How You Can Use Instagram Video for Business

Why You Should Use Instagram Video for Business

Did you know that 52% of marketing professionals rank video as the type of content with the best ROI? Video helps build trust with your customers, and it’s a great way to showcase the authenticity and creativity of your brand! Instagram Video has been around for years, but it’s just starting to heat up now.

People are viewing more videos on their phones than ever before, and it’s predicted that 74% of all internet traffic next year will be video! So what does this mean for your business? Now is the perfect time to start learning how to create content for Instagram Video so you can stay ahead-of-the-curve. Beauty brand Anastasia Beverly Hills does a great job of showing their products in action through Instagram video tutorials, which is just one way that you can use Instagram video for your business!

Previously, the extent of Instagram Video for businesses was that you could upload 15-second video advertisements that were made directly in-app. Thankfully, that’s all changed, and now you can upload videos up to 1 minute in length. A total game changer for brands and businesses everywhere: think about how much more of your product you’ll be able to showcase in a 60 second video compared to just one image! Here are some ways that you can leverage Instagram Video for business:

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Use Instagram Video to Build Trust with Your Audience

Utilizing Instagram video for your business is a great way to build trust with your followers and customers. Posting videos that convey your brand message, showcase your product, or introduce your company culture helps you develop a personal relationship with your customers. The more your followers trust your Instagram and business, the more likely they are to make a purchase from you in the future!  In fact, 64% of consumers are more likely to buy a product online after watching a video of it first, so using Instagram video could be a huge way to increase the ROI of your Instagram marketing.

[clickToTweet tweet=”After watching a video, consumers are 64% more likely to buy the product online. How to use Instagram Video” quote=”After watching a video, consumers are 64% more likely to buy the product online. How to use Instagram Video”]

Munchery does a great job of mixing up their Instagram video content in order to build trust with their customers and followers. When they were selling flag cookie packs for the Olympics, they posted videos showing exactly what the product looked like, how to use it, and the end result. No surprises here! The video clearly shows you what you’re getting when you buy.

But Munchery doesn’t stop there: they also share lifestyle content that is relevant to their target market in order to gain trust in their industry. For example, Munchery is a food delivery startup in San Francisco, so they want to deliver great, food-related content that is relevant to their millennial audience. What better way to do that than to share short, fun videos like “how to slice an avocado” or “how to de-heat a chili pepper”? It’s perfect for Instagram, and provides value to their followers without directly selling them anything.

Create Content Specifically for Instagram Video:

Now that Instagram video gives you 60 seconds for advertising your business, you want to make sure that your brand’s marketing message comes across clearly and concisely on Instagram. It’s important to create videos specifically for Instagram, because a 60-second (or less) Instagram video is different than creating a 3 minute video for your website or Youtube channel. Yes, the video is shorter, but it also needs to have a faster pace to keep viewers watching – instead of just easily scrolling down their feed. This video from Spotify is a great example of quickly catching (and keeping) your attention:

One of the most successful Instagram video campaigns we’ve seen was from Vogue at the 2016 Met Gala. Instead of your regular photobooth, they created an amazing visual installation and used quick-editing and entrancing music to create short, captivating videos that you just want to watch over and over again. While it certainly helps that celebrity guests of the event were the stars of the video, their campaign goes to show that with a little creativity you can make a big impact with Instagram video for your business. By creating viral, word-of-mouth content that spread on social media, Vogue drove a ton of traffic to their Instagram profile just because people wanted to watch their videos.

Tips for Creating Good Instagram Videos

Try to create content that captures the viewer’s attention within the span it takes to recognize a photograph. For example, if your audience is scrolling through their Instagram feed, lucky for you, an Instagram Video plays nearly instantaneously. It’s important to capture a viewer’s attention in the first 3-5 seconds, because Instagram Videos is still a new part of the platform and may not be what consumers are looking for when they scroll through their feed.Your video should spark curiosity in your viewers to entice them to keep watching. A great way to achieve this through movement and visual stimulation that grabs the viewers attention. Ben and Jerry’s take a Vine-like version of Instagram Videos by creating individual videos to promote certain flavours of ice cream with a focus on movement and change.

Don’t Rely on Sound for Your Instagram Video

Instagram Videos may auto-play in the feed, but they don’t start playing sound automatically. I order to hear sound, the viewer has to click on the sound button. Since you’re trying to grab their attention in the first couple seconds, it’s important to keep in mind that your videos need to be clearly understood even without sound! Because of this, your videos should be as beautiful as the photographs your followers are used to seeing on your feed. Even if your viewer doesn’t get the overall effect, you want them to be able to see the storyline of the Instagram video — even if it’s silent.

BBC News does an excellent job of creating viral content that is both newsworthy and shareable. They use text to highlight what a user is going to see to capture their attention, and they include captions throughout the video.

Intimidated by Instagram Video? Start with Instagram Stories

In one of Instagram’s most exciting updates so far, Instagram Stories launched a few weeks ago to compete with Snapchat’s growing popularity. This new feature enables users to create a series of photographs and videos that disappear after 24 hours, which is a huge opportunity for your business to get more exposure and engagement through video on Instagram.