With over 2 billion monthly users, Instagram has become a powerhouse for marketing, with approximately 83% of its audience discovering and researching products directly on the platform. Its visually-driven nature offers businesses a range of content formats to showcase their products or services, including carousel posts, engaging Reels, and fleeting Stories. Each of these, when executed strategically, can achieve remarkable audience reach with just a use Instagram video for small businesses.
While maintaining an Instagram presence is essential for businesses, standing out requires more than just participation. Leveraging video marketing, especially through Reels and Stories, provides a competitive edge. As video content continues to dominate user engagement trends, tapping into this format can elevate your brand and keep you ahead in the ever-competitive social media landscape.
Essential guide to use marketing with Instagram videos
The global pandemic and the rise of shrinking attention spans have made short-form video one of the most popular content formats today. This trend presents a valuable opportunity to boost brand awareness for your product, service, or business.
Before diving into using Instagram Reels for small business promotion, it’s essential to understand how the platform works. Instagram Reels allows users to create, edit, and share vertical videos of 15, 30, 60, or 90 seconds, making it ideal for concise, engaging storytelling. Much like TikTok, Instagram Reels comes equipped with advanced editing and video processing tools, enabling businesses to produce high-quality, attention-grabbing content directly within the app.
1. Explainer videos are an excellent way to introduce your small business and showcase your products or services effectively. By using animated videos, you can present your offerings in a simple, engaging, and easy-to-understand format. These platforms offer pre-designed templates that make the video creation process straightforward.
2. Using Instagram Reels to make announcements is a powerful strategy for promoting your small business. These announcements can highlight key updates such as product launches, the opening of a new office or store, seasonal or festival sales, job opportunities, participation in industry events, or media coverage of your business.
3. Engaging with trends and viral challenges is an effective way to quickly expand the reach of your Instagram business profile and connect with a new audience. By aligning your content with popular topics or activities, you increase the likelihood of it being discovered and shared by users. However, it’s important to select trends and challenges that resonate with your brand and are enjoyable for you to participate in.
4. Partnering with an influencer is one of the quickest ways to introduce your small business to a new target audience. If your budget doesn’t allow for collaborations with big influencers boasting hundreds of thousands or millions of followers, don’t worry influencers can be an excellent alternative. When choosing an influencer, ensure they align with your niche, have a genuine following, and are trustworthy. This authenticity will help build meaningful connections with their audience and drive better results for your business.
5. If you regularly host live sessions on your Instagram or Facebook business page, you can repurpose those videos into engaging Reels. By editing these longer videos into shorter, bite-sized clips, you can transform them into Reels that are easily consumable and shareable. This approach not only extends the lifespan of your live content but also allows you to reach a wider audience by leveraging the high engagement potential of short-form video.
Conclusion
Gone are the days when video marketing was exclusive to large corporations. With the increasing popularity of video content and the amount of time users spend watching videos on social media, Instagram videos have become a practical and impactful tool for small business growth. An effective Instagram video strategy allows small businesses to showcase their products and services in a creative and engaging manner. It not only helps capture attention but also addresses customer needs, fostering stronger connections and driving business growth.