If you are a business owner who has been showing up on Instagram, creating content, and wondering when this is actually going to bring you more clients and customers, today’s episode is for you. I am sharing five things I wish I had known when I first started using Instagram for my business, along with some things I am coaching my clients through right now.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
Hack 1: Get clear on your offer and who you are helping and why this is the foundation of everything that follows
Hack 2: Go narrow with your messaging and how specificity is what makes a total stranger stop scrolling
Hack 3: Know what happens after someone finds you and why most business owners have no answer to this question
Hack 4: Give growth time but be willing to take new actions and what the difference looks like in practice
Hack 5: Use Instagram to build relationships and how to pitch a collaboration even when you think your account is too small
THE 5 INSTAGRAM GROWTH HACKS
Hack 1: Get Clear on Your Offer and Who You Are Helping
You need to know your ideal client, but here is what most people skip: to get clear on who you are talking to, you also need to get clear on what you are selling. What is the offer? Who is it for? What does it help that person do? If the offer is too general, marketing it is going to feel hard. Elizabeth’s example from Wedding Dance Coach: “dance lessons” could mean almost anything. But “private first-dance lessons for engaged couples” tells you exactly who you are talking to, what they are afraid of, what they want, and what content will resonate. You do not have to get rid of all your other offers. But choose what you want your content to support right now, then do your target market research. Talk to your favorite past clients. Ask why they chose you, what they were struggling with, and what they wanted. Pay attention to their exact words.
Hack 2: Go Narrow With Your Messaging
“I help women make money online” is a group of people and a desire, but it tells a stranger nothing specific. “I help fitness studio owners double their profits working only 20 hours a week” immediately tells someone whether it is for them. One of Elizabeth’s current clients is a nurse practitioner and functional health coach who helps women in midlife. “I help women feel better” is too general. But speaking to the woman who is exhausted, is not sleeping well, and has been told her labs are normal while she is thinking “but I don’t feel like myself”? That woman knows you are talking to her. Her client recently made a video speaking directly to that frustration and it was her best-performing video in months. Spend time naming what is frustrating. What has your person tried? What do they wish someone understood? And always ask whether a total stranger, someone Instagram recommended your content to who has never heard of you, would immediately understand who you are talking to and why they should care.
Hack 3: Know What Happens After Someone Finds You
They followed you. They liked your content. They saved it. Now what? Where do they go after they find you on Instagram? You would be amazed how many business owners do not have a clear answer to this question. If you do not know the next step for your ideal customer, they probably will not know it either. You need a simple customer journey. Elizabeth’s current example: she has two spots open for private mentorship. When she creates content that helps someone recognize they might want personalized support, she gives them a specific invitation. DM me the word APPLY. Her automation sends them a link to a short application. There is a path. They know what to do and what happens next. Look at your profile and content through the eyes of someone who just discovered you. Is the next step obvious?
Hack 4: Give Growth Time and Be Willing to Take New Actions
When Elizabeth first started using Instagram for Wedding Dance Coach, she was stuck at around 650 followers for years. She created hundreds of reels before one went viral and brought in thousands of followers who were actually interested in what she offered. Growth takes time and practice. But if you want new results, you have to be willing to take new actions. One of Elizabeth’s private clients, Beth, runs a crystal business focused on TikTok live sales. Most of her videos had been showcasing products. Elizabeth encouraged her to show up more on camera and let people get to know the woman behind the business. Beth attempted two talking-head videos and those videos generated purchases and raised money through her charity-related offers. She also discovered that a video she paid to promote got thousands of views and zero sales, while another video with a much smaller view count brought in multiple purchases. She was willing to try something different and she was paying attention to what happened beyond the view count.
