5 Tips for Creating a Stunning Visual Story on Instagram

• The story is important
• Engaging the audience
• Uniform style
• Inspiring subscribers
• Surprise the audience

---

The moment that mobile phone creators added a camera to their device, the appearance of social media platforms that focused on photos was only a matter of time. Instagram was launched in 2010 and it was a real win-win. Just think about it – one million users in only two months! Unbelievably fast, isn’t it? Instagram gained such a huge success because people needed it and had been waiting for it. Everyone likes to brag a little, and there’s no better way than to show someone nice photos you made (for example, to show how pretty you are or where you have been). However, Instagram, like all other social media, is useful not only for common users but for companies too. A well-thought-out promotion campaign and constant attention to posts could bring lots of clients and make the business profitable. All you have to do is share an interesting story with your subscribers, but it is easier to say than do.

Where do you start and how do you make your feed interesting and attractive? I’m going to share with you a few tips I learned from the most popular branded Instagram accounts and show some examples of visual storytelling done right.

---

1. The story is important

Sometimes beautiful photos are not enough. Instagram is full of attractive and high-quality pictures, so to step out ahead of the line you need something more than just taking photos. The story that hides behind the picture could attract people more than just a photo that looks nice but was taken without any other purpose than just catching a nice view. That’s why companies that provide services instead of products could also benefit a lot from Instagram – they just need to create an interesting story behind every photo.

For example, take a look at the NASA Instagram account. They don’t create products (except maybe T-shirts, cups, and other promotional merchandise). But their account has 39.3 million users! Every photo they post has an interesting story behind it. They can’t show any products per se, but they can show the beauty and complexity of the world around us and that attracts people to their account.

The Postmates account also shows a brilliant visual story without showing products. This is a company that delivers food and the most obvious post topic for them has to be food, doesn’t it? Nope. They focus on delivery and put stories behind the photos they post. Postmates team uses all the most popular events and memes for their posts and also works with celebrities. And look how gorgeous their feed looks!

---

2. Engaging the audience

If you can not only encourage, but also interest people in interacting with your account – it will affect not only your visibility but will also bring new subscribers. Ask your audience some questions, set competitions, invent a catchy hashtag, and offer subscribers a chance to make fun captions for some of your photos. The more people like it – the bigger your business reach, and the more new users will like your account and join.

Pottery Barn has lots of fans who adore their products. That’s why they created a hashtag #mypotterybarn and asked customers to use it in their photos description. There are more than 12 thousand posts with that tag! That definitely makes the Pottery Barn account more and more popular every day and sufficiently increases its reach. If you try using the same strategy – it could be a great success!

And just look at how much people use the #justdoit hashtag. I guess Nike doesn’t even promote it – the slogan is so catchy that people like to use it for their achievements. If you are able to invent a phrase that will have the same power – popularity will be yours.

---

3. Uniform style

When the feed of a company looks accurate and every photo is designed in the same consistent style as all the others – it looks really great. It shows that the team pays attention to details and they want the account to look attractive in general. There are thousands of companies on Instagram and only the uniform color and style of all photos can make people remember you. Think carefully about the design that will help to express your brand’s originality the best. It could be a logo color scheme, an object that is always present in your photos, a specific structure of the picture – anything.

Charity: water is a non-profit organization that gathers money to give clear water to thousands of people who need it. Their feed looks really impressive – every photo focuses on one person that is placed in the center. They are all people who received clear water thanks to the charity funds. That is a look one could hardly forget.

You don’t even have to create the design for your Instagram feed from scratch. You can simply download a ready-made PSD template and use it for all your photos after a little customization. Here’s a pack of 10 Fashion Instagram templates created by TemplateMonster. They are all designed in one style that will fit not only for clothing brands, but for almost any business. Red/white/black combination is the classiest and most elegant solution of all times, so these templates are quite versatile.

Download

It would also be awesome if your account’s stories have the same design as the posts. That would increase the brand’s recognition even more. This Pastel Instagram pack includes 15 templates for stories and 15 for posts, and all of them are made using two colors. The soft color scheme will be perfect for women’s clothes, cosmetics, perfume, or jewelry brands. If you design your posts with this Instagram pack – it will help your account look more sophisticated.

Download

---

4. Inspiring subscribers

People might like your posts and subscribe to your account, but they will only become loyal fans if you can inspire them with every picture. If your posts make them feel a desire to travel, give them new dreams, and a feeling of amusement – they will be following you for years. What does inspire people? First of all – stories of success. For example, when people achieve great results from working hard. Besides that – beautiful places and works of art. I guess it is possible to find something inspiring in every existing work, so you will just have to think about it a little.

National Geographic is a kind of leader in inspiring people. Their photographers go to places a common person will never visit and they take pictures of nature, working people, and animals. There is such passion in every photo that a viewer stops in amusement. That is the main reason they have 103 million followers – people become a little better by watching their Instagram posts.

Airbnb is also extremely good at making people dream about travelling. Their posts radiate the marvel of faraway countries, vacations, and new experiences. It inspires people to visit different places and live there with great comfort.

---

5. Surprise the audience

It is good sometimes to give your subscribers a surprise. Changing the type, styling, or format of the posts could refresh the view of your Instagram feed and get the users’ interest back. There are a few ways to do that. For example, you can start making more or fewer posts a day, change the general styling or color scheme, post videos, image puzzles, or animated posts. People like to be pleasantly surprised, so if you give them what they want – it will make your account more popular, visible, and thus more successful.

Christoph Niemann’s personal account, abstractsunday, surprises users with every post. He draws witty and funny pictures using some everyday things or views. Besides that, he leaves descriptions or comments to his posts, so they are also interesting to read. You can also add some humor to your feed, use memes, jokes, or events to entertain your audience and make them smile.

Here are some great Animated Instagram Posts templates that will allow you to give a little surprise to your audience with almost no effort from you. They are already very nicely designed and all you have to do is to insert your own images there. The templates are a real salvation for those Instagram account owners who don’t know how to create animated posts from scratch but want to make their feed more entertaining.

Download

Another interesting idea for your Instagram feed is puzzle posts. These are posts created from one picture that is sliced into smaller parts. The TemplateMonster marketplace can offer you a template called Peony Instagram Puzzle that will help you create an amazing puzzle without having any additional skills. It has several pictures and Photoshop files included, along with the detailed instructions about how to use it. The template is fully editable, so with it, you will be able to create lots of post puzzles.

Download

---

Conclusion

Social media marketing needs attention and a good strategy. Instagram is an excellent channel to make your brand popular and visible, so managing it is worth any time and efforts you spend. These few little tips could give you an insight that will boost your account, so I hope you found it useful.

Maybe you know some tricks that could help others and would like to share them? How did you make your own Instagram account popular? Maybe you would like to see some other tips in this article? Please – feel free to leave comments and thoughts in the comments section below. I would be glad to make the text even more useful for you, so every review will be much appreciated.

---

---

---

Read Also

50 Free Instagram Stories Highlight Icons for Your Business

Free Instagram Templates for Easier Instagram Content Planning

Top Free Social Media Icon Vector Packs From All Over The Web

How to Grow Your Instagram Account in 14 Easy Steps

How to Build Unique Visual Style for Instagram Business Account