Recently updated: April 3rd, 2024
Instagram is one of the famous social media platforms where over 2.35 billion people everyone (mostly youth) are present. That makes this platform a great place for brands and businesses to get followers and potential customers. Here they can directly reach the customers and understand their needs.
However, to expand brand reach and followers, brands need digital marketers with clear knowledge of using Instagram and its features to help them grow. If you are a marketer then Instagram can do wonders for your business. It has the most prominent feature, reels, which can help you grow immensely in the Instagram reel market.
In this blog, we will discuss Instagram reel features and its marketing strategies in detail.
What are Instagram Reels and Their Features?
Reels are a type of short video that is usually 60 seconds or less. Instagram reels are a huge source of entertainment where people showcase their talent like dancing, singing, teaching, selling, and a lot of other creative things that led them to gain popularity.
With this feature, creators and influencer economies have received a tremendous boost. Their main goal is to achieve more and more followers, likes, and comments on their Instagram posts. Instagram reels are said to receive 55% more engagement than regular video content.
In 2020, Instagram rose to popularity with its short video content called reels. Therefore, Instagram reels introduced a new way of marketing for digital marketers, and they started coming up with reel ideas for digital marketing.
Instagram launched ads and hired famous personalities to make reels to make them popular in the market. Now, top brands, creators, and influencers receive millions of views on each reel.
Basic features of Instagram reels:
- You can use many amazing video effects while making your reel that will look very attractive.
- You can add different kinds of music and use the text-to-speech feature to your reels.
- You can add text to your reels that will convert voiceovers into text that helps in engaging more users.
- You can share your reels on other social media platforms and on Instagram stories too.
- You can change the layout of your reels and make it appealing.
- Many creators can even collaborate with other famous creators by using the reel feature, which will improve their engagement.
- You can edit the playback speed of your reels according to your video needs.
Different Ways to Use Instagram Reel
Source: WordStream
There are many different ways in which we can make reels depending on our goals:
You can make reels that are oriented towards educational purposes
While making reels, you have a full 30 seconds under which you can show full-fledged informative videos by adding short videos and images. Even though these are short videos, you can still add plenty of information within a short time
Some examples:
- Educational videos
- Recipe videos
- Tips and Tricks videos
You can make reels to showcase your company’s culture and features
If you want to build company trust with clients, then you can easily opt for making a reel to show the company’s culture. This will increase the value of the company and brand recognition. You can introduce your team to implement “Instagram takeovers” and participate in social trends and challenges.
Making reels can help make new connections
Reels have a huge impact on people while showcasing your business profile. People can get engaged by your reel easily when you put your best work forward.
List all the important features and main perspectives for which you are working. So that when interested clients reach out to you, they can get to know who they will be talking to or working with.
- Give an introduction of yourself with proper information
- Put an elevator pitch about what you have to offer
You can make reels for entertainment purposes
Rather than all of the purposes mentioned above, there is one more purpose of Instagram reel entertainment. You can make reels for your personal use and for entertainment, where you can make funny videos, animated videos, memes, drawings, riddles, and so on. In this way, you can also increase your followers and engagement.
Benefits of Using Instagram Reels for Marketing
Today, almost every marketer’s goal is to increase brand awareness through social media platforms, where Instagram reels play an important role.
However, to use Instagram reels effectively for marketing, you need to understand carefully what type of content your audience likes to consume the most.
There are many ways of making a reel through which you can generate many likes for your posts.
Nowadays, people are most likely to watch funny things, and if you follow this theme, a large number of reels gone viral that are humorous. Try to make your content in a humorous way to engage many people.
Rather than this, trends in reels are also a very popular way to drive many likes and shares. Sometimes, people all around the world usually make reels using viral music or filters. That is usually done to get more likes and views. Every marketer would opt for this opportunity to get more engagement on your videos.
After TikTok, Instagram reels are the most popular source of short videos that people use worldwide for entertainment purposes. Marketers have this golden opportunity to increase new followers for their social media pages. You can do this by creating engaging reels for your target audiences. Using Instagram reels for marketing can result in even more success if you use the correct hashtags, keywords, and music.
Let’s say you have a page for fashion on Instagram and you are handling it. In this case, a good Instagram reel marketing idea would be to create an informative video that will educate your audience on a trending fashion-related topic.
Along this, you need to use high-volume hashtags, and keywords while uploading your reel on Instagram to reach different users and get new followers. Make sure that your reels are informative and provide some value to your users.
Making a reel on viral topics that are fully relevant to your target audiences led to a lot of engagement. It can improve your overall marketing strategies for Instagram.
According to an experiment which is conducted by Hootsuite, marketers who use Instagram reels led in increasing their follower count, increasing the number of accounts reached to their page regularly, and the number of likes and comments they received per post.
Low user engagement leads to low results, however, we have to be focused more on what people love to watch according to their target audience. Your followers like your content, which is why they start following you, and now if they are not following your content anymore, there must be something that you are doing in the wrong way.
