Instagram is a popular social network with approximately 20 million Iranian users; many people believe that this space is the best place to start an online business because it is free.read: Common blunders in online businesseswhile this is an incorrect belief We will continue to provide 18 reasons for this misconception.
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1. Your target audience might not have an Instagram account at all.
Instagram is a social media platform dominated by young people. Although older users frequent Instagram, we must remember that the average user is young and may not be the one to whom you are currently sending your brand message.
2. It is not always a platform for business.
There are numerous reasons why you should follow someone on Instagram. This could be a fun way to connect with a celebrity. It could also be a way to share pictures of your children and connect with family. The concept of purchasing goods by following accounts on Instagram is not for everyone. Many people use Instagram to pass the time and have no intention of purchasing anything.
3. There isn’t much room for additional content.
Some images, services and goods need a little explanation, but Instagram doesn’t provide much space to make this happen. In this system, it’s also difficult to create a comprehensive company introduction, making it difficult for followers to get to know you. This means that the brand message is usually communicated only through images or video, and Instagram is not the place to go if you want professional-quality uploads.
Placing products in specific categories makes it easier for users to find what they’re looking for. There is no way to separate and classify products on Instagram, so you must include all of them on your page. Customers will have a difficult time finding the desired product as a result of this. For those who have a large number of products for sale, this lack of categorization is more noticeable, and the customer must search the entire page to find the product she seeks.
5. Product inability to be updated
The prices of goods and their inventory are constantly changing in the current situation. Update Inventory and pricing This is regarded as one of the most important tasks in online sales. It takes a lot of time from you to update your Instagram posts to inform buyers, and if this is not done, the customer will be dissatisfied.
In general, Instagram does not have the ability to communicate with other sales systems such as financial software.
6. The payment process’s difficulty and the lack of a payment gateway
It is not possible to connect to a bank portal and pay on Instagram. And customers must ask you for their credit card number in order to purchase and pay for each order, as well as provide a receipt after depositing the funds; this process can take so long that many customers abandon their purchases. Now, if you have a lot of customers during the day, it will be difficult to respond to them all. In the best-case scenario, you can direct her to the payment portal, but the customer will not readily trust you.
7. Lack of ability to manage sending
Because Instagram was not designed to be a sales platform, it has not considered a solution for sending goods to customers; however, specialized online sales systems have interesting features in this regard.
8. The possibility of being hacked
Hacking is one of the issues that arises, particularly on pages with a large number of contacts.
9. Filtering risk
Filtering is one of the most serious issues with Instagram in Iran. Your business may be thriving, but your page will be filtered, and your business followers will be unable to communicate or access you.
10. The Robot Problem
Bots on Instagram cause both large and minor issues. They simply look for job postings and leave irrelevant comments, or they advertise for specific pages and people. Bots can sometimes cause a page to be flagged as spam, in which case Instagram will consider penalties and restrictions for the spammed page.
11. Clickable links are not permitted in business.
This is not to say that you cannot use URLs when using Instagram for business. This simply means that your followers must copy and paste the URL into their web browser in order to visit your site. As a result, there is a significant amount of primary direct traffic that is reported in most analytics.
12. Instagram is mostly accessed via mobile devices.
Although mobile device usage is constantly increasing, not every potential customer is currently communicating with a mobile phone. This can lead to customers becoming interested in your sales funnel and making a purchase. difficult If your marketing strategy focuses solely on Instagram, some online consumers may be unfamiliar with your brand.
13. lower visibility
Commercial posts and advertisements appear less frequently in the user’s news feed than posts from friends and family. You will be demoted in the ranking algorithm if you switch to an Instagram business account. (Because the algorithm is constantly changing, describing how it works is difficult.) Many users express their dissatisfaction, and some report a significant drop in engagement after switching to an account.
14. Advertisements are costly
Most businesses may not be able to afford advertising.
When it comes to Instagram business accounts, most businesses must settle for organic traffic. Only the biggest brands can usually advertise on this platform, so it may take some time to reach your goal, which will have a significant impact on your budget.
If you want to get out of the algorithm’s purgatory and be seen more on Instagram, you’ll need to spend money. Instagram is one of the most expensive social media advertising platforms. The average cost-per-click (CPC) advertising on Instagram is $0.70 to $1.00, which many brands are unable to do easily and with a high return on investment cost. If this cost is lower on another platform, such as a dedicated app.
15. Limited functionality for small businesses
The primary reason for changing the business user account is summarized in two words: SWIPE UP. This is a popular business feature because it allows users to access a link directly from your Instagram story. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to use this useful feature until you have 10,000 followers. Business accounts with fewer than 10,000 users are unable to use the pull-up feature, which can be a significant deterrent.
16. You have more knowledge… However, the competition does as well.
Instagram has the unfortunate habit of revealing everything you do on the operating system. There are some considerations for businesses. Your competitors can see everything you do. Competitors can find out which hashtags you want to rank for and which audience you want to reach if they want to. Competitors can find your audience by clicking to see who follows you, which you cannot control through your privacy settings as you can with a personal account.
17. Failure to distinguish between customers and potential customers
If you intend to sell on Instagram, you will receive buyer offers ahead of other messages, which will either cause the goods to take longer to reach the customers or give you more time to review and separate the messages.
18. Needs assessment
Instagram provides a plethora of analytics features for businesses, but if that data isn’t relevant to you and your market, it may not be worth foregoing natural access to understand what you already know about your customers. You know, just skip it. A bakery in a small town, for example, does not need to know what percentage of their customers are from other countries. The business simply wants people to participate in their local community, which is easily received with a standard account because those people are more likely to see posts from a personal account.
Also, the tools that a sales application or website provides to analyze customers are not available on Instagram. For example, on your website, you can identify the products that customers spent more time and attention on but did not purchase or react to, and you can communicate with those customers.