12Apr 23 How to Use Instagram Stories Highlights for Marketing

Instagram is an image, video, and photo-sharing social networking application owned by the American tech giant Meta Platforms.

Through this app, users can upload and share social media content that can be edited or modified with the help of filters. Instagram allows you to chronologically add pictures or videos, and it also gives you the option to tag geographic locations. These posts are shared by the users through their individual Instagram accounts.

An Instagram account is also called an Insta handle. These accounts can either be private or public. Nowadays, Instagram is a great digital platform for marketing, branding, and endorsements. One post can make your company’s name soar to great heights if it reaches the right audience or goes viral on social media.

What are Instagram “Stories”?

With Instagram Stories, you can share every moment of the day instead of just the moments you want to preserve for your profile. Your uploaded “stories” is shown as a slideshow when you contribute numerous images, photos, and videos.

While posts remain on a profile permanently, Instagram Stories are only visible for 24 hours.
You can post Instagram content, videos, pictures, text-only screens, and more on Stories. Posts can be reels, carousels, photographs, movies, or photos.

Stories have also become one of the most significant adored aspects of the social networking site, even though Snapchat was the company that first made this format famous.

Instagram says, “With Stories, you can upload images and videos that vanish from your account, timeline, and posts after 24 hours until you add it to your posting history as story highlights.”

You can use entertaining elements like emojis, captions, polls, GIFs, hyperlink swipe-ups, stickers, music, hashtags, and more to make your Stories more entertaining and interactive.

Quick Facts about Social Media Promotion/Marketing

Social media marketing, or promotions, uses social networking sites and website networks to promote products and services. Although e-marketing and online ads are still the most frequently used terms, marketing on social media is becoming increasingly popular among researchers and practicing marketers.

Top Tips to Use Instagram Stories for Marketing Purposes

Let us have a look at essential ways in which you can boost your social media presence with the help of Instagram stories and use it as a powerful marketing tool:

Include A Clear CTA (Call To Action)

Clear CTAs should be included in all stories so that viewers know what you want them to accomplish after viewing them. This could be as easy as encouraging them to DM you, click on a product link, or compelling them to act.

Publish Frequently

If you wait for Instagram fame to come your way, posting one story every two days won’t work. You must post often if you want to leverage stories as a critical part of your marketing strategy.

It’s one of the quickest ways to boost the target audience who view your Story, even though it may appear pretty basic. As mentioned, every time you submit a Story, it will be seen at the top of the user’s Instagram feed. This, in turn, will boost the probability of the post being noticed.

Using Sked Social can help you automate the process if publishing multiple times daily becomes too much work.

Plan Out Your Stories

You must join the scheduling and automation club to take your Instagram Story approach to the next level. Instagram story posting may become a full-time job if you feed it. Because of this, scheduling content for posting on your Instagram profile might save you a tonne of time.

Get into the habit of writing your Stories content in batches rather than one at a time. The time you save by planning and producing a lot of content at once is considerably greater.

Use the “Highlights” Feature in Instagram Stories

Want to extend the duration of your 24-hour Story? Make sure to use highlights.

You can increase their visibility and reach by uploading your Stories to the highlights. Highlights are an excellent approach to saving content that your viewers will refer to repeatedly.

For example, the value of a fantastic tutorial you create through a collection of Stories need not end after 24 hours. Once you’ve saved it to your highlights, you may direct your Instagram followers to it whenever they need the information.

Depending on your brand, there are many ways to employ highlights. You don’t have to restrict it to tutorials. Some businesses use it for advertising and stocking new seasonal items as well.

Ways in Which You Can Use the Instagram Story Highlights Feature for Digital Marketing:

To Launch A Product

Since the content is live for just 24 hours, it is excellent to use while trying to launch an impending product and make it reach as many people as possible based on your brand outreach.

Later you can save it to your “Highlights” and preserve it on your feed forever. Through this approach, your product launch will keep gaining mass appeal over a period of time and stay on your profile forever.

To Generate Leads

You can permanently attach “lead magnets” or hook phrases to your Instagram reels and Story “Highlights.”

If you do this, your highlights will gather momentum and generate leads while drawing more leverage from your digital marketing endeavor.

To Draw Attention To Sales, Discount Deals, and Special Offers

For events, special discounts, and offers that are available for just a day or a stipulated period, Instagram “Story” is ideal. But if your discount offer is a week or month-long, you may not want it to disappear after 24 hours.

Therefore saving the “Story” to your “Highlights” is the best option to reach a wider audience over a more extended period. The “Story” or “Highlight” should focus on the sale, slashed prices, or offers you want your customers to focus on.

It’s a good idea to make Instagram Story Highlights specifically for promoting the latest discounts, specials, and promotions. Discounts or giveaways draw potential customers naturally, motivate them to interact with the material in your Story, and persuade them to purchase your goods or services.

Make Important Brand-Related Announcements

You can announce a new product, a brand-new initiative, generic information, or Ad Campaign you plan to kickstart.

You can make your announcement catchy and engaging with the help of images, animations, links, and hook phrases.

Polls, Surveys, and Reaction Sliders

Using audience polls as part of your Instagram reels and stories and saving the post or Story to your highlights can be a great way to connect and network with your audience or followers. You can use it to conduct market surveys, gather customer feedback, or interact personally with your audience.

You may collaborate with customers by using ad-engaging surveys on the Stories you share on Instagram and engaging with them. Asking engaging questions to your audience can help you better understand them, acquire insight into their problems, and encourage them to interact with your business.

The same goes for “reaction sliders” as well. With the help of these sliders, you can determine your audience engagement and their like or dislike towards a particular product. You can use heart emojis or quirky animation in your “Reaction Sliders” for your audience to point out how much they love or hate a particular product or service.

Hashtags and Geo Stickers

You might be shocked to learn that, like Yelp, many consumers use Instagram to look for local companies. There are numerous positive instances of businesses being discovered by Instagram users, which resulted in sales, even though no concrete figures show the number of searches on Instagram.

The most typical industries for this include eateries, retail, and other enterprises. To find a list of restaurants that serve Italian, they activate an Instagram search and enter “Italian [city name].” Alternatively, they might search for a hashtag like “#[citynamerestaurant].”

If a location-based organization has its addresses set up through Instagram or Facebook, the search algorithm for that business will generate material that matches that business.

Partnerships

Instagram influencers marketing your brand is a great way to boost your brand or product. Partnering with influencers can be fruitful if you get them to endorse your brand via their Instagram Stories, reel, or highlights.

If a relevant influencer is one of your consumers and you can get them to put in a good word about your brand in their Instagram post or Story and preserve it for eternity on their social media through the “Highlights” feature.

Wrapping Up…

When it comes to marketing using Instagram Stories Highlights, follow the aforementioned tips and tricks to leverage the benefits of this social media platform.

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