Instagram Stories have taken such an important place in almost every marketing strategy.
It has shown to be an effective strategy to attract more audience, drive more visitors to your website, and ultimately sell more of your services and products.
Besides, better engagement metrics can help Instagram's algorithm show your content on more Instagram users' feeds. As a result, you should start making high-quality, engaging stories that encourage viewers to like, comment, and share.
To get you started, we've compiled a list of 10 Instagram Stories Examples that you can use to boost your marketing campaigns.
1. Taco Bell: Using User Generated Content
Taco Bell is one of the top five restaurant chains in the US based on sales. It’s continually coming up with new strategies to stay ahead of the competition, such as releasing mobile food ordering, expanding countrywide delivery, and using an Instagram strategy.Taco Bell's Instagram strategy includes displaying user-generated content on their story. For example, it posts its clients' photos, branded hashtags produced by one of its customers, or fan-made material like makeup artist work.
Sharing UGC stories is a great way to demonstrate how much everyone likes Taco Bell. It also shows that Taco Bell is paying attention to its customers and will encourage them and others to keep sharing about its product.
2. Nintendo: Nurturing Customer Loyalty
Nintendo is one of the most successful game companies. It has made games more portable, accessible, and enjoyable, which is the first step in establishing customer loyalty.
Nintendo's Instagram stories feature a variety of loyalty programs, including rewarding customers, showing expertise by sharing tips and information that they would all find valuable, and giving customers the first look at new products.
Furthermore, they keep their fans engaged with story activities such as unboxing stories, guessing games, and live stories.
It is critical for businesses today to create a loyalty program to maintain growth and ensure audience development. Well-designed customer loyalty programs are proven to be the most effective retention strategy.
3. National Geographic: Partnerships with Like-Minded Companies
A partnership strategy is a win-win situation for both sides. It is common among well-known companies. Finding common value, a solid reputation, and complimentary services are the most crucial elements of a successful, like-minded partnership.
To give you an idea, National Geography has a partnership with Hyundai. It's a complimentary service since they both encourage travel. They also share a commitment to responsible management of society and the environment to achieve stability and security today and in the future.
National Geography has the “stronger together” cooperation program that seeks like-minded partners. They describe the partnership's missions and how they might work together to achieve their purposes.
4. Nike: Diversity Campaign
Nike's marketing campaign is instantly recognizable for its messaging on empowerment, equality, and diversity.
Their Instagram Stories go beyond highlighting actors and professional athletes. They feature athletes of colors, genders, nationalities, and people with disabilities to share their stories in a way that promotes diversity and shows that everyone has a place in sports.
These inspirational stories have helped Nike cultivate a devoted fan base and encourage customers to associate their purchases with their values and beliefs.
5. Prada: Aiming for a Specific Audience
The Prada Group has declared that it would no longer use animal fur in its designs or new items, starting from Spring & Summer 2020 Women’s collections. As a result of this, Prada has gained a new audience from the sustainability community.
However, in each collection campaign, Prada links the collection's emotions using specific photographs and hashtags.
Take a look at Prada's Instagram stories for their AW21 collection, for example. This new campaign's hashtag was #FeelsLikePrada. Each image evokes independent feelings that target a specific audience.
Targeting a specific audience has helped Prada solidify its brand voice and boost its social media branding.
6. Forever 21: Promoting Other Platforms
To celebrate Latina Heritage Month, Forever21 has created an IG story promoting food locations. It tagged a Latina influencer who shared her story on Instagram using Instagram Stories.
Forever21 has used this strategy with Tiktokers and YouTubers on many occasions. It not only tags them but also includes a link to their videos and content.
The main goals of this strategy are expanding Forever21 audiences, encouraging engagement, and building trust. When Influencers share Forever21 stories, they provide social proof to potential customers and drive traffic to the brand's website.
7. Disney: Keeping Fans Involved
The Disney fan base reaches far thanks to its extensive film collection, amusement park, and product partnerships with major retailers and others.
