Do you hop on Instagram just to find yourself tapping through Stories for a few minutes without ever scrolling down to the main feed? Well, your customers are probably doing the same thing. Which means if your business’s Instagram account isn’t posting on Stories, you might not be getting the visibility you deserve.
Key Takeaways
- Instagram Stories get prime visibility with 500 million daily users and top-of-feed placement.
- Stories influence buying decisions, with many users following and discovering businesses there.
- The casual, 24-hour format helps humanize your brand and build trust.
- Interactive features like polls and questions boost quick engagement.
- Simple content ideas like before-and-afters, FAQs, staff intros, and promos keep posting easy.
- Posting consistently and combining with paid ads can maximize reach and results.
About 500 million people utilize Instagram stories on a daily basis. Making it a prime spot to get your business in front of the people who are looking for your products and services. If you don’t have a Story strategy built into your social media marketing efforts, now is the time to start thinking about it.
We know that you’re already busy running other day-to-day aspects of your business. So, this blog post breaks down why exactly Stories are important for small businesses like yours and gives a whole list of story ideas to jumpstart your posting strategy.
[Related: How to Use Instagram’s New Repost Feature]
What are Stories?
Instagram Stories are photos and videos that appear together in a slideshow format and then disappear after 24 hours. They show up in a designated spot at the top of Instagram’s feed instead of your profile grid.
When Instagram launched Stories in 2016, they described the new feature as a way to “allow you to share everyday moments and grow closer to the people and interests you care about.” And that’s exactly what users have been doing for the last 10 years as the feature continues to grow in popularity.
Stories also offers a plethora of text and drawing tools that let you bring your photos or videos to life, along with the ability to add GIFs, music, hashtags, polls, links, countdowns, mentions, and more.
[Related: How to Repost a Story on Instagram]
Why Instagram Stories are important to local businesses
Social media has become a must-have part of any local business’s digital marketing strategy, and Instagram is one of the most important platforms to be active on. Not only do over 80% of accounts on Instagram follow a business, but researching products on the app is the third most popular thing people do on Instagram.
The Instagram Stories feature specifically is important for a local business like yours because of things like:
- Increased visibility and discoverability: Stories appear right at the top of the Instagram app and are often the first place users tap. They’re perfect for fun and quick daily updates and offer the ability to use location tags, hashtags, and links. Research shows that nearly 58% of people have become more interested in a brand/product they saw on Stories.
- Humanization your brand: Unlike the more polished content you post to your Instagram feed, Stories allow for a more candid look into your business. You’ll feel more comfortable being on camera and showing more of your day-to-day life because Stories only last for 24 hours. And this laid-back feel earns trust with your customers.
- Offers a prime spot to share UGC: Again, because Stories only last for 24 hours, they’re the perfect place to re-share and repurpose content about your business created by other users.
- Encouraging engagement: Offering tools like polls, quizzes, and questions, Stories encourage your audience to directly interact with your content quickly and anonymously.
[Related: Free Guide: Taking Control of Your Online Reputation]
Instagram Story ideas for your local business
Now that we’ve covered what exactly Stories are and how they’ll benefit your business, let’s dive into some fun ideas you can use to get posting right away.
1. Before-and-after transformations
Do you run a service business like home cleaning, landscaping, or an auto body shop? Snap a few pictures of the home, yard, or vehicle you’ll be working on before you get started, and then a few more after the service is completed to post on your Story. Not only are these quick and low effort, but they showcase exactly the level of work you provide to your customers.
Quick Tip: Tag your customer or at least give them a small shoutout like “Thanks for trusting us with your lawn, Tim!” to encourage a repost!
[Related: 7 Tips: Take Better Before and After Pictures]
2. Behind-the-scenes content
Both loyal and potential customers love feeling like they’re getting exclusive access to parts of your business, and adding some behind-the-scenes content to your Stories can do exactly that. Here are some examples to try:
- “Day in the life” snippets with voiceover work of the owner or a staff member
- Some video of you setting up for the day
- A time-lapse of prepping an order or making one of your products
- Showcasing the process of packing an order
Even the smallest moments can help foster a sense of community.
3. “Ask the Owner” segments
Take a few moments out of your day to sit down and answer some questions about your business. These can be anything from “What made you want to be an electrician?” to “What’s the hardest part about owning your own business?” When you put a face to your brand, people are much more likely to engage.
Quick Tip: You can make this a recurring series that you post weekly or monthly to take some stress out of your planning and to give your followers something to keep visiting your Stories for!
4. New product unboxings
Bringing in a new brand of treats to your pet supplies store or upgrading your chainsaws for your tree service business? Unbox or unveil them on Stories so your customers can get a little sneak peek at the new offerings. They’ll love that you invited them along and that they got to see your genuine reaction to the newness.
5. A countdown to a new product or service launch
Build some anticipation and keep your audience coming back to your page by planning a special launch for a new product or service you’ll be offering and using the countdown tool within Instagram Stories to tease it.
Quick Tip: When you use the countdown sticker, your followers can tap the sticker to set a reminder or add it to their own Stories, which is a great way to drum up some engagement.
