How to Efficiently Use Instagram Story Highlights to Grow your Small Business
Instagram Story Highlight
Instagram is the third most downloaded application in the Apple Store, with 1 billion monthly active users. Like Facebook, companies use Instagram Story Highlight feature as a marketing tool to find new buyers and build a deeper connection with the existing audience.
Unlike Facebook, where companies can view comments, services, and other content, Instagram limits its accounts for commercial purposes. The app allows you to share your contact information on the bio page, but no business details such as reviews or product offers. It is never too late to join Instagram and grow your small business. With the right marketing strategy, the companies can promote their products and services using Instagram features to strengthen brand image and increase sales. This article will explain everything you need to know about the effective use of the Instagram Highlight feature for your small business.
What Is Instagram Highlight?
Your small business may be running on Instagram, but are you getting the most out of the platform? Instagram is an excellent way for small businesses to engage with their customers, drive traffic, and increase brand awareness. Still, most businesses do not take advantage of the Instagram Story Highlights feature.
Story Highlight is an Instagram feature that allows you to organize previously posted stories into an easily accessible collection. Instagram Story Highlights is the section under your bio and right above your posts. It is easy to get started with Story highlights as you can add any story (including disappeared stories) to "Story Highlight".
Why Should Small Businesses Leverage Story Highlights?
Regular Instagram stories will disappear after 24 hours, but when you add them in Instagram Story Highlight section, your content will be permanently displayed on your profile. Instagram Story Highlights allow you to reuse previous content to quickly find the information your customers need and increase traffic. It also bring your brand to life and provide customers with another great way to interact with your businesses.
The best use of Instagram Highlights for your small business
You can include all Instagram Stories in your Instagram Highlight, but that is not very appealing to your followers and will not encourage people to get involved. This feature is helpful if you have multiple highlights that feature the various types of Instagram Stories you create. Here are the best uses of Instagram Stories Highlight to engage customers and followers.
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Showcase Products or Services
Showing the highlights of your product or service is a great opportunity to increase visibility. Review sales reports and use the best-performing products or services in this category. Also, remember that not everyone is familiar with the services you provide. It may be helpful to use this group as an educational platform to showcase the problems solved by the product or service you provide.
Promote events
As you know, social media is an excellent place to promote your campaign and increase your brand awareness because users are looking for information there. Currently, large group meetings are not allowed, and the company may not be able to host live events, but you can use the Story feature to show past events or promote upcoming events. It will allow your followers to understand your company's events better and increase their interest in future events.
If your company is hosting an event, seminar, or training experience (which can also be virtualized), using Instagram Highlight solely for promoting the event will offer you a fun, strategic, and creative way to promote your brand and products.
Testimonials
According to Podium, 93% of customers say online reviews influence their purchasing decisions. Testimonials are one of the most effective marketing tools available, and they are completely cheap to create. Create a set of highlights titles as "Testimonies" or "Reviews." Use Canva to create IG story templates that combine customer photos with customer voice and text. To create this collection, select some of your testimonials from Facebook and Google.
Interact with buyers through interactive polls
By promoting interactive polls on Instagram Stories, you can interact with your customers and collaborate with them. You can better understand your audience and their issues, ask them series of exciting questions, and encourage them to engage with your brand. More importantly, the Instagram poll results will help you reorganize your advertising and marketing campaigns more effectively. Creating a highlight that includes all ad polls you posted in your Instagram Story is a great way to make sure your followers and users are interested in your views and feedback on your products.
You can also use a GIPHY sticker to decorate your stories as well. To learn more about the GIPHY stickers, you can check out this post 18 Best Free Swipe Up Instagram Story Stickers.
Share your brand mission
What is your cause, and why does your brand exist? What is the motivation behind your efforts? Get attention by sharing your goals and the way you achieve them. You could be a single mom who supports her family by being a beautician or a skincare brand that donates to teenagers. Everyone's Story is different and wonderful. Make sure to share yours. Instagram highlights are a great resource to help you share your brand story, attract potential buyers and help in optimizing your profile.
Feature product tutorials
Creating an album of tips and tutorials specific to using your product or service. This will help you build trust for your brand. A part of the album may be shown to the actual clients for a look into your brand. This could be using your service or product to demonstrate the convenience of product use. This Instagram Highlight aims to give a deeper understanding of the capabilities of your products and services. While giving, your customers an inner look and understanding of what to expect when they buy.
Show Expertise in Your Niche
Show your audience that you understand what you are talking about when it comes to your niche. It is vital when selling digital information products (such as e-books), but it is beneficial for all types of small businesses.
For example, if you market crochet toys on Instagram, your audience wants to see that knowledge and enthusiasm shine through. Share stories about crochet patterns and how to come up with the best yarn for specific types of crochet.
How to add Highlights to Instagram?
Now you know the importance and ways to use the Instagram Highlight feature. It is time to understand how to add Instagram Highlights.
To add active Stories to Highlights:
Open the Story section
Tap on the Highlight option at the bottom of the Story.
Select a current Highlight or create a new one.
Instagram Stories remain active on your profile for only 24 hours. While you can store expired content for later use if you use the Archiving feature.
To add Archived Stories to Highlights:
Go to your profile and tap on the three horizontal lines in the top-right corner.
Choose Archive.
Open the Story you intend to add to Highlights.
Tap Highlight.
Choose a current Highlight or create a new one.
Conclusion
The world of social media is constantly changing. Small businesses need to be unique, creative and inspiring with their social media marketing campaigns. Keeping Instagram marketing up to date will bring your business closer to your audience like never before. Instagram Highlight is the newest frontier of brand engagement and creativity. Instagram Story Highlights are a simple, effective, and free way to interact with your followers. With a wide range of highlights, you can adopt various strategies. Such as product reviews, recommendations, testimonials, or featured content that give your followers the most value.