How to Reach New Customers on Instagram With Promo
Instagram has leveled the playing field for small brands looking to grow their customer base. But just having a business Instagram account is not enough to move the needle. By maintaining a strong online presence on Instagram with relevant and engaging content, you have the power to be the driver of your growth.
By posting regularly on Instagram, you can reach more of the app’s user base of over a billion monthly users, 90% of whom follow at least one business, meaning they’re open to and interested in learning about, following, and engaging with small businesses like yours.
In this article, we’ll teach you how short-form videos can help you make the most out of Instagram’s massive potential to reach new customers and to help your business grow and thrive. The best part – is they’re fast, fun, and easy to create thanks to Promo’s power pairing of an online video maker with unlimited stock footage and one-step branding. Let’s get started.
The Power of Short Video on Instagram
Instagram and short videos are two of the most effective tools for social media marketing. They go together perfectly. While Instagram may have originally been developed as a platform for sharing photos, it’s grown to be a place where video truly thrives. Videos get 21.2% more interaction on Instagram than images do.
Over the past couple of years, short-form content has taken the lead as bite-sized video content has become the main parameter for social media growth. It doesn’t seem like things are slowing down short-form content anytime soon, in fact, it will become even more dominant in helping businesses share content in 2022.
Short-form videos give companies the privilege to create relatable content, engaging content. These videos achieve everything long-form content does, from boosting interaction to driving hard sales. Moreover, short-form videos encourage businesses to join elevate their promotions and join in on trends and teasers.
With the right software, short videos are easy to create, which means there’s no reason you shouldn’t add them to your marketing strategy and social media. One of the most effective ways of getting your short videos to reach your target audiences is none other than Instagram.
To fully harness the power of short video, Instagram has made it possible to publish videos in four different ways as:
- Feed posts
- Stories
- Reels
- Instagram ads
This means that having a robust video marketing strategy on Instagram is easier than ever, offering a multitude of different options for you to choose from to fit your brand and goals. To make the most of Instagram, it’s important to map out a content plan.
What Does a Good Instagram Content Plan Include
While creating Instagram videos on the fly is always an option, to make the most of your presence, you should try to develop a solid, well-considered monthly Instagram content plan. This will involve thinking about what you want to achieve with your Instagram marketing efforts for the month and how you intend to get there.
Consider sitting down for a content strategy brainstorming session and answering the following questions. The clearer and better-documented your answers, the easier it will be to put your plan into action.
What specific, measurable, realistic goals do I want to meet with my Instagram marketing this month?
Having goals is essential to give you a sense of direction, and phrasing them as clearly and specifically as possible will make it easier to work toward them and know when you’ve achieved them. Some potential goals you might make include things like “engage more followers by posting content inviting my followers to comment” or “create a campaign for upcoming sales through promotional videos.”
Who is my target audience on Instagram?
This question will be critical in helping guide your decisions about what kind of content to post. Most of the time, your target Instagram audience will be the same as your current and/or target customer, but not always.
It may surprise you, but you can get insights into your target audience through Instagram analytics. The existing demographic insights will give you a better understanding of who your content is reaching and engaging.
Go to “Insights” and then “Audience” from your business account. You’ll see statistics regarding your existing followers, including their age range, gender, and location.
What are my competitors doing on Instagram?
Take a look at the Instagram accounts of any competitors you’re aware of in your space. Notice which accounts are successful, with lots of followers and engagement, and which ones aren’t doing quite as well.
Try to see what your more successful competitors might be doing that is working so well for them. What types of videos are they posting? What hashtags are they using? Do they engage a lot with their followers in the comments? Are they posting 15 stories a day? Do they have consistent, easily identifiable branding?
And when it comes to the competitors with fewer followers and likes, what might they be doing wrong? Maybe they only post once a month, or all of their videos have poor audio quality. Perhaps they don’t use captions. Maybe they use 30 hashtags in each post which feels like too many.
Your competitors’ accounts can serve both as sources of inspiration as well as opportunities for making yourself stand out. Think about what you like and want to emulate, how you can differentiate yourself, and what you can do better.
How often do I want to post videos on Instagram?
According to social media management platform Hootsuite, It’s generally considered good practice to post 2 – 3 times a week on your feed and at least once a day on your stories. Of course, if this is too much for you, you can always post less frequently. Just aim to be consistent, without too many long gaps passing between posts. And when it comes to stories, you can let loose, as it’s not uncommon for brands to post up to 10 or 15 stories in a day.
Which of the four forms of Instagram videos (feed, story, reel, ad) do I want to post?
