How to convert Instagram followers into high-value paying clients

Transcript

To this day, Instagram is where I find most of my high-value clients, so today I want to share with you, how I build an engaged following on Instagram and how I covert them to paying clients. Let’s get started.

You’re listening to the Clare Wood podcast, where we talk all things business, finance, marketing, and mindset for entrepreneurs, sharing practical tips, and actionable advice to help you take your business to the next level. Introducing your host: me! I’m Clare Wood, I’m a numbers geek, a travel lover, and a reality tv addict, and I’m here to empower you to create an extraordinary business and an amazing life, because I believe you don’t have to choose between the two. Now let’s dive right in to today’s episode.

Why build an engaged audience on Instagram

Let’s chat about how you can grow an audience and your engagement on Instagram, and importantly how to convert that engagement into paying clients. First and foremost, why Instagram? It’s free… what better reason! It’s easy to use and the thing I love about Instagram is that it is an international platform. You can connect with clients all around the world, connect with people and use hashtags to connect with people you want to seek out as potential clients of your business. I also find Instagram has really high engagement levels and high levels of use. The people on this platform, use this platform a lot.

Tips to producing amazing content

I believe you need to produce EXCELLENT content. If you are continually adding value to your dream clients, they are going to keep coming back. In the old days of Instagram, you could stick up a photo of coffee and say have a great day, these days you need to deliver value to your audience so they keep engaging with your account. If you struggle to come up with good content, have a think about your dream clients, what are their problems and how do you help them solve it? What is some practical advice that you can share with them that will help them grow their business, if you are in the B2B space? Or if you are in the B2C space, how can you help solve the problem it is they come to you for?

I love to share content in a really easy to read way. Rather than have one big blurb, break it up into bullet points, use an intro, body and conclusion so they can easily follow your message.

The other way to produce great content is to be entertaining. Some of the accounts I follow are hilarious. Think of a way to get people coming back again and again.

Produce personal connection. If you are your brand, share a bit about you. Even if you aren’t your brand, talk about your team and brand values. Producing content that is excellent, is a great way to build an engaged audience.

The importance of consistency

The Instagram algorithm rewards those that show up again and again. You might think, “But I have better things to do than hangout on Instagram!” I totally get that, but do keep in mind that the algorithm favours those that consistently produce content, and being and engaging on the platform.

I like to show up regularly throughout the day on Insta Stories, and I find that’s an easy way for me to be consistent, without it taking over my life. If you are new to Instagram, and thinking I couldn’t possibly be showing up as much as Clare does, that is totally cool. You don’t have to get there overnight, just get consistent from where you are now. If you are only showing up once a week now, try and show up 2-3 times a week and increase from there.

Ways to engage on Instagram

It’s a social platform. How can you expect people to build relationships with you if you aren’t showing up and building relationships with other people on the platform.

What does engagement look like?

Liking posts, putting comments on people’s posts, and popping into DM’s and sending people messages. Another way is to share other people’s content with your audience.

So what does it actually mean to be commenting in a meaningful way on other people’s content? The process of this is essentially going and finding your dream clients or people you are looking to build a relationship with on the platform and providing thoughtful and meaningful content on their posts. Gone are the days you can stick an emoji and right lol under the post. You need to really look to build the relationship and provide meaningful comments. Remember, as much as you are trying to boost the algorithm through this process, at the end of the day, you are try8ing to build relationships, so doing it in a spammy way, won’t do that.

In terms of how much engagement you should do, depends on how much time you have. To give you an indication, I show up every couple of hours throughout the day, then when I post, I spend a solid 15-30mins on the platform, sometimes more. I respond to DM’s, comments, find accounts I like to interact with. Start small and build from there. We don’t want Insta to take over our life, I’m just giving you some tips of how you can improve your engagement if it isn’t where you want it to be.

If you want to learn more, I have an epic FREEBIE I created, that talks about these strategies and more. You can grab it via the shownotes, and as a bonus there are 30 Insta Story ideas.

What NOT to do on Instagram

Before I go into how you can take that engagement and turn it into potential clients, I want to highlight what you SHOULDN’T do on the platform:

• Bots – They are fake, spammy and do not build relationships
• Random DM’s – Don’t just reach out to someone you have never met and give them a sale spiel. That’s not a way to build a relationship with a high-value client.
• Ask for free advice – Sometimes people DM and say what is that ring-light, which I’m more than happy to share! But when it comes to free advice, think, how would you feel if someone asked you that same question? We need to be respectful of people’s profession and time.

