How to leverage your business using Instagram Stories - guest post from Jimmy Rodela

With over 200 million users daily, it's no question that Instagram stories have become a vital marketing tool for modern businesses nowadays. If done right, Instagram stories could significantly increase reach by leaps and bounds at little to no cost at all. Jimmy Rodela, Digital Marketing Manager of EBCallCenter.com, gives us his tips.

Many businesses have now taken advantage of the platform, and it is best if your company could ride the hype as well. But it is crucial to execute Instagram marketing correctly. So before jumping in, here are a few things to help you boost your business through Instagram stories.

Keep your messages short but extremely sweet

Make sure you have the right script that will capture your audience's attention in an instant. Give followers just enough information to keep them interested but wanting more.

Your visuals and label have to entice the user the moment he clicks on your link. If it doesn’t work the first time, try again with another story style till you get the right formula.

Let the tags help bring you the right target audience.

Recently Instagram has added a feature wherein stories appear in the search results of a hashtag.

People searching hashtags will more often than not click on your stories as they are already showing interest in the subject matter at hand. Stories will appear to users even if they are not following your account.

Get your swipe up option ready

Remember, you can’t fit all the necessary information in an Instagram story. The only facts you need to share are the juicy ones. The audience that expresses an interest will want more.

Have your clickable links ready in your swipe up option to avoid losing your audience with short attention span. Don’t waste the engagement by not being able to give them all the information that they want.

Tag influencers

Depending on your industry, and if you have been in it for a while, you can already identify who your influencers are. They are the people who are capable of increasing your sales of the once they give their endorsement of it.
 
They are the first group you should tag for them to look into your stories and have them share with their many followers.

Reward engagement

Divulge juicy and entertaining facts at the end of every Instagram story. It will give your followers satisfaction for staying until the end of the story which would make the keep coming back for more.
 
You can unveil teasers or promo codes and prizes that will reward those who took the chance to click on your stories.

Sneak around competitors

Your competitors will be following you to check up on what you are working on. Using Instagram stories will give you the option to exclude them from seeing the stories.
 
This way you can market and share all you want without the fear of your competitors copying your ideas.
 
Do you enjoy Instagram stories? Has it helped you in any way to further your business? Share some of your stories with us.
 
Jimmy is a freelance writer and the Digital Marketing Manager of EBCallCenter.com. He owns GuildofBloggers.com. He has contributed to Yahoo, SearchEnginePeople, SEMRush, and Business.com.