands in every industry and niche can benefit from Instagram.
But the platform might not be as helpful marketing-wise This answer is less about the accounts you already have and
for B2B companies. Due to its visual nature and user base, more about the time required to add new ones. Facebook,
Instagram tends to cater more to B2C businesses. YouTube, and Twitter are valuable social networks, but in our
experience, they won’t cultivate the kind of engagement and
Instagram can also be effective for services like interest that Instagram can for your brand. So, we think you
photographers, makeup artists, plastic surgeons, and any should add an Instagram.
other businesses for which images can help showcase your
work. It’s not just for physical products businesses. In fact, But on the other hand, if you truly don’t have the time and
Foundr is a digital media company with only a handful of resources to put into growing an Instagram account, it may not
physical products, and Instagram is our biggest marketing be worth setting one up. It is better to not have Instagram at all
platform to date. than to have a measly, half-active account. Thankfully, if you’re
already creating content for other social networks, you can adapt
those strategies to your Instagram feed until you figure out what
works best for your brand on the platform.
Question 3
Question 6
Will I be wasting my time
if I market my business Which type of Instagram
on Instagram? profile is right for my
We can’t answer this question, because when marketing
business?
on Instagram, you get out of it what you put in. While
Instagram’s design caters better to highly visual B2C There are three main types of Instagram profiles you can
businesses, all businesses can benefit from having an create when it comes to growing your business. Note that
account—if they put in the time and effort to create great for all three of these types, you can set your account to a
content and cultivate an engaged following. So, we don’t “Business Profile,” which unlocks some analytics options
believe that you will be wasting your time marketing on and a few other little perks. The following distinction is
Instagram if you execute it wisely, which is exactly why we more about what kind of content you’ll post.
have put together this guide to help you.
01
Business
Profile
The first type of Instagram profile is
a business account. In this type of
account, a brand is represented and
products or services are clearly sold.
Foundr (@foundr) is an example of
this type of account, as our account
represents the Foundr brand and
markets our products, podcasts, and
more.
02
Personal
Brand
Profile
The second type of Instagram profile is
a personal brand account. Take a look at
Gary Vaynerchuk’s profile (@garyvee). His
Instagram account promotes his personal
brand, blog, and subsequent books and
courses. A personal brand Instagram
account is a good fit for thought leaders,
bloggers, and individuals who are selling
themselves, more than they are a product
or service.
03
Fan Page
Profile
The third type of Instagram profile is a fan
page account, like @thinkgrowprosper.
These profiles don’t sell anything. Instead
they focus on cultivating an audience and
community. In turn, they tend to grow
quicker than other types of accounts. These
profiles make money from advertising,
getting sponsored, or doing shoutouts
(which we’ll talk about in Chapter 5).
Whether you choose a personal or company branded page depends a lot on your
business, and what will serve it best. If you plan to sell products through Insta-
gram, a fan page on its own is probably not for you. But since fan pages grow so
quickly, you can set up a business profile and then create fan pages that showcase
your product and promote your business page.
Gretta van Riel creates Instagram fan pages to drive traffic to her
health-focused brands. Here are two of her pages:
@befitbabes @befitfoods
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Masterclass
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attracts your target audience FRESH new 6 figure ecommerce that effortlessly turn your fans
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MASTER INSTAGRAM
CHAPTER GETTING
02
STARTED
ON INSTAGRAM
Creating Your Account
STEP
01
If you don’t have an Instagram account, creating one is pretty easy. Instagram is
primarily mobile, so grab a phone or tablet to get started. (And if you already have an
Instagram account, don’t skip this section. You might discover a new way to optimize
or clean up your profile.)
The most valuable part of your Instagram account is your profile. It tells your followers
and other Instagram users who you are, what you do, and where to find you, physically
or online. Your Instagram profile includes four important sections: username, profile
name, bio, and website.
The last component of your profile is your profile picture, but this step is pretty
straightforward—upload a picture of your logo (or a variation of your logo) so that your
account looks legitimate and is identifiable to customers and followers. Be sure to
upload a square photo at 110 x 110 px to optimize it and make it easily recognizable.
Profile Name
Next, choose a profile name. This is the bolded text above your bio and essentially
identifies your profile and business. Your profile name shows up under your username in
Instagram search results, so rather than just repeat your business name (if you secured
it as your handle), accounts sometimes use this space to add a little more detail about
what their business does. You can also use this section to get creative with your
business name, add a location, or more.
@Username
When you create your account, you’ll choose a username. This is also called a handle
and is how your profile is discovered and tagged. Foundr’s username is @foundr. Do
your best to choose a username that is your exact business name, URL, or matching
your other social media accounts. (For example, Foundr’s Twitter is also @foundr.) You
can always change your username later, although it is not recommended as any links to
your Instagram on your website or other profiles will break. Pressure’s on!
Bio
Your Instagram bio is the most important part of your profile and will probably take
you the most time to complete. You’ll also likely update this often, as most brands add
information about company updates, discounts, or lead magnets to this section.
Within your bio, you’ve got to define your business, state your purpose, establish
credibility, and share your brand voice—all in 150 characters. Use keywords and
hashtags to help make your profile searchable, and consider adding another user
account if you’re making a fan page or have a personal or other business account you
want to link to. Also, don’t shy away from emojis to add some personality and flair, such
as using a finger emoji to point out your website.
Website
(Speaking of your website…), always (always!) include a website on your Instagram
profile. One of Instagram’s calling cards, and part of why it’s been so popular, is that
hyperlinks are prohibited almost anywhere (we’ll get into stories later on)—except in
your profile. That’s right, as Eminem said, you only get one shot.
This link could go to your business homepage or a landing page for a current lead
magnet campaign. Use a custom bit.ly link or WordPress plugin prelink so you can track
the views. (We cover tools for this in greater detail in Chapter 7.) This link is the lone
bridge between your Instagram account and your website—and all of your conversions—
so make it count.
Finally, we recommend you set your account as a Business Profile, which is a simple
option in the settings menu. This opens up the analytics features (more on that later),
allows you to run promotions and ads, and gives you a nice “Contact” button on your
profile.
After you complete your Instagram profile, your next goal should be to get five to 10
posts created and published, fairly soon. In the next chapter, we will discuss more
about what content to post.
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STEP
02
Getting to Know Your
Instagram Followers
The goal of your Instagram account is Follow this same process for business
to connect with your followers, who partners, industry influencers, and any
ideally will be the same people or at other accounts you think might have the
least largely overlap with your business’s same audience as you. This research can
target audience. So understanding be time-consuming, but it’ll help you build
your Instagram following offers a great out your target Instagram audience, and
opportunity to get up close and personal run an account that’s relevant and serves
with the people you want to engage with your ideal customer base.
and eventually serve as customers.
Of course, if you already have general
One way to do this is to review your target market research, you can apply
competitors’ profiles. Make a list of that knowledge to your Instagram
your top 10 competitors and find them audience, too. But if you’re finding the
on Instagram. Take a look at the users two areas of audience research are
who are commenting and review their conflicting, that’s a good sign that maybe
discussions. What are they saying and you don’t know your market as well as you
asking? What are they interested in? think you do.
Research these followers’ profiles—the
ones who are really engaging with your Remember: You cannot post valuable,
competitors—and see what other pages engaging content until you know exactly
they are following. Look for similarities who’s viewing that content, and you want
and themes. those viewers to be the people who are
likely to buy what you’re selling.
STEP
03 CULTIVATING A
CONSISTENT THEME
Your want your Instagram account to be like a favorite
TV show or channel. Your followers will enjoy it because
it consistently gives them something they like and
depend on (whether that’s products, quotes, videos,
images, etc.).
A big part of the affection they’ll develop for your brand

will come from a sense of familiarity and comfort, and
you can reinforce that through a coherent theme.
People flip through Instagram fast, and you want your
stuff to be instantly recognizable.
Think about all the visual stuff you create for your
business: product catalogs, advertisements, and even
menus for restaurants. You spend a lot of time on the
design and aesthetic of your business’s visual assets,
and you should do the same for your Instagram, for
the same reason—because it will attract followers and
convert them into customers.
It’s also important to create a consistent theme so that

people understand what you’re all about. Your visual
theme speaks just as loudly as your Instagram bio and
individual captions. More so, actually, since lots of
people will scroll by without reading.
Take a look at Pantone (@pantone). At first glance, one

might think that Pantone is merely a design company.
But their Instagram account tells a different story, one
of deep love for color and aesthetic consistency (they
are the world’s leading authority on shades of color,
after all). Using creative photo illustrations based on
vivid colors, Pantone’s Instagram communicates the
importance of its brand through visuals.
So, ask yourself:

