How to create your content strategy on Instagram?

To be successful in your business, it is best to quickly reach your Product-Market Fit, i.e. to achieve a perfect alignment between what you sell (your product), your message and your audience.

In this article, we'll focus on the brand message you want to convey on your Instagram account through your published content. Let's get started.

Define your content pillars

The content pillars are the main themes that are addressed when you deliver content to your audience. These pillars are part of a larger content marketing package that will enable you to implement your content strategy.

To achieve this, you will need to identify all the topics that relate directly to your brand and its identity, as well as related topics that are likely to be of interest to your target audience and that support your message.

Taking the example of a French cosmetics brand, the following themes could be considered:

• The ingredients used in the composition.
• Beauty routines
• Clothing (laboratory or factory)
• Nature if your products are organic
• French know-how
• Lifestyle of your target
• Etc...

These different strategic themes can obviously be divided into sub-categories with different forms of possible content.

Once you have established your content pillars, also choose the themes and sub-themes that you absolutely do not want to use so as not to confuse your message with irrelevant topics.

This preliminary work is very time-consuming but essential. Once this work is done, the planning of your next post will be much simpler. You will no longer have to ask yourself the question of what to post every day, you will follow your publication schedule to the letter.

Prepare a posting schedule

It is a kind of spreadsheet in which you will organize your next posts according for reach marketing channel. There are many tools available to help you structure your calendar, such as Airtable or Notion, to name the best known.

Drawing inspiration from the competition

Nothing original in itself, but your competitors' accounts are a good starting point for establishing your content strategy. Always keep in mind that it is fundamental to focus on differentiation, however a competitor's account is a source of good ideas to learn from.

To illustrate this, we will look at the content pillars of several companies.

Case study : Earth of Mars

Terre de Mars is a brand of cosmetics based on coffee grounds developed by an entrepreneur friend. Let's see if he has followed the above precepts to the letter.

The first positive point is that Terre de Mars is a model of clarity in its message.

Form of content

• High-quality & clean photos
• No overlay text
• The packaging is staged in a setting that resembles a luxury lifestyle or fashion photo.
• A reduced color chart (black, white, wood)

Background of the message

A look at the Mars Earth publication feed shows :

• Landscapes
• Architecture and interior design
• Natural ingredients or plants
• The "Terre de Mars" products

Message conveyed

All the decorations are uncluttered to emphasise the premium nature of the products. The nature and some landscapes support the environmental fibre.

In the end, very few publications are directly related to the products, but all the publications reinforce the association of the message with the brand: purity, elegance, aestheticism, quality, high quality.

Pace of posting

We notice that Terre de Mars has not defined a publication rhythm by theme. To simplify the work of the community manager, one could have imagined :

• Monday - Design
• Wednesday - Product
• Friday - Landscapes
• Sunday - Ingredients

Kookapi case study

In our second example, we are going to study the Kookapi brand, which sells insect-based kibbles for our canine friends.

Form of content

• Quality photos
• Living images
• No overlay text
• UGC numerous

Background of the message

A look at the Kookapi publication feed shows :

• Different breeds of dogs in large spaces
• Photos of owners interacting with their pets
• Ingredients (insects or plants)
• Kookapi" products in their packaging always accompanied by a dog

Message conveyed

Kookapi shows the complicity between the master and his furry companion. This relationship continues in the choice of quality food. Nature is omnipresent, probably to reinforce the environmental impact.

The pillars of Kookapi's content are therefore the following: Nature, complicity dog master, quality of the products.

Note that Kookapi's marketers chose not to emphasize the insect component on Instagram, probably because the type of content associated with it (worm photos) could be more off-putting than unifying. They also put aside the kibble manufacturing part which was not suitable for their brand.

Since we're bringing an outside eye to the brand, I'd find it appropriate to add a few photos of dogs eating the kibble to accentuate the fact that the food is delicious (even if no dog will be able to say so in person 😄)

Pace of posting

There are no strict rules here either. If we wanted to organise our feed, we could alternate posts according to the main themes

• Monday: ingredients
• Wednesday: Dog in the wild
• Friday: Dog eating kibble
• Sunday: Dog playing with its master

With these few examples, you should have all the cards in hand to develop your content pillars. Good luck 👍

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