Gift Guide How To: How do I create good Gift Guides for my Instagram Story?

Christmas is just around the corner. Besides baking biscuits, drinking mulled wine at home and finding the right outfit for the holidays, the search for special gifts is of course also on the agenda. That is not an easy task at all. Have you ever created a gift guide? Your followers will surely be grateful if they can get inspired for their Christmas gifts from you as an influencer. We will show you how to create great gift guides for your Instagram Story.

You probably know this incident: Some of your loved ones will immediately come up with thousand gift ideas that they would love to receive. For others, the search for gifts might be a little more difficult. For example, there is mom, who feels like she already owns everything, or your best friend, who is kind-hearted but still very picky. It is all more relieving when you find a few suggestions and ideas online. Gift Guides (gift lists for a specific group of people and a specific occasion, e.g., Christmas presents for the sister) are ideal for collecting gift ideas, especially at Christmas time. Thus, if you want to help your followers in minimising Christmas stress, why not create your own gift guide, for example in your Instagram Story.

#holidaygiftguide: How to create your gift guide for Christmas

Gifts for your boyfriend or girlfriend, parents, siblings, best friend or colleague – your followers will surely love to pick up a few ideas from you. To ensure that your Instagram Gift Guide is not too confusing, you should choose a theme in advance. This could be beauty or fashion for example, or only a certain budget range or consider aspects such as sustainability. You could also narrow down your gift list by selecting gifts that are only meant for a best friend or just a friend. You can also create several gift guides.

Your followers trust you

You should carefully consider what gifts to choose for your followers to look at. Only recommend products that you would use or give away yourself. Otherwise, your followers’ trust in you will quickly fade away. You should invest a little time and effort in lovingly collecting your gift ideas. This will not only help your followers on Instagram, but it will also give you plenty of clicks, likes, shares and reach. One of the reasons for this is that Instagram gift guides are particularly popular with followers. Users like to save gift guides – a feature that the Instagram algorithm rewards.

You should link the products in your Instagram Gift Guide so that your followers have direct access to your product and can buy it if they want to. If you use stylink’s Linkmaker for your affliate links, you will even earn some money with each click.

Personal, not too expensive and chosen with love: Good gift guides for Instagram

Personalise your Instagram Gift Guide by writing or telling us what you personally like about each product and why it makes a great gift – for example – for your best friend. In your Instagram Story you can share your followers your thoughts on the product or you can add short notes, a product photo and the link with a nice background to your story. You can also show your favourite items that you already own or have been given as a gift to your followers and link the products for them. If you show your own products at home, make sure the lighting is good and show clothes, for example, dressed so that your followers can see them properly. Your personal experience with your favourite item is certainly worth a lot to your followers.

Smart shopper or luxury lover?

When choosing your gift ideas for the Gift Guide, you should also pay attention to the prices. Not all your followers want to spend a lot of money on Christmas presents. A mix of high-priced and less expensive products is therefore advisable so that there is something for everyone. You should also look out for different brands and different types of items. If your Fashion Gift Guide only consists of clothes, your followers will soon get bored.

The length of your list should depend on how many honest recommendations you can give. A detailed gift guide will be well received by your followers, but you should not randomly extend the gift list just to place more links.

Integrate gift guides into the Instagram Story

When you create your gift guide for your Instagram Story, beautiful backgrounds are also important. A cover picture with the right name (e.g. Holiday Gift Guide 2020: Fashion Favourites or Holiday Gift Guide 2020: Treasures for the best friend) and a few beautiful templates will put the followers in the right Christmas mood and make your gift list shine. Stickers, gifs, filters or even Christmas music in your story: Instagram offers you numerous possibilities to get creative for Christmas. Pinterest is also a good place to find inspiration for your own Gift Guide.

Don’t forget to include hashtags in your stories and posts. This way, your gift guide can be found by other users and appears in the Explore Feed on Instagram. No matter if in your Instagram Story or in a post – hashtags like #holidaygiftguide, #holidaygiftguide2020, #giftsforhim or #christmasgiftguide should not be missing. The best thing to do is to find out which hashtags go well with your gift guide.

Publish early – Shop long

Afterwards, make sure to save your gift guide in your Story Highlights so that your followers can access it at any time. Name the Story Highlight clearly, so that your followers can not only take their time at home to look over your ideas but also have quick access to your guide during hectic last-minute Christmas shopping. You can mention your gift guide in a story or refer to it in a post from time to time. In order to ensure that users can benefit from your gift list for as long as possible and to make the search for a suitable gift as easy as possible, it is best to publish your gift guide early on, for example on the first Advent Sunday or at the beginning of December.

Thanks to the Gift Guide – Christmas can come

If you follow all our tips, nothing can go wrong with your gift guide for the Christmas season. Give us feedback in the comments, on Instagram (@stylinkoffical_eu) or share your thoughts in our stylink community on how your Holiday Gift Guides were received by your followers. Do you have any other tips to make a good gift guide? Let us know! 

The stylink team wishes you a happy and healthy Christmas time and many beautiful gift ideas!