eCommerce has given the retail landscape a facelift. It has now become an indispensable element for retail markets across the globe.
Internet accessibility has also led to an increase in the number of online buyers. In fact, last year, 2 billion people made online purchases of either goods or services.
As the demand increases, so does the supply. This means the amount of competition in the eCommerce market is heating up. It is effortless for a brand to quit under the pressure of this increasing number.
That’s where well-planned and well-executed marketing practices come into the picture.
One platform that has become popular among marketers for an eCommerce brand is Instagram.
Instagram is powered by high-quality multimedia such as photos and videos. This is, hence, perfect for those selling products as they can easily showcase what they have to offer.
Another of the best things about using Instagram is your SEO boost after you optimize this social account. Instagram can definitely help you rank at the top on the SERPs. Once you reach a good rank, getting backlinks wouldn’t be a challenge if you genuinely share valuable content. This further helps make your marketing efforts high yielding.
You can also use tools like a backlink checker to see where you stand on the search results and how much effort you must put into it.
Coming back to Instagram, one latest addition to the collection of exceptional features by Instagram is Instagram Reels.
This feature has taken up the digital marketing world by storm.
Reels allow you to share short videos. It is basically catering to two of the most important elements that can work wonders for any brand. First, it restricts you from creating videos that are longer than 30 seconds, thus allowing you to keep up with the short attention span of your audience.
Secondly, they are videos. Videos are perhaps the most entertaining form of content available out there, making your marketing strategies juicier.
This feature compels you to be as creative, entertaining, and fun as possible.
Here are a few ideas to leverage Instagram Reels marketing.
Ways to use Instagram Reels Marketing for an eCommerce brand
Reels have proven to be a remarkable feature in giving your growth a boost and promoting the products you are willing to sell. Here are a few ways you can use Instagram Reels.
However, please note, if you aren’t too sure whether these methods are something you can follow, several professional agencies offer digital marketing services like social media marketing and SEO services to help you with the same in return for some monetary benefits.
- Brand story
A brand story is a perfect way to connect with the audience on a personal level. And it would be best if you leveraged reels to do exactly that.
Your brand story helps ensure transparency and communicates your brand’s values and origin. This makes your brand look more credible and authentic.
When you share how your brand came into existence or the ‘why’ behind your brand’s existence, it makes it look more real rather than phony or sales-y. In addition, you can use Instagram reels for showcasing the real you. This further allows you to gain the trust of your consumers, which is needed to ensure brand loyalty.
- Quick hacks or tips
Since reels can only be a maximum of 30 seconds, it’s a great tool to share a few quick tips or hacks with your audience. One thing that you should be careful about is keeping everything relevant to your industry and your brand.
Let us take an example.
Suppose you are a brand that sells shoes. You can use reels to share how a particular pair of shoes can be worn with different outfits.
This also allows you to collaborate with other eCommerce stores.
Often, this collaboration works as a barter transaction. Thus, you can connect with different brands from your industry (a clothing brand for the above-mentioned example) and tag them in your post. They can then reshare your content on their profiles.
This allows you to gain traction and discoverability in front of your audience, and they get benefitted by getting visibility in front of your audience.
- Reviews or testimonials
Reviews are important. They help potential customers understand how beneficial or amazing others are finding your product.
Since reels are a great way to boost growth and expand reach, sharing reviews or testimonials by your existing customers is perfect to gather validation.
In fact, Instagram has also released a feature named ‘Reels Ads.’ These are paid marketing tactics that you can use to expand your reach further. For these ads, you can certainly share your actual user’s perspectives on your product.
These reviews could truly help gain trust and make your brand look more reliable.
- Discounts or sales announcement
Being an eCommerce brand, I’m sure you offer certain discounts or host an end-of-season sale. So why not communicate the same in a more fun and interactive way?
You can use reels to make your audience aware of your ongoing sales.
This is sure to attract many eyeballs. If more people visit your page, it can trigger the Instagram algorithm to favor your brand or account. As a result, your reels and your page will also be favored by the algorithm.
Thus, make sure you are putting in all your effort when creating reels for such announcements. Then, they can help you bring the traction you desire.
- Behind the scenes
The consumer’s wants and needs have witnessed a facelift. Now, your consumers are no longer satisfied with just looking at the products that are being sold.
They prefer realness, authenticity, and the faces behind the brand.
Thus, you can use reels to showcase a bit of ‘BTS.’ You can introduce your team using reels by sharing their interviews.
Suppose you sell custom clothing. You can showcase the process of choosing the fabric or the person who helps you in stitching the garment as your behind the scene segment. Or, suppose you sell coffee. You can then show your farmers, their stories, or ‘men at work’ kind of behind the scenes.
