41 min

How to sell on Instagram Stories (without feeling sleazy‪)‬ Build Your Online Audience

    • Marketing

Instagram Stories is a fantastic tool you can use to attract your ideal customers/clients.

But if you’re not familiar with how it works, it can all feel a bit confusing.
In this podcast episode I explain how to use Instagram Stories to make more sales in your business, including what kind of content you should be sharing (and how often) and how to use quizzes/polls and other interaction functions to find people who are interested in your products/services. PLUS how to get your Instagram followers buying from your stories.
{Click on the player above to listen to the podcast episode and/or read on for a detailed overview. Scroll down to the bottom to read the show notes including all the links mentioned in this episode} What is Instagram Stories? Instagram has three main parts. 
Your main grid, where you can upload photos and short videos.  Stories - which appear in a bar at the top of your feed - where you can share short videos, pictures and images (each Story is a maximum 15 seconds). You can also add text, gifs, polls, quizzes and other interactive features. Instagram Stories content only last for 24 hours (but you can save your highlights). IGTV - a long-form vertical video channel that is accessible from Instagram and as a standalone app You can share your content between your grid, Stories and IGTV to get it in front of a wider audience. 
What is Instagram Stories? Instagram Stories appear in a bar at the top of your feed. When there’s something new to see on an account of someone you follow, you’ll notice their profile photo will have a colourful ring around it.
To view someone’s story, you simply need to tap on their profile photo, and their story will appear full-screen, showing you all of the content they’ve posted in the last 24hrs.  The content will play in chronological order from oldest to newest.
Once you’re viewing a story, you can tap to go back and forward or swipe to jump to another person’s story. Unlike regular posts, there are no likes or public comments. Anyone who comments go straight into your DMs (direct messages). This can be a great way to build relationships with prospective customers/clients.
The great thing about Instagram Stories is that your content only lasts for 24 hours. This can be great if you’re nervous about putting yourself out there. But you can save your best content as ‘highlights’ (more on that later). 
How should the content you post in Stories differ from the content you post on your grid? As with any social media, there is really no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to do it, but my account is probably ‘typical’ of what most Instagram users do. The content on my grid is more ‘curated’ than my Instagram Stories and has a consistent aesthetic (i.e. I used the same brand fonts and colours).  My Instagram Stories is a bit more ‘rough and ready’ - and often features ‘behind-the-scenes’ content that relates to my life and business. 
What makes an engaging Instagram Story? The clue is in the name: Story. And a story generally needs a beginning, a middle and an end. Or at least some kind of ‘narrative’  you can follow. 
One of the most confusing things about Instagram Stories is that you’ll often hear people talking about each individual image/15 second video clips as a ‘story’. So for the purpose of this post, I’m going to refer to them as ‘chapters’ which make up a whole Story. 
While there are no hard and fast rules on how long your Instagram Stories, should be, it’s worth remembering that most people are scrolling through. So if your Story is too long and/or doesn’t grab their attention in the first few moments, they’ll scroll past and start looking at someone else’s story. For this reason, I’d generally recommend creating putting together no more than about seven to ten individual ‘chapters’ to make longer Stories). However, with some Stories e.g. if you are talking to camera, you may need to m

Instagram Stories is a fantastic tool you can use to attract your ideal customers/clients.

But if you’re not familiar with how it works, it can all feel a bit confusing.
In this podcast episode I explain how to use Instagram Stories to make more sales in your business, including what kind of content you should be sharing (and how often) and how to use quizzes/polls and other interaction functions to find people who are interested in your products/services. PLUS how to get your Instagram followers buying from your stories.
{Click on the player above to listen to the podcast episode and/or read on for a detailed overview. Scroll down to the bottom to read the show notes including all the links mentioned in this episode} What is Instagram Stories? Instagram has three main parts. 
Your main grid, where you can upload photos and short videos.  Stories - which appear in a bar at the top of your feed - where you can share short videos, pictures and images (each Story is a maximum 15 seconds). You can also add text, gifs, polls, quizzes and other interactive features. Instagram Stories content only last for 24 hours (but you can save your highlights). IGTV - a long-form vertical video channel that is accessible from Instagram and as a standalone app You can share your content between your grid, Stories and IGTV to get it in front of a wider audience. 
What is Instagram Stories? Instagram Stories appear in a bar at the top of your feed. When there’s something new to see on an account of someone you follow, you’ll notice their profile photo will have a colourful ring around it.
To view someone’s story, you simply need to tap on their profile photo, and their story will appear full-screen, showing you all of the content they’ve posted in the last 24hrs.  The content will play in chronological order from oldest to newest.
Once you’re viewing a story, you can tap to go back and forward or swipe to jump to another person’s story. Unlike regular posts, there are no likes or public comments. Anyone who comments go straight into your DMs (direct messages). This can be a great way to build relationships with prospective customers/clients.
The great thing about Instagram Stories is that your content only lasts for 24 hours. This can be great if you’re nervous about putting yourself out there. But you can save your best content as ‘highlights’ (more on that later). 
How should the content you post in Stories differ from the content you post on your grid? As with any social media, there is really no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to do it, but my account is probably ‘typical’ of what most Instagram users do. The content on my grid is more ‘curated’ than my Instagram Stories and has a consistent aesthetic (i.e. I used the same brand fonts and colours).  My Instagram Stories is a bit more ‘rough and ready’ - and often features ‘behind-the-scenes’ content that relates to my life and business. 
What makes an engaging Instagram Story? The clue is in the name: Story. And a story generally needs a beginning, a middle and an end. Or at least some kind of ‘narrative’  you can follow. 
One of the most confusing things about Instagram Stories is that you’ll often hear people talking about each individual image/15 second video clips as a ‘story’. So for the purpose of this post, I’m going to refer to them as ‘chapters’ which make up a whole Story. 
While there are no hard and fast rules on how long your Instagram Stories, should be, it’s worth remembering that most people are scrolling through. So if your Story is too long and/or doesn’t grab their attention in the first few moments, they’ll scroll past and start looking at someone else’s story. For this reason, I’d generally recommend creating putting together no more than about seven to ten individual ‘chapters’ to make longer Stories). However, with some Stories e.g. if you are talking to camera, you may need to m

41 min