How to Make Instagram Stories More Engaging

Instagram stories are an important place to engage with your community. They’re easy to tap through, take seconds to consume, and are an effortless way for customers to stay up to date with their favourite brands.

But they’re so easily skippable!

Especially if your content isn’t up to par.

So here’s how to make your Instagram stories more engaging, so you can build a community that’s obsessed with what you sell, foster genuine relationships with your customers, and ultimately increase your website traffic and sales. 

What You’re Posting

If you’re expecting a list of “hacks” to make your Instagram stories more engaging, you’ve got the wrong social media strategist. 

No amount of hacks will make up for bad content. 

I’m not saying your content is bad. 

But if you’re here, you know it could be better. So let’s get into how to make your Instagram stories more engaging by improving what you’re posting.

1. Post Content Your Community Cares About

Use your Instagram insights to determine what content gets the most engagement. Create more of that content in new and fresh ways. If you’re just starting out, here are 45 free post ideas.

2. Use a Strong Hook 

Hook statements are all the rage right now for reels and posts – but they work for Instagram stories too. Apply the lessons in this blog post to your Instagram stories to quickly get your customer’s attention. Or steal these 40 plug & play hooks to get you started.

3. Keep it Short, Sweet, and Simple

Save the long-form content for your blog posts, grid posts, and the occasional reel. Keep your Instagram stories short and sweet with simple, easy-to-understand copy. If you need a number, aim for three slides. 

4. Use Instagram Story Engagement Stickers

Instagram wants to help you engage with your audience so use their tools to your advantage! Instagram story polls, question boxes, and quizzes are all ways to increase your engagement, learn about your community, and help them feel involved.

5. Ask Your Customers to Reply to Your Story

Take the Instagram story stickers a step further and ask your community to reply to your stories. It’s a chance to have a 1:1 conversation and build relationships with your most-engaged followers. 

6. Include Instagram Story Links

And not just at the end! You never know when your follower will be ready to click a link. Instead of including story links only at the end, include them in as many slides as possible to increase your opportunity for engagement, website traffic, and sales. 

7. Ensure Your Content is On-Brand & Beautiful 

No matter who your target audience is, I bet they’re more likely to consume content that’s aesthetically pleasing. Our brains are hardwired to look for and to enjoy pretty things. Use that to your advantage with these Instagram design tips. 

When You’re Posting

Using your Instagram insights, find out what your best time of posting is. But I know that sometimes, it’ll tell you that your best time of posting is super early in the morning, in the middle of the day when you’re trying to focus, or late at night. 

If that’s the case, I’ll say that generally speaking, across multiple client accounts, I’ve found that between 8 and 9am (your local time) performs well. 

Once you’ve chosen a time, before judging if this works for your account, commit to it for at least three weeks but ideally three months. 

How Often You’re Posting

Less is more, folks. 

Through years of trial and error, I’ve learned that posting one time per day, at the same time every day, significantly increases my Instagram story reach (and therefore, engagement). This is true for my own account and for my clients. 

After all, there’s some truth to leaving your customers wanting more. 

Best Practice: Use Instagram Story Templates

I recommend templating ALL of your social media content (and marketing in general).

Using Instagram post templates, reel cover templates, and story templates allows you to present a consistent look and feel, enhance brand awareness and recognition, and it makes your workflow so much easier. 

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Wait, Who Am I?

Hiiii! 👋🏻 I’m Sarah, an online entrepreneur & marketer of over 10 years. I went from starting a clean beauty blog right out of high school to managing social media for Canada’s largest wellness retailer. Now I live in the middle of nowhere in North Carolina, helping high-growth entrepreneurs get SEEN so they can build a crazy fun life their business supports, and not the other way around.

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