Six essential tips for creating an effective Instagram video

Keep your audience engaged with creative and stunning video content.

If you’re a forward-thinking brand, it’s worth taking the time to familiarize yourself with Instagram. The social media platform now has over a billion monthly users, and 90% of those people follow at least one business account. These statistics make Instagram the go-to social media platform for growing your business.

• 200 million people visit at least one business profile on Instagram daily.
• A Facebook poll reports that 79% of Instagram users are looking for more information about a product after seeing it on IG. 65% of these users then visit the brand’s website directly.
• 62% of people say they have become More interested in a brand or product after seeing it in Instagram Stories.

And the excitement doesn’t end there. By pairing Instagram with video content, you’re on your way to creating compelling visuals that will help you reach a new audience, convince and convert sales, and drive consumer engagement. But simply video content creation for fun, that’s not enough – you need to be smart and follow these tips on how to create breathtaking Instagram videos that reach your business goals.

1. First impressions are everything

The average consumer scrolls 91 meters away social media every day – the same size as a hockey field. It’s a lot of content. To compete on this playing field, you need to make sure that your business gives the audience a solid reason to take a break from your Instagram video post. Also, if you are working with video content, you should connect the audience to your video clip within the first three seconds. If not, their attention will decrease, scrolling will continue, and you are out of the game.

Make your content visually appealing

Create unique and energetic visuals that capture the audience’s attention and pause their scroll pattern. Use a strong color palette – if your brand has a distinctive color palette, be sure to use that. Instagram has a neutral background, so adding high contrast typography will also help your content stand out. Finally, choose a powerful and attractive static image for the first scene of your video.

Remember that if someone interacts with your video, they are likely to click on your brand profile. This is another huge opportunity to make a great first impression. Use techniques such as creating a aesthetic grid layout and consistent filters to define the style of your brand.

Connect with the emotions of the spectators

Emotions interrupt the cycle of scrolling – who didn’t stop on a message that made you laugh, think, or cry? An emotional response doesn’t just cause a user to take a break; it also creates a personal connection. Brands use this strategy to constantly communicate with their audience, and here’s why:

Connection influences purchases. 43% of American customers spend more with the brands and businesses they are loyal to. Developing a connection with your audience will increase your brand promotion and help increase sales.

Strong obligation, high prices. Nike and Apple are good examples here. Every business has such an incredibly strong brand loyalty and bond that customers don’t seem embarrassed if their prices go up.

Connection> values. A Deloitte study found that 3% of consumers (!) would recommend a company based on their values ​​or principles, versus 44% would recommend a company based on emotional criteria.

As a brand that wants to connect with its audience and start planting seeds of emotion, a great place to start it by creating a sense of community and belonging. Think who is in your tribe? We have seen brands fall back on this security strategy time and time again. Vancouver based fitness studio Tight club does this through their general Instagram aesthetic and by posting regular video content with a community focus.

Establish a strong brand image

In marketing, it’s well known that a customer goes through seven points of contact with your brand before making a buying decision. Therefore, you need to create a strong, memorable brand identity for your Instagram video content and help consumers remember your business through their different interactions and touchpoints with your brand. Here are some tips for personalizing your video content:

• Establish a solid tone of voice that is identical to all of your video content.
• Tag your video content with a watermark or your brand’s hashtag.
• Use consistent brand colors in your video content.
• Add a voiceover to your videos to make them accessible and recognizable like yours.

These starting points will help you establish a strong brand identity that will build consumer confidence in your business.

2. Add text for “Impossible to miss” messaging

We live in a mobile-driven world and people constantly watch videos on the go where viewing with audio isn’t an option – in fact, a study from Verizon found that 92% of mobile views are watched without any sound. On Instagram, video content is turned off by default, so these two dots signal a great opportunity to add text to your videos to make sure your post gets fully received.

For the best user experience, text should be concise – less is definitely more. You don’t want to overwhelm the audience. Be concise, precise and to the point. Adding too much text to your Instagram video can have the opposite effect and your messaging can get lost in the mix. You might feel like you have to put all of your posts in one post, but you can certainly tell a whole story in just a few words. Check-out how Ben & Jerry did it.

Not the next Spielberg? You can combine image and text-based slides into dynamic slideshows using quick cuts. These posts are suitable for beginners and can take your Instagram to the next level without the need for a production team. Discover this example by Trade Street Jam Co. You can quickly and easily create articles like this using a online video editor.

