Instagram launched Stories in 2016 in response to the growing demand for ephemeral content, which was popularized by Snapchat.

That was a smart move. Today, 900+ million people use Instagram Stories every day. For context, if Instagram Stories were its own platform, it’d be the world’s eighth-largest social network.

Given its popularity, it’s no surprise that many businesses are marketing using Instagram Stories. On average, brands on Instagram publish 13 Stories per month, while the top 25% post almost 20 a month.

Source: Rival IQ

What are the benefits of using Instagram Stories for marketing? How do you post stories? And how can you leverage them in your campaigns?

Read on to answer all those questions (and more).

5 Benefits of Instagram Stories for Marketing

For those unconvinced of the power of Instagram Stories, here are five reasons why you should consider it as part of your social media marketing strategy:

• Take advantage of prime social real estate. Instagram Stories live in a prime location within the Instagram app, right at the top of the feed. When users open the app, it’s often the first thing they see, making it an easy way to increase reach and get attention over traditional profile posts, which can get lost in the feed.
• Drive audience engagement. The interactive nature of Instagram Stories makes it highly engaging for audiences, reflected by the high completion rate of stories, which currently stands at around 85%.

Source: Flick

• Steer users toward your website. Profiles with a follower count of 10,000+ can add the “swipe-up” function to Instagram Stories to take audiences directly to a web link.
• Reach more Instagram users. Simply put, Instagram Stories is another way to get your content in front of more people. The average Story reach rate ranges from 1.2% – 6.5%, with smaller accounts seeing higher reach.
• Strengthen audience relationships. Because stories are highly visible and quick to consume, they’re a fantastic way to build a connection with your followers. And the more regularly you post, the more people anticipate your content.

That’s not to say Instagram Stories are for everyone.

Instagram’s audience skews younger, with three-fifths of users aged 18 – 34. It’s also a far better fit for B2C brands than B2B.

Source: Statista

If that doesn’t align with your audience or targeting strategy, Instagram Stories may not be for you. But if Instagram already plays a key role in your marketing, there’s no reason not to use stories.

How To Create Instagram Stories

Before we get into the finer points of using Instagram Stories in your marketing strategy, we need to discuss how to actually create and post stories.

Thankfully, it’s a pretty simple process:

• Open the Instagram app and swipe left to open the camera screen. Alternatively, click the “+” button at the bottom of the screen and tap Story.
• From the camera screen, tap the white circle to take a photo or press and hold to capture a video. Alternatively, choose an image or video from your library by clicking the album icon. (Bear in mind if you’re uploading existing content, Instagram Stories uses dimensions of 1080px by 1920px.)

Source: Instagram

• Using the options at the top of the screen, you can make your story more engaging by adding text, stickers, emojis, filters, custom illustrations, and more.

Source: Instagram

• Finally, choose whether to share your story with your close friends or add it to your stories for everyone to view.

8 Steps To Using Instagram Stories in Marketing

Ready to raise your brand’s profile by adding stories to your marketing mix? Follow these eight steps and strategies to maximize your results.

1. Define Your Audience and Goals

Any smart marketing strategy starts with clearly understanding what you want to accomplish.

When establishing goals, consider what you are trying to get your audience to do. Do you want to raise awareness for your brand or your profile content? Or are you trying to drive a specific action — like increasing traffic to your website?

Your goals will influence the type of content you create. For example, if your primary objective is to drive footfall to physical retail locations, you could add links to individual stores to your Instagram Stories. Just like fashion brand Buck Mason does here:

Source: Buck Mason

Understanding your audience is another key component of your strategy. After all, they’re the people who will ultimately determine whether you achieve your marketing goals.

If you aren’t already in the habit of it, start checking your audience insights to see what you can learn about the people already following you.

How To View Audience Insights on Instagram

Provided you’ve got a business or creator account, it’s easy to find information about your audience:

• Log in to your profile via the Instagram app.
• Tap Professional dashboard.

Source: Instagram

• In the Insights section, tap Total followers to see your audience’s top locations, age range, and gender split.

Source: Instagram

(You can also find the hours/days when your followers are most active, which can help you optimize your posting times for maximum engagement.)

Take these insights and craft an audience persona. Then, build your content plan to share stories this persona wants to watch.

2. Experiment With Content Types

If you’re just starting out with stories, you may want to experiment with different types of content to see what your audience responds to the most.

This is easier to accomplish via Instagram Stories than other types of content because stories disappear after 24 hours. So it doesn’t matter if a post crashes and burns — it will vanish anyway.

By nature, the creative within Stories doesn’t have to look as “professional” as regular Instagram posts and Reels. In fact, less polished stories often look more authentic, which makes them feel more trustworthy and engaging.

Some Instagram Stories content types to try include:

• Q&A polls
• Quizzes
• Contests
• Live video
• Behind-the-scenes videos
• Day-in-the-life content

Instagram is constantly releasing new “stickers” and video options. Not all will be a natural fit for your brand or audience, but it’s well worth testing these features as they get released to see what works.

3. Measure Your Results

Once you have some Instagram Stories in your archive, you can use Instagram Insights to measure the effectiveness of your content. Follow these steps to access your account insights:

• Tap on your profile in the Instagram app.
• Tap the hamburger menu (three horizontal lines) in the top-right corner.

