35. Create 14 Days of Instagram Content in Just 30 Minutes
Are you drowning in the stress of trying to create Instagram content every single day? I’m breaking down my super simple, no-fluff, 5-step plan to help you map out 14 days of Instagram content in just 30 minutes. Yup, you heard that right—30 minutes!
This plan will simplify your entire content creation process so you can stay consistent, engage your audience, and still have time to focus on what matters the most in your business and life.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
[08:34] [The Real Deal on Posting Times] – I share insights from the 2024 Metricool study, including global trends on the best times and days to post, and explain why your own data matters more.
[12:21] [Content is King] – I dive into why Instagram success hinges on creating valuable content that makes people stop, engage, and share—not just posting at a specific time.
[15:03] How to Check Your Best Times to Post] – I walk you through using Instagram’s Professional Dashboard to find out when your audience is most active and how to use this data effectively.
[17:45] Consistency and Quality Over Time – Learn why it’s crucial to post consistently for at least 3-6 months to get reliable data, and why patience is key to building your audience.
Key Takeaways:
Posting at the “perfect” time won’t save mediocre content. You need to create valuable, shareable, and relatable content that serves your audience.
Use your Instagram insights to find the best times for your unique audience—but only after you’ve built a solid foundation of consistent, high-quality content.
Instagram rewards consistency and quality. The more you show up, the more your audience will trust and engage with you.
Feeling stuck? I have two spots left in my private mentorship program this quarter. If you’re ready to refine your Instagram strategy, boost your content, and start converting followers into customers, apply for a complimentary Instagram breakthrough call here.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Apply for a complimentary IG breakthrough call! - or DM me the word APPLY on Instagram and you’ll get the link.
Want to dive deeper into using AI for marketing? Check out my four-part mini-series and my interview with AI coach Juan Galan, one of the most popular episodes to date!
JOIN HOT REELS: The 12-Month Instagram Content Lab
An intimate, strategy-packed mentorship for established business owners ready to create killer content that stops the scroll, grows your following and attracts your dreamboat clients (even if you have no idea what to post and feel like you’re always throwing spaghetti at the wall!)
FREE guide to Monetize Your IG: Seven Simple and Proven Ways to Finally Make Money on Instagram
Apply for your FREE Instagram Breakthrough Call with Elizabeth
Quote
“When you have a clear purpose in your content creation, everything becomes so much easier. Because when you're creating for everyone and everything, that's when we start to get really overwhelmed.”
S3 Ep35 Transcript: Create 14 Days of Instagram Content in Just 30 Minutes
00:00
Let's be real for a minute. How many times have you felt completely overwhelmed when it comes to posting on Instagram? If so, you're not alone, I've been there, and so many business owners feel stuck and frustrated because it feels like a never-ending cycle of trying to figure out what to post, when to post, and how to make it all fit into your busy schedule as an entrepreneur or business owner.
00:24
But here's the good news, by the end of today's episode, you're going to walk away with a 14 day content map that's tailored specifically to your business. No more guesswork, no more stressing over what to post next. This plan will simplify your entire content creation process so you can stay consistent, engage your audience, and still have time to focus on what matters the most in your business and life. Sound amazing? Let's do it.
00:53
Welcome to Strut It, a podcast about creating bold visibility on social media with zero apologies. I'm Elizabeth Marberry, your host and Instagram marketing coach. I help small business owners get seen on Instagram and monetize their offers so they can make more money doing their sole led work. If you're tired of spinning your wheels on Instagram and you're seeking simple, proven Instagram marketing strategies that actually work, you're in the right place.
01:22
Let's dive in.
01:31
Welcome back to Strut It. I'm Elizabeth and super thrilled that you're here with me once again. And I don't know if you can hear it in my voice, but I'm extra peppy. I got some extra pep in my step today because I am actually recording this episode a little further in advance than I normally do because I am getting ready to take a week vacation in Hawaii with my family. I've been looking forward to this vacation for months.
