If you use it correctly, Instagram is one of the most powerful tools to grow your business
But the truth is, 99% of Creators and Artists have poor profiles that do not convert
Here are 7 Killer Ways to optimize your Instagram for more followers and more sales.
(#5 should be implemented immediately)
Understand that your Instagram page is a Landing page.
The question for you is, what do people see when they land on your profile for the first time?
Your Handle
Your Name /title
Your Bio/ Description
Your Feed / Content
Specifically, when people look at your profile, they want to know 3 things
– What does this person do?
– How exactly can they help me?
– What makes them so special?
– Do I want to see more of their content?
Your job is to ensure each question is immediately answered when they land on your page. More importantly, you want them to make the choice of following you.
Let’s optimize your Instagram page for conversion and more Followers
Optimize Your Instagram Handle
You want your Instagram handle to be
* Specific
* Memorable
* Easy to read
Your handle can be your personal name, business name, nickname, moniker, or whatever you decide. It can also be niche based, i.e @EvaFitness @CookingWithEva
As much as possible avoid too many numbers and underscores, i.e @Eva_Fitness is better than @Eva_Fitness_00886
Audit Your Instagram Name / Title
Your Instagram title gives you an opportunity to step it up a notch. Most people do not know the value of an optimized Name. When done right, people who need your services can find you on Instagram simply by SEARCH.
To optimize your name for search, make sure it is exactly what people know you by. If you use Instagram for business, think of the other ways people will search to find you.
What keywords would they use?
What keywords do you want to be known for?
Ensure to include these in your Title.
Optimize Your Instagram Bio /Description
Your bio needs to tell us quickly why we should care about you at all. You have very limited characters to play with and it’s important to go straight to the point.
Your bio should tell us:
– Who you are
– What you do (offer /transformation / your WHY)
– Who you do it for (ideal audience)
– Why we should care (results)
– What we need to do now (CTA)
You also want to write out your bio in a way that is easy on the eyes.
Few words per line, one line per statement, or a single easy-to-read sentence.
E.g Certified Nutrition expert helping new mothers lose post-partum belly with healthy recipes
Or
Certified Nutrition expert
Helping new moms lose post-partum belly fat without spending hours in the gym
DM me “GUIDE” to grab my Free fat-blasting grocery list
Here’s my bio for reference
Optimize Your Instagram Feed / Content
I know you’ve probably changed and updated your bio 100 times in the last few days. While your bio is important, it is the content on your feed that encourages people to follow you or take action with you.
A great rule of thumb is to ensure your content looks like what you say you are in your bio.
Read your bio again. If your content isn’t reflecting what you have said in your bio, then you’re sure to turn people off.
Instagram is a visual platform.
While it may be true that a ‘cohesive’ or well-designed feed does not matter, in reality, it does.
You want your feed to pull the eye in. You want to make it easy for people to immediately gloss over your feed and know what you are about.
Make your post Titles stand out
Create content that reflects your bio description
Have a clear branding style (simple colors, fonts, styling)
Post high-quality images
Leverage whitespace in your content
Most people will make a decision to follow you simply based on your feed and layout. Create a lasting first impression.
Include a Simple, Clear Call-to-Action (CTA)
If you never tell people what to do, they do nothing.
On social media, people have to be directed to the next step and the next else, they’ll lose their attention to the next creator. In your bio, ensure you have a very simple CTA that calls to your ideal audience.
What do you want them to do?
You can ask them to DM you, Click your Link, or even follow you.
Make it Easy for people to contact you
Instagram gives you several options to connect with your audience. They can Book with you, Connect to your Whatsapp, Send you an Email, or DM you, all from your profile.
Set up your Contact options and include your email contact address and number where possible. Ensure you set this to be visible on your profile.
Most people who are serious about working with you will send you an email if it is visible on your profile.
By far the most powerful tool Instagram gives you on your profile is that one link in the bio.
Many people overlook the power of a single link. They either stuff it with an unlimited number of options for the user, or they never direct the user right where they need to go.
When optimized as a Sales Funnel, one link in the bio can be supercharged to run multiple Sales tasks in your business.
