Fact: 500 million active users are posting Instagram stories every. single. day.
It’s a bandwagon worth climbing on!
Instagram stories are one of the best ways to reach a wide audience with captivating and timely content. But with all those stories, it can be hard to stand out.
If you’re new to the Instagram story game or if you’re looking to up your game, here are some tips for creating more engaging stories that will build your brand value in no time.
1. It’s All About Consistency
The secret to consistency? A go-to stories template for your content. Remember that when you’re crafting stories for your brand, it’s not the same audience as your personal Instagram stories. As a brand, it’s important to keep a consistent presentation format because this is key to establishing and maintaining a connection with your followers. A go-to stories template will really help you keep that consistency without all the extra work.
However, one template is too repetitive; that’s why we recommend that brands have between four and five story templates at the ready. Then you just need to drop in new images, update the text, and post it.
2. Always Be on Brand
Your Instagram stories are a way of building your brand and gaining exposure. That’s why it’s important to make sure the templates you’ve created always use your brand colours, fonts, and style across all your designs.
Keep in mind that Instagram stories are meant to be authentic, so if you think your brand’s font is a little too polished, you can always opt for a secondary font that’s used just for your stories.
Here are some great combinations to try:
- Use handwritten fonts with bold angular fonts
- San-serif fonts go well with serif fonts
- Use chunky sans-serif fonts with light serif fonts
3. Select The Best Images and Elements
Most of your stories should use your own branded content except for a few “inspo” stories that draw on curated content. But don’t just stop there. Add moving elements and fun stickers or polls and questions. These are a great way to generate engagement from your audience, and add another element to the content you’re posting.
It’s also a good idea to add location and hashtag stickers because this can help expand your stories’ reach, and get your message across to a larger audience. When you add these elements, your story will be eligible to appear in the ‘Explore’ tab.
You don’t have to add every extra element every time but add at least one or two to each story.
Lastly, if you post time-sensitive information, such as sales, limited edition products, or story-only offers, add a ‘swipe up’ link (for eligible accounts).
4. Don’t Forget Story Highlights
Instagram Stories Highlights are a fantastic method of promoting your brand. Your highlights are front-and-center on your Instagram profile, making it a perfect way for new visitors to discover what your business is all about.
Regular Instagram Stories disappear after 24 hours, but Instagram Story Highlights can stay on your profile forever. Since they don’t disappear and they sit directly under your bio, it’s the perfect way for followers to see your most valuable and creative content.
Don’t forget to customize your highlight cover images to make sure your Instagram feed stays on brand and is visually enticing.
5. Instagram Story Frequency
It’s never a bad idea to post more than one story a day. We usually recommend posting up to six stories per day. However, it’s important to take the time to plan and design each story to keep people interested.
Of course, every audience is different, so test and measure where your audience drops off as your stories go on. You can see where viewers dropped off by looking at the story viewers on each frame.
Instagram Stories Tools to Help
Now that you’re ready to create an engaging, on-brand Instagram story here are some tools to help:
Branded Templates
Over – This FREE app allows you to create templates easily, upload your own fonts, and build a beautiful branded colour palette.
Easil – This tool is a browser-based design platform that provides a variety of templates and tools to help you create high-quality stories. You’ll find a suitable image template that you can easily edit and personalize.
Editing Stories
Unfold – With unfold, you can simply drop in images and post! This app is extremely customizable and allows you to add the perfect elements.
StoryArt – Do you want to upload a video that’s more than 15 seconds long? The StoryArt app will let you trim your videos down so that you can fit them all into one single story.
Do you use Instagram stories for your business? If so, do you have any favourite tips or tools we didn’t mention here? Let us know in the comments!
