Guide For Creating Attractive Instagram Carousel

Instagram carousels are incredibly effective. The algorithm favors them, your audience will like them, and you can flood them with value.

The problem is that 90% of all carousels that are created are CRAP.

And if your carousel sucks, instead of attracting a new audience to your Instagram account, you are going to repel them from you.

That’s why today I will show you step-by-step how to create attractive Instagram carousels that will make you grow…

Here is what you will discover in today’s post:

1. Get Carousel Ideas
2. Get Cool Images
3. Stop The Scroll
4. Don’t Try To Be Everything To Everyone
5. Be Unique
6. Include Less Text In Your Instagram Carousels
7. Stop Making These Instagram Carousel Mistakes

Are you ready to start? Amazing, let’s dive in:

1. Get Carousel Ideas

Without any idea on what to make your Instagram carousel about, you can’t create one.

However, getting new content ideas is sometimes extremely frustrating.

But that is done now. Hooray!

Follow this step-by-step framework for getting new content ideas using the Eureka Effect:

Step #1: Prime Your Brain

Spend 15-30 min studying the topic you need information on.

That way you will be able to fuel your brain and gain the knowledge you need to be able to get other content ideas.

Here are some of the things that you can do:

#1 Read a book

#2 Watch an interview

#3 Consume a blog post

#4 Read posts on Instagram

#5 Watch an educational YT video

If you will do these, you will be prepared for the next step…

Step #2: Take An Active Break

Do physical tasks which require your attention, but don’t occupy your mind:

#1 Walk

#2 Shower

#3 Take a walk

That way you will be able to send the knowledge to the subconscious mind which will continue to work on it.

Step #3: Be Mindful

Listen to your inner dialogue and monitor it for new ideas:

Our minds have 6,000 thoughts daily, how many ideas have we missed because we weren’t mindful.

It is a crazy number and that is why this step is so incredibly important.

Be mindful at all costs…

Step #4: Start Documenting

New ideas will start coming all the time and you have to document them.

If you are not going to do so, you will lose it.

It is impossible to remember the idea for longer than 30 minutes and that’s why this is so important.

So, have a notebook close to you or you can write them into your phone…

But WRITE IT DOWN!

Once you do it, you already have something to build your carousel on…

…and that is when we will move into finding the right images.

2. Get Cool Images

There are many free stock photo websites that you can use to get images including Unsplash, Rawpixel, Pexels, etc.

But my favorite one is Freepik.com.

It is flooded with a ton of images that you will love.

But there is one big problem.

If you want to use the images in your carousels, you have to remove the background. How are you going to do that?

Well, the first way to do it is to remove it directly in software like Canva.

However, this is a paid feature and if you don’t have a Canva Pro – you have to do it yourself.

My favorite external background removers are Photoshop Express and Remove.bg.

Once the background is removed, you can move into creating the first slide of the Instagram carousel that will stop the scroll and grab their attention.

Believe me, it is everything.

3. Stop The Scroll

If you don’t stop the scroll, your Instagram carousel is going to be overlooked and you will not achieve any significant results.

You have to grab their attention.

Let me ask you a question, how can you make somebody go through the content that you have created if you lose their attention?

You can have the best Instagram carousel on the planet, but if the first slide sucks, your whole carousel will suck as well.

To make sure that this is not going to happen, here are 6 ways to stop their scroll:

Use Negative Headlines

Negative headlines are amazing because it makes people think that they are doing something wrong. And that triggers fear.

If you don’t know how a negative headline looks like, here is an example:

“Stop Chasing People Who Don’t Care About You”

What are you going to do if you are chasing people who don’t care about you? That’s right – you will swipe through the whole carousel.

And it is the same with every other negative headline that you create…

…they are POWERFUL.

Suggest Something Controversial

This is working well as people are incredibly interested in controversial things. It makes them think.

This post is a fantastic example.

When you suggest something controversial in your Instagram Carousel, you will automatically have an effective headline.

And you can also see that the headline is negative as well which makes it even more powerful.

So, this is another powerful way to grab their attention.

Promise To Fix A Big Problem With A Simple Solution

Big promises always grab attention, but there is one catch when creating a headline like this…

YOU HAVE TO DELIVER WHAT YOU PROMISE.

