Create Instagram Highlights that Build Your Staging Business

By now, you have probably realized that as a home stager, you need to use Instagram to show off your beautiful staging portfolio and reach potential clients. But, to optimize your home staging business profile, you need to use the Instagram Highlights feature.

What are Instagram Highlights?

Instagram used to just be a feed of pretty pictures (perfect for you- that is literally what staging is!), but as the social media app has grown in popularity, sooooo many new features have been added. It can be overwhelming to try to get the hang of all of Instagram's options.

Instagram Highlights are one of the most important features of Instagram for home stagers to take advantage of. Like all things home staging, we’re here to guide you through this useful Instagram feature.

Since Stories are posts that disappear after 24 hours, they don't go on your profile grid. You may spend a lot of time on these and it can feel defeating when they are gone the next day. This is what makes Instagram Highlights such a great feature!

You can set up Highlights on your profile to feature your best Instagram Stories. Instead of vanishing, Highlights remain on your profile as long as you want them to! Here is where Highlights are located on your profile:

As you can see, each of our Highlights has its own name and image (called the Highlight Cover). When a user clicks on a Highlight, they should see a series of Stories about that topic.

Use Instagram Highlights like a website menu.

Think of your Instagram account as a mini-website. It will often see more traffic than your actual staging website and your Highlights may be the first impression of your home staging business that a potential client has. So, it needs to showcase and promote your staging brand.

Use Highlights the same way you'd use a menu at the top of your website. These Stories should answer questions like:

• What services do you offer?
• Why should I hire you?
• Where can I see examples of your work?
• Do you have a professional home staging certification?
• What are your reviews?

When a potential staging client clicks on the cover that says “services,” she should see beautiful stories about the different staging services you offer. This is a great opportunity to showcase your diverse services. The highlight that says “testimonials” or “reviews” should show stories with glowing quotes from your clients praising your staging skills and the amazing results you got for them.

Stage your Instagram Highlights.

And you thought you were just staging houses! Nope. Your social media and website should be “staged” as well. They need to reflect your aesthetics and the level of service you offer.

Each Instagram Highlight that you create will have a "cover" image. These cover images should be professional and simple. Remember, this is one important way you are marketing your staging business! Your Highlight icons should be as professional as all of your other marketing strategies.

Unfortunately, being a professional stager does not necessarily mean that you have graphic design skills as well. So, to make things easy, we've created 20 Instagram Highlight covers for you to choose from to use in your own social media! These are included as a BONUS in our social media and email templates for home stagers.

We also added a complete how-to booklet so you can learn how to create Highlights and upload your cover image 😉 Our goal is to make things easy for you, so you can focus on what you love: staging!