Designing every post from scratch is slow, and it makes a feed look like a patchwork. A few templates fix both: you make the decisions once, and every post after that inherits them.
Decide the fixed parts
- Two or three colours and two fonts, and nothing else.
- Margins that keep the words away from the edges.
- Where the logo goes, if there is one, and how large it is.
- A size that fits where you post. Check the current recommendation for each network instead of trusting an old article.
Make three to five layouts
- 1A photograph with a short line of text.
- 2A text-only card for a quote, a tip or a number.
- 3A before-and-after or a side-by-side.
- 4An opening slide for a carousel, so that a series looks like a series.
Leave room to breathe
A template is a frame, not a cage. Plain photographs with no text on them are part of the look too. Do not put the same graphic over everything.
Keep the files tidy
Save the templates in one folder with plain names, and keep the fonts and a note of the colour values next to them. When somebody else helps, or you change computer, you will not have to rebuild the look from screenshots.
Review twice a year
Look at the whole grid. If one layout is always skipped, drop it. If a new need keeps coming up, add one.
Cover the text on your last nine posts and look at the shapes. If they look as though they belong together, the templates are working.