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Reel-y Useful Tips on Reels!

Reel-y Useful Tips on Reels!

Reels are now an integral part of Meta and if your company hasn’t jumped on the bandwagon, now is absolutely the time to get moving before you get left behind! 💥👇

If you’re accustomed to how we feel about content, you’d know by now that we’re all about creating content pillars at Wise Up. If you haven’t established content pillars to assist in mapping out your content creation, you can get a bit lost on what you want to say or end up producing without actual value…

We’re finding that many of our clients are feeling the same way about Reels as they’re overwhelmed by the sheer freedom the content type affords and they’d like more structure to guide them in what they should be creating. For this reason, we’ve mapped out ‘format pillars’ if you will, to help guide you in what types of Reels you should be making and with what frequency. Alike to content pillars, this guideline should give you a gleaming head-start in your content creation! 

In true marketing style, we’ve created a funnel to represent these format pillars and what to expect from each: 

If you’re a bit lost, read below for a summary of each tier! 🔻

📈 TRENDS – your always 

The primary benefit of Reels is undoubtedly brand awareness as Instagram continues to favour video content in its algorithm. Meta has self-proclaimed that it will reward creators who are pumping out original, engaging content by placing more eyeballs on their Reels. If you do an extra amazing job of syncing your clips to your chosen audio, you may even find that Instagram will identify your video as a ‘template’ and overlay a ‘Use Template’ button on your Reel. If this happens – just know you’re one of Meta’s Golden Children and it will be trying its hardest to make your video go viral (albeit for a very short period of time).  

For these reasons, Trends should be the beefiest part of your Reel content plan (that are still on brand of course), especially if you are after brand awareness and maximising reach. Reel Trends are intrinsically linked to whatever audio is currently trending, meaning you should be aligning your visual content with audio that has that upturned arrow in the bottom left corner, next to it. 

It may seem inauthentic to conform to trends but remember you should always be adding your brand’s authentic aesthetic and voice to your content, which will be your point of difference. Also, you should simply perceive joining trends as a part of your strategy and ultimately, brand relevance and survival. There’s simply no other feature that garners more reach than IG’s trending audio at the moment, so get in while it’s hot!

🌿 EVERGREEN – your most of the time

Always-relevant content means your Reel will resonate in weeks, months or even years from now – and because IG’s audios have a tendency to yo-yo in their trending status, there’s a high chance your content will land on feeds months down the track (making this tier, ALL the more imperative). 

In traditional terms, evergreen content refers to content which is search-optimised as it is continually relevant and remains fresh for extended periods of time. To translate this to a social media context, imagine a prospective client views your profile and goes beyond the 2-3 grid row scroll… they’ve deep dived back into content from 2 or even 6 months ago. Of course they’re not going to expect this content to all be hot but it’d be a welcoming surprise to them if at least half was still relevant and taught them something of value. 

It’s worthy to note that this content type receives less views because they’re more of an effort for the viewer to digest as they’re normally educational. This should not deter you in making them however because not all content is made to go viral and virality shouldn’t be the basis of your content strategy anyway. 

Evergreen content is great for building trust and providing value. It is your opportunity to prove your knowledge, expertise and to position your brand as a thought leader. 

💲 PROMOTIONAL – your sometimes 

Unsurprisingly, the least viewed content type is promotional content – after all, who’s not guilty of scrolling past a Facebook Ad or clicking ‘watch video’ on Youtube? 

The sentiment is the same for Instagram Reels, with viewer retention on overly sale-sy Reels at a general low. However, these types of Reels are imperative for encouraging direct ROI and conversions within your follower base as they often present a distinct ‘cause’ and ‘affect’ or ‘problem’ and ‘solution’ dynamic, which is attractive to consumers. 

Always maintaining a clear hook and CTA on these Reels will maximise the chances of viewers watching your content and converting. Make sure you’re really intentional about where you want viewers to go. If the magic link is in bio, tell them that. If they need to comment below so they can enter the draw, tell them that. It seems straightforward but so many people forget this step! 

Finally, to feel less sales-y with this format type, make these Reels creative! For instance, you’re releasing a new cleaning product … don’t take montage shots of the product. Instead take a video before and after of you how this product assists in the transformation! It may sound simple but tweaking your promotional content as a solution to your clients’ problems will spark interest, trust and encourage conversion. 

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That’s it for our Reels Format funnel! We hope we’ve streamlined the strategy for this ever-increasingly important content type and that we’ve demonstrated where your efforts should be going when creating them. 

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