It’s so exciting to hear great news from my consulting clients and clients that have taken my Instagram course. Clients that were struggling to grow in the beginning and have now gained over 10,000 followers. Clients that have finally developed the right lead magnet to start skyrocketing their email list growth.

However by far the most exciting emails I receive are from clients that have booked their very first client directly through Instagram. Booking clients on Instagram is not as evasive as it may seem. When you take the time to develop a solid Instagram marketing strategy it’s easy to find clients and make money on Instagram.

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Here are 8 Ways to Find Clients and Make Money on Instagram: 

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Instagram Tip #1: Optimize Your Instagram Profile

Having a strong Instagram bio is a key component to attract the right audience on Instagram and informing them about what you do. Your Instagram profile picture and bio are often one of the first things potential followers evaluate. In order to make sure that you and your business are taken seriously it’s extremely important that you use this real estate to its fullest potential. The best Instagram bios are able to communicate what they do and why you should follow them in a clever and concise manner.

Your Instagram bio also contains a prominent area where you can link to additional content. This is a great place to include a call to action along with a link to a recent promotion or freebie. If you have a business account (and you should) you’ll also want to take advantage of additional contact options like email and phone.

 

Instagram Tip #2: Give Your IG Feed a Makeover

If your goal is to use your Instagram account to market your business and the service you provide, it’s important that you have an Instagram feed that reflects that. Think of your Instagram feed, as an extension of your website. When users scan through your feed they should see images and text that reflect your brand. It’s important when curating images for your feed that you consider your brands signature colors, fonts, and unique personality.

A Brand Mood Board is a great tool for getting clear on the imagery and content that you will use in your feed. Moodboards have been an essential part of developing and curating content that reflects my brand. When creating your mood board, it’s important to include a mix of colors, textures, patterns, and quotes to help you better visualize what your Instagram feed should look like.

 

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Instagram Tip #3: Focus on Your Ideal Target Audience

One of the biggest mistakes social media marketers make is failing to define their ideal target audience. Long story short, if everyone is your customer, no one is your customer. Take the time to niche down and identify your ideal target audience. Think about the client you’re creating your service for.

What do they look like? What are some of their current struggles? Consider important demographics like age, gender, interests, hobbies, and occupations. Once you have a keen understanding of your ideal audiences lifestyle, values, preferences and pain points developing content tailored to your audience will be effortless.

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Instagram Tip #4: Pick Specific Content Themes

An often overlooked component of developing a strong Instagram strategy is establishing specific content themes. Based on the research you’ve done on your ideal target audience, pick 5 or 6 content themes that you will focus on. If you already have a website or blog, this is also a great place to get content ideas.

For example, if you’re a fitness coach, you may choose to focus on posting content such as quick workouts, healthy recipes, motivational quotes, and personal fitness struggles. These are all topics that will resonate well with your audience as well as provide additional value to help them achieve their fitness goals. 

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Instagram Tip #5: Use Hashtags to Find Potential Clients

Hashtags are an important part of your Instagram content strategy. By adding relevant hashtags to your content you can gain increase your visibility find clients on Instagram. Once you’ve established your specific content themes, spend some time researching hashtags that are highly relevant to your content.

When researching hashtags, it’s important to consider your ideal client’s lifestyle, interests, and pain points. You’ll want to develop 30 unique hashtags for each specific content theme you are focusing on – this will help increase the visibility of your posts and expose you to different audiences on Instagram that may be searching for or following a specific Instagram hashtag. Need help finding Instagram hashtags to target potential clients? Grab my free Instagram Hashtag Guide!

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Instagram Tip #6: Establish a Posting Cadence

Establishing a consistent posting cadence is certainly important for setting expectations with your target audience. I can already hear you saying “… but I don’t have time to post every day on Instagram”. While traditional wisdom often says you must post on Instagram each day, I actually disagree.

As a result of Instagram’s ever-changing algorithm posts are no longer chronological – so it’s very possible for your audience to be served a post in their feed that you posted several days ago. Additionally, Instagram posts have a much smaller reach so posting less frequently actually gives your post additional time to garner likes and comments and trend on Instagram.

My recommendation is to find a posting cadence that makes sense for your brand and is sustainable for your business. If you can only commit to posting three times a week, use Instagram’s Business Analytics to find the three days that your audience is most active on Instagram and make a decision to post on those days.

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Instagram Tip #7: Gain Trust with Direct Messages

Instagram’s direct messaging feature is a great tool to engage one-on-one with your followers on Instagram. When someone new follows your account, take a minute to thank them for the follow and use it as an opportunity to learn more about them. If you write a post and someone writes an insightful content, kindly reply to them and then follow up with a direct message to thank them for contributing to your post.

Many times when I start messaging with someone via direct message on Instagram they will often inquire learning more about my consulting services or online courses. This is a great way to establish trust with your potential clients as well as get feedback on products or courses from current customers.

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Instagram Tip #8: Create Content that Deepens Your Connection

When you take the time to curate and develop strong Instagram content for your ideal target audience you become an authority, a trusted resource, and ultimately someone they want to do business with. Instagram is a great content hub for your business. However, it’s still important to create additional content off of Instagram. This additional content will allow you to deepen your relationships with your followers.

Offering your followers a freebie or discount code is a great way to move them from followers to email subscribers. Once a follower makes the transition to your email list, you can deliver even more value to them by providing free resources, sharing client case studies, and giving them first-look at your new products and promotions.

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