Are you posting regularly but are not seeing any changes in your revenue? Want to know how you can get more leads on Instagram and generate more sales?
Well, let me reveal the not-so-secret weapon for your money-making IG marketing strategy…Stories.
Currently, there are over 500 million users of the story feature and 50% of businesses on Instagram are already posting on Stories.
So it’s safe to say that if you’re not using them, you’re already falling behind your competition and are missing out on a lot of customers.
Now you might be sitting there thinking…
What the hell are Instagram stories?
I’m glad you asked. Think of it like this – if your posts are that professional and well-dressed cousin, stories are their laid back and casual brother who injects life into the party.
Ultimately, it’s another medium to showcase who you are and what you do and get more leads on Instagram. But here’s the catch…
Your stories disappear after 24 hours. However, it will appear at the top of the home feed for your followers, which gives you that advantage. You can also use the fact it disappears to your advantage and create a well-rounded strategy to raise brand awareness, generate more leads on Instagram and build your tribe.
Let’s jump into how you can do that in 7 simple, but highly effective, steps;
How to get more leads on Instagram by using stories?
1. Keep your audience hooked;
If you got to see any Marvel film in the cinema you’ll notice something that every other film in history has failed to do – keep their audience glued to their seat throughout the credits. This is because they’ve become conditioned to expect that sneaky little extra footage right at the end.
Sometimes it will be a huge reveal, other times it will be a 10-second witty roundup. Regardless, anyone who’s a fan will not be budging from their popcorn infested seat.
And you can do the same to get more leads on Instagram.
Next time you post, take the opportunity to jump onto your stories and expand on your post.
Let’s say you created a post that reveals a new product in stock;
Follow-up on your Instagram story showing the warehouse of the stock you have, emphasising how they’re limited, performing an unboxing, discussing why you love this product and sharing screenshots of the first orders that come in.
2. Capitalise on the link button
If your business profile has grown to 10,000 followers then you will have access to the link button. This allows you to overlay a clickable link to your stories to direct your followers to a page.
Let’s see how you can capitalise on this following on from our previous point…
(Don’t worry, if you’re not at 10K followers just yet, I have a little trick for you, too)
So now you’ve done 3-7 stories of you further discussing your new product. In the last story, you want to have a call to action for them to buy and then add this link button to send them to your online store.
Here’s a basic script you could say or write;
“If you want to grab yours now, all you have to do is click the link right here”
(Insert video of you awkwardly pointing to nothing prior to strategically adding the link button to that same position).
But if you have fewer followers, don’t fret because I’ve got you covered too.
Everyone can add a URL to their profile bio. As long as this URL takes your audience to wherever they can buy what you’re talking about you can easily adjust the above script to say;
“If you want to grab yours now, all you have to do is click the link in my bio.”
Sure, it adds the extra step of the lead to then click your profile, but it’s a solid alternative. However, there is another sneaky way to make it easier for you to know someone is interested in buying from you without them having to leave your story…
3. The power of the poll
The poll button is an amazing conversation starter but also a great way to get more leads on Instagram. Because all they have to do is tap either option A or Option B, this is the easiest way someone can show their interest in buying from you.
You can poll your followers on random & fun topics, carry out market research and, of course, generate more leads.
Let’s go back to our example of selling a new product…
If you want an alternative to your audience to clicking a link, polls can overcome this quite nicely. All you have to do is adjust the script I shared and add a poll that asks roughly the same thing with a Yes or No answer available;
“Do you want to know more about this X?”
Once someone clicks a button, you can then actually see who voted Yes or No.
And for anyone who clicks that Yes button, drop them a message directly.
Boom! You have suddenly generated a new lead and have begun building a relationship with an actual human being in a way that is easy for them (which is crucial in a world where people expect minimal friction to do anything) and profitable for you.
What about all those “No” responses? Well, you have 2 options;
1. Ignore them. They’re not ready to buy yet, that’s OK.
2. Follow-up. Anyone who has taken the time (yes, even 0.2 seconds is time) to vote can be valuable. By simply following up with them to say;
“Hey. I noticed you weren’t interested in our new product. We’re keen to improve, so I’d love to understand why if you don’t mind?”
