How to Get Clients from Instagram: A Beginner’s Guide
How to Get Clients From Instagram
Are you looking for ways to get more clients for your business? Instagram is one of the best social media platforms to help you reach a wider audience and attract potential customers.
With over 2 billion active monthly users, Instagram can be a great place to interact with your ideal clients, build relationships, and ultimately land you some new clients.
What's the First Step?
Setting Up an Instagram Business Account is the first item on the list.
A business account provides you with access to valuable tools and features, like insights to track your performance and eventually take advantage of ads to grow your audience.
Crafting an Attractive Instagram Bio
Your Instagram bio is the first impression that potential clients will have of your business. It's essential to make it engaging and informative.
Your bio should clearly state what your business does and what you have to offer. Use keywords that are relevant to your business, and include a call-to-action to encourage visitors to take action.
Setting Up an Instagram Business Account
If you are looking to get clients from Instagram, the first thing you need to do is set up an Instagram Business Account.
This is important because it allows you to access features that are not available on a personal profile.
To set up an Instagram Business Account:
- Sign up for an Instagram account or convert your personal account to a business account. To do this, go to your profile and tap on the three lines in the top right corner. From there, click on “Settings” and then “Account.” Scroll down and click on “Switch to Professional Account.” Follow the prompts to set up your business account.
- Choose a username that clearly represents your business. This could be your business name or a variation of it. (If you're a solo business use your name if it's available)
- Fill out your profile information. This includes your bio, profile picture, and contact information. Make sure to include a website link or landing page.
- Set up your Instagram profile to reflect your brand. This includes choosing a theme, color scheme, and content strategy that aligns with your business goals.
- Start posting content that is relevant to your target audience. This could include product photos, behind-the-scenes shots, or customer testimonials.
By setting up Instagram as a professional, you will have access to features such as analytics, the ability to run ads, and the ability to add a “Shop” section to your profile.
This will help you reach more potential clients and grow your business on Instagram.
The Next Step: Crafting an Attractive Instagram Bio
Your Instagram bio is the first thing potential customers will see when they visit your profile. It's important to make a good first impression by crafting an attractive bio that accurately represents your brand and entices people to follow you.
Tips for Creating an Effective Instagram Bio:
The example is from mine which in full transparency, can use some work, but is pretty good. 😂
Keep it Short and Sweet
Your bio should be concise and to the point. You only have 150 characters to work with, so make every word count. Use short sentences and bullet points to convey your message quickly and clearly.
Highlight Your Unique Selling Proposition
What makes your brand stand out from the competition? Use your bio to showcase your unique selling proposition (USP) and explain why potential customers should choose you over other businesses in your niche.
Use Keywords
Include relevant keywords in your bio to help potential customers find you. Think about the words and phrases your target audience might use when searching for businesses like yours, and incorporate them into your bio.
Add a Call-to-Action
Encourage potential customers to take action by adding a call-to-action (CTA) to your bio. This could be as simple as asking them to follow you or visit your website.
Include Contact Information
Make it easy for potential customers to get in touch by including your contact information in your bio. This could be your email address, phone number, or a link to your website.
By following these tips, you can create an Instagram bio that attracts more followers, which creates more opportunities to get clients.
Curating Your Instagram Feed
Your Instagram feed posts are what your future clients will see after they look at your profile and bio. Therefore, it is crucial to curate your feed to attract your dream clients and showcase your brand's personality and your best work.
Tips to curate your Instagram feed effectively:
Please Note
Social media trends change faster than most people can keep up. Instagram used to favor beautifully curated feeds, and there are a lot of templates floating around that can create a perfect grid. It hasn't been established that a perfectly curated 9 grid will help get more engagement or clients, so if you want to spend the time on this, great! If you don't, it might be better to plan out a strategy and create valuable content. The most recent trend is “more approachable” and less perfectly staged-looking content. Bottom line: Don't overthink this one!
Establish a Cohesive Brand Image
Your Instagram feed should reflect your brand's personality and values. To achieve this, establish a cohesive brand image by using a consistent color palette, filters, and typography. This will make your feed visually appealing and instantly recognizable to your followers.
Choose Specific Content Themes
One of the best ways to avoid feeling overwhelmed by coming up with content for your feed is to create content pillars you can pick and choose from to keep your content fresh and aligned with your brand vision.
