Not even two years old, the Instagram Stories feature has already amassed an audience of over 300 million active users. More than 50% of businesses have tried their hand at creating Instagram Stories, much to their benefit as engagement and reach rates on Instagram Stories are higher than traditional posts. Brands are using Instagram Stories to showcase products, give behind-the-scenes tours, conduct interviews, and support a host of other marketing objectives. Even our own brilliant clients are leveraging Instagram Stories to help drive recruits into their SocialToaster advocacy marketing program.
We’ve analyzed their recruitment stories to figure out why they’ve been successful at driving recruits into their advocacy marketing program and here’s what we found.
Exhibit A: The Instagram Story Recruitment Process In Action
With the goal of growing the program’s membership count and overall success, these two brands launched an ongoing social recruitment initiative. The key to supporting this growth goal? Instagram Stories!
Take a look at the most recent recruitment story each brand created:
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In each of these images, each panel represents a separate story. Viewers were able to click through each story to learn more about the program. The last panel included a link to the signup page where excited viewers could join the program – and join they did! Both brands saw a successful increase in advocacy program membership due to these efforts – in some cases an increase of 100 or more recruits per story. What’s more impressive, these stories aren’t a one-time punch; both brands will continue to use stories throughout the year to regularly drive recruits into their programs.
Instagram Stories Best Practices For Driving Recruitment
It’s clear that both brands have a winning recruitment formula on their hands. Want to know their (not-so) secret recipe so your brand can apply it to similar recruitment efforts?
Let me introduce you to my friend the “Why, What, How” recruitment method:
1) Why: Hook Them With The First Story
If you want someone to click-through to your program landing page, you need to grab their attention with your first story. Both brands accomplish this by leading with a powerful story that features that month’s program incentive. Each brand also ties this opportunity message to a polar question. What makeup lover wouldn’t want to win $500 in free product? Ditto for free watches!
Your first story should get the viewer’s attention while also setting the expectation for the slides to come. Remember, your viewer is a sophisticated consumer. They know that when brands offer free product, there’s typically a hoop attached. Don’t pander to them.
2) What: Introduce the Program
As a marketing communications best practice, all polar questions should be followed up with an answer. Don’t leave your audience hanging! You’ve peaked their curiosity with your hook, now tell them what they need to do next.
Introduce the program using imagery and video to showcase the experience a recruit-to-be can expect to have once they join the program. Instagram Stories aren’t known for supporting tons of copy, so let your accompanying video or image help you communicate the benefits of your advocacy marketing program. It’s better to spread your message across multiple stories than to try to cram everything into a single story.
3) How: Follow Up with a Clear Call-to-Action
The most powerful portion of both brands’ recruitment efforts is the final story. Consistent for both brands, the final story is a simple, clear call-to-action complete with emojis directing users to swipe up. Remember, you can link directly to your recruitment page from your Instagram Story. This means no copy/pasting/fumbling for your audience.
The functionality is seamless for the user. One second they’re scrolling through your Instagram Stories; the next they’re being hooked by your ambassador program messaging and swiping up to join.
Pro Tip: Create a unique recruitment link for each of your Instagram Stories to help you segment and track the results of your recruitment efforts. You can use this data to support future split-testing and story optimization.
Instagram users are spending more and more time using the app, averaging more than 25 minutes a day. Capitalize on this consumption by leveraging all that the Instagram platform has to offer and use Instagram Stories to drive recruitment into your advocacy marketing program. Communicate to your audience:
- Why they should care about your program
- What your program is all about
- How to join your program
Create compelling Instagram Stories that hit these highlights and take your program membership to the next level.
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Ready to kick your recruitment efforts up a notch? Talk to one of our SocialToaster experts and get your program recruitment on track today!
