You have joined Instagram for your business! Now what? You’re ready to jump in and start posting, but what do you post? Some business owners post whatever comes to mind while others become paralyzed, wondering what in the world they should be posting. I’m here to help.
You can create four types of content for Instagram to get traffic and conversions on your products and services. Let’s talk about each one individually.
#1: Educational Content
People love to learn. Educating them about your product or service allows them to get to know you, see how knowledgeable you are in your field, and builds trust.
Let’s say you’re an agency owner looking to use Instagram to bring in more clients. You want to use your existing content to create posts for your customer avatar (ideal client) of business owners. These business owners need help with marketing (that’s why they’re going to hire you), which means they’d love to see posts that, you guessed it, help them with marketing.
In our example, if your agency specializes in Facebook and Instagram ads, your content will talk about:
- How to use Facebook ads for beginners
- The creative ad options to use in your ads
- Copywriting strategies
- Using user-generated content in your ads
Posting educational content is going to showcase your expertise in the Facebook ads space. Pair that content with lead magnets (free giveaway in exchange for their email) or an awesome newsletter, and you’ll be able to move Instagram viewers to your website and get them to become subscribers and potential customers.
#2: Product Reviews/Case Studies
Your product reviews/case studies will show your happy customers, which gives you “social proof.” This lets your potential clients know that other people have benefited from what you offer. Providing product reviews or case studies is the next best thing to “word of mouth” marketing.
Are you wondering which one you should provide? If you’re selling a physical or digital one-time product, you’ll post product reviews. If you’re selling a service, you’ll want to post case studies.
Instagram allows you to get creative around how you show your reviews and case studies. If you post Instagram Reels, you can use the effects, music, and countdown timer features to create native-looking reviews and case studies that entertain your followers.
For product reviews, you can use user-generated content as your product review (you can upload videos and photos or take your own).
For your case studies, you can grab a past case study published to your blog or used in your sales process, take the headers from each section, and use those as text on a video where you explain how you got those results. This text helps visual learners understand what you’re talking about while you discuss the details verbally.
#3: Behind-The-Scenes Content
Behind-the-scenes content builds the relationship between you and your ideal client. Since you’re doing this to a larger audience, you’re building that relationship at scale.
For example, suppose you own an eCommerce fashion company. In that case, you can use Instagram to show the behind-the-scenes of you choosing your fabric and getting the samples delivered for approval. These posts can act as a bridge between brand and customer, making you more human and giving your ideal client someone to relate to behind the scenes.
If you’re a speaker, your Instagram can be used to show the behind the scenes of how you get ready to attend an event that you are hosting or in which you will be speaking. Doing so allows you to showcase your expertise and working style so your customer avatar (ideal client) can feel like they know, like, and trust you. We all know what comes after that, drumroll please, the sale!
#4: Your Company Story
Let’s be honest—when is the last time you found a new product or someone selling a service, went to their website, clicked on their About Page, and thought, “WOW! That was amazing.”
Yeah… it’s been a pretty long time for me too.
Instagram has the potential to make that bland brand story into a super interesting one. Instead of going to an About Page on a website and reading through a brand story, a prospect can watch a dynamic story on Reels. This story can include music and old photos, case studies, and where you are today because of everything you experienced while getting here.
This wouldn’t be regular content that you post, but having an Instagram Reels that shows who you are and why selling these products or services go back to the reason we post Behind-the-Scenes content.
It’s personable, it’s relatable, and it builds relationships.
Since it is often difficult for people to come up with content, realizing there are four different types of content begins to open up the door to brainstorming what you can be posting. And on Instagram, you can post in multiple places giving you many ways to share your content. Let your creative mind go wild. Listed below are the four places you can post on Instagram.
- Standard feed (grid)
- Story
- IGTV
- Reels
Note: You that you do not necessarily need to create brand new content to publish on Instagram. You can use your existing content from other platforms or use old Instagram posts in a new way. For example, you can use your existing content and turn it into a Reels-friendly post.
And there you have it—here’s what you can create on Instagram to showcase your expertise in your field, show-off your products and services, and get followers interested in who you are.
Like every other marketing strategy, the key is consistency and to test and check. Test new content and check the metrics to see how well your audience liked it. Improve and repeat and then do it all over again.
I know your mind is racing with ideas of what you can post. Don’t start second-guessing yourself. Perfection stops productive action. The more you post, the better you get, so go for it!
