Step-by-Step: How to Batch Your Instagram Reels Content
You hear it from all of the Instagram experts… “You need to incorporate Reels into your content strategy.”
And I totally agree - but it doesn’t have to be as difficult as you think. Reels will help grow your account, reach your ideal audience, and encourage engagement through short-form videos. But oftentimes, video can be overwhelming to create!
I have a process that I like to follow each and every week to BATCH create my Reels content. The idea of batching is simple: rather than creating ONE piece of content at a time day in and day out, you put certain content creation tasks together to efficiently create your video content.
STEP ONE - Pick your music or sound and save the audio on Instagram
As you scroll through Instagram, you might see some of your favorite accounts and creators using a sound you really like. Whether that is a trending song or original audio, maybe it is something you want to use in your Reels. Simply tap on the audio, click on “save audio” and you can come back to those audios you save when you are ready to create!!
STEP TWO - Record Reels and download them to your camera roll
This next part is often the scariest and most time-consuming… at first! This takes a bit of practice to figure out your rhythm. But after I review all the audio I saved for the week, I create content in THIS order…
FIRST - I see if I have stock video content (videos of me working, pointing, laughing, etc. that I always have saved in my phone) that will fit with the audio. I tap into old content first to see what I have, and therefore wouldn’t have to record anything new.
SECOND - review content that is easier to create. Maybe the audio is a trending song, and you just need to create one video clip. Or maybe you are using original audio that just requires a 5-second clip of you pointing three times. Record these next, and get them out of the way.
THIRD - create any talking head videos that don’t require trending audio or sounds. Maybe you create a quick tutorial where you show your computer screen, or maybe you are answering a frequently asked question!
LAST - create content with audio that might require multiple clips, outfit changes, dancing, acting, etc. These are the most time-consuming to film, and I really try and limit my time creating these. While they are super fun and exciting, the payoff isn’t always the greatest when I post it to Reels.
PRO TIP: Make sure you download your Reels to your camera roll. It will not save the audio (unless you are just creating a talking head video), but you will at least have a backup in case your Instagram Reels drafts decide to go missing. Believe me - this happens more often than you think!!
STEP THREE - Add text to your Reels and save them in drafts
After you finish filming, go back and make any edits that you need to. Adding text to your Instagram Reels keeps things engaging for your audience, and you often need text on the screen to jump on trends anyways!! Knock all of this out at one time… I promise you will get really fast at it if you do it all in one sitting!
STEP FOUR - Use Canva to create graphics and additional Reels
Now comes the fun part, well the part I consider the most fun!! Head into Canva and create all of the covers for the videos that you just created. You can also supplement these Reels by creating Reels inside of Canva too.
The point here is to batch-create everything in Canva all at one time, once per week, so you save time in the long run. Want a sneak peek at my process for this?? Watch the video below!!
STEP FIVE - Add Reels covers to Later and schedule
Once you have downloaded your covers from Canva, you are now going to open up my favorite scheduling tool, Later. You are now going to upload JUST the cover, insert your caption, your hashtags, and schedule them into the planning tool. Make sure they are set to “manually publish” and not “auto publish.”
STEP SIX - Get the notification and manually post your Reel
Now you will receive a notification from Later when it is time to post your Reels. You will tap on the notification, copy your caption, and the cover will download to your phone. Now simply open up Instagram, head to your Reels drafts, find the corresponding Reel and manually publish.
For now, I take this approach rather than uploading the entire video to Later for a few reasons:
While auto-publishing for Reels is available on Later, you won’t have access to the text and trending sounds that are available within Instagram
I want to still have control over certain functions when manually posting the Reel in Instagram (adjusting the Cover, adding location, etc.)
This process allows for the least amount of glitches after testing out a few different processes. This way ensures that I have maximum control, while also being efficient!
So you have gotten this far and you are excited about your new content creation process when it comes to Reels!! I am so excited that you are on this journey… and if you want some help along the way, I have Canva templates to help make the Reels content creation process so much easier!!
Head to the shop where you can see Reels Cover Canva Templates, Reels Video Canva Templates, and even Reels Caption Templates!
P.S. If you are a member of Your Template Club, you can find all of these templates when you log in to the portal.
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Manu Muraro is the founder of Your Social Team, an Instagram training membership and template shop that help social media managers and Instagram-savvy small business owners to grow engagement and sales using Instagram and content marketing, without the overwhelm. Born and raised in Brazil, Manu moved to the U.S. in 2000 right out of college to work for Cartoon Network, where she made an award winning career in creative and strategy. In 2021, Manu started Your Template Club, a Canva template subscription service to help social media professionals and Canva-savvy business owners to create content that performs on Instagram, add more Instagram features into their strategy, such as Instagram Lives and Reels, and save time.