What is your voice?
And how does
it translate into
imagery?
Start by defining your brand aesthetic using personality
traits. For example, Foundr is bold, passionate,
trustworthy, and practical. We use a lot of clean, sparse
layouts, sans serif typefaces, and a healthy dose of red.
Try to turn your brand’s personality traits into colors,
photography styles, and typefaces. There’s no wrong
answer here; decide what feels right and be consistent.
If you’re struggling to establish a theme, return to your

brand for inspiration. Take a look at those visual assets
we mentioned above. What’s the vibe you get from those
visuals? Do you use a certain color palette, filter, border,
or frame? Does your brand set a bright or dark mood?
Do you notice any recurring patterns, angles, or photo
compositions?
And of course, without stealing, take inspiration from

Your Instagram aesthetic should be an
other accounts and even competitors’ accounts that you
extension of your overall brand. When
enjoy.
people visit your Instagram page, they
Take Tough Mudder’s Instagram (@tough_mudder), should be able to tell what you’re all
for example. The majority of their posts don’t match a about, and the photos that appear in their
specific composition or pattern, but they still exhibit a stream when they follow you should back
certain, predictable mood that matches the feeling of that up. You don't want to damage the
camaraderie and toughness of the overall Tough Mudder brand or cause confusion.
brand.
Some
Examples
01 02
from the For Ecommerce
and Physical
For Service-
Based
Pros Products
Businesses
Businesses
Take a look at designer Shauna Glenn (@
shaunaglenn). Shauna is an interior stylist based
Let’s discuss some Take a look at Frank Body (@frank_bod). This in Texas, and she features her colorful design
skincare line sells their health and beauty products work all over her Instagram account. Her high-
real-life examples of through Instagram and shares some beautiful quality imagery and authentic captions give
successful Instagram imagery in the process. Frank Body also leverages her followers a glimpse of her personality – as a
branded hashtags like #thefrankeffect and designer, writer, mom, and person.
accounts in each industry. #frankcoffeeart to build up their community and
showcase user-generated content.
03 04 05
For Blogs and For Digital For Local Food
Content-Based Products Businesses
Businesses Businesses Take a look at CREAM, which stands for Cookies
Take a look at Foundr (@foundr)...if you haven’t Rule Everything Around Me (@cream_nation). This
Take a look at Portland, Oregon (@portland). This Hollywood-based ice cream shop takes sweet
already. Foundr’s account is a healthy mix
travel website account does a stellar job of sharing tooth to the next level by posting gorgeous, colorful
of a business account and fan page. This is
gorgeous, engaging content. It’s also directly linked photography featuring their menu items and the
because Foundr’s community is a very big part
to the ecommerce business account @portlandgear customers who enjoy them. Most posts don’t even
of its company brand. On the account, you’ll find
(giving you an example of a fan page promoting promote CREAM’s products (instead featuring
promotional posts mixed with motivational quotes.
a business page). You’ll see Portland Gear used captions like “C is for cookie” or “Treat yo’ self”), but
Foundr knows their audience extremely well and
frequently as an example in this guide. the quality and personality of their photos has a
posts content that motivates, and engages them.
positive impact on its brand.
Another B2B example is Shopify (@shopify). B2B
brands typically aren’t as popular on Instagram
as fan pages and physical product brands, but There’s a place for every type of business on
Shopify does a good job engaging its followers and Instagram; you just have to know what your target
providing value. audience wants to see and how to deliver that
content in a way that cultivates an audience and
eventually drives that audience to your website, blog,
or storefront. Keep reading to learn how to do exactly
that.
Masterclass
years

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MASTER INSTAGRAM
CHAPTER CREATING
03
ENGAGING
INSTAGRAM
CONTENT
Now that you’ve got an account set up, you know your Instagram
style, and you know who you’re talking to, it’s time to create
amazing content that will get people to stick around.
If they find your content valuable, entertaining, and/or

educational, they’ll follow you forever. If not, there are a million
other feeds out there worthy of their limited attention. From here
on, all tips and tricks aside, focus on creating and sharing solid
content before anything else.
Types of Engaging Instagram Content
Let’s review some popular options.
Quote Images So quote images are a great option if your

Posting quote images is a great way to connect with your business doesn’t naturally provide many
audience, regardless of your niche or industry, which is visuals to share. Otherwise, your followers
why they’re really popular. There’s just something about an
inspirational message that gets people fired up. Quote images are might get tired of seeing pictures of Larry in
a favorite at Foundr because 1) we know our audience appreciates customer support working at his desk.
and responds to motivation and inspiration, and 2) the digital
nature of our business gives us very little to share in terms of
physical objects. We traffic in ideas. To get started, check out apps like WordSwag
and Typorama for text-focused Instagram
posts. We use these very same apps for our
own Instagram account! (We’ll talk more about
Instagram tools in Chapter 7.)
And don’t feel like you’re limited to using
famous quotes or notable things other people
have already said. Get creative and deliver
any punchy message, joke, or sentiment you
may want to share with your audience, in the
form of bold text superimposed over a color or
image.
Selfies and
People photos and selfies People Images
are a great way to share Instagram photos that feature faces get 38% more likes than
those without faces. Featuring humans can give your brand
your company culture and personality and help your audience relate to you. Take a look
the kinds of experiences at @CocaCola. Coca-Cola sells bottles of sugar water, yet their
Instagram account features more faces than drinks.
you want your customers
to have. Regardless of your
type of business, including
humans in your Instagram
photos is sure to engage
your audience in a fresh
way. Just make sure you’re
being creative—get Larry
away from his desk!
Landscapes
Instagram images of nature are a hit with audiences, and some of the
most popular accounts specialize in them. Like inspirational quotes,
everyone has an appreciation for scenic photos. Even if your business
isn’t focused on the outdoors, like @LifeisGoodCo is, you can still wow
your audience with a gorgeous landscape photo. Landscapes and scenery
can symbolize where
you’ve been as a company,
or create a shared point-
of-view that reminds your
followers that there’s a
person behind your brand.
Behind-the-Scenes
Use Instagram to be transparent Behind-the-scenes photos can be powerful for businesses
because they remind their audiences that there are, in fact, humans
and give a glimpse of the goings operating behind those fancy logos and amazing products. In an
on at your company. Be sure overwhelmingly digital world, it’s more important than ever to create
a human connection with your customers.
to have fun with it, as you want
to demonstrate that your team
are the kind of people your
followers would want to hang
out with. Remember, people
want to do business with
people, not brands.
Curated Images
and Video
In their Instagram bio, they encourage
followers to share their images taken
(User-Generated Content) with GoPro by tagging #GoPro in
User-generated content (UGC) is curated and reposted from other their captions. (We’ll discuss tools for
Instagram users, typically featuring your products or brand in reposting content in Chapter 7.)
some way. The goal with UGC is to showcase your brand in a real-
life setting and pair it with a customer testimonial on your own
account. @GoPro is a popular account that mainly features UGC. Depending on your type of business,
if you decide to go this route, it’s good
practice to post curated images and
videos about 50% of the time. When
you do repost from other users, always
get permission first (being tagged in a
photo usually implies permission), and
be sure to credit the original account
in the caption and by tagging the image
with their handle.
Video
First introduced in 2013, video has become highly popular on
Instagram. As of this writing, you can post video between 3 and
60 seconds long. Instagram video can be captured through the
Beauty brand @Birchbox in-app camera, or you can use the tools mentioned in Chapter
7 to publish time-lapses and boomerangs. Video can be useful
posts lots of videos of their for products demonstrations, posting customer testimonials, or
team members trying on their showcasing your company in a new way.
makeup or skincare products.

