Want to sell stuff on Instagram? Of course you do.

Here’s the thing, though.

Blindly following crappy advice from so-called ‘social media experts’ won’t help you do it.

Especially when it seems like every second person on the Internet these days is dishing out dodgy, outdated and untested ‘expert advice’ on how to hack the algorithm.

The volume of silly myths and old information out there is truly mind boggling, and honestly? It makes me mad.

So, I’ve decided to dedicate this podcast episode to sharing five killer Instagram strategies that are working right now.

Want to know what REALLY matters when it comes to selling on Instagram in 2020?

Listen closely.

I’m about to share EVERYTHING you need to know.

That’s why in this podcast episode, we are covering Five KILLER Instagram Strategies Working Right NOW.

Listen On: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Here’s what we cover:

• Likes are so 2019: Why THIS type of content needs to be your new focus.
• Followers are nice, but website clicks are better: The analytics that you need to be tracking.
• It all goes down in the DM’s: Leveraging DM’s as a sales tool. 
• Consistency is good (but killer content is better): Why a focus on quality content never gets old.
• The Power of One: A confused customer walks away.

Transcript

Want to know the Instagram sales strategies that are working right now? Well, you’re going to want to listen to this episode.

Let’s dive in.

Do you want the good news, or do you want the good news?

Guys, I’m going to give you the good news.

I have gotten my love for Instagram back and that is huge news in my books because I really lost my love for Instagram for a little while. I got sick of talking about it all the time, I got sick of being asked about it all the time, I got sick of saying the same things over and over again.

I even got bored of my own account and I just really wasn’t feeling inspired by the platform anymore.

It happens when you’re doing the same thing over and over for a long period of time. I’ve gotten my groove back, though.

I really  have and I wanted to share that with you guys. Most specifically, I wanted to share with you some of the things that I have been implementing on Instagram recently and some of the things that will be rolling out in my brand spanking new content plan so that you can get your love for Instagram back as well.

It can sometimes seem like you know when there’s a new shiny object out there (hint hint: Tic Tok) that you should be going all in on it. What I will say is that Instagram is the biggest social media platform in the world, or at least I think it is.

I really think that there are so many opportunities for businesses to generate solid leads and sales which is what we’re on the platform for in the first place. I think sometimes we forget that when it comes to social media we get obsessed with things like reach and how many views and all of that good stuff which can be a good indication that your content is valuable, or in the case of Tik Tok entertaining, but it doesn’t necessarily lead to sales.

So, what I want to do in today’s episode is to share with you five strategies that I have been implementing on Instagram, that are working right now. I’m implementing not only these strategies but a whole heap of other ones, as I start to put the curriculum together for my new Instagram course.

Number one in terms of the five killer Instagram strategies that are working right now is something that I have actually titled ‘likes so 2019’. I titled it that because what is working on Instagram right now isn’t the same thing that was working on Instagram when likes were still public and visible on our Instagram post, under our posts.

You may or may not know (though you probably do, because every mainstream media outlet out there covered this)  but you may or may not know that likes are no longer displayed on Instagram. That has really changed the user behaviour around the platform.

It’s also really signalled the importance that Instagram places on different types of engagement. What I mean by that is that if somebody comments on one of your posts, it is the strongest signal to Instagram that it’s an interesting post, therefore it’s going to be showing to more people than simply double-tapping.

Even more than that, if somebody is sharing or saving one of your posts, that is a huge signal that it is interesting content, that it is valuable content that Instagram in terms of their algorithm should be pushing out to more people.

What does that mean?

In terms of your strategy, it means that I really encourage you to actually go into your insights and look at some posts with the most shares and the most saves. That is the content that is going to get the most kind of traction in the eyes of the Instagram algorithm. 

For example, I put out a post a little while ago with three social media content ideas. That was my most saved post ever. People loved the content they thought, you know what I’m going to save that and I’m going to come back to it later, and therefore the ratio on that particular post was enormous.

This is something that you need to start to think about when it comes to putting together your Instagram content plans. How can you create shareable and or saveable content, so that your organic content plan does actually give your account, the best possible chance of reaching the most number of people? Organic reach absolutely isn’t dead but you’ve got to give the people what they want.

