How To Create A Consistent Instagram Aesthetic

It sounds like just a bit of jargon or an empty filler phrase doesn’t it? Instagram aesthetic this and that. You might feel like it’s some abstract idea floating in social media nothingness, but we’re here to tell you otherwise.

Your Instagram aesthetic is an actual thing that you need to put some time and effort into. Getting your aesthetic right and consistent can do wonders for you and your brand no matter what you use your account for.

Why A Consistent Instagram Aesthetic Matters For Your Brand

So, of course, you may be asking yourself, “What does having a consistent Instagram aesthetic actually do for my brand?”

The answer is: everything!

You want to grow your following? Improve your aesthetic…

Trying to increase your accounts engagement? Have a cohesive aesthetic that appeals to your following.

Maybe you wanna reach more users, build a larger audience, and boost brand awareness? Need we say it again? Enhance your Instagram aesthetic!

When visitors check out your profile, the look and feel of your page gives the first impression of your business. If visitors see a beautiful profile with a cool aesthetic that fits your brand, then they’re more likely to hit the follow button. Your existing followers are also more likely to engage and share your content if it looks great. More engagement and more shares means more people get to see the content you share!

Finally, Instagram has established itself as a megahouse for businesses and a hub for digital commerce. That means more and more potential customers check out a business or brand’s Instagram profile these days. This makes creating the best Instagram aesthetic super important for customer attraction and for other users’ perception of your brand and brand identity.

8 Steps To Create A Consistent Instagram Aesthetic For Your Brand Or Business

Now you’re probably asking yourself how you can transform or improve your brand’s IG look, feel, style and vibe so that users can connect better with your profile. Well, here are eight steps to help you improve your Instagram.

P.S. They’re super simple to do and basically cost-free so there’s no excuse not to try them out!

Identify Your Brand Identity & Personality

You can’t create a brand aesthetic without first defining your brand identity and personality. Crafting how you want your brand to relate with other users online is extremely important work because it guides every aesthetic and content choice you make.

You need to ask yourself a few questions.

What is my brand’s tone or vibe?
If my brand were a person, what would their personality be like? Humorous or serious? Formal or casual? Adventurous, out there and bubbly?
What are my brand’s values and principles?

Answering these questions will help you in making decisions about your aesthetic and what kind of message it tells about your brand and brand story.

Know Your Target Audience

A huge part of understanding your brand means also understanding your target audience. What products and services do you offer and who are they for? Or what kinds of people is your personal brand meant for?

Defining your audience and learning what they like can help you better achieve goals like attracting new followers. When you know what potential followers prefer and enjoy aesthetically, you can use this insight to carefully craft your aesthetic.

Look For Inspiration & Create A Brand Moodboard

It’s always a good idea to look to others for inspiration. Find similar brands or businesses to yours on Instagram and take note of their aesthetic choices.

You can also look at pages that you like or follow and analyze what you like about their stuff. Collect the best things that you find and create a brand moodboard to help you visualize the feel that you’re leaning towards.

Develop A Style Guide

With your audience preferences, brand identity and personality, and moodboard, you can now begin to make choices about what your Instagram aesthetic will be like.

Consider design elements like color, line, texture, space, text or font, size, and contrast. By making final and distinct choices about these elements, you can create a style guide for your branding team members to abide by for consistent content creation.

When thinking about your brand’s style and color palette, it’s worth understanding what different colors mean and how to use them strategically. To find out more, check out our article on color psychology in social media marketing.

Don’t Underestimate The Effects Of A Good Edit

One thing you can do to create consistent-looking content, and to touch up pictures so they meet the same standard, is to edit your pictures. With a range of free editing tools available for your use, you can adjust image colors, add filters and play with textures and texts to bring life to your feed.

The best part is that you can make a list of acceptable edits, filters or presets and add this to your style guide too! This makes it quick and easy to edit photos in a way that suits your brand.

Establish A Consistent Content Strategy

The kind of content you share also contributes to your brand’s consistency. You need to make clear decisions about what kinds of content your brand posts and why. Creating a content strategy is a brilliant way to keep track of content creation choices, including your use of user-generated content (UGC) and how you can fit it in so that it still suits your overall Instagram aesthetic.

Preview & Plan Your Content

With your content created, you now have to make sure each piece of content fits together just right. It’s like doing a jigsaw puzzle and a feed preview tool makes it easier for you to find the pieces that complement one another.

Preview and plan your content, and then schedule it so that the order of your content makes sense. This is where Preppr comes to the rescue! Find out more about visualizing and scheduling your Instagram feed here.

Match All Your Content To Your New Aesthetic

Remember, your feed is not the only content space on Instagram. You have Stories, IGTV, and Reels, and more is still sure to come. Make sure to use the tips above to ensure consistency across all these spaces and your other platforms, too!