4 steps to create an Instagram content calendar for your business

Creating good Instagram content helps you promote and boost your business. However, posting any image or any content will not be enough. You need to provide your followers with unique and original content that they can’t find anyplace else.

So, what are the steps to create an Instagram content calendar to keep your followers interested?

Whether you are a small or medium business. It is so important that when you create content, you should think about how to serve your ideal audience rather than post anything.

These are four steps to create your Instagram content calendar for your business:

1- Identify your target audience and content pillars

Identifying your target audience and content pillars is very important before even starting to create content.

So, what is your target audience? And what types of posts do they like seeing on Instagram?

Knowing your target audience and the type of content they might find engaging or interesting will help you create content that speaks directly to your audience’s interest.

Remember, not every single post has to be about the benefits of the products you sell and why everyone should buy them. Otherwise, people will ultimately lose interest in your products. Instead, create content that your followers will like regardless of whether or not it is directly about your product. This is what distinguishes a brand from a business

Generally, there should be four content pillars. Only one of them should be directly linked to your product, and the other three should be to entertain and educate your target audience.

2- Create a list of post thoughts and subject ideas for each content pillar

You can make a list of four content pillars. One of these pillars should be your product, and the remaining can be topics relevant to your target customer. You can create a table with four columns (pillars), and then begin brainstorming post topics for each of those categories. It’s important to create content for your audience, rather than sell to them all the time.

It is not about sharing a nice photo with any caption. You should create your Instagram content thinking about the caption first before imagery. When brainstorming post ideas, it is recommended to create first the headline of your Instagram caption that displays before the see more button.

You must ensure that the headline (125 characters) is meaningful since it will impact whether or not people read your full caption and spend more time engaging with your content.

3- Create images for your posts

Now that you have created post ideas, what’s next?

At this step, you can think about the imagery you would use to accompany those post ideas. You can use a picture, a graphic, or a carousel of pictures, or you might make a video. If the video is longer than one minute, you may make an IGT video out of it.

There are so many ways to make these post concepts come to life. Make sure the topic of your post is well connected to the imagery. Think what is the ideal approach to transmit the message of your post visually.

You can alternate between all of the different types of posts you share on your Instagram so that you can give value to your audience in a variety of ways.

4- Organize your content on a calendar and start sharing

Once you have your post ideas and photos, you can organize them on a calendar. You can do it with a spreadsheet, a word document, or organizing software.

You can also use this calendar to arrange all of your posts based on the four content pillars and the different posts forms on Instagram.

After having your content calendar ready, including the captions and pictures. You can now start putting that plan into action and generate your content. Otherwise, you can use a scheduling tool to schedule those photos with their related captions so that they automatically get published on Instagram.

Finally, when you prepare your content calendar you can spend your time efficiently working on other aspects of the business.