Do you really create the right content so far?
…your brand should exist to ultimately make money for you.
So the question is how do you monetize reels? And is it even possible to monetize reels before Instagram will introduce monetizing features to get money from reels right off the bat?
That’s what you will discover in this post. Let’s jump straight into it.
Why reels are even important?
If you have never ever posted a reel before or don’t have a strategy for reels yet, this is quite a natural question to ask. And there are three reasons for that.
The first reason is awareness.
You want to get your content out there, attract a new audience and get more exposure for your brand. You can achieve that by getting your reels to the explore page. Currently, you get better chances to get your content appear on the explore page because Instagram is giving reels an additional amount of reach. This helps you to get your brand seen by new accounts that might not have seen your content before.
Reels are a great way for you to increase your reach. The one main reasons why Instagram Reels are important right now is because of the visibility that you get from them. It’s a great way for you to get more viewers, to see your content.
Everything becomes scrollable.
Every platform tries to become TikTok. And it works.
That takes me to the second reason why Instagram reels are important: it’s a huge trend that is happening right now. We’re going to get deeper into that at the end of this post.
There are a lot of people that are succeeding with Instagram reels at the moment, and just getting their posts out there, posting on a consistent basis. They create great content and get a ton of views on their reels, which is a great thing, obviously.
But then on the other hand side, there are also a lot of people who just don’t get started at all. It appears for them to be very difficult to kick off their own reels game. If that’s you, keep reading. Dive deeper into how reels work and how you can use reels to your advantage.
10X your output
There’s another key benefit that you absolutely should know about reels: With the same amount of work that you put into your content creation, you can get a lot more output done. Done right, you could literally 10X your content output. But how do reels even work and what makes them different from other video formats?
It’s simple. You’ll learn that in just a second.
A reel is a 15- to 60 seconds long video. That makes it a very short video format (duh, obviously). But what does that mean to you?
It means to you that on the one hand for your audience, it is very easy to consume because if you click on a YouTube video, that’s 30 minutes long, it takes you a lot more commitment than just clicking a 15 second video.
And then on the other hand, it can also be easier to produce.
Reels open up a whole new possibility to create content: Takeouts.
Use takeouts and cutdowns of your already existing long form videos. That gives you a lot more flexibility.
I’ve already seen people increase their output by 10 X, just because they now created reels from their long form videos that they already had. …Pretty efficient.
Phone friendly content
That is the second thing that makes reels different from other content formats is that they’re not in the landscape format but in portrait format. That, again makes it scrollable because it’s matches the way you hold your phone: vertically not horizontally.
Technically speaking that means 1080 by 1920 Pixels, so 9x16 aspect ratio.
How to make money with reels 💸
Let’s talk money now. That’s the number one question that you as an entrepreneur should ask yourself:
how can you turn a reel into a customer? Here’s how it works.
I’m pretty sure that there will be ways to monetize Instagram Reels directly. But what can you do right now?
Sadly instagram doesn’t have introduced monetizing features for reels yet.
No matter how efficient your creative process is… Content creation is hard work.
You don’t want to just invest and invest and invest and get nothing out of your effort. Nobody would want it this way.
Cash, Bookings, Signups, Customers. That’s what you deserve after putting in the hard work to create awesome content. Here’s a way you can do it, working 2021 without using internal Instagram monetizing features.
⚠️ if you already have funnels in place that work for your brand, if you’re already able to turn your clicks into customers, stop reading now. Your time is important and you already know what’s coming.
Turn your clicks into customers
If you don’t feel like your’re at this point yet, keep reading. There’s a real gem coming that I wish I knew earlier. And you should know that for sure. So if you are thinking to yourself right now: “this is all marketing bs, I don’t like funnels. I don’t like hearing about sales all the time… funnels funnels funnels” I’m with you.
I’ve been there too. I get it. It’s a tough to swallow pill. if you’re not on the sales side of things, this is likely to get into your way.
Think about what happens if you don’t care about your brand getting new customers. Think about what happens if it’s only you shouting into the void and nobody listens. That’s ultimately what happens if you just create content, but it doesn’t lead your viewers anywhere. That’s what marketing funnels are all about: to create safe pathways for your audience to your bank account. I had to learn this the hard way.
There’s just one tiny thing to do. If you post reels on a consistent basis, something that you could potentially do is leading people to the link in your bio. Take them to a sales or landing page for something that you offer.
That is a short way to monetize your reels. If you have an offer, a digital product, or anything you sell online, Lead your reel viewers there. Take them down the funnel.
Be aware of over-selling
Don’t over-sell your audience. First of all, you want to respect their time. Otherwise you’re just getting on their nerves and you might end up losing followers and not building trust and interest.
Also you shouldn’t neglect that if you create content on Instagram, you also make a deal with Instagram itself. Instagram wants their users to stay on the platform and watch more content. That’s how the Instagram makes their money.
Instagram will only feed your content to their users if your content makes them use instagram more.
Keep them scrolling!
The two-step trend technique
Before we wrap this up, I want to share one last technique with you that you could use to leverage Instagram reels for your growth.
This technique is simple yet powerful. The clue is to jump on a trend.
Trends are all over Instagram reels.
Step 1: Spot a trend.
Open your Instagram app, go to reels and just scroll for a while.
Look for reels that use the same song, same style or a special sequence over and over again.
If a lot of people are doing the same thing, you know it’s a trend.
A trend on Instagram reels is basically just a lot of people copying one video idea.
Step 2: Create your own version of the trend.
Keep it real. Make it match your own brand. If you copy an Instagram reel trend, that doesn’t match your brand, you risk coming across totally inauthentic and awkward. Inauthentic content is not going to benefit your brand and it might even end up hurting your brand.
What can you do in order to stay authentic, but still jump on the trend?The best way to find good trends for you is to do matchmaking.
It’s like tinder. Swipe, swipe, swipe, match.
Scroll through Instagram reels, with the your brand and audience in mind. What could you do to entertain them? What would they laugh about? What would inspire or inform them? What story could you tell?
Take your time and be mindful doing this. 9/10 trends won’t be a match. Look for that secret gem.
Action Items
1️⃣ Scroll through IG reels. Identify a Reels trend using the two-step trend technique.
2️⃣ Note down 3 Ideas for your own Instagram Reel.
3️⃣ Create your first reel. Don’t make it perfect. Just make it.
✅ Post your reel and watch it succeed.
Summary
Reels are important because you get a lot of visibility from them. Instagram is feeding your content to new audiences. Get your reels on the explore page watch instagram put your brand’s content in front of the new potential customers.
Reels are a short video format that happens on Instagram. Reels on Instagram can maximum 60 seconds long. It’s always in vertical format, that means, technically speaking 1080 by 1920 Pixels (9x16).
At the moment, there’s no way yet to directly monetize your Instagram reels. However you could send people down a marketing funnel and turn views into customers. This way you can use reels to grow your business.
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