Steal My Instagram Stories Strategy: Build Relationships, Boost Engagement & Increase Sales

Struggling to show up on Instagram Stories? You’re not alone! In this episode of The Creative Bodega, I’m diving into why Stories are the secret weapon for nurturing your audience, building trust, and increasing sales—without feeling salesy. Learn how to increase story views, create engaging content that resonates, and show up confidently (even if it feels awkward at first). Plus, I’m sharing the biggest mistakes to avoid and how to turn casual followers into loyal customers. Ready to make Stories work for your business? Tune in now!

Check out the full show notes for this episode.

Things I cover inside the episode:
✨ Why Instagram Stories are your best tool for building relationships & increasing sales – and how they differ from your feed content.

✨ How to increase your story views using engagement tools, captions, and strategic storytelling.

✨ Overcoming the fear of showing up – tips to get comfortable and consistent with posting stories.

✨ The biggest mistakes to avoid in Stories (like too much selling, negativity, or lack of engagement).

✨ How to use Stories to lead followers into your DMs, email list naturally, and offers – without feeling pushy.

Resources & Links Mentioned in this episode:
🔗 Grab my Insta Stories That Sell Masterclass

Connect with me:
🫶🏼 Follow me on Instagram for daily insights
🫶🏼 Join my 321 Create Newsletter for weekly content tips
🫶🏼 Check out The Content Coven Membership

Be sure to hit "Subscribe" or "Follow" so you never miss an episode!

Transcript

When I first had to do stories, I wanted to die. I wanted to hide under my desk and cry and no one could be around. And that is honesty still to this day. If my husband walked in right now and I was recording a story, I would stop. I would stop because I can't handle it. I can't handle anybody watching or listening.

So you're not alone in that, but it's not hard to do stories. It's just new and it's. Different, right? And that's okay. And the only thing that's going to get you more comfortable at showing up is putting in those reps and really sitting with the discomfort. 

Welcome to the creative bodega, a podcast about content marketing, Instagram growth, and personal branding for female service based solopreneurs. Who want to grow their business without letting it take over their lives. I'm your host, Em Connors, and each week I'll share actionable tips, expert advice, and unfiltered truths to help you create engaging content, connect authentically with your audience, and turn followers into loyal customers, all without the burnout. 

If you're ready to simplify your content creation, navigate the ever changing trends and build a business that works for you while staying sane in this crazy season of life, then you're in the right place. 

Alright, this is one of my absolute most favorite topics. In the world, and that is Instagram stories. I honestly think about my Instagram stories, like completely separately from my feed. I don't even, it almost feels like an entirely different app at times to me, the way I approach my stories versus my feed.

And I know this is something that so many of you struggle with. What do I talk about in my stories? How often am I posting in my stories? Why should I post in my stories? So stories, Instagram stories are truly the ideal place to attempt to convert followers into paying customers. In addition to your email list, if you ask me, because the people viewing your stories or reading your weekly newsletter are already your most invested audience.

They are your people, they want more, they're here for it, they're interested in what you have to say, they're drinking the Kool Aid, as the cool kids say. Story views are going to be almost entirely from existing followers, right? People are not randomly finding your stories. These are people who follow you, which is really different from any other type of Instagram content out there.

The rest are really focused on gaining followers. And, This Instagram stories is really all about nurturing the ones that you have. So the amazing people who are watching your stories really are your most invested people and they're being fed your content because they're engaging with it, right? So if you've ever noticed at the top of your Instagram  home screen, you're going to have stories across the top, those little circles with people's profile pictures, the ones that you watch the most.

Are towards the beginning by your picture, your picture is always going to come first and there's people whose stories I absolutely love watching and I find them really entertaining and there's people whose stories I don't want anything to do with, I'm completely uninterested in them and they're going to be way at the end if they're even posting them.

So if you're not watching my stories right now, you need to seek me out and you need to start watching my stories or anyone's who you want to appear in that beginning. Area that beginning section of your highlights again, because those are your most watched and the ones that you're basically telling the algorithm telling Instagram that these are the people that I want to see.

Okay. So why do I love stories so much? They create this really intimate setting that I just don't think any other medium does the number of times people have reached out to me, likely through DMs and said, You don't realize this, but you're one of my best friends and I hope you don't think that's creepy.