Examples of shareable content:

Can you tone down the number of photos of yourself that you’re putting on Instagram because people aren’t going to be as likely to share it?

They’re going to be much more likely to be sharing a quote graphic or they’re going to be more likely to share a piece of valuable content that has been put into some sort of graphic maybe a pie chart or some sort of graphic that they can share on Instagram.

It’s going to be much more likely that they’re going to want to share it with their audience so less photos of you potentially more shareable content.

What do I mean by saves?

Can you create huge value in your posts so that people are saving and coming back to that particular content later?

That is the number one thing that I am implementing in my brand spanking new content plan, and it’s something that I highly recommend that if you want to get the best chances of organic reach on your account, you look at doing as well.

The second strategy that is working at the moment is focusing on the right things when it comes to your analytics.

What do I mean by that?

What I’ve written here is that you might know, followers are nice but website clicks are better. What do I mean by that?

Basically, that everyone is obsessed with goddamn followers but if you can’t convert the 100 or 1000 or 1526 followers that you already have into a business, into leads, and into sales, you’re not going to have any luck when you’ve got 10,000 or 16,000 or 25,000. 

So really the gold standard when it comes to the actions that you want people to take on your Instagram account is to actually have them do something that is going to lead them closer into a sale.

You might be tracking the number of followers that you have on your account but if you’re not tracking the number of website click, what’s the point?

If people are never actually going over to whatever your offer is (and I recommend always only having one call offer at a time) then you are kind of just on social media for social media’s sake.

You need to make sure that you’re tracking the right metrics.

You need to make sure that not only looking at your follower count (and yes visibility is nice and yes it is great to have more people coming to your sphere so that you can nurture them and provide them with value, and all of that good stuff) but a lot of people get stuck here and they don’t actually think about what the next step is.

We want people to go over and to opt into our freebies and get into our funnel so that we can actually sell them our things.

If we’re not actually tracking the things that actually allow you to do that, which is website clicks when it comes to your post, what is the point?

The other thing that you really need to be tracking is conversations, and that brings me to my third point. In terms of strategies that are working now, it all goes down in the DM.

Conversations, really, is where you need to be focused on when it comes to your Instagram strategy in 2020. 

How many meaningful conversations are you having with potential customers, potential collaborators, potential clients, potential people to work within the DM? If you’re thinking of Instagram as a one-way street where you’re just posting at people and you’re not actually getting back to people in the DM or you’re not actually having people reach out to you in the first place at all. You’re doing it the wrong way.

There are a few things that I see as red flags when it comes to students that I speak to around how they deal with their Instagram strategy when it comes to these.

Number one, they’ll consider that customer service happens in email so they might have a support inbox or they might have somebody managing their email inbox in terms of customer service.

I will tell you right now, customer service happens in the DM if you are active on Instagram as a business, you need to consider your DM inbox as a customer service trend channel, and treat it appropriately. 

There is a whole heap of strategies that you can do around that things like quick replies flagging your different emails depending on where the conversation is at to make sure that nothing is ever missed this is also things that I go through in my Instagram posts that are very fresh in my mind.

But if you’re not treating your DM and your inbox on Instagram as a customer service channel, you’ve got the wrong idea about what Instagram is all about in the first place. 

The other red flag that I see when it comes to the way that people treat Instagram and particularly DMs is that they get annoyed when they are asked for advice in the DM.

I can tell you that I get so many messages, every single day people asking me for tips and advice on a different aspect of social media or online business or podcasting. 

You could get annoyed by that and say ‘oh my gosh, you know I give away so much free advice for free. Why should I be spending time replying to these DMs?’

If that is your attitude you need to check yourself because you need to think of all of these DMs as an opportunity to build a relationship with people at the end of the day if you treat your business, as all about relationships at the end of the day, then the sales will come. 

For example, if somebody slides into my DMs and is asking how they can get more engagement on Instagram, generally I know that I do have a whole heap of podcast episodes about those specific topics so I’ll send them some different podcast episodes to listen to and ask them what questions they have.

Then they might come back and tell me what they’re specifically struggling with.

Aha!

That is gold because that is a problem. You can’t sell to anyone if they don’t have a problem that you can help to solve. 

So once they tell you what the problem is, if you have a solution is serving to actually let them know what that solution is.

