Are these IG story mistakes keeping you from getting more clients?
Instagram stories are a powerful tool to get more clients to inquire with you BUT you need to know how to use them correctly. In this blog post, you will learn about the top 3 mistakes I see businesses make on Instagram that keep them from getting more clients.
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1) You don't understand the purpose of stories & their place in the overall social media strategy
Stories are meant for the middle and mostly the lower end of the sales funnel and all the other posts (feed posts, carousel posts, and even Reels) should come first in the customer journey.
If you just use stories to share your feed posts, you are completely neglecting the purpose of stories because you are simply serving the purpose that feed posts have in your social media strategy. I totally understand that if you make an amazing post you want people to see it but stories are here to tell stories!
In the long term, your followers will learn that you don't provide much extra value in your stories and either unfollow or not watch your stories at all which will lead to lower engagement & lower views.
Examples of valuable stories:
Insights into your day-to-day life
Mini-trainings
More personal insights (behind-the-scenes,...)
Tips & tricks your followers don't get on your feed
2) You don't show your face
I know it can be scary to take out your phone and record a story with you talking but that's the best way to increase your story views and to make it easier for clients to inquire with you!
When someone is about to hire a service they are facing more risk compared to someone who is buying a product. This means that you as a service provider need to put in more effort to generate someone's trust so they will hire you.
As a small business, people will want to connect a face to the business compared to the large, faceless corporations. If you don't show your face, then you don't play to your advantage and miss out on this opportunity.
Another reason why showing your face on social media is so important is that the human brain is drawn to other human faces! It's an easy way to grab someone's attention and hook them in.
3) You focus the attention of the viewer onto yourself instead of the value you provide
Many people focus too much on posting stories that are easy for them to make instead of thinking about what would be useful to their audience. They will say things like:
"Oh, sorry guys! My hair looks just weird today! I'm sorry I didn't have time to wash it but you know just don't look at it!" or "I'm so tired today, I didn't sleep but anyway, let's get started!"
By using sentences like those, you are actually pulling all the attention away from the topic and the viewer or ideal client towards yourself and this will give the viewer the feeling that what they need to hear or what they're struggling with is not as important.
You are present on Instagram to serve your audience and not to feel better about yourself.
Some more tips:
Whenever you hop on stories, try to first think of what you want to say and scrap all of the filler sentences that are just there to make you feel more comfortable- we really don't need them!
Always think of the fact that you should provide some sort of value when you make stories.
Show your beautiful face! Nobody notices if your hair is a little greasy or if you have under-eye bags! And even if - you're just human like everyone else! That is only going to add some relatability to your whole business!
Talk soon,
Hanna