The best thing you’ll ever do for your brand is to create diligent, constant quality content. It’s a strategy businesses often abandon too early, as it doesn’t create a massive spike in click-throughs the first time you post content, but it’s the only proven strategy to ensure your brand keeps on growing and growing. Today, the Zebra 360 Online Marketing team takes a sneak-peek at the key parts of creating a consistent content plan for Instagram that will pay solid dividends down the road.
1. Keeping overall tone and theme is critical
Social media in general, but Instagram in particular, can be guilty of very little thematic coherence. Pages that lack a consistent look and voice may have occasional content gems, but they’re very difficult to assign a personality or ‘brand’ too. Great content is one thing, but if no one can tell it’s yours, it’s not going to do you justice. Fortunately, thematic consistency isn’t hard to establish, even if your content is diverse.
- Colour talks- consistent uses of colour can do a lot to unify a feed. Especially if those colours evoke your overall branding.
- Themes matter- this doesn’t have to be taken to extremes, some brands do lend themselves to a little variety, but keeping consistent themes in your photos and videos helps unify your channel. Be it camera angles, topic, themes…any way in which you stand out as consistently you yet novel is great.
- Establish a brand personality- using a specific ‘voice’ or tone when you speak to your followers helps keep your message on-point and recognisable.
2. Plan ahead
Yup, there’s no way around this one. A little work now will keep your content booming throughout the month. It can feel challenging to make time to specifically plan out social media content, but remember- this is the new face of advertising in the digital age. It’s well worth carving out a proper block of time to create a comprehensive content calendar for the month ahead.
This doesn’t mean vaguely scribble down a few ideas, either. Set yourself an overarching theme or two for the month. Think about what types of posts suit the Instagram format, what you’re doing on other channels, and what images you want to share. Decide what elements of these themes will go with what channel- obviously Instagram is heavily picture-based, where other content suits other channels. Now consider how you can use the tools on these channels to their best effect. On Instagram, you have carousels to encourage swiping multiple photos, stories to lend a real-time feel, and curated images to grab attention, for example. How are you going to use each of those smartly?
Now plan out your captions and hashtags so it’s just copy-paste on the day. This allows you to stay consistent and well thought out through the entire campaign. Then, finally, plan the launch date for each piece of content, and schedule its creation.
3. Create classy content easily
You don’t necessarily need to use a high-end commercial photographer every time- but you do need compelling, classy images. If you’re not keen to use professional services, set up an in-house ‘photo studio’ that will allow you to create consistent, good looking content. Lighting is one of the biggest headaches in great photography, so either find a spot with fantastic natural lighting, or invest in a ring light and a reflector to make sure your images pop. Backdrops of fabric, paper or nature that suit your brand and make you stand out. Fun props that complement your products without looking cheesy. And, of course, your camera of choice (consider a tripod for stability, too). It doesn’t need massive investment, but the extra time and effort to shoot quality photos will make you a standout every time.
There you have it. With these top tips to plan Instagram content consistently, you’re well on your way to a thematically solid, aesthetically beautiful channel that comes alive to visitors- and which looks distinctly you every time. If you’re not sure if you can fit the extra work required into your busy business schedule, be sure to drop the Zebra 360 Online Marketing team a line, and let their Instagram experts handle your content creation for you, instead.
