Originally Published on blog.rebrandly.com on May 22, 2018 By
Does your brand have the perfect Instagram bio yet? Or are you still unsure if it’s doing all it can for your business?
Your bio is the mainstay of your Instagram profile. It tells prospective followers what you’re all about, why they should follow you and encourages them to take the next step and interact with your business.
Your bio provides an opportunity to make a great first impression. It is also the key place to feature a clickable link that you can use to drive traffic to your website, other social accounts or blog. This is the strongest call to action you can provide to your users, so it’s important to make sure you put together the perfect Instagram bio that will help your brand achieve it’s marketing goals.
Check out our tips to make the most out of your 150-character bio and some of the best Instagram bio examples we could find:
The Name
Your name is the bit that appears in bold at the start of your bio.
Obviously, this is the part where you feature your brand’s name. But with 30 characters to play around with, some businesses also choose to include one or two keywords here.
The name section of your bio appears in Instagram search results, so by featuring your name, you’re sure to be found by people who are searching for you. But a strategically placed keyword here can really boost your prospects of being discovered by a wider audience. This a particularly good idea if there is a word that is closely associated with your brand.
In the above example, the brand Naked will appear in searches for ‘fitness tracker’ as well as its brand name.
Though, don’t go too over-the-top as stuffing in keywords will definitely make for a much less than perfect Instagram bio.
The Username
Your username is your identity on Instagram and appears at top of your profile. It also features in your account’s URL and most often brand’s will simply use their name here – if it’s available.
It’s also worth keeping in mind that people tag you on Instagram using your account’s username. You might want to make it the same as your Twitter handle or other social media usernames so people can easily tag you or find you on different platforms.
The Link
Though this section of your profile is called ‘website’, you can include a link to wherever you like. This is the only clickable link on your profile, which you can use to drive traffic to your blog, website, or YouTube channel etc.
The only other place you can include an external, clickable link is within your Instagram story, but that feature is only available to businesses lucky enough to have more than 10,000 followers.
Shorten your link:
It’s tricky to know all the rules for sharing links on social media. On Instagram, your URL contributes toward your bio’s 150-character limit so you won’t want it to be too long.
But rather than using a generic link shortener, like Bitly, it’s better to use a custom short link, which features your brand’s name. These links are on-brand and memorable. They are also more trusted than generic short links, which can be associated with spam, and for this reason, they tend to have a better CTR than long URLs or generic short links.
Lots of businesses, from big names to cool niche brands are using them:
The ability to customize the keyword that comes after the slash provides brands with the opportunity to feature a call to action that will drive conversions right within their Instagram bio link.
Above, you can see how Panda Express makes users drool and then encourages them to ‘Order Now’. While vintage sneaker company, Crme London, ask followers to ‘get your kicks’.
Find out how to get your brand’s name on your Instagram bio link here.
Edit your destination URL:
You can change your Instagram bio link as often as you need to and many bloggers frequently update this URL to lead followers to their latest post or video. Marketers also update it to drive traffic to a specific marketing campaign or a landing page catered specifically to Instagram followers.
You can go into your profile settings each time you want to update your link or, if you’re using Rebrandly, you can simply update the destination URL of your bio’s branded link.
Tracking:
It’s also a good idea to keep track of the engagement your Instagram bio link is receiving.
Instagram’s analytics insights are quite limited. It provides a good general overview of your account’s progress, but if you want to see specifically how much engagement your Instagram bio link is receiving, the best way to do this is to use a short link which can show you click data. This will give you valuable insights, whether your link leads to your website or another external site.
If you’re a true analytics enthusiast, consider adding UTM parameters to your Instagram link bio to accurately see how your Instagram account is contributing to traffic and your overall marketing goals.
Retargeting:
One final way, you can optimize your Instagram bio link is by adding a retargeting pixel to it.
If you use retargeting as part of your overall marketing strategy, retargeting links allow you to add anyone who clicks through from your bio to your retargeting lists – even if that link doesn’t go to your website.
This is particularly useful for marketers who are driving traffic towards Youtube, other social media accounts or a partner’s website, but who still want to build out their retargeting lists.
Anyone who clicks your links can be served with relevant ads on Facebook, Instagram, the Google Display Network or any other retargeting ad provider at a later date.
The Category
If you’re using a business account on Instagram, you can select the category that your business falls into. This will appear under your company name and is a visually appealing way to let people know what you do while saving some valuable bio characters.
The Profile Photo
Instagram is all about appealing to consumers through visuals so it can be tough to pick a photo for your account.
You want to make sure that your profile image is representative of your business. Major brands will use their logo. This is how people identify their brand.so its the fastest way to stand out and be recognized in newsfeeds.
