Using IGTV for Your Beauty Business

Instagram is a global community with over a billion users. It has become a platform for many individuals and businesses to flourish. For beauty professionals, Instagram is an effective tool to grow their clientele. You can upload photos of your work, client selfies, helpful videos, and more! This includes taking advantage of IGTV, an app for watching long-form, vertical videos on Instagram.

While there’s a stand-alone IGTV app, anyone can watch the videos within the regular Instagram app. This means that you won’t need to create a new account and start fresh on a brand new platform. You can use IGTV to perfectly complement the content you’ve already been rolling out. This is perfect if you want to create videos for your beauty business. Unlike Instagram stories and videos, which are limited to one minute, IGTV videos can be up to an hour long. It requires minimal effort and can be done directly on your smartphone, making it easier to set up compared to YouTube.

Creating IGTV videos will go hand in hand with your current Instagram content strategy to grow your online presence. Other benefits of IGTV include:

• Educating your clients
• Connecting with your clientele on a personal level
• Inform of new promotions and events
• Entertainment

All your Instagram content will work together to increase your professional image and build trust. Potential clients will watch your videos to get to know you better and establish you as an expert in the beauty industry. This will increase the likelihood of them booking an appointment with you. For current clients, your videos will add extra value. For example, if you create aftercare videos to prolong retention, it will help your current clients stay educated and maintain their look between each service. It all contributes to the overall salon experience to increase client retention.

What Type of Content to Post

There is a variety of different content you can post on IGTV. It will depend on what you’re trying to achieve. Do you want to educate your clients on the various types of services? Do you want to demonstrate aftercare instructions to ensure the highest retention? There is a lot of opportunity with video content and the topics are endless.

Before filming, you will need to determine what the purpose of your video is. Think about the benefit it will provide for your clients. Some ideas include:

• Behind the scenes of your studio
• Educational videos on your services
• Aftercare instructions
• Beauty tutorials
• Product demonstrations
• Personal videos about yourself

Use it as a platform to showcase your work, expertise, and personality. Start by uploading a variety of videos to see how well they perform. IGTV includes in-app analytics to see how many likes and comments your videos get. You will also see the average percentage watched of the video. We recommend the beginning of your video to be very engaging to encourage viewers to watch the entire video.

Once you have an idea of which content is performing better than others, you can start creating a strategy. For example, if you have noticed that clients are enjoying the behind the scene footage of your studio and services, then it’s a sign that you should be posting more of those! Coming up with video ideas based on your analytics helps to ensure that you’re producing content that your clientele wants to see.

Be sure to have fun with it! To help build trust and allow potential clients to get to know you, don’t be afraid to show off your personality. At the end of the day, Instagram is a social media platform. Give potential clients a glimpse of your life and show them that you’re human too! There are a lot of people out there who love supporting small businesses and want to get to know you.

How to Create an IGTV Video

All you need to start creating IGTV videos for your beauty business is a smartphone and an Instagram account. Before you create an IGTV video, make sure to download the IGTV app and link it with your Instagram business profile. You won’t be able to upload your IGTV videos through the regular app. Uploading it through the IGTV app will automatically sync it with your Instagram account.

Next, you’re ready to start recording the video on your phone. You can simply hold your phone like a selfie or consider using a small tripod for longer videos. Don’t worry about trying to get everything done in one cut because that’s what video editing apps are for. Once you have all the footage, you can put it together with a free video editing app on your phone. A few popular options include Splice, InShot, and VidsMaker. Alternatively, you can cut and save the videos within your image gallery and paste them together in the IGTV app. It will allow you to select multiple videos to put together.

Once you have the final video, you can upload it to IGTV. You will be given an option to select a cover image by choosing a frame from your video or an image from your camera roll. If you select an image from your camera roll, you can design this ahead of time to ensure all your videos follow a consistent look. From there, you will enter the title of the video and description.

You will be given an option to add it to a series and post a preview of your video to your feed and profile. We recommend creating several series to cover a variety of topics, just like how you would have various categories and playlists on YouTube.

Here is an example of Alysa Fullona of Lash Creative doing a series on strip lashes. She named her series, “Strip Lashes 101” and included a description for viewers to understand the purpose. While she offers eyelash extensions, she created content about strip lashes to help those that need a break from extensions or for those looking to slowly transition into getting them.

It is also important to note that hashtags can be used in IGTV videos as well. They can be added in the description prior to uploading. This will help others find your content through their own exploration. To help increase the views, be sure to add the preview to your Instagram feed and to cross-promote your IGTV through email and other social media platforms! Encourage your following to engage with your IGTV videos and give you feedback!

Having a variety of content to share allows you to gauge what works to grow your clientele. You’ll be able to determine which topics and formats get the most engagement. IGTV is fun and easy to do right on your phone. It is definitely worth diving into!