Are you using Instagram stories to attract and nurture clients? Whether you love or hate Instagram, it’s a social tool that you can make work for you! For me, Instagram stories is where I engage with my audience, but also see the most conversions as well! In today’s episode, I’m sharing 10 tips on how to use Instagram stories for your small business, to attract clients and grow!
Called to Both is brought to you by Joy Michelle, mom of two and multi-passionate entrepreneur who’s on a mission to help others find balance between the worlds of motherhood and business. Called to Both is the podcast for women who have big business ambitions and also want to be intentional and present moms. At Called to Both, we truly don’t believe you have to choose between these two worlds tugging at your heart You can be Called to Both.
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10 Tips on How to Use Instagram Stories to Attract Clients and Grow Your Small Business
1. Think of your story as a story.
When you’re adding to your Instagram story, think of it as a story with a beginning, middle, and end. To do this, create open loops that will keep people interested and engaged—so they’ll want to see what happens next.
How do you open a loop in their mind to get them engaged? You can start with a question or problem—don’t feel the need to close it immediately—then come back and resolve that by showing them what you’re doing or how you’ve resolved the problem. This opens and closes loops to keep them engaged.
By thinking of your stories as a story, it will help you craft a narrative with your audience.
2. Let your stories expire.
You don’t always want to have an active story on Instagram, because rather than starting at the beginning, they’re likely not engaging with the full story. I love to let my stories expire on Sunday so that on Monday I can come in and promote the podcast so that it’s a fresh story. When your reach dips, try letting them expire!
3. Be intentional about the 1st story you post.
Once you’ve let your stories expire, be intentional about the first story you post. Your first story holds a lot of weight, as it sets the expectation for what they’ll see in the next few stories. I’ve personally noticed that if I share my face first, it’s ramps up the engagement. Plus, as you’ll see in the next step, use an engagement sticker in that first story to make it extra juicy!
4. Use engagement stickers as much as possible
The more engagement stickers you use, the more people will use them, then the more Instagram will show your stories to your followers.
5. Don’t only post about your business.
Personal content is so much more interesting to people, as it gives connection points to our audience. While obviously you want to share about your business, you also want to make sure you’re weaving in your personal life as well.
6. Share your feed content to your stories, but not right away.
To add even more content to your stories, you can share your feed content to your stories. The trick is to not do it right away. If you post it at noon, give people enough opportunity to see it organically in the feed, before enriching the content by adding more value in. your stories when you share it later.
Bonus: You can even pull old feed content that did really well and share it to your stories when you don’t feel like going face to camera.
7. Use your Instagram message flags to mark leads or people to follow up with.
Inside of your Instagram messages, you can utilize the flags to mark people based on your own needs, whether that me to follow up with or highlight. Based on the Instagram account you have, you can even mark customers as paid; I like to mark anyone I’ve worked with as this so I know our relationship right away! This allows me to remember when someone has bought from me down the road.
8. Use Instagram story captions!
While it does take a little longer to post your stories, these are so important. Most people aren’t watching stories with the sound on, plus it offers accessibility. I personally use the built in instagram captions, but you can also use the captions app from the app store.
9. Save your best stories to highlights so they live beyond 24 hours
I love that Instagram stories feel low-commitment and only last a specific amount of time, but when they’re really juicy, sometimes you want to highlight those on your feed in the highlight bubbles. Make sure you’re auditing these too.
10. Use your account analytics to see what your audience likes
Instagram will tell you what people care about. To find this, go into your professional dashboard and go to insights, then go to stories. I like to look at the past 30 days and look first at reach numbers, then profile visits and link clicks. You can also look at what stories caused people to exit, which helps you to know where you’re losing people.
The cool thing about these story hacks is you can try them all or just one or two. Try these tips out as you make Instagram stories and let me know what you think! Feel free to shoot me a message!
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