273 How I signed more than 10 new paying clients using Instagram
Are you tired of the same old "follow for follow" game on Instagram?
Well, maybe it's time to shift your perspective.
Are you tired of the same old "follow for follow" game on Instagram?
Well, maybe it's time to shift your perspective.
The key to finding success on this platform is treating your followers like the human beings they are. No, seriously! Take the time to understand their needs and desires, and show them that you genuinely care about their well-being.
Don't treat them like potential customers, treat them like friends. Because at the end of the day, that's what we all are, right?
Just a bunch of people trying to connect and support each other. So go ahead, start spreading the love on Instagram and watch as success follows.
In this episode, I'm going to show you how I was able to get more than 10 new paying clients in the past few months using Instagram.
Access the transcript for this episode:
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You're listening to the visionary life podcast. I'm your host, Kelsey Rydell. Each week, I'll bring you conversations with the most visionary humans on this earth, in hopes that you'll be able to absorb their wisdom, avoid their failures and feel less alone on the roller coaster ride that is entrepreneurship.
This season, I'll be chatting with creative thinkers, masterful marketers, brick and mortar shop owners, brand builders, and people just like you who have a story to share or a vision that inspires. If I can share one quick secret with you before we get into the episode. It's that we all have a little bit of visionary inside of us, you know, that spark that nudges us to pursue our full potential in this lifetime. But perhaps somewhere along the line, it got covered up, I'm here to tell you that it's never too late to explore that inner voice and access the brilliance deep down inside of you. It's in you, it's in all of us.
Let's dive in. Hey, visionaries, welcome back to a solo episode of the pod. Just mean you sitting down today I'm recording this on a Monday morning, the sun is shining. And I knew I wanted to talk about this topic. And I actually sat down and recorded this episode on Friday, so a few days ago, but I woke up this morning with a whole new level of clarity around how important this topic is. So basically, instead of being a little bit mad that I spent 30 minutes last week recording it, and now I'm going to redo it, I'm actually excited because I feel like I'm able to bring a new level of value to the content that you're about to hear.And just a really big truth bomb that is on my heart and on my mind and that I feel like everybody listening can benefit from and be reminded of, and it's something that I'm always reminding myself of as well.
So let's get into it, I want to talk about how I signed more than 10 New paying clients using Instagram, and how you can do the same. So if you feel like Instagram right now is just bogging you down, you feel like you're in this follow for follow mentality, and that maybe there's no return on investment, I hope to shift that frame of mind and to show you that there are so many ways to find success on this platform and to use it to connect with clients. So if you are a business and you require new clients or customers, in order to stay in business, I think you're really going to love this content. And if we can actually look at our followers as friendships that we're building, everything changes.
So in this episode, I'm going to show you and tell you a bit more about how I was able to find a new paying clients and have been doing so for the last seven years. But first, I just want you to take a minute and think if you were to sign 10 clients in the next 30 or 60 or 90 days, what would that mean for you? When you think about how much you charge for your offer, if you multiply that by 10, how much cash lands in your bank account. Now think about how much it costs for you to use Instagram $0, right. Like, if you're just using the platform organically, you can technically show up for $0. So the potential here is that you make all of that in profit inside of your business. And you don't actually spend any budget or marketing dollars in order to get these results because Instagram is this tool that is available. And yes, there are ways that you can invest money to sponsor your posts or run paid ads.
But the strategies that I'm sharing actually do cost you nothing. And for the most part, I am using Instagram organically. And I want to talk to you about the power of organic Instagram and really remind you that there is a different way to look at your time online. Okay, so before we get into the strategies, I want to talk to you about why I care about this topic. So I recently heard that more than 90% of small business owners have no idea how to turn their social media followers into paying clients.
You know, there's all these courses out there and I'm sure you have purchased one before that tell you how to make content and what to talk about and how to find your niche and what hashtags to use and what time you should post that which is all great honestly those courses are wonderful. But if you are not learning or being taught how to take that following and take that content you're putting out there and actually use it to drive revenue into your business. There is literally no point in posting. And as a business coach and marketing coach, and as a former social media and marketing manager for some of Canada's top health food companies, that doesn't land well with me, because I think back to my time working as a social media manager in the corporate world.
And if I couldn't prove that the social media was driving revenue into the business, or at least a very important part of the funnel, I wouldn't have had a job, I would have been let go. And if clients hire me to support their Instagram strategy, and they're not seeing results, they're probably not going to be super happy with me, right? Because we need to look at social as, yes, a very important piece of our funnel.
