340: I am not converting from Instagram...

"Instagram's not converting for me." Sound familiar?

I hear this constantly. But here's the reframe I want you to take from this episode: the real issue usually isn't Instagram, it's the role you've assigned it in your overall funnel.

In this episode, I'm walking through three real client stories, each one thinking Instagram was "failing" them, and how looking at their actual data and goals changed what Instagram's job was supposed to be in the first place.

If you've ever felt like Instagram owes you sales just because you're showing up there, this one's for you.

If you LOVED this episode, make sure you share this on your Instagram stories and tag us @contentqueenmariah.

⁠⁠⁠⁠LEARN THE DETAILS OF A CONTENT STRATEGY WITH MY FREE AUDIO GUIDE⁠⁠⁠⁠

KEY EPISODE TAKEAWAYS 👇

✨ Why "Instagram isn't converting" is usually a sign of a misplaced expectation, not a broken platform

✨ How to work out what role a channel is actually meant to play (credibility, top of funnel, DMs, repurposing) rather than expecting every post to sell

✨ Why the customer journey isn't linear, and why someone might follow you on Instagram, buy after watching YouTube, and still say "I found you on YouTube"

✨ Why comparing your channel performance to what you see other business owners doing online rarely reflects your actual audience or business

✨ Why you're a business owner first, not a content creator, and how that shifts what each platform is really there to do

SHOW RESOURCES 👇

If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @contentqueenmariah⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!

Other than that, enjoy - chat next week 💕

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

This is episode 340, and we're talking all about, well, I'm not really converting on Instagram. Welcome to the Content Queen podcast. I'm your host, Mariah, entrepreneur, storyteller, digital nomad, creator of Content Bootcamp, and founder of Content Queen with over 10 years experience in marketing. This podcast is here to help you create your ideal content marketing strategy by blending storytelling and strategy.

So let's get into it All right. This is a concept that I hear a lot: I'm not converting on Instagram. Now, disclosure for this episode, not in the bus. We are glamping on Rottnest Island for Mitch's birthday, and of course, Friday was getting all the client work ready because I knew we would be back Monday, so the podcast didn't get filmed in the bus.

So we're doing it in our glamping little room. We have this nice couch. It's really cold 'cause glamping and, like, the heater is used as the prop for the camera. So the heater is not on [00:01:00] and I'm cold. So excuse the blanket if you're watching this on Spotify or YouTube, but we're gonna keep warm for this episode.

All right. So I also am going to be reading from my notes as well because usually I have them propped in another place. But anyway, that's fine. You're gonna get the gist of this episode which, as I said, is really about the term or the concept or, or you saying to yourself, "I'm not converting on Instagram."

It's a question that comes up with people that are in boot camp, it's comes up in my inbox, and it comes up with clients as well. But this is the reframe that I want you to take away from this episode. The real issue isn't Instagram, it is the role that you have assigned Instagram in your overall funnel.

Now, I say Instagram because it seems to be this channel that has this hold on us. Like, this mindset on us. Like, we don't have it from LinkedIn, I don't see it talked about on Facebook, I don't see it talked about [00:02:00] about TikTok. I just see it from Instagram and I think it was just because it became this channel that we thought it was, and it's not.

It's just another social media channel in the overall thing. Maybe you're saying it about Instagram... Oh, sorry, about social media in general, but I want to talk about it in the terms of Instagram because, as I said, it's the specific channel that everyone holds this kind of like golden, I don't know, we have these, like, rosy-colored glasses on when we think about Instagram and I don't know why.

And we have this love/hate with Instagram. We have all of these expectations on this channel that is just a channel that was created for people in the 2010s to post our photos on with the Valencia filter. Like, literally my first ever Instagram, my first ever post was, like, my dog laying in the hall- in the hallway with Valencia filter.

Like, it was literally a photo sharing platform and now [00:03:00] apparently it's this whole marketing thing which, yeah, cool, it is. It totally is. But I wanna share three stories- From a client that I had or a, a boot camp student from a client I had in 2021 and a client that I still have and we have talked about Instagram and gone back and forth with it for so many, so many different reasons because of again having that strategy and that sort of reality check that was needed and it's not to say just when you have a strategy and the whole point of this episode is, yes, having that strategy does help you recalibrate your relationship with Instagram, but even with a strategy we always need those mindset resets, those check-ins and those reframes because one of these clients does have a strategy and again, we always need to come back.

So let's go with the first one, the first client being this lead magnet and [00:04:00] ad strategy of Instagram that still needs the recheck and the reframe. So LinkedIn was her main channel in terms of getting, um, uh, corporate clients and, yeah, some coaching clients. So she has sort of a couple arms to her business and Instagram really was there to build leads for the coaching part of it because her LinkedIn was really about coaching but corporates, et cetera.

