12 Instagram Story Ideas That’ll Boost Views, Engagement, and Sales

Fresh out of Instagram Story ideas? Instagram Stories allow you to engage followers, promote flash sales, and gain a loyal following. But coming up with a new Instagram Story idea every day can be challenging. That’s why we created a list of creative Instagram Story ideas you can use as inspiration whenever you’re in need.

Get ready to take your Instagram Stories to the next level with the following ideas.

12 Instagram Story Ideas You Can (and Should!) Steal

Why is ephemeral content so damn irresistible? Because it plays on the apparently severe case of FOMO — fear of missing out — that’s constantly running through all of us.

With just 24 hours to watch an Instagram Story, followers know that it’s pretty much now or never if they want to see what you’ve just posted. And it’s working.

With more than 500 million people using Instagram Stories daily, there’s no denying that people love disappearing content. And you should be one of them. Instagram Stories are a way to keep your followers’ interest, increase brand awareness, improve sales, drive traffic to your website or blog, and so much more.

Use these 12 real-life Instagram Story campaign ideas as inspiration to create engaging content for your followers. Not on Instagram? You can use any of the story ideas below on Facebook or TikTok too.

1. Promote a Blog Post

Use a Story to promote a blog post like you can see in the example above. It’s a great way to funnel followers from your account to your blog and get more eyes on your content. Feature an image from the post and either an abbreviated headline or a line or tip to grab attention. Be sure to include the link to view the post in full.

Tip: Use Bitly to shorten your blog post’s link and then place that link in your bio in addition to the post itself. You can see how blogger ABlissfulNest included a large CTA sticker of “Tap Here” to encourage followers to read their content.

2. Get Seasonal With It

Seasonal content is great because you’ll always stay relevant to your audience. (You’re not a regular mom. You’re a cool mom.) Whether it’s Easter marketing, Father’s Day, spring marketing, or Christmas, you can add seasonal flair.

For example, if Valentine’s Day is coming up, share outfits, makeup, date ideas, gift bundles, recipes, themed products, and more to attract leads and sales to your online store, e-commerce site, or storefront.

Add a link in your story or bio where followers can go shopping for these items, of course! ToastedMallow, a dessert shop, is engaging in Valentine’s Day marketing via their Instagram story by highlighting tasty treats followers can purchase for loved ones. They promoted their Valentine’s Day specials on their Instagram Story to boost seasonal sales. Giving viewers this content right when they’re ready to buy can help you stay at the forefront of their minds.

3. Share Recipes

If you sell or blog about anything food or drink related, whether ingredients or even something like cocktail glasses, you can post recipes on your Story to indirectly promote what you sell. (Content marketing, anyone?)

Wellness, fashion, and food blogger SkinnyHangover posted a video showing followers how to make an easy and attractive cheeseboard. While she could have just posted a photo, a video elevated her story and made it more useful to her followers since it allowed them to follow along at home. Videos like this add value, which helps retain and attract followers.

4. Entice With a Giveaway 

While this is one of the more classic yet cool Instagram Story ideas, it’s still a winner. Holding a giveaway is a fantastic way to get new followers and keep your current followers engaged. In the example above, you’ll notice book reviewer Gabbys_Booknook included important details of their giveaway, including how to win.

They also note that if followers share the post to their own stories and tag Gabby, they’ll get an extra entry. You can see that one of Gabby’s followers, BujoLibrary, did just that — they posted the giveaway to their own story, increasing their chances of winning and expanding Gabby’s reach.

5. Promote an Event

Whether you’re having an event or selling your products at an upcoming craft fair or festival, you can use a Story to hype up your followers and boost attendance.

Like the example above, make sure you include the name of the event, what it’s for, when it’s being held, and where it’s being held to give your followers all the information they need to attend. PureBarreParadiseValley was promoting an event in their story and included text that urges followers to sign up before they book up.

This sense of urgency can help get followers to attend — noting that seats are limited can play on your followers’ FOMO, and help you get more attendees and sales.

