Understanding Instagram for business verse personal use is a learning curve. This week I want to give you the tips and tricks on how I use Instagram to create content that sells my products and services … even when I’ve taken two weeks off to get married!
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Welcome To My New Digital Nomad Base: Galicia, Spain!
Hello, my loves. I am in Galicia, Spain. We checked into our apartment for the next month, right on the beach. So from our balcony, we can look out into the water, the perfect longboarding waves, and I’m just so excited to be here. (Check out my top 5 digital nomad locations for surfers here…I might need to revise my list!)
The first day we got here, I think I surfed for like five hours straight and my heart is just so full. I am slowly getting back on track with everything. The past few weeks with the wedding, with the road trip, with Ragz birthday, it has been hectic, but my team and my systems have done a great job keeping everything, running smoothly, making sales even while I wasn’t physically in front of my laptop working all of the time. And a big part of this is because I have content online that I’ve created this year, last year, many years ago, that sell my offers, my products and services. And in the Wanderlover Business, Academy, we’ve been getting a few questions about how we can create, consistently create content that Sells out your products and services.
Why Instagram Is My Favorite Social Media Platform For Selling
In this episode, I’m going to be covering Instagram specifically because it is the most accessible, it is the most consumed, and it’s the easiest in my opinion, for new businesses to show up. So I’m going to be giving tips, and this is honestly in no particular order. I’m just gonna kind of ramble and try to give you as much value as I can. Of course it’s going to be different for each individual account. So If, you want to get a better idea of how to use these tips for you specifically, just feel free to dm me on Instagram at the Wanderlover. Okay?
Are you ACTUALLY Selling?
So first and foremost, this is where I see a lot of new business owners go wrong with their Instagram is that they don’t have a product or service to sell. And this is the biggest red flag in terms of not being able to monetize and not being able to sell out is because you don’t know exactly what you are selling. So the first step is to create an irresistible product or service depending on what your business is. It can range from a digital product at $7 to a high ticket coaching offer at $5,000. So this is really dependent on what your business is, but you need to make it front and center that you are in business, you have products and services, and this is how people can pay you.
If, you don’t have that yet. I encourage you to really think about it. So in October, by the end of the month, have your first product and service, package it up and then go from there. If, you have a product and service, but no one is signing up.
Have You Advertised Your Offer?
Then you have to ask yourself, do people know about it? And this is where I see a lot of other people go wrong. We had a members meet and q and a in the Digital Nomad Society last week, and one of our members had a service. She had the website up and she was saying how no one is signing up. And my question was, did you launch it? Like do people know about it?
Have you been promoting it? And she said, no. Like no promotion, no marketing was ever done. And so people aren’t going to find your services if you’re not talking about them, right? If there’s no launch and no announcement. This reminds me of when I first launched the Wanderlover blog and I wrote a blog post, I had an affiliate link in it, and I launched it to the world, as in I hit publish and I thought I was just going to get sales that way. That’s not how the online marketplace works. Hundreds, if not thousands of new websites are being built every day. And you really need to drive traffic to it because people don’t just find you. People don’t just see you on the first page of Google without you putting in the effort behind it to get yourself there, right?
So creating the offer is the first step, launching it is the next.
Find Your Unique Content Selling Strategy
And once we have those two really core pillars down, now my next tips are we need to find your own way of selling on Instagram because what works for others may not work for you. So If, you dedicate the whole month of October to really focus on sales and finding your voice when it comes to selling. I guarantee you If, you have fun with it. By the end of the month, you’re gonna have made sales and you’re gonna have grown your business to a point where you’re like, Hey, I can do this. I know how to sell to my audience.
Tips For Creating Sales Content On Instagram:
Understand The Platform
The first thing to keep in mind when creating sales content is you need to understand how Instagram as a platform works. You need to consume enough content so you know exactly why videos are trending, what people are looking for, and how exactly to create videos on Instagram. As an expert creator, take notice of the fonts people use. The placement are people using filters? You don’t want to be the type of creator that makes people think like, wow, they are so outdated, or they have no idea how this platform works. There is a learning curve, and by studying other creators, your content is going to seamlessly blend in instead of sticking out and making people scroll away immediately.
So for example, a lot of times I’ll see people who are really good at writing write these really, really long captions in a static Instagram post.And I understand because they just have so much to say. They have so much depth and emotion. But Instagram is a very, very visual, heavy and now video heavy platform. So although you might be really inclined to write, your content isn’t going to be translated in a way where people are receptive to consuming it because they’re looking for visuals and they’re looking for videos and they’re looking for motion.
Similarly, the content you post on Facebook is going to be different than the content you’re posting on Instagram because they are different platforms. And so you really have to Tune in to what is currently working on this specific app.
Sometimes when I’m repurposing my Instagram reels to TikTok, to YouTube shorts, I will recreate it. I’m not going to just download it and repurpose it. It sometimes works better. If, you create the video in the native app because obviously they don’t want to see you reusing it. Of course, this isn’t mandatory for success, but it isn’t going to hurt if you’re creating the video on the native app.
Why You Should Adopt A Reels Only Strategy
This is also something to keep in mind if you’re using videos and Instagram to mainly drive traffic to your offers, you really want to optimize your content creation strategy. So short form videos, if you want your content to be seen by as many people as possible who aren’t already following you I highly encourage a reels only content strategy, as in 95% of the content you post are reels. Reels are mainly the only way that you can get people to see your content outside of static posts, carousels stories, because reels are shown to people who aren’t already following you, and the other ways it’s only distributed to your followers. So if you place intention and plan to post reels, you’re gonna have a better chance of being seen.
