Feeding the Aesthetic: Mastering a Consistent Instagram Feed for Business Growth and Picture-Perfect Branding
Whilst it seems pretty straightforward, creating a consistent Instagram feed that will make users want to click that ‘Follow’ button is an art that needs to be mastered - That’s why Balans Social exists! Here’s our guide with some tips and tricks that will elevate your Instagram-game in just a couple of steps.
Whether you’re launching a new business or you’ve been around for a while, having an online presence for your company is a must nowadays, which can no longer be avoided. Besides being a low-cost option to increase brand awareness, having a social platform allows you to advertise your services and/or products whilst also directly engaging with your customers. Sounds great, doesn’t it?
Whilst it seems pretty straightforward, creating a consistent Instagram feed that will make users want to click that ‘Follow’ button is an art that needs to be mastered - That’s why Balans Social exists! If you want to give it a go yourself, here’s our guide with some tips and tricks that will elevate your Instagram-game in just a couple of steps.
1. Finding YOUR brand identity
Your Instagram profile can be seen as a first contact point between your customers and your brand. And as with any interaction, first impressions matter! Because of that, finding your own brand identity and look is essential when it comes to creating an attention-grabbing and consistent feed. Your feed should represent the brand image you want to sell.
Whether you want to present your brand as fun and family-friendly or minimal and calming, it’s completely up to you. But make sure to stick to that decision, as it’s what will make people relate to your brand and want to follow you. From there on out, every post you publish should fit that aesthetic as it will fit the rest of the posts over time, thus creating a harmonious feed.
2. Selecting a color palette
Similarly to finding your brand identity, selecting a color palette of 5-7 colors will allow you to achieve a cohesive feed. Ideally you should aim for a mix of neutral colors and brighter colors. Yet, this will also depend on the aesthetic you chose, as the selection of colors will help you bring that mood to life. Sticking to the chosen color palette is not only important for branded content such as sale announcements for instance, but also for lifestyle-type content. This means that you should select images that feature elements in the colors that are in your palette.
3. The 80/20 rule
As a rule of thumb, approximately 80% of the content you post should add value and give customers a reason to follow you, whilst the other 20% should directly sell the product. It’s important to keep a balance between these two as your Instagram page should inspire and entertain your followers whilst also promoting and supporting the financial goals of your brand. Consider incorporating images or posts that contain fewer elements (i.e. filler photos) as it will provide some space in your feed and give it an overall cleaner and more polished appearance.
4. Quality of content
If you’re really trying to be a pro Instagrammer, make sure the quality of your content looks the part. This means that you should be mindful of the equipment you are using to take content, the light, and angles. Practice makes perfect when it comes to this, so it’s best to try out different techniques and devices to find out what works best for your page. It can also be helpful to find examples of other accounts’ images and videos you like as inspiration - but make sure you adapt it to your brand and feed!
5. Plan, plan, plan
Once you’ve followed all of these steps, it’s time to plan! You should aim to have a schedule of when and what you want to post, so you can make sure that you are alternating between different types of content. For this, using a feed planning software can be extremely helpful, as it will simultaneously allow you to decide on the perfect configuration for your posts. Although some content might be great, it might fit better within the feed in a different spot. Using a feed planner provides a mock-up of what your page will look like and allows you to make the necessary adjustments before posting! It can also be useful to see if your highlight covers, profile photo or biography need to be edited to achieve a perfectly harmonious profile.
Overall, mastering the art of a good Instagram feed is a combination of knowledge as well as practice, but this guide will support you along the way. And if you’re still not sure or are in need of help from a social media agency, you know where to find us!