6. Go Behind the Scenes

Show the human side of your brand by highlighting a behind-the-scenes story. In this example, pet company Chewy shows their team having a great time at an event. You can do the same by showing your employees at a team meeting or event or highlighting how your products are made — all of these options will give your followers a personal and unique perspective of your business.

7. Try Crowdsourcing

Interactive Instagram stories are an entertaining way to engage with your followers. And polls are the perfect opportunity to crowdsource since they are — hopefully — made up of your target market. Maybe you want suggestions for a new flavor of cupcakes or want to know if your followers have ever visited your brick-and-mortar location in person. (Or maybe you just want to do something interactive and fun with your Story like in the example above.)

Whatever your reason, try polling your audience within your Story like lifestyle blogger CocktailsandCactus did. They posted about a trending event (the Super Bowl) to see where their followers will be watching. You can post the results of your poll in your next Story, too, to continue the conversation.

8. Share Helpful Tips

Your followers don’t want to see an endless stream of promotional content on your account — it gets annoying and boring fast. (Neither of which are conducive to a long-term social strategy that actually gets results.)

That’s why you should mix in some helpful tips on your Story to add a little non-promotional value — just make sure the information you share is relevant to your business and your followers’ interests.

For example, fashion and lifestyle influencer WhatGraceBought shared tips on how to style a blazer for spring. This reinforces her value to her followers — she doesn’t just share clothing for her followers to purchase from Amazon — she also provides fashion tips.

Whether you’re sharing healthy snack recipes, pet-safety tips, DIY hacks for your home, or anything else, choose topics that your target audience would actively be seeking and find value in.

9. Promote a Sale

One of the engaging Instagram Story ideas you should be doing on the regular is promoting current and upcoming sales. It’s a fast and effective way to grab your followers’ attention and hopefully encourage them to make a purchase.

In this example, artist AHawkey promoted a time-sensitive flash sale on their Story and included two crucial elements: the discount code needed to redeem the sale and her website’s URL where followers can make the purchase. If this is one of the ideas you’re interested in trying, link the Story with your online store’s URL or put it in your bio, so followers can easily check out your products.

10. Take Advantage of Events and Holidays

Whether it’s a local event, national event, holiday, or something else, get in on the buzz by promoting it in a story. As far as Story ideas go, this one is simple to take advantage of and can be very effective in marketing your products.

Arizona brewery Kitsunebrewingco promoted their grab-and-go beers for Super Bowl Sunday to help boost profit when many of their customers are skipping the bar in favor of house parties. It’s a smart strategy that leads to more exposure and sales, both immediately and long-term.

11. Cross-Promote

In this Instagram Story example, you can see that lifestyle account North32ndSt cross-promoted a local florist in the area to boost their exposure for Valentine’s Day. While this strategy can be beneficial in that the florist may now promote North32ndSt’s account as well, increasing their exposure and possibly gaining new followers, but they’re adding more value to their account at the same time.

The people who follow this account are interested in local businesses in the area, so North32ndSt provides the content their followers want, which keeps them engaged and viewing their stories, while supporting surrounding businesses. It’s a win-win!

12. Post User-Generated Content

User-generated content should be part of your Instagram strategy year-round. Not only does it highlight the fact that people are loving your products or services enough to post about them on social media, but it is free promotion for your business.

This is why it’s so important to keep track of your brand mentions. Use social media tools to help you do this so you can easily and quickly identify posts from your followers to add to your stories in your Instagram feed. Add your own caption if you want — you can even thank the follower for coming by your location or making a purchase — and you’re done!

As you can see above, OHSODistillery, a brewery and restaurant, reposted a photo of one of their signature items — what they call a “monster mimosa” to entice their followers to come in and grab one along with brunch.

The First Rule of Instagram Stories Is… There Are No Rules

As you saw in the Instagram Story ideas here, creativity is a must. After all, you’ll be more likely to get viewers who return each day to see what you’ve posted if you’re always doing something new and exciting.

Luckily, Instagram makes it easy for you to add stickers, gifs, polls, questions, music, quizzes, links, hashtags, and much more to your stories — have fun with it and try a new idea out each week to see what works well with your followers.