Alright. Hello, everybody.
So for those of you who don’t know me, my name is Nicole. I am the social media lead here at Copyhackers. And today, we’re going to talk about getting started on Instagram.
So if you’ve been thinking about getting started on Instagram but you haven’t yet, this will be a great way to get started on the right foot.
If you already have an Instagram account, this will be a great reminder, and you’ll maybe find some ways to optimize your profile.
So we’re gonna talk about three things today. First thing will be setting a goal for your account because what’s the point if you don’t have a goal on Instagram?
Right?
Second thing will be, Instagram SEO. So, like, how to make your profile searchable, so that you can get, you know, more leads, more followers, whatever whatever that is.
And then the last thing we’ll talk about is, how to create an aesthetic that you can build on, with your Instagram posts.
So first things first.
Setting a goal for your account. This is, like, the most important step. Please do not skip it. Don’t just go, ah, well, I’ll just be on Instagram, and we’ll see what happens.
No. No. No. No. No. That’s not that’s not strategic. That’s no there’s no like, you’re just wasting time that way.
So there are three questions you kinda wanna ask yourself when you’re creating, when you’re setting your goals for your account.
Number one, what are you trying to achieve with Instagram? Brand awareness?
Is it to drive traffic to your website? Is it to general generate leads? Is it to sell services?
The list goes on.
Then who is your target audience?
Do you really wanna make sure that your posts are catered towards your ICP.
Go take a look at the other training we have. There’s a couple courses on ICP. I’m sure there’s more there’s more in the future, so make sure that you really understand your target audience at, like, what before you kinda get started here. And then you wanna know which metrics you will use to measure your success. Like, these these can be things like follower growth, engagement rates, website clicks, or just sales.
So, I kinda have it started here. I had a little example here. So for us, our goal on Instagram is to get sales.
So we like, I have it written here. I plan on using Instagram to directly sell my product service via DMs. This is exactly how we do it. So I’m going to start creating posts that target my ICP and start conversations with all new followers.
So it doesn’t have to be long. Doesn’t have to be super complicated.
Just always make sure you have it written down somewhere so that whenever you’re coming up with new posts, you can kind of anchor it back to that. It’s like, okay. Well, is this serving my goals?
If not, why why am I posting it? Why am I spending, you know, two plus hours editing a video that isn’t isn’t gonna get me anywhere? Right?
So, like, think about that. Like, another good goal could be, building authority.
So say you don’t wanna sell directly on Instagram. I recommend you do, but you don’t have to. You can start by just building your authority on Instagram. So the way that would kind of look is, you write down build authority.
I plan on posting, like, thought leadership, posts. I want I plan on posting new things that, maybe my followers haven’t heard of, and it’s like a new idea, that kind of thing. How I will accomplish that, I will be, book more guest spots on podcasts, and then I will post the recordings there.
Super simple to start off. Don’t don’t overthink it at this point.
And then yeah.
So fill that out. You can kinda come up with a couple. I recommend sticking to one, but write down a couple.
Decide which one you really wanna focus on, and then do it.
And then make sure it’s related to your target audience.
And then so we wanna find the metrics that you’ll use to measure your success. So for us, it’s follower growth. Because we are starting DMs with all of our new followers, we wanna get the most followers as possible. That being said, you don’t want just any old follow-up.
Right? You want the targeted ones. You want the ones that will actually help you with your business goals. Right?
So keep that in mind.
We’re not gonna get too far into that right now, because this is just getting started. We don’t wanna make you think about anything that’s gonna complicate it.
But, yeah, make sure you’re not just, like, engagement based.
That’s that’s not gonna serve your business goals. Right? Yeah. Website clicks could be another metric to measure success. There are a lot of tools.
You can see it in Instagram, but there are other tools like Sprout Social and stuff that will, tell you, like, exactly how many clicks your posts are getting and how many, clicks your bio is getting, perps or your profile is getting, and things like that.
So, take some time. Go through this. Pause this pause this video. Take some time, and then I’ll just kinda move on to the next thing.
So SEO.
Fun fact is that Instagram is one of the biggest search engines out there right now, which feels strange because it’s a social media site. But many, many people are now searching using social media to search for things.
So what you want is a optimized bio that is very, very easily found.
So here’s why it matters first impressions. A well crafted bio can attract followers and encourage interaction.
We’ll kinda get into that there, but it’s it’s here.
