How to Create an Instagram Content Plan
An Instagram content plan is a roadmap that a blogger or brand follows. It allows you to work quickly and clearly, without wasting time looking for ideas for new creatives. With a content plan, you will not get confused in publications and do not tire subscribers with the same type of posts. The main thing is to draw up a plan correctly and take into account all the features of your activity and audience. Also, look up the best time to post on instagram according to your audience and post consistently on that time. If you find out the most optimal Instagram posting times, your engagement will skyrocket in no time.
Often, an SMM manager or owner of a business account on Instagram works “by touch” at first. Intuitively tries to understand which publications the target audience likes best or asks them directly about it. This method may work, but there are a few "buts":
- sometimes it happens that two publications are very similar: the format is the same and the feed, but one got a lot of likes and comments, or maybe led to the desired result, and the other did not;
- the brand or influencer has an audience with different preferences, for example, half of the subscribers prefer to watch stories, and the other half prefer to read posts;
- the account owner has to spend a huge amount of time analyzing and preparing new publications.
A high-quality content plan will help to avoid all these problems — a list of planned publications with a schedule and approximate content of the posts. How to compose it correctly, and what it should contain, will be discussed.
What is an Instagram content plan
Before you draw up a content plan for Instagram, you need to clearly understand what goals your business pursues in this social network:
- Traffic collection. From the account in the social network, the audience will be directed to the desired resource: site, landing page, telegram channel, etc.;
- Increase in brand awareness. The new company seeks to increase its recognition on the network, the loyalty of the audience and for this creates an account on Instagram.
According to Flowbox, embedding an Instagram feed on your website is an alternative method to accomplish your goal. The integration of Instagram feeds on your website will serve as social proof, ultimately increasing brand awareness; - Sales. A nail technician, beauty salon, photographer, artist, etc. creates a commercial account on Instagram to reach a wide audience of the social network. In the account, such a business publishes portfolio, examples of work, prices, reviews and launches marketing campaigns to make direct sales;
- Formation of the company's reputation. By publishing expert content on Instagram, a company can establish itself as an experienced professional market player. This approach allows you to influence the brand image, timely process negativity, objections, and communicate with the audience. But in this case there are no direct sales, although some of the subscribers will certainly become customers.
Of course, the content plan does not directly affect the achievement of these goals. Quite the contrary, what your Instagram business is aiming for determines what your posting plan should be. It significantly reduces and speeds up routine work: you do not need to constantly think about which publication should be released next. Your audience will not have to wait weeks for new posts (as a rule, they simply stop visiting the account and unfollow it).
What should a content plan contain
How to plan content for Instagram? Experts conducted research and found that the optimal ratio of content is as follows:
- 40% of engaging content aimed at interaction with the audience: interactive, polls, etc.;
- 30% content about the brand (expert) and its activities, product;
- 25% of educational or useful content that will provide new valuable knowledge to users;
- 5% of advertising.
This "Golden Formula" was developed by renowned content marketer Michael Stelzner. This approach allows you to cover all the interests of the audience, even if they are very different.
Depending on the subject of the account, the interests of its audience, the numbers in the Golden Formula may fluctuate slightly.
What publications should the plan consist of
Most often, regardless of the subject of the account, SMM managers include in the content plan:
- announcements and news;
- posts with information about the company's products;
- rubric "before/after";
- customer problems and how to solve them;
- posts with handling audience objections, debunking myths;
- rubric "reviews and suggestions";
- comparison of a product with competitors or products of brand from different lines;
- interactive: contests, drawings, polls, challenges, tests;
- instructions, guides, checklists, reviews;
- negative experience, common mistakes;
- funny cases, interesting facts;
- trends in a niche for discussion with subscribers;
- publications reflecting the "inner kitchen" — the workflow;
- secrets, chips, tips, life hacks;
- brand philosophy, plans for the future, principles and rules of work.
It is better to use all available content formats: photos, short Reels videos, stories, carousels. Add an IGTV section if you don't already have one to upload long vertical videos (up to an hour long), live streams. They can also be posted in a regular feed, but in a preview format. This will help to make the content as diverse as possible and find those formats that work best with your subscribers. Stories allow you to conduct various interactive surveys, contests, sweepstakes, and interact with subscribers in other ways to increase their engagement and receive feedback from them.
What to do when you run out of post ideas
To draw up a content plan, you will first need to prepare a list of ideas, you can:
- look at competitors. Study their accounts and draw conclusions about what formats they used best, think about how you can use it in your post or video;
- Repurpose and reshare it on your Instagram account and showcase real people sharing genuine and glowing content about your brand. This is what we called user-generated content;
- see other social networks and accounts in them on your subject;
- study the publications of famous blogs;
- read and monitor news on major sites, if it suits your topic;
- ask your followers what kind of posts they want from you;
- raise your old publications, maybe some of them need to be updated or supplemented;
- watch a video on your topic.
How to make a content plan from a list of ideas
To draw up a content plan, you can use any tables that are convenient for you. From a sheet of paper to Google Sheets and task planners, for example:
Conclusion. Content planning is important
A content plan is a great helper for an SMM specialist and blogger. With it, you will not only always have control over your publications, but also get more return from them due to the regularity of posting and a variety of content formats.
You can also schedule posting times if that matters to your target audience. Studies have shown that at certain times of the day, subscribers are tuned in to useful, news, and educational content, and at other times, to entertainment, recreation, and participation in a contest. Explore these options for your topic and audience and use them to get the most out of your posts.
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