Reels have really splashed onto the stage on Instagram and with how much they’ve blown up, the reach and results they get, I feel like we’ve almost forgotten about our stories. You might be thinking, “well, Amy, like, that’s fine because reels are getting me all these views and comments that means I don’t need to be doing stories, right?” I’m sorry to burst your bubble. But no, that is not true at all, reels and stories have such different purposes within our marketing.
Instagram reels are used to attract a fresh new audience. But Instagram Stories are used to build loyalty and trust with the audience you already have. When you have an audience that you have high trust and deep loyalty with, they are going to buy from you again and again. You can totally have a huge audience. But if you’re not nurturing them and focusing on building relationships with them, they’re just not going to buy.
Let’s firstly talk about why a lot of small business owners find stories hard. Now I work with small business owners all the time, and I’m constantly having conversations with them about Instagram and their marketing strategy. Generally what I find is that Instagram Stories seems to be something that feels like it should be so simple, like it should be like the easiest thing to conquer. But yet, a lot of people get a bit confused about where it falls into their marketing strategy.
What is the purpose of Instagram stories?
What should I be talking about on there?
Do I try to sell on my Instagram stories? Or talk about my products and services?
Am I just trying to be more personal and connect with people?
What if people don’t engage?
What if people aren’t watching all the way through?
What I want to share is where your Instagram Stories actually fall into your marketing strategy.
Where do Instagram Stories sit in your Marketing Strategy
Instagram stories are all about building that know, like and trust factor. Your reels, posts and using hashtags will focus more heavily on bringing in a new audience. But the best place to nurture your audience is with stories. Stories are like texting your best friend every day for updates, finding out what’s going on in their life. It’s like a constant channel of communication that happens all the time on the regular.
Let’s talk Know, Like & Trust factor
You have to get your audience to know who you are and what you do. I’m not just talking about what products you sell, but getting across to your audience your brand’s business values. Then once you get them to know what you do, then you need to get them to actually like you. Then once they like you, you need to get them to actually trust you. We do that through a range of different ways. But Instagram stories can really help to build that deep know, like, and trust factor, which is what you need to grow business in today’s age.
I don’t know how much you’ve been paying attention to how consumer behavior has changed pre and post that C word. When you have something that significant happen in the world, even just in your country, it changes human behavior. It created new buying habits in consumers. That meant the way people shopped and the way people interacted with brands completely changed.
What we saw was, people became obsessed with purchasing from small businesses, locally owned businesses, boutique brands and Australian made, to support them during this difficult time. People became more focused on value and connection. This is where small businesses started to shine. Because people really connect with the brand and the business owner. So then if we know that consumer behaviour has changed in that way, then how do you build deeper connections on social media? Through stories! Your Instagram stories and your Facebook stories iis where deep connections can be created. This also comes into the next point that I want to make, which is that so many people focus on building this huge audience because that looks good. It’s easy to do. However, it’s actually much harder to build loyalty.
So many people focus on building a big audience, because it looks good and it’s easy.
I’ve seen a lot of small business owners being hard on themselves or getting down because they’re struggling with building their audience. Does that sound like you? You’ve been like ‘Oh, I really am trying to get my followers to 1000 or I’m trying to get to 10k followers’ or whatever your goal is in your mind. You’re hustling hard to get a certain number of followers and missing the boat completely with building loyalty with the audience you already have.
It’s time to take the pressure off yourself of trying to hustle to that next audience level, trying to get to that next number of followers, and focusing on the number of followers that you have and instead nurture them better, and build up deep loyalty with the followers that you currently have. That’s my goal for you.
Reels are such an easy way to be growing an audience at the moment. It honestly brings in so many new followers if you have a really good strategy in place. But let’s not neglect our stories.
Instagram Stories are a really great way to use video in your marketing strategy. With stories, you can use a range of different video tools to be really creative, even if you are scared about using video showing your face on your stories. I know it can be so scary to start showing up using stories, but it’s so rewarding. I think for me personally, the majority of my students have come from connecting with me on my stories, seeing my face, being around my energy, and getting to know who I am and that time that they spend with me on Instagram Stories, watching my stories on a regular basis engaging with them, it just builds up deeper loyalty. And that leads them to trusting me- which leads to them joining my programs.
Many people struggle with getting in front of the camera. So if that’s you, know that you’re not alone. You might see other people look so confident in their stories, but they’ve started where you’ve started as well and either they’ve built confidence over time or they actually feel the exact same way as you feel and you just can’t see it because some people are really good at hiding it or really good at faking it till they make it. I know that it’s so scary, but the value in showing up on your social media, and the ability for your audience to connect with you on a deeper level and really build that loyalty and trust with you is so worth it. You will only just continue to benefit your business as you learn how to be consistent with your Instagram stories and show up on a regular basis.
So these are my few thoughts on why you have to be using Instagram stories in your marketing during a time in the world where INstagram is constantly changing and it can feel overwhelming to know what you should be doing. It’s so important. It’s not a part of your strategy to be forgotten about. And I really encourage you to think about how you’re going to be using your Instagram Stories moving forward for your business.
Head to my Instagram here and jump into my DMs and tell me what you struggle with the most with showing up on your Instagram stories.
I can’t wait to hear from you!
Ams 🌻