← The Abigail Peugh Podcast
The Abigail Peugh Podcast
43. Using Instagram Trial Reels to Gain Hundreds of New Followers with @niki.puls
00:24:55
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Foreign.
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You're listening to an episode of the Abigail Pugh podcast with, you guessed it, Abigail Pugh. I'm an introverted mama who took my online business from zero to seven figures in 15 months, selling my own digital products on social media. And guess what? I did it all with my 3 year old daughter no less than 3ft away from me at all times. Now I'm bringing you everything I've learned about building a wildly profitable online business that supports your life while allowing you to truly live it. Get ready for raw, honest conversations with entrepreneurs making thousands per month selling their own digital products and people just like you who ditch self doubt to create the life they've always wanted. If you're ready to make more money, have more impact and still have time for the things that matter most, you're in the right place. Grab your sneakers, head out on your hot girl walk, and let's dive in. Today's guest is a marketing coach who literally writes content for celebrities and she has cracked the code on using trial reels, which if you don't know what trial reels are, don't worry. We're going to dive into that today. But basically it's a new feature on Instagram that Nikki, my guest today, has been using to gain hundreds of followers on Instagram a day. So let's dive right in. Nikki, thank you so much for coming on the show.
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A
Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.
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B
Yes, we both showed up wearing our colors. We both got our colors done, which has nothing to do with this. But if you have not gotten your season or your colors done and you're a content creator, 10 out of 10 recommend it. You will look so much better in your content when you are wearing colors that like compliment you and your skin tones. But I love it. We both showed up wearing like, I'm wearing blue and she's wearing bright pink and it's. I love it. I'm here for it. But that's not what we're here to talk about today. Today we're going to talk about trial reels, which first things first, Nikki. I'd love to kind of just talk about what they are because I know a not everyone has them on their account yet. I didn't have them when they first came out. I do now and kind of what they are because it's still a very new feature that a lot of people have not figured out how to use yet and they don't even know where it is on Instagram.
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A
Totally. Like you said, trial reels is A new feature. And I would say this is one of the first new features Instagram has launched in a long time. We haven't seen something like this on Instagram, probably since they launched reels. And this is a one of a kind feature TikTok doesn't have. This thread says, I have a. No other platform has a feature like this. Which is why I was so excited about it that this was a new feature. And I dove in, I said, okay, I'm going to crack the code on this. I'm really going to dive in, because what the heck is this? And like you said, it's new. Not everybody has trial reels yet. So if you listen to this episode and you're like, I don't have that. Keep checking your account because they're slowly rolling it out. And unfortunately there's no rhyme or reason. I have a client with less than a thousand followers who has it and then I have a client with 60,000 followers who doesn't have it yet. And then I had a client who had it for a while and then she didn't have it and now she has it again. Typical Instagram fashion. There's no rhyme or reason. They're slowly rolling it out. So definitely listen, even if you don't have trial reels, because you could wake up tomorrow and have access to this new feature and you what could hit the ground running, because I first had this feature around Christmas time a couple months ago, is when they showed up on my account and they didn't really know how to use it. And I actually failed miserably when I first started using it because I didn't know how to use it. And as an entrepreneur and a mom to two toddlers, you know, our time is so limited. So I even said I don't really have time to tinker with this new feature. But I kept revisiting it because the potential there is so big. Essentially what it is. It's a toggle right before you post a reel. So if you're listening this, you want to follow along. You can open up like you're going to post a reel right when you put in the caption and you can put in hashtags and all that. There is a toggle option. You can toggle on trial reels if you have this feature. If you don't have it, it won't appear there yet. So I wanted to dive in and just really crack the code to it. So I started testing it, and the more I tested it, the better I got.
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B
Shocking. Practice, practice, practice, guys. Yes.
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I was like, it's a new feature. There's so much potential. Because what it does is it only shows your content to non followers. So your followers will not see this content at all. It sends it to a totally separate algorithm and a totally se separate group of people. And how it works is Instagram picks who it's going to show it to based on people's interests and their habits on the app. Basically it's an interest based algorithm which is kind of new for Instagram because typically in Instagram it shows your content to your followers.
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Yeah.
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People then interact with you.
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B
It feels very much like the TikTok algorithm, honestly.
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Yes, I was going to say, which is why I love it because you know me, I love TikTok. I have 300,000 followers on TikTok and I love the algorithm over there. So with trial reels, it did remind me a lot of an interest based algorithm like TikTok. And so that was my green light. I was like, I'm going to go all in, I'm going to figure it out. And since it's so interest based, you can really highly target who you want your content shown to. So if you know your ideal follower, you can really call them in with this new feature.
