Instagram Marketing Using Videos In 2023
When Kevin Systrom launched Instagram in 2010, it was for his love for photography, and naturally, the app was all about photos.
When it got acquired by Facebook in 2012, Instagram introduced many new features such as direct messaging, advertising, videos, and, in due time, the famous Insta Stories.
Having grown out of its shell to become more than just a photo-sharing platform, Instagram is now all about anything visual. Instagram’s video posts, which were initially limited to 15 seconds, have come a long way too.
While the posts today can be up to a minute long, we now have provisions for IGTV videos that can last 15 minutes.
Videos that are shared on Instagram in the general feed or in the form of stories can be used to generate ad campaigns too, and they come with a high conversion rate.
For promotional purposes, it is optimal to use high-production videos that deliver the message within 1 minute (i.e., using the standard video posts). Alternatively, previews of IGTV videos can be shared and promoted on stories as well, but they are rare.
Being successful on Instagram was never about simply uploading content. Read on to find out the different milestones in the process of creating awesome videos that are needed to scale a business to new heights.
Define Your Content-Type
This is the first step, no — the zeroth step when it comes to any kind of marketing where you decide what type of content it is that you want to create.
For this, you need to bring into consideration your brand name, its values, its principles, its products and services, and how you want to present it all in a 60-odd seconds’ worth video.
You can create rudimentary tutorial videos to incentivize your customers’ purchases or show your product or service in action in a very non-suspicious setting.
And if that’s too much, you can simply choose an online video editor to highlight the features of your offering. It works really well for lifestyle products.
Set Clear Goals
Delivering your pitch within 60 seconds or less can be challenging, but it’s the only way to make your way through the clutter. So, you must take ample time to find a creative way of staging your video.
Decide whether you are looking for more followers or increased traffic to your website. The way you express the idea in the video matters a great deal in what you hope to achieve from it.
Putting Instagram Stories To Use
Insta stories that die out in 24 hours after posting play a unique role in generating leads for brands with an online business. Since they’re located at the top, the users are inclined to go through them as soon as the app opens up.
You can experiment with different content types like photos, short videos, rewind, ‘boomerangs,’ and live videos. You can post insider videos from your business. Viewers love honest interactions.
Tell a story
If you want your viewers to pay attention to whatever you are pitching, invest time into developing a story. Divide your content into 3 broad sections — the beginning, the body, and the call to action.
Videos on Instagram begin playing as soon as the user scrolls his screen, hence you need to engage them from the very first second. And as it’s all about visuals now, you can draw the attention of your viewers using catchy intros.
You can easily find an intro maker without watermark for this particular purpose. It’s important here that you manage your time diligently and make use of every second (but don’t rush it).
Best Practices In Instagram Promotions
With about 800 million active users on Instagram, it may sound daunting to make room for new business and hope to make a profit out of it. But fear not, as this is where Instagram Ads come into the picture.
Ever since its initial launch, Instagram has become the go-to place for media sharing, toppling Facebook from its throne (even though it was later acquired by the same).
There is no platform better than Instagram to target the young audience who are actively and enthusiastically looking to try new services and material products.
To begin with your promotional drive on Instagram, the first step would be to make a business profile. This is needed to promote your posts, and it gives you scores of tools that give you insight into your posts’ performance.
Taking advantage of these tools, you must understand your audience’s demographics — their age groups, gender groups, active hours, region, and the like.
Once you understand your audience and determine the shift that you need to sell your product, invest in promotional posts that will get you the audience you need.
To keep your potential customers/subscribers engaged, you should give a thought to posting multiple times in a week without ever over-posting. These posts will be the most effective if made on the days and during the hours when your followers are the most active.
About Ads on Instagram
Breaking through the cluttered feed on Instagram is very difficult, and Instagram’s algorithm (aimed at reducing the clutter) has made sure that your posts don’t reach more than half your followers organically.
So, the only logical strategy to advance your business on Instagram is using its Promotion/Advertising feature.
Since Instаgrаm is such а visuаl plаtform, text аds аre not а thing here. Rаther you can promote аn imаge, a set of imаges, or as we are going to discuss, videos, to reach your аudience with Instаgrаm аds.
There are mainly 3 ways to advertise your product on Instagram. You can either promote your post directly with the Instagram app, create Instagram Ads for Facebook’s news feed in Facebook Ads Manager, or create Instagram Stories Ads in Facebook Ads Manager.
You can go through an Instagram ads tutorial for a step by step process to easily deploy your first ad campaign on this giant platform.
Conclusion
Ensure that your posts are always in line with your brand’s ideas and have a distinct call to action. If you plan ahead of the deadlines and diligently strategize your videos by applying the above tips, you will be putting together a brilliant ad campaign with a high conversion rate.
