I often hear you guys say that the hard part of content isn't the footage.

You've got the clip: a hot tub looking out at the mountains with the sunrise coming up behind it.

Then you sit there and your brain goes blank on what to text to put across it.

I feel you.

​Finding the words is the easy half.

The blank page happens because each post feeling permanent. You feel that every reel or carousel should be perfect.

When I started my personal account, there were months I felt like I was fumbling in the dark.

What got me out of it was finding somewhere to post where it was okay to test things and make mistakes.

For a long time, operators treated the main Instagram grid like a portfolio

They post consistently to the main grid, they read the analytics, then adjust.

That's good practice, but it's still a slow way to learn:

• Their followers saw everything, so they couldn’t run five versions of one idea in a week without flooding them.
• Their followers already liked them, so a post can do fine… But not attract any new followers.
• Every flop stayed on their profile, so they agonize more and post less.

The grid keeps score.

That's what makes operators slow, and slow is what costs them bookings.

Unless there’s somewhere to post where nobody is counting…

Introducing Trial Reels

Let me pull back the curtain on Trial Reels, because it's simpler than most people expect.

When you go to post a reel, there's a toggle that sends it to trials instead of your main feed.

That's the whole setup.

Your followers never see it.

Instagram pushes it to non-followers only, so you're getting a clean read from a completely cold audience.

That's the part that matters.

If a reel does well in trials, it's a good piece of content, regardless of who already follows you.

Here’s what you do:

Open the app and you get the analytics: skip rate, dropoff rate, like rate, share rate.

Here's how to run it:

Step 1: Pick two numbers.

1. How many reels go to trials each week
2. How many to move to the grid no matter what.

3 variations and 1 winner to promote is a fine place to start.

Step 2: Put everything through trials first. My guess? The one you laboured over all afternoon will flop, and the two-minute throwaway will perform well.

Wait 48 hours before declaring a winner.

Step 3: Move your best one over, even on a bad week. For a new account, bump the highest number you got. Then once you know your average, anything that beats it earns gets promoted.

Step 4: Find the topic underneath the win. One reel doing well could be a blip, but a topic that does well twice is a direction.

That's when you go make five more of it, using the same topic-first process behind a 2M-view reel.

One last thing, because it trips people up: Give a “flop” at least 48 hours before you write it off.

Instagram keeps re-testing trial reels while it works out who your page is for, so plenty of them pick up long after you've moved on.

We've been testing this way across the portfolio for years, and it pays

• One test on a client reel, cutting straight to the action instead of opening on the drone shot: 881,000 views
• 150M+ views across the accounts we manage
• 80%+ direct bookings at Onera

Every one of those went out the door as a trial reel.

We just made the guessing cheaper, and kept it off the main grid until it worked.

Pick your two numbers this week: 3 to trials, 1 to the grid.

Post the three you're least sure about, because those are the ones with something to teach you.

Your audience will tell you what they want faster than you can guess it, as long as you keep giving them something to react to.

-- Ben Wolff
Founder, Oasi & Modern Hospitality Accelerator

P.S. Next Friday, August 28th at 1pm Eastern, I'm running a free 90-minute workshop with my friend Isaac French.

We're breaking down the two Instagram reel formats we're both leaning on right now, and how to shoot them on your phone whether or not you want to be on camera.

Everyone who joins live walks away with our Educational Reel Copywriter GPT, plus two vaults breaking down 10 educational reels and 10 walk-through reels with links to the live posts.

​Save your seat here.​