Instagram Business Tools has rolled out in Southeast Asia countries of Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, at around the same time as a global launch in the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
Helping brands stand out
The set of new capabilities are designed to help brands stand out, gain insights, and more easily conduct business on Instagram.
Specifically, the new Business Profile makes it trivial for businesses to quickly signal their presence to users on Instagram. It also offers a “Contact” button to help brands engage through an offline connection such as a phone call or instructions to reach a retail store.
As one may expect, there is also new features designed to make it easy for brands to drive their business objectives. Marketers can easily identify well-performing images for use in an advertisement, and customize a range of variables such as targeting a particular demographic or specifying a particular budget.
“Business profiles are a free feature for accounts wanting to be recognized as a business on Instagram. With a business profile, businesses can choose how they want their customers to get in touch with them… [and] also unlock access to insights and the ability to promote,” wrote Instagram in a blog post earlier.
Finally, a final component called Insights let brands see how their posts are working from within the mobile app, without bogging small businesses with having to manage a full analytics suite.
“Insights is a simple, mobile tool that packages actionable information about people who are connected with your business in a visual and easy to understand format,” explained Instagram in a briefing deck sent to CMO Innovation.
“By learning more about the behavior and demographics of your audience, you can be more effective at creating relevant content.”