how to use instagram stories as a sales funnel
Instagram Stories have become so much more than just a place to share your personal life or what you had for breakfast this morning. They’re an extremely important marketing tool that, unfortunately, many online businesses aren’t leveraging to their full potential.
More than 80% of the income generated in my online business can be directly linked to Instagram Stories. Over the past 2 years, I've been able to sign my dream clients and sell out multiple launches with ease - all due my Instagram Story strategy!
As a Marketing Mentor, my mission is to help entrepreneurs just like YOU do the same! That's why I created The 5-Point Story Framework.
This is the exact framework that has allowed me, and hundreds of my private clients and students, utilise Instagram Stories to increase my Influence, Impact & INCOME online
...and now, I'm sharing it with YOU.
THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY
In order to make sales in your business, you need to be aware of the journey your ideal client goes through. This is an example of a typical customer journey:
Awareness > Interest > Micro-Conversion > Conversion
Your ideal client first needs to become aware of you and what you have to offer before they develop an interest. After this, they may need to try a small slice of what you have to offer (either through free content, lead magnets or low ticket products) before they finally convert.
There are 5 Instagram Story pillars that you need to be creating consistently in order to take your ideal client through your customer journey to the point of conversion. These pillars are:
Authority
Connection
Engagement & visibility
Lead generation
Sales
When we put these Instagram Story pillars together, they make up my signature 5-Point Instagram Story Framework.
HERE'S WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN YOU IMPLEMENT THE FRAMEWORK:
1. YOU'LL BUILD A LOYAL, ENGAGED COMMUNITY
As you follow the 5-Point Framework, you’ll begin to build an audience who know, like and trust you. With consistency, this will turn into a loyal community of raving fans who see you as an authority and look forward to connecting with you.
2. YOU’LL START RECEIVING DMS FROM HOT LEADS
And I’m not talking about those generic copy & paste messages we all know and hate… how do DMs from HOT leads sound? Dream clients who are ready to purchase your offers in an instant! As you follow the framework, get ready for your DMs to explode!
3. YOU’LL EXPERIENCE AN INFLUX IN SALES
Ready to see the number in your bank account rise… and rise… and rise?! When you learn how to sell consistently and authentically, you’ll be able to sell out your offers in a way that feels simple and effortless… not salesy! Get ready to make more sales than ever before!
THE 5-POINT STORY FRAMEWORK
Authority
Before your audience can be ready to purchase from you, they need to first see you as an AUTHORITY. You can do this through educational content designed to give your ideal client a quick win. Doing this shows your audience that you have knowledge and expertise in that particular area AND gives them a taste of what it will be like to work with you.
When you’re able to provide your ideal client with a quick win through your free content, it solidifies you as an expert in their mind and they’ll start to wonder “if she can do this for me with her free content, what transformation might I experience through her paid offer?!”
Another way to establish your authority is by sharing the results your private clients and students are experiencing while working with you. This shows your audience that you’re not just talking the talk - you’re actually getting real people real results.
Sharing your clients and students results can be as simple as screenshotting their messages to you and sharing them on your Stories to putting together a client case study and walking your audience through how you took them from Point A to Point B.
Connection
Here’s a fun fact for you: Emotion impacts purchasing decisions 80% more than logic does.
This means that as consumers, we are more likely to purchase from those that we already know, like and trust. Especially when it comes to high ticket offers. Your audience needs to form some kind of connection with you as a PERSON before they'll be ready to purchase from you.
Want to know the quickest way to establish a true connection with someone in the online space? Through video. This is because video is the closest you can come to actually being in the room with your audience. When you show up on video, your audience are able to physically see and connect with you human to human. They get to hear the emotion in your voice and see the emotion on your face that often gets lost through text. I know the thought of appearing on video can be scary, but trust me - it’s one thing that could potentially make or break your business.
If the thought of showing up on video scares you, check out this blog post I wrote: How To Show Up On Instagram Stories With Confidence.
Video is a medium for how you present your content, so let’s not forget about creating a connection through your content itself.
When it comes to creating content that builds a connection with your audience, one of the best ways to do this is through storytelling and really tapping into the emotions of your ideal client. This could be the reason you started your business, the journey you’ve gone through, your success, your failures… content that allows your ideal client to see themselves in you!
Engaging
Instagram Stories that engage your audience are a great way to get to know your audience and turn your platform into a two-way conversation. Remember what we spoke about earlier - consumers are more likely to purchase from someone they know and engage with over someone they’ve never interacted with before.
As you train your audience to interact with your Stories, Instagram will notice that they seem to enjoy and engage with your Stories more than others. As a result, your Stories will be pushed to the front of their queue.
At the same time, as your Story receives more engagement, Instagram recognises that you’re putting out valuable content that people are actually taking the time to engage with and they’ll begin to favour you in the algorithm, exposing you to a larger portion of your audience and resulting in even more views and engagement.
So how do we get our audience to engage and interact with our Stories in the first place? By utilising Instagram’s interactive stickers.
When you utilise Instagram’s interactive stickers - such as polls, quizzes and question stickers - you’re able to engage your audience. After all, most people can’t tap past a poll sticker without giving their input, especially when you make it fun for your audience! One of my favourite ways to create fun, engaging content for my audience is by hosting games such as ‘True or False’ that are guaranteed to entertain my audience and encourages them to stop and interact with my Stories because it’s actually FUN for them!
Utilising these interactive stickers also makes it so much easier to reach out and have meaningful conversations with your audience to increase your connection.
Lead Generation
Although every person who watches your Instagram Stories is already a lead of some sort, are designed to generate, expose and identify your warmest leads. Those who are more likely to purchase.
There are many types of Stories that generate leads for your business, but my personal favourite is sharing the link to my lead magnet - a freebie strategically designed to give my ideal client a quick win.
Not only does this give my ideal client a quick win, but it also gets them off of Instagram and onto my email list where I’m able to enter them into a funnel that nurtures them before converting them into my paid offer.
Sales
And finally, the one you’ve been waiting for - sales.
You need to be regularly creating Stories that promote your offer. There’s absolutely no use in spending your time creating content online if your audience doesn't even know how they can work with you.
And here’s the thing - your ideal client needs to hear about your offer a minimum of 8 - 12 times before they’ll even consider purchasing, which is why you need to be consistently talking about your offers. Not once a month. Not even once a week. You should be talking about your offer every day - or at least a minimum of 3x per week.
I know the thought of selling every day can seem like a lot, but when you do this through a healthy mixture of hard selling AND soft selling, it ensures that you’re not overwhelming your audience but you’re still able to plant the seed in their mind. There are plenty of ways that you can sell every day without feeling sleazy and without your audience even realising that you’re selling to them.
For example, you could create an Instagram Story sharing behind the scenes looks at your offer and processes, you could share client case studies breaking down what they’ve achieved with you, you could host a mini training on a topic that you regularly help your clients with… there are so many ways to sell to your audience without them actually feeling like you’re selling. It doesn’t have to be sleazy
xo, Leticia
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Hey, I’m Tish
I’m an online marketing strategist for creative entrepreneurs who want to build an influential and profitable online business on their own terms.
Grab a cuppa, get comfy and stay for a while ☕️☁️
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