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10 tips to help you get clients through Instagram – by dietitian Aidan Muir

Careers and University, Dietetics, The Business of Health

Instagram can be a great marketing tool if used right. It can also be a massive time-suck that does not produce results if you are not doing a few crucial aspects well.

Personally, I have been on both sides of that spectrum. It took almost 3 years of relatively consistent work for an average of 5-10 hours each week before I started getting clients through Instagram.

During that time, I had built up close to 3,000 followers with decent engagement, but I was not really getting results that mattered to me as a dietitian.

Around that time, I decided to take it a bit more serious since I saw the potential (although had not yet reaped any benefits) and started attempting to implement all of the strategies below.

Within a few months of that, I had gotten to ~5,000 followers, which is not a massive jump, but I was able to have a full-time business solely off the clients I was getting through Instagram.

I had obviously been implementing some of these strategies prior to that point, but the addition of the ones I had not been implementing were the difference maker.

My Instagram and business have continued growing since then and I have also diversified my client generation sources quite a bit, but to this day I still aim to implement all of these strategies apart from the first one.

1. Follow People in Your Target Market

I’m starting this post with a tip that I think is underrated and not many people are talking about. Hopefully this helps you, because it was the biggest game changer for me.

For that first few years on Instagram where I was not getting clients, I was following a lot of dietitians and people in the nutrition space. Other businesses basically.

It was useful since it helped me learn what type of content other people were producing and it allowed me to network with people, but it did not do much in terms of helping me attract clients.

If you look around, you will notice that this is what most allied health professionals do.

Most of us are super supportive and try to help each other. But this can create a cycle where we are producing content and basing its success on the engagement it receives from our audience, which is not even our legitimate target audience.

For most people, this means at best you are just producing content that is being seen by the wrong audience, but at worst you are adjusting your content to suit that audience.

The way I got out of that situation was to follow my target audience.

To do this, you need to find where your target audience hangout on Instagram.

For example, I like to work with strength athletes, particularly powerlifters. And even though I do online consults, I’ve noticed that Brisbane-based clients are the ones who are most likely to reach out to me, since I live in Brisbane and my Instagram bio includes that.

So for me, I started going onto the Instagram pages of powerlifting gyms in Brisbane and seeing who was active and liking their photos. Then I would go onto their profiles and if they were a relevant person (e.g. a powerlifter who lives in Brisbane), I would like a few of their recent photos and give them a follow.

I did this with roughly 100 people per day. You do not want to go much higher than this since Instagram does not like inauthentic behaviour and can punish you if you take it too far.

For example, if you followed 500 people in an hour, I guarantee Instagram would ban you from following people or liking posts for at least 24 hours. And this is just a first warning, with progressively heavier punishments each time you exceed their limits.

By following roughly 100 people per day, I would get like 20-30 people who would follow me back.

You can unfollow people later on if you want, but once again you do not want to unfollow too quickly.

And ideally, you want to remain following people who have followed you back, since that way you can build a connection with them.

These people are more likely to be engaged followers, since they were engaging with the gym’s photos, which is great from an algorithm perspective. The more authentic engagement you get, the better.

But in addition to that, these were people who were in my target market. I even got a few clients book in directly from this, since they saw my profile and that I worked with powerlifters.

This strategy might sound weird/creepy, but from a business perspective it is so effective. It is even more effective if your page is a personal brand like mine (@aidan_the_dietitian) instead of just being a business e.g. my Instagram handle was previously @Idealnutrition and the picture was my logo.

I would strongly recommend implementing this as a strategy to get out of the cycle of just being followed by people who are not relevant. It is not something that is worthwhile doing once you have a decent sized audience, since there are more efficient ways of growing, but it is a tool that is great for getting started.

2. Produce Good Content

This is obviously the most important tip and it is something that everybody knows, but I think it is important to re-iterate.

If people take the time to look at your post and read the caption, you want it to be something that is worth their time. You want them to find it valuable.

Part of this is because it will help you grow an engaged audience, but the other part is because this is a tool for getting clients.

If you are actually helping people with your free content, people are going to be so much more interested in seeing what they would get out of actually engaging your paid services. If your free content is average, they likely will assume that your proper service is not going to be helpful.

My 3 rules for social media posts is that they must engage, entertain or educate.

Obviously as allied health professionals looking to get clients, we really want to be educating with at least some of our posts. The other stuff is a bonus.

But each time you make a post think about those rules. Think: is this post going to engage, entertain or educate?

If it is not ticking any of those boxes, then it probably is not worthwhile posting. You always need to keep your audience in mind and try to show respect to them.

Also keep in mind that “salesy” type posts do not really fit into these rules either. This is why it is important to at a MINIMUM have 80% of your content just aimed at being good content, rather than a sales pitch.

It is important to post regularly, but it is more important to keep quality at the level that it is a beneficial use of your audience’s time to pay attention to your posts.

