If you haven’t incorporated Instagram Stories into your brand’s marketing strategy, now is the ideal time to start. Not only do people watch brand Stories on Instagram, but they also use them to learn more about brands’ products and personalities. The statistics don’t lie. More than one-third of the most highly-viewed Instagram Stories are created by brands.
Even if you see the value of Instagram Stories, you might struggle to put them to use for your brand. How do you use stories in a way that helps your brand stand out and showcases your products?
Besides knowing the basic Instagram Story specs for high-quality content, there are several ways to increase your engagement. The following ideas can help you get started:
Customer testimonials
Customer testimonials have always been a powerful marketing tool. They add a sense of credibility that can’t be found in other types of marketing content. Instagram Stories are a perfect place to share these. You can reproduce positive reviews that customers have posted or recruit satisfied clients to share video testimonials.
Invest in paid promotions
There are several ways to use Instagram video advertising to promote your products, drive traffic to your product pages, and increase sales. One of the most effective is sharing your ads via IG Stories. In addition to using videos, you can also choose image ads and carousels.
Share important announcements
Are you planning to launch a new product line, open a new store, or engage in a community service initiative? That’s the kind of news you want to share with your followers, and you can do that using Instagram Stories.
Promote other content
You can produce exceptionally relevant content, but nobody benefits from that if they can’t find it. Many brands use stories to promote blog posts, videos, articles, and other content. You simply offer a bit of a teaser with a great value proposition. Then, prompt followers to swipe up to check out the original content.
Offer tips and best practices
Like any other social media content, your Instagram Stories should achieve a balance between content that is promotional and content that educates or entertains. You can achieve this through your Instagram Stories by sharing short snippets of content containing product tips, troubleshooting advice, and other best practices.
Your followers will learn things that will increase their success and satisfaction with your products, and you will build trust and thought leadership.
Highlight a special deal
Does your business run short-term sales such as daily and weekly specials? If so, your IG Stories are the perfect platform for announcing these. Because stories expire after a short period of time, you create a sense of urgency that could motivate your followers to answer your call to action.
Ask followers questions
Instagram Story polls are an interactive feature that allows you to collect feedback from your followers. You can use polls to learn more about customer preferences, create engagement, and gather opinions on new products.
Share a personal story
High-funnel content is used to increase brand familiarity, connect with potential customers, and share your company’s values with your audience. Many brands do this by sharing meaningful stories. For example, you could share an inspirational story of one of your team members putting your core values into practice.
Show influencer content
Instagram Stories and influencer marketing are a perfect pair. Once you find the right influencer partnership, your options are nearly limitless. Here are just a few influencer story ideas:
- Social media takeover
- Tease an upcoming video
- Share a brief product demonstration
- Answer a customer question
- Show an inspirational video from a micro-influencer
- Highlight the happenings at a live event
Remember that people love to have exclusive access. Have your influencer give your target audience a “behind the scenes” view of your company, one of your products, or an event.
What makes Instagram stories so effective
Instagram Stories truly hit the mark when it comes to social media marketing. When used correctly, IG Stories will reach people at every stage of the customer journey.
Additionally, IG Stories are visually compelling, impactful, and have high engagement rates. They are an excellent tool for getting your most relevant content in front of your audience in a timely manner.
You can get started with IG stories without making a significant investment too. It’s truly a low-risk way to add one more content format to your digital marketing mix. Getting started is as simple as creating or curating a post and sharing it to your Story.
Once you are more familiar with the format, you can share content with higher production values and work on using IG Stories to achieve more advanced marketing goals.
