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Instagram is an amazing free marketing channel, but you should always aim to be moving your followers onto an email list.
In this post we’ll teach you how to convert Instagram followers into email subscribers in just 3 steps.
You should be able to implement these steps in a couple of hours.
First of all though, why should you try and convert your Instagram followers into email subscribers?
The answer is control, plain and simple. Unfortunately, email is still the only channel where you have the ability to build a true relationship with your target customer.
Building an audience on any social network (especially Instagram) means you letting someone determine how often you can talk to your audience.
Worse still, every social network always moves towards a future where you eventually have to pay EACH TIME you want your audience to see a post.
We’ve seen Instagram move towards this reality more and more in recent years.
If, however, you have an email list, you can talk to them whenever you’d like, as much as you’d like.
Of course, though, you wouldn’t want to spam them – else they’ll just unsubscribe.
It’s the same principle as you’d follow for building and maintaining an audience on Instagram – always be posting great content!
The 3 Step Process To Turn Instagram Followers Into Email Subscribers:
Alright, let’s get into the process!
Step 1: Create An Incentive
Difficulty: Medium
Time to implement: Between 1 and 4 hours
The first step is to come up with a reason for your Instagram followers to give you their email address. Ask yourself “what would my audience absolutely LOVE to get from me?” The best reason usually comes in the form of some sort of free thing that your followers would absolutely love to get their hands on.
Some common examples are:
- Win something
- Get a free guide/e-book/course/training video
- Get access to a discount
Please please please whatever you do, DON’T just ask them to subscribe to your newsletter. At TribeGrowth we’ve split tested hundreds of different value propositions for our clients and trust me, no one wants to subscribe to your newsletter.
The incentive that you choose will ultimately depend on your target customer and what you eventually want to sell them. For example, if you’re selling a fashion item then discounts and competitions will convert well. But if you’re selling an information product or course then a free guide or e-book will be more appropriate.
You might be asking right about now – how do you ‘actually’ get people to give you their emails? Instagram doesn’t have any sections where you can get your followers to give their email to you.
The answer is probably obvious – the bio.
The Instagram bio is where the magic happens. This is where you briefly describe your business and allude to the value proposition of your incentive (and encourage them to click the link!)
Here are a few screenshot examples from accounts who know how to convert Instagram followers into email subscribers really well:
Example 1
As you can see, DropBottle, a startup based in Perth, is selling a glass drink bottle. The incentive here is to learn about the top 15 recipes to use with the bottle.
Example 2
This account is using a free DIY gardening guide as the incentive.
Step 2: Create A Landing Page
Difficulty: Easy
Time to implement: 10 minutes to an hour
Ok. So you understand the importance of an incentive. But do you have the time/money/patience to build a website to then capture their email address? Maybe not.
This is why we and our clients can’t get enough of ConvertKit.
It allows us to publish a beautiful one-page website (landing page) in about 10 minutes which we can then set and forget! ConvertKit has hundreds of professionally designed templates that are amazing from a UX/UI and conversion rate perspective. It’s very rare for us to have landing pages that convert at less than 20%, much more usual is 35% or more. That means for every 3 people that click the link in our client’s Instagram bio – we get a new email subscriber!
This is one such page that converts at 35%:
If you want to set up a similar landing page that converts just as well then check out ConvertKit, it comes with a completely free account that can hold up to 1000 email subscribers.
Step 3: Create & Connect An Email List
Difficulty: Easy
Time to implement: 10 minutes
This is a relatively simple step. The basic premise is that you want to be able to email all these people easily and whenever you want to. You could also want to set up an automatic welcome series of emails for your new subscribers that builds trust and eventually sends them a link to buy something 😉
ConvertKit will let you collect emails really easily, that’s how they started their company.
Bonus Tip – Ghost Posting
Difficulty: Medium
Time to implement: 20 minutes
This is a tip that you can use if you really want to turbocharge the growth of your email list off of Instagram. You’ll find it especially useful if you already have a large amount of followers on Instagram.
Ghost posting is when you publish a post that straight up promotes your incentive – like an advertisement. In the caption you ask people to click the link in your bio to get the incentive – which sends them to your landing page.
BUT! The reason we call it Ghost Posting is that you delete the post after one or two hours.
Why delete the post? Well let’s be honest, who wants to follow a brand that has a feed full of advertisements?
Conclusion
So now you know the three basic steps for how to convert Instagram followers into email subscribers;
- Create an incentive.
- Build a landing page.
- Setup a mailing list.
Now go do it and tell us how you go!
Comment below with any great case studies or alternative methods that you’ve seen.
Click here to checkout ConvertKit