You possibly know the expression “content is king”. Quality, valuable, and engaging content pulls in your customers and attracts their attention to your business.
Thus, a well-thought-out content strategy is crucial for social media marketing, particularly for Instagram. And the Instagram content planning tool Combin Scheduler will help you post the whole content in time, think through the content calendar, and keep the feed cohesive.
This article does not contain generic advice that you should use videos, stories with stickers, and live streams. Yes, you should. So, let us now cut to the chase and consider several actionable content ideas for your Instagram startup page.
Infographic
Instagram is a visually-focused social network, so the main part of the content strategy goes to photo and video. Infographic is an excellent way to combine a visual concept and an insightful caption.
If you don’t feel like writing a lengthy caption with tips and recommendations for your followers, you can put it all in an infographic. Such information is laconic and easily digested by the audience.
You can place any information in the infographic, whether it be recipes, tips on any topic, guide, statistics, interesting facts, and more.
And if you make a carousel of two or three slides, you will increase your reach. Don’t forget to write a caption, even though the whole text is in the picture. You will elevate your chances of appearing in the Explore Tab, since the Instagram recommender system pays attention to what we write.
If you have a blog on a website, you can turn your most popular articles into an infographic and add a link to the full post in the bio.
To add a link in the bio, use Combin Scheduler. The process is straightforward: just start planning your next publication, pick a picture, write a caption, and add a link to your website page. You can also add hashtags, tag another user, and add a location.
The link will appear automatically as soon as the post goes live. And each time you plan a post or a story, you can add a new link which will appear in the bio when the content is published.
UGC
User-generated content sells itself with no efforts on your end. All you need to do is publish posts of your customers using your product and create engaging captions for them.
It works based on our psychology: people don’t tend to trust advertising, but they willingly trust independent people ready to share their personal experiences.
Many Instagram brands selling physical products use UGC as a profitable marketing strategy. If you provide services and are not selling something people can touch, you can publish your customers’ reviews and tag them in your posts. Thus, you will help them increase their reach and following, too.
A clothing brand River Island builds the whole Instagram marketing strategy on UGC. In their profile bio, they encourage their clients to post photos of them wearing the brand’s clothes and to use a specific hashtag. Then they repost the content and tag the user.
Such a strategy helps customers because they see how clothes look on regular people with different bodies, not on perfect models.
Quizzes
Quizzes are a very engaging form of content. The idea is to offer the customer a solution after they answer all the test questions. Quizzes can be entertaining or informational. For instance, a dietician could do the following quiz on Instagram: how healthy you eat.
Then they could prepare seven questions about eating behaviour, and after the quiz is done, send a short leaflet on healthy eating or an invitation to a weight loss webinar.
You can use quizzes as teasers to your new posts. For instance, you’re preparing a long post exposing big myths about your industry. Before publishing the post, you can come up with a quick quiz where your followers are asked to answer related questions.
Don’t make your followers feel bored; make various content. That’s hard to do without a clear content plan. To schedule your Instagram feed and observe how the whole strategy looks, use Combin Scheduler in-app calendar.
Looking at the whole campaign, you will see if you plan the same content in a row and be able to tailor the plan.
Instagram AR effects
This is one of the main Instagram marketing trends in 2020. Though AR masks on Instagram are not anything special, this year they’re gaining momentum.
In 2019, Instagram allowed brands and casual users to create their own augmented reality effects, and some brands are already using them for their benefit.
For instance, ASOS and Starbucks have created masks that any Instagram user can wear.
Such content works well, especially if you create a mass product that people will buy over and over. But there’s no limit to your creativity! If you sell online courses or software on Instagram, it may work, too.
When AR masks go viral, typically there’s a boost of followers on their creators’ accounts. Once you have this audience, keep them engaged with your content.
AR mask creation may seem complicated for people who are not design-savvy, so you can ask your in-house designer or a freelancer for help.
Diverse photo content
Selfies (yes), square shots, and staged shots should be included in your Instagram marketing strategy. You may say that everyone is sick of selfies. Well, if the central figure of your page is you as an influencer, coach, model, or a professional selling its expertise, your profile and your followers need you in pictures.
Square shots are ideal for taking pictures of food, architecture, city shots, interior design, nature, and the like. These posts look aesthetically pleasing and usually work rather well.
Brands and influencers widely use staged photos. The object of such pictures may be either you or the product you’re selling. You will place all photo objects in a special position, as a brand in the below example does.
The product (lashes) are placed in the middle of the composition, and a blanket is an element of decor that creates a contrast with a black table.
You should also use photo editing apps to give the images a more polished look, but don’t overedit; try to keep it real.
IGTV Series
Another trend in Instagram content marketing in 2020 — IGTV Series. Launched in October 2019, IGTV Series has the following idea behind them: tell your story.
They work similarly to Up Next videos on YouTube when your current video ends and YouTube recommends playing the next one related to it. Typically, it’s the next episode of the same series.
You can tell yours or your brand story, share your mindset, give recommendations or tips with IGTV Series. Your followers will automatically watch the following episodes and get notified when you upload a new one.
Memes and tweets
People love memes: they’re funny, true-to-life, and engaging. The trick is to make memes relevant to your target audience. If your audience is busy entrepreneurs, teenagers’ memes from TikTok probably won’t resonate with them.
Same with tweets: they’re predicted to be an Instagram trend in 2020, but that doesn’t mean you should post them every day. You can include them in your content marketing strategy, but relevance is everything.
If you know and understand your audience perfectly well and treat them like friends, niche or audience-specific tweets may be on point.
In marketing, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Some of the content ideas above may not resonate with your audience, but some definitely will. You need to try as many content tips as you can and find out what your audience loves to consume. And with the Combin Scheduler planning tool, you can be sure your bright content will go live down to the minute.
