Starting Over On Instagram: ZERO to 1000 Followers
I'm about to walk you through step by step what I would do on Instagram if I had to start over from the beginning. And I mean from the beginning. Brand new account and zero followers. The process I walk you through might be a little controversial, but it's really what helps you know exactly what to post to reach those ideal clients and turn them into followers. Let's get into it.
My name is Megan and I help my clients go from confused to confident on Instagram. I help business owners build a loyal community, get quality clients, and build profitable businesses using social media. So stop watching now if all you want is followers. I'm showing you how to get specifically followers that will turn into paying clients. And there's a big difference. Anyone out there can go and buy followers, but it takes a lot of hard work to build a network of people on Instagram that are begging to buy from you. So let's get started.
Number one: you need to have an optimized profile you want to be seen as equally approachable as you are professional. Instagram is a really highly engaging platform so you want to play into that and really show who you are so people aren't afraid to reach out and ask about your products and services. This should be reflected in your profile picture, your username, your header, and your bio. Make sure you're clearly explaining what you do, who you help, and how you help them. Then of course include a really strong call to action telling people to use that link below your bio to take them to the next stage of your sales funnel. Whether that is to your website, subscribing to your email list, or to a sales call. And I do have another video diving really deep into exactly what to put in your bio so I'll put that here for you to watch.
Next is going to be defining your target audience. You don't know what content to make unless you know who you're talking to so I recommend researching and identifying who that person is based off their demographics, their interests, their hobbies, and their routines. And again, the more specific and detailed you are here the better you'll do on Instagram. Then you want to go ahead and find all of your competitors on Instagram and see what they're doing. Obviously they'll be doing some great things and maybe some things you can improve upon but take note of everything and who's following them so you can see who could be a potential client or customer for you when you get your Instagram up and running. I even recommend going and looking through the comments of your competitors posts and if they haven't responded to questions that are in their comments go ahead and answer them by providing a ton of value on your answer and maybe you'll get a new follower that way. And then you're also going to want to create a Buyer Persona. So who exactly are you speaking to literally create a fake life for them, a fake schedule, see when they're going on the Instagram app, write this all down give them a name and call this your Buyer Persona and create your content with them in mind and every time you're filming or in Canva.
Okay the next step is what's a little bit controversial but first comment below when you started your Instagram page and if you found it hard to grow at first or if it was easy for you.
Okay so the next point is to make the first month of posting on Instagram on your new account a 'test phase'. It's going to take a lot of time out of your schedule so make sure you block out a lot of time, and you're going to go a hundred percent all in on Instagram. You're gonna use this month to post as often as you possibly can that's realistic for your schedule. This is not going to be your long-term plan so really try and push yourself and post at least every day just for this first month and the key here is to test every different type of style and type of post out there so you can see what people are responding to most. So the first week maybe you do all posts, the second week all reels, third week a ton of stories, fourth week all carousels. Make sure you go live, make sure you try and collaborate with someone, make sure to create guides, make sure to create your highlights, obviously you can mix this up but make sure you try and post every single type of content as often as you possibly can that first month. And then after every single week you're going to go into your analytics and review everything you've done and what's working and what's not. Maybe you see your posts don't reach that many people but your reels reach a lot of people, continue more reels than posts. Maybe your stories that have a photo of you in them are doing really well in stories without you in them don't do as well, so make sure you put your face on your stories. Make these little adjustments every single week and every week of this test phase will get better and better. Don't forget that while you're posting you want to make sure you're responding to all the comments you get and following new people that that are considered your ideal client and fall into that Buyer Persona that you created earlier in the video.
Then once this test phase is over for the first month of your Instagram you are going to then develop your content strategy. Take all of your results from your analytics, now you have a whole month's worth, and go and create a Content calendar with how often you're going to post. Now that you are familiar with creating content, you know exactly how long it takes you to create that content, you'll know how much time you have to set aside each week or each month to do your content creation. And remember consistency is key here so if you really don't think you can make four posts a week then go for three. Do what you know you can do with your schedule. If I was starting over I would also definitely take advantage of showcasing behind the scenes of my business a little bit more. I feel like that was something I added to my strategy a little bit later which really speaks to your ideal client and builds trust. Another thing I wish I did earlier was collaborate more with other Instagram users and business owners. So like I've mentioned other videos, the best way to collaborate with someone is find a business owner that is in your industry but not your direct competition. If you have more questions about that, make sure to leave them in the comments below. And then obviously I wish I also adapted reels earlier. Reels can be scary for a lot of business owners who don't want to show their face, but there are so many different types of reels that you can create that are so fun to make and are more engaging for your audience and will resonate longer. I really recommend prioritizing reels,
Remember, building a strong Instagram presence for your business takes time. So be patient with it, really listen to everybody's feedback during that test month, don't get too hard on yourself. It doesn't need to be perfect, it just needs to be authentic. You need to show off who you are, what your business is, what you stand for, and the right people will be attracted to that content. If you do want a more detailed guide of how you should be engaging every day with your audience, I do have an engagement checklist which is actually how I started growing my account and reaching my ideal clients when I first started on Instagram, and you can download that for free here. So make sure you grab that so you can start growing your Instagram today!
Don't forget to like this post if you found it helpful and watch this video next for the five steps to building your Instagram strategy. Thanks so much guys and I will see you in the next post!