02:00
And I am super excited this week to be tying up all these finishing touches on the different aspects of my business so I can truly unplug for the week. And I'm also very grateful for all of the things that I have working in my business on repeat while I'm gone. So I can take a break and go enjoy life because that's why we're in business, right? So we can have that freedom, the time freedom, money freedom.
02:28
And that's always one of my goals in working with my clients is how do we automate these processes? How do we work smarter, not harder, so you can spend more time out of the office and with your family or doing the things that you love instead of working so hard relentlessly on your business day to day and feeling like you never get a break. So I'm celebrating in advance that I'm about to take a break and hopefully completely unplug and enjoy that time away. And then I will be back here.
02:58
again soon with a whole new perspective, right? Because after you take a break, you come back feeling so refreshed and so revived. So maybe this is your sign to just even take an hour for yourself that you normally wouldn't this week and allow yourself to receive some nourishment, find out how you can resource yourself this week. Because as you know, you can't pour from an empty cup. So I invite you to take care of yourself this week. Today, we're gonna be talking about how to create 14 days of Instagram content.
03:28
in just 30 minutes for your business. And how relevant is this? Because if you have your content planned and mapped out in some way, you can schedule it and you can take time away from your business. And if you're smart and you're using DM automation, which I always encourage all my clients to use, you can go back, I've done episodes on how to leverage DM automation. Your content continue to drive leads and boost sales for your business, even when you are out of town. It's pretty magical.
03:56
So today I'm gonna walk you through five simple steps to map out your next two weeks of Instagram content and I'll give you some actionable tips that you can start implementing right away. Because you know, if you're here, this podcast is not about me just filling it with a bunch of fluff and you're excited but then you have no idea what to do. I am passionate as a speaker and a mentor to empower you with very real actionable things you can go and implement so you can start getting results today.
04:26
Okay, so step one is define your goal. Before you can even start thinking about content ideas, you need to have a clear goal for the next 14 days. So if you're like me, you're thinking I have five goals. My people tend to be very ambitious, we're high achievers, we're visionaries, we have lots of ideas, we tend to get a little overwhelmed. So I want to invite you to just kind of chisel down the ideas and I want you to pick one
04:56
clear goal for the next 14 days. Ask yourself, what am I focusing on? And it could be promoting a new product or service or master class you have coming up. It could be wanting to grow your email list, or maybe it's that you're really wanting to boost your engagements. You're really looking to create content that is going to boost your engagement. Whatever it is,
05:25
one clear goal, your content will start to serve a clear purpose. And when you have a clear purpose in your content creation, everything becomes so much easier. Because when you're creating for everyone and everything, that's when we start to get really overwhelmed. So I invite you to think of like, what is the lead domino? Like what is the one thing that you could focus on for the next 14 days that could be a measurable thing?
05:54
Right, so if my goal is to grow my email list and I'm gonna be really leveraging my content to drive people to my lead magnet, so they opt in for my freebie or my lead magnet and they join my list, that's something that I can measure. I see those analytics, right? Or if you wanna work on boosting your reach, those are analytics that you can see. Or maybe you know you're a savvy business owner and you know that.
06:22
Shareable content on Instagram is one of the most factors of your content doing well, because when people share your content, it gets in front of their audience. And that's how you're going to start to really grow the reach, the engagement, and people will start to find your account and follow you. So maybe your goal the next 14 days is to create content that people love so much, it's so valuable that they're going to share it. So think about your goal and define your goal.
06:52
So I want you to pick one goal. Step two, be sure that you are crystal clear on your audience, your target audience. So think about who you're creating this content for. What are their struggles and what are their desires? What do they want? What do they really want? And you want to create content that taps into the things that they care about. Too often as business owners creating content,
07:22
We're swimming in the soup of what we do and we kind of just create stuff for ourselves or what we think people want, but they don't actually want that. So you really need to do some target market research if you haven't done that already. And I'm not going to go into too much depth in this episode as to how to do that, but if you are kind of in that place of, I'm not exactly sure the specifics of who I'm talking to, then you need to go back and listen to episode 28. It's titled,
07:51
And I talk all about how to dive into target market research, how you can interview past clients, you can leverage AI tools like ChatGBT, you can use Google, TikToks, Google Trends, you can read comments on popular posts in your niche. I share a lot of different resources as to how to get that information to really know and understand your audience. So if you're in that place, go back and listen to episode 28, the number one tip to boost Instagram sales.
