If you have ever thought about using Instagram Stories for your business development, now it is the right time!
Don’t consider Instagram Stories only as a funny and creative thing, this Instagram feature is a great tool in order to grow an engagement level, build brand’s awareness, drive traffic to a website, generate leads or even increase sales.
If you still aren’t aware that Instagram is the easiest and best way of leads generation on social media, you are missing a lot.
Probably you want to ask – why?
It is simple, just because there is a large competition on Google and Facebook, however Instagram is open for pillaging of free qualified leads.
Remember one important rule: when there is low competition, it is easier to win.
Now let’s discuss some statistical facts. According to research made by Medium platform, more than 50% of brands use an Instagram Story feature and in average brands post 14 Instagram Stories per month. What is more, Instagram Stories have a low exit (bounce) rate. It means that users enjoy watching Stories to the end.
So, are you ready to start with Instagram Stories?
In today’s guide we will cover a lot of interesting and efficient tips . Let’s start!
1. Upload Instagram Stories regularly
The first useful advice is to make sure that you maintain Instagram Stories’ posting frequency.
According to social media analyses, it is recommended to upload 3-5 Stories each day in order to be one of the top Stories in the followers feed. There is one important fact that if you make one Story per week, it is impossible to get any exposure.
And remember that unlike regular Instagram posts (that are tightly related to Instagram algorithm), there aren’t any limitations for quantity of uploading Instagram Stories.
Posting a lot of Instagram Stories can’t be a bad thing. Actually, it depends on brands themselves and what their followers expect from them! For instance, some brands upload 10 and more Stories per day, while others prefer to post just few times a week. In this case, it is better to try and see how it works for you.
All in all, just don’t forget about regularity which is a significant factor of how Instagram makes your Stories visible to your followers and then it makes an influence on leads generation.
2. Create unique and interactive content of Stories
It goes with saying that the most important factor which makes people to swipe up and click on a link to visit your website is compelling and engaging content. According to social media statistics, Instagram Stories that provide users with a funny and interesting facts, allow them to interact with a content is always better because they give higher reach.
For example, you can add one product in each Instagram Story and on the last one use call-to-action where users can swipe up and see these products on your website. Just don’t be afraid of making something creative in your Stories and Instagram users will get interested and probably engage with your account.
Besides, an effective tactic for creating an interactive content of Instagram Stories in order to generate leads is putting a human face which will represent your brand.
In other words, instead of solely showing your brand’s products, put a person who will interact with a target audience and in this way will build loyal relationship. As you probably understand that social media users are tired of various pushy sales messages, instead of this they would like to see a real “brand to user” connection.
In this case, you need to add a little of human touch to your communication with users through Instagram Stories. So, upload funny stories or show behind the scenes actions which will let users know that there are real people behind the brand. Then you will notice that your potential customers’ trust is getting bigger and these users are generating leads.
3. Use Call-to-action in Instagram Stories
The third practical thing which is used in Instagram Stories is inducement of users to act.
For instance, you can tell your followers to “swipe up in order to see more”, “click on a link and visit our website” or “send me a DM to discuss the details”. Adding this kind of texts into your Instagram Stories will help to cause target audience’s interest and encourage them to tap on a provided link and probably ask about your brand or even buy something.
However, swipe up feature and chance to add URL is only available for Instagram accounts whose number of followers is 10,000 or more. In this case, if your Instagram account match this rule, don’t wait and try this feature.
4. Add location and hashtags in Stories
Since Instagram has added a lot of various types of stickers, it is very convenient to have an opportunity to make your Stories searchable using a location mark or a hashtag.
Actually, these features made a huge difference on functionality of Instagram Stories because it means that everyone can see your Story now and if an Instagram user gets interested, he/she can engage with your account. After that visit your website and end up with an inquiry and in this way generate a lead. This is the main reason why it is recommended to put a geolocation or related hashtags in Instagram Stories.
What is more, if you have some specific branded hashtags which you use in your posts, so you can link them up with Stories hashtags and when Instagram users will be searching for your Stories hashtags, they will find your account’s posts. This tactic will create more reliability and familiarity to your Instagram audience.
In order to figure out which hashtags are more discoverable between your target audience who can be your potential customers, it is advisable to do a research.
5. Choose the best time to post Stories
Another maybe less important but determinant thing is to upload when your Instagram followers are most active.
However this is no so decisive moment for Instagram Stories, because even if you upload a Story when a majority of your Instagram followers are asleep, they can watch your Story later during their active hours.
In this case, you shouldn’t stress too much about the time when you upload your Instagram Stories. The main point is that Stories content should be current.
However, if you expect to get engagement quickly, it is recommended to take into a consideration the most active hours of your Instagram followers.
All in all, there are plenty of ways how you can use Instagram Stories to generate leads, today we discussed 5 of them. And probably now you should have a fair idea about what you can do in order to provoke interest of your target audience and get them to your website to make a purchase.
Try to implement tactics of organizing Instagram Stories which were reviewed earlier and you will see that it isn’t so difficult to drive engagement, build brand awareness, generate leads and even makes sales.
