Instagram has more than 500 million active users daily, meaning at least half of the overall user base of Instagram views or creates stories every day. Instagram Stories is among the best ways to connect with your target audience due to its incredible, ever-changing features. According to statistics, 68 percent of millennials watch Instagram Stories.
With the high number of users following friends, celebrities, and businesses, we can assume many users consume a lot of business content and everything else the platform offers. To connect and attract your audience, you must create captivating Instagram Stories that stand out visually. Here are eight design tips to help you create more enchanting, visually stunning, and engaging Instagram Stories.
Use Animated Graphics
According to statistics, video posts usually get 38 percent more engagement than image posts. Therefore, if you fail to captivate your audience in the first four seconds of viewing, you might completely lose their interest. Adding animation to your pictures is one of the best ways to include movement and keep your viewers engaged.
However, if you don’t have video content, you can add animation to your images or create a separate animation. Instagram includes some inbuilt tools that you can use, such as the unlimited GIF gallery or animated lyrics. Furthermore, you can also utilize third-party Instagram tools for the best results on social media.
Create A Storyboard
You can use Instagram Stories in many different ways. From sharing new features to promoting your new blog posts, these stories provide an incredible way to engage with your target market without polishing it like your feed. That means you can take behind-the-scenes footage, smartphone photographs, and live videos without worrying whether they complement your other content. Nonetheless, when it comes to your Instagram Stories’ graphics, you must ensure you are creating visually attractive designs that allure your viewers to tune in. One of the best ways to achieve that is by utilizing a storyboard to plan your stories before embarking on the design.
A storyboard helps you plan the appropriate content to post and organize it how you want it displayed. That helps ensure your Instagram story flows smoothly and keeps your viewers engaged. A storyboard is also essential if you usually place text overlays on your stories because it ensures they remain cohesive.
Include Photography
Your Instagram story does not have to comprise custom graphic designs only. You can switch them up and include photography at times. The best thing about Instagram stories is that everything you publish doesn’t have to be professionally created or high-quality. Instead, you can use the smartphone camera to capture behind-the-scenes photography in the application. Furthermore, there are millions of free photography options available for use too. You only need to select the photos that match the content you are sharing and are relevant to your company or brand.
Use Your Brand Colors And Fonts
When marketing your company or products, you must keep everything you develop on brand, including your Instagram stories. Therefore, you must always have a complete brand kit ready to go with your logo, fonts, and hex codes, among other things. Including your brand colors and fonts assists a lot with brand recognition, especially when your audience scrolls through the stories. Sticking to a specific color palette in all your Instagram stories is vital to growing brand memorability. Whether building a personal brand or having a business, keeping your color scheme consistent is key. Use the color palette wisely and professionally to enhance the appearance of your Instagram stories’ graphics. Once viewers see your graphics, they can automatically know it belongs to your organization without seeing your username.
Add Text Shadows
You need to get creative with Instagram’s in-app design assets to create captivating visuals for all your Instagram stories. You can include text shadows in the story creation dashboard by adding two layers of different colors to the same text. You can achieve that by typing your text in a darker or lighter shade and then placing it above the shadow using a slight angle. This tip is an exciting way to add text on top of a video or photo you capture in the application, making it easy and quick to create your Instagram story before publishing it.
Create Overlays And Backgrounds
The drawing tool provided by the Instagram app can do more than highlighting and coloring the text in your story. This unique tool can also assist you in creating color overlays and backgrounds that enhance the appearance of your stories. If you plan to share some important announcements on your Instagram story without finding a photo to use, you can open the pen tool, locate the background color you want and then press and hold it until the whole screen turns that color.
Furthermore, you can create a glowing color overlay using the highlighting tool for the same process. You can also create some sneak peeks by including a background color on top of your images and moving the eraser tool over to eliminate some of the colors and enhance your images. If you need professional-made backgrounds and overlays you can consult website builders who can do it for you. You can find more info about them here if you don’t feel comfortable doing it yourself.
Use GIFs And Stickers
Instagram stories provide you with many different stickers and GIF options to bring a sense of style and humor to your designs. You can search for something specific or scroll through the various options to add to your Instagram stories. There is an array of icon styles, and you can also include hashtag stickers, Q&As, quizzes, and polls to enhance the appearance of your visuals and keep your audience engaged. You can also create and submit your GIFs and stickers for viewers to add to their stories or provide easy access to your brand.
Creating creative and visually appealing Instagram stories is integral to your business or personal brand. Whether you are an illustrator, videographer, photographer, or small business entrepreneur, creating beautiful and outstanding Instagram stories can help you spread the message of your impeccable skills and demonstrate your work to a bigger audience. The tips above can help you create high-quality graphics that captivate your viewers in all your Instagram stories.
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Originally Published on Martech Zone: How To Create Stunning Visuals For Instagram Stories