How to craft an impactful Instagram bio for business
Even though it may seem like a small part of your profile, coming up with the perfect Instagram bio for business can be challenging. Your bio sets the stage for your brand presence on the platform. And you only have 150 characters to sum up what your business stands for, so it’s perfectly reasonable to overthink it.
To make drafting an Instagram bio easier, we’ve broken down the elements that go into the best Instagram bios for business and how to write one for your brand.
Why your Instagram business bio matters
First of all, why does your Instagram business profile bio matter so much? As simple as it may seem, an Instagram bio plays a critical role in establishing your brand presence. It shows people who you are and what you sell. You can also use the same space to tell them why they should care about your business and its offering.
In many cases, your Instagram profile may be the first point of contact whether someone discovers you through an Instagram hashtag or by clicking through from a paid post or share on Stories. Your bio is an essential good first impression while clarifying why they should follow you.
That’s why you should focus on creating an Instagram business bio that effectively portrays your brand personality and establishes your unique value proposition. In other words, it should factor into your overall Instagram business strategy.
What goes into an Instagram bio?
Writing your Instagram bio for business is one key part of creating the perfect Instagram business profile. Here are the essential elements that go into your Instagram bio:
1. Name and username
Your Instagram username is your @handle and your Instagram identity. It’s a part of your Instagram profile URL (instagram.com/myusername) and holds a prominent location at the top of your profile page. On the other hand, your name is your real or full brand name. Depending on data sources like audience and keyword research, you may know of abbreviations or name variations commonly used for your brand name. You might consider using those in one spot in your Instagram bio, such as in your username.
For instance, in the following Instagram business profile example, the username for Sprouts Farmers Market is just @sprouts but the name section has the full name of the business.
2. Profile photo
This should be relevant to your brand’s visual identity. You could include a brand logo, a brick-and-mortar location or even a product photo. But regardless of which photo you choose to use, it should look great and be relevant to your business.
For brands with a widely-recognized visual identity like National Geographic TV, even just the iconic yellow rectangle logo makes for a great profile photo.
Be sure to choose images that are visually cohesive across all your profiles to help create a recognizable and authoritative brand identity. One way of ensuring all your images for Instagram are consistent with brand standards, whether your profile logo or in-feed content, is to use a tool like Sprout’s Asset Library, which can store approved images for all team members to use across social.
3. Instagram Bio Section
This is the section under your name, where you get to express yourself (or in this case, your brand personality). You have 150 characters to tell people what your Instagram profile is about, what your brand offers and why they should follow you. So you don’t have much to work with, which makes it even more crucial to plan ahead and perfect your Instagram business bio.
Read on or jump to the next section for tips on how to perfect your Instagram bio’s copy.
4. Website
This is the only section of Instagram that allows you to add a clickable link, so make sure you use this space wisely. While you can always add a URL to your homepage, you can also update this link more frequently by posting new products, new content, new projects and more. Many brands use a service like Linktree to maximize the single link limit by taking the user to a landing page with shortcuts to featured content and product pages.
5. Category
Instagram also allows you to specify which category your brand falls under – whether you run a restaurant or a media and entertainment company. This shows up right under your business name if you choose to enable it, so it helps free up space in your Instagram bio for other important details.
6. Call-to-action buttons
You could further free up space in your Instagram bio if you make the most of the call-to-action buttons available for Instagram Business accounts. This allows people to take action straight from your Instagram profile when on the mobile app, making it easier for customers to convert on actions – from buying tickets to booking tables.
7. Contact info
Contact options provide prospective customers with the info they need to connect with your business. Make the most of the email and call buttons to highlight your business contact info without taking up precious space in your bio.
Tips for writing the best Instagram bios for business
Now that you know what goes into an Instagram bio, let’s take a look at tips on how to write the best Instagram bios for business:
1. Know what your goal is
Since you have to stay within the 150-character limit, it’s crucial that you have a clear sense of direction when writing an Instagram bio for business. Knowing exactly what you want out of your bio will help you narrow down on what to say.
For instance, you could simply use it to convey your brand’s personality and announce your Instagram presence. You could also use it to promote your latest products and offers or inform people about what your business does. If you do promote sales and recent products, be sure your team is ready to regularly refresh your Instagram bio and ensure this info is up to date.
Some businesses also use this section to express their brand mission and what they stand for. Check out the following Instagram business profile example from Black Elephant Coffee. The company’s bio tells us a little bit about what the business sells and what its brand values are.
2. Let your brand personality shine through
Make the most of your Instagram business bio to express your brand personality. This includes the language and tone you use or what you say, in general. For instance, Reese’s uses a fun and friendly tone in its bio while using the opportunity to establish its brand authority.
Some businesses may also add relevant emojis if that kind of approach fits the brand personality. But note that special characters and emojis may not translate well on a screen reader. Be sure to keep accessibility best practices in mind for all your followers and avoid filling your entire bio with characters that are hard to read or understand for customers using screen readers.
3. Include relevant hashtags and profile links
Instagram lets you add clickable hashtags and profile links in your bio. So make the most of this to direct customers to your other Instagram handles or to relevant, tagged content.
The option to add profile links is great for businesses that manage multiple accounts. See how Madewell added a link to their Instagram account for menswear.
As for hashtags, adding them to your bio will let you direct your audience to stunning tagged user-generated content. You could use a branded hashtag to collect user-generated content like Canva.
Alternatively, you could also use branded hashtags to promote a specific campaign or a new/upcoming release. See how OnePlus uses the hashtag #OnePlus8T to promote the launch event.
4. Make sure it’s easy to read
As mentioned earlier, your Instagram bio should be able to convey what your business does or what it offers. So it’s crucial that people can easily read and process the information without too much trouble. Formatting such as line breaks and spacing make it easier to read and emphasize important information at a glance.
You could use a pipe or vertical bar character to space out your info like in the following Instagram business profile example from Café Gratitude.
You could also use line breaks to style your info in a list format. See how thredUP skillfully uses lists in its bio, using emojis as a kind of bullet point.
Keep in mind that these characters and line breaks will factor into your total character count. So make sure you use them sparingly and strategically to avoid going over the character limit. You could also test different formatting to see how they impact your overall profile engagement. Use a tool like Sprout Social Instagram Analytics to measure how your profile engagement changes as you update.
5. Include a compelling call to action
While the call-to-action buttons frees up a lot of space in your bio, it doesn’t hurt to get more direct with your CTA. Make sure people know exactly what they need to do when they visit your profile by including a CTA in your bio.
Get very specific with this depending on the goal of your Instagram business account. You could invite them to visit your website, shop your feed, check out your latest blog post, download your new guide or even share their own photos using your branded hashtag. If you want to grow your Instagram following, you could even add a CTA to “follow us” for your regular content such as daily recipes, fashion updates and so on.
For example, Ahrefs uses their bio text to create a CTA that points (literally, thanks to their use of emoji) to their latest feature release.
Perfect your Instagram presence
Getting eyes on your bio is just one aspect of building a meaningful presence on Instagram. Check out these guides for more best practices and vital strategies:
- Get more authentic Instagram followers with these 10 tips
- How to promote your Instagram: 13 ways that actually work
- 9 Instagram post ideas to spice up your account
- How to regram on Instagram
- How to get more Instagram Likes
Ready to create an impactful Instagram bio?
Your Instagram bio could make all the difference in boosting your social presence. It’s the perfect place to exhibit your brand identity and show off your creative side. It could also help you showcase your uniqueness and entertain your audience. And according to the 2021 Sprout Social Index™, these are all the things that make a brand’s social presence stand out.
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