Stories are one of the most underrated monetisation tools in the world of faceless marketing and MRR. In fact, I’d go as far to say they are the most important tool in a faceless creators belt {despite timing out in 24 hours}.
Most marketers focus intently on their reels, carousels and bio – the more permanent parts of your account… but your stories are the hot bed. They are the haven. The sacred place where your hottest leads – your VIPs – hang out.
Learning how to use your stories to captivate your followers, build your community and unapologetically make sales is like finding a magic key.
Today, I’m letting you in on my secrets to unlocking that door.
Why should you use your stories as a faceless creator?
Stories are where you can turn followers into friends, if you will. Or at least, your followers will feel that way. Sure, stories disappear in 24 hours, but it’s the easiest way to bring your leads closer to you.
Think of it this way.
Your feed content is the invite to dinner… Your reels, even carousels, it’s an invite to the masses and it’s super important to bring a lot of people to your front door. They can look through the window, get an idea of what your home might be like, but ultimately, they’re still guessing.
With your stories, you’re letting them take a seat at your dinner table.
I don’t know about you, but I’d definitely be more likely to buy sitting across the dinner table than I would be peering through the windows.
This is what happens, or rather, what SHOULD be happening in your IG stories.
❤️🔥 where your hot leads hang out & your potential followers: The people who are inside your stories are your hottest leads. These are the people who are the most interested in what you’re doing. ****But, there’s also another group. When someone lands on your page, potentially from a reel, more often than not they will head to stories first, to decide whether or not to smash the follow button.
🌊 where you GO DEEP: Think 85% business, 15% personal. But personal doesn’t mean using IG stories as a diary, you’re not filling them in on your fight with your boyfriend.Y our sharing a pic of your dinner with your boyfriend and saying ‘I love having the freedom to sign off at 4pm on a Tuesday.’
🤑 where you generate & showcase credibility: I don’t just mean Stan store receipts. Income proof is important if you’re telling people a product will help them make money, but you also want to convey authority in the space that you’re in. Free value, expert opinion, knowledge – these all build your street cred.
♟️ where you play a game of relentless strategy: You are going to be relentlessly strategic inside your stories. We are not throwing spaghetti at the wall. Instead, we’re going to be intentional and treat our stories like our babies. This means a strategic story sequence that encourages engagement and then sales.
How to build your community on stories
Building your community gives your followers a place to feel part of something. By welcoming them into your community, you give them a sense of familiarity and collective identity. From there, selling is easy.
Ultimately, you want to do less talking at your followers and more talking with them. Sometimes we need to establish authority (and that’s ok) but when you’re building a community, you want it to be two-way. If you don’t have a strategy with what to post, you generally wing it, and winging it means we default to speaking AT and instead of WITH.
One of the best ways to do this is with engagement stickers.
What engagement stickers should I use to build community?
Utilizing the features within IG to foster engagement is a game changer when you get it right. This means not only use the stickers in your stories, but using the results as a reason to start conversations to build true relationships.
Feature
The @ is wonderful for shouting people out. For example, if I’d found a great account or I wanted to recognise a customer or a follower. You don’t want to be doing it too much. But you want to do it for the special people.
Question Box
Use this daily to bring followers closer to you. Your q could be generic or course specific, but make sure to reply to every response. Initially, drop your own q’s in and answer those to pre-empt questions customers might ask OR highlight USPs.
Emoji Sticker
The emoji sticker is a validation. It’s not hugely valuable, but it can be great for a quick vote. This is a really passive way for them to engage, and you can then go ahead an send them a DM to get closer.
Quiz
I don’t use the quiz all that often, but it’s beautiful for establishing authority. You could say ‘how much money do you think the UBC community has created so far’ and then you follow it up by showing how easy it’s been for you to make money using the course.
Slide Bar
This is similar to the tap icon, it’s a validation tool, but one that looks aesthetically pleasing and adds something extra to an otherwise pretty boring story post.
Poll Box
This is a phenomenal way to build your community. Use the poll feature to give your audience autonomy and control in the community. You could allow them to choose the name of your courses, what reel you post next, your next masterclass….
What to post on your stories?
Think of these as the six kinds of slides that you should be sharing on your stories every. single. day.
How you do it and the order you do them in will be completely up to you… treat them as the components you need to use, the rigid order can change.
Conversation Starters: AKIN to ‘warming up’ your audience, conversation starters are relatable prompts you put forth designed to connect & foster engagement w/your community. You might like starting your day with a slide like this. Think weather, coffee, controversial opinion on Love Island.
Relatable Insights: This could be something you’re experiencing in your life that your viewers fully understand {if you give them the opportunity to weigh in with an engagement sticker, even better} We always want to be as relatable as possible, let’s say you’ve received 4000 unsolicited DM’s today asking what course your selling… throw out a jokey message about the notifications.
Selling: Presenting your offers in a strategic selling sequence is how you’re going to skyrocket your sales. As a digital marketer, these slides are your bread and butter.
Interactive: We’ve already spoke about this, so I won’t hammer it home, but this is a no-brainer. Polls/ swipe bars, question boxes, quizzes — the features that allow your viewers to engage with your content.
Palette Cleansers: These are beautiful slides that you insert to break up the pattern – I always use a palette cleanser after my selling sequence. Let’s say you have a six slide selling sequence… before you move into an engagement slide, you’ll put a break. This can be a personal frame, or a value-add. Think of it as a decompression slide. Quotes are an easy go-to.
Free Value: Spill the beans. The more value you offer for free, the more you create authority for yourself & the more likely you are to convert your paid offers. Share incredible accounts, insights you’ve found, books that you’ve read or an incredible recipe for sourdough bread. Every day, make sure there is some sort of free value that people can get out of your stories. A great way to do this is using the question box – if you’ve not got a question that allows you to deliver that value, ask it yourself and give an incredible answer.
Theory done, what do these look like in practice? First thing to note… you’ll rarely have JUST ONE of these components. Instead, you’ll use them in conjunction.
What are specific examples of relatable insight, what does free value look like, a palette cleanser? So let’s take a look at a few examples
For me, I treat these ‘six types’ as my checklist for daily stories.
Have I covered each and every box? Ask yourself, have you:
💬 Started a conversation
🤙🏼Shared a relatable insight
💳 Positioned myself for a sale
🛎️ Let people interact with me easily
👅 Cleansed the palette if needed
💸 Given value {for free}
PS…
Positioned myself for a sale…
My choice of words here is important. You don’t need to sell every single day. I say this before we move into our selling sequence chapter because it’s important to note that even talking around a product can be enough to position the sale for a later date.
For example, I’ll talk around building my products, or masterclasses I’m attending in a course I sell.
How to sell on your stories?
This is another kettle of fish altogether. Once you’ve set up your sale with some of your magic six, and now you’re ready to hit the home run. Enter… the selling sequence.
This is where we’re going to learn how to turbo charge and unapologetically drive sales in your stories with a magical sequencing formula that helps you make daily sales with ease.
Grab the sequence for free in Selling On Stories: A Free Download.