This allows their audience to
better understand how their
products are used and what
they look like in real life, while
getting to know the team better.
Product Photos
Note that we saved this type of Instagram post for last. Why? Because
it’s not the most important. I know this may seem counterintuitive if
The goal of your Instagram account
you’ve got this great-looking product, and you just started an account should be to provide value and
designed for sharing pictures. But trust us. connect with your audience, not
Sure, you can share content that features your products (we to consistently sell to them. If you
recommend one in every four to five posts), but it shouldn’t be the
focus of your Instagram account. If your followers wanted to peruse
do post photos of your products,
photos of your stuff, they’d visit your website or pick up a catalog. make sure you do so in a way that
is consistent with your theme
and account aesthetic, or in a way
that downplays the product itself.
Clothing brand @Anthropologie
offers a visually appealing Instagram
account, and in some photos, you can
hardly tell they’re featuring a product
or two. That should be your goal
when posting about your products.
Stories
Introduced in 2016, Instagram Stories are a step up from posting
Because of their unique on your feed. These short, disappearing video clips (the feature
was shamelessly ripped off from Snapchat) are imperfect and
engagement and linking abilities, fleeting and can feel like a very real interaction to audience
Stories are often used by brands members. Instagram Stories humanize your brand, which is
important in a world where people prefer to buy from a brand they
for conversions (which we’ll expla trust and feel connected to. Besides driving traffic and boosting
in further below). But you can use awareness, posting to your Instagram Story helps build your
brand’s personality and character.
them for a variety of purposes.
Stories are valuable for sharing
practically all the types of content
we described above – behind-the-
scenes, selfies, product photos,
and even UGC.
Regardless of what type of Instagram content you share, quality is
always more important than quantity. Cultivating a high-quality
Instagram account is about more than a quick snapshot from an
iPhone. Valuable, shareable images need to be visually appealing and
ideally taken with a professional camera, although there are plenty of
apps and tools that can help you take great photos with your phone.
(We’ll cover these in Chapter 7.)
The specific type of Instagram content
What Content you should be posting is a question only
You Should Be
you can answer, and you’ll likely not
Posting
answer it right away. But after some
research and testing, you’ll find a theme
and content type that suits your brand
and schedule best.
To get you started, here’s a step-by-step method to

come up with content creation ideas without getting
overwhelmed.
01
Understand Your Niche
Your target audience research from Chapter 2 should help with this, as will your
competitor research. If there’s one thing you know for certain, it’s that your
competition is likely being followed by those in your target audience. So tap into
their accounts for inspiration and ideas (don’t steal).
What are they posting? What themes do you see, and what are their most popular
posts? (In Chapter 7, we will cover tools you can use for this step.) Ask yourself how
you can make your content better than your competitors. What are they missing
that you can offer?
As you complete this step, you should be able to answer the question: What type of
content makes sense for my audience, industry, and niche?
02
Identify Your
Themes
Let’s turn that general understanding of your niche into themes around which you can
create real content. What do we mean by themes? Well, consider the categories you
might use to organize your blog content. What types of content would your audience
want to read or see?
For example, if I were selling social media marketing software, I’d target small business
owners and digital marketers who want to streamline their social media and learn new
strategies. My blog (and Instagram) themes might be:
Social media strategy

Social media industry news and updates
Productivity and marketing tips
Product and company updates
Your brand might have many themes or just a few. Take a second and jot down your
themes before moving on.
03
Break Down
Your Themes
Now, let’s take your brand’s key themes and break them down into smaller topics. This step
will help you come up with real, actionable content ideas. No topic or idea is too small.
Returning to our social media marketing SaaS example, here’s how I’d break down my key
themes:
Social media strategy

• Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and
Pinterest best practices

• Best posting times
Social media industry news and updates

• New Facebook algorithm
• New Instagram algorithm
Productivity and marketing tips

• Social media editing apps
• Inspirational marketing quotes
Product and company updates

• Release of iOS app
• New blog posts
• Team updates
We’ve illustrated just a couple ideas for each theme, but it’s clear how deep you can go
while brainstorming. No idea is too small or silly; remember, you won’t know exactly what
your audience is looking for until you start posting and test engagement.
And when you do start posting on Instagram, you’ll want to plan far ahead so you can stay
consistent with your content. So it’s best to come up with as many ideas as you can in this
step. Your future self will thank you.
04
Find Images
Some brands struggle with Instagram because, while they have things they want to
communicate about their business, they aren’t sure how to visualize it. Granted, not all
content ideas come with clear image ideas, so this step will help you plan a visual for each
topic idea.
Take a look at @LaterMedia, an actual Instagram scheduling software. Not only is their
profile fun and colorful, but they’ve chosen interesting, gorgeous photos to illustrate
product and company updates. In the examples below, they’re illustrating a team update,
and a new product.
Once you settle on your content type and strategy, don’t stray far from that theme.
Consistency is what brings people back to any brand or business, whether it’s for a
Starbucks Macchiato or a Snickers bar. The same thing goes for your Instagram content.
The reason Foundr has so many authentic Instagram followers is because people can
expect a consistently high level of quality from us. They know that on Instagram, we
produce a certain kind of post, and that trust is what keeps them coming back for more.
What Size
At this point, you have a good idea of what you can and should be posting on
Instagram. But before you run out there and start posting images, let’s talk
Should My
technical details.
Instagram
The standard Instagram image size used to be 612px x 612px, but Instagram switched
to 1080px x 1080px in July 2015 to keep up with high-resolution displays on
smartphones, tablets, and computers. Later in 2015, Instagram also added the ability
Posts Be?
to post vertical and horizontal images. Here are the maximum sizes for square, vertical,
and horizontal images:
Square 1080px x 1080px

Vertical 1080px W x 1350px H
Horizontal 1080px W x 566px H
You can use any sizes within those measurements.
If you screenshot and upload an image to Instagram, it may not fit perfectly. The best
way to work around this is to crop it first in the photo gallery, then use an app like
Whitagram and select Full Resolution. That re-optimizes the photo to fit on Instagram.
(We’ll discuss more posting apps in Chapter 7.)
Lastly, depending on the type, consider branding each image before posting. Foundr
brands all of our original posts to make them more recognizable and build brand
awareness when images are shared with others. A logo or brand also sets original
images apart from curated and user-generated content.
How to Write Most people think that all you need to do is create great images for your Instagram
Captions that
audience and the work is done. For the most part, they’re right—if all they are looking
for is to raise brand awareness.
Convert While a big following is impressive, it

ultimately means nothing if you don’t
do anything with it.
While your visual content is crucial for attracting and entertaining your audience, your
captions are the key to engagement, and eventually, conversion.
Conversion, in this case, could refer to a follow, a bio link click, an email entry, or even
a purchase. Regardless of what you’re aiming to do through your Instagram content,
each and every caption must be engaging in some way.
Your captions are incredibly important because they help frame each image and
provide context for your audience. With Instagram’s latest update, your audience will
see only the first two or three lines of your caption. So, you’ll either need to provide
context immediately, or create a line that’s so attention-grabbing that people can’t
help but want to click “...more.”
Learn
For newcomers, a hashtag is simply text following a pound sign that acts as a
to Love
hyperlink to other similar posts that share the same tag. They are one of the
top ways users discover new accounts and content on the platform.
Hashtags
You should use hashtags in every single caption. But don’t stuff too many in the
caption itself. Great captions are compelling and readable, and too many hashtags
can turn users away. Include your branded hashtags and perhaps a few more in the
caption, but add the majority (30 is the maximum) as the first comment on the post.
Branded hashtags are custom, brand-specific tags that cultivate a community

