9 tips to create engaging Instagram Stories
No longer the "new kid on the block," Instagram Stories represent an opportunity for every brand to connect in additional ways with its target audience.
Launched in 2016, Instagram Stories allow you to post multiple images and/or videos in a vertical format, where you can layer on various doodles, text and/or interactive stickers. They last 24 hours before disappearing, but they can be pinned to your Instagram profile in Highlight groupings and last longer.
(If this sounds very similar to Snapchat Stories, which were launched in 2013, then you're right.)
About 500 million accounts use Instagram Stories every day, and about one-third of the most-viewed Instagram Stories come from businesses.
Incorporating Stories into your Instagram publishing strategy helps you reach your audience in two different places in the app, both in the Stories section and the traditional feed section.
Check out our 16 overall Instagram marketing tips that you can try right away. Plus, see the 14 biggest mistakes companies make on Instagram (and how to avoid them).
The following are nine tips to help you create engaging Instagram Stories that best reflect your company's brand.
| Tip | In short |
|---|---|
| Build a Story-specific style guide | Fonts, filters, colors, and GIF style, kept consistent |
| Use storyboards | Plan the narrative before you touch the design |
| Stay within the lines | Leave room for usernames and interactive elements |
| Mix up your multimedia | Photos, Boomerangs, video, GIFs, and audio |
| Take advantage of stickers | Polls, quizzes, tags, and your own branded GIFs |
| Use the link sticker | No follower minimum anymore, so use it from day one |
| Create branded highlight covers | Keep Stories working long after the 24 hours |
| Explore design tools | You don't need to be a designer to look like one |
| Monitor your performance | Instagram Insights, checked regularly |
Create an Instagram Story-specific style guide
Style guides are a great tool for branding consistency. (See our nine expert tips for starting a new brand from scratch.)
They can include your font choices, preferred filters, branded colors, GIF types and so on.
While your style guide can be in any format, the key is that it can be easily shared among your team members. Your brand can then appear the same regardless of who is creating your Story content.
Use storyboards
With so many content options to explore within Instagram Stories, a great way to get started involves trying storyboards.
This helps you fully plan out your Story before diving into the design.
And planning is everything.
Storyboards can be as simple as sketching out your ideas slide by slide.
- What multimedia do you want to use?
- How will you string your slides together to create a visual narrative?
- What call-to-action do you want to promote? How?
- Any key brand colors to include?
What you decide in advance will make your creation process more efficient and more effective.
Stay within the lines
Instagram Stories are displayed with usernames and ways to interact with the Story along the top and bottom of the screen. So, you definitely don't want to design your Story in such a way that your content gets covered up by buttons and other features.
Fortunately, Instagram offers grid lines as a guideline to stay within. Think lines of a coloring book. You'll want to stay within them.
While you'll see these grid lines appear as necessary when designing within the Instagram app, keep the following spacing in mind if you're designing outside of the app:
- Instagram Story dimensions are 1080 pixels by 1920 pixels.
- But, ideally, you'll want to center your design elements within 1080 pixels by 1420 pixels.
- In other words, leave 250 pixels of space at the top and bottom of your Instagram Story design.
Mix up your multimedia
You have almost endless options when it comes to the types of multimedia you can use in your Stories. Don't get stuck in a rut.
In fact, even a string of slides together can mix things up throughout your visual narration to help keep the viewer engaged.
Types include:
- Photography, whether original or stock images
- Boomerangs, which are looped video clips
- Videos
- GIFs
- Audio
Always be open to experimentation for the benefit of better connecting with your target audience. (Not sure who your target audience is? See our seven tips.)
Take advantage of stickers
Whether you're looking to add humor or simply a touch of fun engagement, Instagram's stickers are a great place to start on your Stories.
They range in functions, including frivolous angles, but some of the most useful include:
- Polls
- Quizzes
- Hashtags
- Account tags
- Location tags
You also can create your own stickers and GIFs for users to add to their own Stories. You can do so by becoming a verified brand on Giphy.
Use the link sticker
This tip has genuinely changed since Instagram Stories first launched. "Swipe Up" used to require 10,000 followers or a verified account, but Instagram retired that whole system back in October 2021. Now, every account, regardless of follower count, gets a link sticker that any viewer can tap to open a linked page directly from your Story.
You can customize the sticker's visible text (instead of a generic "link" label) and its color to match your Story design, and you can place it anywhere on the slide. Just remember that Instagram limits you to one link sticker per Story frame.
Since this feature no longer has a follower threshold, there's no reason to wait to build call-to-action-driven Stories around it, even for a brand-new account.
Create branded highlight covers
While Instagram Stories typically last for only 24 hours, you can add them to the highlights section at the top of your Instagram profile to save them beyond the 24 hours.
There is no limit to the number of highlights you can create, but users will only see the most recently updated five on your profile without having to scroll.
Once you begin using highlights, you can create and use cover images. You can design these to reflect your brand presence on Instagram.
Explore tools to create your best Instagram Stories
You don't have to be a graphic designer or an Instagram native app designing expert to create engaging visuals for your Stories.
There are a number of templates that you can start with, but more importantly, we recommend checking out any of these 11 free graphic design tools for the non-designer.
Monitor your performance
Just like with any digital marketing tactic (especially on social media), you'll want to keep an eye on the analytics behind your Instagram Stories.
That's easy enough to do within Instagram Insights, available on Business and Creator accounts. See our breakdown of which Instagram account type is right for your brand if you're not sure you're set up correctly. The key is to know when to pivot your strategy.
See our guide to better understanding your metrics on Instagram.
You also can dive deeper into the opportunities and challenges of Instagram for small businesses and our six tips to master Instagram hashtags.
Then, consider leveling up your digital marketing with DailyStory. Features include automating various marketing tasks, dynamic audience segmentation and more. Schedule your free demo with us today.