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If you want to publish unique Instagram stories that reflect the style of your brand, the best way to do so is to design templates. With them you will be able to create homogeneous content that respects the corporate identity and has a continuous graphic line.
According to Instagram data, more than 500 million accounts use Instagram stories every day, and that means you should use them too. Here's why they're so important and how you can make the most of them by creating your own templates.
The importance of Instagram stories
In just 3 years Instagram stories have revolutionized the way brands think about the content they publish. Instagram is no longer just visual, now it's all about providing some value to your audience. The best performing content is the one that offers something you can't get anywhere else. Social media profiles work as an extension of your brand identity and should therefore be original, well thought out and designed. Stories offer the public a more authentic and humanized view of a company. Now, thanks to the new interactive options, they also help to reinforce their loyalty and encourage engagement. According to Instagram, 60% of companies that use Instagram Stories add some interactive element to their stories every month (hashtags, mentions or quiz and survey stickers). This allows you to interact directly with the audience, give them a voice and receive feedback.
Why you should create a template for Instagram stories
A good design of the Instagram stories templates is fundamental to create and support the image of your brand online. It is very important that your content has visual coherence to give a professional impression. With templates you ensure that the images and videos shared in the stories have the same style as the rest of your feed. In addition, using the templates on the long run will save you a lot of time. Simply reuse the same designs by adding new content and stop worrying about things other than a powerful image and eye-catching text to create a professional publication.
By designing your own templates you add a creative touch to your stories. This helps you differentiate yourself from your competitors in the infinite amount of temporary content. Make your publications unique and recognizable so that no one can confuse them with those of other brands or people. If the stories are well elaborated and designed with original ideas, it directly gives a good image about your products or services and helps to create brand recognition.
We have already mentioned the importance of offering the audience valuable publications. Take advantage of stories to highlight non-visual content, entertain, increase engagement and drive traffic to your website. If you have more than 10k of followers you can do it directly from the stories thanks to direct links, an option that is not accessible from the photos published in the feed.
How to design your own templates
Today to create quality templates you don't need a high level of knowledge of professional graphic programs. With free programs you can create good looking stories from your computer or phone in just a few minutes.
Adobe Spark
Adobe has released a free tool, Adobe Spark, that allows you to design publications for websites and social networks quickly and easily, so that all types of users can create visual content on a day-to-day basis. It has both the website and a free app, to use them you simply need to create an Adobe Creative Cloud account.
There are several free templates available for all types of social networks, including Instagram stories. In addition to the available layouts, Adobe Spark allows you to create a story template, or any other format, from scratch by changing compositions, colors, fonts, and graphic elements. One of the most remarkable features is the resizing: the program adapts the created publication to any predetermined size of other social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or YouTube. In this video you can see the possibilities offered by Adobe Spark:
Canva
Canva is a free online image composition tool that is becoming more and more powerful. It allows you to easily and intuitively design images of social networks, presentations, posters or brochures, among others. It also has both an online website and a free mobile app.
In the social media section you can find the option to create stories for Instagram, from scratch or using the default templates. The offer of free designs is much wider and more varied than in the case of Adobe Spark. It has a selection of filters for any image, many fonts, icons, elements and compositions. Get inspired by one of the default layouts, adapt it to your brand's visual style, or create something on your own. If you want to discover the options offered by Canva, take a look at this video:
Good practices for designing stories
If you want your brand templates to be well designed for content promotion, keep these points in mind when creating them:
- Before you start designing anything, think about your goal and the type of content you want to promote in the stories. Plan different templates for videos, blogs or photos. This way you will have a variety prepared for any type of publication.
- Although the free templates available in the programs mentioned above and in other apps may be appealing, don't lose the visual style of your brand. Follow the corporate colors and typographies to maintain coherence.
- Include the name or any brand graphic, such as logo, secondary logo or watermark, in a non-intrusive way to sign any publication.
- If you use the swipe up function to redirect traffic to your website, keep that in mind when preparing the design. Use different features and designs to highlight that option, attract attention and make the Call to Action very visible.
- Make sure that the name of your profile that appears at the top left does not cover any important element of the design. Or vice versa, that no element of the design covers the logo of your brand.