around your brand and help collect all the content posted by your users and
customers. Branded hashtags are also how businesses discover and share user-
generated content. L.L.Bean (@llbean) encourages their audience to tag any photos
of products with #BeanOutsider, which the brand then shares on their profile.
Thankfully, Instagram makes it easy to discover hashtags. Search for a hashtag, and
10 to 20 other relevant ones will pop up, too. Instagram also shows a “Related” tab
next to the most popular posts in the Explore tab.
TIP: Get hashtag inspiration from top influencers and competitors in your niche.
This method helps you not only generate more exposure and gain more followers
but also get on the radars of influencers (which will be important when growing
your following and marketing your products). Finally, use Tag for Likes or Display
Purposes to find trending and relevant hashtags.
When posting, use both popular hashtags (with millions of searches) and less
popular ones (with ~50,000) to give you a better chance of popping up in Instagram
searches.
To maximize exposure, create at least three different hashtag blends of 30 hashtags

each. As you publish content, switch up which blend to post so that your content
reaches a mix of people within your niche. Save the blends in your favorite notes
app so you can easily copy and paste them in.
When and
How to Post
Similar to your content strategy, when and how you post on Instagram takes some
time to figure out. There’s no single answer, because your posting patterns will
depend on who’s viewing your content and when they’re on Instagram. Ultimately,
you’ll need to start gathering data to answer this question.
As you begin building out your posting strategy, we encourage you to post all the
time and for all time zones, especially if you’re aiming to be a multinational brand
like Foundr. Start with 10 to 20 images to lay a foundation for your feed, then post
at least once a day. If you want to grow quicker and see results faster, post more.
Foundr posts six to 10 times per day and gets 800 - 1,000 new followers and tens of
thousands of likes daily.
The more you post, the faster you’ll

grow and the quicker you’ll be able
to see what times of day and types of
content are drawing the best responses.
Later on, we’ll get into the variety of
applications that can help you gauge
which times are working best.
All that said, never post just to post. All content must be on-brand, high-quality, and
targeted to your audience.
Scheduling Consistency
Instagram is
Content Key
We’re big believers in quality over quantity, but posting
Scheduling your Instagram content can help you stay consistent and consistently is one of the most important factors when
take away the daily hassle of editing and posting. If you’re not careful, growing a business account through Instagram. You don’t
social media can absorb your time and productivity, so scheduling have to be a posting machine, but find some routine that’s
content can help you stay present and focus on other tasks. reasonable, and stick with it. The goal is to never have days go
by without new content, or to have a bunch of posts cranking
Tools like Later, Planoly, Grum, and Schedugram can help you schedule out all at once (unless it’s part of an intentional campaign).
content in advance and also review how images will look on your feed
prior to posting. You can also drag and drop to move images and create Instagram rewards consistency and continued momentum. So
a more attractive overall feed. Later also allows you to schedule from once you start, don’t stop. If you feel like you can’t keep up with
your desktop or laptop. daily activity, schedule a bunch of days (aim for 30 or more) in
advance so you never fall behind.
Note: Some tools will post automatically from the app, while others
will send a notification when it is time to physically publish content. In The only thing that can’t be scheduled is Instagram
early 2018, Instagram officially allowed businesses to schedule content engagement, and rightfully so, because to cultivate real
directly to the platform, so some scheduling apps might be changing followers, engagement should be authentic and organic. We’ll
their posting processes in the future. cover this more in the next chapter.
On the other hand, you don’t have to schedule your posts. In fact,
sometimes it’s helpful to upload posts in real time if you’re following a
trending topic or need to post a certain image at a specific time. But
scheduling can help you stay consistent, so it’s good practice to check
out these tools. (See Chapter 7)
Masterclass
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MASTER INSTAGRAM
CHAPTER HOW TO DEVELOP
04
AN ENGAGED
INSTAGRAM
FOLLOWING
If you remember one thing from this
chapter, it’s this: Not all Instagram
followers are equal.
On social media, and especially Instagram, it is much more about quality than quantity. If your goal is to
grow your business through Instagram (as opposed to your Instagram account itself), you should aim
to cultivate a following of users who will engage with you and be interested in your brand. There are a
lot of growth hacks for Instagram, including some shady ways to boost your follower count. But they’re
not always going to get you the engagement you’re after.
Beyond the embrace of the cardinal rule that you must create great content, here’s how Foundr grew
our engaged follower base to over 1 million, and how you can grow yours.
Follow for Follow Share for Share
(S4S) / Shoutouts
This method is manual and time-consuming, but it’s
a great way to start growing your followers if you’re a
To grow your Instagram following, you’re going to have to help out
new business or are new to Instagram. To leverage this
your competition.
strategy, start following people within your target niche.
Wait to see if they follow you back, and unfollow anyone
What?
who hasn’t followed you back after a few days. One piece
of Insta-etiquette—don’t follow an account just to get the
follow-back, and then unfollow them anyway to keep your
following count low. Rude.
That’s right. On Instagram, community is valued over competition,
and accounts within the same niche that target the same users
One way to identify those users in your target niche is to
frequently work together to grow their followers and engagement.
check competitors’ Instagram accounts and see who’s
This method is called share for share (S4S) or shoutouts.
engaging with their posts. The users that comment
often, tag friends, and ask questions are likely the most
The premise is simple: You post an image for and/or mention in your
interested, engaged followers, so follow them.
caption a certain Instagram user, and they do the same for you. The
goal with this method is to help each other (you and the collaborating
Another way to interact with your target niche is to engage
account) build brand awareness, gain exposure, and access new
followers through their profiles by liking their content and
audiences. You both benefit from the exchange.
leaving valuable comments of your own.
If you’re just starting out on Instagram, wait until you have about
1,000 to 2,000 followers before you reach out to anyone. If you
expect to collaborate with a successful account, you must have
something to offer in exchange. Successful Instagram brands likely
won’t be interested in brand new accounts with few followers (unless
they are paid, and we’ll get into paid shoutouts in the next section).
There are many ways you can provide value for partnering accounts,
even when you’re a small account up against a big one. When
pitching larger accounts, calculate your engagement rate (number
of likes and comments divided by number of followers). This will
show other accounts how active and engaged your audience is, i.e.
that they’re likely to take note of whatever content you post on their
behalf.
To further improve your leverage for shoutouts with bigger accounts,

consider offering up your live bio link or proposing multiple shoutouts
for the “price of one.” Follower count doesn’t have to be the only way
to measure value when negotiating a shoutout.
Choosing the Right Shoutout Account
When you start reaching out to other accounts, approach people with the same number of followers and audience
demographic. Offer to post a shoutout with their Instagram username and an image in exchange for the same.
You can offer/ask for two types of shoutouts:
• A collaborating account can tag your Instagram username in their caption

