3 Ways to Use Instagram Stories to Grow Your Email List

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Here are 3 simple things you can do to build your list with Instagram stories!

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3 Ways to Use Instagram Stories to Grow Your Email List

In today’s video, I want to share with you how you can use your Instagram Stories to grow your email list. If you have an online business, I would highly recommend creating and building up your email list. I consider it so important that it is actually one of my top priorities when it comes to building my business.

If you are not following me yet on Instagram, go ahead and do that - I’m @louisehenry. Come say Hi, I would love to connect with you over there as well.

Let’s dive into how to use Instagram Stories to grow your email list.

#1 – Create a Lead Magnet, Freebie or Opt-in

One of the best ways that you can grow your email list is to offer something valuable for free, in exchange for an email address. This is often called a lead magnet, a freebie or an opt-in. These are very effective and what I use primarily to build my list.

I’m going to demo this for you with my free Squarespace roadmap. The first thing you need to do is create your graphic. You’re going to go to Canva.com and set up a free account there. Then, once you’ve done that, you’re going to click Create a Design, and then just type in Story. You’ll see that Instagram Story comes up as an option, so you can click on that. Now you can create your graphic for your freebie. I would recommend creating a visual mock-up of your freebie, like I’ve done right here. (I do have a video on this, which I will link to below, showing you how to create one of these.)

I’m going to create a bit of a graphic – let’s add a background color. What’s great about this is it’s going to be in perfect dimensions already for your Story. Now I’m going to click the arrow here, and I’m going to download this as a PNG. I’m going to click Download, and then I’m going to airdrop this to my phone. (That is how I get any file from my Mac to my iPhone, so I’ll leave a link to that video down below as well.)

So, I now have the image on my phone, but before we go to post it, we first have to change the link in our bio. If you have under 10,000 subscribers, then you need to update the link in your bio and send people there. However, if you have over 10,000 subscribers, then you can use the swipe up feature. I literally only just got this yesterday, and it honestly makes life so much better. I wish that Instagram didn’t make it so that you had to get to that point – but it’s definitely an incentive to get to 10,000. (Maybe I’ll post more videos on building up your Instagram – but honestly, it’s not really where I focus and it did take me a while to get to that, so we’ll see.)

Let’s open Instagram. Let’s say that you do need to use the link in bio method, then we need to change that. You’re going to click Edit Profile, and in your bio, I would tell people what they’re going to get. See how I have FREE TRAININGS THIS WAY – I’m going to replace that and say GET YOUR FREE ROADMAP, then click Done. Then I’m going to change the link to my landing page. You should have a sign-up page for your freebie where people can go and enter their email address. (Tools I would recommend for this are ConvertKit or Kartra.)

I’m going to add the link here for that roadmap and hit Done. Now, let’s go to posting the actual graphic. You’re going to click the little Home icon, bottom left, then you’re going to click on the Camera icon, top left. Scroll up from the bottom and you’ll see that graphic that you created. You’re going to click on that, and now you can decorate this and tell people what to do to get it. I’m going to just add in Get your free roadmap. (I did post recently a beginner Instagram Stories tutorial, so you can check that out to learn how to do all this.)

Then I’m going to click on this little Sticker icon here and go to GIFs. This is what I do when I want to draw attention to something. If you need to direct people to your link in bio, you’re going to type in link in bio and grab one of these flashy ones. When I’m done with my Story, I’m going to click Send To, and then I’m going to click Share and that would add it to my Story. If you have the swipe up feature, do it again, but instead of typing in link in bio, you’re going to type in swipe up. Then you need to actually add that swipe up link. I’m going to click the Link icon here, then Web Link, add the link in here, and click Done. Now you’re going to click Send To, and then Share and Done. That’s going to upload. Once it has, I’m going to click on my Story to check it out, and as you can see, it is good to go and directing people to grab that.

That is one super simple way to use your Instagram Stories to grow your email list. What else can you do? I want to show you a few other methods.

#2 – Use the Question Sticker

The first step is to create a new Story - I’m going to add a plain background that I have in one of my brand colors. This second method is to make use of the Question sticker. So, I have that background here, now I’m going to click on the Sticker icon again, and this time I’m going to click Questions, and I’m going to say Drop your email here. (You can word this however you want.) Then I’m going to grab the little point down icon and click Done. Now I’m going to add some text – Want me to send you the free roadmap?

This is another strategy. They don’t actually have to go to the landing page and fill in their information – you’re actually just going to ask them for their email right here and then you’re going to sign them up. This is quick and easy – you could outsource this to your VA, and it’s a really effective way to grow your email list, because it is super quick and easy for someone to take action.

#3 – Use the Poll Feature

Now I’m going to give you another option, and that is to use the Poll feature. I’m going to grab that background again - delete the date simply by dragging it to the trash can – click on the Sticker, and this time I’m going to use the Poll. Again, you’re going to ask people a question like, Do you want me to send you the free roadmap? I’m going to enter Yes. I don’t really like to put No too often as an option, so I’ll put something like What’s That? so that I can send them more information if they don’t know what I’m talking about. Then I’m going to say, Want me to send you the free Squarespace roadmap? And then of course, have fun – decorate it more than this – add some arrows, make it a bit more engaging - you get the idea. Then you’re going to just click Send To and you’re going to share that. Now what you will do, is for anyone who says Yes, you will simply send them the link directly to your landing page – that’s one option – or you could simply be like, Hey what’s your email? and you could add them that way.

Those are my super simple ways for you to use your Instagram Stories to grow your email list. I hope this video was helpful for you. Remember I’ll put all the related videos for you down in the comments below.

Thank you so much for watching. If you liked this video, let me know by giving it the thumbs up. Don’t forget to hit Subscribe if you haven’t yet, and I will see you tomorrow with another video.

How to create mockups: https://youtu.be/1hEz4BHfzcI

How to use airdrop: https://youtu.be/PVZu0y3ozRw

Email software recommendations:

ConvertKit: https://louisehenry.com/convertkit

Kartra: https://louisehenry.com/kartra

Beginner Instagram Stories Tutorial: https://youtu.be/PaLjL3xkL0o

All #GoingRemote videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUfgcuBJLn6R5UotUxO1yP8YzqNXTedFM 

Follow me on Instagram @louisehenry

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