Instagram Stories are a must-use tool for any business. Instagram is an enormous platform perfect for brands in any industry. And with Instagram Stories, you have the opportunity to get even more eyes on your content and your products. Let’s take a look at how Instagram Stories can be helpful and outline some helpful tips you can use as you post to Stories from your business IG account.
Why Instagram Stories?
This feature was originally introduced in mid-2016. With Instagram Stories, you can post a photo or video that stays up for 24 hours. As your followers swipe through new Stories on their feed, they’ll come across yours. Instagram now has a Highlights feature as well so you can save your Stories onto your profile, where they’ll stay for good. Instagram Stories are reminiscent of the way Snapchat is set up — short videos that don’t stay for long.
Instagram Stories have a lot of benefits for brands. For one thing, they’re a great way to increase engagement. Use interactive features like polls, questions, or DM’s to start conversations and get direct feedback from your followers.
Instagram Stories are also perfect for real-time marketing. If you’re hosting or attending an event, for example, post in-the-moment updates so your followers will feel like they’re attending with you. It can also encourage them to register for the next event once they see what they’re missing. Even better, with Stories you don’t have to worry about curating picture-perfect content that matches your IG theme. The photos won’t live on your grid — so feel free to post that blurry photo snapped in the middle of an event or experiment with a fun new marketing idea.
Finally, Instagram Stories are a good way to stay present in your followers’ minds. Chances are, you don’t post on your Instagram feed multiple times a day; Instagram best practices suggest posting multiple times a week, but not necessarily multiple times per day. But with Instagram Stories, the same rules don’t apply. In fact, for best results, marketers encourage brands to post several on Instagram Stories! And while some people won’t scroll all the way through their feed of new posts, they’re probably more likely to swipe through new Instagram Stories. So by posting consistently on your Stories, you can make sure your customers don’t forget about you.
Here are a few ways you can use Instagram stories to effectively market your brand on Instagram.
Shoppable Stories
Shoppable Stories were introduced in 2018. If you have over 10,000 Instagram followers, you have access to this feature — add a link to your Instagram story so your followers can “swipe up” using their finger to open the webpage. This feature is hugely beneficial to brands! Your followers no longer need to go through the process of opening up your profile, finding the link in your bio, and opening your website from there. Instead, they can simply swipe up and immediately be taken to your website (or the URL of your choice).
You also have the ability to create shoppable tags for Instagram Stories. These shoppable tags work much like the product tags you can place on posts. To add tags in Stories, select the shopping bag icon and place it wherever you’d like; then users can tap that tag to be taken to the product page. The ability to add product tags in Stories is a game changer for brands with products to promote!
Promotional Content
Instagram Stories are the ideal place to cross-promote other content from your website and additional social media channels. Here are a few ideas of promotional content to create for your Stories.
How-To Tutorials
Use photos or videos to create a brief tutorial for your Instagram Stories. For example, a food company might choose to make a cooking tutorial by filming the process of making a recipe using their products. Once they uploaded that tutorial to Instagram, their followers could tap through and see step-by-step how to cook the recipe.
How-to content can help establish trust with your followers because this type of content proves you know what you’re talking about. It also increases engagement. How-to tutorials are popular because they solve peoples’ problems.
Feature New Products
Give your followers a sneak peek at your latest product on your Instagram Stories. This is a great place to share a photo of the product or a behind-the-scenes video showing how the product is made. Do everything you can in your Stories to get your customers excited about what’s coming next — and when the product releases, give them a swipe-up link to be the first to access it.
Promote Your Posts
When you share a new Instagram post in your feed, promote it on your Story to get more views and engagement on that post. To share your post, simply tap the arrow and then click “Add post to your story.” Instagram has several stickers you can use, such as a pink sticker with a heart to symbolize one like or stickers that read “Click here,” to entice people to click on the post.
Share Web Content
Use your Stories to point people to your website. For example, if you just posted a new blog to your site, let your audience know using your Instagram Stories! Give a quick preview of what the blog post includes and then add a strong CTA directing people to swipe up to read (or to click the link in your bio if you don’t have the swipe-up feature yet).
Get Personal
Getting up close and personal can help strengthen customer relationships because your customers will feel like they’re personal friends with you and the people behind your brand. Here are a few ideas of personal content to create.
Meet the Staff
Photos of faces perform nearly 40% better on Instagram than pictures that don’t include any faces. Introduce your followers to your employees or staff members via Instagram Stories. Share a photo or video of each employee, briefly outline their job within the company, and add a few fun facts about them to wrap things up. For example — “Charlotte is our customer success manager, which means she’s here to serve you in any way she can. When she’s not working, she likes to run marathons and find new pizza restaurants!”
Q&A
Hold a Q&A so customers can get to know your business and the mission behind it. You can either solicit questions on a specific topic — like how your company began — or open up the floor for any and all questions. Answer the questions either with text or with a video (don’t forget to add subtitles to make sure it’s accessible).
Engage Your Followers
Instagram Stories is a great place to get more engagement. Here are a few tips to help.
Use Polls
By using polls on Instagram Stories, where you ask your followers a question and they choose from two answers, you can get more engagement and also learn valuable information to inform your marketing decisions. Create a poll about your products or simply ask your customers how their day is going. And remember, you don’t have to go with the default “Yes” and “No” answers. You can customize the poll text or even add emojis for the answers.
Include A Countdown
Do you have a new product or service launching soon? Generate excitement around the launch by posting a countdown timer on your Instagram Stories. Your followers can repost this countdown and share the hype with their friends.
Add an Emoji Slider
The emoji slider is a fun tool to boost engagement. This little slider lets your followers slide their finger across a scale to indicate their answer to a question. For example, you might ask how their day is going — the further across the scale they slide the emoji, the better. Or you could post two photos and ask them to pick their favorite using the slider.
Create User-Generated Content
Encourage your followers to post photos or videos based around your business on their Stories — for example, videos of them using your product. If they have a public account and tag you in their Story, you’ll be able to view the videos. Then you can repost the content to make your customers feel seen and acknowledged. This is a great way to earn trust among your followers. User-generated content serves as a type of customer testimonial, helping you gain brand credibility.
Take Advantage of GIFs
There’s never a bad time for GIFs! GIFs are a fun way to infuse a little personality into your brand voice. Images are always better than text when it comes to engagement, and GIFs are better still. They’re entertaining; they help your posts stand out. What’s more, with the range of GIFs available on Instagram, you can find a GIF that works for whatever you’re posting. Use GIFs to add humor and emotion to your Instagram Stories.
Succeed with Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories are a great way to get more engagement — don’t overlook this powerful tool as you craft your marketing strategy! By using these helpful tips, you can optimize your Instagram Stories to make sure they get as much engagement as possible and help your brand succeed.