3. Produce shareable content

On the topic of content, another key to gaining a larger audience of relevant followers is to produce shareable content.

Good content and shareable content often go hand in hand, but they are not necessarily the same thing.

For example, you could post a photo of yourself with a great caption, which could be classified as good content.

But that is not exactly the type of thing people will share on their story, since you cannot see a caption on somebodies’ story. That person then has to direct their audience to read the caption, which adds an extra step.

An alternative to that is posting an infographic or a screenshot of a tweet, which provides value immediately in the image.

This type of content is easy to share on a story, since the image says what the people sharing it want their audience to see.

If you have implemented the first tip about following relevant people, this is even better. This means that now the people sharing your content are in your target market, which means they are also likely sharing your content with other people in your target market.

Occasionally you can even get people with larger audiences sharing your content, which could lead to a large influx of followers as well.

4. Engage With Your Current Audience in Comments/DMs

I’m dreading the day when I will not be able to respond to all my comments.

Does this do much in terms of growing your following? Maybe, but it probably is not a great use of time, if that is the goal. At best, it might improve word of mouth, which could lead to some followers.

But what it does do is help allow you to build a community.

I do not believe in karma or anything like that, but I think if you consistently try to help people, good things will come from it.

Using that logic, I try to help people and I have zero expectations of outcomes in return. I think this is a good philosophy to have in general, beyond the purposes of this post.

But particularly in the beginning, if somebody has taken the time to comment, I think you should give them a well-thought out response. Same thing if somebody DMs you.

Not only does this help build a community, it helps build relationships.

A lot of my clients do not just book in out of the blue. A large percentage of them have commented or messaged me to discuss nutrition in general first.

In addition to this, sometimes this leads to them referring family or friends to me as well.

I get that a lot of health professionals consider their time valuable and do not want to spend hours giving out free advice. But if you do this, it has the potential to help build trust and generate clients.

5. Engage with Other People on Their Posts

Not only is it a good idea to engage with people on your own posts, but it can be a good idea to engage with people on their posts.

I strongly recommend doing this in an authentic way though.

I have previously trialled Gary Vee’s $1.80 strategy which encourages leaving your 2 cents on 90 posts per day in a systematic way based on hashtags. This was where I got the idea from and realised how effective it could be.

It is smart since not only does it mean the creator the of the post sees your comment, but also a lot of the people who see the post will also see your comment and become familiar with your name and brand.

But personally, I found that doing it on that many posts takes more time than I am willing to commit. And secondly, I think doing it based on hashtags can lead to it being conversations with the “wrong” people e.g. not always the type of audience you want to attract.

For me, I like that almost all of my audience is Australian based. So I really want to focus on engaging mostly with Australians.

But basically, I engage with the content of people in my niche to help build my relationships with them (which I will discuss in the next point) and I also engage with my target audience when relevant.

For me, this could be as simple as seeing somebody post a personal best bench press and me commenting something like “nice lift bro!”

Obviously, I do not recommend being spammy. Just say what you naturally feel comfortable saying. It is called social media for a reason.

Do not waste time on this just trying to use it as a business tactic. Be a human and try to build relationships.

6. Build Relationships with Others, Particularly Those With Relevant Followers

This seems counter to my point about how you should really be focusing on following and engaging with your target market, not just other professionals in your niche, but it is still a relevant point.

One of my largest sources of growth has come from people with more followers than myself either sharing my content, giving me a shoutout or collaborating with me in some way.

This has also led to clients as well, since I have had a lot say “I found your profile through x person.”

Once again, I recommend just trying to be a good person and do this authentically.

If you are watching the stories of somebody, maybe react to their story, or message them in response. Particularly if you have something either humorous or informative to add.

Comment on the posts of people you would like to build this relationship with as well.

If you post interesting comments on a consistent basis, eventually they will look at your profile and decide whether or not they think you are worth following.

That being said, do not overemphasise how important this is. A shoutout is nice, but one shoutout from a big account is not really a gamechanger. You might get 100-500 new followers, but it is back to business as usual after that.

It is similar to if you created a viral post/video. That is awesome, but if you do not back it up with consistently good content, it will not really lead to anything tangible long term.

7. Collaborate With Others

On the topic of building relationships with influencers, I think collaboration is one of the most underrated ways to grow an account quickly.

Obviously, you only want to be collaborating with people who are mostly followed by your target market though. Growth for the sake of growth is not only meaningless, but potentially detrimental if you gain the wrong type of followers.

Collaborating could be as simple as you creating a piece of content for a larger account and they give credit for you when they share it on their page.

This can seem like a lot of work, but in reality, it is only slightly more work than creating content for yourself.

When you create content for yourself, how many people does it reach? How many new followers and potential clients does it help generate?

I guarantee that if you spend say 25% of the time you currently spend on creating your own content, on creating content for other people to share, your outcomes will improve.

In addition to this, you could also do other forms of collaboration such as a joint Instagram live.

