Why Instagram Stories Might Be Your Most Powerful (and Ignored) Sales Tool

The Unsung Hero of Your Social Strategy

People often underestimate instagram stories. I’ve had clients begrudgingly ask me “do I really need to bother with those? They only last 24 hours, they don’t do anything and I don’t know what they should be about”.

In today’s social landscape, I get it; there are dozens of platforms to consider, and when it comes to placements *sigh*, even more! But here’s the thing… the story algorithm is completely different to every other algorithm on instagram and 99% of the time your story is only going to be seen by your followers. 

“So what?” you ask. Well, your followers are your biggest fans. They’re bottom-of-funnel gold AND if they’re actively watching your stories, they’re very interested in what you have to say.

Think about it like this… when you send EDMs to your email database, you know there’s a percentage of them that will bin it immediately, a smaller percentage that will open it (then bin it) and an even smaller percentage that will click. That’s the gold right there. And those “clickers” are equivalent to your IG story-viewers: actively engaged potential customers or (even better), repeat customers! They’re basically a self-segmenting audience of your future converters (or potentially crazy stalkers 🤷‍♀️). 

Like everything with social, there’s things that work and things that don’t and (unfortunately) there’s no one size fits all when it comes to getting the content right because each business, account and following is unique BUT there are a few things you should think about before you go gung-ho posting stories like a mad woman:

• Don’t sell ALL the time - sure, you want to convert your warm leads, but you don’t want to bombard them with sales messaging. They’ll stop watching. They’re watching your stories because they can relate to you or your business. They might be learning from you, admire you, or maybe they’re just wanting to watch your business or brand journey unfold. The worst thing you can do is try and sell at them every time they engage. 
• Create stories that give the viewer something: be humorous, educate, share tips and tricks, share achievements and hurdles you’ve overcome. By giving them value you’ll also earn the right to sell to them every once in a while. If you’re posting 3-5 stories a day, 5 x days a week, add sales-based content every 10 days (or so).   

• Quality over quantity - have you ever tapped to view someone’s insta story and immediately thought “not today sister” when you realised there were about 200 pieces of content to get through? Yeah… don’t do that! Never post for the sake of posting. Find out what ‘the right amount is for you’. It’s better to have a day where you post nothing at all rather than sharing your breakfast, lunch, dinner and bowel movements. I also recommend being careful with ‘a day in the life’ type posts. As the main character in our own lives, we all tend to feel we’re rather interesting, but the majority of us aren’t celebrities, so detailing your entire day to your followers probably isn’t the best use of your (or their) time.  

• Engagement is KING - we all know this. But did you know that your story will be prioritised to more of your followers based upon the actions people have taken on your previous stories? 
• Asking people to DM their opinions ✅
• Creating polls and asking for votes ✅
• ‘Ask me anything stickers” ✅
• External links ❌ Back in the day external links in stories were only available to people with over 10k followers (yass micro-influencing queen 👸🏽), but then instagram made this feature available to the masses and they became far less cool. But here’s the thing not many people know - overuse of external links in IG stories will affect your performance. WHY? Because Uncle Zuck likes to keep everyone on his platform as long as possible and with attention already a scarcity these days, he doesn’t want you sending his minions to your flashy new website. So, I recommend using links in stories sparingly and saving yourself from the wrath of Uncle Z.

Whatever your marketing mix looks like right now, I encourage you not to overlook the humble story placement. Data suggests that over 50% of IG users have visited a website to make a purchase after seeing a product or service on Stories. 

Like everything with social, it’s about getting the balance right: sell, but don’t sell too hard. Share frequently, but don’t piss people off (nothing worse for the ego than an unfollow).

And hey, if all else fails, just remember: Instagram Stories are like that slightly unhinged friend who’s only around for 24 hours, but somehow manages to spill the best tea, make you laugh, and convince you to buy a $47 face roller at 11pm. They might not stick around long, but damn if they don’t leave an impression. So give them some love, throw in a poll, show your face, and maybe, just maybe… resist the urge to film your green juice. (We get it, you're healthy 🥱).

If you’d like to talk about an IG story strategy with our team, shoot us an enquiry here.