The short version: Turn your Instagram Story Highlights into a mini menu of your services, one highlight per service or category, updated with proof (results, client words, behind the scenes) at least once a month, and stop treating them as a place where old stories go to die.
Next step on this topic: How Do You Download The Latest WhatsApp Business Update? A Step-By-Ste.
Why highlights matter more than your feed does right now
Here’s something most people skip past: when someone lands on your Instagram profile for the first time, they don’t scroll your grid, they tap your highlights. I watch this happen on client accounts constantly through Instagram Insights. Someone follows a link from a podcast mention, a LinkedIn post, a networking event they met you at, they land on the profile, and within two seconds their thumb goes straight to the row of circles under your bio, not your latest post.
That row of circles is doing the job your website homepage used to do. It’s your services page, your about page and your testimonials page, squashed into a strip that takes fifteen seconds to skim. If it’s empty, or it’s full of holiday photos and reposted memes, you’ve lost that person before they even see what you sell.
I saw this play out with a coaching client of mine last year, a bookkeeper in Manchester with a strong client list but a profile that looked like a personal diary. Her highlights were labelled things like “2023” and “fun stuff.” Nothing told a visitor what she did, who she did it for, or what it cost to work with her. We rebuilt her highlights in an afternoon into five categories, and within six weeks she had three new client enquiries that came directly through the profile, not the feed. Same followers, same content style, different front door.
The uncomfortable bit nobody tells you about highlights
Here’s the part that gets glossed over in most guides on this topic: highlights don’t sell your services. They stop people leaving before they’ve seen enough to decide whether to enquire. That’s a different job, and it matters because it changes what you should put in them.
If you go in thinking “these highlights need to close the sale,” you’ll end up writing sales copy onto Story slides, which looks desperate and reads like an advert nobody asked for. If you go in thinking “these highlights need to answer the three questions a stranger has in their head,” you write completely differently. Those three questions are almost always: what do you do, who is it for, and what happened when someone else tried it. Answer those three and the enquiry follows on its own.
The highlight categories that do the work
I’ve tested dozens of structures across client accounts, from a wedding photographer in Tel Aviv to a B2B software reseller in Leeds. The following six categories consistently outperform the generic “About,” “FAQ,” “Fun” setup that most small businesses default to:
- Services – one highlight per core service if you offer three or fewer, or one combined “Services” highlight with a slide per service if you offer more. Each slide: what it is, who it’s for, one line on price or “get in touch for pricing.”
- Results – screenshots of client messages, before-and-after numbers, a graph, anything with a figure in it. Vague praise doesn’t stick, specific numbers do.
- Client words – actual testimonials, ideally with the client’s name and business visible, not anonymous quotes that read like they could be made up.
- Behind the scenes – you working, your process, your desk, your team. This is the highlight that builds trust faster than any polished graphic, because it’s the one thing competitors can’t copy.
- Pricing or process – even a rough range or a “here’s what happens when you enquire” walkthrough removes the biggest hesitation people have before messaging you.
- Press or proof – any mention in the media, a podcast feature, a stat about your industry that positions you as someone who knows the space. This is also where a strong statistic lands well, and if you want a stocked cupboard of current numbers to reference, our roundup of social media stats for 2026 planning is worth keeping open in a tab while you build these out.
Step by step: building service highlights from nothing
If you’re starting from zero, here is exactly what I tell clients to do, in order, over one sitting:
- List every service you offer on paper first, before touching the app. Group anything similar into one category so you don’t end up with nine tiny highlights nobody wants to tap through.
- For each service, post it to your Story first as a fresh piece of content, three or four slides: what it is, who it suits, a result or client quote, a call to action to message you. Add it to Highlights straight after rather than digging through old Stories that have already expired.
- Name each highlight in four words or fewer. “Web Design,” “1:1 Coaching,” “Client Results.” Anything longer gets cut off under the circle.
- Design a simple cover icon set. You don’t need a designer for this, a free tool like Canva has templates built for exactly this job, and our list of Instagram tools and apps has several free options worth trying if Canva feels too fiddly.
- Order the highlights left to right based on what a stranger needs to see first. Services and Results should sit closest to your profile picture, “Fun” or personal content should sit at the far end, if it exists at all.
- Set a recurring reminder, once a month, to add one new slide to your Results or Client Words highlight. Stale proof reads as no proof.
