Answering Your Questions: Monetizing on Instagram

PodcastMarketing

Feb 28

Episode 826: Show Notes

The first quarter of the year has just been crazy for me, and life has really gotten in the way of work. However, I have built my business in such a way that I have something for sale all the time, even when I am not able to work. Digital products are such a saving grace for when I don’t know what my life is going to look like. If you haven’t built a digital product yet, or if yours isn’t selling the way you thought it would, go check out my Digital Product Jumpstart. I want to help you live the life you want!

In the last episode, I shared the strategies I used to get 222 new students in just 42 days, and in today’s episode, I want to talk about the intimidating parts of getting visible because it can be so vulnerable! My focus is specifically on Instagram, but that doesn’t mean that it’s the only platform for you. From my perspective, Instagram has the lowest barrier to entry and is the best place to drive free and organic traffic to monetize the work you’re doing there. So, let’s answer some of your questions about how I monetize on Instagram!

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How to Overcome Intimidation of Being the ‘Face’ of Your Brand and Posting Reels

I think there’s a misconception that you have to be the face of your brand, and while you can do that, there has been a shift to something different. I have seen creating a faceless brand/business be quite successful at the moment, which means that you can show up as a person but not necessarily actually show yourself online. Most of these brands are run entirely with stock imagery, and it is working really well. I have been testing this on my account and mixing it with my usual content, and I have seen no difference in performance! So, if you’re intimidated about showing yourself on a social platform, then you don’t have to!

I know that it can also be intimidating to create content when you feel like your house and life isn’t picture-perfect and aesthetically pleasing. Some brands grow because they’re polished and curated. However, there are many people doing incredibly well showing their real lives because people want to feel like they understand you! People respond to realistic content, so I don’t believe you need to be perfectly polished to be successful. Another misconception is that reels are about videos, but that isn’t true! They are about writing and copy. The videos catch people’s attention, but the words are what are important!

How to Captivate People’s Attention Span on Instagram

Let me be clear that you don’t have to have people’s attention for a long time for your content to be effective. On Instagram, you may only be able to captivate between a few seconds and a few minutes of their time, and you don’t necessarily need more than that. Any interaction with your content that lasts longer than someone immediately scrolling past means that they are way more likely to be shown your content again. Instagram will put your content back in front of that person because they previously engaged with it. So you don’t need their attention for a huge amount of time for you to get conversions quickly. You can go a long way in earning someone’s trust with the right copy!

How to Deal with Most of Your Followers Not Being Your Target Audience

There is another huge misconception that you cannot change the content on a certain page if your followers aren’t your target audience. You will see results in whatever area you place your energy and after the experiment I did whereby I changed my focus on my personal account from random content to business-based content to attract a specific audience, this became more evident to me! I don’t want you to think that followers who aren’t part of your target audience are hurting your account because that’s just not true! Any engagement in a positive way is a good thing and it doesn’t affect the algorithm at all. It doesn’t matter that they’re there and it shouldn’t be a deterrent for you to focus on the content you want to focus on. None of this has to impact your results at all.

How to Get Your Existing Followers to Engage More

I have experienced the frustrations of getting less engagement than I hoped for and that was mostly because I was posting things that were no longer working on the platform. You can’t be frustrated if your followers aren’t engaging if you aren’t telling them what you want to do so you have to call them to action! When you first start doing this it’s going to be frustrating but eventually, as you get better at writing, people will start engaging. Gone are the days when people engage for the sake of it. People are either checking in with their core group of people or scrolling on Instagram and I want you to get to the point where you can stop that scroll. I encourage you to figure out how to ask them to engage the way you want them to.

How to Make Sure That Your New Followers Are Your Target Audience

All of this comes down to creating content that is for your target audience and not for mass appeal! As long as you are focused on creating content that is for your ideal person, your new followers will fall into the bracket of your target audience. That doesn’t mean that you have to start over on Instagram though, you can pivot! You don’t want to capture everyone’s attention, just the right people’s attention. And, you can even use a trendy strategy as long as you keep it in alignment with your brand.

I know it can be quite scary to try to make money on Instagram and I don’t blame some of you for not knowing where to start! That’s why I want to help you. I have tried and tested current strategies and made sure I understand them so that I can teach them to you. I have taken all of these intimidating strategies and broken them down so that they can work for your business too! Interested in monetizing Instagram? Check out our Instagram Profit Playbook. I can’t wait to see you there!

Quote This

We don’t want to capture everyone, we want to capture the right people’s attention.

Highlights

How to Overcome Intimidation of Being the ‘Face’ of Your Brand and Posting Reels [0:06:06]
How to Captivate Attention Span on Instagram [0:13:07]
How to Deal with Most of Your Followers Not Being Your Target Audience [0:16:14]
How to Get Your Existing Followers to Engage More [0:21:01]
How to Make Sure That Your New Followers Are Your Target Audience [0:25:29]

OUR HOST:

Abagail Pumphrey

Abagail on Instagram

Boss Project on Instagram | Facebook

Abagail Pumphrey, the Co-Founder & CEO of Boss Project, has been a driving force in the creative entrepreneur industry since 2015. With a passion for empowering service-based business owners around the globe, she became internet-famous after the launch of the transformative training, "Trello for Business." This innovative system revitalized the operations of over 10,000 business owners, making a significant impact on the online business landscape.

Under Abagail's leadership, Boss Project has been featured in prestigious publications such as Forbes, Marie Claire, INC, and HuffPost. Her twice-weekly podcast, The Strategy Hour, is a staple in the business community, continuously topping Business and Management Charts on Apple with millions of listeners from around the world.

Abagail's superpower lies in her ability to break down complex concepts into easy-to-implement, duplicatable systems. As an expert in online sales and a data-driven strategist, she has turned a layoff into a 7-figure work-from-home business. Abagail's mission to help more female founders become financially free, without letting their businesses take over their lives, continues to inspire and guide entrepreneurs on their path to success.