By Colby Flood
Instagram, now owned by Facebook, is the third most downloaded app in the Apple Store, totaling 1 billion monthly active users. Much like Facebook, businesses are utilizing the platform as a marketing resource to discover new buyers, and build a deeper connection with their existing audience.
Unlike Facebook, which has sections for businesses to display reviews, services, and more, Instagram limits the real estate for accounts to use for business purposes. The app allows you to share your contact information in the page bio, but there isn’t a section business specifics like reviews and product offers. That is where knowing the features of the platform and being resourceful comes into play.
In this blog, I will share how your business can use Instagram Highlights to boost your brand awareness and make the most of your Instagram marketing efforts.
What Are Instagram Highlights?
Instagram Highlights are an opportunity for you to leave a lasting first impression on your page visitors by creating strategic groupings of photos and videos that tell your brand story. This feature allows you to save stories you post and group them based on collections you create.
The main difference between stories and highlights is the lifetime they are viewable. Stories have a lifespan of 24 hours, while Instagram Highlights stay on your page until you delete them. Both Stories and Highlights have viewer tracking, letting you see which Instagram accounts looked at each piece of content.
How to Use Instagram Highlights
Think about your business’s core attributes when creating your highlight collections. What things should people know and what makes your business different. Here is a list of highlights you can use for your business page.
1. Testimonials
“93% of consumers say online reviews impact their purchasing decisions.” (Podium) Testimonies are one of the most effective marketing tools available, and they cost absolutely nothing to create. Create a highlight group titled Reviews or Testimonies. Using Canva create an IG Story template that combines the client’s photo and the text from their testimonial. Select some of your best testimonials from Google and Facebook to create this collection.
2. Products/Services
A Highlight showing off your products and services is a great opportunity to create awareness, but there is such a thing as attention overload. Review your sales report and use the top-performing products or services in this category. Also, keep in mind that not everyone is familiar with what you offer. It could be beneficial to use this group as an educational platform to show what problems your products and services solve.
3. Promotions
Create a Highlight for your monthly promotion and make sure people understand it is a time-sensitive offer. Don’t limit this highlight by only showcasing the sale. Take the time to show the product or service in use, sharing the value that it provides.
4. Demos
Demos are an opportunity for potential clients to build a familiarity with you, your brand, and the products/services you provide. Create a video showing how to use the product you sell or a demo of your service being provided to a client. There are entire Instagram accounts dedicated to demos and tutorials.
5. Staff
A highlight for introducing your staff can create a familiarity that is especially beneficial for businesses providing services like Medical Spas. Potential clients like to have an idea who will be working with them prior to committing to an appointment.
6. Your Cause
What is your mission and why does your brand exist? What is the drive behind your efforts? Create a highlight group sharing your cause and why you do the things you do. You could be a single mom who supports her family by being an Esthetician or a skincare brand that gives back to teens. Everyone’s story is different and great in their own way. Make sure to share yours.
Instagram Highlights are a great resource to share your brand story and help catch the interest of potential buyers.
You now have all the information you need to create a high-performing collection of Instagram Highlights. Time to get to work!
Make sure to review the performance of your highlights and look for any significant drop off in viewers. If you notice one slide has a major drop off, remove it from the highlight or replace it with content you believe will perform better.