But also, we need to really hash out what happens once the post goes up, are we doing anything to collect leads, and to ask for the sale and to incentivize our followers to turn into paying clients. So I created an entire course teaching you how to do this, and I'll share more at the end. But I hope you see how valuable this piece of the equation is. It's not just about posting pretty pictures, writing beautiful captions, and using the right hashtags, you actually have to leverage that following, okay. And so, over the past seven years, I've experimented a lot, I am the marketer who is never afraid to go first.
And I've probably generated over 300,000 in profit. So this is after expenses from Instagram alone. And like I said, this is amazing, because it's a free tool. So unlike email marketing, I pay about $1,600 a year for my email software. So yes, email brings in a good amount of sales through my business, but you know, there's an expense with it. And podcast hosting, I get a lot of clients through the podcast, who listened to me and who reached out, but I pay about $100 A month or 1200 a year to produce and host the show. But then we think about Instagram, it's totally free. It's at our disposal, and it's ready and primed for us to actually sell to our followers, but most people aren't doing it. And why? Why are we showing up on social and just blasting our followers with advertisements, just feeling like we have to schedule content and just get something up, and we come at it with this crazy resistant energy. And then we're wondering why we don't have any ROI or return on investment from posting, or just blindly sharing random content with no strategy in mind. I really feel that we do this because we are treating our Instagram as if it's just a job and a numbers game. And yes, it is part of our strategic business plan. But what if we came at Instagram with the mentality that it is about deeply caring for and understanding humans, and that whether you are scrolling Instagram, or walking around your town, you should treat people with the same dignity and respect. And instead of treating people in the online world, like your Instagram community, like people who want to be advertised to because they don't.
Instead, what if you treated them like your neighbors or like the local coffee shop owner, and you engage in conversation and you expressed interest in what they do and how their day is going. And eventually, you might get into a conversation that has them sharing a piece of information that makes you realize your offer is perfect for them. This is a relationship building game you guys, it's not about just growing followers and using hashtags. It literally comes down to human to human connection. It comes down to caring.It comes down to seeing this as a beautiful ritual in your day where you actually get to reach out to people you would never otherwise have access to. Whether that person lives an hour away, or a 30 hour flight away, you have access to them. And if you love the game, if you love the ritual and the beauty of Instagram, which is that everybody is at your fingertips. And if you actually care are for the people who you're messaging.
Like, if there's heart and intention in the message, you're going to sign new clients through Instagram. And I can already feel a little bit of resistance that might be bubbling up in everybody. And you're like, Yeah, but who has the time for that? You don't have the time not to do that right now you can cut everything else, you can cut all the BS activities that you have been told, are going to help you grow a business, you can cut the two times a day tiktoks, you can cut the I need to have the perfect website, you can cut making all these beautiful PDFs that nobody's ever gonna read. Because all that matters is that you are showing up and forming connections every single day in your business. And this is not scalable.By but I've listened to a lot of friends of mine who have multimillion dollar businesses, and one of whom is John Goodman. He's actually been on the show before. And he calls this gloriously unscalable. Because he knows that this type of thing, maintaining the humanization of your business, it's not scalable. But that's all that the founder does in later years, they can outsource everything else except for the relationships. I mean, it is so icky, when I get pitches to my inbox, from people's VAs and their business managers and whatever, like, I don't want to hear from you. But if the founder reaches out with a personal message, I feel way different about receiving that.
So the seven figure and eight figure entrepreneurs who realize that building authentic relationships and holding on to those, yeah, that's not scalable, but it's the only thing, it's truly the only thing that matters, everything else can be put off, everything else can be outsourced. Those are the entrepreneurs that are so darn successful. And so on our scale, for people who are making 10,000 a year in their business, 50,000 a year 150, maybe even up to 200k a year, your priority is in making genuine connections every single day. And truly, most people don't find the time for this. And that's why they're not reaping the benefits of it. Okay, so I want to pause here and just let you sink in what I've just shared. Do you feel like you're prioritizing genuine relationship building, not just liking people's photos, because that's not enough, but actually getting to know people and spending 25% of your working hours, building real relationships, talking to people cracking open conversation, booking connection calls with no motive to sell to people. Because we can't always be coming at this with that. I gotcha. I have something to sell, we have to be genuinely interested in people. And this is the pillar, the foundational pillar of how I've been able to sign over $300,000 worth of clients simply through Instagram is because I care.
