Did you know that Instagram Stories is a feature on the platform that is a marketer’s dream? If you are not using this feature, you are surely missing out on a huge marketing opportunity.

Instagram Stories are creative and fun while also generating brand awareness, growing engagement, and driving sales. The following strategies will help you with what to share using IG Stories to boost your presence and revenue.

1) Using Instagram Story Stickers
Instagram Stories have optional stickers that are fun and that can encourage engagement with your content. Types of stickers include:

• Location
• Hashtag
• Poll
• Countdown
• Emoji Slider
• Questions
• Quiz
• Music
• Chat
• @Mention
• GIF
• Time
• Temperature

Grant it, not all of these are going to encourage interactions, but some of them certainly will. Which Instagram Story stickers work best for engagement and how?

• Poll stickers seem to be the easiest and fastest stickers to get your audience to engage with your content. These stickers are virtually an instant engagement booster.

• Emoji slider stickers are fun and versatile for getting people personally involved with your posts.

• Questions stickers are exceedingly popular and trendy since this is one of the newest stickers’ category. Questions encourage responses which equals engagement.

• Quiz stickers are fun and create an easy and fast way to engage with you. People do like to take little quizzes.

• Hashtag stickers help you find a relevant target audience to engage with your posts.

• Location stickers allow you to reach out to specific locations and are great for getting local engagement.

• Chat stickers are another new introduction into the stickers family and is a fantastic resource for creating an instant chat session where up to 32 people can participate.

2) Go Live – Streaming Content
If you want instant gratification for engagement, Instagram Stories Go “Live” is your go-to strategy. You can use this feature for Q&A sessions, information, promoting something new, teaser products, and generally for capturing the attention of your audience.

One of the aspects of going live is that it triggers notifications to your followers so when they are on the app, they will know you are live streaming something. It is well worth using the Go Live feature for Instagram Stories when most of your target audience is online.

3) Get Your IG Story on Explore
Instagram Explore is where people share their IG Stories in a never-ending deluge of posts and Stories that have been chosen by Instagram’s algorithm. All you have to do is click on the magnifying glass icon to look explore this content.

Brand names use this page to get a huge boost in audience reach and engagement since this element of the algorithm is generating content to interested and fresh eyes.
How do you get on the Explore page? Since this is algorithm driven, you need to use the following strategies.

• Post videos which get more attention and use the auto-play feature. However, a great image does better than a mediocre video.

• Post IG Stories that are relevant and that represent your brand identity using visual elements.

• Post eminently visual IG Stories with limited text.

4) Create Value in Your IG Stories
Use Instagram’s main purpose to your advantage. You cannot just market and promote your product or service without considering how people use Instagram. It is a social media network where people build connections. Here are some strategies for IG Stories.

Storytelling: Tell your story to create empathy, excitement, curiosity, or whatever emotion you want to convey. Storytelling is how you get and keep your audience’s attention. Tell them how you got where you are or how you started your company.

Call to Action (CTA): Remember to monetize your IG Stories with a call to action. Use terms like “shop now”, “learn more”, or “Swipe up” to encourage your audience to engage and buy from you.

Value is created by giving your audience something they did not know they needed. Stories of value earn more meaningful swipe ups (clicks) when you consider your audience personas.

Final Thoughts
These strategies will help you build a credible Instagram presence, get more Instagram followers, and find more loyal customers.

Remember to check your IG analytics regularly to learn what you need to change and what you need to keep doing. It is all about what works and what does not for your audience. Cater to them, provide good customer service, respond to communications, and build relationships using solid Instagram Stories strategies.