While you don’t have to use all four formats consistently, each does have its own advantages.
Your feed will be what new followers see when they find you, so it’s a great place to post evergreen content that you feel accurately represents your brand.
Stories can be a bit more light-hearted and topical, as they are only temporary.
Reels are an excellent way to reach new audiences beyond your followers. Unlike the Instagram feed, the Reels section of Instagram displays Reels by any public creator that the viewer might be interested in, not just those they follow.
Paid ads can help you target your ideal audience, with options to specify exactly which demographic you want to reach, so save this format for your best and most polished content that sells your brand.
When will I post on Instagram?
Keeping a content calendar with key dates like national holidays or significant dates for your business, like sales or new product launch days, will help you stay on track with consistently posting relevant content. From feed posts celebrating your fifth anniversary to lighthearted stories wishing your customers a happy National Take a Chance Day, a content calendar is a great tool to get you posting frequently.
What type of videos will I post on Instagram?
See below for some ideas.
How Promo Will Boost Your IG Video Creation
As we mentioned above, a critical part of your Instagram video content strategy is deciding how you’ll make your Instagram videos. There are many possibilities for how you can do this, from hiring a professional video creator to quickly pressing the record button on your smartphone camera.
But if you want an option that is both affordable and can produce professional results, an online video editor like Promo is the perfect way to create lots of appealing, attractive videos without too much effort. Here are just some of how Promo can help you create videos for your Instagram.
It’s Super Simple
Promo is an easy-to-use online platform that is super simple to work with even if you have no background at all in video editing. With a drag-and-drop interface and over 5,000 premade templates that you can tailor to fit your business, you can start making beautiful Instagram videos in just minutes using Promo.
Resize Any Video For All Instagram Formats
Editing videos on your own to fit different aspect ratios can be complicated, but the Promo video editor makes it as easy as a click. Without you having to do anything complicated, Promo lets you quickly choose between the three different aspect ratios that fit Instagram’s parameters so you can always be confident that your Instagram videos will be displayed correctly.
Find Any Footage You Need From Our Vast Royalty-Free Library
A good Instagram marketing strategy involves posting videos frequently, significantly when your business grows. According to an analysis of over 81 million Instagram posts:
- Accounts with under 1,000 followers get the highest reach and engagement when posting 14 times per week
- Accounts with between 1,000 and 250,000 followers get the highest reach when posting 14 – 20 times per week but the highest engagement when posting once per week
Keeping up with all of this content can be difficult if you’re shooting all of your videos and taking all of your photos on your own, especially if you don’t have the proper budget, resources, and time. But with Promo’s stock footage library of over 110 million photos and videos, you’ll never be at a loss for content to post. For best results, search specific keywords relevant to the video you want to make.
Hit All Key Social Media Dates With Our Social Media Calendar Templates
Another challenge of posting so frequently on Instagram is consistently coming up with new ideas for fresh, interesting content to create. That’s why Promo offers a content calendar with ideas for themes and topics you can address every single day of the year.
If you’re looking for inspiration, Anytime you’re at a loss for an idea of what to post, you can check Promo’s calendar for a video template made to drive engagement that you can use that day.
Instant Branding
Having consistent branding in all of your videos is a great way to help grow brand recognition. Promo’s video editor makes it super simple to choose your own fonts, colors, images, and logos so that each and every video you make couldn’t be mistaken for being made by any other business but yours.
Create Instagram Ad Campaigns in Minutes
With Instagram ads, you can drive awareness and increase your customer base through video. Using Promo you have the ability to easily create shareable ad campaigns for Instagram. Create ad videos from scratch, or use one of our easily customizable ready-made ad templates. Share your videos directly to your business’s Instagram, boost it, and you’ll have a winning campaign in minutes.
Video Types You Should Include In Your Instagram Strategy
When it comes to Instagram, the content possibilities are endless, but here are some types of videos that have proven to be effective for small businesses, bringing in lots of views and engagement.
Customer Testimonials
In an age where most people don’t want to purchase without first reading a review, there is no more effective marketing tool than a customer testimonial. Creating a video highlighting your happy customers, their stories, and how your business helped them can be a great way to get your Instagram audience to trust you enough to be willing to purchase from you.
There are many ways to make a customer testimonial video, ranging from a video in which a customer tells their story directly to the camera to a text-based video where you include written quotes from multiple customers.
Where to post them: A great way to keep customer testimonials around for your followers to check out without having them clog your feed is to post them to your stories and open a story highlight dedicated to customer testimonials. This will save all of these types of videos together on your page in a place that is accessible to your audience but also neatly tucked away.
