With the emergence of TikTok bringing a new dimension to the market, there has been a rise in video marketing in the last few years. It practically ended the long reign of Snapchat. I can say likewise that the arrival of the Instagram reels will also do the same.
An Instagram reel is a 15-second multi-clip video with filters, special text effects, audio, and more. Unlike IG stories, they don’t disappear after 24 hours, and you can check the reels posted by a user on their profile page. The Instagram reel also has an edge in terms of editing features, making it offer more creative options than stories.
You can check out all my IG reels here (one of them even got 1M+ views 😱)
Not many businesses know how to tap the tremendous capability of the Instagram reel effectively. Knowing that Instagram reel is relatively new, I know coming up with Instagram reel ideas can be overwhelming, especially if it feels like you’ve hit a creative roadblock.
To spark up some inspiration, I’d love to show and guide you through some unique Instagram reel ideas that’d help boost your business. The best thing about Instagram reels ideas is that you don’t need any sophisticated equipment. All you need is an idea and a smartphone or camera to film your reels!
Why Instagram Reels?
Here’s why you can’t afford to ignore Instagram reels this time, even if you want to! You don’t want to not use this new Instagram feature!
To put this in perspective, Instagram has been and will always be a pay-to-play platform. Even businesses that have built massive audiences organically find it hard to get their expected reach and engagement. This is because Instagram wants them to pay to reach that audience.
This sucks, right?! Someone has to earn, though!
That been said, Instagram occasionally has times where it’s a gold rush again, like when they release a new feature. Take the Instagram story, for example. Want to know why?! Well, this isn’t farfetched, as Instagram is a platform that focuses on promoting that new feature and gives preference to those that use their latest feature. That’s why it’ll be a bad idea for growing brands and businesses to ignore the Instagram reel.
With all said and done, let’s now dive into the main meal for this course which is tipping you on some excellent Instagram reel ideas you can implement in your business.
Are you ready?! Let’s go!
Instagram Reel Idea #1: Introduce Your Business
Now, pay attention. While most of your followers may already know who you are, there’s no better way to start your Instagram reels journey than by introducing your brand and yourself. This is because your introduction reel will serve as the perfect way for new followers or Instagram strollers to get to know you.
Also, people love to feel welcomed. Introducing yourself and your brand will help you achieve this. This can be a little gesture like a time-lapse of you relating with a work colleague on screen.
Instagram Reel Idea #2: Go Behind the Scenes
One way of utilizing Instagram reels well is to pull back your curtain on your business’s inner workings and show your brand enthusiasts what goes on behind the scenes. People love getting the exclusive sneak peek look into what you have going on in your business. This will help you connect with your followers on a more genuine and personal level.
Your followers will be curious about how you make your products or offer your service and what it is like to work with you – you should take your time to share this with them. So next time you are painting, cooking, packing an order, designing, or even at a photoshoot, take out your camera and start filming! It’s that easy!
Instagram Reel Idea #3: Create how-to tutorial videos
A quick, revealing, and easy-to-digest how-to tutorial video is a go-to way to improve the engagement on your Instagram reels. From showing your followers the latest Canva hack you just learned to how you batch write your social media content, creating a short how-to tutorial video will go a long way in engaging your followers.
While pondering topics for how-to tutorial videos, make sure you don’t divert your attention from the issues that will target your audience and their main pain points. Also, remember to always include key takeaways both in the caption and on the video.
Instagram Reel Idea #4: Give Out Tips and Tricks
Be it sharing styling and outfit tricks or tips for having a more positive mindset, or even productivity tips from your workplace. There’s a high probability that you have irresistible information that can help your customers and followers. Since you only have a few seconds to impress your followers before they scroll through and move on to the following video, I strongly suggest you make your tips direct and straight to the point.
Also, tips and tricks are a great place to start your video, especially when you’re out of reel ideas. Likewise, you can share a quick tip and ask your audience what they’d like to see next on the comment section.
Instagram Reel Idea #5: Put the Spotlight on Your Products (Highlight Your Products)
The Instagram reels feature can’t accommodate the linking of your products to your online store –although this feature may be available in the next update — However, reels can help you in effectively showcasing and highlighting your products. Items like; product demos, unboxing, and tutorials feature your product or service from different angles.
So rest assured that your offerings will be seen. Here’s a little tip, if you sell products, you can use the caption to direct people to your Instagram shop or the link in bio to make a purchase.
Instagram Reel Idea #6: Recreate Old Content
Having a lot of content on different platforms – websites, blogs, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and LinkedIn can be of great advantage, especially if your business has been around keeping up with the social media marketing for a while. You can reconstruct previous content to serve the current purpose instead of coming up with fresh ideas.
For instance, if you have a YouTube video that converted well, you can choose to trim it to work in a 30-second Instagram reel and tell your followers to head to the link in bio (which is the original YouTube video) for more information in its caption. Or you have blog content that generated a lot of traffic. You can also create a reel highlighting that content and paste the link of the content in bio.
Instagram Reel Idea #7: Get on a Trend!
One excellent way to get your reel in front of more audiences is to get on a trend! Just like every other social media platform, trends come and go, so it’s best to be on the lookout for one.
You can do this by exploring and see the pages of other brands and businesses to see what they are up to. If you notice a trend, hop on it! As a matter of fact, why not create your own? Make a challenge, make a dance, or even a hashtag, and ask your followers to join in on the fun.
Tip: Remember to have fun! Instagram is all about new things. It would be best if you didn’t worry about the conflicting ideas of your Instagram feed’s aesthetics – they will populate on a different tab on your profile eventually.
Instagram Reel Idea #8: Answer Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
This tip is an excellent way of creating video content for your followers, especially if you’re blocked on new Instagram reel ideas. Look into your DMs, comments, and FAQs for inspiration. What are your best-selling products? Where is the closest location I can get your product? How long has your product been in the market? Take all these questions and answer them in a quick 15-30 second Instagram reel.
You can as well save some common questions for future Instagram reels ideas. You can also encourage your followers to ask you questions by using the question sticker on Instagram stories.
These are just a few Instagram reel ideas you can implement to get your engines kicking! You can play around with it and find the ones that work best for you. It’s all about discovering what suits you best.
How to create your very first Instagram Reel:
I created an awesome step-by-step tutorial that walks you through exactly what you need to do to create your very first reel:
The future of Instagram Reels
On the arrival of Instagram stories in 2016, there were about 150 million users. Now, just after five years, over 500 million users use Instagram stories every day. This strongly indicates that Instagram reels have a bright future ahead.
Business influencers and brands are already starting to utilize Instagram reels as a way to promote their products. Similar to other social media platforms –like TikTok – brands will likely jump on the opportunity to partner with various influencers to create branded Instagram reels.
It’ll be best to jump in early while competition is still low, especially now that Instagram gives different preferences to the latest reels tab on the Instagram platform.
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