How to Use Instagram Reels for Business Marketing
Introduction
Social media channels are impeccable platforms to interact with audiences and fuel your branding endeavors. They are excellent for online media marketing.
The content on social sites can be linked to blog sites, websites, or embedded in any messages or emails to deviate users to your conversion goals.
The latest addition in the Social Media Marketing (SMM) arsenal of the marketers is Instagram Reels.
Using Instagram Reels for business marketing will allow marketers to:
- Optimize their Marketing & Branding Endeavors
- Deploy Video Content to Attract Audiences Especially Millennials and Genz
- Explore and Extend the Avenues of their Influencer Marketing Endeavors
- Make the most of their Instagram Channel by posting unique and original Video Content
What Is Instagram Reels?
Instagram Reels is the latest format of Instagram Stories that can be used to create and share 15-second video clips.
The brands can use Instagram Reels for business marketing by sharing short video content to convey their branding or advertising messages on the Explore Page as well as with followers.
What is the Instagram story?
Instagram story is basically a way to express your opinion and thoughts for 24 hours on your Instagram account. If you want to see someone’s story, you need an Instagram account or you can use a tool like Gramvio to see the stories anonymously.
Why Launch of Instagram Reels is Important?
Instagram Reels from Facebook is definitely inspired by TikTok. The functionality analogous to TikTok’s musical videos plans to tap into the younger user-base of Millennials and Genz.
According to Adweek, TikTok was the most downloaded app ever in a quarter in Q1 2020.
Mimicking TikTok’s features will provide Instagram a competitive advantage, especially when:
1. The Popularity of TikTok Has Dwindled
The popularity of TikTok has suddenly diminished owing to it being a Chinese app and people and governments across the globe blaming China for the outbreak and mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic. India, for instance, has actually banned TikTok and other 58 Chinese apps.
2. Instagram Reels Have Been Tested to Be Effective
Instagram tested the Reels feature in Brazil, earlier in November, and in July 2020, the feature was rolled to Germany, France, and India.
3. The Feature is Now Live in More than 50 Countries
A wider rollout occurred in early August in more than 50 other countries including the United States, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and Japan.
4. The Feature Allow Marketers to Unleash the Power of Short, Informal Videos
Using Instagram Reels for business marketing allows marketers to record and edit 15-second video clips set to music and share them to their brands’ Stories, Explore Feed, and the new Reels tab on a user’s profile
5. Personalized Users’ Feed
Instagram Reels holds immense potential to serve users with personalized feeds as being inspired by the TikTok For You page, it’s likely influenced by who the users are already following, the demographics of the users, and the types of content they consume. The situation will become more clear once the algorithms for Instagram Reels are rolled out.
6. Instagram Goes a Step Ahead with Content Diversification
Reels will add diversity to the content form on Instagram. IGTV has been positioned as a series-based content where audiences keep themselves informed about their latest brands by tunning into the latest episodes.
With the launch of Instagram Reels, the marketers will be able to post informal, short length as well as high-quality and relevant content, with a shelf-life of more than 24 hours.
Thus, brands will be able to bridge the content gap by leveraging informal and interactive content form popular on social media.
7. The Tried and Tested Short Musical Videos Will Convert More Followers to Leads
Instagram boasts of having more than 1 billion active users and with Instagram Reels, the platform is all set to make the most of the tried and tested TikTok model of deploying short musical videos.
Instagram Reels will allow marketers to convert their followers into leads by showcasing their dynamic brand personalities.
How You Can Create Your First Instagram Reels?
Step 1: Open the Instagram camera and select Reels at the bottom of the screen.
The following tools become visible:
- Audio: One can search for a song from Instagram’s music library or record their own audio.
- AR Effects: Users can select one of the multiple effects of the effect gallery.
- Timer and Countdown: Users can set time to record clips.
- Aligning: One can align objects from the previous clip before recording the next clip.
- Speeding: Users can speed up or slow down the videos or audios selected.
Step 2: The users can begin recording by pressing and holding the record button.
Reels can also be recorded in a series of clips, or by using video uploads from the camera roll.
Step 3: Once you create Reels, you can share it & it will be added to a separate Reels tab on your profile.
Ways to Use Instagram Reels for Business Marketing
Instagram Reels is being used by marketers to expand their reach and build a community. Brands such as Sephora France, Louis Vuitton, My Paris Portraits, and others are using Instagram Reels in the nascent stage to share videos and snippets with their audiences and to engage with them.
The following tactics can be used by the marketers to assimilate Instagram Reels in their marketing-mixes:
1. Creating Relevant Content for Your Audience
Audience centricity and contextual content will be the trendsetters for the brands looking forward to leveraging Instagram Reels.
Using contextual content in Instagram Reels will provide the marketers with an opportunity to:
- Showcase their Humane Side
- Creating Appealing Content
- Building Genuine Relationships with Customers
- Strengthen Their Community
- Build the Personality of their Brands
- Optimizing their reach to the New Audience Groups
- Enhance their Follower Base
2. Sharing How-To Videos and Informational Content
Posting How-To Videos and informational content is an excellent way to engage with your customers, by showcasing the true value. This stimulates the conversion goals of the marketers.
3. Driving Brand Awareness by Showcasing Your Products
If you are looking to inspire sales-oriented actions from your Instagram page, showcasing your products using the Instagram Reels can be an effective way.
You can showcase your products in a creative way and inspire your audiences to take action.
4. Advantages of Using Instagram Reels for Branding
Using Instagram Reels the marketers can post unique videos to suit their branding endeavors. The new Instagram feature offers the following advantages:
- Unique & Original Content can be posted through your Instagram Channel
- You can Tailor your Video Content to Build a Unique Brand Voice
- Relevant Content can go Viral in Minutes, Fueling your Branding Endeavors
- You can Build a Community to Create, Share and Inspire
- You can Work towards Shaping Community Experiences
- You have an Endless Probability to Showcase Your Creativity using Music, Dance, Sports, Funny Pictures and What-Not
- You can Inspire Others and Get Inspired Easily and they can Follow Up and/ vice-versa
- You can Engage with Others by Linking or Commenting and the same can happen to you
- Most of the Times only Relevant Audience Groups will Interact with You; Thanks to the Instagram Algorithms
Wrapping Things Up
Instagram has a very wide audience base, and since Reels has been built into the existing Instagram app, chances are that this new feature will be widely adopted.
Reels may considerably Improve the average time spent by users on brands’ Instagram pages. With increasing user engagement advertising on Instagram will become more fruitful. Genuine engagement builds relationships, encourages reciprocity, and increases the chances of receiving real Instagram likes.
Instagram Reels holds immense potential for business marketing and the sooner the brands will use it, the more they will understand how to make the most of this new feature from Instagram.
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