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B
That's amazing. And you guys, it doesn't, it also I want to add, it doesn't go to your feed so you can try multiple things. And it's not like all these reels with like 10 views. If you're used to getting way more than that is going to show up on your feed. It doesn't go to your feed at all. In fact, when I posted my first one, I couldn't figure out where it went. Mine now go. Like when I go to my drafts, it's connected. So now when I go to my reels, drafts or any drafts, when I click that button, it gives me the option. There's like a slide up bar and it says drafts or trial reels. So if you do have it and you can't figure out where they went, that's where they go. I was very confused at first. Okay, I'd love to know what type of content is working for trial reels and maybe you could give them a few hooks for them to try as well. I feel like my audience really does well learning by trial and error and practicing things. So what's, what's kind of working there?
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So with trial reels, like I said in the beginning, I failed miserably. And I've heard this from a lot of people where they're like, I posted to trial reels and got 10 views because it's new. It takes a lot of trial and error. And over the last couple of weeks, I've been posting trial reels five to six times a day to figure this out. So I did the testing so you guys didn't have to. Because since it goes to non followers, there is a very specific type of content that works on trial reels. So taking your normal content from your feed and just throwing it out there on trial reels doesn't always work the best. What really works on trial reels is what I call top of funnel content, or tofu to keep it short.
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Tofu sounds more fun.
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I know tofu content because really when you go to make your content, you think of it like a funnel. There's top of funnel, which is very broad, middle of funnel and bottom funnel. And that middle of funnel. Bottom of funnel is where you're selling, you're pitching, you're talking about your offers. But that top of funnel content is broad content that appeals to a wide audience. And if your account is not growing or you're stuck, or your views just seem to be stuck in an area that you can't break out of, it's probably because you're not posting enough top of funnel content. Because we get very familiar with our niche, very familiar with our offer, and we kind of get in this habit of posting middle of funnel content, bottom of the funnel content. You know, come by my offer, you're nurturing your current community, which is amazing, but you're not bringing in new people to your community. So trial reels works best with top of funnel content, which I also like to describe as this is the handshake for people meeting your brand. This is your elevator pitch. This is people's first impression of you. It.
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I love that. And I, like you said, I feel like it's so easy to stop doing that once you've gotten comfortable and you're like, oh, everybody knows this about me. I shared it once. No, they don't remember. Or if they do, maybe like 2% of your audience does because your whole audience doesn't see everything all the time, right? Like we post a reel. Like I post a reel. And then the next week I'm like, wow, I can't say the same thing because everybody saw it. No, no, they didn't. Not everybody saw my content. People may not remember it, right? So top of funnel content is really about creating content for someone that has no idea what you do. Right. Especially somebody that is like, scrolling and they literally, they don't know who you are. They don't know much about your topic. Maybe they want to learn more about your topic. So I do feel like it's something that even myself, I forget to do it sometimes. I'm like, oh, nobody knows what a digital product is. I need to tell them what it is. Right? So do you have maybe like a hook or something, an example for them that they could go try?
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Yes, totally. And exactly like you said, we have to remember top of funnel content, especially for trial reels. These people do not follow you. They've never heard you. They have no idea what you do. So you really want to avoid, like, jargon or really niching down your content, because that's where people go to trial reels and they post something and they're like, it totally flopped. And typically that's because they mean it too specific. They niched it down a little bit too much because a total stranger on the Internet is seeing your content, which I feel like we forget sometimes as content creators of these people. Like you said, they have no idea who I am. They have no idea what I do. I need to do a little intro. So top of funnel content is just that, it's an introduction. So you want to introduce yourself. You want to pretend you're walking into a room full of people that you know you're about to present on stage. What would you say? What? You know, what your little intro be. So hooks that work really well for this are of course storytelling hooks. This is who I am. This is what I do. This is what I teach. You're not getting it into that middle or bottom of funnel of come by my course. You're simply introducing yourself to bring in new followers, bring them into your world, and then you can convert them with a middle of funnel content or in your stories or in the DMS or with a more specific call to action. So hooks for this. If anybody's taking notes, you can read.
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These down as you should be. Guys, I'm taking notes.
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Everybody get out your notebook.
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I'm gonna go try this when we're done.
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Introduction posts are amazing for this. So your personal story transformation. I went from negative situation to a positive situation in this time frame. And then you can add without doing XYZ or by doing XYZ. So I went from being laid off my 9 to 5 corporate job to being an online entrepreneur in 3 months without spending all my time online, having me face my phone all the time, working 24 7, working 60 hours a week. So Telling that personal story. I was here, I did this, now I'm here. So telling your story, it's an introduction. Pretend you're walking on stage. This is who I am. This is what I do. Also, like putting yourself back in the beginning because those new people who have no idea who you are, they haven't learned from you yet. So they don't know the skill that you teach. So remember what it was like to be a beginner. I was blank and I fell blank. I was laid off my job. I felt stressed. Then I tried blank and now I'm blank. Then I tried online business, building my brand, creating content, and now I'm a full time content creator. So really going back to that beginner story, which a lot of us forget, especially if we've been doing whatever we've been doing for a couple of years now, we forget to go back and tell that transformation story. But that's your little intro for people to meet you.
