“If you can master reels, it translates to all other social media platforms and is the future of marketing for the wedding industry.”

Brandee Gaar

Episode 3/4: “Reel” in More Clients: Leverage Instagram Reels for Your Wedding Business Success. | Wedding Pros Who Are Ready to Grow Podcast

Hey there, CEOs. Welcome to the Wedding Pro CEO podcast. I’m your host, Brandee Gaar, and my mission is to help you, the wedding industry entrepreneur, to build a profitable wedding business that you actually love. Every year on this show, we like to spend a month where we highlight other industry podcasts that we love and we know you will too.

I am so excited to introduce you to the Wedding Pros who are Ready to Grow podcast with Becca Pountney! It’s been a while since I’ve talked about reels and showing your face in front of the camera. So when Becca asked me to come on her show to share my tried and true tips for creating video that converts, I was all in.

If you haven’t harnessed the power of short form video yet or you just need a little refresher on how it can help you grow your sales. This is the episode for you!

Some key highlights from the episode:

• Why are Instagram Reels important for people in the wedding industry?
• Tips for wedding pros to be able to post their first Reel on Instagram.
• How often should wedding pros be making Reels on Instagram?
• How can a wedding pro get over the struggle of posting a perfect Reel?

Why are Instagram Reels important for people in the wedding industry?

Will reels always be, this phenomenon that can fill your sales funnel? Probably not, but they are now and they are for the foreseeable future! One of the cool things for the wedding industry is that we know without a shadow of a doubt, that our clients are on Instagram, that’s where they hang out, that’s where they’re shopping. Wedding wire’s latest report said that 82% and climbing of all engaged couples, research their vendors on social media before they ever make a purchase. That’s a massive amount. Instagram is favoring reels because they are at battle with TikTok, so they are favoring reels on their platform, and so it’s a really great way to get in front of more engaged couples.

One of the other cool things in the wedding industry is that one of the very first things couples do is change their status online. They change it on Facebook and they also go and tell everyone that they’re now engaged. Facebook and Instagram are owned by the same company, and so it makes it really easy for Instagram to know who to put your content in front of because Instagram is favoring reels, your content is gonna get pushed out to more engaged couples when you’re making reels. The other piece of that too, is that reels have been around for about two-three years now, and now every single platform has short form video incorporated. So if you can master reels, it really translates to all these other platforms. It is the way we’re going to start marketing to people in the future. So, understanding it and using it while Instagram’s giving you that extra juice is really gonna be to your benefit in the future for marketing your business.

I think what a lot of people don’t understand is that when you post on Instagram, less than 10% of your followers will see your content. So when you make this beautiful feed post, you’ve spent an hour creating in Canva, less than 10% of your followers are seeing that content and that’s the people who are actually following you with reels. They use a different algorithm. The reels algorithm is going and searching for people and bringing new eyes to your platform. So I always consider reels as like top of funnel.

Tips for wedding pros to be able to post their first Reel on Instagram

In the beginning, I think it’s scary to show your face. What I would encourage you to do is to use a template. You can use a template and you can literally grab content out of your phone or you can use the photographer’s professional images. You can literally use someone else’s template and then you can just add your own media to it and it will make you a reel. Instagram will make you a reel that you can post of your own content. So I think this is a really easy way. I love teaching people to use a template because what you can see is, it takes you two minutes to make it, and then you’re gonna see how much juice you get from that reel.

Reels are, can be as simple as literally grabbing your phone and then when you see maybe like the bride
and groom do a first look, capture it on your phone and then make that into a seven second reel. But I
think a lot of people as wedding pros, we’re so cautious of our grid. We get nervous of putting phone footage on our grid when in reality reels are really meant to be more real!! So it’s definitely okay to use phone footage, but I think the template makes it a little bit easier for people to baby step into because you can use more professional images with it.

You can also make quick reels that don’t ever even show your face. For example, let’s say a florist, I love seeing behind the scenes of a florist making a bouquet, right? Or let’s say a DJ packing up all their equipment for wedding day. People love to see what you actually do behind the scenes. It’s very interesting for people to get to see what you’re doing and what equipment you’re bringing. So those are simple reels that don’t even show your face.

How often should wedding pros be making Reels on Instagram?

My answer is always at a minimum of twice a week. I know that sounds kind of like a lot, but if
you’re already creating content for Instagram, which I’m sure that you are, you can actually make reels way faster than you can make grid posts. Once you get the hang of it, it actually goes really quickly. I only teach wedding pros how to make reels that you can make in five minutes or less. I don’t think that spending an hour on one reel is giving you the return on investment that it should. Now, in the beginning, you’re trying to learn how the buttons work and things like that, so it might take you a few extra minutes, but once you get the hang of it, you’re going to really be able to make five minute reels, so I would love to see you make at least two a week. I would love to see it as you get better at it to make about three to four.

How can a wedding pro get over the struggle of posting a perfect Reel?

Honestly, the only way I can tell you to get over it is you just have to start doing it because, funnily enough,I beg people not to go back to the beginning of my Instagram and see my reels because they were so cringey because I was so uncomfortable on camera! But that’s how it works, like I see people that are, doing something I wanna be able to do, and they’re like, it wasn’t always this way.

You just have to do it. The more you do it, the better you will get at it. It will be awful at first. You will feel ridiculous. Post it anyway. And you will keep getting better and you’ll get addicted to the numbers. You will.

Listen Now to Episode 195 of the Wedding Pro CEO Podcast, “Reel” in More Clients: Leverage Instagram Reels for Your Wedding Business Success.

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Bye for now!!!😊

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