Ever wondered why Instagram pushed its 15-second video limit to 60 seconds? Or wondered why Instagram introduced IGTV last year? If you think it’s because of the time constraint, no that’s not the primary reason.
Of course it is one of them, but not the major one. The central reason was that since the launch of Instagram video it has been acing the game of social media marketing, and this improvisation just added another reason to the already long list.
Let’s see how you can leverage from the eyeballs of 1 billion monthly active users.
1] Reckon the type of videos you want to create
Instagram lets you create a few different types of videos each depending on your goals. Each video will serve a different purpose, so it is best to have a predefined content marketing strategy that lists what type of videos will be posted at what time of the day.
Talking about types, let me brief you about a few of them. Brand videos are for the new leads, that is posted for raising awareness and narrating brand stories. Product videos are the ones showing off your products with their benefits.
How-to videos are an animated guide to use your product. And lastly, educational videos are the ones that target a niche instead of your product or brand.
2] Decide the emotions that you want to display
Remember how at the end of good movies, we all feel a strange connect or emotion driven by the content and storyline of the movie? That is exactly what we want you to do.
Of course there is a specified difference between Instagram videos and real movies, bust still your video should have content and a storyline that strikes an emotion within your audience.
The emotion that you want your audience to experience while watching your video. It can be happiness, positivity, humor or even invisibility. It entirely depends on your goal.
3] Your videos need to be eye-catching
This was a no brainer and I am sure most of you were expecting this on the list. A common trait, but still deserves a specific mention – Why? There are a couple of reasons behind this.
One, most people prefer watching videos without sound, so if they are not eye-catching, and your audience is not receiving the desired message, your job remains undone. Yes, you can use subtitles, but this doesn’t take away the significance of eye-catching videos.
And two, you need to be really quick to grab the attention of your audience, and sometimes as quick as 5 seconds, because this is the time frame within which people decide whether to see or skip the video. So to get more views on Instagram, you must follow these tips.
4] Keep your videos within the decided optimal length
Instagram allows you a maximum span of 60 seconds for a video. But that doesn’t mean you need to exploit all the 60 seconds in each of your videos. The idea is to keep your audience hooked up to the screens while they are watching your content.
If the videos and long, people tend to lose interest, on the way and become impatient. As suggested by Hubspot, the videos that recorded most comments averaged a time frame of 26 seconds. If you think this suggested time frame is too short to display your content, you can post a series of say 2 to 3 videos on the same theme.
5] Don’t forget Call to Action
A call to action basically depicts decides the next step or the next interaction of your audience with your brand. It is not necessary to include it in the video, you can also craft a wise caption with an intriguing call to action.
Call-to-actions are designed based on our goals – say if you want more followers – you can say ‘Hit that follow button to stay updated for more.’
Instagram is one of the best social media platforms for marketing, if not the best. Follow these tips to the T for a successful Instagram video marketing strategy.