That whole build, for someone with three services, takes about ninety minutes the first time. After that, adding a new highlight or updating one takes ten minutes.
What goes wrong (and it isn’t the design)
I get asked constantly what the covers should look like, whether they need to match a specific colour palette, whether icons look more professional than photos. Honestly, the cover design matters far less than what people assume. I’ve seen plain white circles with a single word convert better than beautifully branded icon sets, because the content behind the tap did the actual work.
The real failure points I see over and over on client accounts are these:
- Highlights that are two years old and reference a service you no longer offer or a price that’s gone up since. Nothing kills trust faster than a visitor spotting outdated information.
- No call to action anywhere in the highlight. Every service highlight needs a final slide that says how to get in touch, and ideally a link sticker if you have one available.
- Too many highlights. Past eight or nine circles, people stop tapping through in order and just pick one at random. Keep it tight.
- Treating highlights as a dumping ground for every Story you’ve ever posted rather than a curated menu. If you wouldn’t put it on your homepage, don’t put it in a highlight.
Using highlights to support a customer-first approach, not just a sales pitch
The businesses that get the most out of this feature aren’t the ones shouting loudest about their services, they’re the ones structuring highlights around what the customer needs to know before they buy, which is the same thinking behind building a proper customer-first strategy anywhere else in your business. A highlight titled “Is This For You?” that honestly lays out who your service suits and who it doesn’t will build more trust than five highlights of polished testimonials, because it reads as honest rather than promotional.
I add a highlight like this on my own profile occasionally, walking through exactly the type of business owner I work best with and the type I don’t. It filters out the wrong enquiries before they ever land in my inbox, which saves both of us time.
Writing the words for each slide without staring at a blank screen
Most people get stuck not on the strategy but on the actual wording of each slide. If you’re short on time, a tool like ChatGPT can draft ten variations of a service description or a testimonial summary in seconds, and if you want a starting point for prompts that produce usable copy rather than generic marketing waffle, our guide to B2B prompts for AI-driven content gives you working examples you can adapt directly for Story slides. I use this myself when I’ve got five services to describe in one sitting and my brain has run out of fresh ways to say the same thing.
Where the client results come from
One thing I’d push back on: don’t wait until you have flashy, big-number results before you start a Results highlight. The bookkeeper client I mentioned earlier started hers with a single WhatsApp screenshot from a client saying “you’ve saved me so much stress this quarter, thank you.” No graph, no big number, just a real message from a real person. That single slide stayed her most-viewed highlight for three months, because it read as true rather than manufactured. Small, specific, real beats big and vague every time.
This is also where showing up consistently in the wider community pays off, because a lot of the client messages worth screenshotting come from relationships built through networking, both online and in person, not from the content itself. The highlight is just where you display the proof, the proof itself gets built long before you open the app.
How often you should touch these once they’re set up
Realistically, once a month is enough for most small businesses. Set a date, add one new client result, remove anything outdated, check your pricing highlight still matches what you charge. If you run a seasonal business, add a quick check at the start of each quarter to make sure nothing references a promotion or price point that’s expired. That’s it. This isn’t a daily content job, it’s a light maintenance task that stops your profile going stale.
Related reading: helen hadsell story.
Frequently asked questions
How many Instagram Story Highlights should a business have for its services?
Between five and eight is the sweet spot for most small businesses, one or two for services, one for results, one for client words, one for behind the scenes, and one for pricing or process. Past eight or nine, visitors stop scanning in order and just tap at random.
Do Instagram Highlight covers need to match my brand colours?
It helps for polish but it isn’t the deciding factor in whether someone enquires. What’s inside the highlight, real results, real client words, a clear call to action, does far more of the work than the cover design ever will.
How often should I update my service highlights?
Once a month is enough to keep them current. Add one new result or testimonial, remove anything outdated, and check your pricing or process information still matches reality, since outdated information in a highlight damages trust faster than having no highlight at all.
Can I use old Stories from months ago to build a Highlights menu?
You can, but it’s usually better to record fresh content for your first Services and Results highlights so the information is current, then add older Stories in afterward if they’re still accurate. A highlight full of expired offers or outdated prices costs you more enquiries than an empty one would.
Official documentation
You will find the Instagram help page if you need something else.
Old testimonials count: learn to: pull an archived story into a Highlight.