The exception to this content strategy is if you’re also using paid ads, if you’re using other ways to drive traffic to your Instagram, to your website, to your products and offers, and your Instagram can just be a portfolio of testimonials, right? It doesn’t have to be the source of traffic, but if you’re trying to sell out your products and services using Instagram, you really want to make sure each post is intentional, there is a strategy behind it, and people are getting onto your page seeing your product or service in your bio, and they’re signing up and they are applying and they are buying from you.
Understand The Instagram Purchase Funnel
And going off of that, it’s also really important to understand how people buy online. Very rarely is it someone finds your page, they see this one reel, they click onto your profile, click in your bio, and then apply or buy from you.
There is a funnel where you are trying to attract cold leads that align with your ideal client avatar. You want to convert them into warm leads by having enough content on your Instagram online for them to learn about you, to trust you, to want to potentially work with you. And then we want to convert all of the warm leads. Maybe they get onto your email list and then you launch an offer, they now become a hot lead and then we convert them into your high ticket programs. This process takes a while. It doesn’t just take one reel. And so the reel strategy and your Instagram strategy should never be, I’m gonna post this one reel and I’m gonna make the lifetime of my sales for this program or this service or this product using this one reel, right?
It’s much bigger than that, but our goal is to have enough content to convert those cold leads into clients and customers. And keep in mind, like you probably know this as a consumer, it takes you so many times to see something in order to take action. How many times have you seen an ad and you just scrolled away? But then the more you see the ad, you’re like, okay, and then when the time comes, you buy. So same thing with being a creator and also with like the diminishing attention spans of users on Instagram, people need to see something at least 10 times before taking action. So make sure you are talking about your product or service at least 10 times.
And I’m talking to those of you with high ticket offers. You really need to not give up when you’re in the middle of this strategy. It takes longer and the conversion time for people to sign up with you. If, you are a high ticket service provider, it’s gonna take longer. People aren’t just gonna dish out thousands and thousands of dollars after having just found you on Instagram, right? But the thing to keep in mind is you never know who is watching. I have people signing up with me today who found my podcast three years ago, and they just appeared out of nowhere. But never was I like, no one’s listening, right? No one’s seeing. People are always watching. And just trust that the timing is going to happen in alignment with how it’s all meant to be.
Continue doing what your soul’s work is in your business. Don’t give up and just know that people are slowly being converted with every post, with every email, with every reel.
Audit Your Account
If, you go onto your Instagram right now. Answer the question, is it a personal page or is it a business page? Do you have a cohesive brand? Is it 110% obvious what it is that your business does? And what you offer as a product or service is your landing page in your bio. So people can either apply to work with you by sign up or take action to pay you to be a part of your business. Or is it either non-existent or is it ambiguous? We do not want any ambiguity. We want it to be super, super clear.
Be Active And Communicative
You want to also be of service. So with every post treat, each account that comments that shares the people who DM you, treat every account like the human being that they are. We want to nurture them. We want to have conversations with them, get on the phone with them, offer discovery calls. We don’t want people to just, you know, see your reels and then try to start a conversation with you and have no one there on the other side. This is what customer service as a business owner feels like. You want to be of service.
Instagram Content Ideas For Businesses
Content ideas that I’d love to share with you that work really well. Have a transformation story of how you were able to get from point A to point B (my transformation story is summed up in this episode), all of the ups and downs, what you learned, have that transformation story up and also pinned to your profile. So any new account that finds you, they can learn about your story from that one reel.
You want to give value with every reel, whether that is information, inspiration, education, give a lot of value. Do not gate keep. You’re not trying to hide your best content in your paid offers. What I’ve found is If, you overshare, If, you give what other people aren’t giving out online. People are gonna see you as an expert and they’re gonna sign up with you for the implementation, for the accountability and the customization of working with you. So never be afraid to give and share value.
You also want some posts around wins, client wins, transformations, dream, lifestyle of what people can achieve after they sign up with you or join one of your programs. Always have a call to action after each and every post, whether that’s to encourage conversation between audience members, whether that’s to get your newest freebie, whether that’s to join your latest offer or program, have a call to action and make it second nature to direct people to take action on your page. After you post all of these, make sure you have a highlight for each of your offers.
How To Easily Launch Product & Services
And in the business Academy, I really encourage you to go out with a launch process, two to four weeks of generating buzz, generating excitement around your newest offering, and then saving it all into a highlight. So any new person that lands on your page, they can go through the whole launch process even after the launch, and then they can sign up or they can join the Waitlist. And you don’t have to start from square one. So if you have a highlight for each of your offers. And bonus tip, if you save all of the content that you send out via email, via dms post on your page. You can use the same content for future launches as well. So if you get into the habit of generating buzz, creating the sales channel. You can create a highlight and you can reuse it on your page to continue selling in the future.
Have Conversations To Create Trust
And last but not least, my last tip is to continuously have conversations with the customer. The intention is never to convert someone right away. As soon as they dmm you like they’re just trying to learn more about you, and you’re like, buy my, buy my stuff, like sign up here. You really want to have a conversation with them so that they trust you and maybe invite them to a discovery call. It’s already so scary for them to probably reach out in the first place. And so you really want to make the process simple for them so that in the future, any new programs that you’re releasing, they’re gonna be number one and they’re gonna want to sign up with you immediately.
And so if you take all of these steps and implement them in October, I guarantee you, you will get more sales. There’s nothing more to it than getting your product or service out there in the world to your ideal client and then converting them using content on your page. It seems daunting, but I promise you, if you just take action. Done is better than perfect and we want to get your business out into the world. Let me know if you have any questions about this. If you enjoy this episode. Please take a screenshot and share it in your stories and I will see you guys in the next episode. Love you all.
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