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I love that. And you guys, if you have intro posts that you've done like this before, just repurpose them there, go back, get them, download it, take the caption. Now for captions, are you using a call to action like follow me for more of xyz. Is that kind of your goal in all your captions on trial reels? I should say?
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A
Exactly. And like you said, a really simple trial reel strategy to get everybody started. Take your top of funnel post and just repost them to trial reels because like you said, these people have never seen them before. Something that you can actually do is post the same reel on trial reels every single day. You could post an intro post on trial reels every single day because it's going to new followers every single day. So I can get on and be like, here's my intro post. Here's my little no handshake. And I can post the same one every single day. Especially if I have found a hook that works really well on trial reels and really calls in new people. What I've been doing is posting the same hook every single day on trial reels. I just put a new video with it or I put a new sound with it. And then in the caption like you asked about, remember, this is top of funnel. So we're not necessarily going to say, buy my course, join my program. Get this, get this. We really want it to be just that introduction. So it is follow for more about xyz, whatever your expertise is. And you know, come follow, come learn more.
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Yeah. Are you using it for freebies? As well, or are you just sticking with follows?
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Yep. So I've been using it for freebies. Any sort of lead generation, lead magnet, growing your email list, growing your community. A good call to action freebie, because that's a great intro. My freebie is followed up by an email sequence of is this who I am? This is what I do. This is who I help. So that's an excellent intro to my community. And then follow for more because to my feed I'm posting more of the middle of funnel, bottom of funnel content and they convert and once they become a follower, they get into my community, they watch my stories. So follow for more or. Or grab. This freebie is an excellent call to action on trial reels.
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I love that. Now, are you focusing on trying to find trending audio? Have you noticed a difference, like with trending audio or with just a regular audio with these trial reels, I do.
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So any easy thing to switch out on trial reels is audio. Like I said, I can post the same hook every day and just put a new trending audio on it. And it's a different reel and it keeps it fresh. Especially if I'm pulling content from a year ago. That's a good top of funnel piece of content. I'm going to update it a little bit with a trending audio. And those are really easy to find on reels. That's a really easy way to repurpose content to trail reels is put a current trending audio on it. It makes it fresh, it repurposes it.
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I love that. Okay, you guys, something else that I learned from Nikki and like, I feel like my brain knew I could do it, but I totally forgot you could do this. And she was telling me yesterday and I was like, why am I not doing this? You can duplicate your drafts. So literally go in there, find your top of funnel reel, right? Go back, find an introduction reel, something that worked well. Create a draft for it, and then duplicate that multiple times. And I would say, like, on one, do one audio, on the other one, do a different video. Maybe just like switch it up a little bit to get the data. Because really, with trial reels, this is data. You're able to see what people like that are new, don't recognize you, don't know who you are, Literally know nothing about your story and see kind of what sticks with them. I know when trial reels first came out, I was like, oh, my God, something else for me to learn. But honestly, Nikki's right. Like, it is a new thing that no One else has really done, and it's. It's so fascinating to me. So your homework for today. I want you guys to go back in, find a old video or an old carousel, something that you can turn into a new reel. Like the concept. Let's say you did my story or an introduction one. Make sure you start with not a hook. That's. People have to know you, right? Like, you're not going to just be like, assume they know anything about you. Right? So find an old one, go in, duplicate it a few times and test it out. Something else that I've noticed too, and I don't know if you've noticed this as well, Nikki, is that these take a lot longer to get pushed out. Like, it's not like you're obviously. Because it's not going to your feed, but have you noticed the same thing? Like, it does take longer to get pushed out to the right audience for sure.
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Which is why when I first started doing trial reels, I was like, this is such a waste of my time because, you know, I check in a couple hours later and it still has zero views. And I'm like, what the heck? This is not worth it. But we have to remember trial reels is its own algorithm. If you post one or two times to trial reels, you're not going to pick up the momentum and you're not going to start going viral on trial reels. You're going to, you know, kind of stay stuck. It's like you're starting a new platform. You kind of have to teach that algorithm. So the more you feed it, the better it does. So post consistently to it every day. And like you said, just duplicate, duplicate, duplicate. Switch out the hook, switch out the sound. And like you said, it's amazing. For testing, if you're stuck on Instagram, go and make six tryout reels today, all with different hooks, and see which one took off, which one performs better. Because something tricky about trial reels is it won't give you insights into the video until after 24 hours.
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Got it?
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I don't know if you've noticed that. So when you go into your trial reels tab, you can see the insights on your video only after 24 hours. So you kind of have to let it sit in there and let.
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So post it differently.