And the reoccurring question that has come back is what is the point of Instagram? And she found herself getting really frustrated because Instagram was slower in growth, it was a channel she didn't particularly like being on and when she was there she felt herself going into this like spiral of comparing herself, or not really comparing herself but comparing what other business owners were doing because I find it's not often about comparison of her character or her business, it's more just like what everyone else was doing.

Uh, [00:05:00] just getting stuck on the platform because that's what the platform's designed to do, be addictive. So then she kept coming back to this like, "Okay, why am I even here?" But the whole original goal was Instagram existed to run ads to build up her funnel so that she could convert her funnel through email marketing and workshops, et cetera.

So Instagram was really about credibility and personal brand, not really to direct or be the owner of the whole conversation of what she was there to do. So in the end, we sat down and reevaluated what, what Instagram was here to do. So we looked at her spending time on Instagram engaging, showing up there, like specific videos and things that we were doing on Instagram as opposed to spending...

which meant spending less time on LinkedIn, just doing all the things, the things that weren't lighting her up. Doubling down on what I could see was [00:06:00] working on Instagram and then taking that upon me to do, right? So then the shift happened that she would be spending less time on Instagram trying to be social there, which I know I always say, you know, social media is a platform to be social, but that wasn't lighting her up and it was causing more friction in her business, right?

So that's why there's no like hard rules on anything that we do when marketing our business. So she could spend more time on LinkedIn, on the channels that she liked, creating content that she liked, and then using her ads to build the funnel, which she'd already tested and validated worked. And then Instagram became a landing place for people to learn more about her work rather than a platform that she actively performs or, or uses.

So then my role is creating things and, and tweaking the profile so that when people land there, they can get a taste for what she does, and then that could mean her doing some extra video, but it was all about optimizing 'cause she was getting some really good traffic [00:07:00] to her profile. They just weren't going through to the website.

So it was just suggesting a disconnect when people landed there of what she was here to do. So that's where data becomes really important. So that's the first client And that's where we're going to again reshift what Instagram's there to do, and then put eggs in other places, other baskets. I just wanna hijack this episode to tell you about something that is generally helping and changing the game for business owners that I work with.

So if you're sitting there at 5:00 PM scrambling, not sure what to do, what to post, you are not alone, and I have in fact been there, along with many other businesses that I've worked with. Getting to my laptop, throwing something together, pushing it out there, throwing spaghetti at the wall, and seeing what sticks.

Now, this is not strategy, and it really feels like survival. That is why I created Content Boot Camp. It is my signature program that takes you through the seven steps to create a really intentional and aligned content strategy for your business, one that is [00:08:00] actually documented, is actually for you, and actually gets results.

So there's no more guessing, no more winging it, and no more content hamster wheel. By the end of your journey in Content Boot Camp, you'll have a clear plan on what to post, where to post it, and why, plus the confidence to actually execute it. And you're not doing it alone, because I do live calls all the time, so you'll get access to me, I can help you with your strategy, and a community of other business owners that are doing the same thing.

You'll also get lifetime access, so if your business evolves and grows and changes, it will grow and evolve and change with you. So if you are ready to stop winging it and start being intentional with your marketing, get a strategy behind you, head to contentqueenmariah.com, check out boot camp, Content Boot Camp.

I would love to see you there. The second client was from boot camp, and it was quite interesting because in this last round of boot camp we have a WhatsApp group, and during the live round we have that WhatsApp group. It, it's open certain days for us to have [00:09:00] conversation. And it was really interesting 'cause one of the first conversations before we'd even done hot seats, 'cause I'll do hot seats and build strategy, was, "Oh, well, Instagram's not working for me because I'm not getting any leads."

And I said, "Okay, cool. Let's, let's talk about that." Like, she wa- she was being consistent for a period of time. She's like, "It's not working. I'm not getting leads." And, or, "I'm not selling," sorry. Not getting l- she didn't say not getting leads. She said, "I'm not making any sales on Instagram." So Instagram doesn't have to convert necessarily from a sales perspective, but of course we want it to do something.

So I challenged her role of what Instagram was there to do, and positioned it as more of a top-of-funnel platform. So if you're thinking about a marketing funnel where, like, you, you get your eyeballs, where people see who you are, and then a limited amount, like from there, not everyone's going to go down further the funnel to eventually convert So we looked at that and she said, "Yeah, well, I actually really, you know, I love my video content" [00:10:00] So then we started to change the role of Instagram from becoming a sales platform, which she can do through the DMs, so I, I, I put into her strategy some time to focus on actually, like, DM-ing potential leads rather than just, like, doing a post and hoping they see it and convert, 'cause that just doesn't happen.