Hack 5: Use Instagram to Build Relationships
Collaboration over competition. There are so many opportunities to connect with others in your field, support each other, and get in front of new audiences. Who could you collaborate with on a reel? Who could you invite onto your podcast? Who serves people who might also need what you offer? When Elizabeth first started her podcast, there was a podcaster she had listened to for years and considered podcast famous. She had around 1,200 followers at the time. She sent a voice memo on Instagram, told the podcaster specific things she loved about her show, shared the topic she would love to discuss, and asked if she would be interested in being a guest. She said yes. Get out of your head about needing a certain follower count before you can reach out. Think about how you could support someone. Make a thoughtful invitation. Start the conversation.
A Truth You Need to Hear:
“Random content produces random results. Strategic content produces strategic results. The difference is a plan.”
Elizabeth Marberry
LINKS MENTIONED
Free DM Automation Guide + 1 Month of ManyChat Free DM me the word LEADS on Instagram @elizabethmarberry
Hot Reels My 12-month Instagram content lab
S3 Ep140 Transcript - 5 Instagram Growth Hacks You’re Missing (And How to Fix Them) - Part 1
00:00
If you're a small business owner or marketer who's been showing up on Instagram creating content and wondering, okay, when is this actually gonna bring me more clients and customers? Today's episode is for you. I'm sharing five things I wish I had known when I first started using Instagram to grow my businesses, along with some things I'm coaching my clients through right now.
00:22
because as we head into the holidays and start looking toward the new year, this is a great time to refresh your strategy. We want your business to be top of mind and we want people to understand exactly what you offer, how you can help them and how they can pay you that money, honey. I hope you're excited. Let's do it. Welcome to Stread It.
00:46
a podcast about creating bold visibility on social media with zero apologies. I'm Elizabeth Marberry, your host and Instagram marketing coach. I help small business owners get seen on Instagram and monetize their offers so they can make more money doing their sole lead work. If you're tired of spinning your wheels on Instagram and you're seeking simple, proven Instagram marketing strategies that actually work, you're in the right place. Let's dive in.
01:24
Welcome back to the show. Thank you so much for joining me. I am super pumped to be kicking off a three-part series on how to grow your small business on Instagram. You know I love a series. It gives us a chance to go deeper into a topic while keeping each episode short and sweet so you can get exactly what you need and move on with your day. Thank you for taking the time to invest in yourself, your business.
01:51
your heart, your soul, I so appreciate you being here with me and I hope I do you proud. So today we're gonna be talking about five foundations for growth. And in part two, so next week, we're gonna get more into the specifics of what to post, including reels, carousels and stories. And then finally in part three, we'll talk about connecting all of that content.
02:17
to your leads and sales machine. I recorded an episode on these five growth hacks a couple of years ago and it became one of my most popular episodes. So I wanted to bring it back with fresh examples and of course what I've learned since then. Before we dive into these five Instagram growth hacks, I want to pause and ask you for a huge favor. Me and my team pour so much time and energy and effort into this show.
02:47
We wanna make sure that we bring you tons of value each week. So if this podcast has served you in any way, do me a solid, take a pause and rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. Every time you leave a review, that helps the podcast algorithm to put our podcast in front of more small business owners who are struggling with Instagram. And so help me reach those people.
03:15
I really, really appreciate that energetic exchange between us. And I wanna give a listener a shout out. Their handle is experience underscore oakhaven. And they gave us a five star review and said, thank you, Elizabeth. Love this podcast. I learned something new every time and I feel encouraged to keep going in my social media posting journey. Thank you so much for that. I so appreciate that. Another review is by E.R. Surgeon.
03:45
This person says, love the clear direction and actionable items she brings to every single episode. I'm very motivated and it's super informative. I just cannot thank you enough for taking the time to leave us those reviews. I had someone DM me this last week and say, I listened to your podcast and that whole series you did on how do you leverage AI and chat to BT.
04:10
completely changed my marketing this past year. It has saved me hours and I'm so grateful. When I get messages like that, it truly keeps me going and I just so, so appreciate your support. Okay, let's get into the five Instagram growth hacks you might be missing and how to fix them. The first thing I want you to look at happens before we start creating content for Instagram and that is get crystal clear on your offer, your paid offer.
