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Firstly, let’s make this very clear. You and me, as well as everybody around, is active on at least one social media platform today. That’s right! But, the scenario is taking a bend now. Businesses are even more involved in marketing their company through social media platforms.
Thus, if you need any hope of surviving on social media and successfully marketing your business, your best scope is a video. With the boom of video content, 52% of marketers state that videos can give you the best ROI. Also, belief is that 80% of online content will be just video as of 2019.
One such social media platform that has become the popular one quite recently is Instagram. Combining them both will surely give your video marketing strategy a high kick.
With 1 billion monthly active users, Instagram is mainly a photo and video platform that has heated up recently. Besides, Instagram has very little competition. Statistics state that 80% of Instagram users follow a business on this platform.
Making it more tangible, 30% of Instagram users have indeed purchased a product after they discovered it first on Instagram. Now you know Instagram and video are a match made in heaven!
Do you need to update your video marketing strategy? Or you’re entirely new to this? Anyway, here are some first-class tips that can help your business and marketing use videos on Instagram efficiently. Scroll down!
1. Go behind the scenes
One of the best ways to use video content on Instagram is to give your followers an inside look at your business. Let them know the efforts that you put into making your business look great outside.
Post your behind the scenes video either as a series of Instagram stories that extend up to 15 seconds. You can also go live and interact instantly with your followers, show them what’s happening in your office, where you are and so on.
You can also make a proper behind the scenes video and upload it either on your timeline or IGTV. Just remember, make it entertaining and engaging. You can:
- Go backstage to an event you are conducting.
- Take them through a tour of your office and introduce your team members.
- Let them know how you make your product.
- Run through the happenings in your office on a regular day. It could be a birthday celebration, a meeting, a team event, etc.
2. Use different types of videos on Instagram
As a business, the video content you post on Instagram need not be serious and formal. Engaging and exciting is what followers like these days. Also, remember to front-load your video and make the first few seconds count. There are different types of videos you can post on your Instagram.
Teaser videos
The chances are that you have an upcoming exciting project, a product or a campaign soon. Create small, less than 60-second teaser videos to create anticipation about what’s coming up. Make sure you don’t give them all the details. These videos should have only enough content to excite them and wait for more. They can be posted on your timeline, on IGTV or as a sequence of Insta stories.
Explainer videos
Use explainer videos to explain your product, service, and business. They are short, engaging and easily snackable. Hence, your prospects and followers will get a deeper insight and interest in your business. You can upload these explainer videos on IGTV or on your timeline.
How-to videos
How-to videos are the most searched video types among the millennials. Make a video showing your followers about how to do something new. It could be a DIY (Do it yourself) video like a style hack or a DIY business card design. Upload this on your IGTV or on your timeline. You can also show a demo of how to use your product or software. You can either make a video and upload it on your timeline, IGTV or even go live and show them how to use your product in real-time.
These types of videos are engaging, interactive and efficiently gives you a sales pitch as well. Most of these videos exceed 60 seconds. However, they are not very long. You can upload videos up to 60 seconds on your timeline. If they exceed 60 seconds, you can make use of the IGTV feature. The IGTV (Instagram Television) allows you to upload videos that extend up to 1 hour in duration.
3. Make your audience a part of your journey
As a business, your prospects and followers have a huge role to play in your journey. If you want them to be a part of it, you should involve them as well. To do this, you can post stories or go live during situations like:
- Announcing the development of a new feature, a product or anything else.
- The launch of a new product or service.
- Your new collaborations and takeovers.
- When you take up a new and exciting project.
- You have gained recognition or an award from your industry (A thank you note to your customers would be great during such points).
4. Go interactive
Now, they watch your videos, and you keep conveying your message to them. But, what if they want to interact back? For this purpose, you can:
- Ask them to rate your video clips posted as Instagram stories via polls and emoji sliders.
- Have a quick Q&A session on your Instagram story, where your followers can ask you anything they wanted to or vice versa. You can answer them and re-purpose the answers to post as your story.
- You can also have a quick live session on a topic related to your business. Followers can shoot questions at you about the same to which you can instantly respond.
5. Use hashtags
#Hashtags are quite the thing today. In the case of businesses, they are useful in increasing the reach and visibility of their content. When you hashtag something, people who merely search for that particular hashtag can see your post in their results. Make sure you don’t overdo it with irrelevant words or language fails. A proven fact is that there is a 12% increase in engagement with the usage of hashtags for a video than for one without a hashtag.
Instagram Stories:
On an Instagram story, it is best to add a hashtag to let your story reach a wider audience. You can either put them using standard text tool or utilizing the hashtag filter.
Timeline videos:
Using hashtags on your timeline video is a must for every post you make on Instagram. Instagram lets you put up to 30 hashtags for a single post. But that’s a little too much. Hence, the ideal number of hashtags to put for your Instagram video post is 5 to 10. Identify the most important keywords related to your video post and hashtag them.
Use branded hashtags:
Develop a custom branded hashtag for your business. It is something that is unique to your business. It could either be your name or anything fancy. Branded hashtags connect themes for you and your audience. Use your branded hashtag for all your video content marketing on Instagram.
Develop campaign hashtags:
If there is a campaign coming up for your business, identify a unique and custom hashtag for the same. Use it in your stories and posts. This will serve as a common hashtag for your entire campaign. Keep promoting these hashtags until the campaign is over.
6. Use influencer video marketing
Influencer marketing for your video is where you use leaders and influencers to drive your brand’s message to a broader audience. Speaking of Instagram, there are so many influencers, celebrities, and other prominent personalities. They are likely to have a massive following on the platform. You can reach out to them and ask them to promote your business.
The results of such influencer video content are just remarkable. People would love hearing about your business from those who are their role models or inspiration over random people. This will increase the credibility of your business. It leaves a thought among your followers that if the influencer is addressing the business, then it must be really good.
7. Don't rely on sound
On Instagram, videos do not auto-play audio. Some viewers may not be able to turn up the volume of your video in certain situations. And some may prefer it that way. However, always have a caption for each video you post in your Instagram timeline. Make sure that it relates to what your post is all about. In that case, even if the user does not turn up the volume of the video, they can still know what your video is.
8. Align it for the right window
Your Instagram stories need a vertical video while your video posts need a horizontal or square video. Posting a horizontal video as your Instagram story will mean that your user needs to tilt their phone in order to attend to the video correctly. Thus, keep this in mind whenever you are putting up a video story or a video post. Follow these ratios for your Instagram video marketing:
- Instagram story - 9:16
- Timeline video square - 1:1
- Timeline video rectangle - 16:9
9. Mention others and collaborate
Are there other people who have worked with you in creating the video? Is it related to the video or maybe is relevant to your business? Ensure to tag or mention them in your caption or tags. After all, the videos you tag or mention other’s names will appear on their tagged videos as well. Like that, your reach could get better.
10. Get an analytics check done
Anything you do, it is essential to know that you realize what you are doing is right. In order to identify your video marketing status on Instagram, get an analytics check done.
The comments received, most responsive hashtags, followers, views, likes are all factors you can analyze yourself. Just click on “View Insights” on the post for the same. Moreover, you can take proper help from professional tools. Some of them are:
Video marketing on Instagram has no obligatory or surefire way. But, however, the above tips surely are helpful in achieving excellent video marketing results for this fantastic platform.
Also, with Instagram being a favorite of the millennial generation, one thing is clear cut. Your video marketing has a bright future on Instagram. So, want to get your business video done right? Contact us right away, and we can help you with an amazing explainer video for your business on Instagram!
