5 Ways to Use Instagram Reels Marketing to Grow Your Business
Instagram Reels are short, user-generated videos that are up to 30 seconds long and have a specific video size and format. They are also an effective way to build engagement with your audience. You can share what your business is up to in day-to-day life, create short infomercial style videos, or just amusing clips. Whichever one you choose, Instagram Reels marketing is worth your attention.
Businesses are beginning to catch up with using Reels to ramp up their Instagram. Companies use these short videos to engage with their audience and build brand awareness. This article will share five tips on how to use Instagram Reels to build brand awareness and engage your audience.
Use Instagram Reels for a peek behind the scenes
A 30-second Reel is perfect for giving your audience a peek behind the scenes of your business. Content about your business, specifically the daily lives of employees, helps build a bond with your audience. Many companies where the founder takes an outsized role in business operations take this approach. A nice example is Melissa Griffin, a blogger who has built a brand around her name.
She uses Instagram Reels to share things that are happening in her life. That video content helps humanize her business and makes her more relatable to her audience. She then shares business-related information through her Instagram TV (IGTV) channel, which is more suited to long-form video content.
Using Reels to provide a behind-the-scenes peek at your business is something you can do even if you’re not an owner-operated business. The company behind Batik Pottery is a nice case in point.
Dubsado, an all-in-one business solution that helps users manage appointments, network, and manage workflows, uses Instagram Reels marketing to show things like the welcome packages that they give to new customers.
You can use Instagram Reels to run marketing campaigns like “a day in the life” and “proof that we care.” Using Reels in this way is ideal for highlighting your brand culture.
Reels provide you with a chance to share information about how your company operates, your ethos, and where your goods are produced. IGTV is more suited to providing those in-depth insights that help establish you or your company as niche experts.
Share user-generated content
Hopefully, you have a large and engaged online audience. That audience will engage with your brand and occasionally share content where they tag you. That content might be a review of your product or service, thanks for providing an amazing product, or something else entirely.
Those reviews, and that feedback, are a form of social proof.
When used appropriately, social proof can be a very powerful sales and marketing resource. You can utilize this user-generated content (UGC) in your Instagram Reels. The content you share can help create a sense of authenticity and community with your audience. People can see how you build a sense of community and the feedback your business is getting.
Furthermore, the UGC you are sharing might be reposted by the creator, which is a great way to get your company in front of more potential customers.
You can encourage UGC using the following strategies:
- Partner with micro-influencers to create short videos for your brand showing them using your product or service.
- Run a hashtag contest for user-generated content showing your fans using your products. Reward the best performing content with a special offer.
Let’s take a quick look at user-generated content in action on Instagram:
Sugarfina, a specialty tea brand, asked users to share videos on their self-care routines with the hashtag #SugarfinaSerenitea. The campaign was a big success and generated a lot of organic engagement. The clever use of a brand-specific hashtag helps in spreading brand awareness.
UGC hashtag contests are a way to engage your core audience. You can use the data you’ve gained from a campaign for sales and other marketing efforts such as finding the contact details for the particpants, creating a Gmail account, and sending them offers.
Create how-to videos
Thirty seconds provides a bit of time to showcase the other types of content you create for your brand. For example, you can create condensed how-to videos to share knowledge with your audience.
Short “how-to” videos can logically lead into the type of content you produce for IGTV.
Two spoons is a nice example of a company that takes this approach. The brand often posts Insta Reels on easy-to-make vegan recipes.
In the example above, you’ll notice they are doing a cross-channel promotion. Promoting content from TikTok on Instagram is a logical way of growing the brand’s presence.
Keep in mind that while cross-channel marketing does work, Instagram and TikTok are competing platforms. Social media channels commonly restrict the reach of content with external links to third-party sites. After all, social media companies only make money when you’re on their platform.
Alongside how-to Instagram Reels marketing, you can also do things like run question & answer (Q&A) sessions. A good Q&A session is a great way to engage with your audience and get feedback about the products or services that you provide.
You can use the Q&A sticker on your Instagram account to solicit questions from your audience.
Repurpose your best content
If you’re looking for content inspiration, make sure to check out the best performing content from your other marketing channels. Dig into your content arsenal by checking your website, blogs, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook accounts to identify content that gained the highest engagement.
Repurpose this content by turning it into an Instagram Reel. For instance, if you have a 3-minute video on YouTube that got many views and likes, figure out how you can condense the essence of that message into a 30-second Reel.
You can also repurpose content from other platforms like TikTok. However, make sure you remove the Tik Tok watermark from the video. According to Instagram, content that has visibly been recycled from other platforms will be less discoverable on the Reels tab. Removing the watermark is straightforward. You can use tools like SnapTik App and MusicallyDown.
Keep your content fun and personal
The best type of content for Instagram Reels is fun and engaging. It’s also stuff you’d be happy to share with your friends. You need to inject your content with that sense of fun.
Keep your messaging light and personal. Your goal is to engage people looking for something to fill free time – that’s why most people are on Instagram, after all.
There are various ways you can inject that sense of fun into your content. For example, you can show your vulnerability. Content on topics like “blooper of the day at work” or “The quirky habits of our CEO” are a good fit for people looking for lighthearted entertainment.
You also need to consider what will make people come back to your content, which is a core part of your brand experience. If you can create content that people find engaging, they’ll come to your Instagram Reels for a bit of entertainment. When that happens, you’ve achieved a measure of marketing success.
Time to Get Real about Instagram Reels Marketing
Instagram Reels provide a platform for businesses to educate, share tips, entertain, and engage with their audience in an authentic and personal way. This guide looked at five ways to engage your audience. You can use Instgram Reels marketing to give people a behind-the-scenes look at your company, share UGC, create how-to videos, and more.
While there are many types of content you can create, make sure to consider the goals of your channel. It’s worth creating a content calendar. A calendar forces you to consider your strategy, the type of content you want to share, and why people want to engage with your Instagram Reels.