So there's kind of two sides of that equation. I show up every single day on Instagram, and I create content. Before I start scrolling before I start looking at everybody else's life. Hey, visionaries, I'm interrupting this episode because I heard a really alarming statistic recently.And that's that 98% of business owners don't know how to turn their social media followers into paying clients. That's crazy, right? Because there's all these ebooks and digital courses and marketing agencies that are telling you, we're going to help you grow your following.
But what is the point of just growing your following if these courses and agencies and ebooks don't teach you that vital next step, which is how do you turn your follower count into a profit into revenue for your business? And that all comes down to having a strategy and a lead generation funnel so that, yes, you're getting new people to look at your content at the top. But then what are you doing to nurture them? How are you turning them into paying clients?If you don't know these techniques, if you're like, Kelsey, I'm posting all of the time. I feel like I'm constantly recreating content. And I don't even know if it's working. Well then visionary social media is for you. If you're not familiar, this is going to be a live four week course starting on Friday, April 14. So we're gonna meet for four Fridays in a row for 90 minutes. And there's going to be a ton of live access to me to ask questions for me to review your strategy. And I'm going to be spilling the beans when it comes to all of my templates and tools that I use to sign 1000, multi $1,000 clients simply through Instagram and simply through a few techniques.
So if you feel like you want to know everything you need to know to make more sales through social media, then I'd love to see you inside of this course, the best way to get more info to enroll yourself, and to be part of this four week experience to get in on the party of coaches and consultants and freelancers, and Etsy shop owners and podcasters, who are going to be sitting in this room with you head to Kelsey rydell.com. And then click on the big banner at the top.
And then you can read all about visionary social media, you can check out and enroll yourself, or just send me a DM on Instagram, that's a super easy way for us to connect. So just send me a DM on Instagram at Kelsey Rydell. Again, this starts April 14. So you really don't have too much time when it fills up, it fills up. And I think this is going to be the most powerful 30 days in your business. So we'll see you there. I create something I share what's on my heart, I reflect on what I've learned from client calls. And I create stories around that I try to share value I try to share behind the scenes.
And I do that before anything else. And then when I log on to Instagram for the second time in a day, I am there to make connections to respond to DMS with meaningful things to look at who has joined my email list who has filled out applications to work with me who has been listening to the podcast, and I go find them on Instagram and I follow them and I look at their last six posts and I might send them a voice note and say, oh my god, I love that.
You were paddleboarding this past weekend. I also have a paddle board and see how there's no intention to sell there at this point. I'm just trying to connect. And it's not because I'm extroverted. That is totally a misconception like, this is the best strategy for extroverts or introverts alike, because you don't have to leave your home to be on Instagram. But you do have to break free of the idea that you can build a business in isolation because you can't. And another guard that people put up is this fixed mindset around what social media is they say it's toxic. It's a time waster. It is. I don't know like it, there's just nothing good that comes from it.
But you guys that is a result of the boundaries that you've placed around it. Instagram is not inherently bad. Instagram is not a time waster. Instagram is not a toxic place. If you don't follow toxic people. You can curate your feed, you can unfollow 90% of the people you follow and only follow people who lift you up, you can see it as a chance to bring positivity into your life. You can set timers or boundaries around it that allow you to be there for a business purpose. But don't let it trickle into your personal life if you don't want to.So I really feel strongly first about shifting our mindset. And then really knowing that after that, if you are clear on who your dream client is that there are so many ways you can connect with these people. You can look through similar accounts and who they're following. You can look at certain hashtags for Toronto, nutritionist if that's your niche, you can use the Discover feature or search feature, you can Google people's websites who might be your dream clients and then find them on Instagram. And then what you're going to do is they're going to spend a fixed amount of time, each day going on there and sharing meaningful content and having meaningful conversations. You're going to bring an energy of I am open to new connections, I am open to having people placed in front of me that I can talk to you that I can support. I am open to finding peers like people who are at an equal stage of business that might become my mastermind partners. In fact, I'm part of a mastermind of the three of us and we went out to BC together last year and spend some time together. And in that mastermind, one of the girls that I'm partnered with inside of the mastermind we actually met through Instagram. So it's not just about finding clients. It's about finding people who are along a similar journey who might actually be able to help you to rise to the top and who can co create and support this next chapter of business with you. Now as you start connecting with new people and having these wonderful conversations, I want you to make sure you have a tracker in place where you're actually monitoring these conversations, and giving yourself deadlines for when you reconnect and re reach out.
So maybe you have 12 conversations in the DMS today with brand new people, I want you to add all their names to a Google sheet. And I want you to write down what you talked about where you left off. And then in a week's time, if the conversation has died, maybe you check back in and see what's the new content they posted?
