AMA: How can I convert more of my Instagram followers into customers?

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Q. Hi Aylen,

Myself and my partner have built up a really successful Instagram account sharing healthy recipes. We have a lot of followers and we have a website where we direct people to become members and get monthly perks and a monthly group class but we have barely any members given our following.

Most of our cash flow is thanks to those private classes – they're our bread and butter. We've had a few students trickle in from social media, but most are referrals from other students.

We've got big plans for digital stuff like online courses, but they take so much time and we're already stretched pretty thin. I feel like we're missing something. Shouldn't we be making enough at this point? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

A. Hi there,

Thanks so much for writing in. Right away, there are two issues that really stand out for me here:

1. given your audience is large, why are they not clicking onto your site?

2. once they do land on your site, the offer isn’t meeting their needs

One of the great things, is that you already have a large audience, so with some simple tweaks, we can isolate opportunities and where we can make improvements so that we can close those gaps.

And although you have a big audience, this advice is beneficial regardless of audience size. It creates a really simple system that is manageable and allows you to fine tune versus reinventing the wheel over and over.

MARKET RESEARCH: UNDERSTANDING YOUR AUDIENCE AND WHAT MOTIVATES THEM

You have a big audience as well as students who have already gone through your private classes. I recommend setting up some calls with students where you can get some specific answers as to the reasons they signed up for your classes. What motivated them, what pain point s did they feel, what takeways did they get from attending, Given that you said that a lot of the income is based on referrals, this tells me that the classes themselves are successful, so understanding what is working here will really help with your messaging and how you speak to you audience on Instagram so that you are connecting more with them. Also, pay attention to the specific words and phrases they use, record this call if you can. This will provide valuable wording that you can use in your copy and captions that will directly speak to your audience.

Secondly, to your audience who hasn’t yet converted, can you ask for them to respond to a quick questionnaire. Because you don’t have as much of a relationship with them, I recommend a short survey here to gain the same information as you would from the calls. You do want to be really strategic here with the questions you ask, to ensure you get as much specific information as possible so keep that in mind when writing out the quiz. To ensure you get as many responses as possibe, you can incentivise your audience with a free one-on-one class, or something else of value to increase the likelihood of responses.

GROWING AN ENGAGED COMMUNITY

It sounds like while you have a large following, you may possibly have low engagement. If this is the case, I suggest focusing on how you can increase your engagement rate with the objective of creating a community, understanding their needs and what drives them and converting them to customer. Versus one way communication, create dialogue by engaging your audience through Instagram’s unique features. You can create audience questions and polls (available in both static posts and stories), as well as making the most on Instagram features like quizzes, sliding scale emoji, links and countdowns (available in stories).

If you are not already, I strongly recommend using ManyChat to automate engagement and conversions. They have an excellent blog with resources and examples of how you automate comments and other audience engagement, as well as enabling DMing to deliver your lead magnet (more details on that below).

LEAD MAGNETS, EMAIL MARKETING AND LOW COST CONVERSIONS

As well increasing engagement you also want to focus on converting your audience to an owned platform, in the form of an email list. This is important because while Instagram is great for awareness and attraction strategies, the fact that you cant count on Instagram, the way the platform constantly changes, the amount of people who actually end up seeing your posts, keeping up with algorithm changes, etc. You want to be able to have a platform where you can directly speak to your audience and with the frequency and type of content you desire, without these restrictions.

The best way to do this is via a lead magnet. Utilising the market research you conducted earlier, create an enticing lead magnet that directly speaks to the transformations your offer. You really want to create something that is valuable here, I often see a lot of low value lead magnets, which only affects your conversions later down the track.

Upon signing up and receiving the lead magnet, you want to offer a tripwire. This is a low cost purchase, something again with a lot of value, that can also be a precursor and a taste of what you offer in your course. And this is why your lead magnet also needs to be of value, you want to demonstrate through the free lead magnet the value they would receive for a paid offer.

You also want to have a welcome sequence built out, which includes a sequence of around 3-5 emails that nurture those new to your email list. Each email will have an objective such as sharing your story, some of your highest viewed/engaged content, a before and after, review or transformation of a past student or promoting a new service.

DEVELOPING YOUR SIGNATURE OFFER

I know it can feel very overwhelming to create several courses, but the reality is that you really only need one. There are many people who are successful with one signature offer. I would look at either incorporating the private courses into some sort of course, or creating a short course based on solving the pain points from the feedback from the market research you compiled. Given that you are short on time, offering this course evergreen while you focus on the marketing and content creation versus building out additional courses will be more beneficial. You can then implement time sensitive incentives to increase conversions. You can do this using platforms like Deadline Funnel, implementing an offer that ends within a specific time, such as a reduced rate, a one on one session or Voxer support should they purchase within that specific timeframe.

REFINING AND IMPROVING YOUR OFFER

This is an element that to me, is vastly underestimated with those that offer courses as part of their product suites. One of the most valuable strategies I have picked up over the years of running my business, is constantly refining and improving my offers. While many look to adding new digital products or courses once they’ve finished building one out, I recommend focusing on what you have already created and developing the absolutely best experience and results for students.

You want the whole process to be incredibly seamless, from emails, to tech, collecting testimonials and generating referrals as well as when they’re in the course as well. This looks like engaging features such as action steps, your recommended resources and automated check in’s so that you can get them closer to the desired result as soon as possible. All of this is what helps turn a good course, into an incredible course with raving fans that generates its own buzz and good word of mouth. And in my experience, referrals are some of the easiest ways to increase profits.

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