Here are two main ways to use the link in the bio as a Sales Funnel:
Think of your Highlights as Menus. The purpose of your Highlights is to showcase important aspects of your brand or work. Imagine that Instagram is a website, a landing page, or a homepage.
But before we dive in, here are a few common questions I get all the time on How to Make Money on Instagram.
How Many Followers Do You Need to Make Money on Instagram?
Don’t underestimate the power of Instagram for making money.
You only need enough people engaging with your content to push your posts into the Instagram feeds. Instagram does not judge the quality of your content based on how many followers you have but on the ratio of your engagement.
This is why it doesn’t matter if you have 500 or 5000 followers, if you post great, shareable content, you have the potential to make money using the methods outlined in this post.
It will help you a lot if you have more followers of course, but don’t wait until you have 5000 followers on Instagram before you start monetizing.
I have been selling on Instagram consistently for 3 years now and I have made more money by selling in the DMs than any other way.
The easiest way to sell on Instagram is through your DMs, but so many people do not utilize this powerful feature enough.
Because Instagram wants to keep people on the platform, it is important that you sell to people where they already are.
So how do you sell in Instagram DMs?
First, we must ensure we are getting enough people to send us DMs.
You want to spend time chatting with only the best potential clients and not just everyone.
Your content in Stories, on your Feed, and on your Livestream should be targeted to send people into your DMs.
And then from your DMs, you can chat them into the sale directly or on a phone call.
Why Am I Not Getting Clients on Instagram?
If you have been posting content consistently on Instagram for a while now but still not getting clients, it may be because your strategy is broken.
Many creators simply post ‘good’ content and hope that because their content is good, they should be getting clients. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
You must understand that Instagram is a social platform before it is a platform you can leverage for business.
What you want is a freedom-based business, not a business that sucks up your soul.
You also want the process of getting clients to not involve you at all. This way, as your content gets traction, you can turn followers into clients on autopilot.
Everything you are doing on Instagram to try to get clients is to fill up your funnel with leads.
On Instagram here are 7 smart and easy ways to get people into your funnel.
Instagram Story polls
One of the most strategic ways to get clients on Instagram is through your stories.
People are more likely to respond to story polls and respond to stories than they are to click the link in your Stories.
Instagram has done an excellent job of ensuring people log on to Instagram and never want to leave.
So no, even though Instagram has a fancy Links sticker, people will not click your link in stories.
Do this instead:
Using the Polls / Question Sticker, Ask 2-5 questions that qualify a prospect. Make sure to ask simple questions.
Message everyone who answers Yes.
There is no friction here as people are more likely to answer questions. Plus, you are able to get qualified leads from this knowing that people are usually sincere with their answers.
Instagram Story Replies
People are more likely to reply to your story (it’s easy) than to click your link to leave Instagram.
Use story replies to share your High-value lead magnet
Automate story replies and keywords with Manychat so you don’t have to do this yourself.
E.g Do you want access to my ‘high-value lead magnet name’ – Type FREEBIE and I’ll send it to you
You will be shocked at how many replies you get.
But the key here is to ensure you are not responding to everyone who sends you the Keyword.
Make sure to automate your DMs with a tool like Manychat.
Your DM bot will then respond to everyone and give them the link. Let your Funnel do the rest.
Sponsored/Guest post
You can leverage the audiences of similar accounts in your niche. But you must have a clear, working strategy if you go this route. The best way to get leads from a sponsored or guest post is to offer something valuable to the new audience.
Post a piece of content on another person’s account. Then make an invitation to DM you a Keyword for your high-value free offer.
E.g – DM me Keyword “MAGNET” and I’ll send you my Magnetic Attraction Guide.
This way you have a special keyword for your guest posts and you have clear data on how it converts.
Comments in post
First, ensure your content is high quality and targeted to your ideal client.
Then In the first 5 lines of your caption, ask people to leave a comment with a Keyword to receive your lead magnet.
People are likelier to drop a comment than to click the link in your bio. Your DM automation will do the rest.
