Instagram Content Strategy: Beat Competitors With These Tips

A big part of your success in gaining followers is creating the best Instagram content strategy on the platform. There are a lot of moving parts to ensure this happens efficiently and you can repeat the process. We’ll share how to do this throughout the article so you can get an edge over competitors. 

You’ll also discover why using templates for your IG content strategy is the right move. It offers advantages such as increasing consistency and speeding up the production time. This makes it easier for inexperienced content creators to develop the best strategy. 

What Is a Content Strategy? 

A content strategy includes various components such as goals, audience profiles, production plans, and more. You need to address each of these factors to ensure that the end goal meets your objectives. Here’s a further summary of the components that go into what is a content strategy:

• Audience profile: You need to consider the Instagram target audience before coming up with a content strategy. This ensures the content relevance is high, and you can expect a good level of engagement. To improve your understanding of the Instagram target audience, you can use customer relationship management software. This automates the process of harvesting actionable data. 
• Goals: Your content production needs to have goals. This can include increasing the Instagram follower count or getting a target-like count. Without goals, you won’t have the sense of direction to aim upward and improve. 
• Production and publishing pace: You need to consider the rate at which you will publish content. You can do this a few times a week or daily. It’s important to provide your audience with steady content to keep your account relevant. 
• Budget: Think about the amount of money you decide to spend on your content. Spending more money is likely to increase the production value. However, you also need funds for advertising and product development. Hence, it’s vital to balance the amount of funds you spend on content production. 
• Format: Consider the Instagram format you’ll use for your content. There are multiple ways to publish on Instagram, which include live streams, Stories, and Reels. A mix of different content might be the best approach to capture a bigger audience.

Use Instagram Scheduling Tools

Instagram scheduling tools are an excellent way to automate the process of content publishing. It allows you to line up content for a long time into the future, so you don’t need to publish manually. Hence, you can take time off from Instagram and still release a steady stream of content. 

You’ll find many scheduling tools for social media with a free trial option. This means you can give the software a try to evaluate the performance. Make sure to pay attention to the features and user interface. 

The availability of extra features is a great idea since you can upgrade the quality of your content. For example, some tools may allow you to post the first comment after publishing automatically. This can kick-start the comments section and increase your engagement. 

The paid version of these tools typically unlocks the best features. For example, you can synchronize content published for multiple social media platforms. Therefore, you can streamline your strategy for different platforms from a single location.

How To Create an Instagram Content Strategy

Now, let’s look at the process of how to create an Instagram content strategy. This section provides tips and advice for how to stand out on Instagram. Therefore, you can dominate even the most competitive of niches. 

1. Research Your Competitors

Consider starting by looking at what your competitors are up to determine what quality you must match. Also, you can get a lot of ideas from competitors and make them your own by adding a unique twist. Here are some of the top things you should think about when researching competitor content strategies:

• Posting frequency: The rate of posting is one of the first things you must look at when evaluating competitor content strategies. The top competitors will have done the research on the top times to post. You can take advantage of this research to identify what posting patterns work best. 
• Title: Consider the type of post tiles used, which includes length and keywords. Perhaps you may spot a pattern where specific titles get the best results. However, you shouldn’t copy competitor title strategies. Instead, take note of the format and create your own. 
• Hashtags: Are you wondering how to use hashtags on Instagram? Then, look at the way competitors implement them into their content. You’ll likely see that a small handful of hashtags is the best approach. Also, rotating high-traffic hashtags can get you the best result. It’s likely that your top competitors have found the best-performing hashtags, and you can use them too. 
• Type of images: Look at the quality and type of images used in their posts. Your audience may want the same kind of content. That’s especially true when you and the competitor have a perfect match for the Instagram target audience. 
• Comments section: Identify your competitors’ commenting strategy to see what Instagram users expect. You can scan through your competitor’s post comments and look at what comments the account author leaves. Do they answer every question, and what is the length of their answers? Figuring out these small details will help you craft a comment section strategy with your content. 

