“If I am new to videos, what is my fastest way for growth and success?”
I asked this question to two of our community members who are killing it on IG.
We talked for 119 minutes, and in this edition, I am going to share all their insights on Instagram Growth.
This edition will give you clarity if you are unable to decide if you should make videos.
7 video creation lessons from 1.9 million views on IG
I invited Pratish and Tushar to speak in our community last week.
Tushar creates dating content for men. He consistently hits 100k views on his reels.
Pratish talks about design and video creation with AI. He grew to 12.5k followers with his first 100 posts.
Between them, they have 1.9 million views in the last 3 months.
Here are 7 lessons they have learned with reps and failing 80% of the time, so you don’t have to start from zero.
1. Have a goal. Entertainment can only take you so far.
Pratish is particular about ROI and making money as a creator. I strongly agree with him.
If you make 3-5 videos a week on IG with a script, high effort, multiple takes, and edits, you better have an ROI in mind.
All top creators now say “Distribution is the moat.” But your job is to understand why and how distribution is a moat for you.
For me, newsletters are my business. So my content’s goal is to drive email subscribers.
Pratish consults and creates AI videos for creators and companies. For him, leads are the content goal.
2. Volume over perfection, of course. But we never do.
This is my favorite post from Tushar:
I keep saying marketing is testing. Meaning, you must experiment until you find formats, hooks, and methods that work for you, then double down on what’s working.
For that, you need to embrace the cringe and post as many videos as possible, asap!
3. Create a bank for ideas, resources, and all kinds of inspiration
If you’re chronically online on IG, the best thing you can do is document all your best discoveries at one place. Best hooks, video formats, topics, etc.
So the next time you have an opinion about something, you already have proven resources to weave your opinion into.
4. Work towards predictable growth
I have an entire thesis on why marketing must be predictable. I’ll share it one day, but this is what you need to know now:
After posting dozens of videos, Tushar confidently says any video with a skip rate less than 40% and watch time greater than 20 seconds will hit at least 10k views.
I call this marketing math. The equations that are true 9 out of 10 times, so you know what to do to get consistent results.
Now that Tushar knows more watch time and less skip rate are his metrics, he will structure his videos that align with his north star metrics.
As a newsletter expert, my marketing math would look like, “for every video that crosses 10k views, I get 50 subscribers.”
Pratish gets 25-30 leads for every reel that hits 50k views.
What would be yours?
5. Shares give you reach. Saves give you followers.
This is true for both of our guests and you’ll need to decide what you need for your videos.
If your goal is awareness, you want to drive shares.
If your goal is business or driving members through the funnel, then you want to optimise for saves and followers.
6. Keep your time-to-value under 10 seconds
Meaning: Your ICP should know something new. Make a big promise and show them progress within the first 10 seconds of the video.
Once that is done, spend the rest of your video justifying the claim you made.
Tushar passes bold statements like “Girls are finally going after the younger guys” and then goes on to explain why. This reel has 406k views.
Pratish shows the video he made with AI, the entire output, and then goes on to explain the tech stack, process, etc. This reel has 7k likes, 6.8k comments, 234 reposts, and 6.5k shares.
7. Effort and Payoff
I asked Pratish if I could just open up a camera and start talking. Why do I need to script and make sure the editing is good?
He told me it’s the difference between 500 views and 20k.
I can either create low-effort, consistent content and feel good about slow growth. Or I can intentionally work on minute details, and they compound.
PS: This doesn’t mean you never get started because you want to create ‘good videos’.
I met Agnel last month. He runs a $500k/yr business and has 1.25 million subscribers on YouTube. He suggested I could significantly improve my views with a good mic, having some space above my head, and posting trail reels.
Small changes. Big results.
That’s what Pratish meant as well. Scrappy is fine, but intentional changes in script, storytelling, and video quality go a long way.
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Personal Notes
Work has been crazy lately. My only goal this week is to watch The Odyssey without creating a backlog of tasks.
(sadly this is what adulting has come down to)