Have you ever gotten a message on Facebook or Instagram and it just made you
feel a little icky? Well,
that's a good thing because now you know exactly what not to do.
Just like we've seen an onslaught of Boss Babe messages and invites from people
who you haven't talked to in 10 years,
inviting you to their "amazing" business opportunity.
I'd say it's fair to say that our skeptical meter is
on high alert.
So when it comes to selling on Instagram and getting your offers for your
business in front of potential customers,
I can understand it if you're feeling a little like, "Ehhh,
I don't want to be gross. I don't want to be slimy.
I don't want to do anything that will make me twitch at night." If that's you,
you're in the right place because in today's training,
I'm going to walk you through how to sell on Instagram today so that you can
sell more of your coaching, your services,
your products - without feeling gross about it.
Now my very first tip to build your business and your brand on Instagram so that
you can sell and actually create customers from your following is to lead with
value. This is one of the Holy Grail concepts of Instagram,
and that's what allows you to eventually sell.
I like to follow the 80/20 rule.
So what that means is 80% of the content that I, as a business,
put out there on Instagram is just free value.
And the way I define value is in three ways. It could be information, education,
or inspiration. If my content does any of those things,
even just give someone a moment of like, "Huh, I never thought of that."
That is free value and that's what majority of my content is.
Meaning I'm not selling in that content.
I'm just giving away free tips and education because that's mostly how I give
away free value. Now, the other 20% of my content,
that's where I share freebies that I've created,
opt-ins (which are still technically free,
but they are giving me their email address in exchange for the information),
and of course my paid products. Now my business has a variety of paid products.
A lot of them are under $50 and some of them are in the multiple $100 ...
that's a weird way to say it. Some of them are over $500.
So with my lower price products,
I find that it's very easy to share them as part of my content feed,
because they're so affordable. Now,
if you're not in that boat and your paid offerings are a thousand dollars plus,
don't worry, I have more tips for you coming up soon.
Now for more on this topic,
on how to plan your Instagram feed content and knowing the balance between free
value and promotional content - go ahead and check out this video right here for
more on this topic. My second tip, when it comes selling on Instagram,
is more of a mindset tip, but it's important, and it's this.
You have a business, right? And your business sells things.
It might be coaching, services, products, but those things that you sell,
aren't they a solution to someone's problem?That's why you have your business
after all. You help people solve their problems. So if that's true,
isn't it kind of your duty or your obligation to let people know,
in your industry, in your niche, that you have the solution to their problem.
Look at it this way.
If you're a light sleeper and you're having trouble sleeping at night,
and it's really affecting your quality of life. The next day, you're tired,
you're exhausted.
You might even feel a little hungover (speaking from experience as a light
sleeper). Now,
what if you didn't know that earplugs existed and every night you continually
were woken up for whatever reason and your sleep was interrupted.
This really affects your quality of life.
But what if you were scrolling Instagram one day and you saw a post or an
advertisement for exactly what you need - earplugs!
Wouldn't you be thrilled?
Wouldn't it be a no-brainer thing to go to their website and order those
earplugs ASAP?
And wouldn't you be so glad and relieved after you have your first night of
peaceful sleep?
When you saw that post on Instagram that introduced you to those earplugs,
you're not going to look back on it and think.
"Wow. They were really slimy and in my face and ooh,
I was really coerced into that sale and buying those earplugs." No.
You're not going to think any of that. You're going to be like, "O.M.G.
Thank you! I've been waiting for this. Where have you been?
My sleep is so much better. Thank you, company. I want to buy more earplugs.".
All this to say,
when you have an offer that truly helps solve your target customer's problem,
you're really not selling. You're helping them.
My third tip to selling on Instagram in a natural non-slimy way is to really
utilize the direct messages. Now, if you've been on my channel for a little bit,
you've probably seen me mention this before, but truly the gold is in the DMs.
All roads lead to the DMs.
A direct message is a private one-on-one relationship that you can have with
another Instagram account. Oftentimes,
the people who are direct messaging you are on the fence or maybe they have some
questions that you can answer, which will then help them complete the purchase.
So I know what you're thinking, "Ok, Elise,
it's one thing to reply to a DM I get. But what if I don't get a lot of DMs?
How do I generate DMs?
How do I get those conversations started?" The easiest way to generate DMs today
is to look at the Stories of your target customers on Instagram (whether you
follow them or not). Just look at their Stories and reply to them.
It's that simple.
What they're going to see on their end is a request for you to message them.
If they accept the request, voila,
you have just opened a DM thread with this person. Now,
of course your reply to their Story isn't going to be a sales pitch.
That's not what Instagram is about. Instagram is about building relationships.
So reply to their Story as you would naturally.
Comment on what they're sharing in their Story,
or offer a tip or an experience you've had related to what they're sharing.
