Instagram for business is a crucial tool.
Well, depending on the demographics of your audience, of course. Everything you do with your marketing is dependent on the demographics of your audience. Write that down. Remember it.
But that IG swipe feature is a winner, winner, chicken dinner for your click and conversion game.
If you haven’t seen it or aren’t familiar with what it is, in a nutshell, it’s a clever little tool that allows you to link out from your Stories.
A lack of proper and robust linking options on Instagram has notoriously been the bane of a marketer’s existence and made the phrase “link in bio” world-famous. Sure, you can use something like Linktree to add a ton of links but that’s not quite a solution. It’s tiresome to update and there’s not a lot of motivation to explore it.
Benefits of Adding a Swipe up Link on Your Instagram Business Account
Click-Through-Ability
Enter the swipe up, a feature whose main and massive benefit is that it lets people – people being your customers – actually click through to your website, store, blog, landing page, etc. directly from the Story.
A story, by design, takes up our entire screen and makes the watcher a captive audience for those few seconds. No content above or below. Just your message. If you have your prospective customer’s attention and offer the ability to swipe up straight to where you want them to go…well, that’s big.
Big Traffic Energy
The byproduct of being able to offer an easy way to get to your digital destination is that it can noticeably increase your traffic. Think about it, if you see a story that compels you to act but that action requires you to click their bio then click the link (and if it’s a Linktree type deal…add another click) and only then get to the destination, you just might pass, no? Or forget why you clicked in the first place!
Visibility
500 million accounts use Stories every day and 4 million businesses use Stories ads every month. IG Stories is where your brand goes to be seen.
Spontaneity Feels Real
It goes without saying that creating a post or running an ad in the feed is replanned. That goes for personal posts too, whereas Stories showcase the spontaneous. The real. The human moments. They’re fleeting and disappear after 24 hours.
Given that, an ad in a Story can feel more authentic which can be another motivator for engagement in the form of a swipe. Here’s a fun fact to bolster that authenticity point, Stories shot on mobile did better than studio-created ads 63% of the time so you don’t have to be putting in time (or money) for Oscar-caliber ads.
Sounds pretty grand and you might be wondering how to add a swipe up link on your Instagram business account, no?
How to Add a Swipe up Link on an Instagram Business Account
Here’s where there’s a catch. Not everyone can add a swipe up link (kind of).
Your account must meet two criteria:
- It has to be an Instagram Business Profile
- You have to have over 10,000 followers
Or
- Your account needs to be verified
That’s what we meant by “kind of”, having a verified account, i.e., celebrities, brands, public figures, etc. means you don’t have to have those 10k followers. There’s also a way for you to use the feature without verification and the 10,000 but it’s somewhat of an involved process.
If you’ve met those conditions though, it’s smooth sailing and you’re on your way to swipe heaven (up…not right…this isn’t Tinder).
If you haven’t embraced the glory of the swipe up or need some help fine tuning your IG marketing, get in touch with us at The Snow Agency and we’ll help you sort it out.