You’re not forcing them to buy from you, you’re not forcing them to do anything, but you’re giving them an option if they do actually want a simple step by step process for example for increasing their Instagram engagement through something like a course I’m using my own business as an example, you would obviously apply this to your own business.

One of the best strategies just to sum all of that up is that you really need to focus heavily on conversations and DM in Instagram when it comes to making sure that your strategy is bang on for 2020 and the way that people are using the platform.

The fourth strategy that’s working really well is making sure that you’re focusing on quality over quantity.

This is one that you’ve probably heard before it’s a little bit of a cliche, but I’ve got a little quote here in my notes that I love and I’ve said consistency is good, that killer content is better.

There’s no point in posting every day if what you’re posting is just going to make people yawn or it’s boring or it’s same same.

You’re not going to get the engagement and you just need to make sure that even if you post once a week and you can totally do that these days, guys, especially when it comes to your feed you can be more active in your stories but we need to make sure that what you’re posting in terms of your feed is top-notch.

It’s shareable, it’s saveable, it’s actually getting the engagement that is going to push it out to more people. Otherwise, you’re completely wasting your time. Nobody is going to come across it.

There’s honestly no point in putting together all of this time and effort into a content plan if you’re not actually going to create the content that people want to see.

So when it comes to this strategy, go back to the first strategy and ask: is your content shareable, is your content saveable?

The fifth strategy that’s working really well at the moment (and this is just a really timeless one) and it’s something that I’m going to be creating a future podcast episode about which I’ve teased a little bit in previous podcast episodes about. It’s that you need to really focus on one thing at a time.

One core offer at a time.

What is the main focus of your business for the month of May, for example. So for me –  I’m just going to use a very relevant example – I have my Instagram pre-sale live at the moment so you can bet your bottom dollar that I’m talking about, funnily enough, Instagram in my podcast, in all of my Instagram posts providing huge amounts of value around Instagram because what is the next step that people will take if they’re interested in knowing more about… hint, Instagram.

They’re going to actually go and check out my core offer, which is my Instagram course and see if it is for them.

That wasn’t to give you guys a hard sell around the pre-sale; is to give you a really tangible example of how this stuff works.

If you’re on Instagram promoting a whole heap of different offers or you’re talking about a million different topics, it can be really confusing and a confused customer ultimately walks away – see you later!

They’ll go to somebody that they can get clarity from around whether you, can help with the problems that they have.

It’s really important to make sure that in terms of your content plan, you’re actually thinking about what’s on the calendar for you with your launches and promotions first.

Then from there, think about what sort of cool content can you create that’s related to that and providing value. And then from there, how can you take little bits and pieces out of that cool content, populate it onto your Instagram account, make it shareable, unsavable, and Bob’s your uncle.

(Guys, I don’t know if anyone else except for Australians uses that particular term, but if you are in the US or if you’re in Canada or anywhere else around the world I would love to know. Send me a DM).

Anyway, they are some of the things that are working for me on Instagram at the moment.

They are five killer Instagram strategies working right now.

Let me just break them up for you:

Number one, you need to focus on the type of engagement that is the gold standard and at the moment shares and saves so really where it’s at, totally change your content plan to focus on that.

Number two, you need to really make sure that you’re following the right metrics. Followers are nice but if people aren’t actually clicking through, you’re not starting any conversations, you’re not leading them closer to a sale.

Number three, it all goes down in the DM you need to start thinking about the DM as your absolute kind of central hub for your business, especially if you’re really active on Instagram is one of my strategies. Hint: It should be.

Number four, quality over quantity. This is a little bit of a cliche one but if you’re not creating great content then none of this kind of other stuff is going to work so you really need to spend the time on it.

And number five, focus on one core offer at a time and really go all-in on providing valuable helpful content on your Instagram channels around that and do it for that particular period of time and then move on to the next thing. Okay? A confused customer walks away.

I hope that those tips were helpful. If they were I would love if you would slide into my Instagram DM. I actually mentioned a couple of episodes ago that I would love you to actually do it when I say that, and I had some amazing chats with a lot of you so please do.

Anyway, I hope those tips were helpful. I will be back in your ears this time next week.

Until then, see you for now!

Keep Listening!

Listen On: Apple Podcasts | Spotify