Build A Brand With These 13 Instagram Highlight Ideas

Instagram highlights are collections of Instagram stories. If you have been using Instagram, you must know the value of posting stories to enhance engagement. In this post, we will learn about the best Instagram highlight ideas and how you can use them to achieve your business goals.

How to Create Instagram Story Highlights

Instagram story highlights are a common feature in personal as well as business accounts. They are present at the top of your profile, along with your bio and website link.

While Instagram stories vanish within 24 hours, Instagram highlights allow you to show stories under relevant topics, allowing for continued access to past stories on your profile. You can categorize them like albums and put a cover image on top. Check this Simplified guide to get some brilliant Instagram highlight cover ideas.

Check the simple steps below to create an Instagram highlight.

Go to the Settings menu in your Instagram account.
Go to the Stories option and “Save to Archive” all the stories you want to highlight.
Now, go to your profile, and you will find a plus icon under your bio to create a highlight. Choose among the archived stories according to your category.
Finally, you will find the option to choose a cover photo and a title for the highlight.

Now that you know how to create an Instagram story highlight, let’s look at some Instagram highlight ideas that you can use in 2023.

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13 Instagram Highlight Ideas to Beat Your Competitors in 2023

Instagram story highlights are the first thing noticed by anyone who visits your profile. You must highlight your best assets so that viewers can easily navigate between them and learn about your brand.

Design Instagram highlight covers that connect with your brand. Use your brand colors and fonts. Keep it straightforward and simple!

1. List your products on your Instagram highlights

Highlight your products and services on top if you want to showcase them. Your customers and new viewers don’t have time to scroll down through your entire profile and hunt for products that they like. They will want to find new products as quickly as possible, and Instagram highlights provide an easy shortcut.

Haircare brand Flawsome has categorized its products on its highlights by hair concern as well as the type of product it is.

First, you will need to share the products in your stories. Use a good template with the price, features, and story link stickers. You can create excellent Instagram stories with Simplified. Save them to the archive and then highlight them on your profile. Make sure to use good highlight cover photos.

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2. Show your Q&A

Answering your customer’s questions is a fantastic way to engage with your community. Instagram already has some amazing tools that you can use to get your users to ask questions. You can answer all the questions you collect and use Instagram story highlights to create a collection of answers.

Put them all under a “Q&A” topic as a highlight. This will help your audience come back to your responses whenever needed.

Q&A highlights are a wonderful way for new followers to learn about creators and influencers.

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3. Product tutorials and guides

Knowing about products is great, but knowing how to use them is even more important. Why not create product tutorials and highlight them on top?

Even if your products don’t need tutorials, you can show different ways to use them. For fashion garments, you can create a complete fashion book to show how to style garments.

You can also create guides on topics related to your business. For example- if your business makes travel gear, you can create short guides on how to travel safely.

Simplified does this by highlighting its most used tools and how one can use them.

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4. Showcase your customer testimonials

The best thing that Instagram provides you with is a community. And the best way to impress your community is through customer testimonials. You can ask your customers to post about their experiences on Instagram stories.

Take screengrabs of customers praising your work on DMs (with permission, of course!). Collect these screengrabs and use them to create a review-focused Instagram highlight.

Hair color brand Birds of Paradyes has two highlights dedicated to just customer reviews, as well as a couple showcasing their customers’ photos.

This is the best Instagram highlight idea to use to add credibility to your brand.

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5. Highlight sales, discounts, and announcements

Sales and discounts are something your users don’t want to miss! You can keep them as highlights once you share them in your stories. This way, your followers can check your profile to get all the details they need about existing sales.

Shein has highlighted its seasonal spring sale so followers don’t miss updates!

Be sure to mention the details and discount rates. Share the coupon codes. If there are any other announcements regarding a price drop or raise, make sure to highlight them.

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6. Highlight events and workshops

Conducting events and workshops is very important if you want to create a powerful brand identity. Notify your communities with Instagram stories to announce your events. You can post about everything that happened at the event.

Luxury fashion brand Lous Vuitton has only one highlight for its upcoming event, giving it all the focus.

Eventually, you can create a highlight of the event. With a highlight, new followers can learn about your past events.

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7. Show behind the scenes and add the human touch

Whether your brand is about sports or baked goodies, the people behind them are the most important. Why not talk about the people, the process, and what goes on behind the camera?

Baker Cindy Ngar has multiple highlights to show followers what goes on behind the scenes of her super-popular bakery

This can be a great Instagram highlight idea to connect with your community and let them know about your business! You can post about how you create products or the packaging process. Highlight them up and let the world know what goes on behind the scenes in your business.

8. Polls

Polls can be really exciting because they help you connect with your audience. It’s a great opportunity to ask all those burning questions about your brand and products. By doing so, you can discover what your customers and potential customers prefer when it comes to your products and how you operate.

Engaging with your audience in this way not only keeps them involved but also allows you to make business decisions that align with their preferences. After all, they are the ones who shape your identity, don’t they?

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9. Causes

If your brand is really passionate about a social cause and actively contributes to it, it’s important to talk about it and showcase that content to your followers. By doing so, you let your audience know where you stand on important issues.

This highlight by Sephora discusses their passion for racial inclusivity, both within their organization as well as their partner brands.

One powerful way people can create a positive impact is by supporting businesses that align with their beliefs and actively contribute to causes they care about.

10. New launches

People are always excited to discover what’s new and trendy. An interesting Instagram highlight idea is to create a section specifically for your latest arrivals.

With the onset of summer, Starbucks has highlighted all the new drinks it’s launching this hot season.

This way, you can regularly update it with each new product you launch and remove those that are no longer considered new. It keeps things fresh and engaging for your followers.

11. Team features

Audiences really enjoy getting to know your team, seeing what they’re working on, and gaining more insights about them. It creates a stronger connection between the audience and the brand.

Buzzfeed Tasty has a feature for its executive chef where they post everything related to him!

It’s like having an “About Us” page but conveniently located right under your Instagram bio.

12. Fan features

There’s no better way to engage with your fans than by showcasing their work. Your followers absolutely love recreating things they’ve seen on your page, and featuring their creations not only gives them a sense of recognition but also motivates them to engage with you even more.

The Instagram page for the show Only Murders In The Building regularly posts fanart of the characters made by viewers of the show.

It’s a wonderful way to foster a strong connection with your audience and build a community.

13. Brand policy

Here’s another great Instagram highlight idea: share your brand policy on your story highlights. By doing this, you demonstrate transparency to your audience and let them know what they can expect when they interact with your brand.

Bumble’s extensive policy ranges from online dating etiquette & cybersecurity to climate change & women’s health!

It creates a sense of harmony among your followers, as they have a clear understanding of your values and guidelines.

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Increase Instagram Engagement with Highlights

Instagram highlights are among the best tools to create powerful brands and promote your small business. Showcase your best assets with these Instagram highlight ideas and engage with your community.

Whether you want to showcase products or events, good-quality images and videos are important. With Simplified, you can create stunning Instagram stories that you can always keep in your highlights.

You get a ton of amazing templates, graphic elements, music, and editing features. Not only that, you can create your own brand kits and collaborate with your team members. The best part? It is free forever!

Explore Simplified today and get ready to be amazed!