How to convert your Instagram audience into paying clients

First of all, demonstrate you know your stuff. We spoke of this at the start, about producing excellent content. This is a great opportunity for you to show off and let people know you are an expert in your field. People can be scared to share too much with their audience, but it’s likely people will want to engage your services anyway. If they don’t, then you are putting good karma out there. Share freely and position yourself as an expert.

The next piece of advice I have is to provide social proof. You can tell your audience how amazing you are, but when someone else does it for you, that is even better! I don’t want to blow my own horn, but I regularly share testimonials and wins from my clients, because it demonstrates I’m getting success with my clients, and my clients are getting success with me. If your clients are readily producing feedback, testimonials, then ask them!

Another thing you can do is share things confidentially. If a client comes back to you saying “I loved the photoshoot you did for me today”, you can share that by removing any identifying information. Unless you have asked for someone’s explicit permission to share, you should always protect the identity of your client.

The third tip I have, is a big one. Offer. How many times have you followed someone online and you don’t know 100% what they do. Make an offer, make it super clear and direct, not subtle – an example: come and join my membership, or drop me a DM to book a photoshoot. As much as I say to do this, do it enough, but not too much. If post after post is just selling, make sure you mix it up with heaps up of value.

The next tip is to make someone a direct offer, if they are leaning in. You might be wondering what does leaning in mean? You might notice one of your followers is always liking and commenting on your posts, dropping you DM’s etc. If it happens again and again, it might be someone that is really curious about working with you, so if you notice a pattern, reach out and say “Would you like to know more about working with me?” Take the conversation to a different platform.

Another way people lean in, is they say a direct comment. For example, someone wrote on my post about money mindset saying “I think I need your help with money mindset”, so I reached out and said would you like to know about how I can help you with this? If someone is making a comment like that, take it a step further, try setup a chat via Zoom or on the phone, or through Insta DM’s using the voice message feature.

The next thing is to remove emotion. If someone says no to you, when you make an offer, don’t sulk and unlike them. Sometimes people say no for all sorts of reasons. I know I really struggle to keep on top of DM’s, so I can imagine those with larger accounts find it hard to get back to people. Sometimes when people say no, it’s just a not right now. If you reach out, and they say no, just say no worries, and continue to build the relationship online, you never know what might happen down the line. Even if they never become a paying client of yours, if you have a great relationship with someone, they might refer you to someone else, or collab or come on their podcast.

Even though you are on the social media platform to market your business, focus on building the relationship, rather than being there to sell. The sales will come if you show up in a genuine and authentic way.

As I’ve spoken about today, Instagram is a powerful platform, but it’s not the only platform when it comes to putting a marketing strategy together. Inside my membership, Money & Marketing Makers, I teach you to put together a holistic marketing strategy for your business.

As of today, which is Tuesday 25 August 2020, I am having my biggest ever offer on my membership, because I want to help more of you to make an amazing marketing strategy. This offer is only available for a few days, and is closing on Friday 28 August, and the bonuses drop off every day.

Let me share about what they are….

My membership will be 50% off the first month.

Bonus 1 – My business plan template that I use with my high-value, one-on-one clients, which helps you put together a plan for your business.

Bonus 2 – I will send you a copy of my favourite business book, which is Get Rich, Lucky Bitch by Denise Duffield-Thomas. It will be delivered to your door anywhere in the world.

Bonus 3 – A live Masterclass with me, which is valued at $297, called “How to create and sell a high-end service offer.”

We’ve spoken today about how to engage your audience, but this is taking it a step further and creating a premium offering and then teaching you how it sell it to potential clients.

There are some epic bonuses, which will drop away every day. So if you are keen, jump on it today! I’m so excited to welcome more of you to my membership and I really don’t want you to miss out. This bundle is really amazing value. If you also are ready to leap more in… there is an even better offer for those willing to commit for the whole 12 months – You will get $100 off the cost of the membership, on top of the discounted first month rate, as well as a 30mins 1:1 private coaching call with me. This is only available for a limited time. All details will be in the shownotes for today.

To sum up today’s episode:

• Build an engaged audience, with the breakdown I’ve talked you through.
• Demonstrate you know your stuff, prove to your audience you are worth working with.
• Provide social proof, get others to tell people how good you are.
• Put out offers, share what it is you do and how you can help.
• Offer directly to those leaning in.
• If you reach out with an offer, and they say no, don’t get offended, keep trying! The right people will come to your business.

Thank you for listening. Have an amazing week.

Thank you so much for joining me today, if you enjoyed this episode, please make sure you subscribe to receive future episodes, and I’d be so grateful for a review on apple podcast! If you’d like a copy of the show notes or any of the links mentioned today, please jump over to clarewood.com.au/podcast and remember that Clare is spelled CLARE, have a wonderful week and look forward to chatting to you again soon!