Ultimate Guide to Instagram for Business

Why Instagram for Business? How to Make It Work for Yours

One of my favorite quotes is:

The opposite of courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow.

—JIM HIGHTOWER

I tend to fall on the opposite side of most. When they yin, I yang. When they zig, I zag.

Perhaps you can relate?

The reality is, the majority is often wrong. Most business owners are spending time and money on marketing activities that aren’t getting them a return on investment. According to a recent study by Social Media Examiner, out of 5,000 marketers surveyed, only 42 percent of businesses can measure their marketing’s effectiveness. Of that group, only about half are seeing increased revenue because of it. Yet 76 percent of the 5,000 surveyed said they plan to increase their social media activities this year. So even though most don’t know if it is working, they are sure they want to do more of it.

This is why we need to do the opposite of the majority if we want to get an ROI from Instagram. And getting an ROI is my jam. And I am guessing it’s your jam, too. (Mmm . . . jam. Quick confession: Whenever I mention food in this book, which isn’t too often, but often enough, I start to picture the food item. It gets me hungry, and then I literally debate for like 90 seconds whether I am going to get up and get the mentioned food item. I may have finished this book in 2015 if I could have stopped mentioning food. And perhaps gotten back into my pre-pregnancy jeans quicker. The struggle is real, people.)

Most entrepreneurs aren’t getting the results they want, but they keep on keeping on with what they are doing so they don’t risk having to change. You see, change is scary. Change is hard. But staying the same as everyone else is easy. It requires no risk and no effort.

Yet I don’t wear high heels every day because they are comfortable. I have never been one to take the easy way out. I’m guessing you aren’t either, which is why you are reading a book on Instagram in order to improve your Instagram ROI for your business.

Before jumping on another social media network, it is paramount to ask: Why should I use this for my business? Before you keep going through these pages of ROI yumminess, ask yourself if you should. Be discerning each day with each minute and how you spend it, as you will never get this time back.

So, should you keep going with this book and Instagram marketing in general?

First let’s look at the facts:

1. Businesses are using the platform. (https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-statistics-for-business/)

There are now more than 200,000 businesses using Instagram for promoting products and services.

In 2015, 32.3 percent of U.S. companies with 100 employees or more used Instagram for marketing activities.

Engagement with brands on Instagram is 10 times higher than Facebook, 54 times higher than Pinterest, and 84 times higher than Twitter.

2. Businesses are spending money on Instagram. Instagram’s global mobile ad revenues are expected to close in on nearly $3 billion by 2017. That figure would account for over 10 percent of its parent company Facebook’s revenues.

3. Consumers are purchasing through Instagram. (My favorite fact!) Nearly a third of online shoppers (31 percent) say they are using social media channels to browse for new items to buy (www.marketingweek.com/2016/03/23/social-commerce-how-willing-are-consumers-to-buy-through-social-media/). Facebook is the most popular network for shopping (26 percent), followed by Instagram (8 percent) and Pinterest (6 percent).

4. Consumers trust brands more because they saw them on Instagram. (This one is good, too.) A majority of millennials surveyed—70 percent—valued non-celebrity endorsements, particularly from influencers that they consider peers (http://www.marketplace.org/2016/03/31/business/consumers-trust-social-media-stars-more-celebrities-or-ads).

This book was created to give you the tools you need to leverage all the buying power Instagram brings to the table and serve it to you on a silver platter. And I didn’t stop there, as most social media books do. Inside these pages, you will also find strategies for moving your Instagram audience seamlessly from follower to high-value customer for life. This was a prerequisite for my agreement to write this book in the first place.

You see, I am not just a social media educator or theorist. I am a small business owner who wants to monetize our Instagram page. I read, researched, and studied everything I could find about Instagram marketing and monetization. This book is a compilation of what worked, what failed miserably, and the best of the best strategies that have allowed me to grow my account quickly and effectively just with not followers but with buyers.

I have included interviews with the top minds in business, Instagram marketing, and traffic monetization. You’ll see example after example that you can swipe and deploy for your own marketing efforts.

Keep reading and we’ll laugh together, cry together, imagine jam together.

More important, read this book so you are armed with the strategies you need to realize real ROI through account growth and traffic monetization from Instagram.

Let’s get down to biscuits—err—I mean business.

IT WAS A LETTER THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING

And why I said yes to writing this book. For you.

Maybe you can relate to this.

In the beginning, I thought it should be easier. I saw people around me enjoying success, taking time off, having the ability to donate large sums to charity—I felt lost.

I was working all of the time and was completely broke. And there are a lot more fun ways to be broke than working all of the time. My answer to covering cash flow or trying to make ends meet was to work harder. What could I do more of? What one thing could I push a little bit further that would finally make things easier?