Have they talked about a really cool hike they did with their dog? And can you go engage on that? And did you see recently that they were struggling to figure out how to parent their children or sleep, train their children, and you offer services that can help that. So maybe you say, Hey, I saw your story, I saw your post, here's a link to book a free connection call with me, I love to chat. So the way that I want to leave this podcast episode off, is in sharing some strategies you can try right away. So I'm going to specifically talk about Instagram here.
So using Instagrams features, you can absolutely sign a paying client. So like I've mentioned, we have the opportunity to grow our audience to create content to follow new people to engage with them. But by simply sending out stories that have a poll button, or a question box, or something that is a direct call to engage with you is a huge indicator of who might be interested in your product or service.
Okay, so not only do we need to post content to constantly be building our audience, but we also need to self inquire on whether we're doing a good job as salespeople in our business. And I never really liked the idea of going for the hard sell. So just constantly saying shop now shop now buy from me, here's the link to go check out on your own. And instead, I actually like to look for ways for the soft sell.So when somebody expresses need or a desire that revolves around marketing or business success coaching, I will often reach out and ask them if they want to jump on a free call. Is it worth it to me if I assign an $8,000 client? Absolutely, it is. Or when I use these polls, or these question boxes and I collect interest or I collect raised hands, I will take the time to follow up with each of those people.
Sometimes when I have about an hour, what I will do is I will scroll back into my DMs and see who was I chatting with a month ago. And usually there's hundreds and hundreds of conversations based on the content that I'm putting up. And I will just open that conversation, send them a quick Voice Note or I will go see what they've been up to and write them a little bit of a message that is relatable. And I will fire that off and just see what resonates. Because sometimes what we're trying to do when we're selling through Instagram is simply stay top of mind. And if we send that DM if we start liking those people's photos and commenting and engaging on their stories, then the algorithm is going to tell Instagram, hey, this person likes Kelsey is content.
And then my stories will be bumped up to the left hand side and they're more likely to actually see my content. So they're really simple strategies. Like I'm not teaching you anything overly complex in this episode. But my hope through it all is that you feel inspired to look at Instagram with a new lens and to care about people just the way you do when you open your front door and you see your neighbor struggling, you would go help them right.
So why don't we do that with Instagram? Why don't we prioritize 30 minutes every single day. So take away 30 minutes of your creeping and instead take that 30 minutes and really put out good vibes good energy, because marketing is energy sales is an energy.And if you want to move people from Instagram, over to a paying client, you need to bring that really valuable energy to the mix. And one last thing one of the best ways to bring more eyeballs as to your content and to actually convert followers into paying clients is to have other people share your content so as much as you can and I would suggest try for five a day tag other people in your content so if you are posting a podcast episode with your friend, Emily, tag Emily and all the stories if you had a bunch of client wins happen, tag them in the store worry so they can reshare everybody loves resharing content.
So literally just think of ways that you can share and lift other people up. They'll share that and they'll expose you to their audience. So when I'm, you know, going about my day, opening a pack of smartsuite gummies, I'm drinking my favorite Kicking Horse coffee, I am using a client's new body butter. I am taking photos and sharing those because I want that to be exposed to their audience.
And if that resonates with the people who follow them, they're going to click back to my profile, potentially follow me because they read my Instagram bio. And sidenote, you must have a well written compelling Instagram bio, because that is a first impression. You need a good photo. And I have some secrets for having good photos inside of the visionary method, you need a really great bio, don't be afraid to drop some emojis in there. Don't clutter it with Bs. Okay, now I'm getting a little too passionate. But guys, we got to look at this. Overall, we got to break the humanization. And more important than ever, you know, continue tagging people get your content to be shared and reshared by others.And I think that's all that I want to say on this topic. So my goodness, I have been on Instagram almost 10 years, no more than 10 years now I feel like I've learned a thing or two. But just keep in mind the algorithm is always changing. But the need and desire for human connection has not changed in hundreds and 1000s of years. So I hope this was helpful as a little mini episode. And feel free to share your wins or questions with me over on Instagram of all places. And I will catch you guys next week. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of visionary life. I love bringing you these conversations on a weekly basis.
So it would mean so much to me. If you could help me out by rating and reviewing the show on either iTunes or Spotify. It just takes a second. And if you don't want to rate the show, you could also just take a screenshot of the episode and share it on your social media platform of choice tagging me at Kelsey Rydell. I'll catch you in the next episode.
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