04:39
and who you are helping. So one of the first things I teach is that you need to know your ideal client or customer, AKA your target audience or client avatar. There's lots of different ways of kind of saying the same thing, but you need to know this person like the back of your hand, okay? But here's something I wanna add to get clear on who you're talking to.
05:07
You also need to get clear on what you're selling. What is the offer? Who is it for and what does it help that person do? This all seems so obvious maybe, but I know that there's multiple people listening to this podcast who need to hear this step because I see this in coaching small businesses all of the time. And that is that
05:35
A lot of us have multiple offers, right? Multiple things that we are selling. And we have different ways that we can help people. And we have no shortage of ideas. And I get that. Like I am in that boat. I run two businesses and sometimes my brain has about 43 tabs open at all times. But if your offer itself is too general,
06:02
marketing it is going to feel extremely hard and it's going to be ineffective. You can take all of the Instagram tips about how to get views, but if you have not really narrowed down like who your paid offer is for, marketing is going to feel excruciating, okay? So let me give you an example from my business. I own a brick and mortar dance studio in Denver, Colorado called Wedding Dance Coach. Now, dance lessons could mean a lot of things, right?
06:31
If I said we do dance lessons, dance lessons for children, dance lessons for adults, dance lessons for, you my mom lives in a retirement community now, they have dance lessons there at the retirement community, dance lessons for someone who wants to perform professionally. But when we focus on private first dance lessons for engaged couples, when I say that, right, we help nervous non-dancers.
06:59
and madly in love couples rock their first dance with total confidence through private first dance lessons, now you know who I'm talking to, right? We're talking to the couple who wants to feel comfortable on the dance floor and they're nervous and maybe one partner's excited and the other's saying, oh my God, please don't make me do choreography, right? Now we have something to work with. We can create content about feeling awkward.
07:27
dancing in front of your friends and family and having two left feet or wanting to avoid the awkward middle school sway or the struggle of choosing a first dance song because there are literally like endless options, right? And you already have made a thousand decisions in planning your wedding. You're done making decisions. Like you're exhausted, right? Or deciding when to start your dance lessons. Have you wanted to do dance lessons for your wedding?
07:53
or wanting a dance that feels like you and not like performative, right? So you can hear how much easier it becomes to come up with content when the offer and the person you're speaking to is clear. You don't have to get rid of all your other offers if you sell multiple things, but choose what you want your content to support right now and then do your target market research. Talk to your favorite.
08:23
past clients or customers and ask why they chose you or what they were struggling with or what they wanted and pay attention to their exact words. And if you're in a product based business and maybe you don't have that level of communication like you would if you had a coaching business and you could reach out to a past client and have a conversation. Let's someone just bought a product on your site.
08:47
I would imagine you still have reviews. know, one of my past clients, had an Etsy shop. She had over 15,000 five-star reviews on Etsy. You better believe we could go through and use AI to look at how people described why they bought her product and what they loved about it and who they gave it to, right? So you've got to do that target market research, pay attention to their exact words. And once you know who you're serving and how you help them,
09:16
You'll have so many more clear and specific ideas that you can leverage on Instagram to help you grow. And that's really what we're doing on Instagram is we are talking to our people, our ideal clients and customers, not everyone, not the billions of users that are on Instagram. We're talking to our specific market. Step one, make sure you are clear on your offer and who you are helping. Number two,
09:45
Go narrow with your messaging, okay? So go narrow and super specific, not wide. A lot of business owners tell me, I don't know what's going on, my account isn't growing. And when I look at their profile and their content, often the messaging is just too general or it just sounds like everyone else in your space. Or I can't tell who it's for, right? Who that specific.
10:13
visa content is for or why that person would stop scrolling. So for example, if you said, I'm a business coach who helps women make money online. Okay, you've identified a group of people and something they want, but compare that to I help fitness studio owners double their profits working only 20 hours a week. Do you hear how much more specific that is?
