Short-form video content is an effective way to engage audiences on social media. These shareable, often funny videos stand out while users scroll through their feeds. With more than 1.3 billion users around the globe, Instagram marketing remains a popular way to reach potential customers — and the platform’s Reels feature allows your brand to post entertaining short-form videos. 

With the right strategy, you can draw more customers. Here, we’ll walk you through how to get more views on Instagram Reels. Let’s dive in! 

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1. Create Short and Impactful Content

Short and impactful content is key to catching the attention of Instagram users. To hook them, you might post a question or an interesting statement. Once they’re engaged, you can continue telling them about your brand, product, or mission. 

By keeping your video production short, you can communicate your key message before a user feels compelled to scroll down. Adding impactful elements to the beginning of your video is more likely to generate interest and compel viewers to stick with your video until the end. 

• How To Make a Reel on Instagram: Step-By-Step Guide

2. Trend Riding and Challenges

When you’re figuring out how to get more views on Instagram, make sure to keep trends and challenges in mind. But you’ll still want to be strategic when you’re riding trends or challenges, only taking advantage of ones that are relevant to your brand. 

Avoid jumping on a trend just because it’s popular. You could risk damaging your brand by posting an incompatible Instagram Reel in response to a trending topic. Research trending challenges before you participate to make sure they are appropriate for your company and will attract your target audience. 

3. Collaborate With Influencers

Every industry has its share of influential people. Those who run these accounts can connect you with their audiences, helping grow your brand’s following. Make sure you seek out relevant influencers who share your brand’s values to create a genuine connection between them and your audience. 

For example, if you’re creating Instagram Reels for a landscaping company, pairing up with an influencer in the finance industry would likely seem out of place to your followers. Instead, you would look for designers, horticulturists, and other influencers who would make sense representing your brand. 

4. Encourage Likes and Shares

Your current audience can be your biggest cheerleaders. Engaging with your followers is a proven method to get more views on Instagram. Add a location, relevant hashtags, and a mention sticker to your Reels. With these tools, your followers can tag you more easily, making them more likely to share your content. 

You can also use your caption to ask people to like and share your content, or you can do this at the end of your video. Add a call-to-action to your video, script, or caption as well, encouraging people to like and share your videos. 

5. Use Instagram’s Music Library

Adding music to a video makes the post more immersive and memorable. Think about brands with catchy jingles in their commercials. The song gets lodged into your head, and you end up remembering the brand. 

Don’t worry — you don’t have to create a custom jingle (though you can if you want!). Instead, you can use popular tunes in your Instagram Reels to boost engagement. Instagram’s audio library saves you the hassle of figuring out permissions and other logistics. Since Instagram has an agreement with artists in its library, you can use the audio as long as you tag the maker. If the agreement changes, Instagram will mute the audio for you. You can go back in and change the song if this happens. Look through trending songs and find the ones that best fit your brand and your video’s aesthetic. 

6. Maintain a Consistent Posting Schedule

Even if you do manage to go viral, your audience will forget you if you subsequently fade away from the platform. The Instagram algorithm highlights accounts with frequent posts, meaning people are more likely to find your video through a search if you’re posting regularly. 

Consistency is also more appealing to your audience. By posting regularly, you give your followers more content to react to and a better idea of who you are as a brand. As you’re getting started, mix up your topics to keep viewers on their toes. Instead of posting an entire series of behind-the-scenes Reels, you can post one behind-the-scenes Reel, one thought leadership video, and a quick product demo to see what works best. By watching a variety of content, your audience gets new information and finds new ways to engage with you. 

When it comes to the best times to post on Instagram, you’ll need to find out what works for your audience. While there are best practices to help you get started, testing is the most effective way to engage your audience when they’re online. 

7. Leverage Hashtags Strategically

Hashtags effectively boost your visibility by putting your brand into various search results. Find the hashtags that fit best with your captions. Social listening tools can help you search for hashtags across platforms and highlight the most effective ones for your brand. 

8. Interact Actively With Your Community

By engaging with your followers, you can build a deeper relationship with them. Having a strong connection to your audience improves brand loyalty and inspires your audience to share your posts. These two-way conversations can also help you improve your products and services and learn what resonates with your audience. 

Learn how to appeal to target audiences on different platforms to attain the best results. On Instagram, audiences often respond to educational content that’s also entertaining. They also want to see native content — rather than a post that looks like it’s been recycled from another platform like TikTok.

9. Storytelling With a Series

While it is important to vary your content, you can also capture an audience by telling a consistent story using a series of Reels. If you’re posting behind-the-scenes content, for example, you can make a series of videos exploring different parts of your business. 

Before shooting your videos, plan out your series. First, determine the purpose behind your series. What do you want to tell your audience? 

Brainstorm your topic and make a storyboard showcasing how each video fits together. Develop a solid plot with a strong arc to keep your viewers interested. Create main characters your audience will relate to and care about. Once you have your series fleshed out, plan out your videos and shoot them.

A series can serve as a great promotional tool. Post your videos consistently over a short period of time to draw viewers in. You can lure in the audience with one video and then post a few teasers before releasing the next video in the series. 

10. Use Paid Promotion

Organic traffic is vital to growing your business, but there’s nothing wrong with giving users a push to showcase your videos on Instagram. Take advantage of paid promotion to target your audience and guide viewers to your organic content. 

Paid promotion gives you the ability to choose who sees your videos, targeting your audience based on its demographics, location, and interests. These posts also offer real-time engagement analytics. With paid promotion, you can get an idea of which Reels are more successful at drawing a crowd. Use these insights to inform your organic content in the future. Post variations of your more successful videos, covering similar topics or using a similar format.

• Instagram Video Ad Specs & Placements Guide

Creating Instagram Videos at Scale

Getting started with Instagram Reels can be daunting, but you don’t have to set up a professional studio to create Instagram Reels. With help from creative partners, you can make effective ads that perform. 

QuickFrame’s video production platform connects you with a network of makers and production teams that deliver professional-quality videos. We can connect you with makers who understand Instagram best practices to create Reels that stand out from the crowd and engage your target audience.

Contact us today to learn more about Instagram video production. 

Get More Views on Instagram Reels: Final Thoughts

According to Meta, there are over 140 billion Reels played across Instagram and Facebook each day. This gives you an incredible opportunity to connect with current and potential customers, drive more engagement, and grow your audience.