DM Keyword
This is one of my favorite ways to get clients on Instagram. like the previous point, instead of asking people to leave a comment, ask them to DM you.
Making people take that extra step to go into your DM to message you is a qualifier in itself.
You are waking them up from their
Link in bio
Believe it or not, people do not like to leave Instagram.
Asking people to click the link in your bio is a great way to lose 50% of all your potential leads and clients. No matter how much someone needs your solution, they still won’t click the link.
Instagram puts people in a zombified state that creates friction and resistance.
People just want to keep on scrolling.
Even when you ask people to click the link in your bio to get something for free, there is still resistance.
Notice how highly targeted the link is in relation to the call-to-action
While you still want to leverage the power of the link in your bio, you want to ensure that the link will convert.
Can you make money on Instagram with just 1000 followers or less?
The honest, short answer is Yes! But there is a method to the madness of making money on Instagram and this is what I break down, step by step in this new episode of the Knowledge into Income Podcast
When I started my brand new Instagram page in 2020, I knew I was going to monetize Instagram with digital products. So the very first thing I did was create a lead magnet funnel to attract potential customers. I did this even before I knew what I was going to sell or what products I’d eventually create.
I went head-on first on growing my email list because this is the very first step to converting followers into buyers online.
It is important to keep in mind that Instagram is still a Social media platform before it is a tool that can be leveraged for business. With this in mind you understand that your efforts must first begin as social networking, growing a fanbase, getting people to consume your content and buy into your ideas and values.
To make money on Instagram by going in first to sell will be very futile and ultimate detrimental to your business /personal brand.
Listen to this episode now to learn my exact strategy for turning a small Instagram page into a money making page for you!
And if you enjoyed it, please do LEAVE A REVIEW as it helps me help you some more with more free content!
If you are a content creator, coach, service based business or entrepreneur, then you probably already know the unique power Instagram has when it come to creating connection and community with your audience. But have you been able to leverage Instagram for your Business to generate sales?
When it comes to making sales on the gram, I assure you, the best tools are behind the scenes.
While everyone is focusing on the Feed content and getting followers, serious entrepreneurs who use Instagram tactfully are focusing on using the unseen tools – Instagram Stories and the DMs.
In my post where I shared How I made my first $10,000 on Instagram, I talked about my DM Strategy and how I have leveraged the DMs as the first step of my sales funnels and closed countless sales thanks to the DMs. But there is one step in that funnel that is so very important and it is your Stories.
Instagram stories are filled with some powerful tools that I bet you are not even using yet. If all you do on stories is repost other people’s posts, share memes and post without strategy, you are missing out on some big sales machine at your finger tips.
You see, the idea of selling in stories, is not necessarily just to Sell directly, but mostly to lead your followers into the sale themselves. For this to happen you have to become an avid user of Instagram stories.
You want your audience to begin to expect to see stories from you daily and you want to make sure these Story Posts are well made, engaging and unique.
This is one of the most powerful tools you can use to convert followers into buyers. What you want to do is create a mini series focusing specifically on offering your followers a tiny win. Teach them how you do something, how you achieve a goal, whatever it is in your niche – but sharing this in your stories makes it feel hidden and special.
They know that it will disappear after 24 hours so they stick around to watch it.
Right in the middle of your training, you want to pop up a Question Sticker asking if they need more personalized help (related to the mini training you just shared) , or a poll with two options to filter out people and find out who is ready for the next step with you. More on how to use Polls below?
Mini Trainings convert really well on stories. What you need to do is link the training directly to the next step in your offer ladder. Instead of directly selling something, you may want to give the link to your Freebie. And if you choose to directly sell something, do not miss the sale by going for it head first.
Selling on stories is really about leading people slowly through the conversion steps like Using a poll to see who is interested first before adding the slide for your direct sale. (More on polls below)
Ask Me A Question Hack
Just like the mini-training, the Question sticker will allow you share a lot of value with your audience slide by slide.
I see a lot of people use the Question sticker but in a completely non-converting way. The question sticker is so underutilized that I cannot stop myself from convincing you to use it and use it often. You are in the information business and the reason your followers follow you is because of the information you share.