08:21
and we'll be sure to link that episode in the show notes as well. Once you've done that target market research, I want you to write down just for the sake of our 14 day content plan, what are seven pain points of your ideal client? Like what are some struggles they're having and what are seven things that they actually want and be as specific as possible? These are the insights that are going to drive your content. If you can get clear on these pieces,
08:51
be stuck as to what you should talk about in your Instagram content. Step three is you're going to create your content pillars and really what that means is content pillars are key themes that you'll rotate over the next 14 days and hopefully beyond, right? Like this is just a short map, but you should be showing up consistently way past these 14 days together. But the pillars can really help you to stay
09:20
focused and make sure that your content is also balanced. So it's not 80% promotional content and 20% attraction content, right? We wanna have a balance in what we're putting out there. And there's lots of different ways you can kind of think about this. I'm gonna give you a really high, like zoomed out view of a content pillar. But if we were working together in a private container, I would be able to help you really refine these pillars.
09:47
more specifically for your business, but I'm gonna give you these kind of high level things to think about. So one pillar is educational content. And for your business, your niche, you need to get clear on like, what is that? Like the specifics, but tips, tricks, how to's that really help your audience. Another pillar could be behind the scenes content, like you building out a course behind the scenes before you go.
10:14
and do your keynote or behind the scenes of you getting new inventory in your store or whatever it is, people love to see the behind the curtain view. So that could be a pillar of your content. Of course there is promotional content, but it's done in a way where you're creating that attraction style content, but you're driving them into the sale. And I would say a more value driven way rather than like a salesy like.
10:43
come by this kind of way. I also did a whole podcast episode on promotional versus attraction content. So if you're not sure what I'm talking about, go back and listen to that one. That's episode 32. The one thing holding back your Instagram sales and how to fix it, we will link that episode as well in the show notes. An example of promotional content in my business is I have a group coaching program. It's called Hot Reels, the 12 month Instagram content lab.
11:12
And when I was in the launch for that program, I used a Sarah Jessica Parker meme and she was dancing. And I said, your reels just got hotter. And then in the caption, I described my program, who it was for, and I gave them a call to action to take that next step if they were interested in learning more about the program. So don't get me wrong, you can still be explicit about inviting people in to work with you or purchase your products or services.
11:41
but there's ways that are more effective and less effective on Instagram. A fourth pillar idea could be engagement content, which I like to think of that as relatable, funny content, something that's really interactive, where people are gonna wanna share it, they're laughing, they're commenting on it. You could share some content to your stories and ask your people very specific questions, ask them to vote on different things to see.
12:07
what they're struggling with or what they're desiring. You could teach to a very specific topic in your story and have people vote if it was helpful or not. I'll give you an example from my wedding dance coach studio. We've done that where we do a whole story sequence where we say, have you picked your first dance song yet? And people say yes or no. And then on the next slide it says, if you voted no, why are you stuck? And then we'll give them a couple of different options. And then we'll say on the next slide.
12:36
grab our free wedding dance music guide where we help you alleviate the decision fatigue and find the perfect first dance song for you and your partner. Comment music and we'll DM you the guide. And that can work really well. So do you see how I didn't lead with like, grab my free guide? I got them into conversation. And for those people who actually voted, no, I don't have my first dance song picked out.
13:01
You can also see who voted and you can DM those people and say, hey, I saw that you don't have your first dance song picked out. I have this free guide. Is that something you would be interested in? So you're not just spamming people whether you're asking for consent. And they say, yes, I would love that. And you can DM that guide to them. So it's a little bit more manual that way, but just giving you some examples of how you can create content that is really engaging your ideal clients.
13:29
And here's a pro tip, you don't need to reinvent the wheel. You can really repurpose topics that you've already discussed in a new way, like taking an old post or a reel that performed really well and turning that into a carousel. Or sometimes I'll even post the exact same reel again, like a month later, and I might tweak something or I might not, but you don't always have to be reinventing the wheel. When you find something that works, use it over and over again.