• They can share your photo while also tagging you in the caption.
Newer accounts might find more success in asking for a Not unlike S4S groups are Instagram engagement pods,
caption shoutout so that the original account can still post which typically live in Instagram DMs. An Instagram pod is
their own content while tagging you. If you’re exchanging a small group of Instagram users, bloggers, and businesses
an image shoutout with a brand, consider offering up one of (about 10 to 15) that like and comment on each other’s
your best performing images for them to share. Regardless, content to organically increase engagement. These pods
be sure their caption about you includes a strong call-to- are especially valuable as Instagram’s algorithm favors
action like a question or encouragement to follow you. engagement and value over chronological posting. Some
Instagram pods focus on a specific niche while others are
Besides researching similar accounts on Instagram, you based around general engagement.
can also join S4S and shoutout groups with like-minded
Instagram users. Instagram users often use Kik, Slack, or Whether you join an Instagram pod and connect over Kik for
GroupMe to discuss and collaborate on shoutouts. a S4S, you’re sure to experience increased engagement—
perfect for new accounts on Instagram!
Paid Choosing the What and
Shoutouts Right Paid When to Post
Shoutout
Account
There’s no magic number of paid
Paid shoutouts are similar to
shoutouts. You can do as many as you
free shoutouts, except they are
can afford with your marketing budget,
typically a one-way transaction.
or you can start with just one or two
When you pay for a shoutout, the
to see how your account responds.
collaborating account will post your To choose a good account for a paid shoutout,
For example, Foundr spent about $100
image and/or tag you in a caption look for those that have similar audiences but
on shoutouts in the first two weeks
in exchange for compensation. much, much higher audience numbers and
of our Instagram account, and it was
You don’t post anything on your engagement. Remember, the goal here is to tap
instrumental in reaching our first 10,000
account, which is why this is a into an audience that you’d otherwise not reach,
followers.
comparable option for smaller, so don’t immediately settle for a small to midsize
newer accounts that don’t have account.
Obviously, doing multiple swap posts
much value to offer in terms of
each day leads to maximum growth, but
engagement or audience. When you find five to 10 accounts that share your
you shouldn’t commit to that expense
industry and niche (competitors, influencers,
until you’re absolutely sure you’re
The types of paid shoutouts are or otherwise), take a look at their engagement
working with the right accounts and the
just like free shoutouts – the levels. Look for an engagement/following ratio of
right content. See how a couple go first,
account will either tag your account 1% to 3%. For example, an account with 500,000
and take it from there.
in the caption (which you could followers and 2.5% engagement would have
write, depending on what you’re at least 10,500 likes and/or comments on their
As with free shoutouts, you should
paying), or they’ll post your image images. Review their last eight to 10 images to
use a top-performing image from your
and tag you in the caption. check for engagement levels, and consider using
account. Don’t hesitate to reuse images
an app like Social Blade to check the legitimacy
that you’ve already posted, as this image
of their account. You don’t want to pay for a
will be shared on someone else’s profile
shoutout on an account that has a bunch of
(preferably to a brand new audience). If
bot followers, or low value followers who don’t
you have a lead magnet offer, consider
engage with their content.
leveraging that through your paid
shoutout, whether through the image
itself or in the caption. In Chapter 5,
we’ll cover more details on how to use
Instagram to get website traffic.
The Cost of Shoutouts

There’s no hard and fast numbers for how much paid shoutouts cost; typically, it’s up to you and
how much you feel that an account’s engagement, post quality, and audience are worth.
What you want to do is assess the future return you can expect from working with these brands
and then price accordingly. For example, for one of our ecommerce brands, we once paid an
influencer with only 100,000 followers $1500 for a shoutout post because we knew we would
get a strong return. That post generated hundreds of sales. But, some influencers with 100,000
followers who love your product may take your product for free as the only form of payment. Every
influencer is different.
Having said that, here are some guidelines to help you get started. According to a 2017 study of
almost 3,000 accounts, the cost of a sponsored post is directly proportional to follower count.
Those accounts with less than 2,000 followers charge, on average, about $124; on the other side
of the spectrum, accounts with between 150,000 and 250,000 followers charge around $400,
and those with more than 1 million charge well over $1,000.
When negotiating a paid shoutout scenario, be prepared with a cost range and time limit.
Accounts that run paid shoutouts may also slap on a time period, as they’ll eventually delete
the post. This could be anywhere from one hour to one day. Try to get maximum exposure for a
reasonable price.
Lastly, always test paid shoutouts. Use tools like Linktrackr or Social Blade to review and test the
results of your paid shoutouts. If the first one doesn’t pay off and draw engagement, don’t work
with that account again.
Giveaways
Giveaways are another surefire way to organically grow your audience and to leverage the followers of
fellow Instagram accounts. To get the best engagement and ROI, though, we recommend waiting until
your account has at least 10,000 followers to run one.
Giveaways work by requiring people to share and engage with your Instagram content for a chance to win
a prize, so it can really drum up a ton of exposure and interaction.
One common approach is to partner up with another Instagram account that shares a similar audience
and goal. You want to find a partner that isn’t quite a competitor, but is still related to your niche and
product, and shares a comparable number of followers. For example, a skincare product line could run
a contest alongside a cosmetics brand. By partnering, both brands experience even more exposure by
sharing audiences.
As for the giveaway

itself, make it creative
and interesting. Your
goal should be that your
followers can’t help but
enter. People love free stuff,
so no prize is too small. But
as you grow, your prizes
should, too.
Require your audience to do two or three things to enter your giveaway. Typically, brands will ask their
followers to 1) follow their account, 2) tag a friend or two, and 3) follow the partner’s account, leave a
review on another social media site, or something else. The possibilities for engagement here are endless.
Some brands conduct these contests manually by randomly choosing a commenter then double-
checking that just that one person followed the other instructions for entry. This is a good option for new
businesses or brands testing the effectiveness of giveaways. On the other hand, tools like Woobox and
Shortstack are helpful for running and tracking Instagram contests and campaigns as things get more
advanced.
Genuine, Regular
Engagement
At the end of the day, authentically engaging with your audience is the best and purest way
to grow an engaged follower base. Sure, the methods above are straightforward ways to
cultivate followers, but a good ol’ like or reply in the comments can work wonders when it
comes to building affinity among your audience.
As your account and audience grow, stay engaged with your community. Interact with
comments and questions. Whether you like a comment, comment back with an emoji, or
leave a lengthy response, your audience will see that you’re paying attention and operating
your Instagram like a real person, not a faceless brand.
Masterclass
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YES, SHOW ME HOW TO

MASTER INSTAGRAM
CHAPTER HOW TO CONVERT
05
INSTAGRAM
FOLLOWERS TO
PAYING CUSTOMERS
I’m guessing this part is where a lot of folks need guidance, and
it’s likely the source of some frustration when it comes to using
Instagram for business purposes. The Underpants Gnomes of South
Park may come to mind as you’re putting in all this work to post
pretty pictures and clever captions.
Like we said above, growing your follower base doesn’t we cycle through a handful of different lead magnets so
mean much if you don’t do anything with it. Fortunately, our audience doesn’t get bored or annoyed by the same
businesses can find a ton of success when it comes old offer.
to using Instagram to drive traffic and, ultimately,
revenue. That is why, after all, we’ve spent all this time But while the lead magnet method is powerful for
building your account, creating incredible content, and content-based businesses and bloggers, it might not
cultivating an engaged audience—to eventually convert work for everyone. For ecommerce businesses, an
your followers to paying customers. effective “bridge” might just be product shots with links
to your online store or to a landing page that offers
The “bridge” between Instagram and your company is some sort of discount or special offer in exchange for an
commonly formed by way of a lead magnet (usually a email signup. For service-based businesses like makeup
free, high-quality piece of content) and driving people artists or wedding photographers, the “bridge” could
to a landing page where they can enter their email be photos of your work in action, with similar links to
addresses in exchange for said lead magnet. At Foundr, purchase or score a deal.
The
Awareness
Instagram
The top of the funnel, awareness, is how many users you’ve reached and how
many have seen your content. These are the highest number, which is why it
represents the top of the funnel.
Sales Interest
Funnel
As your funnel narrows, so do your numbers. The next section, interest,
represents how many users have taken interest in your content and followed
or engaged with your posts. In the previous chapters, we’ve discussed how to
create rockin’ content and grow an engaged follower base to maximize how
many people make it to this stage.
Before we dive into some traffic-driving strate-