10:42
Another example from my work with my clients inside the Hot Reels this week, which is my high touch group coaching program. One of my clients is a nurse practitioner and functional health coach who helps women in midlife and she's absolutely brilliant. And I've been encouraging her to get even more specific in her messaging because in her industry, much like my industry, right? There's a lot of
11:09
health coaches or there's a lot of business coaches or there's a lot of Instagram coaches. So how do you stand out? Getting really clear for her speaking to the woman in midlife who's exhausted, isn't sleeping well, who goes to see her doctor and has been told that her labs are totally normal. Well, she's thinking, wait, what? But I don't feel normal and I don't feel like myself. And then they don't give you a lot of options.
11:34
creating content around that. And also I've been encouraging her to like really weave in her own personal stories or client stories because well, there's lots of health coaches. No one has your specific story, right? No one has the specific story that you can tell about your client or customer or interaction with a vendor or whatever that you're, you know, it's storytelling. And so
11:59
With this kind of coaching, my client recently made a video speaking directly to the camera, speaking to that frustration, really like naming that pain point, that frustration of going to a doctor and just being told like, oh no, your labs are normal and everything looks fine. Basically being gaslit by your doctor, which has happened to so many women in midlife dealing with perimenopause and menopause is a huge problem. You know, I said like, do a rant, speak into that pain point that
12:27
so many women can relate to because that is like, you have to see us in our pain before you can invite us into the solution. And so she did, she made a direct-to-camera video and she said that it was her best performing direct-to-camera video ever. And it was so epic and I was so proud of her. And so sometimes we're so excited to share our solution or like, here's how I can help you. But we rush past the part where someone needs to feel really understood, right? We need to spend
12:56
some time naming that pain and what's frustrating and what is that person dealing with and what have they tried and what do they wish someone understood? know, like can you say the thing that they're too scared to say out loud? And it's not that we're trying to make people feel bad. We're just showing them, I hear you. I understand why this matters to you. I see you and I can help you through this. I can help bridge the gap from where you are to where you want to be. And as you're creating that content,
13:26
think about a total stranger, okay? Instagram can recommend your content to people who don't follow you. And so when I'm creating something to reach new people, I'm always asking myself, would this make sense to someone who's never heard of my business? Am I giving them enough context to understand who I'm talking to and why they might care about it?
13:53
like it or not, we need to earn people's attention. That's just how it works. So why should I care about the content that you're creating? And I know that sounds kind of aggressive, but that's truly what I think about when I'm creating content. Like why would you care about this video I'm posting? It's not about me, even if I'm sharing a personal story, it's not about me, it's about building a bridge. Like why is that a shareable piece of content? Why is that a piece of content that someone is gonna...
14:19
direct message and send it to a friend or a girlfriend or a colleague who's struggling with that, right? So I always think about it from that lens of how can I create that shareable content that a total cold audience would want to binge? Number three, you need to know what happens after someone finds you on Instagram. They followed you, they liked your content, they saved it or they shared it. They love you, now what?
14:47
where do they go after they find you on Instagram? And is it traceable? Okay. If you're just saying click the link in my bio, you have no way of tracing that or tracking that, right? You can go look at clicks to your link in bio, but when I say traceable, what I mean is if I'm Sally and I go click on that link and I get distracted and I don't complete the task and then I hop back into Instagram and my feed is refreshed,
15:16
and your account is gone and I don't remember your handle, you have no way of finding Sally again, right? You have no way of following up with her. She's not on your email list. She's not in your DMs. Creating a customer journey in which you can track the people who are your hottest prospects is so, so important. My favorite way to track leads and sales through my Instagram content is leveraging DM automation.
15:44
I use ManyChat, M-A-N-Y-C-H-A-T. I do have a free guide on that if you wanna DM me the keyword leads, L-E-A-D-S, on Instagram. Make sure you're following me over there at Elizabeth Marberry, M-A-R-B-E-R-R-Y. My robot assistant can send you over that guide. also give you a free, I think it's a 14 day trial now of ManyChat to test it out. It's a very affordable tool.
