Social media stories are one of the most powerful tools I and my clients use to build our brands and connect with our audiences. But what’s the best way to sell on Instagram stories?
Keep reading my friend, you’re in the right place 😉
If you’re already using Instagram stories, why not use this method to maximize your potential to connect with and nurture your leads? Use these 6 strategies to take your social media stories from *meh* to eye-catching, client-attracting, business-boosting magic!
How to use Instagram stories to grow your personal brand and sell your services
Utilizing stories to grow your business and connect with your dream clients starts with understanding what Instagram stories actually are.
Stories are the little mini-movies you see at the top of your phone when you open the Instagram or Facebook app. These are short videos (approximately 15 seconds).
The great thing about posting to Instagram stories is that every time you post to Instagram stories, you can simultaneously post those videos to Facebook stories. Now that’s what I call repurposing power! 💪
Stories are especially effective because they allow you to show up and provide value for your audience without doing a ton of planning. To effectively use stories, you don’t need:
- To spend hours creating fancy graphics in Canva
- Create “new” things to talk about. You can use social media stories to talk about the things you’re already doing in your business and for your brand.
The magic of your stories is that they allow you to connect regularly with everyone in your audience in an authentic, relaxed way. And that relaxed authenticity?
It goes catches the eyes of your followers like craaaazy.
There’s a reason reality TV shows are so popular: People (your clients included!) love seeing the reality behind the production. As business owners, we can feel the pressure to show up in a certain way. Perhaps we think we need to do our makeup or wear a professional outfit or some other *should* we see others doing in our online space.
I want you to get these made-up *shoulds* out of your head once and for all. A key component of building a personal brand that captures the attention of your ideal clients is showing up authentically.
Don’t want to do your hair and makeup? You don’t have to.
Then what should you be sharing on social media stories? And how should you be maximizing the conversion power of each story you share?
Read on to learn my top 6 tips for connecting with your followers and selling more of your offers on social media stories:
1. Show your other interests, even when they don’t directly relate to your business
I regularly showcase my passion for health and wellness on my Instagram stories. As a personal branding coach and photographer, my personal health and wellness don’t have a whole lot to do with my personal brand coaching and personal brand photography services. However, I am known for my energy and the passion I pour into everything I do. My followers regularly ask me how I maintain so much energy and a big part of how I do that is by taking care of my health and wellness.
You could say that health and wellness are passions of mine! I get excited about talking about these topics, and my followers can feel that energy when I share on stories, and it helps us build an even deeper connection.
Don’t be afraid to share on stories about your hobbies, interests, and passions outside of your business offerings. This humanizes you to your audience
2. Stay relevant to your ideal client’s interests
I know that a ton of my ideal clients are super interested in holistic living and healthy lifestyles. This shared interest allows us to form a connection over health and wellness topics (as I talked about in the last point!)
Search for topics you and the majority of your audience share an interest in. If you have a really cool yet really obscure hobby that none of your audience knows about or understands and this hobby has no relation to your business, then it’s probably not the best topic to share about.
3. Share value with your audience
A big mistake I see many female entrepreneurs make is assuming that because they are not the #1 best in their industry, they have nothing of value to teach their audience.
This couldn’t be further from the truth! And this lack of confidence is holding you back from growing your brand and maximizing the power of your stories.
You only need to know 10% more than your ideal clients in your area of expertise to provide valuable education.
If you are unsure what to even begin sharing on stories, start by teaching the top things they should know about [your area of expertise] or the top mistakes you see people making in [your area of expertise].
When your followers continually glean value from your stories, they’ll keep coming back again and again.
4. Track your viewers, and nurture relationships
Instagram allows you to see exactly which accounts watched and engaged with your stories. This tells you which of your followers are most interested in you and your personal brand.
This information is gold! Make a point to interact with the content of these dedicated followers, to message them, and to nurture them authentically.
Remember, we’re using stories to build connections with our ideal clients, and connections are relationships.
You can also use your insight data on Instagram stories to see where viewers “fall off” or stop watching your stories. Once you get a feel for the sweet spot number of stories to share at a time, try to aim to have this number of stories shared at any one time.
5. Sell your offers and services with context
Yes, you absolutely SHOULD be sharing on stories as you’re providing value to your audience! But how to sell on Instagram stories (the right way?)
It all comes down to context.
One of the big things I teach my clients to do when it comes to social media is to how to sell on stories with context to frame your offer.
Let me paint of picture for you of the type of selling context I’m talking about:
Last week, I saw a makeup seller post one story graphic showing a new blush for sale. And that was it.
No other information, no prepping, no explanation, no opportunity for viewer engagement. There was no story to her story.
Imagine instead if this makeup seller had shown her face on stories in a video, talking about her new blush and showing exactly how to apply it as she expounded upon its special features. She could invite her audience to ask her questions and share valuable makeup tips for her viewers. Finally, she could share a specific call to action with her viewers so they knew exactly which steps to take next (For example: Should they check out her shop in her link in bio? DM her for makeup recommendations? Click the link to purchase with a special discount?)
Don’t be afraid to talk about your offers and services and sell directly on stories. But remember to do your selling with context so your followers understand the value of what you’re selling and how to take action.
6. Pre-plan and batch evergreen story content for a rainy day
Keep a folder on your phone of evergreen story content to share in the future. With this strategy, you never have to worry about running out of things to share.
You can even save popular past story or post content in this folder, and share in the future as a “throwback” to your popular posts.
Your social media stories action plan to maximize your personal brand:
While all of the strategies in this post will help you reach more of your followers, if you take nothing else from today, I want you to do this one thing:
Commit to sharing on stories every day, and showing your face. (Remember, no makeup required!)
Commit to sharing on stories every day, and showing your face.
Ati Grinspun • Personal Brand Coach
Do you feel confident about sharing on social media stories?
Or do you have questions for me?
Send me a message right here, I’d love to chat with you!