3. Play around with storytelling formats

Mix up your storytelling format to reinforce your message. Different video formats can highlight different aspects of your business, and some are better than others for certain types of video content. We’ve compiled a list of formats for you to try out, depending on the content and the goal you’re trying to achieve.

Stop motion

Stop motion is an artistic style that compiles multiple still images of moving objects and plays them back at a faster frame rate. This editing technique gives the illusion of animation for the finished video. A huge advantage of stop motion is that the format is easy to reproduce, typically requiring only one camera, and photo compilation software. This makes it one of the easiest and most economical options for video creation – provided you have the budget for a camera and software.

For short, eye-catching Instagram content that will capture the attention of the audience, stop motion is useful for living static product photos, showing unboxing a product in a unique way, looping shotsor create eye-catching ads like this one for xbox.

User Generated Content (UGC)

UGC is exactly what it looks like: content created by your users. Typically, UGC are brand loyalists who create video content that simply demonstrates, reviews, or shows your product. Searching for UGC videos has many advantages.

• UGC is a format that can go viral because videos seem less “dirty” than other content.
• UGC has the added benefit of a positive review embedded directly into the content.
• The unique, customer-centric format acts as a signal of trust, thus increasing trust in your brand.

A good example of UGC is this Chipotle clip, who used UGC to promote their queso.

If you know where to look, finding UGC is relatively easy. Use social listening such as Brandwatch or Buzzsumo to tap into what your audience says about your brand and discover any content that is worth sharing on your social channels. On Instagram, you can also view your tagged photos to see if people have tagged you in the content and reshare those posts.

If you can’t find UGC content for your brand, encourage customers with Instagram giveaways and challenges. It also helps make your branded hashtags easily accessible and encourages customers to use them as much as possible.

Backstage Looks

Behind the scenes content (sometimes abbreviated as BTS) filmed on the fly and edited together using video creation software can be beneficial in showing your audience a more authentic side of your brand. BTS videos are a quick and easy way to build trust with your audience because they make your brand feel more human and understandable. Behind-the-scenes videos can be produced cheaply while giving your audience the feeling of having exclusive access to the inner workings of your business. The fashion brand Anthropologie has mastered this technique during the COVID-19 pandemic.

4. When in doubt, watch the trends

Social media works on trends, and the better your brand can capitalize on a trend (while it is still trending!), The more visibility you will gain. The larger visual trends inform many styles and visuals that you see repeatedly on Instagram. To see if there’s a 2020 style you haven’t yet tapped into, check out Shutterstock’s annual Creative Trends report.

Using a online video maker, you can create and publish video content in minutes, allowing you to react quickly to changing trends instead of going through weeks of creative approval. Responding quickly to trends will ensure that your brand will be seen as accessible and accessible.

5. Stick to a clear call to action

Social media users tend to take the path of least resistance, which means your content should allow audiences to take the desired action as easily as possible. For this to happen, your call to action (CTA) needs to be extremely clear. For example, let’s say the goal of your Instagram video is to attract subscribers to your newsletter. Using action-oriented words like “swipe up” or “click on the link in our bio” will encourage your audience to take action.

When it comes to adding your CTA to your video content, we recommend that you place it throughout your video content – not just at the end. This strategy will help capture viewers who might not watch your video’s final scenes.

6. Take advantage of stories and highlights

Instagram stories Offer your audience daily content to snack on without cluttering their main news feed. Stories are vertical photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours and help keep your brand fresh and current. You can add text, stickers, filters, and animations that make it a fun alternative to your more polished and branded newsfeed articles.
Use Instagram Stories for teasers, first looks, behind the scenes, and more. It’s also customary to feature posts from followers, creators, and even other brands in your story, which creates a strong brand affinity within your industry. Shutterstock used their Instagram story to highlight a new tool in Shutterstock Editor, and Lumen5 used their Instagram stories to show off their new logo and then save it in a specialized product-dedicated highlight.

To engage your audience with compelling social media video content and leverage the power of Shutterstock and Lumen5, a video maker for social media marketing, visit: https://www.shutterstock.com/developers/ lumen5-shutterstock-partner.

______________________________________________________________________________

Featured Image By biletskiyevgeniy.com