If you don’t harness the power of Instagram Stories for your social media marketing, you’re missing out big time.

IG Stories are more than a space to share fun but temporary content.

When used strategically, Stories can be effective tactics to promote your brand, content, products, and service and, in turn, drive engagement.

The best part is that Instagram Stories are free (unless you run IG Story ads) when you know the right tactics and avenues to explore.

If you’re still not convinced, continue reading to know the five tips to use IG Stories to support your IG and social media marketing efforts.

1. Use the questions sticker to hear from followers

Most of your customers have likely seen every survey and feedback form out there, meaning they’re no longer as excited or even bother to answer the forms.

While you don’t have to ban using traditional survey forms, you can make gathering comments and feedback from current and potential customers more engaging.

One effective solution is to use Instagram Story questions stickers.

For example, use an IG question sticker to get your audience’s thoughts on a new version of your product.

If you provide SEO services, you can ask your audience about the best hack they learned when purchasing SEO articles.

IG question stickers offer a more appealing and engaging way to capture unique and real answers to product-related questions from your Instagram followers. 

Don’t limit your questions to brand-related queries, either.

Ask questions you think would entice your audience into interacting more with your brand—anything from the tv show characters they can’t stand to their favorite breakfast food. 

Doing so helps you connect with your viewers better, boosting engagement opportunities.

Use reliable Social Media Marketing (SMM) platforms that streamline your content publishing and distribution.

For example, Vista Social has a content calendar and post scheduling feature that lets you schedule your content, including IG Stories, to auto-publish on set times and dates.

You can also add your interaction posts for social media to a queue or publish them in bulk, saving you from a lot of manual work.

Opt for modern SMM platforms that simplify and streamline your critical social media marketing tasks for higher efficiency and audience engagement.  

2. Leverage quiz stickers to engage audiences

Another effective IG Story sticker to help you generate leads and boost audience engagement is the quiz sticker.

Use the quiz sticker to entice audiences into joining exciting activities relevant to your brand, products, campaigns, and industry.

If you offer content writing services, you could post a guess which content writing tips are true or false using the IG quiz sticker. 

You can also quiz your audiences on brand-related topics, such as the product variations more customers bought from your spring collection.

It’s one way of roping audiences into fun, interactive activities with your brand while gathering crucial information on their interests and preferences.

Other quizzes you can use with the sticker include Yes or No and multiple-choice questions with answers your viewers can easily tap.

Get more insights into the questions your audiences are likely to respond to using powerful customer tracking software.

The software can help you gather and analyze customer data, including their unique wants, interests, and pain points.

Use that information to create timely, relevant, and engaging IG Story quizzes your audiences can’t help but respond to and even share with others. 

3. Utilize product stickers for promotions

The traditional approach to promoting your products is through in-feed posts and images.

But why stop there when you can take this to the next level with IG Story product stickers?

That’s right. You can integrate products into your Stories content using stickers. It’s an excellent way to give your audience a quicker and easier way to shop.

Include a product sticker to your IG Story and customize the text color how you want.

IG users who view your Story can tap the product sticker. Then, they’ll be led directly to the product’s details page or the same page that displays when users click your in-feed shoppable posts.

The page shows shoppers more details, product images, similar or related items, and your website link where visitors can complete their purchases.

Besides using product promotions, leverage IG Stories to share snippets of your internal processes.

If you provide handy attendance tracking software, take your audiences behind the curtain by sharing quick IG Story videos about your app development process.

It’s a great strategy to help humanize your brand, letting you connect with your audiences better while providing unique, educational content.   

4. Run IG Story ads

An effective tactic to get your promotional, marketing, and other content on Instagram Stories in front of your audience is via ads.

Create branded Instagram Stories through Facebook (News - Alert) Ads Manager.

Set up your IG Story ads by choosing your campaign goal, including the necessary details, and configuring your preferred display options for your ads.

IG Story ads are excellent for getting more eyeballs on your products and services. 

For instance, you can run ads promoting your content tracking hacks to help marketers, website owners, etc., supercharge their content marketing strategies.

Use affordable tools (or free apps) to create high-quality IG Story video ads. Doing so helps add credibility to your brand, encouraging viewers to click and convert. 

5. Share news and announcements

Instagram Stories appear at the top of the platform’s interface, making it an ideal space to share announcements and news.

Use IG Stories to draw your target audiences’ attention to your sales, giveaways, events, discounts, new products, and recently published blog posts. 

It’s an excellent way to create excitement around your announcements.

Include compelling photos or videos with text overlays of your announcements. You can also add stickers, emojis, funnys GIFs, or memes.

Remember to add a catchy Call-to-Action (CTA) to tell your audience what they should do next. Include links that lead them to your product or landing pages (or other designated pages).

Add relevant hashtags with the hashtag sticker to make your IG story more searchable and visible to other users’ feeds. Doing so helps widen your reach, increasing your engagement opportunities.

Save time and effort while producing IG Stories quickly using templates.

Templates help make your IG Stories consistent with your campaigns and branding efforts while supporting your event, product, special offer, and other promotions and marketing initiatives.

Give your social media marketing a boost with IG Stories

Go beyond the traditional ways of using Instagram Stories.

Take your Instagram and social media marketing efforts to the next level by learning the best tactics to promote your brand, products, and other content via Stories.

Build on these tried and tested methods to develop an IG Story marketing approach that best fits your unique marketing and business needs.