7 Types of Instagram Posts That Take No Time To Create
With over 700 million monthly active users & over 95 million posts being shared each day, Instagram is quickly becoming the platform that every business needs to be on.
Maybe you’re even ahead of the curve, and you’ve already got an account created!
But then comes the hard part, figuring out what to post. This is often the most stressful part of maintaining any social media platform — especially when research shows that we should be posting 1–2 times per day.
Sure, there’s always events and special sales that you may be posting on Instagram, but how can you find enough content to post twice a day without annoying your followers?
The great news is, often this content is hiding in plain sight. It’s found in the day-to-day operation of your retail business!
Here are 8 ideas for Instagram posts you can create for your local retail business just by going about your day:
1. Store Tour
One of your biggest advantages to competing with ecommerce brands is that you’ve got a physical store! Your store isn’t just a place to house your products, it’s can be one of your products — in the sense that it can be a destination in itself. There are a couple big brands that’ve done this well. Apple and Sephora stores have become places that people choose to go to because they enjoy the experience, not just because they want to purchase a product.
You don’t have to be a big brand to do the same! In fact, because you’re a smaller business, you can give customers a tailored experience and build a relationship with them. Customers love knowing what they can expect see, feel and experience when they decide to come visit you so give them a taste of your brand using your Instagram posts. By using photos to give customers a “virtual tour”, you’ll make your store a destination.
Find the iconic elements of your store.
Give customers a taste of how your store looks and feels like by taking pictures of unique and iconic parts of your store.
Dineen Coffee does a great job with this by showing off a typical part of a coffee shop (the espresso bar) from a unique angle. It also serves double duty by showing off their gorgeous floors!
Dineen has a balcony above their main floor which makes this an easy shot for them to get, but you don’t have to start climbing up on walls to do the same.
Focus on getting shots of specific parts of your store that are unique & capture your brand. It can be anything from a lighting fixture, to the walls & floors. It also gives a new customers an easter egg to look for when they do come visit your store!
Share new displays
If you’ve got rotating displays of new or seasonal products, they’re an easy target for some great content to post. Since you’re already changing your displays, you’ll always have a few pictures you can grab of each new display.
This usually works best for bookstores or boutiques, though you can likely find some element of your store that changes regularly. Powell’s Books does a great example of capturing the new Teen Witch section they created for Halloween.
The great thing about these niche displays is they’ll highly engage a certain group of your audience. In the case of Powell’s Books, their picture roped in those who LOVES the Teen Witch genre.
What changing displays do you have in your business? It could be a new clothing line you’re bringing into the store, changing up your window display, or even a seasonal menu.
You don’t always have to be bringing in new products either. Sometimes it’s just a matter of showing how different products go together, like a new outfit display on a mannequin, or pairing similar products together, just like Kirna Zabete did with their line of handbags.
Give customers the full experience
If you’ve got a great store layout that you’d love to show off, this is your chance. Creatures Of Comfort took the opportunity to show customers the clean simplicity of their store with a wide shot that captures it all.
These posts are especially effective if you’ve designed your store with the atmosphere and customer experience in mind. Posting a picture gives customers a taste of what they can expect when they come in person.
2. Behind-The-Scenes
There’s a reason “behind-the-scenes” videos of movies are so popular. Not only is it fascinating to watch the process, but it also gives viewers a sense that they’re in on some kind of secret when they’re watching the movie itself.
It’s the same for your store! It turns out that showing behind-the-scenes photos of the mundane day-to-day operations of your store doesn’t have to be so mundane after all. These behind-the-scenes shots can be a great way to bring customers into your community and build a more personal connection to your business.
How It’s Made
Restaurants are a particularly great business for behind-the-scenes photos. People love watching how their food is made and the people who make it.
Ricarda’s does a great job with this throughout their Instagram account, by featuring dishes on the line and the chefs as they build out each plate. It gives their restaurant a personal touch and adds character to the restaurant.
Rolltation, a sushi burrito joint, takes a different approach by focusing on the process of making a sushi burrito itself. A time-lapsed video is a great way to show the behind-the-scenes of a new product being made — whether it’s bread baking in the oven or putting together a new outfit for a display.
If you’re not making any of your products in-house, no worries! Take a page from Suite 22 Interiors who just grabbed a shot of their factory. Even pictures of your stockroom piled with boxes or a new shipment of products can make a great post. The messier the better!
3. New Products
Of course, no account is complete without at least a few pictures of your products. You don’t need to hire a professional photographer to get great product shots though. In fact, the ones casually shot on your iPhone camera are often better.
Contextual
Frank & Oak does a great job of finding a fitting background for their new sweater. For products with tons of texture like this, close-up shots help give your audience a better sense of what to expect when they see it in person. Layering it with a complementary pattern also gives customers an idea of how they can put together an outfit for their new sweater!
Clean & Simple
Sometimes the simplest picture wins. Drake General Store’s Instagram account has a minimalist, simple vibe so this product photo fits right in. Sometimes a clean white background is exactly what you need to draw attention to what matters — your amazing product!
If you don’t have a white wall or table you can use, you can easily put together a DIY photography booth with just some white tissue paper or poster board. You can also find cheap ones on Amazon.
Close Up Cravings
Product photos of food is always a winner! The Smile is causing some serious cravings with the shots of their desserts… and you never know, your post could be the tipping point for someone to get off the couch & into your store! For restaurants, bakeries, and coffee shops the continuous stream of food posts is often a great Instagram strategy.
Timing Is Key
Two Hands has also got some amazing shots of their dishes. For products that are more popular during a certain time of the day, it’s smart to post them just before people would come in for it. For this beautiful avocado toast, posting it just before brunch time means it can hit people right when they’re waking up & deciding where to go that morning.
