Okay, dear social media, overwhelmed. It's not me,
it's you and it's over. That's right.
It's time to break up with the overwhelm of posting to your stories.
It'd be fun, they said. It'd be easy, they said.
And yet it seems like every entrepreneur around you is celebrating another
client, another sale, another student who found them on social media,
but how? Is it all the apps?
Are they just using the right apps to create pretty on-brand stories so that
people flock to their DMs and throw money at them? I tried the apps.
I spent all my time making pretty on-brand stories that were flashy and sexy and
I made sure I looked good on camera, but guess what?
I didn't really see any return back to my business with these pretty stories.
I almost gave up on Instagram stories. Yes, even as an Instagram marketer,
because I just didn't see the value. All the time they took,
but what was the return? That was until one day.
I had a major realization.
If you've ever struggled with what to share in your Instagram stories for your
business so that you don't come off spammy, irrelevant or annoying,
you're in the perfect place because today I am going to share with you my
special framework that I use for my Instagram stories so that I can get more
visibility, more engagement, more leads,
and more sales back to my business.
And stay tuned until the end where I'm going to share with you how to apply this
framework to your business every day and make your life a whole lot simpler.
What I'm about to teach you has already worked for over a thousand students
inside my program, Story Vault,
including Amber from Ooh la la studio.
She enrolled in Story Vault in the morning and within an hour applied one of my
teachings and she got a new lead to her business.
This is the power of using Instagram stories strategically.
I'm Elise Darma and I've helped thousands of entrepreneurs like yourself use
Instagram so that it becomes another revenue stream in your business.
And today I'm sharing how to use Instagram stories for your business.
So let's go back to that realization I had that day when I almost gave up on
using stories in my business. What I realized was just like the weather seasons,
my business had different seasons of goals.
Sometimes it was visibility,
meaning I wanted more eyeballs on my Instagram profile and other times it was
lead generation.
I wanted to grow my email list and the number of DMs I was getting,
so applying this concept of seasons to my business has been a game-changer and
that's what I'm going to walk you through today.
Since then I've developed the story seasons method and the four seasons are
these: visibility, engagement,
lead generation and sales. You can see how that's basically a customer journey.
For someone to become a customer,
they first have to become aware of you and so you need to be visible.
Then they need to engage or have some interest or desire in what you're
offering. Then they need to become a lead, basically raise their hand and say,
yes, I'm interested in what you're offering,
and then that's when they see your offer and they become a customer in your
business and the sale gets closed. The thing is,
every customer in your business, will go through this exact same cycle,
so it's important your stories are hitting all these seasons in your content
planning. For example,
you could be in your stories today asking people to book a call with you or sign
up for your program, but if you haven't done the work in the visibility season,
meaning you haven't gotten enough fresh new people to your profile,
you might be getting crickets in return or a very low engagement rate.
So the order of the seasons is important. If you're still with me,
let's walk through what an Instagram story looks like for each one of the
seasons. The first season is visibility.
What do stories look like when you're in a season of needing visibility?
These are the type of stories that help you go from being unknown and invisible
to, "OMG I love watching your Stories."
Especially if you're just starting out in business or you've realized that your
current followers are not your ideal followers.
You're going to need fresh eyeballs on your profile to build up your community.
So one tactic I love to use in my stories to get more visible is to tag some of
my favorite experts in my industry in stories.
That way they're going to receive a notification that me,
@EliseDarma has tagged them in a story and chances are they're gonna reshare it
to their stories. Voilà.
They're sharing me in front of their followers.
That is more visibility and more eyeballs to my profile.
The next season is engagement and these are the type of stories that encourage
your followers to take action.
Maybe it's to reply to one of your stories or answer a poll or send you a direct
message. The key is they're starting a conversation with you,
and this is a great season for you to really build up the "know,
like and trust" factor.
By you sharing parts of yourself enough so that people are responding and it's
resonating with them, you're actually building that relationship.
It's the early stages of a relationship so that your audience,
your followers actually feel connected to you as a person and a brand.
One tactic that I love in the engagement season is to make my stories less about
me and use them as a time to ask my followers questions about their lives.
I mean, who doesn't like talking about themselves?
So make sure you're thinking outside of the box and asking questions that really
encourage a response from your followers. Think about their desires,
their pain points. Really dig deep and make it easy for them to respond.
Whether it's a poll or the question sticker,
asking questions to your followers about themselves not only helps them feel
more connected to you,
but you also get to learn more about your target followers.
So it's really a win-win. The next season is lead generation.
And when you're in this season,
you're going to focus on stories that get your followers to take very specific
actions so that they become an email subscriber on your list,
maybe a warm lead in your direct messages or even a new call booked into your
calendar.
So one story tactic that I love to generate leads is to feature my client wins.
I don't make it about me.
I feature my students and my clients who have gotten really great results from
how I've helped them,
so be sure to make it a habit now to screenshot any comments,
any emails that you get that could be a win that you could share in your
stories.
Sharing these kinds of stories proves to your community that you're the real
deal.
So one hot tip is when you're sharing this screenshot or your customer win,
make sure you include a call to action either in that story or the next story
for the viewer to take the next step in the customer journey.
So maybe that's to swipe up on your link and sign up for your email list or
maybe it's to book a call. Whatever your customer journey is,
make sure you give them that call to action so that they can take the next step
into becoming a lead for your business. Finally,
the last season your business will go through is a season of closing sales.
Maybe you're live launching a product or maybe you've publicly announced a new
promotion.
The whole key with these stories is to move your interested leads over into
becoming buyers so that they purchase your products, your offers,
or your services.
A story tactic that I love when you're in a season of closing sales is to just
straight up answer their objections,
answer the questions they're really thinking in their head,
and maybe they're a little scared to say out loud.
So even the scary questions of, "I think this is too expensive," address that.
It really helps to address these questions that they have in your stories.
And that way,
those who are on the fence might feel more inclined to reach out to you to get
more information.
So this is a great way for you to truly see who's really assessing your offer
and who's ready to become a buyer. So there you have it.
I've given you my whole stories framework and tips for you to really captivate
your followers in all your business seasons. But if you're wondering, "Elise,
what do I actually say in all these stories seasons?", You're in luck.
Because inside of my product Story Vault,
I have gathered literally hundreds of prompts that match every single one of
these seasons so that you are never at a loss for what to say in your stories.
This framework is by far the easiest and fastest way to match your customers
where they're currently at. And again,
story vault is hundreds of prompts and ideas for things that you could share in
your stories so that you have your whole business synced up with your seasons.
Join over a thousand people who are already inside of Story Vault.
I'll put the link for Story Vault right below this video in the description.
To ease and revenue. I'll see you in the next video.
What are Instagram stories? Sorry,
back got sore.
So that they can take a step into, so that they can take the step into,
so that they can be.