And of course I LOL every time and I'm like, no. And in fact, it's probably the biggest compliment you can give me because that means the way that I'm showing up in my stories is really authentic and it's making you want to be friends with me. IRL in real life, right? So it is magical. So let me tell you what the consistent use of stories has helped me do over the last three years.

You guys, I always forget if I've had my business for three years or four years. 2022. It's three years. Okay. It's helped me nurture an audience of over 117, 000 people. It has helped me grow my email list to over 14, 000 people. It has helped me sell out my signature program. The Insta Canva collective only happens once a year.

It's a 2, 000 plus. Program for eight weeks, it sells out every single time I launch it.  It's helped me make incredible online and in real life relationships. It's helped me launch a membership in April of 2024, where over 400 people signed up. in 14 days, which completely blew my mind. I'm telling you that is not from my feed.

While they might have started there, it was my stories and it was my email list that got me there. Instagram stories for me is a place that I truly look forward to showing up. I get excited to just connect with my people and I am all over the place. with what I'm posting. I do not sit here with a schedule like, Oh, it's Monday and today I'm going to talk about behind the scenes.

No. If you need, that's certainly something you can do. And maybe I needed that in the beginning when I wasn't really sure what to talk about. Now, I just hop on, hit record. Talk about how my hair is a hot mess, how the kids just got off the, not got off the bus, I'm not on Instagram at that point. How they just got on the bus, what I'm working on today, some behind the scenes.

I'm all over the place. Just whatever comes to mind, honestly. But I am met with such positive energy and really like meaningful conversation, which I love. So much  first things first, I hate selling and if you know me, you know that I just despise the true like definition of selling, like putting yourself out there and trying to sell something.

I don't enjoy it at all, but fact is I need sales. So, I'm sure you can relate to that. So what I do is I overcompensate by giving away so much free value to my audience that when an offer becomes available, I don't really have to go overboard selling. I really, I've proven myself to my audience, both in my consistency in posting and my consistency and showing up in my stories.

And a lot of the giving of the free value that's happening really is inside my stories and my newsletter. That's where the connections, the relationships, and that trust is born. And honestly, some really beautiful friendships have started out of there. I just want to make something really clear. I approach my feed, my grid, completely differently than I approach my stories, okay?

I think of my feed as this really polished, really curated storefront. Imagine you're walking past my store. My windows are just like perfectly put together. And I just look like I know what I'm doing. And I look like I care, right? That's my feed. But my stories Ding, ding, the door opens and you're coming in my door and you want to try something on.

You saw something or you want to come in and buy something, honestly. You were enticed by the feed because it was consistent and put together nicely and now you're hopping in my stories and this is way more intimate and I'm behind the counter and I come out from behind the counter and I'm like, hello, like, how are you doing?

What can I help you with today? And we're starting a conversation and we're starting a relationship and you're going to get to know me a lot better. And I'm going to get to know you a lot better because you decided. To step in, right? So what I find like a typical journey of a follower turned fan turned client is that somebody stumbles upon one of my posts in their feed.

It gives them some idea of what I'm all about and they're instantly intrigued, right? I'm probably giving a lot of free value. So they hop over to my bio. They give me that three second audit and they decide to follow me and immediately they're probably going to see that I have. A story going right that pink and orange ombre circle is going to be around my head on my profile because I am, I pretty much always have stories up except maybe on a Sunday they're going to run out, but they're going to hop into my stories, right?

And maybe I'm talking about something that she's been wondering about and then she's going to DM me. And I am, of course, going to take the time to send her a very thoughtful, timely response through probably a voice DM, because that's my jam. I absolutely love sending voice DMs.  And.  There we go, a relationship has blossomed and now we start building that know and trust factor through the DMs.

Like honestly, you guys, what they say in the stories, it's really true. It goes down in the DMs. It just does. It's crazy. But here's the thing,  showing up in your stories or honestly showing up in your feed at all, it can't just be about money, right? You really need to have that help first. Mentality, meaning you're leading with helping.

You're not leading with sales. Like we feel that we feel if you're genuinely lit up by what you're talking about, if you're genuinely curious about the people that are following you, if you're really interested in building relationships, right, we're going to feel that from you in the way that you show up in your feed, but especially in your stories.

