Within just 50 days of working with Jack, his Instagram began reaching significantly more new accounts and driving increased
engagement. After we shifted to posting the new 7-second reels (more on this below), both his reach and engagement soared.

Our client, (we’ll refer to as Jack to maintain his privacy), is a personal trainer specialising in education, nutrition, and training. He owns a gym where he and another coach are dedicated to helping clients transform both their minds and bodies through education-driven coaching.

The main challenge Jack faced was the limited reach of his Instagram account; his posts were primarily seen by a small number of existing followers and failed to attract new ones.

Between December 24th and January 22nd, although his account was viewed by 829 followers, it only reached 611 non- followers.

This limited exposure to new audiences was a significant hurdle as his Instagram was not fulfilling its potential to attract and engage potential customers.

When we began working with Jack, we started analysing top influencers in his niche to identify the content formats and topics that engaged audiences most. We also took time to deeply understand Jack’s target audience, tailoring our content to meet their specific needs and interests.

Unlike many leading accounts that focused on lavish ‘lifestyle’ content, we chose to draw inspiration from influencers more aligned with Jack’s authentic approach. This strategy led to a content plan that not only fit Jack’s vision but was also designed to effectively engage his audience.

With these insights, we crafted a dynamic content strategy aimed at significantly enhancing Jack’s Instagram reach.

We constructed a detailed profile of Jack’s target audience, identifying their key frustrations, dreams, and desires. This allowed us to tailor our content to resonate deeply with the audience.

Our initial content strategy was shaped by a detailed analysis of successful accounts within Jack’s niche. We intentionally steered clear of the ‘lifestyle’ content prevalent among larger accounts, choosing instead to focus on more relatable content that truly reflected Jack’s expertise and values.

We crafted a content calendar serving as a roadmap for consistent and strategic posting. Initially, we produced high-quality, highly edited videos ranging from 30 seconds to one minute, posting them four times a week during peak activity times for Jack’s audience. Our content varied from workout tutorials to inspirational ‘quote’ reels, ensuring a diverse and engaging mix.

Continuously, we analysed trending reels within Jack’s niche to refine our approach and boost engagement.

While the highly polished videos did gain more reach and attention than Jack’s previous posts, their production was time-intensive.

After just two weeks of posting, we realised this strategy was too demanding and wasn’t meeting our expectations for reach and engagement.

After further research, we pivoted our strategy to shorter, more manageable content. We discovered that 7-second reels, featuring engaging hooks and a prompt to “read caption,” were performing exceptionally well on other accounts.

This strategic shift significantly reduced our production time and increased our ability to scale content across various topics.

We shifted our focus to short, 7-second reels, crafting hooks that sparked curiosity and captions that delivered significant value. We also leveraged trending audio and engaging visuals to enhance the impact of each post.

These posts not only reached a wider audience but also engaged them more effectively than the longer, more edited videos. The simplicity and directness of the new format resonated strongly with Jack’s followers and beyond.

Through our dynamic approach, we successfully enhanced Jack’s Instagram strategy, transitioning from time-intensive, highly edited content to simpler, yet more impactful reels. This pivot not only maximised engagement and reach but also optimised our content production process.

Here are some of the most important lessons we learned from our project with Jack:

• People want information as quickly as possible. This is why our shorter straight to the point videos were more effective than our attention grabbing, highly edited videos.
• Negative or provocative hooks are more effective than positive ones. Example: “Why 3 sets of 10 doesn’t work…”
• You have to regularly analyse top-performing accounts and adapt your strategy based on what hooks, content styles, and topics are currently engaging users the most.
• Be ready to pivot your content strategy based on real-time data and evolving audience preferences to optimise reach and engagement.
• Take time to understand who you’re speaking to. Knowing what your audience desires will help you resonate deeper with them to drive more engagement.