You wanna be able to attract your target audience. So you wanna use keywords that will draw the right people in like, to your profile. Right? And then competitive edge. If you have an awesome bio compared to somebody that’s their bio just says copywriter, they’re gonna look to you first, right, because you’re saying more about yourself than the other person is.
So, what you want is search terms in both your name and your bio.
The way that looks, I have an example here. So made up guy, John Smith, email strategist and copywriter.
So why you wanna put that in your name is because your name gives you an extra hundred and fifty characters to work with. So your bio, you have a hundred and fifty characters to work with. You also have a hundred and fifty characters to work with in your name. So you might as well add some extra stuff here that people can search for.
And then for your bio, the way you wanna do it is you want to say exactly how you can help your prospects, and you also want to show your authority right away.
So this example, pretending this is also John Smith. So he’s an email strategist and copywriter. So converting your subscribers into customers and sales. So right away, he’s telling you exactly what he’s doing and what he’s planning to accomplish for you. And then he’s going on to build his authority or prove his authority.
So best selling author. If you have a book, put the name of the book there.
It just shows like, oh, hey. I wrote a book. That’s awesome. You should hire me kinda thing.
And then, like, if you’re featured anywhere, that’s also a great way to show your authority. So, like, say you, you know, had, some blog posts in, like, a big publication, put that there. Or you’ve been featured on, like, a really big podcast, put that there.
Great, great opportunity to just, like, right off the get go, show exactly who you are, what you do, and prove it, basically.
And then the call to action. So you do not do not wanna skip this part, and the call to action can look like a few different things. So you’ll have a link in your bio.
You just will.
If you don’t, put a link in your bio. It can just be to your website.
But I recommend you take a look back at your goals with Instagram and make sure it matches.
So this goal is sales.
So very easily click to book a call, and then the link to, like, the Calendly and or an embedded landing or a a landing page with the embedded Calendly link in it, to make it as easy as possible for people to do what you want them to do. Right?
We’re gonna look at a couple examples of how this works, like, in real life, IRL.
So let’s first look at the content bistro.
So right away, we can see great. Like, we’ve got the name. Perfect.
And then what they do. So copywriter mentor. Super clear. It doesn’t have to be crazy in the name.
Like, you don’t have to be like, oh, I’m a copywriter who does this, this, and this, and this. It’s like, no. No. No.
Just pair it down to the essentials.
And then we’ve got the bullet points here. So coercion free connection rich copy. It’s, like, perfect.
They’re offering, like, just authentic copywriting services. That’s awesome.
Intentionally profitable growth strategies. So these are great keywords, like growth, profitable, strategy. Like, people are searching for this kind of stuff.
And then featured in Forbes, Pat Flynn, Coffee Hackers. So I would say the biggest publication or, like, the biggest podcast, whatever it is, that should go first, because people are going to be kinda skimming this. So they wanna just see, like, the most important stuff first, and then they’ll read on more.
And then we have, cookies tea down. And they have a very clear link here, so they can get away without having as clear of a call to action here. Like, the point down does a lot of work here, but then it says, insta start here. So it’s like, cool. Clearly, it’s about being able to work with them in some capacity. So that’s pretty clear. Another good example is Jenna Couture.
She’s got a big, big following, so she’s doing something right.
So right away. Yeah. So name and then online business coach. It’s like, perfect. I know exactly who she is already. And then here’s some base essentially, it’s proof. Right?
So host of Goal Digger podcast.
That’s awesome. If you’re a host of podcast, please put that in there. People will wanna find you through other ways. Right?
So they might search for, like, for instance, like, when you add something, like, when you tag them in your bio, people who are searching for that thing can also happen upon your bio. So that’s pretty cool. And then her call to action is a little bit different, than the last one we just saw and the one I have in here. So she has a ManyChat automation for here, and so do we, actually.
So I’ll show ours in a second. But, yeah, it’s very clear, and it gives you, like, a specific action to take when you get to her bio. And it’s clearly what she wants you to take first. So DM me episode for the latest episode, and it’s related to that.
Side note, when you’re starting out your Instagram account, I recommend having your, call to action as the last thing.
She already has a big following, so she can kinda get away with it. But, people tend to read, like, the first thing and then the last thing. So I would say call to action should be last.
And then that way, like, if it’s go, like, go to this link, then you can have the point down, and that’s really, really, really effective.
