Along with Facebook and YouTube, Instagram is the best social media platform to run your marketing campaigns on. Not only are there more young people on Instagram but they are very active there too.
While posts have been the go-to option for marketers for a long time, Instagram has other options to deliver marketing content as well. There are Reels, IGTV (renamed Insta Videos now), and of course, Instagram Stories.
With so many diverse options to deliver marketing content on Instagram, you have all the creative freedom you could wish for.
Among these options, perhaps the most effective way to boost your marketing efforts and make them more effective is Instagram Stories.
Yes, you read that right! Those 15 secs long, vanish after 24 hours Instagram stories can make a world of a difference to your marketing efforts.
Want to know how? Follow my lead!
5 Reasons That Make Instagram Stories So Effective
Users don’t usually ignore stories
This is especially true for youngsters who believe in FOMO. The short duration and 24-hour validity of Instagram stories have ensured that youngsters check out each one of the stories posted.
So, unlike normal posts, users aren’t going to ignore them and scroll right by. This means that not only are your views guaranteed, but a steady stream of views adds to your level of engagement that is beneficial for your reach.
You can post more often
Stories vanish after 24 hours, this means that whatever you post through Instagram Stories will not be available after 24 hours. This means you can post more often, keep your viewers engaged while not having to publish a normal post.
This keeps your profile clean and decluttered, so you can only have the posts that are important and want your users to be able to easily find. With this approach, you’ll be able to keep your engagement high and profile neat and organized.
15 seconds is just the right duration
The debate about how long or short a marketing content should be has been going on for ages and the durations have changed with the advent of every new platform.
There are risks associated with your marketing content being too long or short. If it’s too long, people will either skip it or ignore it and if it is too short, chances are that people will not recall anything you delivered through the short content.
Studies conducted about the same have concluded recently that 15 seconds is the right spot for marketing content and it stands valid across a multitude of platforms.
Improves Customer Retention
A golden rule about customer retention is to make sure you regularly engage with your customers so that they have a constant connection with you. Having this connection over the long run translates into a bond that makes customers loyal.
Image Courtesy – Social Insider
A study conducted by Social Insider concluded that posting up to five stores per day ensures a retention rate of over 70%.
We all know how cost-effective it is to retain existing customers rather than acquire new ones. Add to that the cost-effective nature of Instagram stories and you have a winning formula to retain more customers and save on business resources.
Stories allow you to directly interact with your audience
There are so many ways in which you can enable your audience to interact with you. There are polls, you can let them ask you questions, they can answer your questions, there are slider ratings, and much more.
The main benefit of this is that you can generate direct and unfiltered feedback about your offerings or views from your audiences. This data is valuable and can aid in effective decision-making.
Direct interaction also boosts your engagement rate significantly, handing your brand additional reach by pleasing the Instagram Algorithm.
You Will Still Need Normal Posts!
Focusing on Instagram stories should be a part of your Social Media Strategy, but you need to focus equally on normal Instagram posts.
The fact that normal posts stay longer than just 24 hours is one major reason behind this. But the ability to showcase the catalog attractively for your audience to discover, interact with and share with others.
Normal posts provide the Internet with a timeline of your business’s progress over time, which can be a powerful storytelling element in your future marketing campaigns.
The same study by Social Insider that found that Instagram stories help with customer retention, also found out that normal Instagram posts still enjoy higher reach compared to Instagram stories.
Image Courtesy – Social Insider
Instagram stories and posts serve two different purposes and you need to ensure that your social media marketing strategy leverages the upsides of both while maintaining a healthy mix of the two in any marketing campaign.
What you can do is use a normal Instagram post as an anchor and use Instagram stories as a catalyst to drive more audience towards the post or create a buzz about your posts.
Now that you know why you should use Instagram stories, let me tell you how you can use Instagram stories to generate the best results.
5 Ways To Make Your Instagram Stories Effective
Repost user-generated content
There are some significant advantages to prompting user-generated content through your Instagram stories. First is that it is free content, readily available, and will add to your credibility as it showcases something positive being posted about your brand.
Image Courtesy – Curator
Secondly, it shows to your audience that you appreciate your customers, and reposting user-generated content provides positive affirmation to your customers that instill a sense of belonging in them towards the brand.
Reposting user-generated content on stories doesn’t clutter your account and enables you to create and nurture a community of customers. This in turn adds to your brand value, boosts positive customer sentiment, and promotes loyalty towards your brand.
Host Giveaways for newly launched products
Nothing gets people more excited and interested than an opportunity to get something they like for free. Giveaways create a lot of buzz among your audience and you can get your audience to amplify your reach by sharing your story as a task for the giveaway.
Having people participate in giveaways boosts your level of engagement a lot during the run of the giveaway, which means you can use the additional reach to promote your product.
Image Courtesy – The Social Media Examiner
There are a lot of positive emotions involved with winning anything and the winner of your giveaway will have positives to say about your products. This can be prompted on stories as a client testimonial to capitalize on the buzz and sell more.
Use Polls to make stories interactive
Everyone has an opinion and you can use it to your advantage. Hosting polls allow you to gain two advantages. Firstly, you get people to interact and get organic feedback in return. Secondly, polls are attention grabbers.
The ability to provide their input makes people pay attention as they want to vote about what they feel. This grants you the undivided attention of the viewer and they carefully check out your products and not tap through the story like usual.
Image Courtesy – Blogging Wizard
Additionally, more interactions raise the level of engagement which is necessary to please the Instagram Algorithm and will grant you additional reach as a reward. Interactive content also ends up making your audience more receptive to all of your marketing content.
Ask questions!
Nothing aids business decision-making more than organic inputs from your audience.
What they like and dislike about your products, what they wish to see more of, what changes they would like can answer most of the 5 Ps of Marketing for your business.
Image Courtesy – Hopper HQ
These inputs will not only help you create content that your audience is interested in but also help in creating new products and improving the current ones. This will also allow you to directly interact with them by answering questions.
The best outcome is perhaps when people see that the brands they use are listening to them and making changes to products or marketing, they value the brand more and tend to stay loyal to it.
Influencer Takeovers
What you have to do is collaborate with an established influencer by letting them take over your Instagram account temporarily and having them post stories about how they use your products and how good they are.
Having someone else run your Instagram creates a buzz among your audience and gives them something different in terms of content, representation style, and narrative.
Image Courtesy – Later
Not only do you benefit from all the reach and other benefits from influencer marketing more directly, but you also provide a different perspective about your products and brand in general to your audience.
This helps you break the monotony of marketing activities and provides pure entertainment and value for a change, which makes your audience more receptive to your upcoming marketing campaigns.
Many of the best digital marketing campaigns have used influencers and you shouldn’t miss out on any of its benefits.
To sum it all up
Stories are a powerful way to boost your marketing effort on Instagram. Not only are they an effective marketing tool by themselves, but they offer diverse options, viz. of the ability to ask questions, host polls, host quizzes, get ratings, etc.
There are plenty of variations you can use to engage, interact, collect feedback and entertain your audience. The temporary nature of stories means that you can post as many stories as you need to without cluttering your profile.
Considering all these positives, you should focus on stories, not only on Instagram but on other social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Snapchat, etc. as a part of your overall digital marketing strategy.
Are you ready to market better with Instagram Stories?