13:59
It is not redundant. It's actually really imperative and it's part of you building yourself as an expert. And remember, most people have not seen the content or even if they have seen it, they won't remember it. So get out of your own way with that. If you have a story going that you're gonna be too repetitive or annoying, nope. No one cares. No one will even notice. So feel free to repurpose any previous content that you've posted that has performed really well. Step four, build your 14-day content plan.
14:28
So now that you have your goal, your audience insights, and your content pillars, it's time to map out your 14 days of content. And you don't need to overcomplicate this. So follow a simple structure that focuses on clear goals for each post. So I'm gonna give you an example of how I tend to schedule my content or how I tend to think about my content. And hopefully it will give you some structure as to
14:57
Which of these ideas could be helpful for you in looking at that one goal you set for the next 14 days? So here's an example of a weekly schedule. On Monday, you promote your lead magnet or freebie to grow your email list. On Tuesday, your goal is to attract new followers by sharing content that shows off your product or service in action. So kind of like behind the scenes content.
15:25
On Wednesday, again, you're promoting your lead magnet or freebie again. Keep reminding your audience of this free value that you have, that you offer. On Thursday, you're inviting people into taking action in more of a promotional post, whether that's applying for your program or booking a free consult with you or making a direct purchase in your shop. On Friday, share user-generated content or customer testimonials to build trust and attract new followers.
15:53
So if you're gonna be sharing customer testimonials, what works really well is telling the story from a perspective of as someone who doesn't know you or the transformation that you deliver, make the testimonial about me as the viewer. Like, why do I care about this? What can I learn about Cindy's journey that you're gonna share with me on your page, right? Like what's in it for me? You always have to be thinking about it from the perspective of a cold audience who doesn't know about your product or service.
16:23
How is this post, like why are they gonna care about it? What are they gonna get out of this piece of content? So just like that, just from that list, you have five days of content with clear goals or objectives for each day, and you can kind of tie those into your higher level objective. And for the next week, you can repeat the same structure, or you can switch it up. But I find that in creating a piece of content, if I'm really clear on what do I want this one piece of content to do for me,
16:51
it really, really helps. And sometimes all I wanted to do for me is to nurture the relationship with my current followers. I don't always post content to grow my following. Yes, it's fun to grow, but never forget that you already have people watching your content, they're already in your sphere, and a lot of those people are just waiting for that moment where you're gonna speak directly to them and present them an offer that they can't resist. So...
17:19
It doesn't always have to be growth content. It can be nurturing content. And there's always a level of building your email list, inviting people to take that next step with you. So here's a really simple question you can ask yourself in designing this 14-day plan, is what do you want each piece of content to do for your business? And literally just write it out, like day one through day 14.
17:46
And just pick like four themes. Like I said, you don't have to always be reinventing the wheel, there should be a lot of repetition. And how is that going to lead into that final goal? Your final goal will really determine your call to action. So let's say my goal for my 14 days is to just attract new followers. My call to action for all 14 of my posts is probably gonna be follow me for more X, Y, and Z.
18:15
Right? Like you have to ask people to do what you want them to do. So your call to action can be another part of the strategy where you're really driving people to that one goal you set at the beginning of this process. Now there's three keys to your content strategy. No matter how many times a week you post. And I recommend that you're posting at least three reels a week, ideally more than that, but at least three reels a week for maximum impact. Your content should do one of three things.
18:45
One, attract new people to your audience. In other words, your ideal clients or customers for your business. Two, it should nurture the relationship with those peeps who are already following you and in your community. And this is where you really can position yourself as an expert and build that know, like, and trust factor with your community. And there's no better way of doing that than being authentically you, really showing your brand personality.
19:12
and kind of your it factor, like what makes you you, what makes your brand so special. The more you can showcase that, that will really help to nurture the relationship with your followers. And the third piece of a content strategy is converting your biggest fans and ready to buy prospects to your freebie and lead magnet or your paid offer so they can get off of Instagram and onto your email list.
