Most people consider Instagram as a photo-sharing application. Do you think the same?
Indeed, it is used for sharing pictures but is not only limited to it. Isn’t it?
If you are a business owner or handling the marketing side of your brand, it is crucial for you to understand that Instagram is a fantastic and cost-effective tool that helps you attract visitors and generate sales.
Nowadays, organizations are leveraging the power of Instagram stories, as its popularity continues to grow.
Instagram stories are an excellent way to interact with people and improve brand awareness. According to the statistics, there are around 300 million people who watch Instagram stories every day, which is approximately two times the number of Snapchat active users.
So, if you are not incorporating Instagram stories in your business marketing strategy, it’s the right time to buck up and keep your brand stand out from the crowd.
Need not fret!
Here are 12 brilliant ways to use Instagram stories for your business growth.
1- Use appropriate hashtags to build your audience
Just think a moment, what is the primary objective of the organizations behind marketing? Every organization wants to engage customers and improve their brand name so that target marketers can easily identify their brand, because a business without customers cannot be imagined.
Always remember, the more number of customers you have, the easier it becomes to build the online presence.
Now, you might be pondering over, how to get more customers? Well! The easiest and most effective way to build an audience and reach thousands of people at the same time is by creating beautiful Instagram stories having accurate hashtags.
Always try to add the most popular hashtags that are related to your story as well as your brand. It will not only help you reach your target audience easily but also improves your brand identity.
Say if you are promoting your video services, then you can use #video marketing, #explainer videos, #videos etc. It will help you reach your potential customers easily.
Adding hashtags in the Instagram stories in one thing but using it in the right way is another. The hashtags you add in the stories will be viewed by the people following the hashtags and others who view your post.
So, always find relevant keywords to pull more numbers of audience towards your brand and increase traffic.
2- Use stories to share company announcements
Instagram stories can also be used by companies to share their proud moments and announcements. Like launching of a new product, career openings, event details, or other general information.
Besides attracting visitors and building awareness, it also enhances brand loyalty. Posting small things regarding your company will make your followers feel connected. Also, they will receive all the latest information shared by your company.
A business is considered successful when the customers choose them time and again. So, to retain the customers, start sharing more insights about the company via consistent activities to get more profit out of it.
3- Drive traffic by posting the right content at the right time
Besides using the right hashtag, it is also important for marketers to choose the right time and content to post the Instagram stories.
If the content quality and the time of the post is not considered, then there are chances that you might lose your target audience. To know the best time, you can analyze your previous posts to understand the engagement level of the people. Alternatively users can use an Instagram web viewer to look at any top Instagram profile.
By gathering the data, you will get an idea about the best times of the day when you can post and get more engagement from the people.
Once you get the insights from Instagram Analytics, you can easily use the best social media tools to schedule and publish the social posts at the right time to keep your audience more engaged.
4- Story highlights: the game changer
Instagram story highlights are another thing that can improve your brand awareness and business productivity. Well! For most of the regular users, it might be a reel show, but if I talk about businesses, then it can be a game-changer for them.
By utilizing the highlights, businesses can easily tell people what their brand is all about, who they are, what services they offer, why they do it, and many more.
I would say using highlights in the Instagram marketing will not only transform your Instagram page into a brochure but also grabs the visitors attention, which is, of course, beneficial for the businesses in the long run.
So, don’t miss to use the Instagram stories in the firm of highlights to make your efforts a big success.
5- Use polls over boring customer questionnaires
Gone are the days when marketers ask questions to the customers for their engagement. Nowadays, businesses are using pools in their Instagram stories to catch the visitors eyes and drive sales.
Commonly, people consider it as a fun activity, but it can actually help you encourage real conversions and improve brand loyalty.
Well! The possibilities for creating Instagram pools are endless. You can create the pool according to the respective campaign to make it a success. This amazing feature of Instagram can be a great help to the marketers as it will allow them to invite the audience and engenders customer loyalty.
6- Enhance services by getting feedbacks
For getting more profit out of your business, it is vital to understand whether your customers are happy or not, what they actually want, etc. Asking the customer’s tastes and needs will help you convert a one-time customer into a loyal customer.
Say if you don’t collect customer feedback, then you cannot experience what your customers actually feel about your brand. So, to get better insights, Instagram stories help a lot.
You can add questions to your stories to ask the audience about their feedback, or any other burning question that you feel can help in improving your branding.
Indeed, it is an excellent way to enable a fluid interaction with the audience or customers. So, make sure you tell it’s an advantage while marketing your business via Instagram stories.
