Want to Boost your Engagement on Instagram? Use These Strategies when Creating Reels
Oh, Instagram Reels... whether you love ‘em or hate ‘em, they’re clearly here to stay as a dominant force in the Instagram landscape of short form video content creation.
And over the past year, we’ve seen a huge surge in people taking tried-and-true Instagram quote graphics that performed incredibly well over the years, and adapting them into Instagram Reels formats.
These types of inspirational and engaging Reels are consistently ranking among the top performing Instagram posts we’re seeing lately.
Combining the power of an inspiring quote with the captivating video Reels format is a winning formula for quickly driving up engagement.
But in analyzing many business and creators’ approaches to quote Reels, there are a few key best practices that are often missed which could be sabotaging engagement rates.
So let’s dive into the 5 essential components you need to incorporate in order to maximize engagement with your inspirational quote Reels!
One: Optimize Video Length for the Video to Loop
Coming in with too long or too short of a video clip for your quote Reel can drastically impact performance. While 7 seconds may seem oddly specific, there’s some solid reasoning behind it!
You want your video to be “just right" - not overwhelming viewers with quick cuts, but short enough that it fully replays multiple times. This sweet spot increases the likelihood that viewers will watch the full video on loop.
And given Instagram’s algorithm favors longer watch times and videos that replay, mastering the 7-second clip for your quote Reels is key. It gives users just enough time to read most or all of the quote, keeping their attention to boost engagement metrics that Instagram's algorithm looks for.
Two: Leverage Trending Sounds
While business accounts don’t always have access to the latest official song releases, you can still tap into viral sounds gaining popularity across Reels.
Including a catchy or funny trending audio clip makes your quote Reel more entertaining to capture attention quickly. An added bonus is you’re more discoverable by showing up when users search for that viral sound.
You can easily find trending sounds to leverage by paying attention to ones constantly used in Reels on your Explore page. Or when adding audio to your Reel creation flow, look for the upward arrow icon indicating what sounds are trending up in usage.
Three: Ensure Readability of Text
A common mistake we see in quote Reels is text sizing and formatting that’s frustratingly difficult to read on a small phone screen.
When designing your inspirational quote graphic in Canva, it’s nearly impossible to envision exactly how it will look for viewers. To optimize text for mobile screens, we recommend viewing the video at a distance to see if it is legible.
Generally, you’ll need larger text sizes than you would expect to accommodate quick video playback on mobile. Prioritize making that quote pop off the screen!
Four: Repurpose Top Threads
Interestingly, Threads graphics still perform incredibly well re-purposed for Instagram Reels - and these Reels in particular are soaring lately (especially with the downfall of Twitter/X!
You have a couple options to leverage existing Threads content or you can mimic the aesthetic when creating your own quote graphics from scratch. These can take you literal minutes to create - they are that easy!
Find a high-performing Thread screenshot to use as the basis for your Reel video, adding an attractive stock background video. If editing on your phone, you can easily build the full Reel just by pasting your image right into the Instagram Reels video editor.
Or if you don’t use Threads, Canva templates make it simple to design mock Threads posts packed with inspirational quotes to power engaging Reels without cross-posting.
Five: Fine Tune Your Captions
Even with the quote already displayed vibrantly on your Reel, crafting compelling captions is still crucial for providing context and intrigue.
However, the formatting rules for Reels captions force you to grab attention FAST in limited space compared to Instagram’s regular feed posts.
In full-screen Reels view, your caption cuts off after the very first line of text. That means you only have about 30-50 characters at most to make an impact and hook viewers to tap “more.”
Take extra care to lead with your most captivating caption content that compels viewers to expand to read more of your thought-provoking commentary.
PRO TIP: We like to give a call to action for SUPER important Reels in that first line to really grab attention and point people to where we want them to go!
The Easiest Way to Create High-Impact Quote Reels…
Now that you’re armed with insider tips to create attention-grabbing quote Reels, let’s talk about the fastest way to put them into action!
Canva is actually the perfect Reel creation platform… and we’ve got the templates to help!!
Inside of Your Template Club we have a ton of Reels templates to make it simple for anyone to create beautiful, high-converting quote videos in just minutes, without always having to be on camera.
Our templates are already optimized for the best practices outlined above, so you can just plug in your own quotes and branding for an effortless Reels content creation.
instagram reels canva templates
Join Your Template Club to get access to a TON of Instagram Reels Canva Templates that take MINUTES to edit and create!
When you join the club as an all access member, you get instant access to over 3,000+ designs… including these!!
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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.