That's where our sales brain needs to come on, not our marketing brain. And we started to create more active content on YouTube where she could go deeper, and then using Instagram as a pusher to, for people to watch her YouTube and to get more from her, to go deeper. 'Cause the work she does is deep, right?

So Instagram's real job was DMs, relationship building, community, and guiding people towards YouTube, where they could experience her work on a deeper level, not just, oh, it needs to create sales. So the key point for this is this doesn't have to mean that she stops promoting on Instagram. It just means that there isn't a straight line of where we see content [00:11:00] and convert.

So someone might see an Instagram post, go to her website, leave. They may see an Instagram post, go to her YouTube- And then go through to her website and then potentially leave. They could go to her Instagram, follow her, that's it. And then they start to create these sort of different destination points which means eventually through nurturing they may buy.

But not everyone's gonna buy from you that follow, follows on your Instagram page or sees a video from you. That's just the reality. So people bounce around. Instagram might have played a role in the journey, but the decision or the deciding factor comes later, and that's really hard to track. So she doesn't actually know that it's not a sales channel because we, someone may buy from watching her YouTube, but they started on Instagram.

You may have all, you know, "Where did you find me? Where did you see me?" They, "Oh, I saw a YouTube video." But the truth is they [00:12:00] may have started following you on Instagram before that. So remember, it's not always linear, talked about this, and just utilizing, you can utilize your social media or your Instagram in particular as a lead to go deeper without having to ask for the sale, YouTube, podcast, blog, whatever that looks like.

How can we get people to go deeper and learn more about you without going straight to a sales page? And then the third one, this one was a little while ago, a similar sort of concept to client two, but we were working together in this sort of like COVID era, and again, she was a business owner where LinkedIn was where a lot of her business came from.

But back in that sort of peak COVID times, everyone was converting straight from Instagram. So whilst, yes, we could have argued back then that Instagram was like a real st- straight sales channel, and some of us forget that it's changed so much. So there wasn't that burnout or that social media exhaustion yet at this time, and whilst her [00:13:00] main channel was LinkedIn, she, and most of her clients was there, she was seeing Instagram as this place that she wanted to conquer or win because there were so many people at that period of time gaining loads of followers, getting likes, getting views.

You know, Reels had just kind of started. Um, people were making like loads of money on Instagram, so it felt like this sort of like holy grail channel that we all had to conquer. So she used Instagram th- as that sort of lighter touch point- But kept sort of expecting people to convert, kept expecting her page to grow because that's what she thought she should be doing, and that's what everyone else was seeing.

So there was such this disconnect, right? And this really disheartened her. This made her feel not good enough. Um, she felt like she wasn't doing, quote-unquote, Instagram properly. Um, and she was comparing herself, and it was just not a good place to be in. So what we did is we looked at her data, we looked at her [00:14:00] Google Analytics.

We saw that LinkedIn was a really big channel for her website traffic, and then YouTube, and YouTube in particular was her biggest lead generator. So she had videos that were performing really well, and we could see that people were joining her mailing list from these particular videos. And this was sort of a relief moment for her because actually, she really enjoyed her YouTube.

She sort of left it dormant at that period of time because she was trying to spend more time on Instagram. And similar to kind of that pattern in Client 2 was, yeah, she loved that YouTube. She loved creating videos. So then there became a new use for Instagram: repurposing, cutting out video content. Not always directing people to the YouTube necessarily, but just showing up and just being there so that people could sort of get a feel for her business, get a feel for who she was.

And to be fair, a lot of people following her on that Instagram were other people in business industry, not necessarily her ideal audience. So it was just a way for her to feel [00:15:00] like she was showing up. She was being on this channel. She could post her lighthearted, more personal things if she wanted to, versus LinkedIn being a little bit more of her corporate audience.

So she really changed the way she saw Instagram and then focused a lot more energy on her YouTube. So LinkedIn and YouTube ended up becoming her sales platforms, and Instagram just became this place where she could, you know, keep up with people in the entrepreneurial world. She could share a little bit more of her personal life, and she could share the videos of her work from her YouTube with minimal effort.

So it's so interesting that these three business owners had a similar experience of seeing Instagram as this holy grail platform, but then tweaking and changing the way they saw Instagram based on their strategy, their goals. And as I said, this is not a linear journey. I'm sure... Well, one client I don't work with anymore, um, and actually moved back to where [00:16:00] they are, they ca- they are from, um, and now do their whole business in a different language.

So it's a little bit different. Um, but the other two I'm sure will come back to me at some point, because it's a cycle. We all go on it. Honestly, we all feel it. We all feel frustrated with marketing. We all feel frustrated with finance. We all feel frustrated with business in general. We all have cycles.