If you have something to sell, sharing information that ties in directly with that service or product is one of the best ways to increase awareness and sales. And what better way to share information than to use the user generated content like questions.
Pop up the question sticker in your stories and ask your audience to ask you a specific question. This is a great way to conduct market research, find out what your audience needs and also showcase your expertise in that subject matter.
For example, if you have a coaching service teaching new Moms how to start a business on Instagram – Your question sticker can say – “Ask me a Question about Instagram”
View the example below from one of my stories.
Tell your audience specifically what to ask you is a great way to keep the conversation and your responses right in line with what you are selling.
The effectiveness of the Question sticker lies in your ability to lead your audience to ask you specific, related questions. Don’t just put up the sticker and say “Ask me a question” – You will get too many random answers.
What you do after posting the answers to this sticker is to soft sell. Right after answering the questions and giving as much expert tips as possible, Pop up a poll as shown above and ask to see who is interested in the next step with you.
The Super Poll Hack
Instagram story polls are one of my favorite tools to determine who is really interested in something. If you have set up your business properly, with sales pages ready, opt in forms on hand, freebies ready to go, your entire funnel and sequence just waiting for a lead to come in, this is a great way to convert followers into leads and buyers fast.
The reason to do this is you want to have on hand, the exact people who are interested in your offer because you are going to DM all of them. The DMs is where most of your sales will happen on Instagram so it is paramount that you know How to sell in the DMs else you might be losing out on the super power that is Instagram.
You are also going to add a slide right after your poll with a direct sale. You already have people’s attention with the answers to your question. This is a good time to make a move for the sale. But make sure you have your poll posted before the slide for the sale because you want people to show interest first and these are the people to DM.
EXPERT TIP: Personalize all the DMs you send out. It can be as simple as having a single message to send to everyone, but starting with their own name – E.g [ Hi Eva, thank you for answering the poll + copied message ]
Results of a Poll in Stories. You can DM everyone who selected the Right action.
EXPERT TIP 2 : To make Instagram Polls work, you have to create high converting call to action options. Using dull “YES/NO” options on your poll is not going to convert as well as making the call to action a prompt in the next direction. Look at these examples below
Make the options on your Poll enticing
Selling on Instagram is easy when you understand how people use Instagram and how to lead them slowly through your sales process. Remember, people are not on Instagram holding their credit cards just waiting to buy something. They are on Instagram to make connections.
If you can make everything you do feel like an extra connection with your audience, you will earn the sale with ease.
Which of these tips are you going to implement? Share your thoughts in comments ?
Making money on Instagram can be easy if you know the steps to follow.
So in this post I am going to be as straight to the point and direct as possible so you know what to do and apply it in your own Business. You do not have to copy my own business model. That is completely unique to me and how you will monetize your Instagram will depend on your own unique offers, passions, gifts and services.
some sales stats from my dashboard
So as you go along in this post, keep in mind what it is you do and how you intend to provide Value. Of course you already know that making money is a by-product of giving value. So to answer the question of how I made my first $10,000 on Instagram, I will tell you quickly so you can run along –
Business Consults and 1:1 Strategy: This isn’t one I do a lot of because I honestly prefer to send people to my online courses and Ebooks but it is one of the offers that brings in good income. My Strategy sessions are $200 per Hour at the time of this writing and that is most likely to change in the coming months
Ebooks: I currently have only 1 Ebook in my portfolio but it is one of my most requested products to date. It is the Ultimate Guide Instagram Hashtags -HACKING HASHTAGS and with a Price point of $29, has sold over 200 downloads so far
Online Video Courses: I have several mini videos courses and masterclasses that I have created and promoted to my audience based on what people were needing help with. I have also used this method to really understand what my audience is seeking and how to focus my offers. Right now my online courses are doing very well and it is where the bulk of my income comes from.
Now, if you are interested in the actual steps of things that helped me make that money so you can do it for yourself, then keep on reading.
Whatever value you provide, whether that is directly with your products or services or indirectly by representing other brands, it will always start with Content.
