Guide for Instagram Stories for Businesses

Did you know that Instagram Stories are a fantastic way to connect with your audience and keep them interested? Not only that, but Instagram Stories can help boost sales and improve brand awareness.

Here is a quick guide to get you started using Instagram Stories for your business.

What Are Instagram Stories?

Launched in 2016, Stories have become a major factor in Instagram’s popularity, overtaking post feeds by a lot. The platform enjoys more than 500 million users per day, making Stories a great way to connect with an existing audience and to grow an even larger one. Stories are essentially slides and videos that expire after 24 hours. 

Boosting Engagement with Instagram Stories Stickers and Live

As Instagram has evolved, the developers have added new features to Stories to make it easier to start conversations, get live feedback and gauge reactions while promoting your brand, and sharing ideas in a fun, authentic way.

Stickers & One-Click Polls

Instagram Stories include dozens of stickers to make your offerings interesting, and one-click polls to quickly get feedback. If you sell products, use polls to ask your followers which color or the version they prefer. Instagram Story polls are like having a focus group in your pocket.

Sliding Stickers

Emoji sliding stickers are incredibly versatile and encourage interactivity by letting your audience select from a spectrum of responses. Asking for their opinion, builds trust, and loyally with your target market.

Question Stickers

Want to gauge a reaction to a new ad campaign? Use question stickers to get feedback on a slogan or new artwork. Instant feedback is priceless and can save you thousands on a missed opportunity.

Quiz Stickers

Users love a challenge. Add some quick fun to your Instagram Stories with quiz stickers where you ask a quick question and then show followers the answer.

Chat Sticker

The new chat sticker has become an instant success. Connect up to 32 users at once for a group chat to strike up a conversation about your brand.

Go Live

Use the Live feature of Instagram Stories to deeply engage with your audience on a personal level. Nothing says it like a video. Instagram sends out a notification that you are going live, which helps boost engagement, and you can use your Live feed to promote a conversation with a Q&A session.

Building Sales Through Instagram Stories

Along with the engagement features, Stories is also packed full of tools to help you boost sales. You can use product stickers to feature a specific product, and if you have more than 10K followers, you can also add links to Stories. 

Countdown stickers are a creative way to release a product and build excitement before it launches. Pair a countdown with an Instagram Story ad for an even more impactful sales approach.

Build Your Audience Through Instagram Stories

Once you have designed your awesome content for Instagram Stories, it is time to strategize about building your audience. Some of the helpful built-in tools to do that are:

• Add hashtags and location tags to your content.

• Post your Stories on a consistent schedule. Build anticipation and have your followers excited about your next big reveal.
• Create a branded Instagram Stories Filter using Spark AR Studio.
• Post personalized, sharable content that your audience will find helpful (an example would be a quick list of tips).
• Create your own branded GIF.

When using Instagram Stories, spend extra time designing slides and videos that are on point and on-brand that dovetail into your other marketing materials seamlessly.