Instagram stories has literally changed the way people consume content on Instagram. More and more users would rather look at stories to know what people they follow are doing during their day than scroll through their feed.

Why?

Because as a business, posting nice edited photos is not enough nowadays.

I talked about it more in depth in this article Instagram Stories VS Posts, What Should You Focus On As A Brand if you’d like to learn more.

What you need is build rapport with your audience.

Show them behind the scenes, show them new products in the pipeline ready to be released, offer them discount for being loyal and registering on the early bird list, you get the point.

You need to provide value and build a trusted relationship with your audience.

Once you have built this rapport with your audience, then Instagram becomes the easiest way to generate leads for your business.

However you need to really be focused on the way you communicate your message to your audience and use a few story telling tips to captivate your audience attention.

I shared many examples of How To Use Instagram Stories To Engage With Your Audience in a past blog post, but I am going to highlight the main points in this article.

Start with the end in mind

What is the core message you want to provide to your audience. If you are using video as a format, make sure to work on your body language and use good emotions to get your message through. 

Don’t forget that with Instagram Stories, you are trying to convert people and encourage them to take an action.

It is very hard nowadays to get people to your site via the link in your bio, you will have more chances to redirect them to the landing page of your choice using Instagram stories.

Here are a few tips to convert people with Instagram stories.

Think about what you are trying to pitch.

If you are a photographer for instance, create a story where you will share with your followers tips on how to take better photos.

Provide as much value as possible and actually teach them techniques you actually use as a photographer.

Then, after sharing your tips, you can do a call to action where you ask the follower to visit your blog or website if they would like  to learn more tips to take better photos or even book a photography workshop you have scheduled.

In order to ask your followers to take an action you can either use the swipe up feature if your account has more than 10,000 followers or redirect people to your link in bio where you would put the link to your landing page.

Now as a business owner, what you want to measure is how effective this Instagram story is by tracking its performance.

How To Track Your Instagram Story Performance

To do so, you can create a unique url where you will be able to track the number of visits for that specific story or use a url shortener website like bit.ly to track how many people visited your website, where are they from and more.

If you need some inspiration, check out the top 5 influencers or businesses in your niche that use Instagram stories for their business and pick some ideas to make it your own. But remember to remain authentic and bring value. 

The purpose is to bring your follower to your world, build trust by providing as much useful content they can leverage and then encourage them to take an action. 

If you are a more advanced marketer, you can start using Instagram ads to retarget your website visitors with an offer.

How To Use Instagram Ads For Remarketing purposes

When it comes to selling a product or service, there is nothing better than using Ads to get quicker results.

The purpose of remarketing is to show an offer to the audience who already visited your website and already know who you are.

If we keep the photographer example, let’s say that the ultimate goal is to encourage people to book a photography workshop with you. With your Instagram stories you would attract the people interested in learning more photography tips to read a blog post where you would share your best photography tips.

Now with ads, you can actually retarget those users who read your blog article with an offer to book a photography workshop session with you. Those interested in stepping up their photography skills will do it and you just generated a lead that turned into a sale for your business.

This is as simple as this! That is the reason why it is so important to post your content with purpose when using social media. And as a business owner you need to understand the complete customer journey you want to bring your audience into.

I wrote a complete article on how to use Facebook Ads for your business and what you should be focusing on to get the best results.

If you would like to learn more tips to grow your Instagram account, you can download your FREE copy of my ebook 16 Ways To Grow Your Instagram Account by clicking on the button below where I share with you more actionable tips.

I hope you found this article helpful and that you now have a better idea of how to use instagram stories to generate leads for your business.

As always, if you enjoyed reading this post, make sure to like it, it actually makes a difference. And if you know anyone that would be interested in learning how to better use Instagram stories for their business, feel free to share this blog post with them.

PIN ME