The floral calendar is always busy! Creating captivating content in your busy times is just as important as when things are a little quieter. In fact, floral occasions are a great time to really leverage your social media to give your sales a boost, attract new audiences and improve your engagement.
This is where Instagram Stories comes in. With its quick and easily consumable content, we asked BFA marketing partners Queen Bee to let us into some clever ways to help make our Insta Stories really standout. Here’s what they had to say…
Instagram Stories is a marketing must-have for any business or brand looking to grow their audience, engage with their customers and make sales. Nearly 58% of people have become more interested in a brand/product they saw on Stories. It’s position at the top of the feed and easy, short-lived content means that if you’re not already using this tool to your advantage you’re really missing out.
But be careful, *just* posting beautiful blooms is only going to get you so far. The secret to Stories is all in the name. If you want to spruce up your Stories with some serious content clout, then you need to immerse your audience into a narrative.
What do we mean? Simply tell your audience a story. Insta Stories, like any other story (novel or movie), should have a clear beginning, middle and end. We all love a good story, it’s part of what makes us human, so it’s a tactic that will help you keep your audience engaged and coming back for more! Telling a story (no matter how simple) makes your content more memorable and means your viewer is more likely to STICK with your content to the end and take an action!
Let’s look at an illustrative example, with florists, Jason, Pete & Jess sharing what they’re doing for Random Acts of Kindness Day. Just like the opening paragraph of a good book, you need to HOOK the viewer in right at the beginning – jump right into the nitty gritty and cut straight to the attention-grabbing good stuff from the get-go! Then we build intrigue and finish with the Call to Action.
It doesn’t have to be complicated or long-winded but, for maximum impact, it helps to follow our story-telling structure…Of course your follower wants a FREE bouquet, of course they love to see YOU in action, of course they get those gooey, feel-good feelings about how special their local community is, and of course they want to support you and shop local!
Now, we could only use static images in our illustration, but using a mix of video and images would really bring this to life! Mix it up.
Fancy having a go yourself? Here are 4 tips to nail this technique!
Choose a Section of Your Story that will Spark Curiosity for Your Audience
Once you’ve planned what you’re going to say, start the content at a juicy bit. A part that will create curiosity about what the content is about and will naturally entice your audience to keep watching!
Include the Backstory
You’ve hooked your audience in nicely and they’re keen to find our more! Here’s where you can tell a bit of your backstory to give more depth to your content – think of it like explaining your motivation or sharing a little behind the scenes that gives some context to your opening Story and helps the viewer connect with you specifically.
Give Viewers an Incentive
Every story has exciting twists and turns so don’t be afraid to add these to your content too. Using a cliffhanger, sneak peaks, and mini reveals are all clever ways to tease your audience to keep watching and come back for more.
What do you Want the Viewer to Do?
You’ve hooked them in, you’ve shared a little about yourself/business to build a connection, you may have incentivised them with something like a reveal, so you want to finish with a CALL TO ACTION. It could be a link to your shop, enquiry form, asking them to DM you a word for more info, answer your Poll or ask a question. What’s value do you want to get from posting this story? Don’t shy away from this. Make it clear, quick and easy for the viewer to participate in.
Switching up your Stories to create captivating content doesn’t have to be difficult but it does take a bit of planning and an understanding of what your ideal customer would find engaging. All things we cover in our marketing course for florists: “Own Your Marketing: How to stop winging it and market your floristry business with bloomin’ confidence.” BFA Members get 15% off!
If you feel ready to spruce up your Stories and get your customers hanging on your every word, then why not give this technique a try?
