Instagram Reels are a popular and creative way for dental practices to share video content and increase their social media following – and yet, many practices still aren’t regularly using them.

Although videos can be shared in many ways on Instagram, Reels are a fantastic tool for building your following. This is because its recommendations are tailored to each user, meaning your practice’s videos will be shown to those who have actively shown interest in dental services. Needless to say, this makes it a highly useful tool for generating growth and interest in your practice.

Working with Instagram’s algorithms

Algorithms can often seem like a dark art, but essentially, they’re designed to enhance a user’s experience. All Instagram algorithms work on two main principles: favouring personal user preference over popularity, and showing users content that will keep them active on the platform for longer.

In general, the feed algorithm is based on personal preference, meaning that as a user interacts with a certain type of content, Instagram will show them more of the same. For instance, a user who has recently engaged with Invisalign content is much more likely to be shown it again. Alongside this, the more a user interacts with content from a certain account, the higher in the feed that account will appear when they post new content.

A whole host of interactions are considered “positive” engagement, though these are hard to pin down in terms of metrics. If someone scrolls back up to see your content, swipes through a carousel, taps on “…more” to read your caption, or even pauses to look longer at your post — algorithmically, each one of these actions is positive.

Like the feed, Reels are weighted towards personal preference, but unlike it, the popularity of posts also comes into play. So, Reels that have performed well are more likely to be seen by others – especially if they’re in line with that user’s individual content preferences.

Reel ideas for dentists

Instagram’s algorithm seems to favour Reels content for the first few days after it’s been posted, so posting regularly will help you to remain visible. If you’re just starting out, creating a variety of content will allow you to test what works and appeal to different types of users. Shorter videos (under 15 seconds) are great for reaching new viewers who don’t know your brand, and so are unlikely to sit through longer ones. However, longer Reels (those over 30 seconds) provide value to your existing audiences.

Aim to create timely content related to your dental treatments and dental practice. Even something as simple as a panorama of your reception area, looking comfortable and calm, can be used as a backdrop for a caption. If you struggle with ideas, there’s plenty you can do, which will both interest followers and showcase what you’re all about. Here are some ideas:

Behind the scenes

A behind-the-scenes look at the friendly face of your business gives your audience (and patients) an authentic peek at your services. This can help them feel more connected to your dental practice and more likely to consider treatments. For anxious patients, it also shows what they can expect and may help to set their minds at ease.

Getting to know you

If you’ve recently seen an increase in your followers, this could be the perfect time to reintroduce yourself. An Instagram Reel covering the fundamentals of who you are, your extensive training, treatments you deliver, and what you care about, can help to build a connection.

Showcase dental treatments

People who are genuinely interested in your services will always appreciate the occasional treatment showcase. Try to think of this as an opportunity to show and tell, rather than sell – anything too salesy will only put people off at this point. To help with creating content of this kind, it’s helpful to look at the timings of people finishing treatment, so that you can ask to capture moments such as the excited “big reveal”.

Answer patient FAQs

We always recommend featuring frequently asked questions on your website. However, creating an Instagram Reel to answer these FAQs can also save a lot of time, as well as giving you a resource to send to those who have questions in the future. This needn’t be a lengthy, sit-down video; you could choose to be more creative in how you present this information. Consider how you can use on-screen text and trending audio (which you’ll see when you edit in Reels) to keep things fun and engaging.

Patient stories

Anecdotal support for your services will always be one of the most compelling sales tools. Patient stories can make a huge difference in persuading others of the value and effectiveness of your products. Use Instagram Reels as an opportunity to showcase success stories – this could be through before and after pictures, screenshots of positive DMs, Google reviews from customers, or even a testimonial interview with a happy patient.

Know your KPIs?

For any form of marketing to be efficient, you need to understand what you’re working towards. Without knowing what success looks like (what your key performance indicators are), it’s hard to know what actions to take.

Instagram’s analytics allows you to measure various metrics, such as reach, engagement, leads, and conversions. But for Reels, we care most about engagement. This measures the likes, shares, tags, and comments that your Reel receives. The metric for calculating engagement is: Reel engagement % = Total number of Reels liked + shared + commented/total number of reels viewed.

The resources you’ll need

It doesn’t take a huge amount of expensive kit to make a good Instagram Reel.

To make your content high quality, it helps to have a good understanding of the tools, templates, and effects available. There are various straightforward ways to edit your video, depending on how confident you feel doing it. Instagram provides all the tools you’ll need to edit your videos yourself; or if you’d prefer a more professional edit before uploading, we can help with this. If we have access to your Instagram, we can also use your footage to edit and upload on your behalf.

Ring lights are quite cheaply available on platforms like Amazon, and a good quality camera or camera phone will be fine for recording videos. You’ll also need to allow time – not only to record a great Reel but also to edit it and add captions, music, and effects. Don’t forget extra time is also needed to monitor any comments and interact with users.

Hacks for boosting your engagement

If you’re setting aside time to create Reels, it makes sense to try to get the most possible mileage from them. To do this, you could try the following:

• Use trending audio – Instagram will help you to find trending audio and use it in your Reel. Using trending audio will not only appeal to users, but it’ll also help to increase your reach.
• Include hashtags – your Instagram Reel will get more attention if you use between five and eight relevant hashtags. Keep an eye on what’s trending, but do choose hashtags specific to dentistry, procedure-specific hashtags, dental health awareness hashtags and location specific hashtags. Increasingly, audiences are turning to Instagram as they would a search engine, using the platform to seek out services and learn more about them, so the easier you can make it for them to find you, the better.
• Share Reels to Facebook – connect your Instagram and Facebook accounts and enable sharing to expand the reach of your Reels.
• Be authentic – people warm to businesses far more if they’re authentic and sharing real experiences and honest content, as opposed to typically “salesly” content.
• Test – try split-testing your content to see what works best. This might be with and without hashtags, effects or captions. You can also vary your content’s format by going behind the scenes, sharing promos, offering tips and reviews, teases and reveals, or meet-the-team features.
• Boost – you can also boost your Reels to see what impact it will have. Instagram will allow you to set a daily budget so that there’s no risk of overspending.
• Review – look at your insights and the types of content that drive higher reach and individual metrics such as likes, shares, link clicks, etc. Then, map your content strategy around the content formats and styles that achieve those results.

Instagram Reels can form one valuable part of your digital marketing picture. If you’re running social media adverts, showing that you have an active and engaged Instagram profile, with good content, helps to support what you’re saying. And, with awareness of your dental brand and its personality reaching far beyond your followers, you’ll be attracting new audiences. These people may ultimately use additional methods to learn more about you – familiarity with your Reels, for instance, might lead someone to search for your services on Google, selecting you over other practices. So, while video content is just one small element of your marketing, it really does help to create the right ecosystem for success.

Above all, if you’re not already using Reels, I’d recommend diving in and giving it a try. Experiment, involve your team, and make it fun. Once you get into the groove of generating ideas, filming content, and editing it together, it’ll quickly become part of your culture. We’re always on hand to lend support, so just let us know if you’d like help getting things off the ground.