If you are a business looking to use Instagram to increase brand awareness, here are some tips for creating eye-catching aesthetics that will make you stand out.

In today’s world, an Instagram page has become synonymous with a business card.

According to Instagram Statistics, 84% of people want to discover new products on Instagram. Moreover, they claim 2 in every 3 business profile visits are from people who don’t follow them yet.

These are promising stats for businesses looking to use Instagram to increase brand awareness. But, with over 1 billion users on the platform, how do you make your brand’s Instagram page stand out from the crowd?

Here is the essential guide:

1. Know your Brand

Without even clicking on a post, your Instagram aesthetic gives users a sense of who you are as a brand. Hence, the best place to start when developing an aesthetic is establishing who you are looking to communicate yourself as.

With this in mind, the main things you need to consider in this process are:

Target Audience

When determining what content to post, you need to understand the audience you are trying to connect with. For instance, a children’s sportswear store will have a very different aesthetic from a high-end diamond jeweller. So, by first determining who your target audience are, you will then have a sound basis for developing a suitable aesthetic.

Brand Personality

Developing a brand personality relates to the human characteristics that represent your brand.

For example, it may be…

• Casual and fun?
• Minimalist and cool?
• Formal and composed?

Core Values

These are the priorities of your brand that will inform the overall ‘vibe’ of your page. For instance, if you were a plant-based food store that sells eco-friendly goods, you want your brand’s Instagram page to reflect these eco-centric values. Although, it doesn’t have you be over the top. Instead, it can show up in the theme, colour and content you post.

2. Design an Instagram Aesthetic

Research finds consumers judge a brand within 90 seconds of seeing it for the first time.

CCICOLOR – Institute for Color Research

Designing an eye-catching Instagram aesthetic is vital for making your brand stand out from the crowd.

Some design essentials include:

Choose a Theme

Choosing an overall theme is central to creating a cohesive Instagram feed. Consequently, based on your brand image, you need to decide what theme is most suited for your page. To illustrate this, it may be…

• Dark/Moody
• Cute/Girly
• Sleek/Minimalist 

The Importance of Colour

It is essential brands do not overlook the importance of colour when designing an aesthetic on Instagram.

Research has found colour influences consumer buying decisions by around 85% and increases brand recognition by 80%.

Colorcom

To harness the power of colour in consumers’ minds, brands should adopt a colour palette for their page. Although, It doesn’t have to be one colour. It can be a general tone or colour family, but whatever it is, choose in – and stick to it. The key to attractive aesthetics on Instagram is consistency. Brands should choose 5 or fewer colours for their grid. This way, if each post includes at least one of the chosen colours, they can maintain a consistent aesthetic.

Perfect an Editing Style

The most aesthetic Instagram pages have mastered their own editing style. To make the content of your grid look cohesive, it should appear as if you have taken all the images on the same day in the same lighting. Don’t worry though. You don’t need to be a pro photographer to master this task! There are thousands of Instagram presets available online. These are one-click photo editing tools that will save you hours of trying to match every post’s brightness and colour. Try some out on the Lightroom mobile app. Again, what is most important here is choosing one preset and sticking to it. Consistency throughout the grid will be most pleasing to the eye.

3. Plan your Instagram Grid

When it comes to your Instagram grid, planning your content is essential. This may sound like a daunting task but let me break it down…

Choose Types of Content

If you don’t figure out what type of content you want to post beforehand, your page will end up with a bit of everything. This should be avoided – you want consistency. However, that is not to say you must only choose one. You can mix your content up, but it is essential that you plan what you will use to create balance and consistency throughout the grid. Some forms of content brands use include:

• Brand story
• Consumer-generated content
• Product shoots
• Lifestyle posts
• Behind-the-scenes

Create Balance on your Instagram Grid

Planning the content of your grid will make your page appear thoughtful and professional. In particular, creating balance amongst the images on your feed will make it easy on the eye. But, how do you do this? One easy trick is placing busy images next to more simple or minimalist graphics. In order to work out what images look best beside each other, try the free tool, Planoly. It lets you move multiple images around to see how they look together before posting. This is a really useful tool as planning your posts not only helps you maintain a consistent aesthetic but also saves time and helps you post more regularly.

4. Don’t Stop at your Feed

Instagram Stories

It is vital for brands to not forget about maintaining their aesthetic through Instagram stories. To do this, brands should develop Instagram story style guides that will allow any team member to maintain an aesthetic when posting stories. Generally, a style guide may include:

• Font
• Colour scheme
• List of approved hashtags
• List of approved gifs
• Collection of brand images

Taking these tips and tricks on board, you will end up with a professional and cohesive Instagram page that represents the heart of who you are as a brand. It will take some passion and planning, but once you have developed an aesthetic that wows, your Instagram account will for sure go from strength to strength.

Sources

Seoul International Color Expo 2004; CCI COLOR ‐ Institute for Color
Research

Colorcom.com/research/why-color-matters