6. Announce sales and promotions
If you want to make sure your audience is aware of a great sale or promotion you’re running, Stories are a great place to post the details. Instead of one post on your regular page feed that might get lost or won’t apply anymore once the sale is over, you can keep posting on Stories as a daily reminder and simply stop once the promo has run its course.
[Related: 17 Spring Promotion Ideas to Grow Your Small Business]
7. “This or that” interviews with your staff
Another great way to humanize your business is to get some face time in with the members of your staff. If they’re shy about being on camera, a quick “this or that” interview is just quick and straightforward enough to keep them feeling awkward. The questions can relate to your business like:
- “What’s best, the blueberry or chocolate muffin?” if you run a café
- “Accent wall or all walls the same color?” if you’re a painting business
- “Gravel or mulch in flower beds?” if you’re a landscaper
Or can just be general questions like:
- “Beach or mountains?”
- “Dogs or cats?”
- “Book or move?”
8. “Quick tip Tuesdays” segments
This is a fun, recurring theme that will keep your audience coming back to your stories at least once a week to check out the new tip. (And you can do this on any day of the week, we just thought “Tuesday” had a nice ring to it!) Either you, the business owner, or a member of your staff can give some helpful tips about your specific industry. Some examples:
- Salon: “3 ways to make your color last longer”
- Gym: “1 stretch to fix lower back pain”
- Bakery: “How to store bread properly”
- HVAC: “Change your filter every ___ months”
This gets you some more face time with your audience and helps establish you as the experts.
9. FAQs in video format
You probably have some FAQs listed on your website and on your Google Business Profile, but it doesn’t hurt to throw them up in your Stories, too. This can be either an animation-style video or a talking head and can cover things like:
- Pricing
- Booking process
- Hours
- Parking
- Service areas
- Refund policy
Quick Tip: You have the option to save your Stories as Highlights on your Instagram page. Meaning they won’t disappear after the 24 hours, and can still be referenced later. Your FAQs are a great thing to Highlight.
[Related: How to easily create how-to videos for your customers]
10. Staff intros
If your staff members are going to be appearing in your Stories regularly or will be dealing with customers directly in your business, it might be a good idea to do some staff intros. Customers will know who they can expect before they even walk in your door or before you show up at their house. Just a quick video of each member giving their name, what they do, and how long they’ve been with your business will do the trick.
11. Holiday greetings
A quick and simple way to keep your content calendar full and let customers know you’re thinking about them is to post a simple acknowledgement for the major holidays. This can be as simple as a graphic or someone from your staff giving a quick, “Happy holidays from our family to yours!” message.
Quick Tip: If your hours have changed due to the holiday, this is also a great opportunity to remind your audience of those changes.
[Related: 42 Happy Holiday Messages to Put Your Marketing on the Nice List]
12. Ask for an audience vote
The poll tool on Instagram Stories is a great way to build a connection with your audience and get some easy engagement. Ask them to cast their votes on small business decisions like new scrub colors for the Vet techs or a new light fixture for the lobby of your accounting office. Including your followers in these ways lets them know you’re always thinking of them.
13. Local business shoutouts
As a local business, the community you work in and serve is everything. Use the Stories platform to give quick shoutouts to other local businesses in your area for the amazing work they do. They might just return the favor!
14. Customer highlight (with permission)
Does your café have a regular that you can count on to patronize your business every day? Or maybe your HVAC company has one household on the books for regular maintenance every three months for the foreseeable future? Use your Stories to recognize and thank them for their amazing devotion to your business. Remember to always get their permission first, though.
[Related: Hibu Client Case Study: The Eyecare Place, LLC & Aesthetics]
15. Limited-time offers
We know that a huge number of Instagram users access Stories every day, which makes it a great place to advertise any limited-time offers that might come up for you. Had a last-minute cancellation? Throw it up on Stories to see if anyone is interested in filling the spot. Baked too many cookies for the day? Run a flash sale with special pricing for today only. Since Stories are short-lived, you don’t have to worry about people finding and asking about the offer long after it’s over.
17. Quick chats
The beauty of social media is that you don’t really need an excuse to post. Not everything needs to be a scheduled event. You can hop on Stories every day just for a quick little chat with your followers. These small moments are really what help to build trust and connection with both loyal and potential customers.
[Related: 3 Ways to Stay Engaged With Your Customers Without Spending More Time]
Take your social media marketing to the next level with Hibu One
As you’ve seen in this list, keeping your Instagram Stories content fresh doesn’t have to be complicated. The platform itself suggests posting 2 Stories per day to keep good engagement and completion rates. Between this list of ideas, yourself, your staff, and your social media manager, if you have one, hopping onto Stories each day will become second nature.
And while regular posting on your platforms is essential to your social media marketing success, social media advertising can really take you above and beyond your competition. Let Hibu take the reins on that.
Our social media marketing solution is powered by Hibu One. Which means you get expert support that handles the creation, optimization, and tracking of ads on both Facebook and Instagram. We help you stay top of mind and drive more traffic to your website.
Want to learn more about what else Hibu One can offer your local business? Request a Hibu One demo, or call 877-237-6120 for a free consultation.
