How to build an Instagram Strategy from scratch

If you have found your way to this podcast episode, that probably means that you are trying to build an Instagram this year - and I am so excited to be a part of that journey. Let’s just dive right in to the steps that you should take to get there.

Step 1: What is your goal with your instagram strategy?

The first step in the process is really figuring out what your overarching goal is for your Instagram. There are really three different types of Instagram content creator goals:

Building an influencer business The first one is building an influencer business. I would consider this your run-of-the-mill content creator who is passionate about creating and wants to make their income through things like affiliate marketing and brand partnerships.

Promoting an existing small business The next goal is promoting an existing small business. Maybe you have developed a business that offers products and/or services. So your goal of your Instagram would be promoting that business.

A blend of both And then there are those, like me, who do a blend of both. You create content because you’re passionate about it, and you are making income through some of those common influencer income streams, but maybe you’re also offering digital products or services to your audience to help solve their problem.

Before you really start moving forward with any other step in this process, it’s crucial to figure out the path you want to take. There’s no right or wrong answer, and you can always change your mind down the road. For example, I didn’t always sell digital products; that was something that I grew into. So just choose a starting point goal that will help get you to where you want to be.

Step 2: Create your custom strategy.

To find the perfect strategy for your Instagram, you have to find the intersection between these three things:

1. What you like making

2. What your audience will like consuming

3. What you realistically have time for

What you like making: First, you need to find what you even enjoy making. What are you passionate about? What can you see yourself talking about every single day? If you had 1 million followers right now, would you still be talking about this topic?

And it’s not just about the topic; it’s also about the format. For example, do you enjoy creating reels, graphics, or carousels? And even with those types of formats, what types of reels do you most enjoy creating – trendy reels, or maybe in-depth, talking-head style reels?

Something else I find helpful is to ask yourself what type of content you personally like to consume. Usually, that will be the type of content that you enjoy creating the most.

These are some of the things you can ask yourself when trying to decide what it is that you truly enjoy creating.

What your audience will like consuming: I know this is your Instagram, but the reality is – it’s not all about you. You also have to create something that your audience likes to consume. You have to really consider what topics your ideal audience likes to consume and how they like to consume, if you want to build a successful business with your Instagram content.

And before really figuring out what type of content your audience likes to consume, I guess you need to figure out who your ideal audience even is. The best way to do this is by creating avatars. This just means a fictitious person that you feel would fit most with your brand. That way, instead of thinking of your “audience“ as a number, you’re thinking about them as an actual person.

For example, if your brand is something to do with fitness, maybe more in the yoga niche. I might imagine a female in her mid-30s who really likes neutral and pastel tones, who loves iced Matcha and Boba tea, who lives in cute, matching athletic wear sets, practices morning journaling, and enjoys skincare routines. And I could see her sitting in a comfortable reading nook with her fuzzy socks, and reading self-help books before bed, so she feels inspired to tackle the day tomorrow. And let’s call her Abby.

So now, instead of creating content for someone who likes yoga. You are creating content for Abby, and when you are brainstorming, what your ideal audience would enjoy, you are actually asking yourself, what would Abby enjoy.

now that you have really figured out who you’re creating for, that’s when you truly can figure out what they like or don’t like.

Since you probably don’t already have followers that you can just straight up, ask, “what do you want me to post about?” You might be wondering, how do I even figure this out?

Remember, all of those qualities we gave your avatar, Abby? It’s time to find the Abby’s of Instagram. Grab your favorite beverage, and really plan to spend some time scouring Instagram for your ideal type of audience.

You can do this by going to other Instagram accounts that are posting content about not only “yoga“ (using this scenario as an example, obviously), but also some of the other topics, that your avatar, Abby, would enjoy.

What type of content are these accounts posting and what does their engagement look like? Does it seem like they’re getting a lot of engagement on Reels, if so, what styles of reels? Does it seem like people are interested in graphic carousels or maybe the photo dump type of carousels? You’re really just using this time to see what others in a similar topic are doing and what is successful for them.

It’s also all about experimenting. You can try out a certain style of content in the beginning, and if it’s not giving you the results you want, you can switch things up. And, of course, as you build an audience, you can ask what they would like to see from you.