gies, let’s take a quick trip through the Instagram
sales funnel. Most modern marketing can be or-
ganized into the AIDA sales funnel model: Aware-
Decision
ness, Interest, Decision, Action.
The next section is called decision, because it represents the users that click on
your link. By doing this, they’ve decided to interact with your brand and move
off of Instagram to your website or landing page. In this chapter, we will mainly
cover strategies on how to lead people through this step. It’s a big one—where
things escalate from merely looking at cool photos, to potentially giving you
money.
Action
The final part of the funnel, action, is how many people end up completing your
desired action. This action could be joining your email list, subscribing to your
If you haven’t noticed, your Instagram strategy isn’t blog, or purchasing a product or service, and it’s what we mean when we say
that different from a typical marketing strategy. “converting” Instagram followers. Your success at this stage will depend on the
effectiveness of the previous stages, as well as the general value you provide
through your website or link destination.
Regardless of your end goal, cultivating a healthy Instagram sales
funnel means that you must be driving your audience through
each step of the process. Changing your perspective and viewing
your Instagram as another marketing funnel will help you stay
focused and remember your end goal: To use Instagram to
convert your audience and drive revenue.
Here are some strategies for driving Instagram followers to your
website or landing page:
How to Post
Traffic-Driving
Images on Your
Instagram Feed
In Chapter 3, we discussed how to create breathtaking images
that beg for engagement. Now, we’re going to take those
strategies and apply them to the images you post in order to drive
traffic to your website. This could be lead magnet images, product
shots, or photography featuring your work—we’ll call these If you’re promoting products,
“bridge” images. aim to post something other than
a straightforward product shot.
Because you only post these images once out of every four or five Lifestyle images are always good
posts, they should be your very best, most compelling photos. for promoting products, if you can
That, or they should present such an enticing offer that followers show an actual person using your
won’t be able to resist clicking (or at least considering it until the product. This is why user-generated
offer shows up the next time). The same goes for your caption. content is great for authentic
Always add a strong call-to-action and include “Link in bio” or promotion—you can showcase your
a super simple URL (we’ve used links like “foundr.com/free”) product in real life and someone
whenever you promote your lead magnet, product, or service so else does the photography work for
your followers can easily know how to access your landing page. you. It’s a win-win!
Drive Traffic via
Instagram Stories
Because Instagram Stories are more real-time than normal posts,
lots of brands use them to share new products, lead magnets,
and sales. Brands also do this because you can now add a live link
within them—effectively bridging the gap between Instagram and
your website. It was a pretty big deal when this change was made,
because for years before, the only other spot for a live link was in
the Instagram bio. Suddenly, Instagram Stories became scorching
hot real estate for conversions.
But hold your horses, because at this time, only accounts with 10,000 or more
followers can access the “Swipe Up” link feature. You’ve got your work cut out
for you before this superpower is unlocked.
Once you hit that point, within your story, the live link will show up at the
bottom with a small arrow and the text “See More.” You can see this in the
example above. When users swipe up, they are taken to the web page you
linked to in your story. To ensure that your viewers see this link and access it,
don’t forget to add a noticeable call-to-action within any story that has a link.
Whether it’s “Check out the link below…” or “Swipe up to see…”, you need to alert
your audience that there’s a live link attached to the photo or video. Otherwise,
they might miss it and simply tap through your story. Here are some examples:
You can view the results
Another tool within of your poll where you see
Instagram Stories that who viewed your story, by
swiping up on the image
drives engagement and or video. This poll feature
traffic is the new polling is a neat way to conduct
simple target audience
feature. Accessible research, but use it
within the stickers sparingly. Too many polls,
and your audience can
section, the story poll get burned out.
allows you to ask a
question and provide
two customizable
answers.
Drive Traffic by
Collaborating with
Influencers
Collaborating with influencers follows some of the same principles
behind the shoutout, but takes it a step further by focusing on one
main goal. While shoutouts are conducted to expose your brand to a
new audience and gain followers, working with influencers typically
involves them promoting a specific product, lead magnet, or overar-
ching goal.
But let’s back up. If you’re wondering what the heck we’re talking
about, influencer marketing is basically a modern take on the concept
of a spokesperson, but using popular Instagram accounts to promote
a brand. Believe it or not, it can be a lot more powerful too.
That’s because people often feel highly, personally connected to the

people they follow on social media, and someone you’d consider an
influencer on Instagram is often not at the level of fame that you’d
think of as “celebrity.” So they’re much more relatable, which means
influencer marketing feels more like a word-of-mouth recommenda-
tion than an advertisement.
Word-of-mouth marketing is more powerful than ever. Consumers

are tired of being pummeled with promotions by brands; they re-
spond more positively to honest recommendations. So when an in-
fluencer posts about something, it comes across more like authentic
advice than a blatant pitch. That’s why working with influencers is a
powerful way to drive people from Instagram to your website.
What Do
Influencers Cost?
There’s no rhyme or reason to what influencers charge, but it
typically comes down to the number of followers and the quality
of their engagement. The more followers and the higher the
engagement rate, the more expensive a post will be. Accounts
with over 150,000 have been reported to charge anywhere from
$400 to $1,000.
Cash isn’t always the best method of payment though. As we

mentioned in a previous chapter, it depends on the influencer. We
have worked with many influencers who accepted our product
for free as a form of payment because they loved the product and
were excited to receive it. You may find that this is the case more
often than not.
Can’t quite afford a large cash payment for big-time influencers?

Understandable. Thankfully, a lot of brands have had more
success working with micro-influencers, which are accounts
that have anywhere from 1,000 to 100,000 followers. They also
have highly-engaged followings, which makes these influencers
valuable in their own way.
Engagement Rate Follower Quality Follower Total

Ideally, you’ll see an engagement rate of 2% Numbers are great, but actions are better. This number isn’t quite as important
to 3%. (Remember, this rate is calculated by Review each influencer’s most recent (compared to engagement and follower
number of likes and comments divided by five to 10 posts and see how authentic quality), but it’s still relevant to your decision.
total followers.) Ratios in the 4% to 6% rate the discussions are. Are there substantial If a number of the influencers you’re
are even better, and anything above 10% is questions and messages, or do you simply eyeing rank similarly in engagement rate
considered outstanding, with cost to match. see a lot of emojis and meaningless “Nice!” and follower quality, those with the higher
comments? The quality of comments will follower counts will translate to better
speak to how connected the influencer’s numbers overall.
followers are, which could translate to more
engagement and revenue for you.
Once you’ve narrowed your list down to three to five, contact

each influencer to discuss rates. Like we said above, there’s
no magic equation to help you navigate the cost of influencer
marketing. Take a look at what these influencers have
promoted before (if anything), and that may give you an idea
of what types and sizes of businesses they work with.
Thankfully, some influencers are open to negotiation

and may be willing to exchange a post for a free product,
especially micro-influencers who are operating smaller
accounts.
What Should Finally, it’s your responsibility to follow Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
Influencers Post?
guidelines when promoting products through influencer marketing. In the
past year or so, the FTC has been cracking down on influencer marketing
activity, so it’s up to you to remain compliant or otherwise risk your account
being shut down.
What influencers promote in their posts is completely up to you. Perhaps
you have a new product that requires exposure or an underperforming The FTC requires influencers to disclose when a “material connection”
product that needs a little push. If you’re uncertain of what exactly you’d exists between themselves and a brand. This type of connection includes
like to promote (or if you’d rather just get your brand name out there), take the exchange of fiscal compensation, free product, and even a business or
a look at the influencer’s page. You may be able to pinpoint one or two family relationship with the brand. The FTC enforces this in order to provide
products based on their theme aesthetic. transparency to consumers. Basically, Instagram users want (and deserve)
to know when an influencer is being compensated to share a product with
In terms of design and content creation, the influencer typically possesses their followers.
most of the creative freedom. Part of what makes an influencer so valuable
is the authentic, coherent feed they’ve curated, so you can expect your Disclosure per the FTC is pretty simple. When working with influencers,
sponsored post to at least fall in line with the theme they’ve established. If remind them to place #ad or #sponsored in the caption. (Those are the only
you’re curious about what your specific post will look like, consider asking two hashtags that count as disclosure.) You may also want them to tag your
the influencer to outline how they plan to capture the image or video or to Instagram account in the photo as well as include your handle in the caption.
send you a draft post for approval. The same disclosure rules apply to Instagram Stories, too.
Working with influencers is like any other marketing campaign, so discuss Influencer is the leading Instagram marketing tactic, and for good reason. It
metrics and analytics so you can be sure your post is performing well. The leverages word-of-mouth marketing, captivated audiences, and beautiful
influencer will have access to that data, so perhaps you can establish a imagery to spark engagement and conversions. Depending on what you
routine check-in to touch base on your post(s), with benchmarks at three promote through influencers, this tactic can lead to an increased email list,
days, one week, and one month (or whatever you deem appropriate). increased website traffic, and everything in between—ultimately creating
Depending on your influencer’s posting package, they might have a pre- and leading to another valuable sales funnel.
established metrics process, too.
Drive Traffic via