And I think that's one thing that. A lot of people are missing. Like it does just feel sometimes like a transaction in your feed or in your stories. You're always trying to get me to buy something inside your stories. And I'm like, stop. I don't like it. I don't think anyone really likes it. So let's talk about how to drive some story views up.

So that's one of the main things I hear from people. How do I increase my story views? First of all, you're going to want some highlights, right? And I'm not a highlight consumer. I have to be completely honest, but I know there are people who do like highlights and they are about to move in Instagram, but they're still going to be there.

So you want to make them clear. You want to make them enticing to watch and it's. Really? What are the main things you want people to know about your business or how to get started as a great one or behind the scenes of a membership is a great one or behind the scenes of a program you have coming up or your best tips for XYZ, right?

So you want this to be really binge able. You want it to be successful. interesting, and it's a taste of what your stories are going to look like, right?  You're going to want to remind us to watch your stories. A lot of times, if I am posting something that day, and I know I'm going to follow up and talk more about it in my stories, I'll put something in my caption, head to my stories today, I'm going to elaborate on this.

There's also an option where you can copy a highlight.  So you can copy the link to your whole highlight reel and you can share that with people. So you can post a story and then share a link that says, Hey, if you haven't seen this real, or it's not called a real highlight, she's called a highlight. If you haven't seen this yet, check it out.

And you can share it with us when it makes sense. Another way to drive people to your stories is to 1 million percent Always add captions, always, a lot of people, the stats crazy. I'm just going to throw something out there. I swear to God, it's a 75 percent of people. I don't know for sure, but they don't listen to Instagram with the sound on.

So you are completely missing out on people if you're not adding those captions. And that is just a sticker inside your Instagram stories that you can click on and immediately add the captions. Do I go and edit them or make sure spelling's correct? I do not. I do not take the time to do that, but they are there.

So for those people who don't have their sound on, which is a lot of people, so I want you to think about whose stories have made you want to reach out or reply or click a link or hold the screen to, to hold it to, to keep it from scrolling forward so you can read what's on it or even inspired you to share it.

With somebody else, think about who those people are and think about why that happened. Right. And it's going to probably come down to people who are giving you this really great mix of value between entertaining, educating, and inspiring, right? There's some behind the scenes stuff. There's some real life stuff.

There's some work stuff. There's, there's all this interesting value. They're using polls to get you to weigh in on things. They're using questions, sticker boxes to get you reply. They're just fun and entertaining. I understand that stories can be really scary and really uncomfortable. I'm telling you, I know you probably don't believe me because I show up on stories like it's like second nature now, but it's because I've been doing it for three years.

When I first had to do stories, I wanted to die. I wanted to hide under my desk and cry and no one could be around. Not a child, not my husband. Absolutely. And that is honesty still to this day. If my husband walked in right now and I was recording a story, I would stop. I would stop because I can't handle it.

I can't handle anybody watching or listening or what feels like probably judging. Right? So you're not alone in that. I absolutely record all the stories by myself, but it's not hard to do stories. It's just new and it's. different, right? And that's okay. And the only thing that's going to get you more comfortable at showing up is putting in those reps and really sitting with the discomfort.

If you could go back in time and look at my first stories, they're going to be awkward. They're not going to be comfortable. I just had to keep doing it so that I could really get more comfortable and keep showing up consistently. And no, for anyone sitting there thinking, Your life is boring, or you have nothing to talk about.

It's just an excuse, I'm telling you. It's an excuse. Some of my most engaged reels. My most responded to reels have absolutely nothing to do with my business and everything to do with silly Personal life stuff right and get let's see some of them would have been I've been in like constant pain in my low back and my foot for years and I like reached out to my community Help me.

This is what I've heard from doctors. This is what I'm experiencing. Does anyone have advice for me? I was flooded with DMs. It took me five days to get through them. I'm not even kidding. Then another one was about having a thermostat war with my husband. What he thinks it should be on versus what I think it should be on.

People ate it up. So relatable. Oh, me too. Me too. My husband does this. Let's see, I've talked about my neurotic rescue, Pitbull, Blitz, who's with me all the time. He likes to eat things like my daughter's socks and that's really fun and doesn't cost a million dollars at the ER.  I've talked about my kids having separation anxiety, one of them in particular.

