IG Reel Success; Mastering Hooks and Calls To Action

You know the feeling – you've put your heart into creating a reel, you feel excited about posting it on you Instagram page but feel disappointed 😔 when the views and engagement are not quite what you hoped for. That doesn’t mean that your reel sucked or that the information you shared wasn’t helpful or valuable. It most likely is because your reel might be missing a strong hook at the beginning and a compelling call to action (CTA) at the end.

A hook🪝 is a creative way to capture your audience’s attention, and a CTA is the invitation (with instructions) to engage further.

Why does your reel need a hook?

When posting a video 🎥, your primary goal is to engage your viewers and a strong hook achieves just that! Picture it like the dangling carrot on a stick – representing your audience's dreams and desires. Start your reel with a captivating caption, inspiring visuals, and surprise elements that keep them hooked until the end.

In those crucial first seconds, viewers decide whether your reel is worth watching or if they'll scroll past it. The power of a hook cannot be underestimated; it can make or break your content. Hooks can evoke various emotions, such as excitement, intrigue, surprise, or even humor, depending on the desired effect and your message.

Hooks are necessary when posting a video on Instagram. Hooks are one of the keys to online success.

There are many different types of hooks but for the sake of simplifying let’s focus on two categories:

Caption hooks & Visual hooks.

Let’s start with visual hooks:

Visual hooks: Eye catching images 🖼️ or video clips designed to grab attention.

Example: If you are teaching an advanced yoga pose or if you are sharing a recipe, show the end result first. As the hook, show an image or a quick videoclip of the end result ( in this case the advanced pose 🤸‍♂️ or the delicious meal 🥘 that you created)  Why? If you start the reel showing the steps first teaching the pose or prepping this meal your audience may scroll passed it because they don't know yet what you are about to teach them. By sharing an image or videoclip of the end result they know what they are about to learn and it’s more likely they’ll stick around to watch until the end. Makes sense right?

Caption hooks: Engaging or attention grabbing captions for reels. Let's explore some caption hooks!

Four hook focus points for your target audience:

1️⃣ Desired result

2️⃣ Pain point

3️⃣ Relatable subject

4️⃣ Evoke emotion or curiosity

DESIRED RESULT 💭 - You are focusing on the dream outcome for the people you are creating your content for.

1. Here are 3 quick ways to get (DESIRED RESULT)

2. How to get (DESIRED RESULT) step-by-step

3. Avoid these 2 mistakes to get (DESIRED RESULT)

4. The easiest way to get (DESIRED RESULT)

5. The one thing you should focus on if you want to get (DESIRED RESULTS)

Now lets practice! If you are a fitness trainer and your clients result is to gain strength and lose weight it will sound like this:

• Here are 3 quick ways to get gain strength and lose weight

• How to get gain strength and lose weight step-by-step

  (Notice that I removed the word “get” for this example)

PAIN POINT OF TARGET AUDIENCE ❤️‍🩹 - You are focusing on a problem that the typical person that you’re creating the content for is dealing with.

6. Here are 3 reasons why (PAIN POINT)

7. If  I could only give you one tip to improve (PAIN POINT) 

8. Do this If you feel discouraged that (PAIN POINT) 

9. Stop doing this if (PAIN POINT) 

10. 5 tips if your struggling with (PAIN POINT) 

Now let’s practice! If you are a health coach and your target audience is having gut issues it will sound like this:

• Here are 3 reasons why you are having gut issues

• If I could only give you one tip to improve your gut issues

RELATABLE SUBJECT 🙌🏻 – Address something that your target audience is familiar with.

It would sound like this if I used these hooks:

11. This hack will save you hours if you (RELATABLE SUBJECT) spend too much time editing.

12. This will change the way you use (RELATABLE SUBJECT) Instagram

13. If you want to (RELATABLE SUBJECT) make money with Instagram, do this!

14. I wish I started doing this years ago: (RELATABLE SUBJECT) shooting reels.

15 This is a quick and easy way to (RELATABLE SUBJECT) create a content calendar

EVOKE EMOTION/ CURIOSITY 🤔

16. You may not like to hear this, but (share some tough truth/tough love)

17. Did you know that (share interesting facts about a topic)

18. How I went from…. to…    ( share how you accomplished a goal)

19. If you are feeling ……… listen up!  ( call upon specific feelings)

20. This reel is for ……. who struggle with …… ( address your target audience and their struggle)

We have covered four different focus points for hook creation. If your hook worked and the viewer is watching your reel until the end, you don’t want to forget a Call to Action 📣! How do you want the viewer to engage with your content. Use words that encourage your audience to take immediate action. Such as commenting, sharing, signing up, saving the post etc. Here are some examples:

• Follow for more tips

• Comment to receive the link

• Join my waitlist

• Sign up now

• Like if you agree

• Save this post for later

I also suggest you make your hook visible on the cover photo. Let people scrolling through your page instantly know what your reel is about. And don't forget, consistency and authenticity are your best friends in this content creation journey.

Don't waste time on poor results. I have done the work for you. Steal the hooks that resonate most with you. Until next time, happy creating!

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