2. Hire Content Professionals

Do you not have the skills to create industry-leading content on Instagram? Then, it’s time to hire professionals who specialize in social media content production. The ideal candidate will have executed a highly-performing content strategy for Instagram. This ensures you have the highest chance of getting a result from the hire. 

You can opt for freelancers with a proven track record or a reputable Instagram marketing agency. The latter may have more resources and reduce the amount of time it takes to create content. 

Ask what type of content they can create when hiring content professionals. Ideally, they will have experience with the content you want, which might be Instagram Reels or Stories.

3. Invest in a Project Management System

Project management systems allow you to create a content pipeline with a team of employees. This is a key ingredient for scaling your Instagram cotton production. Some of the top project management systems include Trello, Asana, Monday, and ClickUp. 

Choose the software with the features you need to create the best workflow. These apps are typically cloud-based, which means remote team members can access them remotely.

The software helps ensure content production is timely. Also, you can look at the progress of all work and figure out if it’s on track. Therefore, you can identify bottlenecks and when content needs extra attention to meet deadlines. 

4. How To Choose the Right Subject Matter

The best content strategy on Instagram is one where you have a lot of passion or expertise. That’s because your audience will pick up on either of these and pique their interest. Hence, you can speak with authority and create high-quality content. It’s an innate advantage that makes it easier to create content. 

In comparison, when creating content with no passion or knowledge, you’ll struggle to get the attention you need. A common trap is going after high-paying niches like how to make money, trading, or supplements. However, they are very competitive, and you need the best content to stand a chance. 

5. Optimize to Game the Instagram Algorithm

The Instagram algorithm determines the content in the feed of regular users. Factors like relevance are important, so you must match the content to the audience’s interests. However, high engagement is the key to gaming the Instagram algorithm in any niche. 

With that thought in mind, here are some of the top things you can do to increase user engagement:

• Get more Instagram likes: The algorithm analyzes the number of likes your content receives. To get higher like counts, you must create better content. However, you can also ask for likes in clever ways. For example, you can set a like-count target for the post to give your audience a goal. 
• Participate in comments: You can take part in the comments section of your posts to increase the chances of audience participation. This is one of the key metrics the IG algorithm monitors to analyze engagement. 
• Shares: Getting more content shares also boosts the amount of recognition you get from the Instagram algorithm. The best way to increase your shares is to ask for them and to improve content quality.

Advantages of an Instagram Content Strategy Template

It’s important to use Instagram content strategy templates to create a winning standard for your content production. Note that you can either create your templates or research some of the top ones you can download. 

Here are some of the top benefits of using templates if you’re still on the fence:

• Modify on the go: You can modify templates as many times as you need. This is important to ensure you’re up to date on the latest trends and strategies. Ideally, you should use software that makes it easy to update content templates. 
• Consistency across the team: Templates help ensure that different teams end up making consistent content. For example, you may want to ensure that your team follows a brand template while creating the work.
• Baseline quality: The right template can help provide a baseline level of quality for content production. This means you’re unlikely to have posts where the content quality is dramatically worse than others. 
• Speed: Templates can help speed up the process of content production. That’s because some elements of the post may already have the correct assets created. This includes images, graphics, and hashtag research.

Instagram Content Strategy: Can Anyone Do It? 

Anyone can create an Instagram content strategy with the large number of tools available. You simply need to have a sense of direction for the Instagram account. That’s why having a passion or expertise in the subject matter is important for making content production easier. 

Now that you have a few ideas for how to create an Instagram content strategy, give it a try. You may soon see the quality of your content significantly increase as you get a bunch of new followers. 

Also, creating the right strategy is an ongoing process that never stops in pursuit of getting better engagement. That’s because social media audiences are always on the lookout for the next new thing. 

Are you still struggling to get more Instagram followers with your content strategy? Then, choose Plixi to get more followers in a short amount of time. We combine our network of IG influencers and in-house algorithm to match you with the right target audience. Start growing and gaining Instagram followers today.