Aug 15, 2019
Instagram is a powerful marketing tool that gives modern marketer plenty of stuff to take advantage of. With new concepts emerging constantly it becomes hard to have this social media under control. For instance, with their appearance, Instagram Story Highlights feature changed the rules of a game making strategists think twice about what they are doing. Beyond any doubts, this feature is immensely beneficial for brands, yet far not all of them have incorporated highlights into their marketing strategies. If you are one of them, InstaBF, a leading IG and IGTV provider, is going to present everything important about the feature and state why you should already be using it.
Instagram Story Highlights: What Are They?
Instagram Stories became a real hit once they appeared on the platform. Many users love the feature of Stories to disappear twenty-four hours after posting it. Yet, when you invest much effort, time and funds, you feel somewhat disappointed. In response to numerous “disappointed” users, Instagram brought forward the Instagram Stories Highlights feature. Now any Story you make is automatically archived allowing users to share the most beloved Stories in self-curated collections called highlights. They can be found right under bios. It’s up to you what to store, showcase or delete as a highlighted Story. Highlights can be modified only through the Instagram application on a smartphone while the web version only displays them.
If you wonder how many highlight “groups” you can create, be calm. The number is endless! Anyway, every group must have no more than one hundred Stories. If you upload more than that Instagram will delete the oldest Stories replacing them with the new ones.
Original Ways of Using Instagram Stories Highlights
Beyond any words, the content you save in the highlights is very important since they are created to represent your brand from the best angle. Make sure every highlight you share delivers the right sort of message to your audience. These are like a synopsis – a quick look at what the company is and how it can satisfy you as a client.
Here are several ways of using Instagram Stories Highlights creatively:
Highlight a Product/Service
Stories highlights can first be used to showcase a whole collection or a separate product/service. You can create a countdown to the launch of your new product line and make an arrival Story saying “It’s finally here”. Follow all this with a separate Storytelling the benefits of the new products and proof by a satisfied client.
Add Clickable Links/Swipe Ups to Highlight to Grow Your Traffic
Once an Instagram account has more than 10k followers he has access to the “Swipe Up” feature. If you don’t have such a huge following, you can still benefit by using the @mention sticker and a #linkinbio to direct traffic to your brand’s URL.
Create How-To, Tutorial, FAQ Highlights
Regardless of the type of the industry or the field of operation, a brand must have Tutorial, FAQ, and How-To Highlights collections. They make the most-visited Stories highlights type. So, you’d better spend enough time to create a comprehensive list of Frequently Asked Questions with accurate answers to them to get the most from this feature. When creating them, remember that every clip is limited to 15 seconds. Hence, keep them short and divide your explanations to several sections to deliver your message thoroughly.
Dec 2, 2018
Nearly all new features Instagram introduces to its users are a great success and this refers to Instagram highlights, too. Though they were created less than a year ago, the influence they have had on businesses is tremendous! These are amazingly versatile tools that can be used in countless verticals! Precisely how? Let’s find out this through the examples of several industry-leading Instagram brands. Being your true IG and IGTV provider, InstaBF wants to make it clear to you how you can use highlights to your benefit, too.
Article Showcases Products
E-commerce brands have perhaps the greatest benefits from showcasing their products on this social network through highlights as they can do that right in the center of their profiles! Article brand makes a great use of this by keeping all its product-related stories in one highlight reel. If you got inspired from this, remember that you can create separate highlights as well, each representing your seasonal collections, new models, etc.
Additionally, if you are a big brand with 10, 000+ followers, add a See More link so that your visitors can easily switch to the product showcased in the highlight. You can also use the new shoppable stickers for the same reason and this option is available for businesses of all sizes!
Artifact Uprising Shares Customer Reviews
If you are already a popular brand on Instagram and your customers adore your products, use highlights to show your stellar customer reviews just as Artifact Uprising does. This way, once a visitors lands on the brand’s profile, he gets a sense of how much its customers love the brand and the products they get! Artifact Uprising also uses the See More feature to make it much easier for its customers to find the product they liked and order it.
CAP Beauty Daily Promotes Partnerships
Every successful collaboration with an Instagram influencer or another brand is worth showcasing on Instagram highlights. CAP Beauty, for instance, quite often makes such highlights. Create a unified highlight, too, in case you often collaborate with other brands or Instagram celebrities. This way you will reap the benefits you got from your partnership much longer!
Drake General Store Highlights Events
One of the best ways to humanize your brand is sharing content from the events you organize. Drake General Store, for instance, shares its events on the highlights and builds FOMO for its future events. This brand has had enviable collaborations and events with a number of brands from Google to antique stores. You can also create a separate category of events thus keeping all the actions in a single place!
Rove Concepts Furniture Takes its Viewers Behind the Scenes
Another efficient means of humanizing a brand is showing behind the scenes to visitors just as Rove Concepts Furniture does. And what if not Instagram highlights can serve great for this purpose?! This way you are sure to build a strong community and gain the trust of your customers. Everyone knows that people adore seeing the raw moments of product making and being a great platform to provide them with such a chance, Instagram is at your disposal!
Package Free Answers Its Customers’ Questions
Have you got tired from getting the same questions from your customers over and over again? If yes, then the example of Package Free can be useful to you. Create highlights with the most-commonly received questions and answers to them. Instagram users will better understand your brand, the way you work and what they can expect from you. Just pick up highlights to tackle the right topics!