Shoppable Images
Introduced in the US in 2017, Instagram has now expanded Shopping on Insta-
gram (shoppable images) to include more users. With this feature, your Insta-
gram followers can click on your product image and be instantly directed to a
place where they can purchase them. In order to participate, you must have an
Instagram Business Profile connected to your Facebook Shop Catalog, be selling
physical goods, and be located in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, France, Germa-
ny, Spain, Italy, or Brazil.
To get started, make sure your Facebook Shop page is set up with your correct
product specs and images. This is where Instagram gets your product informa-
tion. You can either set up your own integration or, if you use Shoppify, BigCom-
merce, or WooCommerce, you can use their integration.
Once you complete your Facebook page setup, head over to Instagram. You
should see a pop-up that prompts you to “Get Started” with tagging on Insta-
gram. If you don’t see the banner, go to your settings, scroll to Products, click
Continue, and select a product catalog to connect to your Business Profile.
Once you connect a product catalog, tagging products is just as easy as tagging
people (although, at this time, both can’t be done in the same photo). When you
post a new photo, you’ll see the option to tag a product. Simply search your prod-
uct catalog and voilà! Your post is tagged. You can also scroll back through old
posts, tap Edit, and add product tags to those, too. (You can add up to five prod-
uct tags in one post and up to 20 in a carousel post.)
When someone checks out your feed, they’ll see a white bag logo in the
corner of Shoppable posts. Within each post, they’ll see the same little
white shopping bag logo in the corner. All they have to do is tap the
image, and your post instantly becomes shoppable. Remember that this
information is directly linked to your Facebook Shop page, so if you
need to add more information on a product, you can do it there.
Shopping on Instagram is yet another way to drive traffic to your website

and directly convert Instagram users to paid customers. If you’re a
physical products business, we encourage you to take advantage of this
feature and turn your Instagram feed into a digital lookbook!
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MASTER INSTAGRAM
CHAPTER MEASURING
06
AND ANALYZING
YOUR INSTAGRAM
ACTIVITY
Only part of your Instagram marketing strategy involves
posting content and engaging followers. The other part is all
about making sure that what you’re doing works. Tracking
results is a crucial step in ensuring that your resources
are being used wisely. Analytics can also alert you to new
strategies you might want to pursue at higher levels.
There’s a variety of tools available for measuring progress

and analyzing results.
Instagram
Insights
Instagram Insights is an excellent
analytics tool built right into the platform.
It’s only available for Business Profiles, but
switching over to one is simple and free,
and anyone can do it.
For an in-app reporting tool, Insights

provides some great data. It measures
your account views and displays it right
on your profile, and it links each post’s
insights right under the image, making
it easy to see the number of comments,
likes, saves, as well as reach and
impressions, from both your followers
and new users. It also provides a handy
glossary that explains what each metric
means.
In the general Insights dashboard, you can view your

reach and impressions for the last seven days, follower
demographics, popular post statistics, and data on
any Instagram Stories you post.
Foundr gathers a lot of data from Instagram Insights

that helps us make decisions on content types,
posting times, demographics, and hashtags. We
also use a few third-party apps to help diversify our
analytics and dig a bit deeper.
Third-Party
Social Blade (Free)
Tools
Social Blade is another Foundr favorite.
It summarizes your growth statistics
and compares them to your daily posting
activity (for free!), making it easy to see
what kinds of content and engagement
leads to the quickest growth.
Command for
Instagram (Paid, iOS)
Command for Instagram is a paid analytics tool that oper-
ates as another app on your smartphone. Designed specif-
ically for influencers and brands, Command offers a wide
array of metrics on your account and gives you a report card
that measures your activity against industry standards. The Social Blade also allows you to track your
tool also makes it easy to track competitor activity.
competitors and other accounts in your niche.
Use the “Compare With” feature to compare
your account to others.
Keyhole
(Paid with 3-Day Trial) Iconosquare
Keyhole is primarily a tracking tool. It offers (Paid with 14-Day Trial)
two main paid services: 1) hashtag and
Iconosquare is our favorite third-party analytics app.
keyword aggregation, and 2) account tracking
We recommend this tool as it helps us determine
and reporting. For your Instagram account,
when our followers are most engaged. It also tracks
Keyhole measures both live and past data
our posting times and compares them to the best
and makes it easy to review your data by
times to post per our audience.
organizing it in easy-to-read graphics and
tables.
In Chapter 3, we discussed how important Iconosquare also provides a variety of statis-

hashtags are when creating and publishing tics, including your growth rate and specific
engaging content. Keyhole is a helpful tool hashtag performance. You can also view and
for discovering new hashtag opportunities manage engagement from the Iconosquare
and comparing them to popular tags and platform.
competitor captions.
Union Metrics
(Paid with Some Free Tools)
Union Metrics is yet another paid analytics tool,
but with an added “intelligence” component.
Considering the number
Alongside analytics and reporting, Union Metrics of Instagram analytics
offers social listening and competitor analysis,
making it easy to keep an eye on your audience tools available, the best
and better understand their interests. approach to finding the
best fit is to simply be
patient and test out as
many as you can. Most
paid applications offer a
free trial so you can get a
glimpse of the interface
and analytics details. These
options will give you the
best idea of which tool
In their comments, truly engaged followers
will tell you what they like about your photo or is best for your account,
your profile, answer a question you’ve posted activity, and audience.
or ask a new one, or even tag a friend who
might appreciate it. Union Metrics has a “social Once you discover your
intelligence” feature that helps you track the favorite, don’t be afraid
meaning of each comment to understand what
your most engaged followers like or dislike about to dive in and apply your
your content.
findings to your Instagram.
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MASTER INSTAGRAM
CHAPTER INSTAGRAM TOOLS
07
TO TAKE YOUR
ACCOUNT TO THE
NEXT LEVEL
Throughout this guide, we’ve spoken volumes about how amazing
content, engaged followers, and network connectivity is crucial for
growing your Instagram account—and your business. Instagram itself
is an incredibly powerful marketing tool, but the app alone can’t always
meet your needs as a brand and marketer.
Thankfully, there are a lot of third-party tools to help you reach your
goals as you grow your Instagram presence.
To Take and VSCO Foodie
Edit Images
(Free, iOS & Android) (Free, iOS & Android)
Foodie comes from the makers
VSCO is a photo editing app that of LINE Camera but is specifical-
While Instagram offers users a sufficient in-app offers many different filter, color, ly for food photography. So, food
camera and editing suite, brands might want to and correction options. You can bloggers, chefs, restaurants, and
look elsewhere to ensure their content stands out adjust lighting, composition, and cafes, listen up. Foodie helps
in the crowd. many more features. It is easy to combat poor restaurant lighting
use—simply upload a picture from and ensures your overhead food
your camera roll, clean it up, and shots are perfectly lined up. It
save it back to your phone for also comes with filters designed
posting. for specific cuisine, like Tropical,
BBQ, and Crispy.
A Color
Story
(Free, iOS & Android)
A Color Story was developed by the creators of
the blog, A Beautiful Mess. It’s a photo editing app
like VSCO and others, but it’s focus is on creating
fresh, colorful photos. So, if you’re a designer,
painter, florist, or blogger that simply loves painted
walls, check out A Color Story. This app can help
your Insta-grid explode with color.
LINE
Camera
Bonus:
Snapstock.io
Is your Instagram filled with selfies? Are
you a blogger, makeup artist, fashionista,
or Instagram personality whose marketing
strategy is contingent upon pictures of Ever in need of a quality photo but
yourself? Check out LINE camera. This app don’t have the means or resources to
comes with a built-in camera that helps you take one? Stocksnap.io is a leading
optimize each and every selfie. Not only does free stock photography website that
it turn your entire screen into the camera offers quality images. If you need a
shutter (so you don’t have to reach for the background image for a quote or flyer,
bottom button), but it also offers an in-app or simply want to post a gorgeous
editing suite so you can smooth wrinkles or image with a captioned quote,
enlarge your eyes. Stocksnap.io can supply you with
high-quality images you just can’t
take on your own.
To Get
Not every post you share on Instagram
has to be an original photo taken by a
Creative professional photographer. All sorts
With Images
of content can be shared on your feed,
including quote- and text-based images
(quote images are a Foundr favorite).
Typorama (Free, iOS) Photofy (Free, Android)

