Instagram Reels have taken the world by storm. Offering an incredible opportunity for companies to connect with customers and fans on an emotional level, Reels take full advantage of the rising demand for social video content.
Since their release, they’ve even become the fastest-growing feature on Instagram worldwide, generating exceptional levels of engagement for brands from all industries. As a health care business, Reels gives you a chance to showcase your compassionate nature, build powerful relationships with your patients, and even share valuable and educational information.
Plus, Instagram Reels are extremely easy to create. The platform even gives you all the tools you need to add filters and unique audio into the mix. Today, we’re going to share our tips on how to create Instagram Reels that generate real results for your health care business.
6 Best Practices In Using Reels To Grow Your Followers
The good news for budding health brands on Instagram, is that posting Instagram Reels is often a relatively straightforward process. The fast-paced nature of Reels means you don’t have to spend a lot of time editing, and “re-shooting.”
However, it’s important to ensure you’re consistently sharing quality content, according to the right strategy if you want to drive success. Here are some of the most valuable best practice strategies you can follow to unlock the full potential of Instagram Reels.
1. Identify Your Target Audience
The first step in designing Instagram Reels that generate follower growth and engagement, is understanding who you’re creating content for.
Every health care business has a specific niche demographic. You might be focused on delivering cardiovascular support to people with heart issues, or you might offer general practitioner services to residents of a specific location. Defining who your target audience is will help you to:
- Create more relevant content: When you know your audience, you can create Reel videos that answer their most pressing questions, offer access to useful educational insights, and even speak in a specific language. If you’re not sure where to get started, check out the Reels of your competitors for some inspiration.
- Choose the right keywords: Keywords may be most commonly associated with search engine optimization, but they play a role in social media marketing, too. Identifying your target audience will help you to determine which terms to use in your captions and hashtags.
- Connect with your customers: When you understand your target audience, you can create content that resonates with them. This could mean working with influencers in a specific space, or choosing particular people to be the “face” of your video content.
Learn as much as you can about your Instagram followers, using competitor research, market analysis, and Instagram Insights, to create full personas for your campaigns.
2. Define Your Goals
Once you have an idea of your target audience, the next step is figuring out what you want to accomplish with your Instagram Reels. You can use them to demonstrate thought leadership, sharing valuable educational content related to your audience’s needs.
Alternatively, you could use Instagram Reels to build brand awareness, boosting your chances of ranking on the Explore pages and appearing on news feeds for certain hashtags and terms. Some healthcare companies even use Reels to earn customer trust, sharing behind-the-scenes insights from influencers and experts in the medical world:
Once you’ve decided what you want to accomplish with your Reels, determine how you’re going to monitor your results. For instance, if your goal is to increase brand awareness and engagement, you might track the number of likes, and comments your Reels get, and the number of followers you earn over a certain time period.
3. Create Engaging & Relevant Content
Exceptional content is the cornerstone of any successful Instagram marketing strategy. As the Reels feature continues to grow in popularity, standing out on the platform, even in a niche environment like healthcare, can be difficult. That’s why it’s so important to find ways to stand out.
When creating your content for Reels, ask yourself what’s going to be most beneficial to your followers. You might decide to answer common questions with a Q&A style post, covering some of the services and treatments you offer.
You could provide how-to guides, teaching patients how to diagnose certain symptoms, and when to decide whether they need to call a medical professional for help.
Remember, the best Reels content will be informative, educational, and fun. Avoid anything that seems too “salesy” and make sure your unique tone of voice shines through.
Creating original content (Rather than just reformatting content you post to TikTok and YouTube), will also help you to capture the attention of the Instagram algorithms.
4. Showcase Behind The Scenes
Up to 62% of Americans say they don’t fully trust their healthcare providers. If you want to capture the attention and loyalty of patients online, then you’ll need to give them a reason to see your business as credible, compassionate, and reliable.
Sharing behind-the-scenes content is an excellent way to demonstrate your authentic, human side to your customers. You could take your followers on a tour around your clinic or office, to showcase your commitment to providing a safe and comfortable experience to every patient.
You might consider allowing your team members to take over your Reels for a day at a time, sharing their top tips and experiences from working with your brand.
Showing followers the behind-the-scenes workings of your company will remind them they’re working with real people, who are committed to putting their wellbeing first.
5. Use Storytelling Techniques
One of the things that make video content, and Instagram Reels so compelling on social media, is their ability to connect emotionally with followers. Through video, you can create compelling narratives that resonate with your customers, and connect with their values.
Using storytelling techniques, such as adding a beginning, middle and end to your Reels, captions for context, and more can help your Reels seem more engaging.
For instance, this video from the Great Ormond Street hospital tells viewers everything they need to know about the video they’re seeing in the caption. It also includes step-by-step real-time captions within the video content, to guide you through the narrative.
You can share stories about patients (with their permission), your team members, or even your personal brand values and company mission.
6. Use Relevant Keywords, Hashtags & Captions
Finally, while the visual content you share is crucial to your success with Instagram Reels, it’s important not to overlook the value of written content, too.
Adding real-time captions to your videos is a great way to ensure your content can reach a wider audience, including those with hearing disabilities, or people who like to watch videos on mute.
Remember, around 69% of online video is watched without sound.
Your captions are an excellent way to add more depth to the stories you share on Instagram. Plus, they’re a great opportunity to plug your content with keywords and hashtags that can improve your visibility on the Instagram Explore page.
Make sure you check out trending, niche, and geographical hashtags to boost your content’s visibility, and consider creating your own hashtags to boost your chances of earning user-generated content.
Making The Most Of Instagram Reels
Instagram Reels aren’t just another trending feature on one of the world’s most popular social media platforms. With Reels, you can connect with your target audience in any industry, showcase your credibility, and improve your chances of standing out in a competitive world.
Using the tips above, you can ensure your Instagram Reels draw the right attention to your healthcare business. Plus, you could find you can educate, inform, and enlighten your followers, too.