Such reels will make your page look more genuine and appealing. This is exactly the kind of content that users today want to see.
- ‘How-to’ content
‘How’to’ videos have received a tonne of appreciation from users, and they continue to do so. The major reason being it educates customers on how you prefer the product being used.
This category is also a great option for when you have different products to sell.
Apart from showcasing the right way your product is to be used, you can also talk about different usage. It portrays the versatility of your product and makes consumers believe they have hit a bull’s eye with that one product.
Let me give you an example.
Suppose you are selling syrups of different flavors. Apart from the beverages, you can show recipes of desserts and ice creams where your products can be used.
Or, if you are selling whey powder, you can show how a consumer can make protein bars or maybe protein pancakes using that product. You can collaborate with a fitness influencer to further make your reel more persuasive and generate quality leads with the same.
- Product teasers
If you are a brand that keeps launching different products, I’m sure you already know the importance of pre-launch buzz.
Reels are a great instrument for the same.
Since Instagram reels only give you a few seconds, it can be perfect for giving your customers a sneak peek into what you plan to launch. You can also make this more interactive by giving your audience a chance to guess what the product or the campaign is.
You can create inspiring videos and keep your users hooked. When done right, this can turn out to be an exciting pre-launch buzz strategy.
- Showcase your products
This is perhaps the most obvious one of the lot.
Use Instagram reels to show all the products you are selling on your eCommerce store. There are so many songs trending every day, every week. You can use that music to show different products in different reels.
You can show off different colors of the same product or different product ranges. You can also use this opportunity to start a new trend on Instagram.
The possibilities when it comes to showing off your product on Instagram Reels are plenty.
Please note, it’s best to upload high-quality videos, both in terms of pixels and creative direction. However, with the kind of competition today, poor-quality videos will not hit the nail.
- Giveaways or contests
Giveaways and contests have proven to be a remarkable strategy to generate leads and, sometimes, sales. In addition, you can use these methods to gain visibility in the social network of your audience.
When you announce a giveaway or a contest, you could keep your prerequisites by sharing a photo of your product on personal profiles and tagging your brand.
This will help you expand into an untapped segment of your target audience, i.e., the social network of your followers.
Moreover, if your reels are interesting enough in the first few seconds themselves, it’s bound to keep users hooked. This triggers the algorithm and makes it aware of your videos being preferred by the users. Consequently, your reel reaches more people than you anticipated.
Just keep in mind that you need to be consistent with your efforts to happen. The more reels you post, the higher are the chances of your reels performing better and better.
- Inspire and influence
Now, setting trends is not easy; I know that. But you should definitely know the fact that social media influences approximately 71% of purchase decisions. Instagram Reels marketing is perfect for leveraging this consumer behavior.
There are no rules when it comes to reels. All you need to do is make your videos fun, entertaining, and blissful. Then, consumers will voluntarily decide on purchasing from you.
Create inspiring videos that can influence your consumer’s decision.
For instance, let’s suppose you sell tableware and your niche is food photographers or influencers. You can make a video of the ‘behind-the-scenes’ of a food photography session and highlight your products. Then, when your consumers come across how your products can be used, it can influencer their decision.
Similarly, if you are an eCommerce brand that sells clothes, you can show different ways to style one product. In fact, you can further improve this practice by collaborating with an influencer from the same field.
You can use the Reels Ads feature as a part of your performance branding strategies as well.
- User-generated content
UGC or user-generated content is perhaps the best content bucket for your Instagram reels.
UGC is basically the content (could be any form) shared by your existing users. This form of content is considered among the most effective ways to attract a prospective audience. When your prospects witness your existing customers using your product and actually enjoying it, it is easy for the prospects to trust your brand.
Nowadays, customers don’t let advertisements fool them. They’d rather trust a stranger with similar taste/problems than an advertisement by a brand.
There’s no better way to make your brand look more credible and trustworthy than sharing real-life usage of your product(s).
Conclusion
Instagram Reels marketing has taken the social media world by storm. You can see every brand, every individual jumping on the bandwagon. After all, these are bite-sized and among the most entertaining forms of content out there.
Use all the ideas mentioned above and do some A/B testing. Identify what form of content is performing the best for you and incorporate more of that in your strategy. Do not forget, on Instagram, quality matters. The better and more clear your videos are, the more traction they’ll get.
So, what are you waiting for? Get your creative juices flowing and start gearing up for your Reels journey. It’s exciting when done right. Trust me
Vaibhav Kakkar co-founded DWS and RankWatch, global brands in the marketing domain.