7- Use Countdown stickers to build community
Countdown stickers are another great feature of Instagram that can help you promote your brand and convert visitors into leads.
By incorporating the countdown stickers to Instagram stories, it becomes really easy for marketers to evaluate how many audiences are engaged. Say if you are providing a discount offer to the people, then you can set reminders and deadlines to attract more visitors in less time.
Moreover, this feature is also helpful in building the community. So, don’t worry about tracking your followers’ growth over time, the countdown feature will allow you to understand your post engagements quickly and effortlessly.
8- Boost engagement rate with reaction sliders
Reaction sliders is another element that you can add in your Instagram stories to inspire the people to respond to their business.
By following this tactic, you will not only be able to create stunning posts for your business but also allow you to boost visitor’s engagement.
Instagram is a lot about sharing experiences and promoting the portfolio, so why not ramp up the business growth by highlighting your Instagram post with reaction sliders.
Addition of reaction sliders like heart eyes to the Instagram post will allow the business to understand the probability of the people who like the product. So, make sure you utilize the sliders to make your Instagram stories more creative and productive.
Prefer reading- Instagram Rolls Out Suggested Posts to Keep You Connected to Your Feed.
9- Streamline your stories by adding links
It is one of the excellent strategies that you can follow to improve your website traffic and conversions.
If you are an Instagram user, you might be familiar that it does not allow users to add functioning links. But yes, having it in the bio or into an Instagram story, can easily redirect the visitors to your website. Moreover, it allows you to grow your email list.
Sadly this feature can be used by the users having 10K followers or more. By honestly, if you use this feature to the fullest, you can easily drive more foot traffic to your website or brand.
But one thing you need to remember is that all the links you add in the Instagram stories are not visible, as they are hidden under see more option. So, to make sure your customer figures out the links, don’t forget to add a CTA such as “swipe up to register”.
10- Embrace Instagram filters to create an appealing post
Remember, the more your Instagram story is appealing, the easier it becomes to catch the visitors eye. Well! In comparison to other platforms, Instagram offers highly engaging filters that make your post or story more attractive.
Instagram allows the creation of AR filters which is actually helping the industry grow. There are various brands that are producing their own filters to allow their followers recognize their company, products, etc.
But, I would recommend you consider using limited filters as it will not only create a niche for your account but also helps you build your brand recognition.
So, never forget to evaluate your account to deeply understand what exactly is working for your business before adding filters to your story.
11- Try adding CTA’s everywhere
Indeed, Instagram stories are loved by everyone. But the audience gets more attracted to the stories that include more compelling and engaging CTA’s.
Besides adding CTA in your Instagram story, you can also use it in the images or photos to generate traffic.
Surprisingly, Instagram allows the enterprises to make use of official CTA buttons to increase the interactions and push followers to make a click. If you really want to ensure that your Instagram viewers get engaged with your stories and redirect to your website, start creating engaging CTA(call-to-action).
According to the statistics, personalized CTAs attract 42% more visitors instead of irrelevant and untargeted CTAs. So, make sure to use pushy and personalized CTA’s like call now, read more, etc. as it will help you drive traffic that can further allow you to achieve your campaign.
12- Increase your discoverability with Location stickers
Besides adding hashtags in your stories, you can also use geotags or location stickers to make your brand more discoverable. The more you get exposure to your brand, the chances to generate traffic to the website increases.
By adding location stickers to the Instagram stories like the location of your organization, business meetings, or the picture where it is taken will help you inform your audience more about your organization.
Tagging location in the stories will not only increase the traffic but also build strong customer relations. Yes! This simple and quick trick can actually help you get more impressions which can be beneficial for your business as it can be viewed by even the people who do not follow your account.
So, be sure to add a location to your Instagram stories to give a shootout to your brand.
Now to you!
There are no two opinions that Instagram stories are excellent way to showcase your business. Creating out of the box Instagram stories that actually converts is not a cakewalk. One needs to act smartly and learn the strategies that can help you take your business to the next level.
But hopefully, by considering the above-mentioned ways, you can easily improve your branding, grow online presence and generate visitors interest in this fastest growing platform.
Stop delaying! And start creating successful Instagram stories that leave a lasting impression on the viewers.
Also, if you have any other ideas that can help readers use Instagram stories for your business productivity or any second thoughts, feel free to share in the comments below.
Liked this article? Don’t forget to share it with others to make them familiar with the ways that can actually help them generate traffic and escalate their sales cost-effectively.
Happy Instagram Marketing!!!
