Posted by Instagram is addictive and has a solid hold on its users! It is one of the top 5 most downloaded apps. That is not the only reason brands use it wildly for their marketing endeavors. Here are some more reasons-
- It is visual and allows people/ brands/ businesses to provide clarity with images and videos.
- It ensures you display your content in a manner that your brand image shines through.
- Instagram users are more active in comparison to other social media platforms.
- There is a built-in messaging feature that is faster and smoother!
All these benefits make advertising on it A MUST! Moreover, out of the 1.15 billion people using Instagram, at least 90% follow one brand, and it would be a crime not to have tapped into this market.
However, to tap into the market, Instagram offers you must strategically create and upload content that shows you or your brand/ business in good light! Let’s understand
Why create a content plan, though? Is it necessary? Why should you strategize your content?
- The platform offers cutthroat competition! As per a report, 98% of the brands on Instagram are fashion-centric, and a whopping 100% of Instagram is filled with automobile brands.
- To avoid pitfalls suffered by other brands.
- To ensure you have clearly outlined goals.
Now let’s talk about creating a content plan for your business on Instagram!
Before anything, you must have a list of goals established. These could be anything from increasing the audience to getting more online engagement. It is essential to establish this as it directs the content and captions you will ultimately create/write for Instagram.
PLAN 1- START BY ESTABLISHING THE LIFESTYLE YOU WANT TO SELL
It is essential to be clear on the lifestyle you wish to sell to the followers through your grid. Why is this necessary? For the simple reason that people want to buy what they could become when purchasing your product!
So, for example- you are a coffee brewery that locally sources the coffee beans. Your feed offers a glimpse into your world of plucking the finest beans. Or simply sipping a cuppa as you watch a live band under the wintery sun while working and while reading a book. The aura is relaxed and laid back!
PLAN 2- KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE, UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE
Understanding their general behavior is one of the sure-shot ways to make your audience hit like, save, share, and ultimately convert through your content. How do you do this?
By utilizing Instagram Insights! This feature on Instagram has helped brands by providing the following information of their followers-
- Age range
- Location
- Gender
You can also dive deep by checking out the most active users on your page! Find out who always likes your posts, who always leaves a comment or DM, and scroll around on your follower list.
Get a sense of what they are by reading their bio’s and if their accounts are private, then find out what they do (job titles), their marital status, do they have kids, and if their style is the same as yours (in terms of emoji use and general posts).
PLAN 3- FIND OUT THE MONTHS EVENTS AND POPULAR THEMES
Allow yourself the time to find out the upcoming events and festivals that are to happen in the month. Also, keep up with the general trends that pop up on Instagram, like the Tik-Tok style videos with music playing in the background and people showing the multiple things their small business makes!
Why do this? For the sole purpose of sharing posts that allow you to engage with the audience.
For example, Christmas is just around the corner, and every coffee shop, fast food joint, and clothing store is set to offer ‘Christmassy delights’ that are limited to just this time of the year. So does Starbucks! They are infamous for religiously following themes and giving us all a FOMO, ultimately leading us to hand them the money. Don’t you agree?
PLAN 4- BE BANG ON TIME
This means that you must post your content when you know the audience is sure to be the most active. Following this will ensure your unique content gets more applause and also reaches the right audience.
Early morning and late evenings are usually the worst times for uploading your posts as per this report.
The article also mentions Sundays being low engagement days. So which day and time are ideal? That would be Tuesdays to Fridays, anywhere between 10 am and 3 pm. Check out the image below to know what other times you could post!
You can also use Instagram analytics to know when your audience is most active! Using it would provide you with precise information that is audience-centric! Your data will be presented, as you see in the image below.
PLAN 5- MAINTAIN A COLOR THEME AND STYLE
When somebody opens your page on Instagram, they see a grid and not just a single post. So, it is crucial to maintain the aesthetics to give the visitors a visual treat!
An analysis of what color theme and visual style would work best for your brand must be done. Here’s how you can decipher your visual style and color theme-
- What color works best for your brand, should it be the warmer tones of orange, yellow or brown. Should it be the cool blues, greens, or pinks! Match a color that best suits your energy. For example, The Ordinary follows a strict black and white theme. The color theme matches the standard packaging of all products.
- Text- do your posts need to be text-heavy like Buzzfeed(See image 1)? Or do you wish to keep it strictly visual like Lanvin (See image 2)
- Grid- will it be concerned more with individual posts or creating a themed grid-like Sam Ushiro (See image below). She is a blogger whose theme is highly retro and heavy on bright colors. It will leave you awe-struck!
- Templates- do you want to use templates provided by post-creating apps (like Canva), or will you be developing everything around the theme? It is always best to create your style to stand out and be repost or share-worthy!
PLAN 6- EXPERIMENT WITH THE CONTENT
Don’t limit yourself to the regular posts! Add a little spice to your content like the streaming service Netflix. They have gone above and beyond to give you the craziest content. Everything from memes to using the movies/TV shows on their platform and creating a video post with the caption’ questions that are 10x better than are you seeing anyone or how’s school-going.’
Invest time in making reels (Because Instagram has been heavily promoting this feature) apart from videos!
The reels give you a chance to get CREATIVE and allow you to add overlay text as well as music or voice-over to it. An excellent example of the feature being put to good use is by Apple.
Check out their reel titled ‘A dozen eggs’.
It is outlandish but shows the actual quality of the apple cameras.
PLAN 7- AUTOMATE YOUR CONTENT
If you find the creation process a daunting task, use content planners to automate your content. We know that it is essential to be regular with your posts and engage with the customers. We also know what a daunting task it can be to manage the content as well as post it at the correct time! This is where our Instagram planners come it!
You could use Instagram content planners like Preview, Plannthat, Postcron, etc.
Conclusion
Your key takeaway from this article is that ‘You will flourish if your audience is happy with your page and its contents.’
Also, know that you could create posts that are some common themes that are more brand-centric like- products, education, inspirations, community, quotes, behind the scenes, etc.