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We all know that consistency on Instagram is important to growing your community, driving engagement, building brand awareness, and ultimately getting sales to your business.

However, keeping up with the demands of posting regularly can sometimes feel like a daunting task.

That’s why today I am sharing my tried and tested tips to make post creation easier for you so you can stay on track for the long term!

If you are a busy business owner and want to improve your consistency with posting on Instagram, read on to learn how to create content smarter, not harder, so you can stay consistent on Instagram for your business!

Tip 1: Set a Realistic Posting Schedule

The first step to Instagram consistency is setting a posting schedule that you can realistically commit to. Starting small and gradually increasing your posting frequency is more sustainable in the long run.

Committing to posting five times a week may seem doable at first, but without a system in place to support you, it can shortly lead to burnout, frustration, and inconsistency.

For example, you can commit to posting 1-2x a week and increase to 5x times a week gradually rather than starting with seven posts a week and quitting after the first week completely exhausted!

This approach helps prevent burnout and helps you create a sustainable workflow for content creation so you can maintain consistency over time.

Tip 2: Plan in Advance

Without a clear plan in place, you may find yourself scrambling to come up with content ideas at the last minute.

There is nothing more annoying than realizing that you need to post today, but you actually don’t have anything to post. In fact, you may not even know what you should post, so you end up whipping up a last-minute post that takes you at least 45 minutes, only to end up with something that lacks strategy and yields no actual results to your business.

To avoid this chaos, plan your posts in advance and create a content calendar. Identify upcoming promotions or launches in your business and write a list of posts around them. This allows you to be more strategic with your content and ensures you always have something valuable to share with your audience.

I now use pretty complex Notion system to plan my content, but when I first started using social media for my business, I used Google Sheets to do this. It helped me keep all my post ideas, captions, and hashtags organized in one place so I could stay consistent. If you’re looking for a content planning calendar and don’t have one yet – you can get mine here.

Also, I recommend deciding and committing in advance when you are going to be creating your posts in your weekly/monthly schedule. For example, Thursday after lunch at 2 pm every other week. It’s a good idea to make it a routine and schedule it to your calendar. Otherwise, it’s wayyyy too easy for other tasks and priorities to take over and for you to leave Instagram posts to the last minute again and again. I definitely made this mistake when I started my business!

Tip 3: Batch Your Posts

Batching your posts is a game-changer for efficiency.

I would never be able to grow my business on social media and with content marketing if I did not batch several posts, podcasts, or newsletters simultaneously.

Instead of creating one post at a time, set aside dedicated time to create multiple posts at once. This allows you to focus on one type of content creation task at a time and minimizes task-switching, which can lead to decreased productivity and overwhelm. 

To start batching, begin with identifying the different types of content you create and make a list of all the tasks involved in bringing each piece of content to life. Then, think about how you can group similar tasks together to create your batching sessions. 

For example: 

• Plan out a topic for the upcoming content for the month ahead.
• Write content for posts.
• Create carousel post graphics for Instagram for the month ahead.
• Record talking content all at once, etc.

Tip 4: Build a Library of B-Roll

The B-roll is the background scenery in your video. It’s the shots that show what’s happening around the main action. Having a library of B-roll footage on hand makes it easy to put together reels or other video content without always having to record new clips.

Product-based business example:

A-roll: video clips focusing on presenting the specific product in detail, highlighting its features, benefits, and usage

B-roll: clips of you packaging the product or assembling it that you can reuse for many different posts

Service-based business example:

A-roll: speaking directly to the camera, sharing insights

B-roll: clips showing behind-the-scenes moments of yourself working

Tip 5: Create Evergreen Content

Let’s be honest! Keeping up with the demand for always creating new, fresh, engaging content can feel like a never-ending cycle. However, there’s a secret weapon that many business owners, including me, use to make it easier, and that is evergreen content. 

Unlike fast-paced trending content, evergreen content remains relevant and valuable to your audience long after it’s been published. This means that you can repost and repurpose evergreen content without worrying about it becoming outdated, saving you time and resources in the long run, while keeping your audience interested. The best part? It’s super easy to batch evergreen content because you are not dependent on current trending sounds!  

How-to-guides are simple and highly effective type of evergreen content for both product and service-based businesses. 

Examples:

Product-based business: A skincare company could create a guide on a daily skincare routine using their products, which would remain relevant over time. 

Service-based businesses, like parenting classes or coaching services, can provide tutorials on solving common parenting problems, such as sleep training or transitioning to solid foods.

The key here is to identify timeless topics or pain points in your niche and create content around them. 

Tip 6: Repost your older best-performing posts

If you are not reposting your best-performing posts, you are really making it a lot harder for yourself than it needs to be.

Only a percentage of your followers see your posts. Plus, as you grow your account, many new followers haven’t seen your old awesome posts!

Scroll down to 5+ months ago, look at the posts that had the most engagement, and post them again (if still relevant). You can even use the exact same caption and # you did at a time!

Tip 7: Build a Library of Photos for Your IG Stories

Instagram Stories are a powerful tool for engaging with your audience, but constantly coming up with new photos can be time-consuming.

Instead of spending time taking new photos every day, build a library of photos that you can reuse in your Stories. Capture common scenes from your daily life, such as your morning coffee, your workspace, or your pets, and save them to a dedicated album in your camera roll.

Think about it like building your own little photo bank. Need to post a quick story but don’t have time to take a new photo? No problem – just dip into your library, pick a photo that fits the vibe, and type in your message. It’s quick, it’s easy, and it ensures that you’re still showing up for your audience without adding extra stress to your day.

I hope this blog post will help you work smarter, not harder, so you can achieve your Instagram goals with less stress. By following these seven tips, you can streamline your content creation process, save time, and stay consistent on Instagram for your business.

If you’d like to dive deeper into this topic, tune in to today’s podcast episode here 🎧. 

Talk soon,

Michaela