Why You Are Losing or Not Getting More Instagram Followers?
First, maybe you are making a video using the same type of content straightforwardly. You need to create different reels engagingly for your specific target audience. You can also collaborate with many marketing influencers and make videos on viral topics with the right hashtags and keywords.
The second problem could be that the followers are not getting your reels on their feed. To tackle the second issue, you need to make sure your followers get to see your content whenever you post it. You can do it by sharing your newly uploaded reels to your Instagram stories and on other social media platforms.
By doing this, you will be able to regain your followers’ attention.
Instagram Reels Marketing Strategy: A Step-By-Step Guide for Viral Video Content
If you want to enhance your online presence, then Instagram reel is a great way to boost your engagement rates. There is some guidance you need to follow to go viral on Instagram reels.
How Does the Instagram Reels Algorithm Work?
Instagram reels algorithm shows your feed according to your choices of videos and according to your previous interaction. It recommends the kind of content you will likely be interested in watching. Reel algorithms give you an enjoyable and personalized experience.
The algorithm continuously refreshes your feed as it gathers more data on what you like and dislike.
For example, if you constantly view, like, or comment on reels about nature, the algorithm will observe this as a pattern and will most likely suggest more nature-related reels to you. Instagram does not allow you to select audience segments.
Reels with high-quality visuals, good audio, and engaging content are more likely to be seen at the top of the feed.
Use trending videos continuously
Whenever you scroll through Instagram reels regularly, you will notice that many creators use the same music on top of their videos. If thousands of people have used the same music for their posts, then there is something very unique with that music.
Instagram reel sounds are mostly snippets of songs or audio clips from other creators’ videos. When they gain popularity through that sound, they can also be helpful for you to get more views, if you add them to your reels. This happens because users often search videos by sounds and the Instagram algorithm also seems to like it.
The best way to find trending audio on Instagram is to use the platform regularly and make lists of sounds that pop up more often than others. Try to always keep on track of sounds that are trending. It can be tough at times to find sounds, so make sure to save and download them and use them later on. Be sure to choose songs wisely and use them accordingly do not overuse the sounds.
Do not add too many ads and hook your audiences
People generally don’t want interference while they are watching reels on their mobile phones. Whether, as much as you might want to sell, users don’t want to see ads. They use Instagram to explore new ideas, connect with other people, and get an entertainment dose during breaks from their work. That is why you need to keep the audience’s preference on priority.
There are lots of users who create content regularly, so make sure to grab your audience’s attention from the beginning of your video. If you put your interesting part in the middle of the video, then users won’t see it.
Be sure to create content that is entertaining for your target audiences. It can be a dance video, any trending song, an informative video, and so on. Reels are the best way to promote your business.
Post Regular with Music and Effects
Being consistent with your posts is an efficient way to boost your engagement across the platform. You can use the same strategies to be successful with reels that you used to boost content on Instagram stories and posts, this will help your post to go viral.
The algorithm is also designed in such a way that it promotes your content whenever you post new content. Instagram prioritizes showing recent videos over old ones, so try to keep things new and updated.
Posting your content regularly also helps you get many helpful insights about what people want to see. This will guide you when you are trying to figure out what works and why.
The more you post, the more you will get to know the target audience about what they like the most, when they use Instagram and more valuable insights.
While posting your content, it is important to keep this in mind about visuals. Keep a balance between simple and appealing designs. These visuals may vary from business to business. You need to test different styles and sounds to figure out what your audience likes and dislikes.
Collaboration with Other Creators
Collaboration with other creators does wonders. In 2021, Instagram added a new feature of Instagram called Collabs. This option will let you share your work with other creators and allow them to share the reel from their page to yours. This will result in both side followers watching the reel and boost your engagement.
This Collab feature is a full-on game-changer if you get to work with influencers, brand partners, and celebs. It will extend your reach to their entire following, which means it will increase more likes, shares, reach, and overall engagement.
Step of collaborating with other users:
- Try to Tag people whenever you are about to publish your reel.
- Then tap on Invite Collaborator and select the user who you want to feature in your video.
- The reel will show up in their tab, once the user accepts your collab invitation.
Wrap Up
Instagram is a popular social media platform and its reel feature has been growing rapidly ever since it was launched in 2020. It has been one of the best places for social media marketers to get followers and customers for your business. Reels can engage more customers and enhance your brand visibility and engagement. This feature helps in driving likes, user engagement, followers, and building trust with customers.
Nowadays videos play a very important role whenever you are opting for a social media strategy. On Instagram, you can utilize reels to build an organic social media presence, promote your business, and connect with potential customers directly. You need to learn more about its strategies and correctly implement them to stand out differently.
This blog has included all the key elements of Instagram reels that marketers need to know. If you are new to digital marketing, you need to understand how different social media, especially Instagram reels work in marketing your business. You need to regularly implement the top Instagram reel strategies as part of your overall digital marketing plan to be stable in the long run.
