18 Instagram Post Ideas to Keep Your Feed Fueled

Instagram is a powerful marketing tool for businesses because it visually conveys your brand’s story while also providing a platform to interact with customers. Creating a strong Instagram presence that draws followers is about more than just posting a lot of pretty pictures. Instead, it requires careful planning, styling, and consistency so that your feed looks cohesive, professional, and aesthetically pleasing.

So what does that look like? There are two main things to consider: first, you want your post to stand out on its own amongst the scroll, and second, when your page grid is viewed all at once, you want it to look like a pleasing whole made up of many cohesive posts, instead of a jumble of random squares. Choosing one or two font styles and sticking with a predetermined color palette for all your posts is the easiest way to ensure that your overall Instagram presence appears thoughtfully created. Another idea is to use the same filter on all of your photos when editing them.

18 Instagram post ideas using PicMonkey templates

Inspired to get started on making your own polished and professional Instagram feed? Here are a variety of post types you can consider creating as you build your cool, consistent, and cohesive Instagram feed. All of these pre-designed, square templates are available in the PicMonkey Template Library.

Quick steps for making an Instagram post from a PicMonkey template:

1. Browse the template options at PicMonkey.com

2. Pick the template that you like, open in the editor

3. Simply click to replace our words and images with your own

4. Your work auto-saves in Hub where it remains editable

5. When you’re ready to publish, export your image and upload to Instagram

1. Provoke thoughts with a bold quote post

Bold and no-nonsense, there is no misunderstanding what a quote post is saying. Simple words on a colored background make for a high-impact message, especially when you add just that little extra touch of something—in this case, a few complementary colors. Use this type of post to share on-brand facts, famous quotes, or to convey simple messages like “quality over quantity”.

2. Use words and images in an inspirational post

Similar to its cousin above, the words atop an image style of post takes the messaging one step further with a photo background. Make your words really pop by contrasting light text on dark photo backgrounds and vice versa. Use this type of post to share inspiration with your followers, because positive encouragement is always in style and it helps your brand to be seen as authentic and relatable.

3. Spread the word with a promotional post

Promotional posts are perfect for announcing a sale, a special coupon code, or a pop-up event. With your style guidelines top-of-mind, crafting one of these posts can be as simple as changing out the background image, or the text color every time you have a new promo to advertise.

4. Give off a certain vibe with a mood post

Set a big mood when you create an impressionistic post. No sales tactics here, folks (well, not obviously anyway), these posts are all about feelin’ emotions—in an on-brand way, of course. Why did you create your brand? A fanaticism for fitness? A love of travel? For racking up dope street cred? Match your mood to the feeling you want your customer to experience when they wear your clothes, listen to your music, drink your cocktail, etc.

5. Mark the occasion with a holiday post

Posting holiday-themed content is a great way to be festive, and it shows that you are keeping your feed fresh. You can use holiday posts to promote yearly sales events or to link to special content on your blog. These posts are also a great way to reach out to your customers and just say, “Thanks for your support” and to wish them a merry happy celebration.

6. Round our your feed with a flatlay post

The flatlay look continues to be popular, and it’s no wonder because it serves up a clean, appealing aesthetic with plenty of negative space. This bird’s eye view, almost two-dimensional, type of post is perfect for showing off food or cosmetics, or even an array of curated items that tell your brand story—think: a tiny globe, compass, journal, passport and camera for a travel blog. Want to round out your flatlay skills? Check out our video and article all about Acing the Flatlay Photography Trend.

7. Present a collection of pics with a collage post

Sometimes you need to use more than one image to tell your story, and that’s why collage posts were invented. Arranging a series of squares, a quantity of quadrilaterals, or a rummage of rectangles, lets you show off multiple images at once which is great if you have a collection to present, or just really adore the quilted look. Not all the images have to be photos, as in the template above, throw in a few blocks of solid color to mix it up.

8. Pull back the curtain with a behind the scenes post

Invite your followers to take a peek behind the scenes at your business when you feature an employee or show the inner workings at your company. These types of posts show that you are real people, and are a great way to let your authenticity shine through.

9. Share an interesting factoid with an infographic post

Infographics are all the rage and there’s a good reason: they pack a lot of info into a small footprint. People love a good how-to or a statistic, so pull in followers with a BIG percentage and then let them know something interesting in smaller print. Tie the stat to your business or a current event, or go for humor and obviously make one up, like, “78% of dads like us. The other 22% love us.”

10. Celebrate the hashtag #holidays

“Hashtag holidays” are a big deal in social media land with everything from dogs to tacos to pirates to national wine days being celebrated in photos. Creating a #holiday post shows that you are paying attention to the conversation, and ups your relatability to your followers because you’re showing what you’re into. You don’t need to celebrate every hashtag holiday, of course, that’d be a full-time job, just the ones that are somehow meaningful to you and/or your brand.

11. Feature your followers with User Generated Content

Say you have a clothing company and a follower tags herself wearing one of your sweaters, well, you just scored yourself some free marketing, friend! When your followers tag your business or products, share it out on your feed. Reposting User Generated Content (UGC) shows that you are paying attention to your social media accounts, and you’re also making a meaningful statement about appreciating your customers or clients.

12. Connect to national events

While it’s totally uncool to use a national or a local tragedy as an opportunity to shill your product or service, it is appropriate to acknowledge it in a tasteful way—especially if it affects your customers. There’s no harm in letting your followers know that you are aware of the current events and that you care.

13. Give it away now with a free gift post

Everyone loves getting something for free, and giveaways are the perfect way to up your engagement because they stop the scroll and encourage clickage (if that’s not a word, it should be). Consider uploading multiple pics in a giveaway post so your followers can swipe through and see what it is you’re offering.

14. Encourage engagement with a contest post

Besides losing, what’s not to like about a contest? Contest posts not only encourage engagement from your followers, they also promote a hashtag that links back to you. It’s like free advertising!

15. Get the handmade look with a mixed-media post

One part inspirational post and one part collage post, this look is completely on trend. Layering images, text, and 3-D elements like tape or push pins results in an effortlessly cool-looking statement. This look works well for travel, fashion or beauty bloggers, or anyone who wants to push the boundaries of simple collage.

16. Stand out with a geometric mod post

Make a high-impact post with a photo and a few shapes. When you fade the shape graphic the photo underneath will peek through. Change the shape color, or apply a texture over it for even more oomph.

17. Go for humor with a meme post

Going for the (tasteful) funny is always a good idea. When you make people laugh they remember your humor, share it with others, and you literally fire off feel-good chemicals in their body. Memes can be as simple as a pic and text, or a tweet screenshot over a background.

18. Get real with a mock up post

Show off your product or service in a real-world setting when you use a mockup post—just insert your own image in the screen area. This type of post is perfect for digital products, websites, or software (we use 'em all the time!) to show how portable your particular product is IRL.