I was at home with my infant daughter, barely two weeks old and (finally!) sleeping and not crying. The easiest-going kid now, she was a colicky baby then and cried unless she was sleeping or nursing. So here she was sleeping soundly, looking like a cherub, peacefully enjoying rest, and I started to cry.

I had just read a letter from my bank telling me they weren’t going to cover my overdrafts any longer. This was how I had made sure we had enough money for payroll. I couldn’t qualify for a line of credit so I used my overdraft to make ends meet. Before I had my daughter, when our overdraft got too high, I would go out and attend more networking events, follow up with more prospects, and do everything I could to hustle another project. I would end up taking anything offered to us, never being paid what we were worth, always just to get enough money in the moment. Always in crisis. Always in fear.

Well, this time I couldn’t follow my “kill yourself until you make it happen” business model. My daughter was barely born and needed me. But my employees needed me, too. And they had trusted me when they came to work for me. Alas, that coupled with the crazy-town hormones one has after giving birth produced ugly, gut-wrenching tears.

I am a woman of faith and I did what I could in that moment—I prayed. I prayed that God would show me a way out. That I could take care of my daughter and take care of my staff. I prayed that I wouldn’t have to work as much so I could be more present for my sweet child. I prayed that things could just get a little easier. I was so tired of being tired and living in constant fear of everything falling apart.

It was at this time that my good friend, Jon Toy, provided me the answer to my prayers. He gave me a book that changed everything. It was called No B.S. Direct Marketing: The Ultimate No Holds Barred Kick Butt Take No Prisoners Direct Marketing for Non-Direct Marketing Businesses (Entrepreneur Press) by Dan Kennedy. This book showed me not only can marketing equal results, but it can equal results quickly. Marketing could be my salesperson. Marketing could go out and hustle my next job while I stayed home and took care of my daughter.

The problem was that Dan Kennedy—the guy who wrote the book that changed everything—hated social media.

But that wasn’t going to stop me. I was on a mission to bring change to my path so I could reach a different destination.

I started implementing right away (more on the “what” later in this book). And for the love of my then-sad-now-fabulous shoe collection, something incredible happened. It was a Saturday morning, and I remember it as clear as if it was yesterday. I received a message on LinkedIn as shown in Figure I–1 on page xvii.

I couldn’t believe it. Someone I didn’t know had contacted me directly. I hadn’t met him at a networking event, sat in on a committee meeting with him, or chased him down after a networking group. I didn’t have to compete in an RFP in order to land the job. For the first time ever, my marketing had brought me a client. My marketing had gone out and hustled for me.

My marketing was WORKING!

I am proud to say that I did land that client. It was for a few hours of consulting, at about 100 times higher than what I’d been paid for projects before. My social media marketing had successfully repositioned me as the expert. This attracted a higher-quality client and meant that I didn’t have to compete on projects any longer because those that came to me were ready to hire my firm specifically and not shop around. It meant that my perfect prospect came to me, asking to work with me, and expecting to pay top dollar for the privilege.

FIGURE I–1. The Letter That Changed Everything.

I had spent years struggling in a tiny apartment with no cable (this was before Netflix, back when that meant you had only one channel, and it was fuzzy), unable to afford health insurance, and without a vacation for over ten years to a complete, 180-degree turnaround.

In one year of using direct-response marketing with social media, we grew our email list from 1,555 to over 21,000 people. In one year we increased our income 327 percent.

I’ve now been able to work with some of the top companies in the world like Harley-Davidson Motor Co., Sandler Training, Hilton Hotels, Chem-Dry, and more. I’ve also worked with top marketers who have my firm handle their in-bound marketing, such as GKIC Insider’s Circle, Dan Kennedy, Rich Schefren, Speaking Empire, Ted Thomas, Scott Carson, Ron LeGrand, Newsletter Pro, Sixth Division, and more.

And one astonishing thing happened. Small businesses, entrepreneurs, and freelancers started to ask how they could learn to do this type of marketing for their own businesses so they could also attract their perfect prospect who would then pay them what they were worth. They wanted to grow their audiences and make a difference in the world, too, all while bringing themselves and their families the financial peace and prosperity they longed for (and deserved). In response to growing interest, my team and I formed Marketing Insiders Elite (www.marketinginsiderselite.com), an association that now has hundreds of members focused on creating raving fans and converting them into buyers for life.

The most rewarding part is the difference it is making in others’ lives. I get messages from members all the time that what they are discovering through Marketing Insiders Elite is allowing them to attract a higher-quality prospect who expects to pay more. I hear how they’ve been able to grow their tribes successfully and how what they are doing is helping others.

Since I’ve pivoted from broke to booming I’ve still cried many times, but they’ve been tears of joy as I’ve been at an event and someone I didn’t know has come up to me to tell me the difference this has made in their lives. Moms who were able to quit their full-time jobs are now able to work from home and be there more for their kids. Professionals who were able to build bigger tribes can finally get paid what they are worth. Dreamers are finally putting their ideas into action now that they know how.

