Is your Instagram content lackluster and failing to attract new followers to your page?
You’re not alone.
Many business owners feel lost when trying to create a rock-solid content plan on Instagram, but it doesn’t have to be rocket science.
This blog will look at 15 top tips to take your Instagram content strategy to the next level.
Let’s go!
Feel free to skip to the section you're most interested in:
- The 3 pillars of an Instagram content strategy
- Why scheduling your Instagram content is important
- 15 tips to perfect your Instagram content strategy
- FAQ
The 3 pillars of an Instagram content strategy
Instagram has become one of the most powerful social media platforms for businesses. With more than 2 billion active users, it offers a great opportunity for brands to promote their products and services in a visually appealing way.
But to make the most of this platform, it’s not enough to just post any content. Instead, you need a well-planned Instagram content strategy that aligns with your audience and follows tried-and-true content standards.
Here are 3 pillars of a successful Instagram content strategy:
Pillar #1: Quality
Instagram is a visual platform, and the quality of your visuals plays a crucial role in attracting and retaining followers. So make sure your visuals are high quality and visually appealing.
How can you get high-end visuals?
- If you have one available, use a high-end camera or a professional photographer to capture photos and videos.
- Use quality editing tools like Adobe Lightroom.
- Use proven design tools like Canva or Post Planner’s Content Studio
Remember to stay on brand. Use colors, fonts, and styles that reflect your brand's personality and aesthetics while keeping quality high.
Pillar #2: Consistency
Consistency is key when it comes to building your brand identity on Instagram. Consistency means several things:
- Consistent quality
- Consistent posting frequency (regular posting instead of randomly)
- Consistent brand voice
Keeping these things consistent can help you build trust with your audience.
Develop a content calendar and stick to it to ensure you're posting regularly.
A great way to establish better posting consistency is to plan your calendar through Post Planner, which can schedule or automatically post your content at the right time for you.
If you stay consistent, you’ll signal to Instagram that your content is worth promoting and you’ll get more engagement.
Pillar #3: Relevance
Finally, your content should be relevant to your brand and your audience.
In other words, it should educate, inform, or entertain YOUR followers instead of targeting the entire Instagram audience.
To accomplish this, try the following:
- Research your audience's needs, preferences, and interests.
- Use hashtags and location tags to make your content more discoverable by those interested in your niche.
- Collaborate with influencers and other brands in your industry to expand your reach and build credibility.
Avoid posting content that doesn’t specifically target YOUR audience, and your engagement will skyrocket.
Why scheduling your Instagram content is important
Posting great content takes effort. You have to find or create great content, AND you have to find the right time to post that content.
This is where scheduling your Instagram content comes in. Scheduling allows you to plan your entire content strategy to tailor how your content will be delivered to your audience.
Here are 3 important reasons why you should be scheduling your Instagram content.
Save time
Automating and scheduling your Instagram content can save you a TON of time. You can plan your posts, captions, hashtags, and visuals ahead of time, making it easier to post consistently.
With scheduling, you can sit down for an hour or two on a Monday morning, schedule your Instagram content for the week, and then forget about it. This frees up your time to focus on other aspects of your business.
Scheduling tools also work on your PC or Mac, meaning you can save time in your workflow by not needing to work on your phone.
Most people who use a content scheduling tool like Post Planner comment on how many hours they can save by curating and scheduling their content with a tailor-made tool!
Post better content
Many Instagram users know they should post daily, but they don’t have a system in place to find great content daily.
Scheduling fixes that problem entirely by giving you time to think about the following:
- What type of content you should post
- When you should post
- What sequence you should post your content in (to take advantage of seasons and trends)
Planning your content in advance gives you more control over the quality of your content.
You can take the time to create high-quality images and videos, write compelling captions, and use effective hashtags that'll get your content seen by your target audience.
You can also ensure your content is consistent with your brand's voice and tone.
Post more consistently
Posting consistently is vital for growing your Instagram following and engaging with your target audience. The more they see your content, the more opportunities they have to engage with you and follow you!
By scheduling your content, you can ensure that you post at the right time and frequency.
If you schedule in advance, you already know that you’ll post every day at the same time, eliminating the last-minute panic when you still haven’t decided what to post.
15 tips to perfect your Instagram content strategy
Instagram is HUGE.
How huge, you ask?
More than 95 MILLION photos and videos are being posted EVERY DAY.
But with so much content available to users, it can be challenging to get your brand noticed. That's why having an awesome Instagram content strategy is essential.