What you realistically have time for: Sure, you might love creating videos, and maybe your audience loves it too, but you can’t just take that information and say that you’re going to post five reels in one week because you might not realistically have enough time to do that. Your strategy is only helpful if you can actually implement week after week. Otherwise, you’ll create a strategy that you never actually use - which means, you won’t grow. You really have to evaluate your time and think about each stage of the creation process, which might be planning, filming, editing, design, creation, caption writing, and being available to post timely content on your stories.

Realistically, how much time do you have each week to work on content creation? Try to determine the amount of hours you’re able to commit right now. And then you might even need to do a bit of a test run on these content creation processes to see how long it takes you to complete from start to finish. Once you have that information, you can determine exactly how much content in a week you can create.

It can be a long process to really think through each of these areas and find that perfect intersection that will set you up for sustainable success on Instagram. If you haven’t already, I have a completely free resource called the 0-1000 follower growth guide that goes over this framework in depth, I’ll have it linked in the show notes.

Step 3: Use this framework to develop a content plan

Now that you have figured out exactly what type of content you’re going to create, it’s time to create a plan or what I like to call a content strategy, or a content framework, which is essentially a blank content calendar that holds the structure of the content you’re going to create.

The whole purpose of this is so when it comes time to start brainstorming specific ideas for your content, you know exactly what you’re creating, when you’re creating it, and can essentially fill in the blanks on your pre-created content calendar. It also means you’ll have some consistency in your strategy over the longer term. Ideally, this content strategy or framework is something you stick with for several months at a time. This will allow you to adequately test the strategy and know if it’s working for you or not. You can do this on paper, or my preference is a platform like Notion. I actually have a free Notion content calendar template that I will link in the show notes for you.

But if you would rather start from scratch or use a different platform, here are some of the things you might want to include in your content strategy.

First of all, since you have decided when you’re going to post, you can create blank templates for each type of content type.

For example, if you decided that you were going to post reels, carousel photo dumps, and memes, you can create a template in your content calendar for each of these post types so that when it comes time to plan your actual content ideas, you can simply generate this template that already has all of the basic information, like status, post format, and platform.

Then you can also have your story posting cadence planned as well. What days will you post stories, what times those days, and what types of things will you post about.

Having all of this laid out on a calendar will make the actual content planning be so much more efficient!

Step Four: Come up with your actual content ideas

Now it’s time to actually come up with ideas, and since you've developed a content plan, this should be a lot easier to complete.

One of the most common questions I get is how to come up with ideas, and though it might seem overwhelming looking at a blank paper, since you've already decided on some of the topics you’re going to post about, this should help you already have a strong starting point for coming up with ideas. But how can you find ideas that are actually going to generate views?

First Step: Always start with your existing audience. If you’re starting from scratch, you might not have an audience, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use your ideal audience's feedback. If you have even a few people following you, you can ask them by doing a story poll or simply direct messaging them on Instagram.

But if not, the best way you can find feedback from your ideal audience is to go to the accounts of creators in a similar niche or topic theme to you and look through their posts to see what people are asking. I never recommend just copying somebody else’s content, but if you scroll through their comments, you’ll be surprised about the ideas that you can find in there from people who may just become your audience members.

For example, if somebody in the social media marketing niche posted about reels, and I looked through the comments, I might see some very specific questions about how to schedule reels or find copyright-free music for reels. And that would let me know that there are people, either following me or who haven’t followed me yet, who would find that information helpful, and I could create content based on those questions that were asked to another creator in a similar niche as me.

Second Step: You can go beyond social media and just do some research on updates in your niche, trending news, or topics, or even find blog posts or articles on the topic and let that help generate some ideas.

For example, if I found an article post about about creating video content for social media, and one of the subheadlines of this article was about the struggles of filming on your iPhone, I could very easily do a reel on my Instagram all about how to produce high-quality reels using just your phone - which is actually a Reel I’ve created and I’ll have that linked in the show notes as well if you’d find that helpful.

Third Step: Go to accounts that you really enjoy that have absolutely nothing to do with your specific niche. Scroll through their content and ask yourself why you enjoy it, and you can take inspiration from their content and even some of the themes in their content and figure out how to adapt that strategy into your own niche.

This is one of my favorite strategies for coming up with ideas because you don’t risk taking too much inspiration from a “competitor” account. But instead, you’re taking inspiration from an account that’s nothing like yours and figuring out how to have it make sense for your audience. More than anything, you’re taking inspiration from the creativity and style of the content, and how to adapt it to be about your topic.