Step 1: Create Content that Converts
When you Start, Focus on the Value you Give, not just on trying to Grow your page. Growing on Instagram is a by-product of value in Content, and making money on Instagram involves knowing how to leverage the traffic you get to sell your offers.
The first thing to think about is: “What kind of content can I create online that will make people aware of my services or products and who am I creating content for?”
This is where a lot of people get it wrong. You cannot monetize your Instagram without the right content to attract the right people. For instance, the content you will need for your type of business if you are a Hair vendor will be different from the content I will need as an Online educator and coach.
When I began focusing on my Instagram in January 2020 at only 2000 followers, that’s exactly what I started with:
What do I have to give that is Valuable and what kind of Content do I need to create to attract the people who will need my services?
What I had to give was my knowledge about Content Creation. This was what I started with. I knew that I wanted to help creators make better content and grow on Instagram because I had done it with other pages, and very early on, I knew that I wanted to Monetize with educational materials (Course and Ebooks)
So I began to make content about content creation tips and Instagram growth ideas.
I also used Hashtags to target the right audience and I had my own specialized engagement strategy.
These 3 things must go hand in hand because these are the elements of a growing Instagram page.
Your content, hashtags and engagement strategies. If you do not know how to use Hashtags yet, you are missing out on a big piece of the Instagram puzzle. Growth happens because of Content and Engagement but Hashtags on Instagram will ensure you are found by the right people who need your products and services.
If you do not get clear on your Ideal audience, you will attract just anybody to follow you on Instagram. A lot of people want specific demographic of an audience, but their messaging attracts just everybody and it becomes difficult to monetize. Which is why you may have 10,000 followers and not one person is interested in what you offer.
So understanding your audience is key. When you know who your content is for, you can then target them with Hashtags and a streamlined, specific engagement strategy.
The more I created content for my audience, the better I understood what they were needing help with. When I started I was teaching about Video creation and just general tips. I was also very eager to monetize because I already knew I was going to teach courses, so I jumped in straight and Created an Online course teaching How to Shoot and Edit Videos with a Mobile Phone.
Why?
I found a need!
A lot of people were talking to me in the DMs and asking for help with Video creation. This is something that I am very knowledgeable about and I have made a lot of great Youtube videos just on my Mobile phone over the years. So I figure, ‘Heck! I can teach this as a course and I can earn money for what I know’.
So I created my first course on Mobile video creation and editing to help creators use just their mobile phones make video content. This is how you make money. By filling a need, providing the solution to a problem. This was my first sale on Instagram and it earned me my first $500. I was excited!
3. Niche down deeper and become the go-to Expert for a Specific thing
Now as I continued to create content on this page, I was learning so much about how Growth on Instagram actually worked and I was growing my account so fast by applying my own strategies. I fell in love with hashtags and how they worked, so I spent a great deal of my time trying to understand hashtags.
Soon, I was creating content about Hashtags because I knew so much about them. What happened next is still my biggest lesson to date. My DMs began to fill up with requests for help with hashtags. I didn’t even realize I had done this, but I had created so much content about Hashtags that I had now become the go-to person for tags.
Not only that, people began to recommend me in comments of other pages as the person to talk to for Hashtag related issues. This single thing had suddenly placed me as a needed expert.
What did I do?
I made one single digital product to answer everybody’s questions about Hashtags.
I created my first Ebook. It became a simpler way to monetize my Instagram and I have received so many great results for clients and my students who have gone through the guide. My Ebook The Ultimate Guide to Hashtags has since earned me over $2000 and I have not used any ads to promote it.
When you start creating even more specifically in your Niche and you can own something, you make people tag you as the person with the solution for that problem. This is important because when you do decide to create a Product or offer a service, people already trust you for that and you have social proof and testimonials to show for it.
I do not have to go crazy to promote my Ebook. People know that I understand how Hashtags work and they are ready to pay me to help them.
4. Create Products and Offer Solutions or Services for the problems your Audience has
Against my own rules of having very few products and specific services, I have created several digital products over the course of the last 5 Months to test out what my audience is really interested in.
