If one picture is worth a thousand words, what about 10 pictures?
Instagram Carousels should be a part of your digital marketing strategy. If they aren’t, you’re missing out on a great platform feature.
Instagram Carousels are a versatile tool allowing accounts to include imagery, video, or the perfect mix of both, in one single post to convey a particular message.
Socialinsider found that carousels have an average engagement rate per post of 1.92%, compared to 1.74% for images and 1.45% for videos, with the engagement rate per post increasing to over 2% when all 10 carousel slides are utilised.
What are Instagram carousels?
Instagram Carousels allow accounts to include imagery, video, or the perfect mix of both, in one single post viewed by swiping. You can have up to 10 images or videos in one carousel and is similar to a slideshow.
How do I use Instagram carousel posts?
Instagram Carousels are a versatile tool allowing accounts to include imagery, video, or the perfect mix of both, in one single post to convey a particular message.
What is the best Instagram carousel post size?
Posts can be landscape (1.91:1), square (1:1), vertical (4:5). All posts in the Instagram carousel must be the same size.
Creating Instagram carousel templates
Consistency is crucial on social media, especially when it comes to Instagram.
An excellent way to keep your branding on point is to use a platform like Canva to create templates. Whether you create templates from scratch or pick one of Canva’s existing assets, using templates for your carousels will ensure your posts are always on brand and uniform.
Instagram carousel ideas to inspire
Here’s how you can boost engagement and reach new audiences with some Instagram carousel examples:
Before and afters
Instagram Carousels are a terrific method to demonstrate a real-life example of how your product or service improves something. Before-and-after posts perform effectively in several sectors, including beauty, architecture, fitness, construction, creative services and many more. Instead of dividing a single image into two, you can use Instagram Carousels to share full-sized before and after transformations, with the promise of a reveal often sparking curiosity, and increasing more swipe-throughs.
User-generated content
It should never be a one-way dialogue on social media. Highlighting user-generated content on your account is one of the best methods to engage with your followers. Everyone loves getting a special mention, and Instagram Carousels are ideal for showcasing user-generated content roundups, particularly when some of the content doesn’t fit your visual brand aesthetic. While you can sing your own praises, there is nothing more potent than a real-life customer sharing their positive experience with your product or service.
Data and education
Instagram is a visual-centric platform; instead of sharing essential information in a long-form caption, share it in an Instagram Carousel. Get creative and make tiles in Canva highlighting your key message through text, images, illustrations or graphs. If the visuals catch your follower’s eye, they are more likely to read the caption or visit your profile.
Tutorials
If your how-to material is too long for an Instagram Reel and too complex to explain in a caption, Instagram Carousels can help. Tutorials are an excellent method to demonstrate the value of your products or services. Use images, videos, or both to provide step-by-step instructions on how to use a specific feature. Tutorials are also save-worthy, and “saves” play into your Instagram engagement statistics. Canva has some epic Instagram seamless carousel templates that are easy to use.
Event recaps
Use Instagram Carousel posts to capture the energy and atmosphere of events you host or attend without spamming your followers with multiple posts. This strategy allows you to tag all relevant parties who attended, increasing the chance they will share on their platforms and offers some FOMO to those who couldn’t participate who will make sure they don’t miss out again.
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