And having a great content strategy doesn’t happen by accident. It takes planning and tried-and-true strategies.
In this section, we'll cover 15 foolproof tips to help you perfect your Instagram content strategy and make your brand stand out.
1. Create and post reels to expand your reach
Instagram introduced Reels in 2020 as a way to let you create and edit short videos up to 60 seconds long. This format has quickly become incredibly popular and is a great way to reach a larger audience.
Creating engaging Reels takes some practice, but start out by trying the following suggestions:
- Repurpose content from existing blog posts, podcasts, or longer videos
- Create a quick “how-to” video for your followers
- Post behind-the-scenes videos of your business
- Quickly comment on industry news
You can also post videos of yourself responding to customer inquiries or doing something fun and related to your brand.
Make sure your Reels are fun to watch, attention-grabbing, and informative. Keep the quality high, and your followers will repay you with views and engagement.
2. Make your content more attractive
To make your Instagram content more visually appealing, ensure that every post you make has interesting visual elements instead of a boring picture.
For an even bigger impact, try pairing visuals with text. For example, add captions or quotes to images or create an infographic.
Also, take the time to choose aesthetically pleasing colors that complement the image or video.
Finally, ensure all visuals are high-quality and don’t appear grainy when viewed on a mobile device or computer screen.
Use a tool like Post Planner’s Content Studio to create high-quality graphics, even if you’re a design novice.
It provides users with text editing tools, stock photos, and plenty of other design tools to ensure that you’re able to create stunning Instagram posts.
3. Vary your content (without compromising your voice)
You should never be afraid to experiment with different types of content, but keep it in line with your brand’s voice.
If you’re looking for ways to mix up your content, post content types you usually don’t post. For example, try posting an industry-related meme if you normally make informative posts.
If you usually post about niche news, try a light-hearted post about one of your employees.
Don’t compromise your brand’s voice in the name of variety, but try to post various types of content so your feed doesn’t get stale.
4. Use user-generated content (UGC)
User-generated content is a great way to humanize your brand and show that there are real people behind it.
If you aren’t convinced that UGC works, take a look at the numbers:
- 79% of consumers say UGC heavily impacts their purchasing decisions
- 56% of consumers say they want to see UGC from their favorite brands more than any other type of content
- 90% of consumers say authentic content is important to them
How do you get UGC?
You can ask your followers for their content and repost it on your page to give them recognition. Or, you can search for hashtags related to your business and ask posters if you can share their images.
5. Curate content from around the web
Curating content from around the web is another way to show your followers that you are up-to-date with what's going on in your industry. You can also share other brands' posts that complement your brand to increase engagement.
If curating content from other sources sounds like a lot of work, it’s because it is. However, there are some ways to speed it up.
One of the best ways to save time curating content (and actually improve the quality of your content as well) is to use Post Planner’s Content Streams.
Content Streams are collections of the best profiles, pages, and communities from around the web that make it easy to quickly find content and add it to your posting schedule.
6. Monitor your previous posts’ success
Monitoring your previous posts' success is essential to know which posts your followers enjoy to keep them coming back for more. This can help you tailor your content and make it valuable to your audience.
In Post Planner, you can do this in the History tab, which shows you data for each post like:
- When it was posted
- How many likes it received
- How many comments it received
Analyzing these insights can help you create content that resonates with your followers. Additionally, regular monitoring can also help you spot any changes in your audience behavior and accordingly update your posting schedule.
7. Recycle your best posts
Recycling your best posts is a great way to increase reach and engagement.
This way, you’ll maximize the return from each post without having to craft new content. You can also ensure that any seasonal or timely posts are updated with accurate information before being shared again.
Recycling posts helps reduce the overall time you spend curating and creating content without decreasing the overall quality of your content.
Post Planner can recycle your best content with a single click. Use the History tab to find out which posts performed the best, then click the recycle button to automatically add them back into your plan.
8. Keep an eye on niche influencers
Influencers are a great way to expand your reach and connect with your target audience. Most of your audience is already following the most important influencers in your niche, so keeping your eye on their content is the perfect way to ensure you stay on trend.
For example, if you DON’T watch the influencers in your niche and you post content that they all shared weeks ago, it makes your page seem out of date.
Avoid this problem by putting all the main niche influencers in a Content Stream on Post Planner and watching (and sometimes reposting) the content they use.