Deep down we all want to know that what we are doing has meaning. We want to know that what we do matters.

Knowing that what I am doing is actually impacting lives is the greatest gift of all. That and finally having the peace and prosperity I craved for such a long time. Before, I would automatically wake up every night at 3 A.M. (because that is the time my bank would turn over the night’s numbers) and see how negative my bank account was. It was then that I would know which check bounced and what crisis I would have to fix next. I truly didn’t have a single peaceful night’s sleep for more than ten years.

Flash to the present where I can finally take vacations with my family and disconnect without fear that it is all going to fall apart. We are a Disney family and even though we live in the Northeast, we have annual passes because we are able to visit there often now. It should come as a surprise to no one. After one has ten years of stress, she craves a little “Happiest Place on Earth” time.

I now spend virtually no time in fruitless networking or chasing down leads. In fact, I don’t belong to a single networking group and haven’t done an RFP in years. I can spend my time doing things that matter to me versus things I have to do. I can volunteer for my church and Operation Homefront—an organization serving military families while their loved ones are deployed—because they matter to me rather than because I hope I can get my next client from them.

When I was struggling, I remember seeing others’ success and wishing I could have their “breakthrough,” and that one day someone would discover me and what I was doing, and magically everything would turn around. It was like I was hoping for a “Breakthrough Fairy” to come along and make it all better.

It took that moment in the kitchen with my daughter finally sleeping, me finally breaking down, to realize that it wasn’t a fairy who was going to solve this. It was me. I had to do something different if things were going to be different. I had to be the one to make that change. And it wasn’t going to be one big moment that would change everything. It would be the little steps I would take each day that would make the big differences later on. Little things, just like you picking up this book and deciding to read it so that you can improve your results.

Are you ready for a change in your path? Are you ready to attract more raving followers and turn them into buyers for life?

Follow along in this book and then make sure to check out www.UGIGbook.com for more resources, such as a 30-day content template, sales strategies, resources, and more!

But most important, put what you discover into action.

This book will take you through the steps to discover who your perfect prospect is, how to communicate effectively to them, and then how to turn followers into buyers for life. Instagram can be a money-making machine for businesses of all types. But it’s not just about engagement—it’s about the right kind of engagement. Along the way, you will read case studies of other entrepreneurs and business that have successfully used Instagram to produce results.

I will share examples from my own business and those of my clients and colleagues who are effectively using Instagram to grow their business. You’ll meet Nathan Chan of Foundr magazine, who grew his Instagram following in just a few short weeks to thousands of followers; DigitalMarketer who uses Instagram ads to drive subscribers to their popular podcast Perpetual Traffic; Josh Harcus of Hüify who uses the platform to promote company culture and recruit new hires; Timothy Sykes, who has leveraged Instagram into a multi-million-dollar education enterprise; and many more. With a variety of both common mistakes and success stories of entrepreneurs who use Instagram for their businesses, you can create your own engaging Instagram brand that will help you attract and retain your ideal clients. From sales funnels, to follower contests, to product launches, you’ll learn killer techniques to turn nearly any Instagram audience into a network of loyal customers.

One thing I caution you against is reading their examples and thinking, “My business is different. This won’t work for me.” Instead think, “How can I apply this to my business?” That is how you can make lasting change in your current situation and create the future you once only hoped was possible.

Are you ready?

Today is the first day of the rest of your journey. Think of any failures from the past as plot twists getting you ready for this next chapter. Your story is being written every day, and you have control over the next chapter.

And it’s going to be a good one. Are you in? Post on Instagram and use the hashtags #IAmIn #InstagramforBusiness, and I will give you a shoutout. Plus, you can win one of hundreds of prizes.

Let’s get started.

#INSTAGRAMFORBUSINESS POSTABLES

Note: Throughout the book, you will find a synopsis of key points and resources you can use. Share the postables on Instagram and your other social media networks. Be sure to use the hashtag #InstagramforBusiness. We will be monitoring this hashtag and will jump in to reply, continue the conversation, and give out prizes. Go ahead and post one from the list below now.

Deep down we all want to know that what we are doing has meaning. We want to know that what we do matters. #InstagramforBusiness

Today is the first day of the rest of your journey. Think of any failures from the past as plot twists getting you ready for this next chapter. #InstagramforBusiness

Your story is being written every day. You have control over the next chapter. And it’s going to be a good one. #InstagramforBusiness

When successful business owners hear a good idea, they do not think, “My business is different. This won’t work for me.” Instead they think, “HOW can I apply this to my business?” #InstagramforBusiness

I’m in! #InstagramforBusiness