If you are serious about digital marketing, consider incorporating Instagram highlights into your social media marketing strategy. This is important because it allows you to showcase your top stories and have them remain there permanently. This can be particularly important in an era when users' attention spans have decreased, and your Instagram followers want to find out things as quickly as possible.

Additionally, customers are sharing content on dark social platforms where it is hard to track metrics. This makes Instagram Stories an excellent platform for marketing your brand. In this article, we will provide you with everything you need to know about story highlights and guide you on using them to take your brand to the next level. 

What Are Instagram Story Highlights?

The Instagram story highlights are usually displayed as a circle icon below the bio. With Instagram Stories only lasting for 24 hours, highlights keep them visible for longer. When properly used, they can provide a professional and polished look to your profile. It can, therefore,  be a good way for your followers to engage with your brand. 

If you're a brand looking to showcase your product or a content creator seeking to highlight your previous work, your Instagram bio can be an excellent choice. You can even use the story highlights to showcase your favorite memories. However, to get the most out of your stories' highlights, you need to update them regularly with new content, as doing so will keep your Instagram profile fresh for your current followers.

Benefits of Using Story Highlights

As noted earlier, Stories highlights can be a great way to showcase content on your profile, organize information, and enhance your profile. You can also use Instagram stories to create a sense of urgency. Here are several ways in which you can use story highlights:

More Visibility for Key Content

Through the Instagram Highlight, you can provide your followers with more information. This is especially so for your new followers who may have missed the historical Instagram Stories. You can feature your products or services on Stories, allowing people who visit your profile to see them. 

Since the Highlights appear below the profile, users can easily view them as they are prominently displayed. Ensure that your Highlight covers are organized in different categories so that visitors understand what they are looking for when choosing one. You can read our guide on creating an Instagram story layout.

Improved Profile Organization

Instagram Highlights enable social media users to organize their profiles effectively, making them more user-friendly and visually appealing. Visitors to your profiles can easily find what they are looking for. 

Instagram users can categorize their Highlights in different categories, such as:

• Product lines
• Our services
• Behind-the-scene content
• Customer testimonials
• Promotions and events

For instance, a Sports team may want to cover highlights for each of their players. On the other hand, a B2B company may wish to showcase client testimonials on its profile. Such a structured approach enables an organized profile, allowing your followers to better understand your brand. It also fosters a sense of professionalism, which in turn, helps people trust your brand.

High-profile Engagement

Another great benefit of Instagram Highlights is that they enable new followers to understand your brand. When you group and categorize Instagram Stories as Highlights, you take your audience on a journey. A Q&A can be an excellent choice for driving engagement, as it allows people to ask questions. You can then turn this into an Instagram highlight, ensuring that new followers can easily see the information.

When users can easily access this type of information, they are more likely to interact with your brand. They can spend more time exploring it, resulting in a higher number of likes, comments, and shares.

How to Use Instagram Highlights

Instagram Highlights can be the perfect platform for showcasing a wide range of content. Here are several creative ways to utilize Instagram Highlights:

Behind-the-scenes Content

Behind-the-scenes content is an excellent way to build trust and connect with your audience. In this type of content, you share unseen stories about how your product is made or offer a sneak peek into your office culture. It can include content spotlighting, which can help put faces behind your brand. By highlighting these types of content, you can build trust with your audience and make your brand more relatable. 

Showcasing Product Features and Tutorials

Another way to utilize Instagram Highlights is to teach your followers how to use the product effectively. You can arrange the tutorials into several simple steps to enable your audience to understand easily. You can also create other types of content, such as unboxing videos and product walkthroughs, to highlight different kinds of content. 

Sharing Customer Reviews and Testimonials

Sharing testimonials from your satisfied customers can be a great way to attract new ones. Therefore, if your previous customers left exemplary reviews or have shared content about your product, these can be good options to share as product highlights. You can post all the positive reviews using the Highlight icon. However, before sharing your customers' content, remember to obtain their permission. 

Event Launch

After a product launch, event recaps are a great way of keeping followers engaged. Therefore, take time to share those existing moments that happened during the launch, such as conferences, networking, and trade shows. You can also use Story Highlights to share product launch teasers and build excitement leading up to the launch date.

You can add a Live Q&A during the event to the Story, which you can then save as your highlights. Such a recap can be beneficial for creating a Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) in your audience and encouraging them to participate in future events. 

How to Optimize Story Highlights

For the best results, ensure that your Instagram Highlights are well-optimized. Here are several tips for doing that: 

Add Descriptive and Branded Covers

Ensure that the covers for your Instagram Highlights are eye-catching. Remember that since they are positioned just below the Instagram profile, they easily capture attention. When properly done, they can help drive engagement. 

If you don’t have a custom cover, IG will simply capture a part of the story, and this may not be very effective in driving engagement. Consider the colors, fonts, and other visual elements of your brand and incorporate them into your Highlights. 

Regular Updates to Keep Content Relevant

When necessary, ensure that your Highlights are up-to-date so they reflect your most current content. Ensure that your users are regularly updated to keep things fresh and current. You can also set a reminder to review the Instagram Highlights every few weeks. 

Categorize Highlights by Purpose or Theme

To make it easier for your followers to find what they are searching for, you can group highlights into themes. For instance, use clear and descriptive names to showcase your products or services. You also need to understand what information is most helpful to your followers. You can add this in the form of upcoming events, FAQs, and a step-by-step guide.

To make your Instagram Highlights successful, you need to organize them effectively. This will make it easier for your followers to understand the information you are passing. Therefore, ensure that the most critical information you want to convey is at the top of the Instagram stories.

In Conclusion

Appearing just below the bio and above the photo grid, the Story Highlights are among the first things your audience will see when they visit your IG profile. It's, therefore, a great place to highlight important information for your followers. Whether it's a product list, upcoming event, or restaurant menu, product Highlights will increase visibility. By using the steps outlined in this article, you can use the Story Highlights to take your brand to the next level.