How did you handle that, especially at night? My community has helped me with the most random things and It's been a game changer. And again, it opens up that conversation and conversations. Lead to trust and to relationship building, right? I would love to see you, if you are struggling with stories, you don't know what to talk about, I'd love to see you commit to one story a day, that's it.

And that's all I committed to three years ago. I said, Emily, you're going to get on and you're gonna do one stupid story day and get it over with. And my only rule was that I had to show my face. I had to show my face or let my voice be heard. So it couldn't just be a picture. It had to be me talking. And I could be showing something on my screen, or it could be talking head, meaning I'm showing you my face.

So I don't want you to overcommit and underdeliver. I don't want you to be like, I'm not posting any stories now, and I'm going to do 10 a day. Stop. Fastest way to fail. Put in the reps. Make it realistic. And really become a great student and pay attention to what other people are talking about the number of times people have taken a concept that I'm talking about on my stories and added it to their stories.

And they'll tag me and they don't even have to do that, honestly, but they will and they'll be like, thanks to the creative bodega for this idea. And I'm like, good for you. Yeah. Take whatever I'm talking about. And you absolutely talk about it on your stories, right? So before I let you go, I just want to talk about some of the biggest mistakes that I see in stories to help you avoid them, honestly.

So I would avoid the constant preaching or teaching. That means you're not really sharing any real life get to know me casual content. I would avoid that. I would avoid sharing a story with zero context or elaboration. We don't know what you're talking about. We don't know where this is coming from. Set the scene.

Commit to three stories in a row and have it be introducing the concept or the problem, how you handled it, and some type of conclusion about if we could relate or what we could walk away with or what we could try as viewers. Not inviting your viewers into your story, I think is a big mistake. I'm always saying, what do you guys think?

What's your favorite XYZ? What do you like to XYZ? Like constantly inviting people into my stories or my DMs really, and chat with me. Avoiding about talking about your offers altogether. Or the opposite, it's talking about your offers 24 seven or never at all. I don't do a ton of selling in my stories unless I'm launching something and I've got something going on, whether it's a workshop coming up or my signature course coming up or my memberships, having a bigger launch.

I'm not everyday selling. I'm not, but I will reference freebies or I will reference my membership if it makes sense and correlates with what I'm talking about. Okay, last one. And this is honestly my biggest pet peeve and no one's going to want to hang around if you do this and it's just too much venting or negativity.

We're not there to just listen to your complaining. It's not attractive. It's not a good look. It doesn't make people feel good. Really try and avoid it at sometimes. Listen, I do it once in a while, but I'll make light of it. I'll say I'm probably getting my period, so Em's gonna go on a little rant, and then people know, and they'll like, be like, I love your rants, and I'm like, I try to only do it once a month, but they happen, and I get annoyed, and I'm gonna share it with everyone, especially if it's relatable.

Right? And share your scars, not your wounds. So if you're going through something that's heavy and hard and deep,  I would wait to talk about it until it's more healed and you've come out on the other side. Because really sharing those scars can get uncomfortable for a lot of people. Last but not least, biggest mistake I see is sharing too many.

Of other people's content. Sometimes I go to someone's stories and it's them sharing five different pieces of content in a row from other creators, one or two here or there. Go for it. Totally makes sense. But if that's what you're relying on, it's a little lazy if you ask me and not super engaging at all.

All. Okay.  That is what I've got for you today about really starting off with stories in a way that's going to feel good for you and make sense for you. Start small, start consistently, commit to that one story a day. And if you want some more help on stories, I have an amazing masterclass called Insta Stories that sell a Let's be honest.

That's what everyone's trying to do in their stories. And it has so much more information in there about how I use stories to really get the word out there and sell my products. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Please feel free to share it with anyone who could use some story help, which let's be honest, most of us can.

And I hope to see you on the next episode.  Thanks so much for hanging out with me on the Creative Boudica podcast. If you loved this episode, please be sure to share it with a fellow solopreneur who could use a little content creation inspiration. And hey, don't forget to check out the show notes for any resources I mentioned on the episode.

to help you create content that feels easy and actually gets you results. If you want even more Canva and content tips, head over to my website, TheCreativeBodega. com or find me on Instagram under the same name. Until next time, keep creating, keep showing up, and most importantly, try and have a little fun with your content.

I'll see you on the next episode.