So yeah. And then she’s got her she’s a New York Times best selling author, so she’s got that there, like, excellent proof. And then she shows a little bit of her personality, which I think is fun. And if you can find a way to do that, I recommend it because people want to work with people that they like, and you’re using Instagram. You know, obviously, you have your goals and everything, but you’re pretty much using it as a way to show how likable you are. Right?
And then she’s got her links.
Also, yeah, you can use, with a business account, you can use up to five links. This is a little tricky. Like, I kind of just recommend one, like, having, like, a landing page with the embedded Calendly to book a call, I think, can be super, super effective, especially because it gives people just one option to work with, like like you’ll see here.
However, it depends on your goals. Right? Like, if you have, like, a lot of personas and you’re trying to serve a lot of personas, you might find you need multiple links. But, again, I recommend just sticking with the one for now and then adding them as needed, essentially.
So I’ll show you what ours looks like in that. Oops.
Oh, we’re way down here.
Yeah. So here’s what ours looks like.
Ours is a little bit of a simpler version, because I wanted to make it very specific to our one goal. So, essentially, we need like, we’re trying to gather leads into our, to get them into our workshop, and then we’re trying to, get them into our programs, whether it’s the intensive Coffee School Pro, just Coffee School, freelancing school, all that.
So that’s why our call to action isn’t just, oh, take a look at our links down below. That’s not really serving what we want. So ours is very specific to DM me workshop for a free training for freelance copywriters. So right away, we’re showing that we’re targeting freelance copywriters who are ready to take their business seriously.
You can see that with five thousand copywriters into millionaires.
Please get ManyChat. It makes it so much easier to to do a call to action for your bio because, like, we do have several links here, but our call to action is very specific, and it gets people into our DMs, which is exactly what we want. So think about your goals, think about how it all works together, and then craft your bio.
Also, I will mention you don’t want to update your bio too often because Instagram could flag your account as, like, spam if you’re changing your, name and bio, like, every week.
What you can like, you can change it, like, I wanna say, like, once every few months.
So you can just see how things are working and then, let it ride for a little bit. And then if it’s you know, you’re not seeing a lot of clicks or you’re not seeing a lot of, people messaging you the keyword, then change things up, and just try something else out. And then a few months later, if that’s still not working, try something else out. It’s it’s a game of, experimenting for sure, but you’ll find what works for you. And then as long as you have your goals written there, it’ll it’ll, everything will relate back to that rate. So just keep in mind that experimentation is like everything.
So I would I think it’d be best if you do this now. So pause the video. Take some time. Craft it out.
Like, take don’t just, you know, bang it out in, like, a minute. I would say, you know, spend, like, at least, you know, half an hour just really you don’t have to do it right this second, but, like, really just thinking about, like, how you’re going to present yourself. And it will really help with, people being able to search for you. Like, find the keywords.
Like, who are you targeting? Do you work for SaaS companies? Then include that in your bio because they’re the ones who will search for it. Right?
Right. Good time to pause. I’ll continue on to the next thing. Oh, aesthetic. My favorite part.
So, yeah, I am a designer.
I care so much about things looking nice.
I know some will say, it doesn’t matter.
It does to an extent. Like, you don’t wanna overthink it because you don’t wanna be spending forever coming up with a post and getting it all designed and stuff and only, you know, get, like, ten likes or something like that and no followers.
So I think what really matters is making sure things are clean, look nice, but don’t don’t overthink it.
So here’s why your aesthetic matters.
Brand recognition, that’s the biggest thing.
If it looks like your brand, people will associate it to your brand. And the more they see it, the more they’ll like, the more the message of what you’re saying will get into their heads. And then, also, the more they’ll see it and the more more they’ll wanna follow you if they don’t already. Right?
And some of you might be like, well, don’t you have to follow people to see their stuff? No. Instagram shows you suggested posts all the time. I’ll see, like, three posts of, like, people I actually follow, and then the rest are just suggested posts. So you really wanna be on those suggested posts. You can do that by creating really good content.
So, yeah, audience engagement, well crafted aesthetic and design will it will attract people. Like, there’s just no doubt about that.
Consistency, it it needs yeah. Like I said, it needs to look like you. It just has to. Otherwise, it’s gonna if it’s all over the place and nothing matches the other thing, it’s it’s less attractive to want to follow that person or want to engage with their stuff if it’s just totally different every single time.
That being said, don’t be afraid to experiment.
