make templates your friend! How to post consistently on Instagram
Have you vowed to be “more consistent” on Instagram this year?
If you use Instagram (or any social media platform for that matter), to market your small business you have, no doubt, heard that you need to be consistent. Showing up consistently is vital to growing your Instagram account, building trust and helping potential clients understand why they should work with you.
However, constantly creating new content, week in and week out, can feel overwhelming.
I don’t know about you, but I want to spend my time working with dream clients, not making content all day!
Fortunately there’s an easy way to do just that.
What does “consistency” even mean? And why does it matter?
First of all, let’s get one thing clear, “consistency” doesn’t necessarily mean “daily”. Posting 3x per week can still be“consistent” - if you post 3x per week, every week.
Ultimately, consistency is about being reliable and building momentum with your content. When you show up consistently your audience:
Learns what to expect from you
Understands the value you can bring them (both on and off the platform)
Feels connected to you/your brand
This makes you and your business memorable and keeps users coming back for more. It also builds trust - which you want, because who do we buy from? People we trust!
In addition to your posting schedule, consistency is also about HOW you show up.
Having a clear niche (what you are known for), posting with your ideal client or customer in mind and having a cohesive in your brand voice, visual vibe and messaging is also part of being consistent.
The quality of your content also matters. High quality content, can gain traction for days, weeks or even months after posting. Posting 3x quality Reels, for example, could get you the same (or better!) results than 7x mediocre posts.
So, how do you show up consistently without spending all day on your phone? There are a number of tactics I recommend to my coaching clients and students, but the following two are my favourites:
two easY ways to be consistent on instagram
1. Make Templates Your Friend
Templates are hands-down one of the easiest ways to create content consistently and to create content with visual consistency.
Invest a few hours creating templates for content that you share all the time. I personally use (and highly recommend) a Canva Pro account because you can resize designs for the Instagram feed to Stories/Reels size with a click of a button.
5 Must-have templates to create:
Client Testimonial or Customer Review - Create templates with photos of your products (physical or digital) and copy + paste all the raving reviews you receive via email, direct message or Google Reviews
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) - These are great templates to have on hand to share to your stories or feed on a regular basis to help potential customers or clients with the decision-making process
Blog/Vlog/Podcast - If you regularly publish long-form content you need this! Create a template that you can update for every new episode or communiqué.
Best-Sellers - Like FAQs, having ready-to-share templates that showcase your most popular products or services means you can repeatedly share this information with followers in mere minutes.
Staff/Customer/Client profile - If you have more than one ‘face’ for your brand or business, let us meet them. This helps to humanise your brand and gives your staff a chance to shine. Likewise, you can create templates to showcase your customers, clients, suppliers, you name it!
Done-for you templates
If you are looking for incredible done-for-you templates, look no further than Your Template Club. I use these templates myself because I love their fun designs and the fact that I can quickly customise these with my own fonts, colours, images etc. inside of Canva.
Right now you can get 5x Free Canva Templates for Instagram Reels so make sure you snap these up before they’re gone.
2. reuse your content
One of the most underrated ways to show up consistently and to communicate your key messages (without spending all day on your phone), is to reuse your content and yes, you can totally do this.
It’s not cheating!
I reuse my content all the time and here's why:
5 Reasons to reuse content:
Because it saves time
Not everyone sees your posts (hello algorithms!)
So new followers can see your best content
People often need to hear a message more than once before taking action
It’s your content. Use it as often as you want to.
And did I mention that it saves time?!
How to reuse your content:
Reuse - Reshare popular posts or Reels. Simply re-post your image and caption in a new post or upload a Reel to Instagram again.
Refresh - Breathe new life into existing content with new information or added value. This is great for long-form content such as blog posts which you can update with new or additional information or add value such as a freebie for your readers to download.
Reformat - (my favourite!) Reformat your content to share elsewhere on Instagram or on other platforms.
For example:
Turn a feed post into a Reel
Repurpose a blog post into a carousel (or vice versa like I’ve done here!)
Resize a Reel into a square feed video to post on Facebook
Just some of the ways you can repurpose long-form content for Instagram
Depending on your audience size and preferences, your own schedule, and your business goals, posting “consistently” may mean 3x per week or every day.
In order to maintain your chosen post frequency, try reusing, refreshing or repurposing your existing content. This not only saves time but ensures that new followers see your best work.
Fun fact: This blog post is actually repurposed from a post I shared on Instagram (and it is now also an email I send as part of my welcome sequence) - purely for demonstration purposes, of course 😉
Now go and reuse that content!
Note: This blog post includes affiliate links, which means if you purchase via a link I shared, I receive a small commission, at no cost to you.