However, Disney's Instagram Stories also provide a variety of material that keeps people interested. Disney involves its fans with fascinating content ranging from new movie trailers to timed quizzes and Disney park activities. It also generates hashtags for its followers, such as #disneymagicmoments, which help Disney feature user-generated content.
This engagement strategy allows Disney to expand its social reach, increasing brand recognition and building and enhancing consumer trust and loyalty.
8. NBA: Creating a Buzz
"The NBA markets its players, and players drive who we are in the NBA," Mark Cuban said.
The NBA has been linking its players with things that already have a buzz, such as dance moves, fashion, humor, among others.
For instance, the NBA launched a campaign called NBA Lane. They are celebrating the 75th anniversary of the NBA by posting short films with engaging material that can go viral and inspire fans to follow the new season.
Furthermore, sharing real-time content, updates, and news from across the league has proven to be a critical marketing element for maximizing the popularity of NBA campaigns.
9. Stephen Colbert: Takeover of the Stories
Stephen Colbert employs a social media marketing strategy known as story takeover. It involves allowing an influencer to temporarily take over an IG business's account and share real-time content throughout the day. It's a win-win situation for both brands and influencers.
Stephen Colbert, for example, has given actress Hailee Steinfeld to take over his Instagram Stories on the day of her performance on the show. She provided ten stories about preparing for the performance. The show highlighted her stories on its IG profile. Stephen Colbert has done the same with other celebrities such as Dolly Parton and Drew Barrymore.
This type of collaboration has helped Stephen Colbert gain new followers organically and build his show's presence on IG.
10. The New York Times: Diverse Perspectives
Diversity improves brand reputation. The New York Times has released gender, race, and ethnicity statistics for its workforce to determine its dedication to diversity.
The New York Times reflects this culture on their Instagram stories, showing diverse staff from varied backgrounds who create a wide range of thoughts and perspectives.
Besides, the media organization also features a variety of stories, voices, and subgroups such as people of color, individuals with disabilities, and those who are discriminated against because of their religion, race, or sexual orientation.
This diversity marketing fosters deep relationships between the brand and its target audience. Because a diverse workforce produces stronger ideas, better understands audience needs and addresses their pain points.
How to Make a Successful Instagram Stories Campaign
According to Hootsuite, 500 million people use Instagram Stories every day. Around 50% of those who have seen a product or service in stories have visited a website to make a purchase.
As a result, you need to develop a specific IG stories approach to reach your marketing goal.
Aside from the inspiring Instagram Story Examples provided above, the following process is critical for the success of any campaign:
- To begin, you should create stories with a purpose in mind. This purpose might be increasing traffic to your website, driving conversion metrics like email signups, purchases, or generating leads.
- Then, create high-quality, engaging content that matches the style and personality of your target audience. If you haven't defined your target audience yet, you should do so before you begin creating. It's critical to understand whether your audience likes photo-based stories or videos, which stickers they interact with the most, hashtags they use and follow, and so on.
- Follow Instagram's size and layout requirements. It's best to use design tools like Canva or Adobe.
- Ensure you include interactive elements to your stories, such as poll stickers, questions, tags, and fascinating information in order to keep your instagram followers engaged.
- Follow Instagram security best practices to protect your personal from hackers attracted to successful accounts.
Don't stop with story creation; save your stories campaign to your highlights and make it visible to new profile visitors.
Wrapping Up
Instagram Story campaigns to promote your brand are quite popular. The strategies are limitless. You can boost your marketing campaign by using your creativity.
Stories are a great way to connect with your audience while setting your own rules. Just consider solid planning. You learned important tips from this article.
Have a purpose before anything else. Then create high-quality, engaging content that matches the style and personality of your target audience. Don’t forget to take into account Instagram’s content requirements. Finally, make sure you include interactive elements in your stories to keep your audience engaged.
Take the risk of trying new ideas inspired by these Instagram Stories campaigns. Then, you will be able to manage your own with ease.