Your aesthetic is never set in stone. You can always try new things. The way I go about it is gradually try new things. So let’s say you’re noticing something’s not performing well. It’s like, well, let’s change like, I’ve got this carousel post, and it’s not you know, I thought it would perform really good, but, like, maybe the, you know, maybe the design didn’t match the message.
So let’s just change one part of the design and see how that goes, like, later on kinda thing.
So don’t be afraid to change things up. Just do it gradually so people don’t go, woah. What happened here? Who is this?
I thought I followed somebody else, but I guess I didn’t. That kinda thing.
And then, like, the most important thing is that this should be fun. Like, this is, like, where you get to be super creative. And because posts don’t last forever and you can always delete them or archive them or whatever, you can have fun. Like, you can try new things.
Just, like, keep in mind your goals and and and your brand. And, yeah, have fun with it. Try a whole bunch of new stuff.
So the way I think you should go about doing this, getting started or even if you’ve already started and you’re like, well, I’m good, still do this exercise because it might help you, just, like, reel things in and, like, remember who you are on Instagram.
And it might, you know, help your future posts as well.
So you wanna define your aesthetic.
So I would say choose three brands or brands. Choose three words that best describe your brand today.
So this is just an example. This is not us.
Minimalistic, authentic, vibrance. The way that might kinda look is minimalistic. Like, you’re doing you’re maybe not doing things that are super design heavy.
Maybe you’re maybe you’re just posting videos. Maybe you’re posting, a quote, but there’s not too much, like, extra stuff around the quote.
Authentic. You’re always being true to yourself, so you’re not, you know, not apologizing for your opinions.
You’re just being, you know, authentically truly you. You’re not being, like, a stiff business person unless that’s who you are, and that’s okay.
But you’re you’re just being yourself. Right? And then vibrant, I see that as just, like, bold colors, which might not match with the minimalistic, but, it also might. So I I would just say think of, like, the three words that best describe your brand. Like, for us, like, bold is, like, the word that I use to describe our brand on Instagram.
I always have that in the back of my mind whenever we’re creating a post. It’s like, well, is this bold? Like, is this saying who we are? Like, we’re we’re bold. We’re go getters. Like, that kind of thing.
You know, we’re serious about building business. We’re serious about growth.
So that’s always in the back of my mind whenever I’m creating content for copy hackers.
And then you wanna do is state your brand color. So you might have, like, a brand palette of, like, five to seven colors or whatever. Just state three here. Like, when you’re getting started, like, keep it grounded to, like, three core colors, and then and then evolve as you see engagement, like, either increase or decrease or whatever.
So this is just an example. Again, these are not our colors.
Navy blue, coral, white. So you want each post to feature at least one of those colors in order to keep it grounded in your brand and your aesthetic.
And then, after you do that, I would say choose three accounts that have a large following, and you can take inspiration from them. And these should be within your specialization or your niche, because it’s like you don’t wanna go and follow, like, all of these, like, bro accounts, and you don’t ever wanna target their type of followers. Right? So find somebody who has a large following who is your competition, and then that will really help, help you kinda figure out what type of post to do.
Because that might be like, oh, they’re posting a lot of, like, direct to camera reels, and they’re performing really well, then I should do that too. It’s like, yes. Absolutely. You should.
Or they’re posting a whole bunch of carousels with great tips, and, you know, they’ve got, like, a million followers. So that’s clearly working well for them. Just think of those types of things, and that’ll that’ll really help you get started on, like, what do I post. Right?
So it’s like, I just know how hard it is to be like, I guess I’m just gonna start posting. And when you have a small account, you don’t really need to be posting, like, a whole bunch of, like, data backed copywriting tips. What you should be focusing on is showing yourself.
Picking a fight is something good too. And when we’ve talked about this before, but, like, what I mean by picking a fight is not, like, picking a fight or, like, saying something mean on purpose, but, like, say, people are saying this is the best practice, but, actually, this one is, and here’s why. And that can be, like, a great, like, direct camera reel, or you can do b roll reels. So, actually, take a look at Elise Darma.
She’s got some good examples of that where it’s like, you’re out and about doing your thing, and then you just have text overlaid on top of it. And the text could drive you, like, drive people to follow you, drive to your website, or you can start challenges. Like, there’s the sky’s the limit with those types of posts, and they do well. They do quite well.
And the main thing is that they show that you have a light and that you’re doing cool things. And people we said this time and time again, but people like to buy from people that they like.