Typorama is a photo discovery and design Photofy is just like Typorama but for Android
app. You can pull images from the tool’s users. It provides text in the form of templated
free stock photo source, Pixabay, or you can stickers that you can place over your images.
upload your own to overlay with text. And Photofy also has a web app if you’d rather
just like other photo editing apps, Typorama spruce up your photos on the big screen.
comes with its own set of filters.
Over (Free, iOS)

Over is a graphic design app that lets
you add text, stickers, filters, and more
to your photos. You can also upload
your entire brand design suite to Over,
making it easy to watermark and brand
all of your images. Over also offers
thousands of pre-designed templates
for quotes, product announcements,
events, and more.
Layout from Instagram Whitagram (Free, iOS)

Whitagram is a photo editing app that helps
Layout is a simply collage maker. Upload up to you reposition and reframe your photos. Many
nine images to the app, and Layout will help accounts use Whitagram to upload images with
you create a combination that can be posted a white (or colored) background. You can also
straight to Instagram. add stickers or text to your images.
To Posting videos to your Instagram feed and
Capture
Story can engage your audience in a different
way. If you’re looking to diversify the type of
Video video you post, check out these handy apps.
Hyperlapse from Instagram (Free, iOS)

A timelapse video is essentially tons of photos stitched together in a sped-up video.
If you’ve ever seen a video of a quick makeup application, recipe, or even the sunset,
you’ve watched a timelapse. Hyperlapse from Instagram helps you capture those long
processes or events and creates timelapses that meet Instagram’s video standards.
Boomerang from Instagram (Free, iOS &

Android)
A boomerang is another type of video that is really popular on Instagram, and you’d
recognize immediately. It’s basically few seconds of video played forwards and then
backwards. Boomerang for Instagram allows you to capture boomerang videos and post
them to your feed or Story. Note: Instagram Stories has a boomerang video option built
in, but downloading the app allows you to take more than one and then chose which is
best for either a story or a post.
To Post
Posting content directly using Instagram
and
itself is a fine strategy, but if you want to
diversify your content or increase your
Manage posting frequency, you might need a
Content
little help. These tools can come in handy
when posting and managing content.
Later (Paid, iOS & Repost for Instagram

Android) (Free, iOS & Android)
Posting user-generated content (UGC) to your
Later is one of a few dozen Instagram content
website is a great way to show your product
scheduling tools. Tools like Later and Planoly
in a real-life setting and share customer
can help you visualize and strategize what
testimonials through a reposted image.
content you’re posting and when, as well as
Repost for Instagram makes it easy to share
what hashtags to use. Keep in mind that some
others’ content to your own feed. Not only
scheduling tools can automatically post images
does the tool make it simple to capture an
for you, but there are some media not yet
image straight from Instagram, but it also
approved for direct scheduling: videos, carousel
includes the original poster’s handle so that
images, and location tags. With these, you’re
you don’t forget to attribute the image to its
still required to manually post, but at least all
source account. (Note: When posting UGC, it’s
of your content creation, caption writing, and
also good practice to tag the original account
scheduling is done in advance!
as well as mention them in your caption.)
To Using a third-party link tracker
Track
can help you see how effective your
promotional posts are and accurately
Links measure your conversion rates and
Instagram funnel health.
PrettyLink
PrettyLink is a Wordpress plugin that allows you to create short links
from your own URL, as opposed to tinyurl.com or bit.ly. That’s how
Foundr has been able to offer landing pages like Foundr.com/free and
Foundr.com/leaveyour9to5. These short links come in handy when
leaving a URL in your captions. Since the only live link is in your bio,
promoting a short link makes it easier for your audience to manually
type in the URL and visit your landing page. PrettyLink also tracks each
URL and provides a full report on the source of the click-through.
Bit.ly
Bit.ly is an alternative to PrettyLink. While it’s a great option for those
who don’t have a Wordpress site, it doesn’t offer short links from your
main domain. It does, however, offer comparable link tracking that you
can find right on the bit.ly website.
To
To succeed on Instagram, you not only have to
Network on
communicate and engage with your followers,
but you also must network and work alongside
Instagram
your competitors and industry partners.
That’s where these apps come in handy.
Kik (Free, iOS & Android)

The direct messaging feature on Instagram is helpful, but
apps like Kik can connect you directly to groups for S4S and
shoutout opportunities. It’s also great for networking with
influencers and members of your target audience.
Telegram (Free, iOS & Android)

Telegram is another cloud-based direct messaging app that
brands use to connect with like-minded users to set up
S4S campaigns. Through shoutout groups and direct chats,
Instagram users network and organize liking, commenting, and
sharing opportunities.
Conclusion: Lights, Camera, Action!
Instagram is a platform that’s ripe Cultivating a social media community isn’t as daunting as
for opportunity when it comes to

it seems. Focus on one strategy at a time, and you’ll find
that managing your Instagram becomes as easy as (if not
marketing. Just look at Foundr’s easier than) keeping a blog or updating a website.
own success, our Instagram Growing your Instagram account isn’t an overnight
Domination course students, or endeavor, but by preparing, strategizing, and posting
the scores of brands building up

consistently, you’ll see results sooner than you think.
You might even have fun with it, considering the rare
devoted and authentic followings.

opportunity it offers to make authentic connections with
Even the most old-fashioned

your audience.
businesses (one of our most

And once you see your engagement, conversion, and
revenue numbers rising—you’ll see that it’s all worth it.
successful students is a dentist!)
can make tremendous gains once
Grow your Instagram, grow your business.
they know their way around.

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The Ultimate

be intimidating. You have a

benefit your company, it takes

time to create worthwhile

content. It can also be quite

whether you’re getting a true

Download My PDF Now

Instagram is not only

media network in the

world, but it is also the

community, and yes,

The purpose of Instagram is to authentically connect with your

In this Instagram masterclass, you will learn:

Don’t take our word for it.

Ready to dominate Instagram? Sign up for

YES, SHOW ME HOW TO

Download My PDF Now

A big part of the affection they’ll develop for your brand

It’s also important to create a consistent theme so that

Take a look at Pantone (@pantone). At first glance, one

So, ask yourself:

If you’re struggling to establish a theme, return to your

And of course, without stealing, take inspiration from

In this Instagram masterclass, you will learn:

Don’t take our word for it.

Ready to dominate Instagram? Sign up for

YES, SHOW ME HOW TO

If they find your content valuable, entertaining, and/or

Quote Images So quote images are a great option if your

makeup or skincare products.

To get you started, here’s a step-by-step method to

Social media strategy

Social media strategy

Pinterest best practices

Social media industry news and updates

Productivity and marketing tips

Product and company updates

Square 1080px x 1080px

Convert While a big following is impressive, it

Branded hashtags are custom, brand-specific tags that cultivate a community

To maximize exposure, create at least three different hashtag blends of 30 hashtags

The more you post, the faster you’ll

In this Instagram masterclass, you will learn:

Don’t take our word for it.

Ready to dominate Instagram? Sign up for

YES, SHOW ME HOW TO

To further improve your leverage for shoutouts with bigger accounts,

You can offer/ask for two types of shoutouts:

• A collaborating account can tag your Instagram username in their caption

The Cost of Shoutouts

As for the giveaway

In this Instagram masterclass, you will learn:

Don’t take our word for it.

Ready to dominate Instagram? Sign up for

YES, SHOW ME HOW TO

Before we dive into some traffic-driving strate-

That’s because people often feel highly, personally connected to the

Word-of-mouth marketing is more powerful than ever. Consumers

Cash isn’t always the best method of payment though. As we

Can’t quite afford a large cash payment for big-time influencers?

Engagement Rate Follower Quality Follower Total

Once you’ve narrowed your list down to three to five, contact