Instagram can be a very effective platform for some businesses, particularly those that sell photogenic products such as food and drink. One of the best ways to increase reach on Instagram is to use their reels feature. This can be very effective for artisan-spirit farm businesses.
Central to making the most of any social media platform is to work with the tools they give you. Currently, Instagram is really pushing its reels feature. This is in an attempt to stave-off market share loss from TikTok. So if you aren’t using reels, you are likely to find your reach significantly reduced. Reels can be scary when you first get started, but practice makes perfect, and it is another fantastic tool for connecting with your audience.
Some ideas for reels could include:
Reels are also the main form of content that is shared outside of your following. This is why it is so effective for increasing your reach and following on the platform. You can also choose to have your reels shared on Facebook for added reach.
At the moment, Instagram is pushing users to complete reels every day or as often as possible, but even doing them a couple of times a week will help your reach. You can also use a scheduling tool for some reels or use the draft option on Instagram to have a few reels prepared and then post them over a few days, saving you time and energy.
We often make a couple of different reels using the same or very similar video/image content and just change up the audio or caption. We can then post the ‘’extra’’ copies the following week or even a few days later with different hashtags, so it shows up in the feed of different Instagram users.
You can also improve your reels’ reach by using trending audio from the app, which will help to gain more exposure. Examples of trending audio from the last few months include:
The trends will come and go, but if you can tap into them where appropriate, they will make a big difference to your reach. The trends will also indicate if it is best to use images or videos or both on your reel.
Searching for audio on the app can be a bit of a pain, so I recommend saving audio you like when you spot it so it is easy to access when you make your reel. You can also use original audio for those new to using reels, but I wouldn’t recommend this. However, if you have a good audio setup, it can be useful if you want to tap into the ASMR trend.
The ASM R trend is the creation and sharing of pleasing audio, which is often seen in food and drink preparation videos coupled with low, soothing voice-overs. As an artisan spirit brand, this can be a really effective trend to use, but it does require a good quality audio recording set-up and some skill in creating the right sounds and tone.
If you want to use Instagram Reels, then ideally you need to look at getting good at recording short clips of the product yourself. Reels demand a high quantity of good-quality content such as video clips and images, which is hard to achieve without having some internal skills for this. However, some reels are better than no reels, and we often find our clients get much better at capturing the image and video content with practice.
That said if you are a newer business, having some brand photography or videography done to give you a backlog to draw on can be really useful. It will give you time to hone your own content skills.
Having this done doesn’t have to be a regular event and doesn’t mean you only use professional images online, but it does give you a library of professional imagery for ongoing use. You can then choose to add to this content with personal images you have taken or content from customers.
When you are having professional content created or when you are filming for your own purposes, make an effort to consider how you will dress your products and the business as a whole to look as good as possible. You can always do other content where you show what it looks like on an average day to educate your audience. But doing stunning images of really attractive set-ups will help your content, and hence your business, to gain further reach on Instagram.
We can fall foul of thinking of Instagram users as teenagers. The truth is that teens have now moved on to platforms such as TikTok, and the majority of active Instagram users are now aged between 20 and 40. This means that active Instagram users are predominantly millennials and some older Gen Zs.
These are people who have careers and are likely established in their living situations. They are also increasingly likely not to have children and be more willing to spend money on experiences, or experience-led products. They are also more likely to be educated consumers and to make purchase choices that they see as being ethical. This can include trends such as the increase in plant-based diets, but it can also include trends towards buying more locally, choosing high-welfare animal products, or products with significant green credentials.
Instagram also benefits from having a strong foodie community, which can be extremely valuable for artisan-spirit brands if leveraged effectively.
Their love of experience-led shopping means they are the ideal target market for many farm businesses such as artisan-spirit brands. They are also often keen to spend on value-added experiences. As such, a good way to increase the average spend of your customers is to team up with other local businesses who provide complementary activities. For example, you may be able to team up with a local restaurant to offer a cocktail and canapés night. Or join forces with a local cookery school to put on a cocktail masterclass.
The key to marketing to this type of customer is to communicate your story and educate them on why you are an experience worth having. If you have ethical credentials as part of your core brand, then you will also benefit from communicating this; for example, is your artisan spirit carbon-neutral or similar?
This type of customer will buy into the businesses that show their storytelling skills and can therefore create an emotional response from the viewer. This could include explaining the background of your farm and family. Maybe you are a 6th generation farmer who is trying to save their family farm through farm diversification. Or maybe you are a new entrant who is striving to create a new type of artisan-spirit business that has a niche audience.
Consider the brand story that you want to present and make sure it is authentic to you. You can somewhat Disneyfy your brand story or simplify it to make it a clearer and more impactful farm marketing tool. But you must make sure it never becomes inauthentic. This generation of consumers believes strongly in buying from authentic businesses and looking beyond the traditional marketing hype.
You may be familiar with the phrase “a picture paints a thousand words”. This is very true of almost all social media platforms, but for Instagram, imagery is central to its whole identity. Therefore, you need to ensure you can communicate your brand story as much through images or videos as through words. If you or a family member is keen on their camera, this is a huge advantage on Instagram. Show your followers what life on your farm is like and show them your authentic self through images and videos.
