It’s no doubt that Instagram is rapidly growing. And video is the hottest content format on this platform. Instagram Stories are one kind of video format. Here are the hottest trends and baselines for Instagram Stories marketing that you should follow this year.
Let’s discover how businesses are using Instagram Stories in their marketing strategies.
Marketers’ Plans for Instagram
By 2025, nearly 40% of the U.S. population will have an account on Instagram.
On June 30, 2021, Instagram’s Adam Mosseri said, “We’re no longer a photo-sharing app or a square photo-sharing app.” Video content is driving huge growth across all of the major social media platforms and it’s something Instagram wants to invest in more.
Instagram Stories is your easy onramp to video.
Let’s start by taking a look at some data from a 2021 Social Media Marketing Industry Report of the Social media examiner.
They made research interviewing thousands of marketers what their organic social plans were in 2021. Nearly two in three marketers (64%) said that they planned on doing more with Instagram.
They then drilled down into their video marketing plans on the major social media platforms. A substantial 72% said they planned to do more with Instagram videos.
Let’s Zoom in on Stories
One in three marketers said Stories-based video was the most essential and hottest form of video marketing.
However, when we filtered those who said that Instagram was their most essential platform, 47% said Stories-based video was most important.
We asked marketers which types of video marketing they do by platform and Instagram Stories is used by the majority (84%).
A substantial 83% of marketers who work with influencers use Instagram Stories, according to data from eMarketer.
This data should make it super clear that marketing with Stories is very high on many marketers’ lists.
Instagram Stories Benchmark Data
Rival IQ did a great study on Instagram Stories that gives you a lot of information about Stories engagement, posting frequency, and much more.
It found that the average Instagram account was using Stories 10 times a month and that top-performing accounts were posting at least 16 times monthly (every other day on average).
When accounts did post, there were three or more frames per story.
Let’s take a look at the reach of Stories (calculated as views divided by followers) below, categorized by account size. Reach seems to decrease as follower count increases.
This study also describes the average retention rate when audiences viewed multiple frames within stories.
Some Closing Thoughts
Let’s explore the advantages and disadvantages of using Instagram Stories.
The disadvantages of Stories-based marketing:
- They disappear: The idea of creating content that’s gone in 24 hours isn’t easy for marketers to follow.
- You need a constant influx of new content: Creating stories can require a lot of planning.
- No public community engagement: Except for polls showing results and the Add Yours sticker, there are no public community choices. Instead, you need to manage an inbox of direct messages.
The advantages of Stories-based marketing:
- They disappear: Your loyal fans won’t want to miss out on your stories and will go out of their way to watch them.
- They’re full-screen experiences: When people consume stories, they see nothing else. This is a great chance to pay attention to a progressive storyline.
- Private DMs can lead to sales: People will ask you things in private they might never ask in public. This is a chance to turn those conversations into sales. Moreover, Instagram DM automation tools are now available.
- Some stories can live on: You can save your best stories to Highlights or Guides, then they can become an evergreen source of content.
Stories could be a really big chance for your marketing. Hope this guide of trends and baselines for Instagram Stories marketing can help you increase your results.