If you will create clickbait, you will lose credibility and that is dangerous – especially if you want to monetize your social media.

It is like stealing time from the people and that doesn’t work.

Make sure that you deliver the value you promise in your Instagram carousel.

Open Up A Curiosity Gap

Leveraging curiosity is super-powerful. It is our natural tendency to discover new things and find out something we don’t know the answer to.

And that is why it is a brilliant technique to employ in your headline.

Tease them what the post is about but don’t tell them everything. For example:

Instead of, “5 Ways To Make Your Post Go Viral” use “The Science Behind Viral Posts…”

Do you see how much more appealing the second headline is? That is the one I would use in my Instagram carousel…

However, grabbing attention is just one part of carousel creation, let’s check other parts as well.

4. Don’t Try To Be Everything To Everyone

This one is especially dangerous. If you try to be everything to everyone, you will end up being nothing to none. That is the reality.

You can only create the carousel for a minority of people.

There is no way that you can help kids and soldiers at the same time. (I know, it is a little bit crazy example, but who cares?)

That is why you should start creating your Instagram carousels for your target audience only.

What are their needs?

What are their pains?

What do they desire?

Once you know that, you will be able to effectively position the message and dig gold with every carousel you create.

That is why I also want to urge you to study your target audience more in-depth before even starting putting out content.

It is an essential step and without it, you won’t be able to get engagement, grow, and sell a single thing.

Make sure you do it.

5. Be Unique

I know that this may sound cliché, but it is essential. I believe that you have seen a ton of posts like “20 Content Ideas” or “7 Tools To Use”…

You should stop focusing just on them. Heck, even I created a lot of them, but let me explain…

Well, the mainstream content types support your growth…but they are BORING.

You can see them everywhere. What you should do is start focusing more on the original content so that you can build INFLUENCE.

These Instagram carousels may not have as massive reach or engagement as the mainstream ones, but you will have a much bigger impact on people.

And that is why they are so great.

Especially if you have to sell something. Instead of sharing a post titled “5 ways to optimize your profile” create a post where you will tell a story about what you have done to grow your Instagram and then telling them about your offer at the end.

The Instagram carousel won’t have such a massive reach, but for sure you will get much more customers.

And that is what matters for your Instagram marketing strategy, right?

6. Include Less Text In Your Instagram Carousels

You should always keep your word count to the minimum. Imagine the person reading is on a treadmill.

Every step is another word, another piece of their time & energy.

More words = more work.

If you want your Instagram carousel to be easy to read but also impactful follow this concept:

The less you write, the more people read.

7. Stop Making These Instagram Carousel Mistakes

There are a lot of mistakes I see every single day when I check carousels of other creators and I want to make sure that you will not make them.

I will not make it any longer as I am trying to give you a maximum amount of value in the minimum amount of time…

So, let’s dive in:

Don’t Fill Your Carousels With Fluff Just To Make Sure You Use All Of The Slides

I am sure that you’ve seen these types of carousels:

hook – fluff – fluff – fluff – fluff – fluff – fluff – fluff – hopefully some value – and fluff again

Don’t you hate when you go through an Instagram carousel like this?

Using fluff just to make your Instagram carousel have 10 slides is dumb. Use fewer slides that are pumped with value.

hook – value – value – value – value – conclusion

It will bring you much more results.

Not Answering People’s Problems

People are going through your Instagram carousels because they want to solve their problems.

If you are not going to provide them with the solution that they are looking for they will be disappointed.

And that is going to turn them away from engaging with your future carousels. So, solve their problems and you will thrive.

Not Using Any White Space

Carousels that have text put all over the pictures are not appealing.

Make sure that you make your designs breathe and include white space to make the Instagram carousel less difficult to go through.

Talking About Too Many Things

In your Instagram carousel, you should focus on one topic to make sure that your carousel is easy to understand and in the end – valuable.

Again, if you try to be everything to everybody you end up being nothing to nobody.

Make sure that you always cover only one topic.

Creating The Carousel For Yourself

If you want to be successful with your content, you need to make sure that you make it about them and not about you.

Nobody likes “me-me-me” creators. And I would bet that you don’t like them as well.

Not Promoting Your Posts In Stories

Most people are not going to see your carousel in your feed, and to capture all of those who didn’t you should promote it in your stories.

It is a great way to make your post do much better.

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