We may sell stock photos and Canva templates, but our Founder Elle Drouin actually started her business teaching other entrepreneurs about Instagram. After growing her dog’s Instagram following to over 100,000 followers (and monetizing it), she has a lot to say about using Instagram for business, but today we’re answering a question that many people in the Styled Stock Society community have – how do I get clients from Instagram?
Elle says: “I actually started my business on Instagram. I didn’t have a business website or a sales page or anywhere with information about how someone could hire me. At the time, my dog had around 15k Instagram followers. I would get DMs from random people asking how they could grow their Instagram accounts and I figured I could share what I had learned with them. My first clients were people who slid into my DMs and I essentially just offered to do 1:1 consultations with them. Eventually I took the time to create a services page and other resources, but in the beginning I just shared what I knew and offered to help people in the community I had built on Instagram.”
That may sound easy enough, but if you’re looking for some actionable tips on how to get clients from Instagram, we’ve got ya covered:
Use Instagram as a portfolio for your work
If you’re a designer, photographer, artist, stylist, interior designer, home organizer, or any other type of professional whose work is visual, Instagram is the perfect place to showcase your work. Just like you might have a portfolio on your website, Instagram is a way to show examples of your past client projects, mood boards or works in progress while also connecting with potential clients and customers. Let people see the type of work that you do so they know what you have to offer!
Pro tip: the more specific you can be with your style / aesthetic, the more likely you are to attract your ideal clients. So if your preferred design style is modern and minimal, you may not want to share that rustic farmhouse project you worked on last year if it’s not the type of client you want more of.
Share content that’s helpful for your target audience
If you still think Instagram is just a place to document your everyday life, you’re not thinking about it from a business perspective. Think about how your Instagram posts can help your potential customers and clients. How can you educate them? Inspire them? Encourage them? Help them save time / money / energy? Even if your business isn’t inherently “visual” – for example if you’re a coach, consultant, strategist, accountant, attorney, project manager, virtual assistant, etc. – you can still use Instagram to share helpful content for your target audience. In fact, we find that many of our graphics like this get more engagement (and more shares) that some of our photos – Instagram is definitely not just for visually-focused brands!
Don’t forget to use calls-to-action
When you’re sharing helpful content, don’t forget to tell people what to do next. When they get to the end of a post, make it easy for them to take the next step – do you want them to click the link in your bio to read your blog post / learn more about your services / book a call? Do you want them to comment and share their thoughts with you? Do you want them to save your post for later or share it with a friend? Whatever you want your followers to do – tell them to do it AND make it easy for them. If you’re sending people to your website, make it easy for them to find what they are looking for. If you want them to engage with you – give them a question that they can answer.
Here’s a call to action to go follow @styledstocksociety on Instagram!
Make it easy for people to contact you
On a related note – if you want people to contact you, make it easy for them to do so! Make sure your email is linked in your profile, invite them to DM you, or direct them to your website if that’s the best place to get in contact. This may seem like an obvious tip, but you might be surprised at how often we come across businesses and can’t find any contact information for them! Make it easy for people to reach out to you to learn more / book a call / hire you / etc.
Pro tip: If you have an Instagram business account (which you should, if you’re a business), there’s a place to enter your email in your profile so people can click directly from Instagram to send you an email.
Focus on quality not quantity
It’s easy to get overwhelmed with posting regularly, showing up on stories, commenting on other people’s posts, etc. but if you’re focusing on attracting the RIGHT people (who could potentially hire you) versus any people, it’s really a much simpler marketing tool. So rather than spend hours liking a ton of photos in hopes that people notice you, take the time to regularly leave a few genuine comments for people in your target audience. Instead of worrying about creating a ton of content just to have something to post every day, focus on creating a few truly helpful pieces of content in order to get clients from Instagram. You don't need a TON of followers to have a full client roster!
Tips to get clients from Instagram
Those are some of our best tips on how to get clients from Instagram. Don’t worry about the number of followers you have – focus on showing up to help and connect with your potential clients. If you need high quality images for Instagram or Instagram graphic templates, learn more about Styled Stock Society membership!
)