Using your logo is always a solid option. But small businesses, with a single founder at its heart, may opt for a headshot. This is a good way to build trust if you plan to engage with others by commenting on their posts. If your brand is too small for its logo to be recognized, using the CEO’s headshot will prevent you from coming across as a spammer.
You could also use a photo of your team, your storefront or an image that demonstrates social proof. But whatever image you use, make sure viewers will be able to see it clearly even on small phone screens.
Instagram is all about images, so you need to make sure your graphics are of a high quality. Tools like Canva, Piktochart and Squaresized are great for editing your Instagram pictures to get them looking just right.
The Contact Information
Once you’ve enticed and entranced Instagrammers with your perfect Instagram bio, it’s a good idea to make it easy for them to get in touch with you. A prospective customer may want to call and book an appointment, a journalist may want to email you asking to republish one of your images or a hungry browser may want to find out if your eatery is within walking distance.
Business accounts can add neat contact buttons for email, phone, and location. This lets you address some of the most important information Instagram users could want without taking up space in your bio text. Being easy to reach can also help your brand build trust with Instagram users.
On your mobile device, you can add these buttons when you edit your profile. Depending on what kind of business you have, you can also add action buttons that let users easily order food, get tickets or make a booking using the likes of Eventbrite, Yelp or ChowNow.
The Bio Text
We’ve finally arrived at the heart of your bio – the actual 150-character bio. This is your brand’s opportunity to showcase its personality and encourage people to take action.
Here you need to explain who you are and what you do, while also showing off your brand personality. Use well-thought-out language and a tone that speaks directly to your target audience. You want your prospects or current customers to know they’ve come to the right place.
Like with a great Twitter bio, the perfect Instagram bio should convey your unique personality. But you also need to feature a clear call-to-action and encourage people to click on your link. Here are the different elements to keep in mind for your bio text.
Explain who you are:
Highlight what makes you special or unique. If your restaurant’s food is organic, say it here. If you work closely with your local community, highlight this.
Show Instagrammers exactly what you have to offer. Think of a few words that describe you. Consider quirky traits, likes or fun facts about your business that demonstrate your personality and will connect with your audience.
You could also consider including your tagline, a link to your social media policy, or the word the official if there are lots of accounts imitating your brand.
You can see here Nike kept its bio simple by just featuring its well-known tagline.
Consider using emojis:
Emoji marketing is a great way to express a world of meaning and emotion without using too many characters. They’re eye-catching, fun and a great way to demonstrate personality.
On Instagram, some emojis also have a standard meaning. For example, the ghost emoji is often used to indicate a Snapchat username. While a location pin lets users know where your business is based.
Layout:
Some brands use spacing and line breaks to make their bio more scannable, which is great if you plan to feature a lot of information.
On an Android device, you can simply add line breaks by hitting the return key. But if you have an iPhone, you’ll need to add line breaks by typing your bio out in a text editor and then pasting it into Instagram.
But be warned, check out how your bio looks on a desktop as well as on your phone, because sometimes it can look great on one platform, but terrible on the other.
Hashtags:
Hashtags in your bio are clickable, so if your business sells a snappable product or service, lets users know what hashtag they can use to share user-generated content with your brand.
Call to action:
What is the goal you want to achieve by marketing through Instagram? What action do you want followers to take? Do you want them to go to your website to buy something? Or watch your latest video?
In your bio, make it clear to your audience what the next step you want them to take is. While your branded link acts as a CTA itself, you can call on people to click it when writing your bio.
For retailers, ‘shop the feed’ makes a great bio CTA and can really drive sales coming from Instagram. Lots of brands, like online fashion retailer NastyGal below, have set up landing pages specifically for visitors coming from Instagram.
Hours of operation:
When users click through for directions to your brick and mortar location, they’ll be able to see your opening hours in Google maps. However, it can still be wise to include your business’ opening hours in your bio so they’re more accessible.
With Instagrammers using the geo-tagging feature to find restaurants, services and things to do nearby, it’s definitely a good move for any local businesses looking to drive business in this way.
Track and tweak
Instagram provides a great opportunity for you to inject personality into your brand and showcase what it’s all about. These cool Instagram bio ideas should help you shine and communicate with your target audience.
Hopefully, this guide will get you started on the road toward crafting the perfect Instagram bio. But it’s important to keep an eye on Instagram’s insights and your Instagram bio link’s analytics to see how your Twitter bio is contributing toward your marketing goals.
Try tweaking and changing your Instagram bio often to see what effect this has on the number of clicks your Instagram bio link is getting. This will help you hone your message and find out what appeals to your audience so you can create a truly perfect Instagram bio.
Louisa McGrathLouisa works on putting together creative and useful content for Rebrandly customers to read. Though she spends a lot of time reading and writing online, she still loves to buy the Sunday papers.
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