16:10
It starts at, I believe like $17 a month is now the investment for that, but it's so worth it. And you can track, you know, people who are really interested in your content. If you are new to DM automation, or maybe you're paying for a many chat subscription right now, but you haven't set it up or it's not working for you, I created a on-demand training course called DMs to Dollars. And you can go grab that now.
16:39
at ElizabethMarberry.com slash money. That's Elizabeth Marberry, M-A-R-B-E-R-R-Y.com slash money to grab your DMs to dollars, automate your Instagram sales funnel course. In this course, I teach you how to build your first Instagram DM automation in 30 minutes, even if you have zero tech skills. So that way you can turn the content you're already creating into a really simple system where you can track those hot prospects.
17:09
And of course, follow up with them if they end up not purchasing from you. Such an important part of using Instagram as a strategic tool, as a marketing tool, a business tool. This is an absolute no-brainer and there's lots of ways you can use this tool even off of Instagram that I kind of talk through in the course as well. So go check that out if that is one of those holes that you need to plug in your Instagram strategy. You definitely want to get that.
17:37
working before Black Friday, before the holidays come and all of that. This question of where do I go after I find you on Instagram, you'd be amazed at how many small business owners and creative entrepreneurs don't have a clear answer to this question. Sweet friend, if you don't know the next step for your ideal customer, they probably won't know it either, right? So you just need a simple, simple customer journey.
18:04
That can mean inviting someone to comment a keyword and download your freebie or a resource to grow your email list. I talk through that in DMs to dollars, my course. It could be like a link. They comment a keyword to shop your products or get a savings code. Maybe they're applying to work with you or booking an appointment. And I can use my business as an example. So right now I have two spots open in my 12 month.
18:32
private visibility and client attraction mentorship. This is a high touch, deeply personalized coaching experience for established business owners who are ready to stop treating Instagram like an obligation that they have to just do and start using Instagram and so all the social platforms as a really powerful tool for authority connection and sustainable business growth. We do a lot of behind the scenes stuff in this program as well with
19:00
email marketing, landing pages, your website copy, extensively building out, you know, whatever is the most simple and intuitive sales funnel of your business. All those kind of backend systems that you need to have in place before Instagram is going to really be a fantastic revenue driver for you. Using this example of my customer journey through my Instagram content, because I have these two spots open. So when I create content around this offer of private coaching,
19:30
I will give them a very specific invitation or call to action. My call to action is to comment the word apply, A-P-P-L-Y. And if you're listening today and you are curious about private mentorship, you can actually direct message me on Instagram, the word apply to even like test this out. A-P-P-L-Y. And what happens is my robot assistant, she's gorgeous.
19:56
she will send you a link to a short application. You fill it out, you tell me about your business, what you're struggling with and where you wanna go. And then after you've submitted your application, I will reach out with my calendar link and we'll hop on a complimentary Instagram breakthrough session where we can explore what support makes the most sense for you and your business. So it's a really clear path, right? So if you're listening and you're interested in private mentorship, you know what to do next, right?
20:25
your sales path might look different, right? So if you sell a product or someone might need a direct link to purchase it, or if you're a local service provider, they might need to check your availability or maybe, you know, like the jewelry store that I consulted with, they had appointments that you could book, you know, as appointment only, kind of like VIP shopping experience. So it's all depending on your customer journey.
20:53
but I want you to look at your profile and your content through the eyes of someone who just discovered you and is the next step in your business obvious. We're gonna go deeper into this in part three of this series, but for now, make sure there's somewhere for that attention to go. Number four, give growth time and be willing to take new actions. When I first started using Instagram for wedding dance coach,
21:22
I was stuck at around 650 followers for years. Seriously. I created hundreds of reels before I had one go viral and bring in thousands of followers who were actually interested in what we did. So yes, growth takes time. We need to get in those reps. We need to practice creating content and dialing in our messaging and
21:51
Most importantly, I want you to stop putting so much pressure on yourself to make every single post perfect because that is costing you time and energy that you can't get back. OK, so I want you to post your good enough content. I want you to be in the energy of getting in those reps and having practice just like you would in the gym and you're lifting weights. The more reps you do, the stronger you're going to get, the better you're going to be at creating content.
