Instagram is the most influential social network in marketing – says, Media Marketing. And why not – considering the immense popularity and the hard-to-believe results, it’s more than justified.
More and more businesses are taking their brand to Instagram, however, not all get the desired results, despite spending substantial budget and effort.
Well, content plays the role of backbone for effective Instagram marketing and unfortunately, not all businesses have a content expert onboard. So, to help you leverage from this ‘graphic-only’ platform, here’s our 5-step guide to help you kick-start your Instagram content strategy:
Step #1:
Instagram Content Planning
Before you start uploading content on IG, you should
ask yourself the following two questions:
- What type of content aligns with your brand and
organization? -
What content are your customers going to
appreciate?
Being able to pinpoint the who, what and why about
your Instagram brand is a really important step before you begin planning out
your content. If you know what your brand is all about, and the kind of content
your customers likes to engage in, you will be able to create the right type of
content from the start.
Find your brand’s niche and drive your content
creation efforts so extort maximum returns from your strategy. Many Instagram
accounts get sidetracked mainly because they have been posting content outside
of their target audience and niche.
Step #2:
Shooting Your Instagram Content Photos
The most important thing that you are going to need
in order to create Instagram content is a camera. But if fancy cameras aren’t
in your budget, don’t worry.
Simply using an expensive camera won’t make you successful. There are some amazing Instagram accounts whose content is shot with the camera on their phones. Trust me, they are in fact better than a few ‘expensive camera pictures account. This article is a great resource if you are looking for amazing product photography.
The content and composition of your photos are of
more significance than your camera. Think about the angles you will take photos
from, just get your creativity pumping when it comes to shooting your photos.
Step #3:
Editing Your Instagram Content
If you go through some of the most successful accounts on Instagram, you will notice that they all have one thing in common- all of them have a strong Instagram aesthetic that they stick to in all of their content.
Having one consistent look plays a key role in
helping your audience know and identify your brand amidst the clutter. A new
customer can make up their mind about your content in just a few seconds. If you want to leave a good first impression,
building a consistent look and feel across all your photos will really help.
Step #4:
Develop a Content Calendar
There are more than 1 billion accounts on Instagram. A lot of these are business and brand accounts hoping to widen their reach. So many accounts imply that there is a sea of content available on the platform. To keep swimming in this sea, you have to upload content regularly or the audience might forget about you.
Uploading at regular intervals will help keep your
followers hooked to your profile. This will also help you get new IG followers for your brand
online. But make sure that you don’t
degrade the quality of your content in your quest of uploading more and more.
Serving your audience with poor-quality content is the same, if not worse, as
providing them with no content at all.
Set up an editorial calendar that will help you remember when to upload content to your profile. The calendar will also act as a reminder of the deadlines by which you must create new content.
Step #5:
Posting Your Instagram Content
Now that you have planned out your entire strategy
of creating content, shoot it, edit it, and decided the time intervals, it is
time to post the content on your profile and let your audience enjoy!
But you need to be very strategic while posting your
content. If you don’t want to let all the efforts go into the drain, take
special care while posting content and run an evaluation check at frequent
intervals. Remember- it is extremely important that you maintain your brand
image in a similar tone.
When you plan out your content, avoid posting
pictures that are too similar, adjacent to each other, or even a few days after
each other, otherwise, your followers might get tired of seeing the same
content over and over again and ultimately unfollow your account. If you want
people to fall in love with your account– you have to engage with your
followers as well. For every comment you get on your posts, make sure to
respond personally to that person.
