First and foremost, let’s start with a piece of advice: NEVER leave your Instagram Story empty. Did you know that Instagram doesn’t show 100% of content to your audience organically? You’re subtly being impacted by the algorithm – but the good news is that you can kind of work around it, and even profit from Instagram Stories if you learn the right strategies to make that possible.

Given that the feature already has more than 300 million active users since its launch in late 2017 – a number expected to continue growing exponentially – it must be the wish of any business to avail of such popularity and promote brand awareness, regardless of its size.

In this article, learn 6 useful methods you can use to profit from Instagram Stories, or at least get optimistic results among your public.

To read our complete guide on digital marketing, click here.

How to profit from Instagram Stories: 6 essential tips

A direct confrontation to Snapchat, the Stories feature was introduced by Meta (former Facebook) onto their platforms, originally Instagram, to grant their users short posts that last for only 24 hours after going public. By using it correctly, you won’t need much more than that to outpace the competition when it comes to client loyalty.

1 – Invest in employer branding

You’re probably thinking you’ve never heard of this term before. Fortunately, this is just a fancy way to encourage you to post a bit of behind-the-scenes content on your Instagram Story.

Employer branding is a company’s reputation as an employer or workplace. In other words, it’s the expression of a business’s vision, values, and mission in its day-to-day operations.

Okay, maybe you don’t have a company. In this case, it’s about your positioning while running your business – sharing the behind-the-scenes of what you normally show. In a more practical sense, we’re talking about routine posts, more spontaneous ones. Believe it or not, they can completely transform the way the public sees your brand.

2 – Hand control over to the audience

Instagram Stories offer numerous ways to interact with your audience. Of course, we’re talking about features like questions, polls, quizzes, and even gifs (people’s creativity can never cease to amaze us).

So give your users a voice, ask for their opinions, and let them choose what you should talk about or which of your products should go on sale. Find out what they think and always interact!

Empowering your followers, which will certainly help you engage with them, will also help you learn more about your followers, making your content more targeted and expanding your results through social media.

3 – Never forget a CTA (Call-to-Action)

Many people overlook this. They often have the feeling that Instagram Stories are not the place for CTAs – but they’d be mistaken. See, you’re missing out on excellent conversion opportunities.

It doesn’t matter if your account is eligible to include links or not; perhaps you don’t even have anywhere to direct the user. In this case, suggest a visit to a recent post from your feed, for example, but always make a call to action in the end.

The idea is to keep the user engaged with your content and offer value. The more value you give, the more authority you receive.

4 – Use hashtags and geolocations

Unlike feed posts, you can’t add multiple hashtags to a story, though we advise you to include at least two or three. You can use them discreetly so that they don’t detract from the appearance of your post – and the same goes for location pins.

If these features are available, they must serve some purpose, right?

Absolutely! Both hashtags and locations help increase the reach of your story since they will appear to all people who follow or look up a hashtag or users who are near a certain location.

5 – Use the best friends list

Nowadays, some people turn this into a product – particularly influencers who have millions of followers. Yes, you need to pay to be part of the best friends list of some people.

How about selecting a few people to receive exclusive content? You can announce the group as a gift for participants in a live video, for example. Launching challenges is also a good idea. Depending on your type of business, this can generate a series of customer promoters.

Another suggestion would be to create a group of customers more involved with your business and send them special promotions. Who doesn’t like a great deal, right? These people are already more eager to buy, so it could be the incentive they need.

6 – Analyze your results

Did you take note of our tips? Because now it’s time to test each one of them. You need to find out what your audience likes the most, which you can do by analyzing the measured results.

Instagram Stories generates a series of metrics that allow you to study your audience’s behavior in detail, so it’s heaven on earth. Here are some tips on what you’ll want to check:

• Did I have more conversions in image or video posts?
• Which CTAs generated more results?
• Did I have engagement in my polls/questions/quizzes?
• On which days and at what times did I get the best return?
• Which topics generated more interaction?
• Are people skipping my stories without seeing all the content?

At the end of the day, you’ll always find ways to optimize your work, so be creative! If you’re struggling to find your ground, there’s also no shame in hiring professional help. Social media is an integral part of digital marketing, after all, and we are the right team to give you a hand in the journey to success.

Get professional help with marketing strategies for businesses

Apart from getting some profit from Instagram Stories, you’ve barely scratched the landscape of social media – and we can escort you up the road. Go beyond Instagram!

As a digital marketing agency specialized in small and medium businesses, Laços provides the right team for all your needs on this front. In fact, you can schedule a free meeting with us right now – and you’ll leave the reunion with a vast overview of what your company requires, the first steps to creating lucrative strategies, and how to optimize your current online activities.

Speak to our agents today and leave all the hard work to specialists!