Why are Instagram stories and reels important to your business marketing?
Instagram is booming with 2.9 billion visits per month. If you are a business, big or small, that is a whole bunch of visibility. When you combine these stats with the fact that video is an increasingly popular form of marketing amongst consumers, you have the perfect reason to try out those Instagram stories and reels just waiting for you on your homepage.
Why video?
An Instagram story is a vertical series of pictures or videos that disappear after 24 hours unless users choose to feature it at the top of their profile as a highlight. Consumers love a clever add, but stories provide them with something even more: a moving, living picture of your company. It is entertaining, dynamic and attention grabbing. Not only that, when your consumers watch a story reel, they are spending more time with your brand than they would if they simply scrolled past your static post. Brands capitalize on this feature to share with their target audience more about their products and services as well as other information related to their industry.
How do I dive in?
There are multitudes of Instagram story tutorials on the web, and most are free. We will let you dive into those on your own, while we take this blog time to focus more on what content to include in order to have a successful story campaign. As with any marketing strategy, knowing your goals and target audience are a solid place to start before heading into the realm of content. Once you have those figured out, next comes the best part: time to get creative.
Answer and ask questions
One fun way to engage your audience on Insta is to answer their questions about your product, ask new questions, or introduce a poll or quiz. This is also a great way for you to get to know your consumers with some well thought-out market research capabilities built right into your social media. Pretty genius right? Consumers these days seek out brands that not only provide a product or service they feel excited about, but also ones that will listen. Take your customer feedback on social media seriously, even if you present it in the form of a fun quiz or poll.
Promote
Whether you are launching a new product or have an upcoming event, you can use Instagram stories to promote interest from your target audience. Talk about your new product, have an unboxing video, include a countdown feature, and give some teasers so users get excited right along with you. This, combined with static posts, is a great way to grow engagement with your company’s new projects.
Takeovers
Have a coworker, influencer, customer, staff member or other account take over your stories for a day. Provide some fun for users and prove that your product is hot while you are at it. By having someone else take over, you will also create new content, kind of like a breath of fresh air for your followers.
Go live!
One fun part of engaging with Instagram stories on your company’s social media page is that you can go live and offer consumers a glimpse into your brand. How to videos, tutorials, etc. can make a big splash in numbers for your follower engagement. Going live is a great way to engage customers immediately and directly in the moment. Users will be able to see your live stream as an Instagram story if they miss the chance IRL.
If you are planning to get these ideas rolling, then make sure to also follow these tips:
- Use hashtags
- Stay authentic to yourself and your brand
- Stay on top of new features as they become available
- Use Insta highlights on your main page to provide more content to customers
Sometimes, it can be difficult to try something new or foreign, but once you get the hang of incorporating Insta Stories into your social media marketing strategy you will be glad you did. They can provide a wealth of opportunities for followers to interact with your brand, stimulating awareness of your business across this thriving social media platform.