Source: Instagram

• Scroll down to the For professionals section and tap Insights.
• Scroll down to Content You Shared and tap Stories.

From this screen, you can access a treasure trove of data to help you understand how well your content is performing. Here’s a full breakdown of Instagram Stories metrics and what they tell you:

Get into the habit of regularly reviewing these metrics to identify your best-performing content and build those features into your editorial plan.

👉 Learn more: Top 10 Instagram Metrics You Should Be Tracking

4. Create an Editorial Calendar

An editorial calendar is critical for Instagram Stories marketing.

Because the content disappears after 24 hours, it can quickly feel overwhelming to constantly create new content if you don’t have a solid plan in place. And remember, most brands share stories at least every other day.

The easiest way to manage Instagram Stories content for marketing is to create a calendar that follows consistent themes for each day of the week.

A calendar simplifies planning and creating content, and consistency is crucial to building an audience that follows your brand for a specific reason.

👉 Learn more: 29 of the Best Free Content Calendar Templates

5. Develop a Consistent Style and Tone of Voice

Since Stories are ephemeral, brands don’t need to create highly branded creative. It’s more important to embrace the platform’s spontaneity and authenticity.

However, consistent and repeated visual and voice cues will reinforce the brand. Like the consistency of themes, audiences respond positively when they see visuals they recognize.

For example, Nike used Instagram Stories to promote its Truth or Air content series, which shares little-known facts and exposes common myths about its iconic Air Max sneakers.

Nike posted these videos at regular intervals over two weeks. And the consistency didn’t stop there. Notice how each story shares the same instantly identifiable branding, from the retro video style to the font type and color:

Source: Nike

Of course, delivering this level of consistency and content quality would be nearly impossible without a well-planned content calendar.

6. Boost Engagement With Interactive Features

One of our favorite things about Instagram Stories is their interactivity. Stories offer a wealth of interactive functionality, including:

• Instagram Live: These live video streams are perfect for encouraging viewers to take action, making them a natural fit for product launches and promotion announcements.
• Questions: Create a story highlight based on FAQs or testimonials you receive from followers.
• Polls: Find out what your followers think about a trending topic or get their feedback on your latest product.
• Quizzes: Everyone loves a quiz! Write a question and add up to four multiple-choice answers.
• Countdowns: A countdown timer added to a product launch announcement or promotion creates feelings of scarcity and urgency.

Why do we love interactive content so much? It’s a cheat code for driving likes, comments, clicks, and shares. According to one study, interactive content generates 52.6% more engagement than static content.

Chubbies is one brand that takes full advantage of the interactive features within Instagram Stories.

They regularly share polls to find out what their followers think about the most pressing issues of the day, like whether you should wear underwear with swim shorts:

Source: Chubbies

This tactic may not lead to many immediate sales.

But when people interact with your content, they’re more likely to remember you when they’re ready to buy.

7. Highlight Your Best Stories

Remember when we said Instagram Stories disappear into the ether after 24 hours?

That’s not entirely true. If you add a story to your highlights, it will remain on your profile permanently (unless you delete it later).

Instagram Stories Highlights are an incredible tool for businesses to showcase their best brand features and products. Since highlights live front and center on your Instagram profile, they’re the perfect way to communicate your value proposition to your audience.

Given the high visibility of these highlights, it’s important to think strategically about what content you want to feature within them.

Depending on your business, you may want to feature things like:

• Product collections or themes
• Special promotions
• Seasonal events
• Influencer collaborations
• Specific topics that you know your audience is interested in

Whatever you decide to use your highlights for, make them visually appealing with custom highlight cover graphics, just like the action camera brand GoPro has done on its profile page:

Source: GoPro

How To Edit Instagram Stories Highlight Cover Images

Follow these steps to edit the cover images for your highlights:

• Load up the Instagram app and click on your profile.
• Open the highlight you want to edit.
• In the lower-right corner, tap the More button.
• Tap Edit highlights and choose Edit cover.
• Tap an image from your camera roll to set it as your new cover image.

Easy, huh?

8. Launch Instagram Stories-Specific Marketing Campaigns

Once you’ve mastered posting to Instagram Stories, it can also be an excellent platform for targeted marketing campaigns. The platform makes it easy to launch and build a campaign that capitalizes on the interactivity and engagement native to Instagram Stories. Here are a few ideas:

• Host a giveaway that encourages user-generated content. Ask followers to post a picture relevant to your brand along with a contest-specific hashtag.
• Launch a new product or collection with behind-the-scenes videos featuring a countdown sticker.
• Go “live” to engage in a real-time Q&A with your followers. Not sure where to start? Check out our guide: 23 Tips That Will Help You Master Instagram Live.
• Use your close friends list to share an exclusive coupon code to kick off a promotion.

In an ideal world, you’d already be generating a whole heap of engagement, website traffic, and sales from Instagram Stories. But if you haven’t started using stories for marketing yet, there’s no better time to start than right now.

For those using Instagram Stories for marketing already, what tactics have you found effective? Do you have anything to add to this list?

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Other content resources you might find helpful:

• Top 32 Brands Killing It on Instagram
• 24 Instagram Hacks and When to Use Them
• Instagram Reels 101: Everything Your Brand Needs to Know to Get Started

Looking for more? Check out all of our insights into the latest Instagram marketing strategies, and be sure to register soon for one of our upcoming in-person or virtual social media marketing conferences!