A few content pillar ideas to choose from
- Tips and insider knowledge
- Behind the scenes
- Inspirational quotes
- Products and Services
By choosing specific content pillars, you can ensure that your content is always relevant to your brand, topics you can talk about a lot and will attract your dream clients.
Use User-Generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) is a great way to show off your brand's personality and build trust with your followers.
Encourage your followers to share their experiences with your products or services by using a branded hashtag. You can then curate the best UGC and feature it on your Instagram feed.
One of my favorite local restaurants is brilliant in implementing UGC-see image below
Plan Your Instagram Content in Advance
Planning your content in advance can help you keep your Instagram feed fresh, relevant, and intentional. You don't want to find yourself in a situation where you have no idea what to post and just end up throwing anything out there.
Use a content calendar to plan your posts and ensure that you are posting consistently. This will help you stay top of mind with your followers and attract your dream clients.
Consistency Consistency Consistency
I advise all my clients and students to focus on consistency first and foremost. If you've only got the bandwidth for 1-2 posts a week, but you can consistently show up each week, that's better than posting 15 posts in 3 days and disappearing for months.
By following these tips, you can get your Instagram feed showcasing your brand, values, products, and personality, so your potential clients can get to know, like, and trust you.
Utilizing Relevant Hashtags
One of the most effective ways to attract the ideal target audience to your Instagram profile is by utilizing relevant hashtags.
Hashtags are a powerful tool that can help your posts reach a wider audience, increase engagement, and ultimately achieve your goal of getting more clients!
When selecting hashtags, it's important to choose ones that are relevant to your business and the services you offer. For example, if you're a fitness coach, using hashtags such as #fitness, #workout, #healthylifestyle, and #fitfam can help attract potential clients who are interested in those topics.
To find relevant hashtags, you can start by researching your industry and seeing what hashtags your competitors are using. You can also use Instagram's built-in search feature to find popular hashtags related to your niche.
Once you've found relevant hashtags, make sure to include them in your posts and stories. You can also create a branded hashtag for your business to help build brand recognition and encourage user-generated content.
Overall, utilizing relevant hashtags is a simple yet effective way to attract your ideal target audience to your Instagram page and ultimately grow your business.
Pro Tip:
Before you start using hashtags research the top posts. Sometimes hashtags aren't what you would expect. Let's just say you may be surprised by some of the content using that hashtag and decide to pass. 😘
Building Relationships on Instagram
Instagram is a great platform that allows you to connect with potential clients in a way that is more personal and engaging than traditional marketing methods.
Building relationships on Instagram is a crucial step toward getting clients for your business because people want to buy from people, not companies.
Tips on how to build relationships on Instagram:
1. Engage with your followers
Engage with your followers by responding to their comments and direct messages. This shows that you value their input and are interested in what they have to say. It also helps to create a sense of community around your brand.
2. Use Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories are a great way to share the human side of your brand. Share behind-the-scenes footage of your business, highlight your team, or share customer testimonials. This helps to create a personal connection with your followers.
3. Share user-generated content
Sharing user-generated content is a great way to show your followers that you appreciate their support. Repost customer photos or videos and tag them in your posts. This not only shows that you value their input, but it also helps to create a sense of community around your brand.
4. Use relevant hashtags
Using relevant hashtags makes it easier for potential clients to find your content. Research popular hashtags in your industry and include them in your posts. This helps to increase your visibility and reach on the platform.
5. Be consistent
Consistency is key when it comes to building relationships on Instagram. Post regularly and at the same time each day. This helps to create a sense of familiarity with your followers and makes it easier for them to engage with your content.
By following these tips, you can build strong relationships with your followers on Instagram and ultimately turn them into clients for your business.
Targeting Your Ideal Audience
To get clients from Instagram, you need to target your ideal audience. Your ideal target audience is the group of people who are most likely to become your potential customers.
Define Your Target Audience
The first step in targeting your ideal audience is to define who they are. Think about the demographics of your target audience, such as age, gender, location, and interests. You can use Instagram Insights to get insights into your followers and understand their demographics.
Use Hashtags
Hashtags are a great way for your ideal clients to see your posts. Use relevant hashtags that they are likely to search for and follow. You can also create your own branded hashtags to help your target audience find your content.
Collaborate with Influencers
Collaborating with influencers is an option, and by “influencer” it doesn't have to be someone with a million followers. Find influencers or other business owners who have a similar target audience as yours and collaborate with them to promote your products or services.
