If you want your business to perform on Instagram in any form, shape, or manner, you will need to pay your full attention to Instagram content creation.
And that’s why in today’s article I will reveal the best Instagram content creation secrets you can use for your brand.
Here’s a brief overview of what we are going to look at:
- Don’t Overpromote
- Survey And Deliver
- 3 Magic Pillars Of High-Performing Instagram Content
- Don’t Skip Captions
- Leverage Trends (But Be Careful)
So, are you ready to begin? If so, let’s dive in…
Don’t Overpromote
This is a big deal when it comes to Instagram content creation. If you are going to promote all the time it is going to have the opposite effects of what you might have thought:
- You’ll get fewer leads and customers
- You’re not going to grow
- You’ll reach little or no new dream customers
That’s because people are not on Instagram to get sold. They are there to consume valuable content.
If your content isn’t going to be valuable, then you can’t expect to get any results. Simply put, when you open Instagram you don’t open it to see ads, right?
Well, if you are going to promote and share all the 50% off deals there, that’s what your content is going to be – just another ad.
Ads normally get ignored and NOBODY engages with them. On Instagram, unless your content gets engagement, you aren’t going to reach anybody.
But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t promote at all as well. You need to balance it so that your content gets a ton of reach and your account grows.
There is a simple formula for that called the 80/20 content rule:
- 80% of content = value
- 20% of content = promotion
So, if you share 10 posts a week, then 2 of those posts can be promotional and 8 posts have to be valuable (educate, entertain, or inspire.)
Survey And Deliver
What is funny is that we all think we know what our dream customers want to see. But in the end, they’re the only one who knows.
That’s why you should consistently survey and deliver. Of course, there is a tiny conflict between the “WANT” and “NEED”.
They might want to see something but you know they need something different. That’s why you want to deliver what they want in the same ratio as what they need.
That is going to ensure you are going to reach your dream customers and also educate them about the problem they have and persuade them to buy your product or service.
It’s an essential part of Instagram content creation.
So, what are some of the ways you can survey your audience? You can:
- Use a question sticker in stories.
- Create a poll in your stories.
- Create a quiz in your stories/slider survey (the emoji is going to point on different answers above the slider depending on how much they slide the slider 🙂
- Share a survey post asking them about something and telling them to answer in the comments.
- Create a landing page specifically dedicated to surveying your dream customers and offer a tiny reward in exchange for answering the question, poll, etc.
And these are just a few ways you can survey your audience to improve your Instagram content creation.
It is all extremely effective and I highly recommend that you try it out.
And now let’s move on to another Instagram content creation secret…
3 Magic Pillars Of High-Performing Instagram Content
Now I want you to pay close attention as this is literally the difference between your Instagram content doing well or failing.
And it’s really funny because if your Instagram content is performing well, you are using these pillars without likely knowing it.
So, how do the 3 magic pillars of high-performing Instagram content look like?
Let’s dive a bit more in-depth into what these pillars are about.
First, there is value.
Regardless of how your Instagram content creation process looks like, there is no way you are going to reach your dream customers unless the post that comes out of it is valuable.
Valuable content always does one of these 3 main things:
- It Educates
- It Entertains
- It Inspires
And most importantly, it does it as best as it can. So, whenever you share any kind of post, ensure it’s as valuable as possible.
If you share an educational carousel, give away the best stuff you know, add checklists, share tips, use graphics, etc.
If you share a video, dig deep into the concept and make it as valuable as possible.
It’s a key part of Instagram content creation. And now, let’s move on to the next pillar which is presentation.
Your content might be valuable but if it is badly presented, you are simply doomed. To help you understand what I mean, imagine that somebody shares an image with a big chunk of text on it that is in 8pt font and it shares the best way to invest in real estate.
Would you read it? Not likely. That’s because the presentation is bad. But is it valuable? Well, there ARE the secrets in the text, so it is giving away value.
And that’s the point.
Presentation is going to ensure people consume the message. A value that is not consumed by your dream customer isn’t valuable. A concept about how to become a billionaire shared in Spanish is not valuable to somebody who doesn’t understand the message because they can’t speak Spanish.
That’s simply because they don’t consume the value even though it’s there.
Some extremely important parts of the presentation include a hook that grabs people’s attention to go through the post, the design of the post, the simplicity of the message, examples, graphic examples, etc.
Anything that makes people go through the message makes it more desirable to consume, or makes it EASIER to consume is presentation.
And last, there is relevancy.
Simply put, you can’t sell a steak to a vegan just as you can’t make a vegan consume Instagram content about how steaks are great. (This is nothing against vegans by the way.)
In other words, if the value is irrelevant to your dream customers, it is not valuable.
If you want to pass a driver’s license test, you aren’t interested in pilot license exam tips. If you want to lose weight, you’re not going to be interested in tips about how to bake the best pizza for a cheat day.
It looks like a sure thing but you’d be surprised how many people actually do it wrong.
Be careful about it and now, let’s move on to another Instagram content creation secret…
Don’t Skip Captions
Writing the right captions can absolutely change your game when it comes to Instagram content creation.
When it comes to reels and single-image posts they are delivering the main value point and they share the core message of the post.
If you share a longer video (now long-form reels) or an educational carousel, you still don’t want to skip the caption part as a lot of people actually read the caption first before they even bother going through the main message.
And those who go through the main message are usually going to take action on what you want AFTER they read the caption…not finish the video or a post.
Here is a simple copywriting formula that you can use to write killer captions that convert called AIDA:
- Attention = Grab their attention with the first line of the caption. It has to grab as much attention as possible.
- Interest = Talk about the context or dive into the emotions (if promoting).
- Desire = Share the main value point of the message or share the offer.
- Action = Tell them what to do next, usually click the link in your bio to enter the sales process – REGARDLESS of the post type.
Your Instagram content is going to go to the next level if you are going to write great captions. And now, let’s move on to the next Instagram content creation secret…
Leverage Trends (But Be Careful)
Leveraging trends can be really powerful when it comes to Instagram content creation. That’s because when leveraged the right way, they can get you a ton of exposure and they will help you build a stronger brand.
But when leveraged wrongfully, they can KILL your brand.
So, how are you going to leverage trends in a way to get the best results possible? Here’s a simple formula for leveraging trends for your brand:
- It has to be relevant to your brand
- It has to be relevant to your dream customer’s needs, wants, pains
- It has to be relevant to your brand’s mission
For example, if you are a business lawyer, you’re not going to be dancing on reels just because it’s trendy, right? That doesn’t feel like a great behavior to have during a court and it can screw up your credibility.
So, even though it is trending, it is bad. And the same can happen to your brand. Be careful.
But if the trend fits all of these 3 things, then you should hop on the trend and squeeze as much reach out of it as possible.
Filip Konecny 