7 Reasons Why You Need Instagram Reels for Your Business

Instagram launched in 2010 as a photo-sharing platform and quickly gained a dedicated following, reaching one million users in just over two months. Now, nearly 11 years later, Instagram has one billion monthly users. This means, if you’re not already on Instagram for your business, you need to be!

Despite having an outage yesterday, we still love it. And we know we NEED it to grow our business. 

But hang on! Simply posting a pretty photo or quote to your grid a couple of times per week is not going to grow your business very quickly, if at all. You don’t want to waste a bunch of time creating content without a strategy. 

You need to be intentional with your instagram account,  it's not just about posting. It's about having a strategy that has a plan for lead generation.

Gone are the days of focusing all of your energy to hit that 10,000 follower, instagram got rid of needing 10k followers to have the swipe up feature!.  One of our main goals with Instagram is to increase visibility and show people that we have a product THEY need. It's to get in front of people so when they need your services/ product they think of you first. 

Instagram Reels were first introduced in 2020 as 15-second videos, then doubled to 30 seconds, and now include a maximum length of 60 seconds, so you can share a lot more. So, while they may have started with fun snippets of silly dance moves, you can pack a whole lot more punch in a minute of video time.

Here are seven reasons why you need Reels for your business:

1. Your main feed content is excellent for growing your account, but Reels expands your reach. Post the videos to grab their attention, then make sure you’re putting value into your feed consistently. Tip: if your video is under 6 seconds (aka a little campfire on repeat) the more times someone will re-watch it (increasing your view numbers!) 

2. Instagram heavily favours Reels,making it easier for you to be seen on the explore page. Once your Reel gets a bit of attention, it may be placed on the Instagram explore page, where you will be in front of a lot more eyeballs. Tip: More eyeballs = more chances to generate leads = more leads means more sales! 

3. Reels don’t disappear in 24hours like Stories.They maintain the enticing aspect of video – like stories – but with a longer lifespan and more options. You can repurpose and share your Reels to your newsfeed and stories as well as other platforms so even more people can watch and learn about you.

4. Maybe you feel like posting goofy videos doesn’t fit your brand–that’s ok! Not all Reels have to be the latest trend in dance choreography. You can post educational content that’s relevant to your business. Know your audience. Some of them use Instagram for entertainment, but many people also look to the platform for information. Tip: I have never danced in a reel and generate leads from them every week! Use STRATEGY aka have a marketing plan! 

5. You can creatively share your products or services, presenting them exciting ways on Reels to reach a wider audience. Let’s be honest, we get bored with the same old scroll through the newsfeed, so stand out, and we’re gonna take notice!

6. Share your brand’s personality and your company values.Now,more than ever, people care what your brand is about. Beyond the product or service that you offer, what drives you? What makes you smile? What are you passionate about? Tip: this is a great reel to START with, record a video using your phone and tell people why you are passionate about your company. 

7. You can share fun and engaging behind-the-scenes content for your audience to connect with you as the person or team behind the name. A curated feed of professionally photographed products is esthetically pleasing and may bring in sales, but you can take it further. Share snippets of your workday, products being created, packages ready for shipping, your kids or pets “helping”. Tip: Look at this reel we created for a cleaning company that has over 180,000 views now! 

When you show up with heart and humour, willing to share what you’ve learned with your audience, they start to feel like they know you.

Then, just like they would do for a friend or family member, your audience starts binge-watching everything you put out there. When you post authentically on Reels, it creates that know/like/trust factor every client needs before committing to a company. They begin to feel like a part of your “community” and have a greater sense of loyalty to your posts and offerings. And you get all this without any of those icky hard-selling tactics.

I can promise you, it’s worth it. Reel-y worth it.

- MMM team