Make the perfect Instagram Reel and the world will come to you.
Part 1: Knowing Your Target Audience
You might be tempted to skip this bit but absolutely don’t do that because being totally clear on your target audience and having an understanding of the language they use the questions they ask the worries and pain points in their lives isn’t just something marketers focus on it’s something you should focus on for your Instagram content.
Get this wrong and you’re going to be left with an audience full of random people who don’t need what you offer.
You have to really spend time getting to know them, their needs, struggles, feelings and how to help them. This might be easy because YOU might be or might have been your target audience, but it’s also important to do some research to get to know them!
Get into the conversation
- Facebook Groups – join FB groups related to your niche, filled with your target audience and start looking through posts and content. Pay attention to their questions, needs, the language they use and the things they say they are feeling. THIS IS A GOLD MINE.
Don’t forget Google When it comes to Instagram audience research
- Good old Google is also a precious resource for this! Search for keywords or questions related to your niche. For example, if you’re a virtual assistant, search for “tools to run my small business” or “how to run a business as a mom”. Look at the “people also ask” or “related searches” section to see what people are asking, and use this to guide your content!
Go direct to the source – ask them!
- ASK – if you already have a following, ask your target audience what they need on social media using story pools or offering a discount for feedback from people have have connected with.
Use everything you find and make notes on your phone of their feelings, needs and pain points. Create reels using these things to guide you! Use them for content topic hooks and to empathise with your audience.
Part 2: The heart of a perfect Instagram reel is great content here’s how to achieve it:
- Your content should speak to your target audience, meaning it should address their struggles or pain points and/or focus on the transformation you offer them. See the next lesson for more on this!
- Provides value. People can take something away from it, whether that is information about how you can help them, a solution to a problem, inspiration, encouragement or entertainment related to your niche.
- Create content that people will want to share. Reels that reach the most people are the ones with the most shares!!! Why? Because the more they are shared = the more people they will reach! Working out what makes a real shareable is Tricky but facts, stats, pithy emotional statements and the latest news are all a good place to start.
- Informational, inspirational, and entertaining types of content tend to do the best with reels.
- Originality – while using other reels that are popular as inspiration is an excellent way to create successful reels, you definitely want to make your reels your own! Share your own perspective and unique spin.
- Authenticity – Be yourself and no one else!! Show people who you are and what you’re all about.
- Intriguing and Inspiring – Reels that create intrigue or make people want to keep watching and read the caption, are more likely to be successful! Some of the tips below can help you achieve this.
Tips on your video production for Instagram Reels
- Your reel video needs to be good quality and have good lighting
- It should also be rather simple, meaning it isn’t busy and distracting from the content.
- B-roll content – this is any content that is more “behind the scenes” or content that isn’t necessarily related to your niche or what you’re talking about. Examples: your feet walking, sitting drinking a cup of coffee, your kids play in the yard, you washing dishes, you sitting at your computer.
Nobody puts up with bad audio these days!
Look for the audio suggestions from Instagram towards the top of the list because they will be trending audio – ideally, ones with less than 2K uses. Less than 1k uses are even better!
Audio with a “beat drop” – (the introduction of music into your video) or transitions are a great way to emphasise a point and keep people watching.
How long should my videos be?
- The most popular reels are generally less than 10 seconds (5-7 seconds to be more specific). Unfortunately, people’s attention spans aren’t very long, so keep it short so that watch time goes up!
On-screen captions get read by Instagram and viewers alike!
- Your on-screen text should be short and sweet. A few sentences at most. Adding more text just means more for people to read, which most people won’t do with reels.
- Use “hooks” on the screen to catch attention
- Keywords! Use a minimum of 2-3 keywords on screen so that Insta knows who to show your content to.
