Ultimate Guide to Creating a Successful Instagram Video Marketing Strategy

We get it. You’ve heard that Instagram has surpassed one billion users.

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You’ve also read that 25% of all Instagram ads are videos.  

And you’ve been told that video is an excellent way to connect with your audience and boost conversions and sales.

And now you want in on it.

The remarkable thing? We’ve just dropped an ultimate guide to creating a successful Instagram video marketing strategy.

Perfect. Timing.

Ready to take a look and improve your Instagram game? Let’s go!

Decide on a Goal

Video marketing on Instagram is the same as all your other marketing campaigns because it needs to start with a goal.

Now, your goal doesn’t have to be earth-shatteringly amazing. It could be that you’ve got a new product, or it could be that you want to make an announcement.

However, these goals — as worthy as they are — are a bit vague. You must understand why you want to create your plan. You want more engagement, but why?

Once you’re clear about your goal, you’ll be in a better place to measure the results.

Either way, you must have a clear goal before creating your video.

Make Us Emotional

Why do people go to the movies? Because they want to feel something.

Whether they want to feel happy, sad, amused, nostalgic, scared, or even angry, people go to the movies to be moved.

Your video might not be Hollywood-level, but it must push emotional buttons.

So pick the right emotion that you want to tie into. This emotion needs to tie into your goal (see above). Let’s say I want to grow awareness of my brand using Instagram videos. As such, I won’t go for the jugular with product videos right now. Instead, I might focus on eliciting happy emotions.

Think of your favorite video ads. How about The Dollar Shave Club’s explainer video? It was hilarious that it went viral and helped turn the company into a $1,000,000,000 acquisition. People found it funny, which is an excellent emotion to tap into when it comes to marketing, with 56% of consumers saying they’d tell their friends about a funny ad they’ve just seen.

Don’t confuse people by trying to tap into too many emotions. Focus on one primary feeling you want to key into, and always have your target audience in mind.

For example, if you’re targeting young adults, are they people who should be made to feel nostalgic or happy about your product and ad?

To help you zone in on your emotional pull, the colors you use will play an important role, as will the font, the music, and any voice-over you use.

Emotions make videos engaging and help keep us watching until the end.

Add a Compelling Call to Action

Without CTA, your whole video marketing campaign will fall apart. People will watch your video but won’t know what to do next.

Some bright sparks will take some action — perhaps they’ll click on the link in your bio — but most will move on without doing anything.

It would be best to tell your audience precisely what you want them to do after watching your video.

The CTA you go with will depend on your overall goal (see above). You’ll want people to head over to your website to increase conversions. If you wish to raise brand awareness, perhaps you can use your CTA to tell people to ‘like’ your page.

Moreover, your CTA should be the next logical step a viewer should take. It has to make sense with the rest of your video’s content. It has to be relevant.

You shouldn’t have too many problems with using the correct language as a marketer. Be creative but be compelling, direct, and straightforward. Brevity always works best with CTAs.

Keep Your Video Brief

Online videos posted to social media are generally not long. Of all the videos posted to Facebook over the last 12 months, 56% lasted less than 2 minutes.

So what’s the optimal length for an Instagram video?

According to research carried out by Hubspot, Instagram videos that received the most engagement lasted — on average — just 26 seconds.

To meet user expectations, you need to keep your videos short.

Keep them snappy, too. This means condensing info (a small amount of information) into a compact narrative that’s simple and easy to understand.

Your message still needs to be strong, of course, in which case you might want to outsource video script writing to a professional.

Of course, 26 seconds doesn’t give you much time to work with. If you feel that 26 seconds doesn’t tie into your goal and won’t get your message across, you could create a carousel or four videos based on the same theme. This allows you to break down your information and news into chunks that are easier to digest.

Make The First 5 Seconds Count

Look, there are many metrics you need to monitor to create a successful Instagram video marketing campaign. One of them is views. But views by itself doesn’t tell you anything. Your view count could be high, but what matters if 90% of viewers stop watching after 10 seconds?

With so much content flying at people, it’s easy to skip a video if the first 5 seconds don’t grab us. This means that it’s essential that you make your first 5 seconds count. Many people do just that.

The pressure to hook people within 5 seconds is enormous for marketers. It requires some reorientation of thinking on your part.

What’s important is that you deliver on your promise as soon as possible — within the first 5 seconds. Once you’ve done this, you’ve captured your viewer’s attention. From here, it’s yours to lose. Grabbing people’s attention immediately is about knowing who your audience is. What’s going to stop them from scrolling through their feed? What are they looking for? What problem do they have that needs solving? Find a way to present your benefit(s) as soon as possible. If you’re looking to download private Instagram videos for insights or inspiration, consider using a private instagram video downloader to streamline your process.

Using captions is a hack that will serve you well. Especially on mobile devices, your viewers might be listening without sound. As such, you can use captions to grab their attention.

Another good idea is to add your logo and branding to your video as soon as possible. This helps to establish trust and familiarity. 

You might also want to use your first 5 seconds to tell people exactly what to expect from this video. What will they get out of it? Why should they stick around?

When it comes to succeeding with videos on Instagram, understanding your audience, the medium, and the context is critical. You need to build your marketing strategy around these three core things. Use the tips in this article, keep up with all the latest trends — and make an excellent video that people want to watch.

About the author:
Aljaz Fajmut is a digital marketer, internet entrepreneur, and the founder of Nightwatch— a search visibility tool of the next generation. Check out Nightwatch blog for SEO and marketing tips, and follow him on Twitter: @aljazfajmut

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