Building a successful audience on Instagram can feel overwhelming, especially for beginners aiming to grow their business or personal brand.

Establishing an engaged following takes time and dedication; it’s not something that happens overnight.

To effectively grow your account, you need a solid strategy centered around a content calendar, emphasizing patience, consistency, and genuine engagement.

In this guide, you’ll discover how to generate innovative content ideas and organize them using a content calendar to ensure a cohesive Instagram feed.

A well-structured content calendar will help you plan and schedule your posts effectively.

We’ll also provide a practical content calendar example and a free downloadable template to make it easy for you to stay organized.

Let’s dive in and transform your Instagram presence with a powerful content calendar!

Content pillars are content that surrounds a message that represents your brand. The purpose of content pillars is to organize a strategy for your brand.

Content Pillar Examples for Your Content Calendar:

Content pillars help organize content out weekly/monthly to ensure that you are posting a consistent message that is not overdoing it in promotions, for example. People don't like to see posts where they are constantly trying to be sold something. 

Here are some examples of pillars you can use to create a content calendar:

• Educate 
• Promotions 
• Posts that encourage engagement 
• Actionable advice and tutorials 
• Content that showcases your work

After coming up with a general list of pillars that you believe best suit your brand’s goals. Now it's time to get specific with those ideas. This is where the content magic begins. 

So you now have your content pillar list, now it's time to break it down into smaller categories.

Let's start with educate 

Content Calendar Pillar #1: Educate

Content that can be used to inform or educate your audience can include:

• Information on how your product was produced
• Benefits of your product or services 
• Testimonials or reviews from previous consumers who were pleased with your offerings 
• Customer spotlights 
• Content that represents your community involvement 

The purpose of this category is to bring awareness and credibility to your brand. Informing and educating consumers on what your product or service is with information to back it up. This category is a great way to get more personal and achieve a greater connection with your customer.  

Next up, promotions

Content Calendar Pillar #2: Promotions

Promoted ads on Instagram usually have one goal in mind, and that is to sell a product. The goal of a promoted ad is to get that post in front of more eyes. The more people that are exposed to your paid ad, the more people will act on your call to action.

Instagram is one of the best ways to promote a product or service for ultimate ROI. 

Influencers 

Influencers serve as a powerful promotional tool for brands. Unlike traditional paid advertisements, partnering with an influencer involves compensating them to showcase your product within their personal digital communities.

You can establish a mutually beneficial agreement with an influencer, paying them a set amount for various promotional formats, including curated posts featuring your product, engaging Instagram stories, or even an Instagram takeover.

During an Instagram takeover, the influencer temporarily controls your account, sharing their unique content to captivate your audience.

Pro Tip: Micro-influencers are particularly effective!

What is a Micro-Influencer? A micro-influencer is typically defined as someone with 1,000 to 50,000 followers. These influencers often have a high level of credibility and influence, making them appear more genuine and relatable to the average consumer.

Incorporating both paid ads and influencer marketing strategies can significantly enhance brand awareness and drive conversions, positioning your brand for long-term success.

Content Calendar Pillar #3: Engagement Posts

Create posts that users will want to respond to and share on their personal accounts…

• Conversation starters 
• Quotes 
• Memes 
• Content that asks a question and encourages users to respond in the comment section 
• Contests and giveaways 
• “Ask me anything”

Engagement is the most valuable metric to analyze when growing an audience, let's repeat, engagement is the most valuable metric to analyze when growing an audience! 

They don't call it social media for nothing.

These networks are designed for people to be social online, so stay as active as you possibly can by:

• Engage and follow similar accounts 
• Interact with your followers to show your love and appreciation with likes, comment, and shares
• Respond to most comments and every question — very important! 
• Really demonstrate your gratitude for the love and connect with your followers

Content Calendar Pillar #4: Actionable Advice and Tutorials 

The purpose of this category is to engage your audience in a way that offers knowledge that they can implement in their own lives.

Offer something useful to your audience so that they can save it and return to it later. In a way, you are inspiring people to take action with your product or services. 

Let's say you own a local organic beauty brand… 

Examples of content that can be used to advise your followers could be:

• A tutorial on an everyday makeup look
• Super unique but, a jet-lag skincare routine 
• Unrelated but, my personal favorite is a cocktail recipe. You can relate it back to your brand by saying something along the lines of, “Watermelon margarita recipe!🍹🍉 Drink this on your next girls night-in paired with our rejuvenating watermelon detox face mask”

Make it playful and have fun with it.

The more random and unique the more people will be intrigued and consume till the end. But just ensure that the content that you are creating in this category offers value to your consumers. 

Content Calendar Pillar #5: Content That Showcases Your Products Or Services 

Last but not least, obviously you need to showcase your brand! Include a plethora of images, gifs, and videos that show your product or service in action. 

• User-generated posts (UGC) or any content that is created by your audience 
• Behind the scenes content 
• Get creative with your content. Utilize a mix of images, videos, GIF, boomerangs, etc.

Concluding Thoughts

Generating engaging content for your brand on Instagram can be simple and effective. By following a concise and consistent strategy, you can ensure your Instagram feed flows seamlessly month after month.

A crucial tip for creating compelling content is to focus on storytelling. The most successful social media strategists understand the power of narratives. Stories capture user attention, encouraging them to stay engaged until the very end.

To help you get started, we’ve provided an example of a content calendar. This template breaks down various content ideas in an organized format, making it easy to refer back to as you create your own content calendar for your personal brand or business. Happy engaging!

FREE GOOGLE DRIVE TEMPLATE 

Author - Lea Cruz