Instagram Content Planning Strategy

When I asked my Instagram audience WHY content creation is such a struggle, the overwhelming response was, “Not enough time.”

So I’m here to walk you through how I batch out Instagram content for my clients for an entire MONTH in one sitting!

If you’re familiar with me then you have no doubt heard me talk about batching before, so this will come as no surprise.

Basically, batching is when you set aside a certain amount of time (it can be minutes, hours, or even days) to fully complete a task. And during that time you ONLY work on that one task.

By doing this, it allows you to get into the flow and have your full focus be on a single task. Doing this is WAY more efficient than trying to switch back and forth between multiple things.

But don’t take my word for it, there have been multiple studies done on this exact thing! Just Google it. 😉

Since I like to knock out an entire MONTH of content in one sitting, I set aside one full day a month to do this. It usually doesn’t take me the full day, so I have some time leftover to have a nice glass of wine and Netflix binge afterwards.

If you’re a newbie to batching or trying to crank out an entire month at a time just seems a tad overwhelming, start small and try it for a week at a time first! If your goal is to get up 5 Instagram posts a week, and it averages about 30 minutes to prep and schedule each post, this will total ~2.5 hours give or take. So set aside 2.5 hours each week and knock it all out. Then as you get more into the swing of things up it to two weeks at a time, then three weeks, then shoot for an entire month (or more)!

Here’s the secret though:

IF YOU DON’T SCHEDULE THE TIME, IT’S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.

You likely know you need to be creating content...I mean, that’s how you establish your credibility and expertise, it’s how you grow your audience, and it’s how you ultimately convert people to paying customers. So uh, pretty important, right?

But the thing is…

It often falls to the bottom of our priority list only to be forgotten about, or we tell ourselves, “I just don’t have time,” or we just get so overwhelmed at the prospect of actually doing it we do nothing at all.

And trust me, I get it! I’ve done ALL of those.

So I want you to grab your planner or phone (wherever you keep track of your schedule) and find at least two hours within the next 5 days to block off for some content planning and creation.

Yes, literally right now. I’ll wait.

Did you do it? GREAT.

Now let me break down exactly how we can ditch the overwhelm and GET 👏 TO 👏 WORK.👏

So first things first, let’s talk about some

PREP WORK.

In order to sit down and write captions for an entire month, you’ll obviously need photos for the posts. I’m sure you can already guess, but taking and editing photos is another thing I batch! And if you can get in the habit of thinking one month ahead for photos you’ll need, you will very much thank yourself.

Are there any upcoming events you have where you can ask a friend to snap some shots of you? Love a good behind-the-scenes or action shot!

Is there anything next month that will be a big announcement that you need to create a graphic or take a fun photo for?

Try to get in the habit of thinking ahead, always take more photos than you need, and keep them on hand to create a photo bank of images that you can pick and choose from. I store everything within the Planoly app - more details on this soon. 😉

The other thing you’ll want to start banking is content IDEAS. Because let’s just be honest here, how many times have you sat there staring at a blinking cursor thinking, “Whelp….what now?” I thought so. lol

Don’t worry though, I shared some tips on this for ya, too, check out this post!

But now that you have your photos and a bank of content categories and ideas, it’s time to get into

BATCH MODE.

The first thing I do is organize my photos to create my desired feed aesthetic for the month. So if I’m posting 5 times a week, times 4 weeks in a month, I’ll need to curate a total of 20 images. I do this by dragging and dropping my images directly within the Planoly app to help me visualize my feed ahead of time!

After I’ve created a feed aesthetic I’m happy with, I go post by post and add my:

Caption

Hashtags

Geotag

And tag any relevant accounts on the image

Wondering how I get Instagram to retain the formatting of my captions? Easy peasy. I use this website, paste in my caption, it works some magic, then I copy it back into Planoly. Et voila!

After I’ve updated every post, I check in on my peak posting times for each day. If you have an Instagram business account, it will show you the exact times your audience is the most active based on day directly in your insights!

Then I go through and schedule each post to auto-post, and DONE.

My brain is now freed up for the entire rest of the month from having to worry about what to post!

Don’t lie, that sounds pretty freaking ideal, right?

Well my friend...you can totally do this, too!

Pick a certain day every month/week/two weeks/whatever, block it off on your calendar, and just do it!

I promise you’ll thank yourself later. 😘

If you want to learn more, make sure you check out my Instagram Playbook! It comes with tips on how to build real relationships with your followers, caption party starters, a hashtag strategy that will help you get in front of new clients and so much more! Get immediate access to my IG Playbook here!

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#SocialMedia #Entrepreneurship