4. Customers
Who better to convince potential customers to come into your store than existing customers? By showing other customers enjoying their experience (and their purchases), you’ll create social proof for those who’ve been eyeing you for a while.
Get pictures of customers using your product, enjoying their experience, or simply being chilling out at your store. It’s also helps build a sense of community around your business and products.
Customers Using Your Products
Crywolf’s Instagram account features tons of customers who’re simply wearing their clothes or holding their brand’s bags. They’ve chosen customers who fit their brand identity — stylish but casual. People either love their style or don’t but those who do will feel like they’ve found their people!
Your Products In Action
Even if you haven’t got traditional consumers as your primary customers, don’t let that stop you! Suite 22 Interiors found a creative way to post “customer photos” by showing their products in the different interiors they’ve become part of.
By showing their furniture in a variety of settings, from formal and modern to casual comfort, they prove to their audience that their products are the perfect fit no matter what kind of space they’re decorating.
Candid Customer Photos
Sometimes the best shots are the ones you sneakily take. Quantum Coffee captures the essence of their coffee shop just by grabbing a candid photo of customers chilling by their window.
For a coffee shop where atmosphere and experience is so crucial, candid shots capture the feel that customers can expect when they come.
5. Culture
Just as with behind-the-scenes photos, posting pictures of your employees having fun after (or during) work gives customers a sense of community. Instead of associating your store with just the products you sell, they’ll be buying into the people that make up your business which is always a stronger bond.
These photos are some of the easiest to get. It’s just a matter of pulling out your camera when you’re all on a break, out on a coffee run, or having a dinner party. The more informal and unprofessional, the better!
After Work Events
This adorable photo booth boomerang gives customers a peek into the personality of the people behind Crywolf. Their goofiness makes Crywolf a brand that people can relate to instead of a faceless corporation churning out products.
If you’ve got regular after work events that your employees attend, just grab a few candid photos of everyone having a great time!
Employee Profiles
Kirna Zabete had the brilliant idea of featuring one of their own employees as their Woman Crush Wednesday. Not only are they participating in a popular hashtag trend, but they show off an employee and a product!
Highlighting individual employees in posts is another way to give a face to the business. You can do short profiles of them in the caption with quirky facts and quotes from each person.
Employees In Action
Showing your employees in action doing their jobs happily make for very enticing Instagram posts. After all, wouldn’t you be more excited about purchasing a product if you knew how proud the makers were of it?
If you’ve got handcrafted items, such as a pie or even jewelry, show off your employees proudly holding up their creations. Even getting shots of your employees doing about their day-to-day, from restocking shelves to cleaning up for the night makes great photos.
6. “A Day At..”
If you’ve got featured events that you host in your store, now’s your chance to turn them into great posts. They help build a personality for your brand since special events are often more niche.
It’s also a way to get customers to plan their visit into your store for a special event. They may see a regular meetup they want to attend or featured menu they want to try so they schedule it into their calendar for next month.
Ricarda’s hosts a Jazz Brunch with a brunch buffet and live jazz music each weekend. It’s one of their featured weekly events that they want to bring customers in for. They give customers a taste of the experience by posting photos of during the event itself — whether it’s customers enjoying their meal (like the picture above) or the jazz band rocking out.
If you haven’t got any featured events in your store, it’s worth considering. It can be as simple as inviting a local musician to play once a week, or providing the location for an existing meetup.
Space Ninety8 hosts a regular yoga class in their store and they highlight it by regularly posting pictures of it on their Instagram page. New followers who are scrolling through their account for the first time can’t help but notice them since they stand out from the usual product photos.
7. “From The Customer’s POV”
As I’ve mentioned earlier, Instagram is a great way to give customers a taste of what they can expect to see, feel, and experience when they come to your store. One type of picture that’s effective at doing this are those from the customer’s point of view.
Capturing The Customer Experience
Want to know what it’ll feel like when you’re seated at a table at Ricarda’s? This picture brings customers into that moment when they’ve received their food. It also gives a sense of the high quality and standard of service that customers will get when they eat at Ricarda’s.
What part of your business are you most proud of? What do you want customers to see or notice most from the moment they walk in to the moment they walk out? Those moments are the ones worth capturing and posting.
What Your Business Is All About
This shot of Rolltation’s service line gives customers a peek into exactly what to expect when they get their first sushi burrito. It also does a great job of showing what their business isn’t. It isn’t a sit-down, fine-dining restaurant. It’s a place to grab-and-go when you’re running low on time.
Which aspects of the customer’s experience can you capture that’ll give potential customers the best understanding of what your business is?
Storefront
A simple storefront picture is often the most important, but overlooked picture on your Instagram account. It’s the first thing customers will see when they first come to your store. And it’s also how customers will find you when they get to you. Sure they’ve got a map on their phone, but it’ll make the experience much more enjoyable if they’re not walking in circles and counting out storefront numbers to find you.
Putting a few pictures of your storefront will help customers locate you easily. If you regularly change up your window display or decorate for the holidays, that’s an even better excuse to post regular storefront photos!
Maintaining an Instagram account doesn’t need to take hours upon hours of photoshopping images or hiring a graphic designer. In fact, some of the best posts are the ones you get just by going about your day because those are the ones that are authentic to your business.
So what’s stopping you? It’s so easy to start and maintain your Instagram account just by grabbing a few photos throughout your day. Get started with a few of the posts above that stood out to you and you may discover even more opportunities for photos along the way.
Have you got any other suggestions for great Instagram posts? Post it in the comments below!
