Instagram has emerged as one of the most popular social media channels used by business organizations to expand their reach amongst the target audiences. While the platform offers different features for effective business promotion activities, the one feature that truly stands out is Instagram stories.
Since their introduction in 2016, Instagram stories have changed how businesses interact with and build their audiences through this platform. According to the expert professionals from a leading digital marketing company in Gurgaon, the feature has simplified the process of creating new influencers and catapulting businesses into the limelight. The key to harnessing the full potential of Instagram stories is to first understand it as a marketing tool.
Using Instagram Stories to Maximize Audience Reach
The potential of Instagram stories for enhancing business reach can be assessed by the fact that nearly 500 million users of this platform, post about a billion stories every day. In addition, the brands are known to post an average of 2.5 stories every week besides which there are 4 million brand advertisers on stories. This naturally makes Instagram stories the single most powerful tool for driving business and profitability.
Discussed below are some useful tips to use Instagram stories most effectively for creating greater brand awareness, enhancing audience engagement, and increasing conversion rates.
Keep Your Followers Updated
Many times it might be difficult for the followers of a brand to find the new story being posted by the business amidst the countless ones updated daily. Hence businesses need to keep their followers updated about upcoming stories being posted online by uploading teasers. These teasers can act as gentle reminders and can prove extremely effective in helping build the audience’s interest in upcoming stories. They may also make the audience curious enough to explore the various products and services of the brand in the meantime.
Take Advantage Of the Highlight Feature
One of the biggest concerns of brands is that the stories are available to viewers only for 24 hours. However, this limitation can be easily overcome by using the “Add to Highlights” feature, which makes the stories accessible in the highlights sections of the brand’s profile page. This enables the brands to curate multiple stories that their target audience can view as per their convenience. It also provides them with the option of showcasing their products and services appealingly and interestingly without worrying about their audiences missing the chance to view the stories.
Include Interesting Visuals
Visuals have a significantly deeper impact on audiences than any amount of text, which is why brands need to focus on using truly compelling images in their stories. Exploiting this extremely strong feature helps businesses attract and retain the attention of their audiences rather effortlessly. The visuals being used should preferably have bright, contrasting colours, and should be able to appeal to the audiences emotionally. This makes the audiences connect with the brand at a personal level and influences their decisions in favour of the business.
Also, Read About: Parental Control App
Integration Of Interactive Elements
Integrating interactive features such as polls and quizzes add an element of uniqueness to the stories. They prove beneficial in enhancing audience engagement levels and rousing their interest in the brand. This is especially true if the interactive elements are accompanied by some call-to-action. In such cases, the audiences feel empowered and are most impressed by this playful and interesting method of interaction adopted by the brands. Most importantly such interactive elements provide the brands with vital data and information to maximize audience happiness and satisfaction.
Make Use of User Generated Content
An effective method of building an audience with the help of Instagram stories is to take advantage of user-generated content. Brands should encourage their followers to share their experiences about using various products and services in the form of stories. They should also offer rewards and incentives for tagging the brand in these stories and sharing it in their feed. Leveraging user-generated content helps businesses to save considerable time and effort besides making it easier to promote their brand without being too pushy or sounding too desperate.
Customize Stories To Make Them Personal
Instagram offers a vast choice of filters to enable easy customization of videos and images that are to be included in a story. Business organizations can take advantage of these filters to add a personal touch to their stories and make them more relatable for the audiences. People love to view stories that they feel are inspired by everyday happenings of their own life. By customizing the stories in this manner, brands can maximize their audience engagement and this can, in turn, impact their followers count positively.
Conclusion
According to experts from a content marketing agency, Instagram stories are emerging as a great means for businesses to engage with their audiences creatively and interactively. Using this effective tool in the right manner can pave the way for exponential business growth and success in a relatively effortless and hassle-free manner.