19:39
Email is still king. You own your email list. You don't own your Instagram followers. So it's really imperative that you have some sort of a strategy of getting your biggest fans information. So that way you can keep the relationship and conversation going with them off of Instagram and don't get too tripped up over, okay, this piece of content, it's an educational piece of content. I'm teaching five ways to do X, Y, and Z.
20:06
Elizabeth, this could attract a new follower or this could nurture current follower or I could have a call to action to grab my freebie and lead someone into a conversion. So don't stress too much about this. Yes, one piece of content can do more than one thing. But I find that if you take the approach of really focusing on one goal per post, it really helps to clarify your messaging and streamline your content creation process.
20:33
so you feel more confident and easeful and you'll feel crystal clear on that CTA, on your call to action for every post which will boost your engagement and of course drive sales. The final step is so you have your 14 days laid out, you have your content pillars, you have your pain points and desires, you're creating content that speaks to all of those, you know what bucket that content is falling into, is it educational, is it...
21:02
Relatable, is it more promotional? Next, you're going to add hooks and call to action. So to make your content more engaging, you absolutely have to have a strong hook and call to action. And really a hook is a simple way of saying that you need to grab the attention of your prospect within the first three seconds. So if someone's scrolling on Instagram, a hook is just a way to get them to stop scrolling.
21:32
And the call to action is the other imperative piece that so many businesses miss. And that is the part where you tell your audience what to do next. And your call to action could be as simple as save this post for later, tag a friend who needs to see this, whatever is most intuitive with the post that you're creating.
21:55
but please tell people what you want them to do with each piece of content. They will do nothing with it unless you tell them to do something. So be direct and ask for what you want them to do. Okay, so let's quickly recap. We've covered the five steps to creating 14 days of content in just 30 minutes. Step one, define your goal. Step two, understand your target audience. Step three,
22:25
Be clear on your content pillars or categories of what you teach. Step four, build your content schedule. Step five, after you've built out that schedule, add your hooks and your calls to action and then film it, baby. It's all about working smarter, not harder. You don't need to spend hours creating content every week.
22:48
By following this simple method, you'll stay consistent and engage your audience, and most importantly, free up time to focus on the parts of your business that matter most to you. If you want my help in creating a customized and tailored content plan to take your Instagram game to the next level, then you need to check out my private mentorship programs. I have very limited spots left.
23:12
in this final quarter of the year. And if that's something you're curious about and you're wanting my eyes and brain in your business, on your brand, then your next step is to apply for a complimentary Instagram breakthrough call. You can go to elizabethmarberry.com slash application. That's elizabethmarberry, M-A-R-B-E-R-R-Y dot com slash application.
23:37
Once I get your application, we'll reach out with a link to my schedule and I can learn more about your business if I'm the right person and mentor to support you in driving your leads and sales in your business and of course becoming a confident content creator who knows how to create content that converts not just on Instagram, but in your emails, on Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, wherever else you're wanting to show up and market your brand. I love helping.
24:06
product and service-based businesses really leverage these free platforms to grow their bottom line. You can also send me a quick DM on Instagram. Make sure you're already following me at Elizabeth Marberry. Send me a direct message and say apply a PPL Y and my little robot assistant will send you a link to my application. Take a few minutes, fill that out and we'll be in touch with next steps. I am so excited to see you implement this.
24:36
I want to see your content that you create. So don't forget to tag me in your content. If you got inspired by listening to this episode and you go online and you post a reel, I want to be tagged in it. I want to see it. I want to celebrate you taking new action to get new results. Thank you for being here. I cannot wait to strut it with you next week. Thank you for listening to Strut It. If you're ready to start leveraging Instagram to grow your business.
25:05
then you're gonna wanna grab my free monetize your IG guide, where you'll learn seven simple and proven ways to finally make money on Instagram. You can grab your guide at elizabethmarberry.com slash freebies. That's elizabethmarberry.com slash freebies to get my monetize your IG guide. If you got some incredible value from today's episode.
25:32
Be sure to leave a review and subscribe on your favorite podcast platforms, and I cannot wait to start it with you again next week.