One of the most effective ways to market your dropship or online business is to tell stories. Stories that people can relate to and engage with.
Keeping that in mind, after the huge success of Snapchat Stories, social media giants like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram also launched their own versions of this feature and Instagram Stories became an instant hit.
The most recent Instagram marketing statistics show that Stories have over 300 million daily active users, which is just one way they help businesses reach their potential audience.
So, how can businesses make effective use of Instagram Stories? We will explain it briefly in this article.
4 Steps On How To Create An Instagram Story
Basics first, let’s understand how you can create your own Instagram Story.
To begin with, swipe right from the main screen, or alternatively tap on Your Story bubble at the top of the front page.
Once you do this, you will be navigated to the main Instagram Stories screen wherein you can use the middle button to start a live video, record a video, or click a picture.
Once you have your creative or persuasive video or photo in place, you can either upload it directly or edit it with text, stickers, and hashtags. You can also consider using IGTV for Google here or for Apple users here.
After uploading your Story, it will be visible for the next 24 hours and then it will disappear automatically.
This might seem like pretty ordinary feature as of now, but believe us, Instagram Stories can help you boost your business and enhance your reach. This is perhaps why more and more businesses are harnessing it’s goodness.
Meanwhile, here are a few exciting ways in which you can use Instagram Stories.
3 Creative Ways In Which You Can Use Instagram Stories
1- Provide a quick glimpse of your blog content
Posting new blog content? How about providing a quick preview of it on Instagram Stories?
From how-to’s to other useful information, you can quickly provide a preview of your content by using Stories with a call to action at the end. Make sure that you start with a cover page with the topic of the blog and end the Story with a call to action, along with the website URL.
This not only keeps your users engaged, but would also boost your website traffic.
2- Launch your product
If you’re launching a new product or even just doing some pre-release promotion, Instagram Stories can help you out.
You can use it to show how different people are using your products or to teach your audience how your products work.
It is an excellent strategy to ask your customers to take photos while using your products and upload them using your hashtag. This way, user-generated content can help you in boosting your brand’s visibility while also enhancing its reach.
3- Provide a sneak peek of your business
Involve your audience and let them know what goes behind the scenes. This could be either in the form of photos or videos.
For instance, a lot of boutiques provide a sneak peek of their latest collection, while a lot of colleges use this feature to provide a quick overview of their college campus.
We’re sure, these ideas would have definitely served as an inspiration to create your own Stories. But wait. It is important that you prevent yourself from making certain mistakes and facing public humiliation.
3 Common Instagram Stories Mistakes To Stay Clear Of
Tiny text tagging
While tagging your influencers, collaborators and other brands make your Instagram Stories stand out, it is equally important that you tag them properly. Things can get pretty tough and boring with just one font at your disposal.
Thus, mix the things up and keep it big and bold enough for your users to click on the tag easily.
Avoid too much text
Instagram is a visual platform, thus, try to keep the things simple and visually appealing. Keep the text to a minimum and avoid flooding your Stories with chunks of text which is difficult to read and kills the entire experience.
Instead, make the right use of images and videos and use the text just for reference purposes.
Keep your story focused on one thing
It is important to tell a consistent story so that it becomes easier for your users to digest the content and remember it. Thus, if it is a new product line, focus on all the important aspects in all the slides consistently, rather than keeping it random and bombarding your customers with a lot of things at a time.
This would not only kill their experience, but would also ruin the message that you are trying to put across.
Parting Thoughts
That said, you can use Instagram Stories for a range of purposes. What’s the best part? Creating them is not rocket science they don’t require sheer hard work. Just a bit of creativity with a pinch of drama, and you’re good to go. Creating and posting Instagram promotional stories is a fun and effective way to engage your audience with your brand. Remember though this task can always be delegated like a millionaire to free up your time to build your business in other ways.
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