Reels For Business: How to Use it to Grow Your Business

Are you using Reels to promote your business? If not, now’s the perfect time to do so.

Read on as today, we’re talking about using Reels for business. Stick around for pro tips that we share with you at the end of this post.

Let’s just dive right in. Water’s warm. 

What Are Reels?

Reels were Instagram’s answer to the explosive popularity that was TikTok. 

Now, Instagram says that Reels are:

“Short, entertaining videos on Instagram where you can express your creativity and bring your brand to life.

People come to Reels to participate in cultural trends, collaborate with the community and discover new ideas.”

They are short-form videos that appear in the Reels tab, as a preview in the main feed.

Reels For Business: Why Are They Good For Growth?

Firstly, Instagram announced that they are no longer a photo-sharing platform; they’re a video-sharing platform.

Digital marketing is constantly changing (that’s what we love about it, though. We’re never bored.)

But this means you have to consistently adapt to these changes. 

Video Is The Future (And The Present)

It’s easy to say things, so don’t take our word for it. We’re all about data, so let’s look at some stats on video marketing from Wyzowl: 

• 88% of people would like to see more videos from brands in 2022. (An increase of 3% from last year.)
• 78% of people say they’ve been convinced to buy or download a piece of software or app by watching a video.

• 88% of people say that they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video.

• 96% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service.

Let’s look at a couple of IG and Reels-specific stats:

• Instagram has over 1 billion monthly users.
• 81% of people use Instagram for research on companies, products, and services. 
• 50% of people have visited a website to purchase a product or service they saw on the app.
• 87% of Gen Z agree that reels are virtually the same as TikTok short-form videos.

Reasons Why Reels For Business Are Worth That Time

1. You show up in the Discover tab.

Viewers don’t have to be following you or visit your profile to see your Reel (like they do to see your Stories).

They can find you when browning in the Discover tab and easily navigate to see more of your videos.

And speaking of Stories, check out this post next to learn more about Instagram Stories for small businesses.

2. You can tag your products.

This makes it simple for viewers to purchase from you (which is one of your main goals after all).

Live product tagging is also available to  Checkout-enabled businesses and creators. You choose up to 30 products before you go live. 

You can run Reels ads for this, which we will talk more about later in the post.

How To Make Good Reels For Business

1. Use an iPhone or other high-quality camera phone

Make sure you record vertically. You can hold it or use a stand (book stacks are great when you’re on a tight budget).

Platforms prefer videos shot on phones (and in their apps). If you want to learn how to design animated Reels ad, then here’s our tutorial for that.

2. Use natural light or a couple of stand lights.

Lighting is super important.

You can be super dramatic or light and bright or get fancy with color-changing bulbs. Whatever makes sense for your brand. 

3. Capture attention in the first 3 seconds.

Yes, you heard that right. You literally have 3 seconds to capture attention before they scroll on by.

You’ve skipped by videos that quickly, right? You know how it goes. So work to make those crucial moments count. 

To do that, make it entertaining, emotional, or educational.

Your first 3 seconds should include at least one of the 3 E’s.

• Use educational content to prep your audience to buy.

• Use entertaining content to engage your audience and get shares.
• Use emotional content to share your story, highlight the pain point (so you can provide the solution), or share wins. 

4. Keep it under 60 seconds.

The max length a Reel can be is 60 seconds. That’s usually plenty of time to share what you need to share. 

5. Send them to a good landing page or website.

Make sure you capture their email address for future outreach via email marketing and retargeting.

Give them just the info they need and limit the number of steps to checkout.

Setting Up Reels Ads

You can reach more people more quickly by running Reels ads. We’ll go over some of the basics. 

You can choose from these objectives

• Brand Awareness – great for growing your page and getting your name out there
• Reach – excellent for reaching as many people as possible
• Traffic – send people to your website, landing page, or shop
• Engagement: for type, select Post Engagement – get more engagements on your post
• Video Views – get more eyes on your video. 

Did You Know: You can use CTA buttons on Instagram ads that link to a Reel?

It’s a bit of a process but you can find instructions for it on IG’s website.

Some Pro Tips For You When Using Reels For Business

• Be active on Reels organically.

You should focus on building an engaged audience. This will help your digital marketing efforts in the future, and is just a good general practice. 

Building an engaged audience also actually helps your ads perform better!

Platforms like it when you spend time on the app and create content that gets other folks to spend time on the app. 

• Start practicing so you can get comfortable in front of the camera.

Trust us, it takes time to get comfortable with the entire thing.

So go easy on yourself and know that you just need to start publishing.

You can’t wait for perfection because that will never come. You’ll get better every time. 

• Follow Instagram’s Creator Account.

They share a ton of great ideas, trends, suggestions, and ideas. 

That’s it for today! If you’re struggling with your IG marketing, check out our Instagram marketing services now!

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