Run Instagram Ads
Instagram ads are a great way to reach a much wider audience. (This is an advanced strategy)You can create ads that are targeted to specific demographics, interests, and behaviors. You can also retarget people who have interacted with your content or visited your website.
Pro Tip:
Don't run Paid ads until your business is ready to do so. There are a few things that need to be in working order or you'll end up wasting your money and feel frustrated.
Leveraging Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories is a powerful tool for businesses to connect with their audience. With over 500 million daily active users, Instagram Stories offers different ways to show off your brand, products, and services in a fun and engaging way.
1. Be Engaging
The first step to creating a successful Instagram Story is to give an inside view of what it's like to work with you, by sharing more personal content. You can also use filters, stickers, and GIFs to make your Stories more engaging.
2. Create a Story Series
Creating a Story series is a great way to grab attention and get people wanting to see more. You can use a Story series to get people excited about a new product or service launch, share behind-the-scenes content, or tell a story about your brand.
4. Use Hashtags and Location Tags
Using hashtags and location tags can increase the visibility of your Instagram Stories. Hashtags allow users to discover your content based on their interests, while location tags allow users to discover your content based on their location.
5. Use Instagram Stories Highlights
Instagram Stories Highlights is a feature that allows you to save your Instagram Stories to your profile.
You might attract new followers by setting up curated topics that speak to your ideal client. Highlights are featured at the top of your feed, and you can create branded highlight covers for each topic.
Crumbl Cookies does a beautiful job with their highlights- Yummy!
Using Instagram Stories in your strategy is a powerful marketing tool.
Make sure to try out all of these features:
- Photos
- Text
- Stickers-including polls and yes/no questions
- Story Series
- Hashtags
- Location Tags
- Highlights
A Word about Reels
I'm not going to cover Instagram Reels in this beginner's guide. Reels are a little more advanced because they involve making videos and using editing features, which can be intimidating for new users.
Currently, Reels definitely are a fantastic way for more reach because they are being pushed out more than any other content,
So, if you're more advanced and want to use Reels, I say Go For It!
However, if using tech is somewhat new to you, there's no need to implement Reels for now.
You can read about the difference between Instagram Stories and Reels here.
Engage with Your Target Audience
Social media is meant to be social, so responding to comments and messages, liking and commenting on your followers' posts, and sharing user-generated content are all part of the strategy.
By knowing who your ideal new client is, you can attract them and grow your business. Remember to, use relevant hashtags, collaborate, and be social.
Pro Tip:
Follow some people who would be your dream clients. Not to spam them, but to engage with their content. If they look at your profile and your brand resonates with them, they might follow you back and you can build the relationship!
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I attract potential clients on Instagram?
To attract potential clients on Instagram, you need to have a clear and consistent brand message. Use images and videos that showcase your products or services. Utilize hashtags that are relevant to your business and your target audience. Engage with your followers by responding to comments and direct messages promptly.
What are some effective ways to convert Instagram followers into clients?
One of the most effective ways to convert Instagram followers into clients is by building relationships. Use Instagram Stories to showcase your products or services and provide a call-to-action that leads to your website or online store. Collaborate with influencers or other businesses in your industry to reach a wider audience.
What type of content should I post on Instagram to attract clients?
Post a mix of your content pillars that is relevant to your business and your target audience. Share your products or services in action, share behind-the-scenes glimpses of your business, and post user-generated content. Use Instagram's features such as (Reels, IGTV-more advanced strategies), and Stories to create engaging content that resonates with your followers.
What's a branded hashtag?
It's a specific hashtag that you create and share with your followers. They can follow the hashtag and always know what's happening with regard to special products, sales, or contests. Brands use them to create buzz, build awareness, and use them in campaigns.
How important is engagement with followers in converting them into clients on Instagram?
Engagement with followers is crucial in converting them into clients on Instagram. Responding to comments and direct messages promptly can help build trust and establish a relationship with your followers. Use Instagram's features such as polls and questions to encourage engagement and gather feedback from your followers.
What are some common mistakes to avoid when trying to get clients from Instagram?
Some common mistakes to avoid when trying to get clients from Instagram include posting low-quality content, using irrelevant hashtags, neglecting to engage with your followers, and being too sales-y in your approach. Never pay for followers.
There You Have It!
Instagram can be a great strategy to implement in your business to get new clients. Make sure you start with these simple steps:
You will build relationships and get more clients!
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