In this video, I will expose my 2024 Instagram growth strategy. Since creating my business education Instagram account in the summer of 2022, I’ve reached 18,000 followers! Learn how I’m reaching new audiences and promoting my offers inside this video.

Right now, I have about 18,000 followers (by the way, I hope you’ll follow me on Instagram if you don’t already)! On the app, I share daily advice for business owners. Ultimately, though, I hope to grow an audience that I can convert into customers for my business.

That’s the lens that I look through when I approach Instagram. I’ve been active on Instagram for eight years. After pivoting my business a few times, I have now been showing up as a business educator for four years as part of my overall strategy to grow my audience and my sales.

Here are some things I think about when considering Instagram in 2024.

Using Manychat

I am obsessed with Manychat! Utilizing automations on Instagram helped me triple my story views and led to thousands of new leads for my email list. When someone comments a keyword on one of my posts or DMs me a keyword, Manychat automatically sends them a link to one of my paid offers or affiliate partners. It has been a powerful tool in terms of organic marketing.

It’s an Instagram-approved program, so your account will not be penalized for using it. As business owners, it’s a huge opportunity to become more visible on Instagram. When users comment or DM you for a link, that increases your engagement, which in turn, increases your reach! All of this works together to get your account seen more in the Instagram algorithm.

On top of that, Manychat helps to increase your conversions. You DM users a direct link to your paid offers or freebies! It’s unlike anything we’ve seen before on Instagram, and I look forward to exploring it more in the new year.

Another reason I love Manychat is because it’s a great alternative to link stickers in Instagram stories. Normally, when I use a link sticker, my story views drop a little. Instead, using a Manychat increases your story views. Instagram understands it as engagement with your story, which helps your account!

To learn more about using Manychat, watch my tutorial on creating an automation for your reels or creating an automation for your Instagram stories! Both videos come with free templates to get you started right away!

Post Reels

In 2024, I plan to continue to primarily post reels. Normally, we post on Instgram every Monday – Friday, five days a week. Four of those posts are reels and one is a photo post.

In mid-2023, Instagram announced that they would balance your reach between both reels and photo posts. Since then, there have been rumors that they plan to shift their focus back to reels. Even with the supposed change, personally, I still saw way more reach on my reels – especially when it comes to non-followers. 

Photo posts are a great way to nurture your warm audience, but for reaching new people on Instagram, reels are still where it’s at. My account has reached literally millions of new people since reels came out in 2020, so I plan to continue leaning heavily into that strategy!

To learn more about exactly what is working on reels right now, try my free one hour reels class! It’s all about how to grow your business reach, followers and customers with reels in just a few hours every month. I’ll reveal what types of reels to make, what ideas are working, how to use reels for business and how to save time creating. There’s a way to do reels where they’re super simple, but they work and they convert.

Using Stories

I plan to use stories to engage my warm audience and sell to them.

A huge development I have made is that I am not afraid to sell on my stories anymore. There was a time when I worried about reach and views. I noticed that my personal brand content, about me and my life, performed better. I decided to focus on that for my stories.

Now, I have found is there is a way to sell in stories that feels organic, natural, fun and creative (with a sprinkle of your personal brand, which is still very important)!

I’m boldly selling in my stories. When I say selling, I mean sharing freebies, direct links to offers, sharing student wins, showing behind the scenes of creating a new offer or piece of content, etc. 

My current routine is to post on Instagram stories every Monday – Saturday. I make a point to make at least one of those stories about selling (mentioning a freebie or offer) to my audience. It’s important for me to be creative in how I share it, ensuring that it’s fun for me to create and also for my audience to consume.

Marketing Rule of Seven

There’s a rule in marketing that consumers must see something seven times before they purchase it. In that case, posting about our offers once per week is not enough. We need to share them over and over again. Essentially, we should be relentless in the way we are sharing them.

Make it a fluid transition between sharing your day-to-day life, connecting with your audience, and then bringing up your freebies or offers. When you share something, some followers probably will not resonate with the way you share it. However, maybe you later share it in a different way or in a different format, and they connect with it, opt-in to your list, and convert into a paying customer.

Pairing this strategy with implementing Manychat automations will have a huge effect on your account.

This shift on my account has already been so impactful, and I plan to lean into it even more as I continue to grow on Instagram in 2024.

Again, I encourage you to watch my free reels class! If you’re hoping to grow your following and attract ideal customers to your Instagram account, you want to start with this class! I will walk you through how to strategically create reels in a few hours every month. Plus, I’ll share how to attract the right people with your reels and ultimately see conversions.

Thank you for tuning in, and we’ll see you in next week’s video!