I personally love creating and selling digital products so honestly, if creating different digital products is not your jam, you can totally offer one product over a long period of time. For me, I am very knowledgeable in a vast number of things and I love to teach so it is a no brainer for me to keep on having classes and products for my audience to learn from me.
When I realized my audience needed help with growing on Instagram, I created the 1000 in 30 Days Mini course bundle. This has become by far my most rapidly selling product and I have enrolled over 100 students since it opened a month ago.
When I began to have people request for help with Converting their Followers into Buyers, I took that feedback and created a course bundle with several classes teaching how to grow and monetize on Instagram. This bundle of classes has been especially helpful for my followers who are also interested in creating digital products, ebooks and courses and monetizing their Instagram.
Basically, you can do whatever you want once you really understand your audience.
But to understand your audience you first have to create several Free Content so they can begin to talk to you and tell you what they need help with.
Once you figure that out, the next step will be to create a digital product that your audience can pay for. The easiest digital product to create today is an Ebook and you only need an idea worth paying for to get started. To learn How to earn Money selling Ebooks, Click Here to take the $2500 in 30 Days Ebook strategy class
5. Promote your Product and Offers Shamelessly
One of the major issues I have seen with people and why I think it may be difficult for you to make money with your Instagram right now, is you are afraid to sell. You think selling is dirty. You’d rather keep on creating content for Free and not talking about what people can pay you for because you prefer to live in obscurity. Meanwhile, deep down inside you are seething with hate and going crazy over the fact that you are spending time on Instagram but not making any money.
I learned quickly that to earn Money on Instagram or anywhere at all, I needed to learn how to sell. To sell, I needed to talk about my offers and my products.
Think about it this way. Whatever you are giving or doing for people is helping them. Is it not? You are providing value, are you not? So what you are doing inevitably is being of service. Selling something that helps people is a Service. The moment I began to think this way, everything changed.
I started to let people know in my posts, captions, and stories that I had the solution they needed. Promoting your offers and products must become a part of your strategy else you are not going to earn with your Page.
I had to learn really quickly that Instagram did not care about me as a creator.
Instagram cares about Instagram. As soon as this sinks in for you, you realize that you as a creator or user of Instagram must create your own Strategy for how you will convert followers into buyers.
And where does this conversion happen? IN THE DMs.
Think about it, you get to have only 1 Link in your Instagram bio.
That Link itself has to be well optimized so you can get people hitting the link. If you want to see more about this and how to optimize your link in bio, drop a comment below so I know and will write on that in another post.
Now, because Instagram itself has been set up in a way to train people not to leave Instagram, it so happens that people don’t like to click the link in bio. This means if you want to sell on Instagram, you have to be pushing your leads and prospects into your DMs and move them up from there.
As soon as I learned How to sell in the DMs, my sales on Instagram took off! I went from making one sale here and there, to getting hundreds of people in my DMs and converting them to buyers.
You can do this too if you are serious about earning money on Instagram and I have created a simple strategy that you can follow step by step.
So far, my earnings have been thanks to Instagram DMs and Email Marketing. Now, the big guy! Let’s talk about Email Marketing.
7. Use Email Marketing to Convert Followers into Buyers
I cannot tell you enough how important Email Marketing is for your business. If it has been scary for you start with Email, don’t sweat it. I have a Free Masterclass for you that will help you get your footing right with email. You can watch it here.
A Simple Funnel of How Followers become Buyers
You really do not expect your followers to buy straight from you on sight. Some of them do. But it is definitely a very unpredictable and unlikely way to scale your business if you are going to have something that sustains you.
You want to have a system that lets you take your followers into a nurture sequence where you can then slowly or quickly convert them into leads and buyers. I love to do this in the DMs and with Email marketing.
When you watch this Email Marketing masterclass you will have a much broader sense of how to do this for your own business. Using Email and my DMs are the two most effective ways I have implemented to make more sales on Instagram. If you are ready to start using Email,
Serious about making money with your Instagram Page?
You can get started right now! Stop waiting. All you need is 1000 True fans who care about your content and knowing how to convert your followers into buyers.
