‘Tis the season for eggnog, ugly sweaters, and selling!
With the busiest time of year around the corner for business owners, Instagram Reels is your golden ticket to boosting your brand’s presence and bottom line.
But there’s one question you’re likely asking yourself: Where do I start?
You may have a social media strategy in place, but generating Instagram Reels content ideas that captivate and convert can feel daunting. That’s where Plann enters the chat.
We’ve put together five holiday Instagram Reels ideas that are fun to make, easy to create, and will help your business boost reach, increase engagement and even drive conversions ahead of the festive season.
5 Holiday Instagram Reels Ideas for Your Business
Are you stumped on Instagram Reels ideas? You’re in the right place. Here are some of the top ideas that’ll help you highlight your business, sell your products or services, and grow your relationship with your followers.
1. Create Holiday Themed Gift Guides
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The easiest way to fast-track sales during the holiday season?
Put together a gift guide.
You’re saving your followers hours of research, and you get to showcase your best products or services as thought gift ideas.
It’s a win-win!
Here are two Instagram Reels ideas for your gift guide series:
• Product-specific: Create an Instagram Reel featuring your different scents and who each candle would be best for as a gift. For example, lavender is the perfect scent for your workaholic friend who needs to chill out.
• Niche-specific: Are you an outdoor adventure blogger? Put your affiliate links to work, and create a Reel highlighting must-have gifts for hikers. You can also break the Reel up into different parts for different budgets, e.g. “The best gifts for hikers under $20!”.
BONUS TIP: Turn your Instagram Reels into shoppable pieces of content by harnessing product tags that make it easy for viewers to go from product discovery to purchase in just a few taps. Don’t forget to add branded Reels cover images that clearly explain what to expect from your gift guides, too.
2. Film Your Behind-The-Scenes Holiday Prep
Behind-the-scenes Instagram Reels are a staple for a reason.
It works.
Why?
People are naturally curious. According to Forbes, BTS content allows businesses to humanize their brand, forge authentic connections and build trust at scale.
It’s engaging to see how something was made or what goes into running a successful business.
For the holiday season, you can tap into this psychological trigger and create a series of Instagram Reels showing how your business prepares for the holidays.
What does that look like in practice?
• Decorating your shop for Christmas
• Festive season packaging
• Creating season-themed products
• BTS of your team preparing for the holiday season
• Festive-themed mini vlog or a day-in-the-life video post
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3. Film Holiday-Themed Tips and Tricks
Social selling is more than pushing your product or service.
It’s also about sharing your knowledge and positioning your brand as the go-to expert in your niche or industry.
And the festive season is the perfect time to do both.
Create an Instagram Reel related to your niche where you show your audience how to do something and link it to the holidays.
For example, let’s say you’re a portrait photographer. Film a series where you give your audience tips on taking better family photos. You can break it up into posing ideas, location options, and editing tips.
(You could even create a holiday-themed preset and sell it to your audience).
Now, let’s tackle product-based businesses.
One of the challenges for people at this time of year is skincare. Whether it’s the cold weather, stress, or the increase in rich foods, breakouts and other skin problems are common.
Create an Instagram Reel addressing these problems and share tips and product recommendations.
The key to both examples is to look at your niche and figure out how you can relate what you do to problems your audience experiences during this time of year.
4. Create a Holiday DIY
Who doesn’t love a good DIY?
DIY content educates your audience and teaches them how to do something. As the holiday season approaches, now is the perfect time to take a lighthearted approach to your content and tap into this timely, seasonal moment with a DIY tutorial.
Plus, you can use this Instagram Reel idea for both product and service-based businesses.
Here’s how:
First, think of a DIY Reel related to your niche.
If you’re a copywriter, create video content teaching your audience how to write copy for different parts of the funnel for their Black Friday sale.
Or, if you’re an email marketer, you can show your audience how to create a winning festive season email funnel.
For product-based businesses, teach your audience how to make a DIY gift using one of your products.
Or create a festive-themed recipe and show your followers how to re-create it for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner.
DIY content is powerful because it’s sharable, inspiring a high level of engagement and organically expanding your reach as a brand on Instagram.
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5. Film A End-Of-Year Business Update
You may be thinking, “How will this generate sales for my business?”
It’s creating an emotional bond with your audience.
Your followers aren’t only there for what you sell but for you as well.
Without them, you wouldn’t be able to do what you’re passionate about, so celebrate that.
Use the end of the year holidays to list your achievements and give your audience a tease into what you have planned.
It’s the best way to drum up anticipation and give your followers something to look forward to in the new year.
BONUS TIP: Make sure to harness trending audio when creating your end of year update Reel. This will help boost the reach of your video and ensure your content cuts through in the algorithm.
Plann Your Festive Instagram Reels Ideas
Got a few Reels ideas brewing?
Take it one step further and hop onto the Explore page.
See what trending sounds you can use and if there are any challenges you can put a festive twist on for your business.
Once you have a list, film your content ideas, capture images, upload your videos and images, and schedule your ideas into your content calendar.
Don’t have one?
Get one for free with Plann when you sign up for a 7-day trial of Plann Plus. You’ll also gain access to:
• Done-for-you captions
• Custom content strategies for your industry
• Thousands of high-performing hashtags
• Unlimited content uploads and scheduling
So what are you waiting for?
Grab your smartphone and start creating. Happy Reeling!
