Instagram is without a question one of the most powerful social media platforms for businesses today. As a result, any marketer looking to drive traffic to its website, increase its brand visibility and engagement should prioritize boosting Instagram engagement.
There are dozens of publishers driving traffic through Instagram in creative ways, whether it’s blog posts, news stories, or newsletter subscription pages.
If you’re a publisher or media site, we’ll look at different Instagram features you may employ, as well as three techniques you can attempt right now.
FYI: You can drive traffic from Instagram even if you don’t sell a physical product.
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How Publishers Can Drive Traffic Through Instagram
Boosting visibility and engagement on Instagram is easy and usually cost-effective for brands. The platform offers multiple advertisements, sponsorship opportunities, and business-friendly features that make it straightforward for marketers to improve their Instagram engagement. With these features, brands can establish a strong online presence without spending a dime.
While Instagram is wonderful for building a following and reaching new audiences, it has few options for directing visitors to other platforms or websites.
#1: Link in Bio
The link in your Instagram bio is the most effective way to drive traffic from Instagram — and for good reason!
What does Link in Bio mean? As the name suggests “link in bio” refers to the clickable URL that you can add to your profile section. Most social media platforms give you the option to add a link in your bio to take followers to your website, product page, content, or some other important page.
It’s available to everyone, regardless of follower count, and can be a one-stop-shop for sending followers to a blog post, web page, or Youtube video.
When followers click the link in your bio, they’ll be directed straight to the link you’ve added. This could be a breaking news article, an ongoing video series, or your latest interview.
With Link in bio, you can drive even more traffic through Instagram to your website — in an easy, streamlined way.
#2: Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories make for a great traffic-driving tool. Why?
They allow publishers to interact with their followers on a more intimate level — whether it’s leveraging poll stickers or showing real-time tutorials.
Publishers can drive traffic through Instagram Stories by:
- Using the Instagram Stories link sticker — the most seamless tool for driving clicks.
- Including clear call-to-actions (CTAs), GIFs, graphics, and text to encourage your community to click the link in your bio.
3 Traffic-driving Strategies on Instagram
Now that you know the tools for driving traffic through Instagram, let’s see how you can maximize your linking opportunities.
1. Maximize Your Link in Bio
Convert your bio link into a traffic magnet by using tools like Linktree, Tap.Bio and more.
It also lets you curate a beautiful single-page site where you can host links to all of your best content and sales pages.
2. Drive Traffic Through Instagram Stories Highlights
Instagram Stories Highlights are an easy way for publishers to promote and drive clicks to their articles.
By curating feature articles into different Highlights, you ensure your stories live on forever (not just for 24 hours).
Using easy-to-understand categories, new and current followers can find the articles they’re interested in — and revisit them whenever they want!
3. Use Reels for Viral Reach
Instagram Reels are a huge growth hack for their ability to get thousands (and in some cases, millions) of views — completely organically.
By leveraging this feature, publishers can reach new audiences by pairing scroll-stopping video content with a strong CTA in their caption — driving viewers to their owned platforms.
5 Best Practices for Driving Traffic Through Instagram
Here’s a summary of our tried-and-true tips:
- Write persuasive CTAs in your captions that drive to the link in your bio.
- Use a link in bio tool to maximize your linking opportunities.
- Use Instagram Stories Highlights to package stories that drive the most clicks.
- Create engaging Reels (hello, viral videos!) that’ll convert to clicks.
- Use a mix of Instagram’s features to repurpose content and drive traffic: Stories, feed posts, Reels, Guides.
Give these tips a go, and watch your community (and clicks) soar!
Conclusion
If you’ve been trying to drive traffic to your website and haven’t been successful, you aren’t alone. Getting quality traffic is a big challenge for most businesses.
However, Instagram is a great social media channel that offers various opportunities to succeed in this endeavor. It is the fastest growing and popular social channel that offers several business-friendly features.
Implement the tips and tricks shared in this post to direct traffic back to your website and boost your conversion rates.
