Increasing Impressions, Reach, & Engagement with Instagram Reels
I’m not making any headlines telling you video content is king. But video was never really in QCC’s wheelhouse and acquiring the necessary skills wasn’t ever a big priority for us. That was until we started an Instagram Reels campaign for a client and watched the engagement reach heights unseen since the platform was acquired by Meta. We weren’t surprised by the campaign’s success — I’ve written about the importance of using Instagram’s newest (see: algorithm-backed) features before — but we were taken aback by the scale of that success.
Read on to learn how we increased impressions, reach, engagement, and more by 150% with Instagram Reels — and, more importantly, if a similar technique can beget the same results for your business.
Are Instagram Reels right for your business?
The hype around Instagram Reels is, well, real. A 2022 study by Socialinsider found Reels have an average engagement rate of 1.95%, 2x the engagement rate of other content types. But that doesn’t mean every business should get an Instagram and start churning out video content.
When it comes to determining whether Reels are right for your business, there are three key things to consider:
Coincidentally, these three considerations were three barriers that formerly prohibited QCC from using Reels. In our first year of business, we didn’t have the right client or content to create Reels that would perform. We also didn’t have a client with a target audience on Reels, and we strongly encourage all our social media clients to focus on the best platform(s) for their business.
But in early 2022, a professional photography firm with a wealth of video content approached us about boosting their social media presence. For the first two months of business, the client specifically wanted to target local real estate agents — a vertical anecdotally, or at least locally, considered active on Instagram. We knew we finally had a Reels-ready client on our hands, which was great, except for our third major barrier: we didn’t have the necessary skills to create them.
Here’s the thing, Theresa and I belong to a generation still haunted by memories of the dial-up banshee while being forced to contend with the ever-accelerating infiltration of increasingly social technology. I was an early adopter of Facebook in middle school, Twitter in high school, and Instagram in college. I appreciate TikTok is the new must-have presence and Reels are Instagram’s biggest feature, but my social media dues have been paid. You’ve got to draw the line somewhere. And don’t even think about asking Theresa to figure out TikTok — she doesn’t even has the app downloaded.
So what were a couple of elder millennial content marketers in want of a good video strategy to do? We recognized our limits and brought in a professional Gen Z content marketer to subcontract on the project.
Developing a strategy for Instagram Reels
Thanks to the help of the inimitable Samantha Poulin, Theresa and I were able to provide our photography client with a comprehensive strategy for creating and distributing Instagram Reels.
Sam’s process was one that immediately resonated with us for its accessibility, efficacy, and strategy. Let’s break it down step-by-step:
Step 1: Educate the client on value and process — Sam kicked things off with a client-facing presentation on how to create an Instagram Reel and shared some general best practices for the feature. Though Sam was ultimately the one responsible for creating and posting the Reels, it was really helpful for the whole marketing team to have a cursory understanding of the mechanics — and get any fundamental questions answered.
Step 2: Develop a content editorial calendar — Sam and I worked together to process the client’s vast repository of content and brainstorm some ideas for Reels based on the monthly goals and deliverables. We created an editorial calendar to track these ideas and managed the content creation flow in a shared Asana board.
Step 3: Create content that will perform — When it came to creating and producing the Reels, Sam used her robust knowledge of popular trends and viral audio to make sure the resulting videos resonated with users. One Reel that featured Harry Styles’ “As It Was” racked up over 4,000 views within the first 24 hours. Another that capitalized on the sudden (if not long overdue) virality of Benny Andersson’s absolutely fire piano solo at the end of ABBA’s “Chiquitita” was a slower burn that gradually amassed close to 7,000 views since its original posting.
The results of our six-month Instagram Reels campaign
With Sam at the helm, QCC produced 18 Reels for our photography client over a six-month period. The standard best practice is to post anywhere from 4-7 Reels/week, but because this high volume of video content would have exceeded the client’s budget, we decided to supplement daily Reels with static “photo of the day” (POTD) posts. The POTD posts did not perform nearly as well as the Reels, but they were a critical component of maintaining engagement — and feeding the algorithm — in between video posts.
Here are some key results from this six-month campaign compared against account performance during the 90-day period before we started working with the client in question:
Reach increased by 196%
Impressions increased by 188%
Accounts engaged increased by 173%
Post interactions increased by 163%
Profile visits increased by 133%
Additionally, post saves increased 193% — 60% of which came from the high-performing Reel that used the viral “Chiquitita” music and detailed innovative use cases for cutting-edge Matterport 3D technology.
The success of this content also led to a 36% increase in followers over the six-month period. Hootsuite reports the average business account grows its followers by 1.69%/month, meaning our efforts led to more than 3x the number of monthly followers gained.
Best practices for Instagram Reels
With numbers like these, it’s clear that Instagram Reels are unmatched when it comes to increasing the reach and performance of your content. However, make sure you keep these key things in mind when considering your approach:
Determine if Instagram is the right platform for your business — There’s no point in starting a Reels campaign if you don’t have the right video content or your audience isn’t on Instagram.
Make sure you have the necessary technical skills — With so many excellent content creators out there, you need to make sure your Reels are up to snuff. If you’re like us and don’t have the requisite editing skills, we highly recommend hiring a professional to help you get started.
Pay attention to what’s trending — Capitalizing on the collective obsession with the latest dance craze or a viral soundbite is key to producing high-performing Reels. As with the aforementioned warning about technical skills, it’s essential to either spend time in-app monitoring the trends or hire a professional to do this heavy lift for you.
Stay true to your brand identity — That said, don’t prioritize what’s trending over your brand and business objectives. Make sure you adhere to the principles of content marketing by producing Reels that inform, engage, and resonate with your current followers and target audience.
