Building a B2C business through Instagram

Jessica just started All Seasons Custom Crossroads Hiking & Rafting Tours a month ago and wants to build her  business-to-customer brand awareness through Instagram.

Profile

She wants a profile picture that represents both her love of the outdoors and hiking/rafting, so she hires a professional photographer  to take images of her in action out on one of her favorite hiking trails. Her profile encompasses her seven years of hiking/rafting experience, her credentials as a certified fitness trainer, as well as her first aid training.

Content themes

Before Jessica creates an editorial calendar, she wants to see what types of themes are popular with her competitors. She discovers outdoor seasonal  images such as rafting, people having fun jumping in lakes or hikers posing on the top of a mountain trail appear in many posts.  She decides she will post similar themes with related content and sets up a daily posting schedule for 9:00 a.m. seven days a week.

Connecting with her audience

Jessica knows the types of issues hikers struggle with and wants to create useful content connected to popular images around weather, appropriate clothing, trail familiarization, trails that match fitness levels,  and packing. She is hoping these content themes will help her audience have successful treks and will build her credibility.

Creating meaningful content

Jessica starts writing a body of short 300-word articles on her five chosen themes and enrolls in an online photography course . She estimates she will have enough content and images to start posting within four to six weeks. She knows her photography skills will improve over time and is excited about testing the Instagram waters.

Follow influencers

Since she doesn’t have any followers yet, Jessica investigates competitors posts. She focuses on a dozen followers who are highly interactive and follows them.

Use tried and true hashtags

After conducting a little research, Jessica complies a spreadsheet with the trendies hashtags and chooses 5 - 10  for each of her articles.

Analysis & research

Three weeks later, her top post was dressing for spring mountain hiking and she promotes that post and creates another 10 on similar content. After a month of posts, and following  80 people per day, Jessica is thrilled to have 500 followers and feels confident she can continue to attract and engage an audience of thousands.

Uncovering niches

Always on the lookout for inspiration, Jessica makes it part of her weekly routine to find and follow her competitors. While doing this she uncovers niches she hadn’t thought of such as motivational fit women, women who  pose in dreamlike images, women in the woods, outdoor women with dogs and women who like to push their own personal boundaries. Year long road trips, river tours, active outdoor lifestyles, sleeping in the outdoors, backpack adventures, small moments, travel muses, sunsets and sunrises remind Jessica that whatever she can imagine, she can turn into her own meaningful niche.

We'd love to help you come up with other ideas to promote your business.