And Instagram is just the perfect place to show just who you are, your personality, and, like, how likable you are.
And then, like, the business stuff can come after. Like, that’s why the b roll reels are great because it shows all that, and then you can put the business stuff on top of it. And it’s like two birds, one stone kinda thing.
So for us, because we are, you you know, selling courses, it looks like maybe a little bit different. Like, we do, like, share a lot of, we share a lot of tips and tricks and stuff because that, like, gives us followers, and it gives us the followers that we want, like, the people who are eager to learn kind of thing.
So I’m gonna talk a little bit like, I’m gonna show you some examples of, like, how our aesthetic has evolved, over time, and how it’s, serves our goals a little bit better.
So let me just go down. That’s why it was down before.
So we used to have and you’ll kinda see it, like, as I’m scrolling. We used to feature our copy hackers blue a lot, like, a lot a lot. Right?
Which is cool. Like, it’s it’s like a nice color, but the way like, you have to think about the psychology of colors a little bit when you’re doing this.
So blue feels easy. It feels, like, calm. It’s nice, which is, like, great for people landing on our website for the first time with new awareness.
But with our Instagram, we want people who are, like, ready to go.
So, like, this, at a certain point, stopped serving us in the way we wanted it to serve us. You know?
So what kind of, like what happened here is just like a gradual evolution. Because if you’re scrolling through, you might not see how things have evolved, but there’s definitely a gradual evolution here.
So there’s, like, a lot of soft lines, lots of blue, but then we kinda get to here, and it starts getting a little bit bolder, experimenting a little bit with different formats, sharper lines, but we’re still on the blue. Right? Like, this is what I’m talking about with the gradual evolution.
But, like, you can tell that things are being bolder.
Right? Like, that’s bold.
Bold.
Yeah. And then we kinda get to scroll up a bit.
So let me kinda get to, like, this point where here’s the one I want to look at. This, where I don’t feature the blue at all, but it’s bold. So I go back to that that word that I think best describes our brand on Instagram, which I have said bold.
That’s what this relates back to. That’s how it relates to our brand.
And it’s still it’s black and white, or kinda gray, I guess.
But it relates to our brand because that’s that’s who we are. Like, we’re bold. We’re go getters. Yeah. All that stuff.
And then so then we start using a little bit more red, actually, because it’s a scent like, the blues feels nice. It’s like there’s time to it. But then red, there’s, like, a sense of urgency with that. Right?
So it’s like it’s bold. It’s red. It’s like, I wanna read this because, like like, now is the time kind of thing.
So, yeah, we do that a lot. And then we also have this gold.
And the way I see the gold is, again, thinking back to the psychology of colors is well, we’re the gold standard is how I see it. So let’s use that gold more like, let’s feature it more prominently.
And the funny thing about this so, yeah, we’ve got the red, lots of red, gold.
We’re seeing blue when we’re celebrating people because there is no sense of urgency in that, and we’re just happy to celebrate them. And it’s still one of our colors, so it’s still very branded to us.
But, yeah, gold, red, gold, red.
You know, we still throw in the blue.
But funny thing is is I threw in this blue after not using it for quite a while, and it did not do well. Like, we’re doing much better with our with our golds and our reds, like, much, much better.
So, yeah, like, it’s it’s interesting to to see it from my perspective right now because, like, as you’re doing it, like, on a week to week base basis, you might not see a change.
But what’s kind of funny is that this is informing, some of our other assets now too.
So that’s kinda cool because Instagram is kind of a cool place where you can experiment with changes to your brand before they go live anywhere else.
Because like I said, it’s easy to delete a post. And even if you don’t delete it, people probably won’t see it past, like, a month after it’s been posted. So you have a lot of freedom here, and you can try a lot of new things.
But just always remember to ground it with who you are and anchor it back to your goals.
And never never forget about SEO. Right?
So that’s that’ll give you a good foundation for your Instagram account. I know Joe had a training back in, I wanna say, end of February, for, like, an Instagram posting calendar.
So I would recommend watching that again after watching this, because this might help you, like, marry everything together and kinda give you a better, like, overall picture of what your Instagram account should should look like.
I think that’s about it. So let me know if, like, if you guys have any questions whatsoever, feel free to reach out to me on Slack. If you just want me to take a look at your bio and, see if, you know, see see if it’s optimized, I’m happy to do so.
Yeah. So that’s all. Thanks so much. Bye bye.