- Blog
- May 5th, 2023
Instagram is the second most used social media platform by Gen Zers in the world just behind YouTube. Overall, the platform is used by over 1.3 billion users daily. Based on the number of users, Instagram is ranked the fourth most used platform globally.
Because of this potential, 4 million businesses are leveraging this platform to reach potential audiences through advertisements. However, this does not mean that businesses can only get sales through paid marketing. Instagram stories are a great way to reach audiences organically and establish a connection that yields sales.
5 Tips to Use Instagram Stories
According to Rival IQ, the top 25% of brands that are most active post at least 17 times a month. The least active brands post one story a month. However, posting a lot of frames per day leads to audience disengagement. So, it is important to determine the right mix of frequency and number of frames a day.
Here are five tips that will help you use Instagram stories the best way possible to attain that top-of-the-mind position in the consumer’s mind:
1. Analyze the Data
Your data analytics can reveal a lot about your audience. It can show you the times when your audience is most active. When you post during these times, the algorithm will display your stories first getting more engagement.
It is possible to keep track of engagement by assessing when users respond to interactive posts like shoppable ads, links, and polls.
2. Avoid Adding Multiple Frames
Many businesses post several images on their Instagram stories for promoting their products when there’s a discount or otherwise too. However, bombarding the customer with so many images will bring down the engagement levels in the long run. You can make a video story or a still image that features multiple products. Next, you can prompt the potential customer to visit your Instagram account or website to view more products.
3. Plan through a Content Calendar
Stories are 24-hour posts. So, brands don’t feel that they should plan for them beforehand. However, creating a content calendar for stories is a great way to make sure that you are putting up some valuable posts. Through the content calendar, you can even repost old stories that got a lot of engagement without making it look like you’re recycling and repeating a lot.
4. Add Links to Your Stories
To cash on the “impulse buying” habit of the customers, add the “shop now” button to your stories to make them shoppable. But only 1-2 high quality pictures or videos of the product will be enough to make an impact.
5. Make Things Engaging
Stories are not just for posting product images. They also allow businesses to engage with the customer. So, polls and question-based interactive posts are one way to make the story engaging. But there are other ideas too that help connect with the customer. Here are some ideas that make things happening on Instagram:
- Introduce the team of people who are involved in the business.
- Add viral or nostalgic songs to your stories.
- Add stickers to your stories.
- Post videos in collaboration with a popular Instagram influencer.
- Launch campaigns that speak to the customer or in accordance with the month’s/ week’s celebration.
Final Words
There is no right way to connect with potential customers on Instagram. All customers are different, and businesses need to learn what their customers want and connect with them through the same. So, it is important to consider the customer’s needs and wants in the product as well as in the marketing campaign.
