Instagram is the most common social network for advertising. We see a large number of paid publications scrolling through the feeds and stories every day, sometimes without even noticing it. After all, advertising can be direct or native, as if the influencer really often uses a certain product or service and just advises it to the audience.
Instagram stories have a better reach
Related post:how to sell on Instagram
In the beginning, it is worth figuring out exactly where advertising "hits" the best. According to statistics, 75% of people, most often only check the influencer's stories, and they rarely read the posts. This means that stories have better advertising reach. Let's see why.
- Regular posting. Imagine checking a influencer's page and seeing several, almost identical, promotional posts - it will confuse you. You will want something new. After all, the influencer already made a post concerning this topic just a week ago. Stories don’t work like this. They are always diverse and numerous, the follower may not notice that advertising is repetitive, in addition, they are mixed with stories from life. Also, many people may remember that back then they wanted to take advantage of the offer from the influencer, but forgot.
- Short term. It's no secret that stories have a 24-hour lifespan. This encourages you to take advantage of the offer today, otherwise, it will be gone. Most often, in addition to advertising, the influencer shares various promo codes for a discount or some bonuses with his followers. That's why you have to keep up! Certainly, influencers add such stories to the highlights, so that the audience could use the promo code after 24 hours, but they still delete them, after a few days.
- Lifestyle ads. When a influencer advertises something in his posts, he puts up a nice photo and writes an interesting text. Some people don't like to read the posts, but they love to follow the influencer's life in stories. That's why advertising in video format (lifestyle) works very well. For example, a influencershows his life and comes to a beauty salon, talks about it, and says where it is and what cool procedures can be done there. This kind of advertising often "hits" better than large text under the photo.
- Dubbing videos with text. Sometimes you want to check Instagram, but you cannot turn on the sound, for example, when your lecture at the university is boring. You have to think about those followers, too. Therefore, influencers often dub their stories. This allows you to deliver the meaning of advertising, even without sound.
- Show the product. The influencer can shoot the unpacking and show what the product looks like without any filters. For example, he bought a new sweater in the store. You can show it from all sides in the stories: how it fits on the influencer, its composition on the tag, and how the seams look like. These live videos engage the audience and build trust. After all, the photo can always be well-edited so that even the worst product will look great.
- Intrigue. Pumping up the audience before advertising works very well! It's better to interest your audience in a post or a story, or you can do both. It often happens that the influencer posts a publication on a certain topic related to a product or service right before advertising. For example, he can make a post to discuss the financial literacy of the child before advertising a children's bank card. Also, he can ask followers for their opinion and say that tomorrow they will get a cool gift from him in the stories. Well, isn't that a motivation to follow a influencer's stories the next day?
- Reviews. Another option for a little advertising lead-in. Good reviews are also the key to success. Before you post an ad, you can ask your audience if they bought the product, whether they liked it, and if it's worth buying. If there are a lot of good reviews, then, first of all, it is definitely worth taking this brand advertising, and, secondly, these reviews can be posted in stories. This way the influencer not only says that the product is good but also supports his words with recommendations from followers. Thus, he will get a big plus to trust, and also the audience will be pleased that the influencer cares about their opinion.
- Contests are a great solution for selling stories is to advertise effectively and be closer to your audience. You can make a contest talking about a product or service. For example, a influencer advertises children's plasticine of a certain company, and at the end, he offers to run a crafts contest for children. Everyone who tags the influencer's nickname with their handcrafted item will get into his or her stories. You can come up with a prize for the coolest craft. It's a great audience engagement.
Stories are the same advertisement tool for the advertiser as others. The purchase funnel is a marketing model, which shows the customer's path to purchase and it is also applicable here. The task of the purchase funnel is to understand when potential customers are dropping out.
More followers = More sells. Check our post about how to gain followers on IG
Sell something on IG stories: the user journey from a marketing point of view
Let's break down the stages of the purchase funnel on the example of selling on stories:
- Engagement. The purpose of this stage is to attract the attention of the client, so he had a desire to watch the stories until the end.
- Immersion. The customer is interested and proceeds to the site. Here he is immersed in the visuals, photos, and navigation of the site. All points must be of high quality. Otherwise, a potential client will be lost.
- Warm-up. Here the customer reviews in detail all publications, reviews, and prices, verify the quality and dispels doubts.
- Sales. This is where direct sales come in. The client is offered a favorable offer, objections are fixed, and the sale is carried out.
Every idea for advertising selling stories is beautiful in its own way. The main thing is to be creative! After all, by making the effort to create promotional material, you not only get closer with your followers, but you also get a good paycheck. These methods work much better than simple layouts with no lead-in or audience warm-up. Let's do awesome and extremely effective advertising together!