When Instagram Stories were launched in 2016, they offered new opportunities for both brands and users to be more authentic and creative on the platform. Today, this 24-hour media format has become a staple in most Instagram marketing strategies, complementing the posts you share permanently on your feed.
What are Instagram Stickers?
Instagram stickers are dynamic graphic elements that can be added to photo and video stories. Some are animated, some are clickable, and others allow users to interact directly with your Instagram story. Simply put, they make your stories more engaging, increasing the likelihood that users will interact with them.
How to Use Instagram Story Stickers
After capturing or uploading your photo or video, you can add stickers by tapping the sticker icon in the top right corner of your story editing options. Once you click this icon, a list of stickers will appear. Customizable or interactive stickers will show up first, including the hashtag sticker, mention sticker, and location sticker.
Cute Instagram Stickers
While functional stickers like the hashtag sticker and link sticker are very useful, sometimes it’s nice to add a cute sticker for aesthetic purposes. Cute and playful stickers can help enhance your visual identity or express a more spontaneous interaction in your Instagram story.
Types of Instagram Stickers
There are many options available for selecting Instagram stickers, but some stickers are particularly relevant to marketing, including:
- Hashtag Stickers: Add a clickable hashtag to your Instagram story to reach more users.
- Poll Stickers: Ask users a question and give them two options to choose from.
- Question Stickers: Allow you to gather ideas and feedback from your audience using an open-ended question.
- Location Stickers: Attach a location to your Instagram story to increase its reach.
- Mention Stickers: Tag another user in your stories, notifying them that you have done so.
- Music Stickers: Add background music to your photos or videos.
- Countdown Stickers: Add a countdown timer for a specific event or date.
- GIF Stickers: Add animated GIPHY graphics to your stories.
- Shopping Stickers: Allow business accounts to tag products in their stories.
- Emoji Slider Poll Stickers: Ask users a question they can answer using a slider.
- Date Stickers: Display the date a photo, video, or story was created.
- Link Stickers: Allow you to add a link to external content in your story.
Creative Ways to Use Instagram Story Stickers for Marketing
There are many creative ways to use Instagram story stickers for marketing purposes, including:
- Soliciting feedback and testing ideas: You can use poll stickers and question stickers to gather audience opinions and test new ideas.
- Hosting “Ask Me Anything” sessions: You can use question stickers to engage with your audience and allow them to ask questions that may not be covered in your “About Us” page.
- Sharing user-generated content: You can use mention stickers to share user-generated content in your stories and credit the creator.
- Adding music to your stories: You can use music stickers to create a specific atmosphere in your stories and capture users’ attention.
- Promoting your branded hashtags: You can use hashtag stickers to draw attention to your hashtags and increase brand awareness.
- Tagging locations of events you attend: You can use location stickers to show your followers that you are present at a specific event and increase discoverability for others if they are exploring the same location tag.
- Asking customers to choose between products: You can use poll stickers to ask customers to choose between different products and promote them simultaneously.
- Using date stickers to remind of past events or promote upcoming ones.
- Increasing
Tracking Instagram Sticker Performance
To understand the impact of different stickers on your content, it’s important to monitor their performance. You can do this using Instagram analytics. Instagram’s analytics reports provide a special section for Instagram stories where you can view the performance of each story based on key metrics.
Additionally, you can track other metrics such as the number of visits to your profile, the number of responses to your story, and the number of clicks on sticker links. You can also use external Instagram tools to obtain the same information and store it for extended periods.
By monitoring sticker performance, you can learn how they affect your stories’ performance and use this information to enhance your strategy in the future.
Instagram Stickers: A Fun and Functional Feature
Instagram stickers are more than just a fun addition that adds a smile to your stories. They can play a crucial role in Instagram marketing, allowing you to generate social proof, increase engagement, reach, brand awareness, and traffic to your profile and even your website.
They are an important part of your Instagram marketing tools, and with the right strategy, they can help you make the most out of every story you post.
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