Convert your dream clients from Lurkers into Followers!
Are you looking to elevate the aesthetic of your brand's Instagram grid and grow your following?
In this video I show you how to master your Instagram aesthetic, converting your curious dream clients into followers.
To make this super easy for you, I created this *Authentic Aesthetic* workbook full of 3 FREE Gridding templates for you to use: DOWNLOAD FREE TEMPLATES >>
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Have you ever noticed while scrolling through Instagram, how the aesthetic of some accounts is just more appealing than others? At first glance, you can't tell exactly what it is that sets them apart, but overall, their content is much more cohesive. And subconsciously, you get the sense that this brand is professional, organized, and brings the same level of care to their clients as they do their content. The strategy behind this elevated aesthetic is called gridding. And it's a great way to optimize the perception of your brand. Data suggests that when someone lands on your page, if you have a well-curated grid aesthetic, they're more likely to tap that follow button. Which is why, in this video, I'm going to take you through to grid or not to grid, the three grid styles that I recommend, and some corresponding free templates that I've created for you, so that you can easily master your grid aesthetic and export them quickly in perfect order so you don't have to hum and haw over the sequence of posting and get to converting those lurkers into likers ASAP.
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But before we get to that, if you're in the market for hacks and tips to help grow your business, hit the subscribe and notify button so you never miss a beat. I'm Lesley, co-founder of Brand Therapy Sessions. And, in my experience of creating Instagram content, a question that constantly comes up is, "How do I create an aesthetic for my grid?" And it's a great question, because with so many other brands out there, you'll want to create an aesthetic that not only attracts your dream clients, but also converts them into followers the moment they land on your page. I created a workbook that includes all of the free templates and tools I share in this video. No need to take notes, the link is in the description below. And once you've had a chance to grab it, we're back to the program. So, long story short, gridding relies on the order of each post to create an overall aesthetic for your grid. Think of it as an apartment pre- and post- Marie Kondo. Lately, there's been discussion around whether or not this strategy is actually appealing to Instagram followers anymore.
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Reason being is because people want authenticity, and sometimes an overly curated grid can actually undo this and turn people away. But before we abandon gridding altogether, let me remind you, Instagram is a visual storytelling platform. So the more beautiful and aesthetically pleasing you can make your story, the more people will want to stop and engage with your content, attracting more of your dream clients. Whereas if your story is a big, hot mess, and no one knows what to look at or focus on, it'll be harder to hold their attention this way. To show an example, I've pulled up these two pages, and you can tell right away that the page on the left won't quite catch your attention as well as the more harmonious grid on the right would, as it entices you to want to engage and learn more because the content is visually organized. Without gridding, prospective followers get a sense of chaos, which subconsciously puts the perception of your brand and their choice to follow you at risk. So how do we create a well-curated aesthetic without coming off inauthentic? I recommend choosing a style of gridding that isn't overly contrived.
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So over the years, trends like these have hit their peak. And I really don't recommend them because they rely on posting a large amount of images at once to achieve the look you want. And this annoys followers, because you're spamming them with a bunch of images that are only fragments of a bigger picture at once. Another reason is because they're extremely limiting when it comes to creating new content. The moment you try to create a new post on its own, you can't do it without doing another nine or 12, or the entire grid is out of sync. Another thing to keep in mind is that sometimes these styles can quickly become dated as there are so many creative people contributing to Instagram, that the trends are bound to shift. Now that we know what we're trying to avoid, let's take a look at some gridding styles that work really well. The first is checker style. And, actually, we use this for our Instagram. It's super flexible and allows you to alternate between two different styles of images. For our Instagram, we alternate between a solid background and a photograph.