Blog Post Teasers
If you don’t have a business blog yet, it’s worth considering. Blogs are a great way to provide your audience with valuable content that will build your reputation and allow you to highlight your product. Plus, you can integrate your blog with your Instagram.
For example, if you’ve recently published a new blog post that you think your audience will love, creating an Instagram video teasing that blog post by revealing the post’s title and some eye-catching quotes from it is a great way to direct traffic to your website.
Where to post them: Story teasers are a great way to get your audiences engaged and instill a sense of FOMO. That’s why we recommend you post them on your IG stories. Since teasers are no longer as relevant once the blog post has been posted, blog post teasers are perfect for your Instagram stories, which will disappear after 24 hours.
Special Offers
There’s no better way to build a relationship with your Instagram audience, growing a connection with them than to offer them special offers as a bonus for following you. Not only does this encourage people to click the “follow” button, but it’s also an excellent way to boost sales.
Where to post them: You want as many people to see your special offers as possible, so this is a type of video that makes sense to create a paid ad for. You can also post it on your stories as another way to capture your audience’s attention.
Editorial Videos
Editorial videos are videos made to interest, inspire, and engage your audience without directly selling something to them. For example, if your business sells pet food, you could post a video about the Top 5 Cutest Celebrity Pets.
Where to post them: Aforementioned, users come to Reels to participate in cultural trends and discover new ideas. Editorial videos are perfect for Instagram Reels, which help you reach a large audience beyond your own followers.
Tutorials
One key to social media marketing success is to post content valuable to your audience. One of the best ways to offer value is to educate your audience on a topic that will interest them. Online tutorial videos are viral (Tasty’s signature recipe videos, for example, frequently get over a million views each on Instagram.) Plus, they’re an excellent way to build awareness of your brand, as they can reach audiences far beyond the one who already knows and recognizes you.
Where to post them: Tutorial videos are great to post as Reels, as they are already a popular type of video on the Reels side of Instagram.
IG Video Best Practices
When you’re creating your Instagram videos, here are some things you can keep in mind that will make your videos fun for your audience to watch, improving their outcomes.
Keep It Short
The shorter and sweeter your Instagram videos are, the better. According to research by marketing company Hubspot, Instagram videos that are 26 seconds long receive the most comments. So while technically you can post Instagram videos up to one minute in length, Instagram audiences are constantly scrolling, so to keep their attention, do your best to limit your videos to no more than 30 seconds whenever possible.
Add Subtitles
According to Facebook, the company that owns Instagram, 85% of mobile users watch videos without the sound on. This means that you need to make sure your video makes perfect sense, even on mute. If there is narration or speech in your videos, you must include captions or text. You might even choose to forego including audible speech entirely and just use captions or atmospheric music instead.
Choose the Right Aspect Ratio
Instagram allows you to post videos with three possible aspect ratios:
- Square – 1:1 Aspect Ratio
- Landscape – 1.91:1 to 16:9 (we advise sticking to a 16:9 aspect ratio. Trust us, it’s easier to manage!)
- Vertical – 9:16 Aspect Ratio
Feed videos will appear in a 4:5 portrait ratio – you need to tap it to expand it to a widescreen or vertical ratio. And on your profile, it’ll show up as a 1:1 square. But for best results, use the 9:16 aspect ratio for your feed videos. Stories and Reels also look best in 9:16. These technical specs may seem minor, but they are essential to keep in mind so that your videos display properly and look great.
Don’t Forget Branding
When you’re marketing your business on Instagram, you want to make sure that any video viewer knows who your brand is, even if they don’t follow you. For every video that you post to improve brand awareness, try to include your business’s branding in each video insofar as it is relevant. This might mean using your brand’s specific colors and fonts, including your logo in the bottom corner of the video, and/or sticking to a consistent brand tone of voice.
Include Interactive Elements
When you post Instagram story videos, try to include interactive elements – like polls, votes, and questions – whenever you can, as these have been shown to increase video views. Interacting with your audience like this is a great way to build a relationship with them and boost engagement.
Final Words
If you have a small business, one of the best ways to reach new customers, meet your goals, and grow your business is to develop and execute a strong Instagram video marketing strategy. Just by making and posting short, sweet Instagram videos, you can improve your brand recognition, grow your customer base, and increase your sales.
And while pumping out several new Instagram videos a week can be challenging for a small business, it doesn’t have to be. With Promo, you will always have a consistent flow of fresh, engaging, eye-catching Instagram videos. Use our templates or get as creative and inventive as you feel. Either way, you’ll be able to start benefiting from all of the advantages of Instagram video marketing done right.
