An Instagram carousel allows users to post up to 10 images or videos in a single post, which viewers can browse through by swiping side to side. You can recognise an Instagram carousel in someone’s feed by the icon with overlapping squares in the upper right corner of the post. This icon distinguishes carousels from other content types like shoppable posts or Reels.
Instagram carousels, while constituting only 19% of all Instagram posts, prove to be significantly effective with an engagement rate of 1.92%, which increases further when all 10 slides are utilised, surpassing the 1.74% for images and 1.45% for videos.
To maximize social media engagement, you should consider incorporating instagram carousels in your content strategies. Below are 8 innovative ways to do so:
Advantages of Instagram Carousels
Instagram carousels stand out to drive higher engagement compared to single-image or video because of below advantages:
- allow sharing of more content in a single post
- enable the promotion of an entire product line seamlessly
- creative flexibility to mix photos and videos
- deliver varied and rich content by extending the time stayed on a single post
8 Innovative Instagram Carousel Ideas
1. Use Branded Graphics
Branded graphics are visually cohesive designs that incorporate your specific fonts and colours, or those of a particular marketing campaign. By consistently using these tailored visuals across your platforms, you can significantly enhance brand recognition and cohesion.
2. Sharing Your Products
Share new product lines, display various colour options, and highlight different features all within a single post. This not only boosts the interaction and time spent on your content but also enhances the likelihood of conversion, as potential customers can see the product from multiple angles or in different contexts.
3. Create a Step-By-Step Guide
By providing step-by-step visuals, you empower customers to effectively use and maximise the benefits of your products or services. This not only enriches the user experience but also positions your brand as a helpful and informative resource, fostering customer loyalty and potentially increasing sales through improved product understanding and application.
4. Ride On a Viral Theme
By incorporating trending memes into your content, especially through popular formats like Instagram’s monthly photo dumps, you can capture the attention of a broader audience. Keep yourself updated of current memes on Instagram, TikTok, and X (Twitter) to participate in cultural conversations, and make your brand more relatable and engaging!
5. Storytelling
Share your business’s origin story, mission, significant achievements, or other impactful moments, providing depth and context about your brand. By crafting these stories, you not only enhance the emotional connection with your audience but also boost the shareability and relevance of your content, solidifying your brand’s presence in the industry.
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6. Make Use of UGC
UGC, or user-generated contents, include showcasing entries from a IG photo contest or displaying diverse ways your products can be used or worn, illustrating versatility and increasing appeal, which can drive higher interaction and potential sales. This also demonstrates community engagement, enhancing your brand’s authenticity.
7. Showcase Testimonials
By showcasing real customer feedback in a visually engaging format like a carousel, you provide prospective customers with relatable and trustworthy endorsements. It can significantly elevate your brand’s credibility by directly addressing potential buyers’ concerns through authentic voices.
8. Launch a Sales Campaign
Leverage Instagram carousels to spotlight upcoming sales or discounts in a dynamic format. Additionally, by utilizing Instagram’s shoppable tags, you can directly link up to 20 products (with a limit of 5 per image), simplifying the purchase process and potentially boosting your sales directly from the post.
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Key Takeaway
The IG carousel format keeps your feed dynamic and encourages longer viewing times and more interactions, enhancing your overall engagement metrics. Utilize the above marketing tactics to drive conversions, which is the ultimate sales goal.
This article is originally published by Partipost:
Starting out in Southeast Asia, Partipost has the vision that everybody has the innate ability to be influential and make a positive impact on others. Redistributing marketing spend from the tech giants back to the everyday people is our mission that we think will have a huge impact on the livelihoods of the majority of people in Southeast Asia. We believe that the Partipost platform will be the tool that will help build on this mission to achieve the vision.