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How to Add a Link to an Instagram story
Today in 2022, Instagram stories are playing a major role in increasing website traffic and conversions, generating sales for your business. Hence as Instagram stories continue to maintain their popularity, many brands are using features like swipe up the link as a part of their Instagram marketing strategy.
By adding a link to your Instagram story, you can increase website traffic leading to even more clicks and conversions.
When you know how to add a link to your Instagram story, you’ll be able to provide your viewers an opportunity for further exploration of your content. Instagram has retired the swipe-up feature for Stories. Adding a link to a story can now be done using a Link Sticker. With this new update, users are given more customization options and can have more creative fun with their stories.
What are Link stickers in Instagram Stories?
Like many marketing features on Instagram, clickable links in stories were rolled out first to verified accounts. Previously Instagram swipe-up feature only allows those accounts that have more than 10k followers to add links in stories but nowadays it’s been changed. Anyone can now able to add clickable link stickers in their Instagram stories section.
With an update to add link features, you can forget the swipe-up motion or bottom of the screen tap, and creators now can add a link sticker anywhere in the story space. When an Instagram user taps on a link sticker, they are taken to the landing page of the URL linked.
The Instagram link feature is completely replaced with the swipe–up tool which was how users previously linked to external web pages from stories. Adding a link to your Instagram story is easy to do in just a few quick steps!
A link can be added anywhere in the story.
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First login to your Instagram account
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Tap the stories camera at the top of your screen.
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Take a photo or video in the app or choose from your camera roll.
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Head to the Instagram stories sticker icon tray.
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Scroll until you see the link sticker. Select it.
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You’ll be given the option to either enter or paste a URL.
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You’ll be able to reposition your link sticker by dragging or resizing it in a single click.
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You can also choose different colors.
Effective Ways to use Link stickers in your Instagram stories
Given that adding links to stories is currently the only way to add a specific link to any single post on Instagram, the marketer may get too excited and links too frequently.
Depending on the number of stories you have on your Instagram, you may want to include one or two posts with clickable link stickers to your entire collection of Instagram stories. For example, if your story has a series of 3-4 posts, it is recommended to add one clickable link only.
Here are a few creative ways to add links to your stories and benefit your viewers.
1. Drive traffic to your blog posts
Before Instagram introduced link stickers, it was tricky to share links to articles, especially if you didn’t have access to swipe-up links. But now, it’s much easier to get your followers to click directly to your blog.
If you incorporate a blog into your marketing strategy, you know the value of sharing that new blog post in as many places as possible. With the link in Instagram stories not only can you alert people to the fact that you have a new blog post up but also you can include a link directly to that blog post hence increasing traffic and views for your blog post.
2. Promote your products or service
If you have a product or service, you’ll want to promote them. Make it easy by promoting it in Instagram stories while showcasing your product or service with clickable link stickers. Include a link sticker that takes your audience directly to the product page on your website.
Whether you’re launching a new product or offering a free download, stories can be an ideal outlet for promotion. Before link stickers, Story viewers would’ve had to visit your profile to find your website link. Now, however, you can save them time and effort by taking them directly to the webpage or resource they’re looking for.
3. Promote a time sensitive event
As these are so short-lived content. So, Instagram stories are great for time-sensitive happenings. They also work well with events they don’t need more permanent content like posts or reels. Now that you add link stickers to stories, this type of content can help you create even more effective promotions.
With the introduction of link stickers, you can now share timely news, offers and deals, event announcements, giveaways, and more with your audience and potentially get more engagement and conversions with time-sensitive content directly from social media.
4. Generate Leads
Whether you want to send your Instagram followers to a product page, newsletter signup, an online order form, or a contact page, link stickers can help you lead your social media audience to your website.
Without a link, stories can be effective at improving brand awareness but they can’t always help with lower-funnel goals like leads and sales. However, with a link sticker, stories can generate leads and fill your sales pipeline.
5. Unveil exclusive content
A creative way to use story URLs is to tease your audience with something they want to see more of. People can share an Instagram story to announce the winners of a recent contest, but viewers had to click on the link to see the list of winners on your website page.
This tactic also works well to disclose exclusive information, sneak peeks at new products or services, or bloopers from a recent video shoot. Get creative in your approach to teasing your audience!
How to get more out of the Link stickers
Link stickers are likely to have a huge impact on the way marketers create and manage stories. As you get accustomed to this new feature, here are a few points to keep in mind.
1. Include a call to action
You want people to click your link instead of just swiping past your story to the next cat video or celebrity stories, right?
So, you need to make it clear to them that there’s something for them to do and fun enough that they stop doing it. The best advice is to be direct. Use language that goes right out and tells them to tap your link sticker.
First, you should have included a call to action right in your story. Now that link stickers are available for every account, you’ll want to prioritize the interactive option rather than sending followers to your bio. You can also use another GIF sticker that says “Read more” or “Tap here” to highlight where the follower needs to click.
2. Make sure link stickers are visible enough
Are you sharing a link from your website for people to click on? If so, you might want to create a branded template for the link. This will help your followers be able to see exactly where they need to click and hopefully follow through on clicking it!
Draw attention to the link by having a dedicated area for your sticker link to be placed each time so your followers know where they need to go.
While you design your story template, consider leaving a spot for GIFs and stickers that draw extra attention to your links. Taking this extra step can help your followers get used to the stickers and start tapping to visit your links.
Start Increasing clicks and conversion with Instagram story scheduling
Link stickers add much-needed functionality to Instagram stories and give all users the ability to link to external content – significantly increasing the potential of the average Instagram account. So why wait? Use an Instagram scheduling tool today to save your time and increase views and clicks.
You can schedule Instagram posts ahead of time with AppuSocial. AppuSocial can help you schedule, edit, and preview your Instagram posts with a single click from a unified dashboard. No multiple logins are required.
AppuSocial’s Instagram scheduling tool takes the hard work out of planning and posting to Instagram. Start by uploading your content to the media library, then start scheduling your next set of Instagram posts. With AppuSocial, you can schedule posts to your feed using automatic posting.
We also make finding and using hashtags for scheduled content easier than ever. Now, you have the world’s most powerful hashtag tool sitting inside your scheduling tool. Not too bad, eh? Start claiming back your time and get organize your content strategy with AppuSocial. Get it today for free!