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Yes, yes. So you put it in there and then you can check back the next day. But after those 24 hours, you can see the insights and then you can see which one brought in the most followers, which one had the most views. Which one had the most comments? Because things like like manychat or automations still work on your trial.
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B
Okay, that was my next question. They do work.
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A
Yes.
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Awesome.
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So I have my mini chat hooked up to trial reels. It still works just like normal.
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Do you have to do something additional to hook it up to trial reels? You just use your keywords that you already have set up, as long as obviously they're applied to every reel. Like, if you've set up your keywords where it's a specific reel, it's not going to work for trial reels. But if you have your automation set to apply to every reel, then it just works like normal in your trial reels.
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Yep, exactly. Which is amazing that you don't have to do anything extra. It's already set up for success.
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Oh, my gosh. That's amazing. Okay, look at me. I'm like, about to close my laptop and go try 27 different ones. Because it was so discouraging at first, I'm like, wow, I got. I will say I posted one. I repurposed one, like a hundred percent. And it is definitely more top of funnel content. And I got 12 followers in the first 24 hours, which is nothing crazy. But I was like, oh, this is kind of cool. Oh, right. Like, this is. This is fun. I like this. And then I kind of just forgot about it. But I've been seeing Nikki talk about it and I was like, oh, my gosh, we have to learn more about this. I'm obsessed with things that take very little effort to get data. Right. It's. It's always so cool to be able to, like, reuse things, repurpose and see what's working, what's not working.
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A
And I just want to say I want you guys to use and abuse trial reels, especially when it's in the beginning phase, because we know Instagram favors early adapters. One thing that I will add about trial reels is since it's not going to followers, you can post 5, 6 trial reels all at the same time. You don't have to space them out like you would on your feed because you're not spamming your followers. These are going to completely new people. So I'll literally get on at 9am and post five trial reels right in NEM. I don't have to worry about doing it throughout the day. I can get on there, spam trial reels. Check off my box for the day that I posted. I'm reaching new people, bringing people into my funnel, and then I'm good for the day.
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That's literally genius. Does it. Do you think it matters what time they post ad? Do you just, like, get it done in the morning and then move on?
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It's kind of interesting because it does take a while for trial reels to push out the content. So time literally doesn't matter. Like, I'll do it right before bed. I'll do it first thing in the morning. I'll do it while I'm having lunch. But the nice thing is you can post five at the same time, like back to back to back, because you don't have to worry about spacing them out.
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That's literally genius. And like, could you just do five of the same exact reel, same exact caption, everything the same, and just test out five different ones? Right. Cause I would just go to five different audiences.
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Yeah, exactly. You could tweak them a little bit. I would tweak them a little bit because I. Yeah, I've just to see, you know, test a different B roll, different caption, different audios are so easy to switch out. And then it's quote, unquote, a different reel. But you can post them all at the same time, which is so nice. You don't have to worry about spacing them out or anything like that.
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Literally genius. So, Nikki, do you have a resource if people want more information, I'm sure you have like more hooks and more details about all this. Do you have a resource on this if they want more?
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Absolutely. In my link, in my bio, the top link right now. It is a viral trial reels guide breaking down my specific method on trial reels that has been getting me and my clients hundreds of followers a day, plus 50 top of funnel hooks that people can go and try and trial reels today.
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B
Amazing. And I will link that in the show notes for you guys as well. I would highly encourage you to just have some fun with this. The cool thing about trial reels is that nobody sees it. There's literally no, you know, even for me sometimes I'll. When I post something that I'm like testing something, I'm always worried, like, are people gonna think I'm a fraud because one of my posts flopped. And I know that' not true. I know part of social media, like my brain knows that part of social media is testing things and seeing what works and what doesn't work. But the nice thing about trial reels is that you literally can just put out hundreds a week and just test things and see what works and see what doesn't. Work without this fear of, like, oh, my gosh, my profile is going to look like a hot mess. There's all these different things going on. Like, you don't really have to make it cohesive at all. Like, you don't even have to worry about your cover image because it's a reel that is never going to be on your reels tab. Like, they're literally never going to see that. Like, all you have to worry about is the actual reel and the caption, and you can just keep duplicating, like, duplicate, duplicate, duplicate, and just try different things with that. So let me know if you guys try this. Send me a DM over on Instagram. I'd love to hear kind of how it's going so I can let Nikki know that you guys tried this. And, Nikki, thank you so much for sharing all this with us. This was so much fun.
- [24:25]
A
Yes. This was awesome. Like I said, this is such a cool new feature, so I can't wait for more people to start using it.
- [24:32]
B
Yeah, absolutely. Okay, you guys, I love you, Mean it, and I will see you next week. Thank you so much for hanging out with me and my guests today. If you learned anything from our episode, I would love it if you could share it over on your Instagram stories and tag me at Abigail Pugh until next time. Love you. Mean it.