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And this gives us a lot of flexibility to include text-heavy slides without it looking too crazy on our grid. But if you're not creating a lot of text-based graphics, another great way to use this checker style is by alternating between two different styles of images. So for example, it could be alternating between a picture of a person and a picture of a landscape, or it could alternate between two really distinct photography styles. And you can even amplify the contrast by using a different set of filters that still compliment each other. The next style is horizontal rows, so sets of three. And they also do this in a vertical format, but I find it a bit boring as you have to maintain ongoing consistency over your entire grid vertically. Whereas the short three image rows give you way more flexibility to evolve and change things up without it creating some awkwardness or an eyesore.
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Rows are really beneficial for when you want to feature a product and show three images of it in a row. Or if you want to showcase a trip that you went on and you want to show them all on your grid. It's also really fun to play with the background colors, as you see in some of these examples, so that you can kind of create this cool gradient or consistency across your page. And you don't have to just rotate in sets of three, you could actually do a gradiation of colors. Some people like to do rows that build up the colors of the rainbow. It's totally up to you, but you usually consider consistency across three at once. And lastly, sort of similar to the checker style is diagonal. So instead of alternating between two styles, you're actually alternating between three. This allows you to kind of create this beautiful cascading style that will let people flow through your page with ease, and it's not as common. So it does give your page a unique vibe.
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With these three styles in mind, I'm curious. Comment below and let me know: Which grid aesthetic are you going to apply to your page? And once you've decided, let's hop over to my computer so I can show you how to make it your own. Once you've had a chance to download the template, we'll open it in Canva and I'll show you how to make it your own. The first page is just an introduction with the steps I'm about to show you. The following pages have about a month's worth of posts organized in three different grid styles. So 24 tiles arranged in either checker, diagonal, or the row format. The reason for the 24 tiles is because we always like to create our content in batches. And if you're not familiar with batching, I made a great video on this that will help make creating content way more efficient for you. It'll show you how to plan, create, and design a month's worth of future content in a single day. I put the link in the description if you want to check it out.
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So when you're about to create your next batch of content, using the checkerboard as an example, what you'll do is refer to this as a guide to let you know how many of each image style you'll need for the month. At Align, we decided our two styles are photographs and text-based graphics. So looking at this now, I know that we'll need 12 of each. After you've designed and applied any filters to your posts, you'll want to separate the images into two folders. And side note, for those doing rows or diagonal grids, you'll want to do three folders. Next, you'll upload the first group of images to Canva. Once loaded, you can save them to a folder to keep yourself organized. Then you'll drag the images one-by-one to the same color of tile, paint by number style. Instead of sliding tiles around, I recommend going back to your folder and dragging the image you wish to replace just on top. And afterwards, you just want to make sure that you don't have any duplicates.
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And once you're all good, we'll click download, and select PNG for the best quality. Then we'll head over to pinetools.com to split the image into 24 individual posts. So now that we're here, all that you have to do is upload the PNG of your entire grid, and we'll set the split settings to both, meaning both horizontal and vertical splits. For the vertical split, we'll specify the number of blocks to be eight, and horizontally, we'll set it to three, as our grid is three images wide and eight images tall. Then you'll click split image and all of your posts will appear right here. And all you have to do now is just click on each to download them in order. Okay, we're almost there. Before I let you go, here are some quick tips. Number one, be consistent. Sometimes we have a tendency to post with urgency, which can totally screw up your grid. Try to stick to your sequence as best as you can. Next, batch create your content in advance, and this will save you from getting confused of what to post in sequence to achieve your aesthetic.
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Use a consistent filter on all of your imagery so it has a harmonious aesthetic across your grid. And lastly, in the case that you're using the checkerboard style, be sure to use a variety of colors from your brand palette. As you can start to get stale when you're only alternating between one or two colors over a longer period of time. Amazing. Now you know how to create a beautiful Instagram aesthetic that's going to attract more of your dream clients and convert them into followers. If you haven't already, you've got to download the workbook I created for you. The templates are paint by number style and super easy to use. And you'll be able to export your posts in perfect sequence so there's no confusion. And this is all with the click of a few buttons. If you liked this video, please be sure to hit the subscribe and notify button so that you can get updated on our next cool hack. And this brings us to the end of this video. See you soon.
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