22:20
the more content that you create. And it's gonna be hard for you to keep creating content if you're beating yourself up every time you post a reel and it doesn't perform well and you get into this whole drama cycle, right? It just is not setting yourself up to build a sustainable marketing strategy. So I invite you to like check the drama at the door. It's not that serious on Instagram. I just want you to get in the habit of posting and make it as easy on yourself as possible.
22:49
And then yes, you will refine as you go, but I really, really want you to just know that you're just in this for the long game and you will figure it out. Like that was my mindset is like, everything is just data and I'm just figuring this out as I go. And if other people have figured it out, I can figure it out too. I also wanna say this, if you want new results, you have to be willing to take new actions. I'm gonna say it again.
23:17
If you want new results, you have to take new actions. Sometimes we get stuck doing the same things and hoping something will change. I have a private client right now who owns a crystal business. She primarily focuses on TikTok lives where she does a lot of her live sales. And when we first started working together, a lot of her videos really showcased the crystals and the products.
23:47
And in the last few months of private mentorship, I've really encouraged her to be more front-facing and really let people get to know the woman behind the business. This week, she shared with me that she had attempted two direct-to-camera talking head videos. Those are those yapping videos, right? And I love that she called them attempted because getting used to filming herself
24:15
on camera talking was such a win in and of itself. But then she shared that those videos were generating purchases and raising money through her charity related offers. And what was really cool about this is obviously it's always really special when we can actually correlate like this video brought in this much money. That's how you know your strategy is working, right?
24:44
But her takeaway was that showing up more on camera was creating connection with her audience, which is really what I've been encouraging her to do. And she also shared that a video that she had paid to promote got over 9,000 views, but zero sales. Well, another video with a much smaller view count, like the video of her talking to the camera, which by the way, I've told people forever, when you do those, they're probably not gonna get as many views, but they're great for nurturing conversions.
25:13
This video, smaller view count, just over 200 views, brought in hundreds of dollars in sales. We're gonna talk more about this in part three when we really dive deeper into leads and sales, but I want you to notice two things. She was willing to try something different, right? She was willing to pay attention to what happened beyond the views. So she was willing to play with a new format that was a little bit out of her comfort zone.
25:41
And that's the kind of consistency I want for you is to show up, practice, look at what you're learning and adjust. And this is where having a private mentor can be incredibly powerful and shortcut your learning curve because you will learn in one year what it took me five years to learn, right? You're swimming in the soup of your own business and having a mentor or someone outside of it.
26:06
who can see things you might be missing and help you get out of your own head. You know, we all have our own internal roadblocks to doing the things, even if we know we need to do them, we have our internal roadblocks. And so there's a lot of mindset and energetic work in conjunction with, of course, the tactical and the strategies and the actionable next steps. And that's where I am so different from so many Instagram coaches out there, is I've grown two six figure businesses with Instagram.
26:34
a brick and mortar, local based, service based business. I have an online coaching business, totally different business models, but understanding how to leverage Instagram to do all the things I wanted to do for my businesses. And of course the hundreds of small businesses and entrepreneurs I have coached in the last four to five years. I bring that all into our relationship. So if you're perking up about private mentorship and you know you've been needing a mentor,
27:02
I have those two open spots for the right person. And so if it's calling to you, I really invite you to fill out an application. You can also head on over to elizabethmarberry.com slash application. That's elizabethmarberry, M-A-R-B-E-R-R-Y dot com slash application. And you will fill that out and then we will be in touch with my calendar link. And I always love meeting my podcast listeners too. Like podcast listeners turn into the best clients. So anyway, I would love to meet you. All right.
27:31
The fifth and final Instagram growth hack is use Instagram to build relationships. I'm a huge fan of collaboration over competition. There are so many opportunities to connect with other people in your field, support each other and get in front of new audiences. So I want you to ask yourself, like, who could you collaborate with on a reel this month? Or who could you invite onto your podcast or?