From here they might mention an objection that you can easily cover off to them (and in future content) leading to a sale, or you’ll actually get some insight into how to adjust your product. Win, win.
Warning: Be sure not to spam them. If they don’t reply, just leave it and move on.
Let’s keep this going – we’ve still got 3 more tricks up our sleeve.
4. Get inside your prospects mind
It’s the dream, right? To be able to read exactly what’s going through the head of your audience. Just imagine how many leads you could generate through Instagram.
Unfortunately, IG Stories aren’t quite that powerful, yet. But hope is not lost.
The Q&A button helps you understand what your potential buyers are pondering about. Not to mention it’s a prime opportunity for you to show off your industry expertise by answering any questions your followers may have.
So how does it work?
Again, simply overlay the Q&A button to your story and wait for the questions to come in.
You can choose to answer publicly or privately to that individual – I’d opt for the public so more people can see your responses.
You can always follow up with the questioner directly to see if your response made sense.
Oh wait, is this another way to get leads on Instagram? I think it is!
The Q&A is a magical tool not only to quickly answer questions, but you feed the responses back into your core marketing strategy and can literally create content around each and every question you get.
The possibilities are endless.
Bonus Q&A tip: Don’t be afraid to go casual with these Q&As. The top brands will have Q&A sessions about random topics that have nothing to do with their business but entertain your audience and show off your sense of humour by publicly sharing your response.
Now, let’s tackle that issue of Stories disappearing after 24 hours…
5. The highlights
Just because they’re gone from your feed after a day, they’re not wasted and lost forever.
On your profile, you will have an option to add what is called “Highlights”. This is a collection of archived stories that you can clump together for anyone to see for all-time.
Let’s say you’ve answered a bunch of questions on your stories that have come in from your followers.
You can create a montage of all your Q&A’s into a single highlight for people to check out.
A potential customer can visit your page and view your highlights to find out more before buying.
I’d advise having a highlight for different themes you cover such as;
– Q&A
– Customer reviews
– Product Information
… You get the idea.
This is yet another way to expand your Instagram profile to become a lead generating machine.
OK, since we’ve covered some technical features available, let’s pivot to content you can generate with next-to-zero effort.
6. Behind the scenes
If there’s one thing that has become apparent since the rise of social media is this…
We’re a nosy bunch. We love to observe how people live and what they get up to. We want to know what happens behind the scenes…
Stories are the window to this.
You can share special insights into how you work with clients or create your products.
You can give a sneak peek at new stuff in the works.
You can show the human element of your business and the values you stand for.
An easy way to think about Stories is to document your daily operations.
You might think “This won’t generate sales”.
And in the short term, you may be correct. But that doesn’t mean people aren’t watching and slowly building trust in what you do and what you stand for.
Sure, someone might not buy today because you shared a video of you taking your team out to lunch. But in 12 months’ time, they might buy from the person who shares their value of being a good leader and team player.
OK, onto the final, and most important tip…
7. The C-word
By this point, you hopefully have a lot of ideas rattling around in your brain about how Stories are going to take your business to the next level.
But STOP and take a step back because here’s what most do…
They get excited and implement everything on day one. Before long they become too busy to post again and neglect it for the next 6 months, only to conclude that it doesn’t work for their business and move on to the next shiny thing.
Do not do this.
Instead, think about how you can consistently implement stories every day.
For some, you’ll be able to use it all day long. For others, you might only have 10 minutes to dedicate to it – either is a great start.
Take the time to develop a strategy to how you will use stories by thinking about;
– What of the above features will you use each day of the week
– What can you talk about in the stories
– How often will you follow up in the DM’s
– Will you be recording a video or writing out text
Understanding all of this at a high level and creating a schedule you can follow will put you leaps and bounds over at least 50% of businesses on Instagram.
And if you’re not quite sure on what strategy is best for your business to get more leads on Instagram through stories, reach out and let’s see how we can help.