9. Write better captions
Writing better captions is an essential part of your Instagram content strategy. Your captions should be creative, informative, and establish a connection with your audience.
That means you shouldn’t just write a quick caption with the first thing that comes to your head. Instead, you should write captions that are easy to read and will catch your followers’ attention.
Try the following strategies to improve your captions:
- Take a few minutes to review the captions of your favorite influencers in your niche. Use those ideas to improve your own captions (without copying theirs, of course).
- Ask questions to your audience to boost engagement.
- Include relevant keywords so your posts can easily be found by users searching for content related to your niche.
10. Use hashtags
Hashtags are an important part of any Instagram content strategy.
Using relevant and popular hashtags can help your posts reach a larger audience, and even increase engagement with those with similar interests.
Hashtags can be used in the caption, or as comments on the post. It's best to use only a few hashtags that are related to your content. Using more than 2 or 3 could make your posts look spammy.
Don’t just guess what hashtags will work best for your audience. Instead, you should research to see what hashtags people are using in your niche. You want hashtags with some search volume but not so much that your post will get lost in the crowd.
11. Schedule your content in advance
Scheduling your Instagram content in advance can save you time and energy while also boosting your engagement rates.
By using Post Planner, you'll have the ability to plan your Instagram feed in advance so that you never miss a beat.
Simply schedule your posts ahead of time, and Post Planner will automatically publish them on your behalf.
This means that you'll have more control over your content, and you'll be able to ensure that your posts are being published at the optimal times for your audience.
12. Follow trends in your niche
By following trends and staying on top of the latest developments in your niche, you can make sure that your Instagram content stands out from the crowd.
In other words, you should always be researching what topics are currently popular in your industry, and then creating content around those topics.
Like with influencers in your niche, Post Planner’s Content Streams are one of the best ways to stay up-to-date on the trends in your niche. Instagram tools are indispensable in accomplishing this task because of how much time they can save you.
Just find a pre-made Content Stream (or create your own) that includes some of the major players in your niche. Then, keep up with what’s going on so you can post about it later.
13. Get to know your followers
Getting to know your followers is essential. You can use Instagram's Insights from your Instagram business account to discover their location, age, gender, and other demographics.
Then, take that info and use it to help you tailor your content to suit their preferences. You can also use it to interact with your followers on a more personal level and in ways that they relate to.
By doing this, you’ll start to form a relationship with your audience which will help you create content that resonates with them.
Which means you’ll get more engagement!
14. Use interactive posts
Using interactive posts is another way to engage your followers. After all, people like to feel like they’re building relationships with the brands and creators they follow.
What kinds of interactive posts do well?
- Questions
- Contests
- Giveaways, polls, and contests.
A great place to find questions and conversation starters is in the “Post Ideas” section of Post Planner. It has tried and true conversation starters that are sure to work with your audience.
People should feel like your Instagram page is a tool that they can use to get to interact with like-minded people. Don’t waste that opportunity by never posting content designed to interact with your followers!
15. Post more consistently (and at the right time)
Posting more consistently is crucial to increase your reach and engagement.
How often should you post?
Ideally, at least once per day, but no more than 3 times per day in most cases.
You should also ensure that you’re posting at times when your followers are active on the site. You can figure this out by looking at your old posts in Post Planner’s History tab.
Look to see if there’s any correlation between posting time and engagement. Then, use that info to fine-tune your posting times moving forward.
You can use Instagram's analytics to discover when your followers are most active and schedule your posts accordingly.
Frequently Asked Questions
What type of content is best for Instagram?
The short answer to this question is that it depends on your audience.
However, you can ALWAYS be certain that higher-quality content will perform better on Instagram. Make sure your content looks professionally-made and provides your followers with value.
What kind of content sells on Instagram?
If you’re looking to sell on Instagram, I highly recommend using user-generated content to advertise and sell your products. As mentioned above, UGC is preferred by 70% of consumers when it comes to making buying decisions.
What type of content goes viral on Instagram?
Instagram is all about value. The more value your content provides, the more likely it is that it will go viral. Instagram’s platform rewards profiles that post valuable content with more visibility, which leads to more engagement.
Ready to start building your Instagram content straetgy?
Instagram is a tough platform for you to get noticed, but it also has a ton of opportunity (especially with Reels).
To take your Instagram content strategy to the next level, make sure to follow these 15 tips. They'll help you create engaging content to attract followers, increase reach, and achieve your marketing goals.
What other strategies do you use in your Instagram content strategy? Let us know in the comments below!
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