28:00
who serves people who might also need what you offer, right? So you wanna think of those business partners that it would make sense to kind of share an audience. I always think of a real estate agent and a lender, or for me, like I'm a coach, I have a community, if you were to come in and teach a totally different topic that my community needed, right? Like there's so many different examples.
28:25
I did a collaboration with Social Media Examiner this week because I was featured on the Social Media Marketing podcast with Michael Stelzner. He's the CEO of Social Media Examiner. It was my third appearance on the show, which was such a pinch me moment, but they invited me to be a collaborator on a carousel. Now, if you are new to collaborations, essentially what it is is you create your content and then kind of where you would like tag people, you can add collaborators.
28:54
And the difference between a tag and a collaborator is that when you add me as a collaborator, my post is gonna show up on your page and your post is gonna show up on my feed too. It shows up in your grid and so it's a great way to get your business in front of more people. Social Media Examiner, they're an OG in the social media marketing space and they have...
29:20
over 164,000 followers. And so for me to do a collaboration with them, obviously that's fantastic. And I've received followers from that post, right? From people listening to my interview on that show. And then of course seeing that post and following me there. So collaborations is such a huge thing on Instagram, but it's also something you can do off of Instagram. You could think of who can I collaborate with with an in-person event? Or if you're a podcast,
29:49
podcaster, like who can I invite onto my show who's going to help my show reach more people, right? And then when you pitch an idea, make it easy for that person to say yes, right? Like tell them what you have in mind, why you thought of them, what the topic would be, what's involved. You when I first started this podcast, there was a podcaster I had listened to for years. And in my mind, she was like podcast famous, okay?
30:15
And I remember sending her a voice memo on Instagram. If you've been listening to the show, you know I love voice memos. So by the way, feel free to send me one on Instagram and be like, hey girl, I listened to your show. Here's what I like. Here's what I need help with, whatever. I love voice memos. I sent her a voice memo on Instagram and I think I had around 1200 followers at that time. And she had, I can't even remember, but definitely over 20,000. So I was just like, oh my gosh. And...
30:43
I told her that I had just launched my podcast and I shared specific things I loved about her show, because I'd actually listened to her show and I was a big fan, and said I would be honored to have her on my show. And I gave her the topic I'd love to discuss and asked her if she'd be interested. And she said yes, and I couldn't believe it, right? But I just had to ask. So sometimes you just need to shoot your shot, get out of your head about needing a certain number of followers before you can reach out to people.
31:12
Think about how you could support someone. Like make it so it really benefits that person. know, make it a thoughtful invitation and start the conversation. Worst case scenario, they say no, they ghost you, moving on, reaching out to the next person, right? You might be amazed at the opportunities that come from having the courage to ask. Okay, we have made it to the end of this episode and I'm curious, like which of these five Instagram growth hacks stood out to you?
31:41
Do you need more clarity around your offer? More specific messaging? A clear next step for your audience? Is it time to try a new approach or reach out to someone you'd love to collaborate with? Choose one and start there. And if you're listening and you're thinking, oh my gosh, Elizabeth, I would love your help figuring this out for my business. Remember, I have those two spots open for private mentorship right now.
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DM me the keyword apply apply on Instagram and we will send you over that application. I would love to get on a complimentary Instagram breakthrough session with you and learn about you and your business. Next week, we're getting into what to post, Reels, carousel stories and how to use those pieces to support your business. If today's episode helped you share it with a business bestie who could use it too. I'm sending you so much love and support and I can't wait to start it with you next week.
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Thank you for listening to Strut It. If you're ready to start leveraging Instagram to grow your business, then you're gonna wanna grab my free Monetize Your IG Guide, where you'll learn seven simple and proven ways to finally make money on Instagram. You can grab your guide at ElizabethMarberry.com slash freebies. That's ElizabethMarberry.com slash freebies.
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to get my monetize your IG guy. If you got some incredible value from today's episode, be sure to leave a review and subscribe on your favorite podcast platforms. And I cannot wait to start it with you again next week.
