Type of post: Guest Post (Guest blogging/ Posting is the act of contributing a post to another blogger’s website)

Title : How Instagram Stories Can Help You Promote Your Brand

Word count : 900-1000

Author Name : Shane Barker

Target site : https://60secondmarketer.com/

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Content audience : Brand, Marketers

Reference post links on target site to have an idea of writing style they accept:

1. https://60secondmarketer.com/blog/2019/12/31/how-to-get-started-with-b2b-marketing/
2. https://60secondmarketer.com/blog/2019/12/23/how-to-improve-your-team-productivity-in-your-business/

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1.Cortex(http://meetcortex.com)(Please add this blog post (https://www.meetcortex.com/blog/how-to-improve-customer-experience-7-things-you-need-to-know) on relevant anchor text and follow the guidelines ⇒ GO HERE ).

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How Instagram Stories Can Help You Promote Your Brand

Instagram Stories is more than a place to share your images and videos. The following are ways you can use it to promote your brand to the right audience.

Did you know that over500 million people use Instagram Stories daily?

Well, they do. And of the more than 1 billion monthly active Instagram accounts,90% follow a business on the platform.

If your brand is yet to start using Instagram Stories, now is the time.

But Instagram Stories only allows your content to be visible to your audience for 24 hours.

Why should you bother if the content won’t last long?

Because they help you consistently communicate with your audience. With Instagram Stories, you can increase engagement with followers. You can also create inspiring and creative content that keeps your audience craving for more.

So, how does this help you promote your business?

This post looks at exactly. Get a comprehensive look at ways you can promote your brand to your target audience using Instagram Stories.

Interesting Ways You Can Use Instagram Stories to Promote Your Brand

Just like every other digital marketing plan, you need a strategy for your Instagram Stories. This way, you can easily account for what works and optimize.

The following are various tactics you can apply to Instagram Stories when promoting your brand or business. Make sure that with every tactic used, you measure results and see how well they help your brand promote products or services.

These tactics include:

1. Using Instagram Stories Features to Increase Engagement

These features allow you to add context to your content on Instagram Stories. They include Face filters, colored backgrounds, add text, location stickers, hashtag stickers, GIFs, polls, and others.

So how does the engagement help you promote your brand?

Let’s take an example of the question sticker:

With it, you can answer questions from your target audience and inform them more about your brand and the products you offer. They are also great when you want to share tips and advice on product use.

Another way would be by using Instagram Story polls. They can help you find out what product your audience likes most and what improvements they would like to see. Additionally, the polls can allow you to hear directly from your audience. You get useful data from the conversations while your audience feels more connected to the brand.

@mgemi does Instagram Story polls where they survey their audience’s opinion on products they sell. Doing this helps themdeliver solid customer experiences.

How is this?

They get to know what their audience prefers and can tailor their shoes to meet the customer’s needs. They satisfy the customer while at the same time contribute to the success of their business.

Image viaInstagram

You can also use these features to drive audiences to your site.

For example, let’s say you have long-form content on your blog. You can use Instagram Stories to direct traffic to your site to read the content.

A brand that does this exceptionally well is the MIT Technology Review. They create short bite-sized content that their audience can understand on Stories. The audience can then ‘Swipe up’ or ‘Read more’ to read the comprehensive articles on the website.

Image viaInstagram

2. Instagram Stories Help You Share Your Brand Story

Is your company launching a new product? Story it!

Are you hosting an office event? Upload videos of it on Stories.

Stories allow you to show your company in action and activities that go on behind the scenes.

How do you make the products they love? How do employees interact at work?

You can also use them to showcase a CSR event your employees took part in or an event they attended.

America’s Test Kitchen is one of the brands that shows behind the scenes footage of their employees at work. They also show ingredients and keep audiences engaged by asking them to stay tuned for upcoming content.

Image viaInstagram

Instagram Stories can also help you showcase your business through posting demos. This is an interesting way to show your audience how to use your products.

Another way to do this is through live videos on Instagram Stories or images as a customer uses the product.

Leveraging Instagram Stories in these formats can help you promote your brand. You showcase the human side of the company, which can lead to more trust from consumers and more sales.

3. Instagram Story Ads Help Promote Your Brand

You can also place your ads on Instagram Stories with specific objectives. These include Video Views, Reach, Traffic, Lead Generation, Conversions, Brand Awareness, and App Installs.

They also offer different calls-to-action to drive your audience to act. You can use Buy Tickets, Book Now, Apply Now, Shop Now, Learn More, and others.

Your Story Ad objective will depend on what kind of action you want to drive from your audience. Doing this allows Instagram to show your ads to consumers within your selected target audience likely to convert.

Choosing the right objective for your Instagram Story ads can, therefore, make a huge difference. The 15-second video, static image, or slide ads, shown in-between Stories, make it easy for the audience to watch without skipping.

Yoga International is one of the brands that have used Instagram Story ads to promote their business. They used Instagram Story poll ads and, in the process, registered 3,510 potential members for free trial memberships.

Image viaInstagram

4. Instagram Stories Make Your Brand Discoverable

Leveraging hashtags and location tags on Instagram Stories can help you increase your visibility.

You can use hashtags that define your brand or generate hashtags that would showcase what your product does. Using location tags also gets the attention of audiences close to your brand.

Take for example if a consumer searches for content either with a location tag or hashtag. Instagram Stories with these tags appear at the top left corner of the search results.

Image viaInstagram

Hashtags and location tags increase your reach and make your content accessible even to people not following your brand.

5. Instagram Stories Increase Your Brand Visibility

Hashtags and location tags can also help you increase visibility. But there are other ways to promote your brand via increased visibility.

For example:

By letting your audience tell compelling Stories. To participate, encourage them to share their content using a particular branded hashtag.

Samsung is one of the companies leveraging customer content on their Instagram Stories to increase visibility and promote their brand. They encourage audiences to use the #withGalaxy hashtag to share their creations. They then feature these images in their Story feeds.

Image viaInstagram

You can also use Highlights to save your essential Stories and hang on to them for more than 24 hours. The story highlights are a perfect way to promote your brand since they can help new customers get information.

Visitors to your account can find highlights directly under the bio. Use them to direct your audience to the most interesting or successful content. They are also great for showcasing your products, marketing your business, and driving traffic to your business.

Image viaInstagram

Instagram Story takeovers can also help you promote your brand. By collaborating with an influencer or employee, you expose your products to new audiences.

A good example is Fenty Beauty, with their Fenty Family Takeovers on Instagram Stories. The takeovers feature makeup artists and beauty influencers using Fenty products. Fenty Beauty features influencers who align with their brand and who are knowledgeable about beauty products.

The brand then shares tips and suggestions shared on these Instagram Stories on their YouTube channel.

Image viaYouTube

Are You Ready to Promote Your Brand with Instagram Stories?

Instagram Stories can help your brand tell its story. You can use it to increase visibility, get your products in front of the right audience, and increase traffic to your site.

Are you convinced yet?

Great!

Get out there and share incredible photos and videos of your company. Use Instagram Stories to share product photos and answer audience questions.

Engage your audience and ensure that you provide value so that they keep coming back for more. Make sure you make your Stories fun so that your audience can enjoy checking them out.

Go ahead, try it out and share with us the results.

How do you use Instagram Stories to promote your brand? Please share it with us in the comment section below.