Be real, be human. That's how you start those relationships,
and down the road that's how they become customers.
For more on my favorite selling technique, which is the DMs, check out
this video right here.
My fourth tip to selling on Instagram is to talk about your offer in many,
many different ways. Cover all the angles that there are to your offer.
This is especially key when you're live launching your product or offer.
When thinking about your offer and all the ways to cover it,
I want you to think about going live, talking to successful clients,
showing an inside look at your offer,
showing a demonstration of it if it's a product,
highlighting results that students or yourself have gotten with your offer,
give away free strategies in your content.
Just make sure your call to action in all your posts is to check out your paid
offer.
My fifth selling tip for Instagram is to mark anyone who's been chatting with
you a lot, who's potentially a warm lead in your business,
mark them as a 'Close Friend'.
This is a hugely underutilized strategy on Instagram. Dr. Khan,
one of my students, used this strategy leading up to the launch of her course.
And before she launched her program,
she had over 200 people marked as a close friend.
What this allowed her to do was to actually create Instagram story content that
only her close friends saw.
That way she was able to pre-release the course or even send her close friends
bonuses if they signed up by a certain date.
What Dr. Khan told me was that by having that close friends list and by sending
them specialized story content the conversions from her close
friends list were crazy. So for more on this topic,
again, check out this video: how to sell inside of InstagramDMs.
Now that I've covered the do's of selling on Instagram,
I'm going to cover the don'ts, but hey, if you're enjoying this video,
be sure to subscribe and hit the bell so that you don't miss any future
trainings, just like this one. And of course, I'd appreciate it a lot.
The first don't of selling on Instagram is this:
don't send people the same copy and paste message over and over and
over again, or send them that same message from different accounts.
The problem with this tactic is usually that copy and paste message is vague or
mysterious, and it feels like it's copy and pasted.
I get these messages all the time and guess what?
Because it comes through my message requests, I don't accept those messages.
I hit delete, and I move on with my day.
You don't want to get caught in that when you are reaching out to your potential
customers. So again, don't send copy and paste messages.
The second don't is don't treat your Instagram feed like a stream of
mini advertisements. This goes back to the 80/20 rule. Be real,
be human, and share value with your posts.
The third don't of selling is don't be shy about sharing your client or
student wins.
This took forever to finally click inside of my own brain.
I remember one day, one of my students sent me a message saying, "Hey Elise,
guess what? My business just cracked 100K in revenue.
Feel free to add it to the case study." As a side note,
we were already working on featuring this student's success.
But the day she sent me that message, I screenshotted it, I sent her a congrats,
and then I went on my merry way.
It was like a full 24 hours before I realized...wow, this is a huge,
huge win and I should be sharing it with my audience so that they see what's
possible for them.
So if you need to put reminders up in your calendar or put sticky notes around
you - do it,
don't forget to share the wins that your audience generates as a result of your
business. The fourth don't to selling is related to the third and it's this:
don't share people's information or results without getting their permission
first.
This is key because you're often dealing with people's private information.
Whether it's how much money they've generated, how many pounds they've lost,
or even just their first and last name.
Some people aren't comfortable with putting all that out there.
So be sure to ask for permission first, and when in doubt,
just blur out their name, their profile picture,
and any details that identify them.
The fifth don't to selling on Instagram is don't use programs that send
automated messages. I don't know how many times I've received messages that say,
"Hey Instagram Marketing, love your profile." I know what's going on.
Instagram Marketing is in my name fieldand the program is calling me by my name
field, which is Instagram Marketing.
Clearly this message was not written by a human.
So my reaction to those messages is duh-lete. You have it,
the latest do's and don'ts of how to use Instagram as a sales tool without
feeling slimy. Now, I have some gifts for you,
if you'd like to continue your education on this topic.
The first is Story Vault.
Story Vault gives you hundreds of ideas of what you can share in your Instagram
Stories - especially when you are in a season of sales.
Now we're not in a sales season all the time,
otherwise we would lose followers because people don't like being sold to 24/7.
But when you are in a season of running a promotion or launching an offer,
you're going to want to want...you're going to want the ideas that come inside
of story Vault. Go ahead and head to storyvault.co to check it out. Now,
if captions are more of your struggle and you just never know what to say in
your captions, especially to close sales or generate leads,
then meet Caption Vault.
Caption Vault is 300 templates for your Instagram posts,
whether you offer coaching, services, or products. And yes,
the captions are categorized for when you are in a season of sales,
just like Story Vault. So whether you're interested in story ideas or captions,
head to storyvault.co and captionvault.co and grab both today.
Thanks for watching today's training on how to sell on Instagram without feeling
gross about it. If you like today's video,
be sure to hit the subscribe button and the bell so that you don't miss any
future trainings, just like this one.