I have been invited on to other peoples Instagram lives, on topics that I know well, so they do not require prep time. It took 10 minutes total and led to >100 new followers. And some of those new followers later booked in to see me.

While this can be a difficult strategy to implement, I really cannot see many better uses of time.

8. Use Hashtags Wisely

I’m of the opinion that hashtags have steadily declined in importance over the years. At least for my account they have.

Back in 2017, I used to make posts that would get a tonne of likes/comments right off the bat due to hashtags. Part of that was from bots, but I also think a chunk of that was from real people.

I have also noticed quite a few accounts grew large followings back then to, strongly based on hashtags, but now have not continued to grow even though their content is the same quality.

I think sharable content is far more important these days.

That being said, hashtags still matter.

From one perspective, I actually do not want to get too many followers from hashtags. >99% of the clients I have gotten through Instagram have been from Australia. This makes sense, since Australian’s are going to be more comfortable booking in to see me, for a variety of reasons.

If I use the hashtag #nutriton on a post anybody can find it, regardless of location. This means I am very likely going to be building up my international audience, rather than my Brisbane/Australian audience.

That being said, I also think it is silly to leave potential followers/clients on the table by completely ignoring hashtags. I just think it is smart to use them wisely.

You are allowed to use up to 30 total hashtags, and the gold standard I have seen other people talk about is to split hashtags into 3 tiers.

This would mean 1/3 of your tags are niche hashtags, 1/3 are medium volume and 1/3 are high volume.

I’m not going to dig into the definitions of “medium volume” and “high volume” since it really doesn’t matter that much.

You can also either use hashtags at the end of your caption, or in your comments, based on your preference. It likely is more effective to post the hashtags as soon as possible after posting though, particularly for high volume ones, since otherwise your post might be missed.

But for me #nutrition is high volume. So many people are searching that. But it also means that it is hard for my post to stand out for that hashtag and stay near the top or reach the explore page, since there is so much competition.

Something like #brisbanedietitian is a very niche hashtag. Not a lot of people are searching that. But if they do, I will be exactly the thing they are looking for and there is not a lot of competition on that hashtag.

Obviously, you do not want to hashtag something nobody searches for, but you also do not want to just be solely using the highest volume ones either.

Personally, to save time, I have 20 hashtags saved that I copy and paste onto every post. Then I add 5-10 unique ones onto each post as well to improve the relevance of them.

It can take a bit of time to write 30 hashtags out from scratch, and there really is not much noticeable downside to repeating the same ones over and over, particularly for higher volume hashtags.

9. Use Locations

On your posts you have the option to add location. This is useful since people can literally search a location on Instagram, similarly to searching hashtags.

Personally, since I am Brisbane based, I just add Brisbane, QLD, Australia as my location for most of my posts. Sometimes I add different locations if it is relevant though. For example, if I post a video of me in the gym, I’ll use the gyms location.

This does not make a massive difference, but it can help your posts pick up a little bit more traffic, while also highlighting your location. For example, this is part of why people in Brisbane likely feel more comfortable booking in to see me even though I mostly see clients online.

If you are solely online, there is also the option to add different locations to posts. For example, I have seen people add Brisbane one day, then Melbourne, then Sydney, even though they have not actually travelled.

Personally, I do not recommend that since it is not authentic. Your goal is to build trust and build a community. People who follow you closely will see right through that, in my opinion.

10. Keep Follower Quality High

My last key point is a reminder that the emphasis is on quality as well as quantity of followers.

Instagram changes over time. The algorithm changes. Strategies that work now might not work in the future.

The goal is to adapt and adopt new strategies.

This means that there is a lot of trial and error involved.

For me, I have stumbled across a lot of strategies that have led to a lot of growth, but potentially diluted the quality of my followers.

One example of this is the $1.80 strategy I referred to earlier. When I first implemented that, it resulted in ~100 followers per day. That sounds awesome.

But as I said, the $1.80 strategy would result in me getting a lot of international followers. These people are less likely to book in and become a client, are more difficult to handle as clients due to time zones and different access and preferences for foods, and also would then be sharing my content with their followers that have the similar issues just listed.

I’ve also found that if I pay to boost some of my posts, with the intention of getting followers from that, it comes out as well under $1 per follower gained.

If you put two and two together with the knowledge that I could run a full-time business off 5,000 followers, that also sounds like an awesome deal.

But I believe followers gained through that method are not the same quality as those gained organically. I believe it dilutes the quality of follower and also would lead to reduced engagement with my posts per follower.

These are just examples, but the key here is that trial and error is good. You will need to find what works for you. But whenever you find something that is working, always question whether it is actually leading to the type of followers you want.

Growing your audience is a key part of getting clients through Instagram, but it is really important to emphasis doing it in a way that increases the likelihood of people booking in to see you.

Aidan is a Brisbane based dietitian who specialises in helping clients gain muscle or lose body fat, in addition to improving the performance of strength athletes. He services clients through his business Ideal Nutrition and sees clients both in-person and online.

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