Discover 5 Ways Instagram Highlights Can Grow Your Doula, Midwife, Or Birth Photography Business
If you’ve been on Instagram lately, browsing your friend’s profiles, you’ve probably noticed some circles right underneath their bios.
These are Instagram Story Highlights.
They’ve been spreading on Instagram profiles like wildfire since they were released in December 2017 and they’re not slowing down anytime soon.
So what makes them so important for your birth business? And… how can you utilize them to increase engagement, followers, and get more bookings?
I’ll get to that in a little bit… but first, here are a few more essential details on how they work.
If you’ve never posted on your Story before, that’s okay, you can try it out today (your followers will thank you). Stories are short clips or photos that you can add to your profile for your followers to see for 24 hours. Then they disappear… forever.
That is… until Instagram finally made it possible to save your temporary Stories as Highlights. It’s an impressive way that you can create and post Story content to your profile.
Aside from being able to save your memories for fun, birth businesses have been taking advantage of Story Highlights to gain followers, boost engagement, and land more clients in a brand new way.
When you understand why they’re important, you’ll be able to grow your brand and access new prospects and connections in no time at all.
But first, we’ve got to cover why they’re important and how you can use them to increase followers, engagement, and ultimately get more bookings.
Why Instagram Story Highlights Are Crucial To Growing Your Birth Business
Before Highlights, businesses were faced with some limiting features when it came to marketing themselves on Instagram.
These barriers were:
Bios could only contain 150 characters max
Stories were limited to 24 hours
Only 1 link was allowed on each profile (in the bio)
So what can Story Highlights do to help your business overcome these barriers and start to really grow your business with Instagram?
1. Expand on your business’ story with different highlights
Bios are a crucial part of showing off your brand and your offering to your followers. It shows your followers who you are, what you offer, and why they should follow you. It’s the most important aspect of your profile… and yet, it seems that there’s never been enough space in the Instagram bio to tell your full story. Highlights are a great way to expand on your story.
You can organize your highlights into different sections like “About Us”, “Blog”, “FAQS”, “Testimonials”, “Resources”, and more. It’s great, not only for sharing more of your story, but of being able to give your followers a visual guide through your unique brand to see if you’re a good fit for them.
2. Showcase Your Services
The best way your followers can see what you have to offer is by showing them a visual of you offering those services. Highlights are an incredible way to show people just what you can do. Get photos and videos of you in action. It helps people to visualize what it would be like to work with you. (Bonus Tip: post photos and videos of you with your happy clients. Smiling clients can go a long way.) :)
3. Create A Resources/Tips Category To Boost Your Authority
When it comes to the online world, (regardless of the platform), there’s no better way to build an audience than through information. Educating your followers with helpful tips, resources, and how-to’s is a proven way to be seen as an authority in your field. If you are their number one resource for birth education, guess who they’re coming to when they’re ready to hire?
4. Put Unlimited Links in your Bio
One of the best ways you can utilize Instagram to book more clients is by getting your followers to your business website through a clickable link. Instagram allows one link in your bio (that you should definitely be using) to direct people to your business website so they can learn more about your business.
Instagram business profiles with more than 10,000 followers can add links to their Stories, which means more permanent links when those stories are converted to Highlights (which allows for more traffic to your site and other social media platforms).
Yes, 10,000 is a big number, and you can get there. In the mean time, always make sure you have a link to your website in your bio and use your highlights to lead people to that link.
5. Use Highlight Covers To Give Your Profile A Professional Look
Themed highlight covers (the photo on the front of each highlight) are a simple way to give your profile an elegant, professional look. They’re also perfect for organizing your different highlights all with one attractive theme.
If you’re into graphic design, you can create them on your computer or phone. However, this can take a long time, especially if you’re wanting a professional, unique look. And depending on how many categories you want, it can be quite difficult.
Or, if you’re like most people and don’t have the time to design your covers, then we can give your profile a makeover in minutes with your own ready-to-use bundle. Check out our Birth Workers Bundle here. Designed specifically for doulas, midwives, and birth photographers, this set of 12 birth-themed icons are perfect for showcasing your birth storytelling skills or the training and support you provide mummas-to-be.
If you’re wanting a few more options, check out our Soulful Storyteller Text Bundle, a handwriting style text bundle which was created to supplement the Birth Workers Bundle. It includes 52 birth worker covers, 46 story teller covers, 42 business covers, and 22 personal covers. With 162 different covers, there are endless options to mix and match the covers as your story evolves.
Choose from the 8 attractive colors available to select a bundle that matches your unique style and brand.
Bonus Tips:
There are several ways to use your Instagram Story Highlights as a powerful tool to market your birth services and grow your personal brand.
Here are a few other ways you can up your Instagram game today:
Highlight your favourite influencers
Feature/Give a shout out to your client’s photos (from their profiles)
Repost your photos and videos that have performed the best
If you’re ever unsure of what to add to your highlights, just ask yourself, “What can I post that would be valuable to my audience? What would they love to see, or love to engage with?”
Think outside of the box and get excited.
You get to showcase your brand in a new, creative way with highlights, so have fun with them.
Want to learn how to turn a story into a highlight? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Check out our blog post on How To Turn Your Instagram Story Into A Captivating Highlight
For an in-depth guide at how to post a highlight and add highlight cover images, checkout our blog post here.