And think about if you are a woman as well, I think everyone aligns to sort of like the energies of a certain month. But being women as well, if you are a wom- woman listening to this, it happens all the time with our menstrual cycle of how sometimes we wanna burn everything and start again. But in these moments, this is where having that strategy is so valuable because we can come back to it and remind ourselves and reframe.

But really what's so important is we are not content creators, we are business owners. Some channels are for content creation and connection, and others are for directing [00:17:00] people to your website, and some can convert directly. And if Instagram isn't converting for you, the question is, what is the role that you have assigned it, and is that the right role?

Then you can get strategic based on your data, based on your audience, based on what's happening in your business, and create that role for it so you feel energized, you like it. When I stopped sort of selling heavily on my Instagram and used it for my podcast, used it to show up and share travels, it's just a place where I show up consistently for my audience, where they remember me, where they can go and check out my podcast, they can join my mailing list.

And I also use it for DMs and messaging people, and selling through the DMs over feeling like every piece of content has to convert them into a sale. Do I still do sales type posts? Yes. 'Cause again, we're business owners. We're not content creators where we just share day in the lives and my outfit of the day or get readies with me.

We, we actually need to share what [00:18:00] we're doing so that when people do land, they go, "Oh." So it's not always a, I post this conversion post and people go to my website. It can be a, I post this conversion p- post and I share it with someone that was interested in my work, or I pin it to the top of my profile so that when people land on my page, they see it.

Like each post has its own individual role. So this is the exact type of work we do in strategy. We work out what these channels are here to do, and we create a plan so that you can feel good about marketing your business. You don't have to feel like every platform has to make money You know, and it's interesting, I get clients all the time that send me posts from influencers that have talked about the most performing channels and they say, "Oh, we should start here, we should start there."

But that's based on making money off a platform. That's not based off being a business owner. And the thing is, there are so many people online talking about the success they've gotten through social media channels But they don't... Yes, [00:19:00] they'll know that they're getting sales through particular posts, et cetera, but they don't know the person's journey to the absolute from A to B unless they've sat down and asked every single person.

They also have a very different business to you and even if they have a similar niche, their audience is different, right? Everyone's audience behaves differently and even a particular person behaves differently depending on what they're buying as well. Like, our behaviors for buying for our business versus buying for our personal life can be totally different or buying one product versus a service or buying two products.

Depends on our needs, our wants, our desires, and it's up to you to find out what happens with your audience, not for you to go and watch someone else tell you how they market to their audience, right? There's a difference. So if you don't have a content strategy, if you're feeling burnt out by platforms like Instagram because they're not converting for you or they're [00:20:00] not, quote, unquote, "working," which happens a lot.

"Instagram's not working." Well, what does working mean and is that right for you? Content Strategy Boot Camp, I'm running a live round. If you're listening to this live whilst this episode's come out, it's starting September 16. I'm only able to take on a short, a, a few amount of people because we do live hot seats and these hot seats a- are about that person's business and there's a lot of work involved in it.

So currently I have four spots as I'm particularly recording this episode but it could be less by the time you listen. So check it out. If, if you're listening to this not live, I am consistently running boot camps, so even when you join you'll get invited into the next live round and I'll reach out to you as soon as you purchase or if you have any questions just message me, email me and I'll let you know when the next one's running.

My goal is to, like, have one finished and then start a new one within a few weeks. So check it out. If you don't have a strategy, this is the place to start. It's dedicated time to sit [00:21:00] down and do it and honestly, it is a lot better than just posting and hoping for the best and then getting frustrated when the ch- the channels are not, quote, unquote, "working."

So across all these three clients there is a common thread. Instagram wasn't the problem, it was really about being unclear or misplaced on the expectation of what that channel was here to do. So if you have a, a misplaced or an unclear expectation of Instagram, it's time to sort that out because otherwise this channel's gonna continually not work for you.

Be a content queen or king and remember that developing your strategy or story develops your business. Thank you so much for joining me today. Please don't forget to share this with all your business and entrepreneurial friends. If you've had someone say to you in the past week, "Instagram's not working for me," or, "Instagram isn't converting or making me money," send this to them please.

And you can do that by adding it to your Instagram stories or send them the link. You could rate and review the show if you haven't already. I know a lot of you have, but if you take time to leave a rate and review and you [00:22:00] haven't, please do. It helps me get some amazing guests on the show. It helps me keep showing up for you, and we have some great guests, so stay tuned for that.

And follow me, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn. Let me know if there's any episodes you want me to talk about in the future as I'm starting to plan out the new months ahead. I'd love to hear what you wanna hear, and I'll talk to you soon. Bye.

PodcastMariah MacInnesmarketing, marketing advice, how to be authentic online, business ownerComment