If you are looking for a fresh and new way to promote your business, you might want to consider Instagram. According to Sprout Social, 80% of users follow a business on Instagram. There’s several ways to incorporate Instagram into your marketing efforts, but the most interesting and eye catching way is to use Instagram Stories. We’ve asked these successful work-at-home entrepreneurs how they use this feature and what they suggest for getting the best results.

Laura Egocheaga

Divibe Tech, Prime Influencer Program 
@LauraEgocheaga 

1) Come Up with a COLD TRAFFIC headline for your Instagram story and record a 15 second story enticing people to either click the link in your bio (if less than 10k followers) or swipe up to get to your landing page for your lead magnet.

2) Create a “reality tv” style IG story sequence related to your WAH business that will make your ideal customer engage with you to learn more.

3)  Run paid IG story ads for traffic and test our your funnel to see how it converts – (VERY CHEAP RIGHT NOW).

Julia Enthoven

Kapwing 

1) For Instagram stories, you’ll need to post vertical video (9:16 aspect ratio). You can resize old 1:1 Instagram posts, YouTube videos, landscape videos, or any GIF to fit your story using Kapwing’s free online resizing tool.

2) Instagram Stories has a cool Stop Motion tool. But if you want to apply a stop motion effect to a video you already captured or transform a series of photos into a video.

 Katherine Seller

Metal Marvels 
@themetalmarvels 

1) Highlight your products! Especially if you can show them being used. So I use our mugs for my morning coffee, I use our glasses for juice or booze if it’s time for that. I show myself wearing the bracelets, and just using all products. Even if I’m secretly still in my pjs.

2) Give them an inside look at your real life, your story. Share when things happen that are good, and even the bad. Give them a behind the scenes of you working.

3) Use LIVE to interact with your followers. They want to meet the face behind the brand and to feel valued and heard.

Brandyce Stephenson

B. Soulworks 
@BrandycePB 

1)  Be engaging – let the audience (your potential clients) in BTS of your life and business. It builds the know, like, and trust factor.

2)  Have Fun. IG stories is one way of marketing that you can let loose a little and have fun and not be so planned or staged, which lends itself to
true authenticity and the opportunity to be vulnerable.

3) Use the HIGHLIGHT feature to save your lives for future. You can create a highlight around an event, promotion, or other offer and have it live right at the top of your profile.

 Mandie Brice

Makeup By Mandie Brice
@mandiebrice

1) Use the highlights to feature the best parts of your business and offering – people will see them on the top of your profile, and you can be sure that no matter what you’ve posted to your grid recently.

2) Take advantage of stories to show behind-the-scenes action of your brand and what goes on, without worry that it’s a beautifully curated magazine quality image, like the pictures in your grid!

3) Use stories to create a dialogue with your customers and future customers. Doing videos and photos in the stories not only brings you up to the top of the feed, but also increases the trust a customer has in you, as they feel like they get to know you better. Also, you can use the poll option or ask questions to get valuable feedback from your clients to help inform product development and to make sure you’re offering what people need!

Nate Masterson

Maple Holistics
@mapleholistics

Add your location to your Instagram story. This is a great way to get potential customers to visit your store if it’s nearby.

Post stories regularly. This is especially important with Instagram stories because they disappear after 24 hours, which is good because this means that you can post new and exciting content.

Show your followers sneak peeks of what goes on behind the scenes in your
business. This makes your customers feel involved in your business, promoting customer loyalty.

Feature special offers on your Instagram stories. You can either make these offers available to everyone or exclusive to followers.

Do you have a tip for using Instagram Stories? Please let us know in the comments below.