Small business owners and Etsy sellers! It’s time for a quick-fire checklist to make managing your Instagram marketing workload more DOABLE. Instagram is a super-useful tool (and a free one, at that) for designer-makers and Etsy business owners to step up visibility on your products. Even if you’re not selling handcrafted items… maybe other products… heck, even maybe you’re a service-based business owner, then Instagram can be really helpful for growing your audience of potential customers. And actually for making sales!

But, it’s also a big time-waster… Setting apart the time taken to come up with your posts, find the right image, add the hashtags… It’s the daily engagement tasks that go along with that. (Yes, these are such an important element for a solid marketing strategy.) It’s all-too easy to get sucked down the rabbit hole of scrolling and interacting, watching Stories… then before you know it… 40minutes later and you remember that you logged on to check that enquiry that’d come into the DMs!

Setting apart the content strategy for your feed posts (that’s another story)…it’s engagement that can become a drag, and a big time-consuming part, can’t it? But, if we don’t give engagement, then it’s hard to expect it back in return. And so, it’s a super-valuable part of your marketing plan!

For a helping hand to steer the time you spend on your business Instagram page back to a sensible limit… THIS list is for you.

You’ll want to save this checklist for later & Pin it for future reference, so be sure to hit the ‘Pin It’ button & save one of these graphics now! ⬇️

I recommend getting into a habit of following this task checklist, each day. I’ve created this guide especially to help make your Instagram workload MUCH more manageable. A habit is pretty quick to form, and it’ll soon become second-nature.

My daily Instagram task checklist

1. Reply to DMs

You may have potential customers asking queries, so don’t delay on those. Perhaps current commissions and collabs need your attention. This task’s a priority, as well as being one of the quickest to tick off!

2. Post a quick photo to Stories

Having active Stories regularly spaced out throughout the day is a useful strategy because your brand will stay close to the front of followers’ Stories feeds for longer. Aim to create something fresh, rather than sharing an existing post, to maximise the value for viewers and why they’ll want to ‘tune in’ to you.
I recommend adding more Stories to this one, spaced throughout the day; either a single Story or a short sequence.

3. Watch AND interact with 5 Stories in your Story feed

Be sure to limit it to 5 though so that time doesn’t run away with you! And make those interactions as meaningful as you can in the DMs… a short comment or asking a question off the back of what they shared is always more useful than an emoji reaction or poll vote for building relationships with Dream Customers.

4. Engage with your audience

I aim for a block of 20-30 minutes. It helps to time yourself, and if you commit to staying focused. Use meaningful comments in response to their content, not just a passing emoji. This task is even more effective if you’re following people who are largely Dream Customers (rather than fellow makers and cheerleaders.) Interacting with *those* people is where the heavy-lifting happens, so working on curating an audience of them will supercharge your marketing strategy.

And one of my faves…

5. Hashtag engagement

Look within the hashtags search page for a popular hashtag (500k or above) that’s super-relevant for your content. AND one which is likely to be followed by your Dream Customer.
Find 5 recent posts from business owners/ influencers who have a similar Dream Customer to you, and leave a meaningful comment. That brand isn’t likely to be a customer of yours, no. BUT, this is a really useful tactic, since
a) they might be a useful collaborator and… more significantly,
b) the other users who leave comments (and therefore are likely to see your comment!) *are* potential customers of yours. This task acts to leave out the breadcrumbs for them to find your account.

That last one is my fave for a very easy way to be found by people who aren’t already following you. You’ll soon get a feel for the kind of account that will ‘deliver’ for you with this method!

I hope this helps you be more focused in the way you engage on Instagram, for your business growth. Might you benefit from a more strategic approach to marketing your business – one that is supported by tactics that get you towards your goals, instead of drifting along? Developing case-by-case strategies (and those associated action steps) is what I love to help brand owners with.

Drop me a message now if you want to chat about that – no obligation.

To revisit this checklist, make sure you save this post now! Choose the “Pin It” button to save it in your Pinterest collection ⬇️