How to Batch Instagram Posts for Your Online Business

Before we tell you the best way to do it, let’s begin by defining exactly what we mean by the term “post batching.”

Post batching is much as it sounds. It’s an approach to content creation that means you produce all your content for a certain period of time at once, rather than trying to create individual pieces every time you want to post.

For example, you may schedule a few hours on a Monday morning to create all your posts for the rest of the week. Or you may even book out half a day at the beginning of the month to create all your content for that given month. If you want further details about content batching, read our article.

Post batching is all about boosting your productivity.

When you take this approach you can take time to get yourself into a creative flow. This can often result in a better quality of content as it stops you from putting yourself under pressure and allows you to roll with creative ideas.

Logistically, creating content this way can save you time as you can focus on completing the full batch of images, videos, and captions rather than having to set up for each every time.

Another major benefit of this approach is the fact that you can better plan your posts. For example, when you create a week or month’s worth of content it’s easier to consider how those posts will look visually on your feed or how they link together to tell a story or communicate a message.

Taking this approach doesn’t mean you can’t also post reactive content. But it does ensure that you maintain a steady trickle of content to keep you at the top of your audience’s feeds and slowly build your following over time.

The key to creating batch content for Instagram is knowing what your goals are before you begin.

You may already have several marketing goals that your Instagram content may help you achieve. For example, this may be a relatively wide goal of becoming a thought leader in your area, which means you would create informative and educational content. Or it may be more specific such as building interest in an upcoming event you are running – in which case the content you create would focus on promoting that event.

Knowing your goals will limit the chances of you taking a scattergun approach and ensure that your efforts are focused on helping you achieve what is important to you.

Having some inspiration to hand when creating your Instagram posts can be a great way to elevate the quality of your content and better engage your audience.

Luckily, there are countless sources of inspiration out there. For example, many creatives will use sites such as Pinterest to find content that helps spark ideas for Instagram posts. Of course, another great source for inspiration is other Instagram accounts that you feel produce the type of content you would like to put out.

You may also decide to create a list of industry events, upcoming product launches, and widely recognized public holidays to offer some post inspiration when you need it.

So, now you know what you are trying to achieve and you have some inspiration to hand, it’s time to start planning your content.

Creating a content plan before you start actually creating your content will allow you to focus and will ultimately save you time. After all, you don’t want to have to stop and think about what you want to make next time every time you take a photo or create a graphic for use on Instagram.

Your content plan should contain key information such as:

• The content idea/concept
• Details about the image or video that needs creating
• When it will be posted/ a content calendar
• Caption information and potential hashtags to use

With your content plan in hand, it will now be significantly easier to start creating content.

If you’re a one-person-band, this may be all down to you. In which case, just use the content details in your plan and get creating. Alternatively, you may be working with a photographer, videographer, or graphic designer – in which case, you will also need to provide them with the dimensions and resolutions you will require, along with the creative brief.

Good to Know: Instagram feeds have recently switched from square images to full screen. So, bear this in mind when creating content that you want to look natural in your feed.

On Instagram, it’s your image or video that will capture people’s attention. However, your captions will help you expand on a point or communicate an important message once you have grabbed their attention.

Unless you have something deep, meaningful, or highly informative to say, it’s best to keep your caption short. You may also use this space to drive appropriate action such as giving more information on the image and directing people to follow the link in your bio.

Adding hashtags is a generally accepted way to help you reach new and potentially interested people with your content. When you look at other content in your industry you will probably notice some common themes for hashtags that are used. You can also use tools such as ritetage.com or HASHTAGIFY to help give you insight into how well a hashtag may perform.

Strictly speaking, scheduling your posts isn’t part of batch creation – but it is worth mentioning nonetheless.

Once you’ve gone through the effort of bulk creating content, why would you then create future work by having to go back and post each piece manually? In your content plan, you have already laid out exactly when you are going to post that content anyway – so make use of it and schedule it.

There are plenty of tools out there that can be used to schedule your content on Instagram, such as Hootsuite and Later.

In this article, we have explored why batch-creating your Instagram content can be a smart way to save time and create better posts. We have also walked you through each step you need to follow in order to batch create your own content.

It’s clear that using post batching is a smart way to make following your social media strategy significantly easier. So what are you waiting for? Why not try batch-creating Instagram posts today?