Every business aims to use social media to increase their reach and customer base, but did you know that you can use Instagram Stories to generate leads? This unique tool can really help you increase your brand’s social media reach when used strategically.
If you want to know how to make use of Instagram Stories the right way and get the leads your business needs to grow, read on.
Have A Solid Offer
Instagram Stories is a great way to use visuals to attract interest and potential customers.
While compelling visuals and effective storytelling are some tactics that can be used to draw in people, it often takes more than that for them to sign up for something or hand over their e-mail information.
Offer something of value to Instagram users in exchange for them interacting with your ad.
Potential offers include:
- Discount Codes
- Sales
- Coupons
- Free Downloads
- Free Ebooks
- Promotions
- Free email courses
- Free product samples
- A chance to win a prize
SEE ALSO: Everything You Need To Know About The New Instagram Update
Keep It Easy and Consistent Across Social Media
Once you have decided on your irresistible offer, you are ready to get started on your landing page with an optic form. This landing page is where customers will sign up, so make sure it is clear and easy to use.
If your landing form is hard to find or otherwise confusing, your followers might decide to click out of it rather than go on a digital hunt.
Foregoing a landing form in the first place is a mistake. It can confuse your followers. Don’t make them have to comb through your website to sign up for and accept your offer.
Many of them will become frustrated quickly and move onto something else.
The Design Is Key
When that’s finished, make sure it looks cohesive with the rest of your digital brand as it appears on social media. Use brand consistent fonts, colors, and images to create an eye-catching Instagram story with visuals that promote your offer.
There are numerous design tools you can use to create ads for your Instagram Stories. These include Easil, Canva, and WordSwag. You can also add animated text with tools like Adobe Spark and Hype Type.
Some of these tools come in app form so they can be used on computers and on phones and tablets, giving you the ability to craft Instagram Stories ads from anywhere at your convenience.
SEE ALSO: How to Get Your Brand Verified On Instagram
Add CTA Links
Once your offer is decided and your content is ready to go, it is time to add CTA (Call To Action) links. A call to action directly invites readers to take action that will benefit a business. In order to drive traffic to the email subscription campaign landing page for your offer you can do one of two things:
- Add a link to your mail opt-in form
- Invite your audience to tap the link in your bio
If you have less than 10,000 followers, you will have to choose the second option. The Instagram Stories Swipe Up feature only works if you meet this social media follower threshold.
When you include a CTA link in the bio of your Instagram Profile, make sure it is clear why users should click it and what they will be rewarded with. Also include a readable URL, rather than one that is full of random characters.
Use Location and Hashtag Stickers
One way to get noticed by your audience is to use trending local or global topics and events to your advantage.
When you create and post videos about local events, be sure to use geolocation stickers or hashtag stickers in your stories. This can help to increase your reach. People using the Explore and Location Stories feature will be able to discover your Stories content when they search for that location.
If you want to increase visibility amongst a more local audience, use multiple location-based hashtags.
For example, if you are trying to gain audience growth in the city of Los Angeles specifically, you might include hashtags like:
- #LA
- #LosAngeles
- #LosAngelesLife
- #LosAngeles_city
#Promotion
Also, depending on your business, you may want to include that in a hashtag to promote it. For example, many Los Angeles based photographers use the Instagram hashtag #LosAngelesPhotographer to help promote their work.
This means that anyone who searches under that hashtag on Instagram will be able to find their work and profile easily.
Story Ads and Highlights
Instagram Story ads and lead generation forms are helpful tools when it comes to increasing the reach of your Instagram Stories content. This will allow you to drive traffic to your offer and get some important leads.
Ads appear between stories in the photo, video, and carousel formats where up to 3 pieces of media can be added.
You set different objectives, budgets, and demographics for ads and choose whether to include a lead form or not. Lead ads using these forms can be used across Facebook and Instagram.
While on certain social media sites, such as LinkedIn, you can get a vast array of information from users via lead forms, Instagram only allows you to collect emails, full names, phone numbers, and genders.
SEE ALSO: How to Run an Instagram Story Takeover
Don’t Forget About Highlights
Instagram’s Highlights feature lets you organize stories with specific themes and place these collections on your profile permanently.
Usually, Instagram Stories disappear after 24 hours, but ones that are placed in Highlights stick around. This is a great way to showcase particularly effective content and reap its benefits in a more long-term way.
Using Instagram To Your Advantage
Social media platforms like Instagram are dynamic and constantly changing. You cannot control them, the ways people use them, the ways they evolve, or their algorithms. This is part of what makes using social media sites to build a strong base of customer e-mails so important.
No one can predict what will happen in the world of social media. Instagram or other social media sites can randomly change their algorithm, become unpopular, or for some other reason become ineffective as a way of advertising in the digital landscape.
If you did not collect the email addresses of users of those sites, your reach will be negatively impacted.
In the constantly shifting social media landscape, where what’s relevant can shift in a blink of an eye, and countless other factors are at play, email remains a constant.
It gives you a direct way to contact and interact with customers, regardless of site algorithms or other things that are out of your control.
Are Instagram Stories helping your business? Comment below..