My operations manager, Shelby, who creates the content for the Creatorly Media Instagram, personally follows a lot of mom-related content because she is a mom. So she occasionally will pull inspiration from those for the Creatorly account.

For example, there is a reel she saw recently about a mom and the crazy thoughts that go on in her head throughout the day about her child. But now, she is adapting that into the crazy thoughts that go through the mind of a content creator or small business owner, using that same format for the Creatorly account. The idea was clever, had nothing to do with social media or content creation, so it’s fun to take that and adapt it into your own niche.

Step Five: Turn those ideas into content

Don’t worry; we are getting close. Now that you have the framework and the actual ideas, it’s time to start creating, and the best way to do that is by creating a preplanned workflow or routine on how you’re going to create this content.

Already having an established routine solidified before creating will make sure that all of the content gets created with less overwhelm, and it will help you stay consistent. This is going to look different for everybody.

For example, both my partner and I work from home in a very small condo (or we are traveling in a renovated van together), so we have to work together to plan the best times for me to film. He doesn’t have meetings on Fridays usually, so that is my filming day.

…and because Fridays became the best day for me to film, all the other days fell into place. Mondays, I edit and if needed, I can let that go into Tuesday. I’ll have the middle of the week to write and plan, and then on Fridays, I will film, and then the week repeats itself over and over again.

This method works best for me because it aligns with my partner's schedule, who is also at home (or, in a van). For you, this might be kids and nap time or a full-time job you need to be at during the day. Review your existing schedule, really consider all of the non-negotiable priorities, and then find a way to fit in the various steps of the content creation process.

I also highly recommend starting small. I know it can be easy to get ahead of ourselves and say, ”I’m going to post five times per week, mostly Reels! And then, for stories, I’ll post three times a day - every single day!”

But in reality, that might not be suitable for your existing priorities. So make sure you create a routine that will work for you, so that you’re not getting to a point where you're having trouble staying consistent because:

1. This can lead to burnout.

2. You might get frustrated and decide that you “can’t do this,” even though you can, if you set up the proper routine.

Have fun with this. If content creation feels like too much of a chore, then it might not be for you. Content creation takes a lot of work but should mostly be fun and creative. So make sure to create a routine that’s going to keep it that way.

Step Six: Stay the course!

I know all about the comparison trap. I still fall for this all the time. It’s something that might not ever fully go away, but it is something you need to be cautious of. Most creators you see having success have probably been doing this for years, even if they just created their current account. I’m sure they have been doing lots of things leading up to this that have provided them the skills they need to find success quicker.

For example, if a photographer all of a sudden decided they wanted to start creating content on Instagram, their photos are probably going to look a lot higher quality than somebody who has an older iPhone and knows nothing about lighting.

The speed at which it will take you to grow a successful content creation business is unknown. But the most important thing you can do is just stay the course, keep working on your content, improve over time, and focus on providing value to your audience.

How I’ve implemented this framework into my Katie & Dan in a Van Instagram account.

The Framework:

We focus on three types of content: reels, carousel photo dumps, and stories.

We post two times a week—one trendy-style reel and one carousel photo dump of all our recent travels.

Then, we are active in our stories at least three times per week. Of course, I'm also active in my own personal brand stories, and if I didn't have my personal brand, I would probably be posting a little heavier on this account. But this is what I have time for, and the same goes for anybody who is balancing something else and their creation on the side. You have to find the balance between what will help you grow and what you have to create.

Now, something also important to keep in mind is the goal you have for your content. Our goal with the "Katie and Dan in a Van" Instagram is to lead people to our YouTube channel where we post our travel vlogs. So, the goal of each piece of content is really to create curiosity so that people might want to hop over to the YouTube channel and see more.

This posting schedule and goal are going to be completely different for everybody.

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Outro:

Now, I know if this is a lot of upfront work, but now that you’ve done all of this, you just repeat the last three steps over and over again: come up with ideas, create your ideas, stay the course…come up with more ideas, create your ideas, stay the course.

If you do this and keep at it, I think you’ll be surprised with the results you have in the next year. Give yourself time. One year sounds like forever, but I assure you, if you work your tail off and stay consistent for a full year, you will see results.

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