the bossbabe podcast - 59. Hacking Instagram Stories to Level Up Your Biz, Generating Leads with DMs, and Using Instagram Polls to Boost Your Bank Account with Head of Sales at BossBabe, Ellen Coule

Episode Date: November 25, 2019

Do you want to know how Instagram Stories can generate leads for your business? That’s what you’ll be learning in this week’s mini-episode with BossBabe’s Head of Marketing, Kay Snels, and Head of Sales, Ellen Coule. Regardless of how many Instagram followers you have, you CAN boost engagement and generate sales for your business, and we’ll be showing you how. This episode is a MUST LISTEN if you’re ready to level up your Instagram game.  Ellen and Kay discusses how to harness the power of Instagram Stories to provide value and build connections with your customers. Ellen shares actionable tips on how to sell in DMs, Instagram Highlights and identifying the best Instagram features to leverage for your business. It’s going down in the DMs as we show you to use Instagram to make it a profitable place where you can sell products or services. If you’d love to learn from the BossBabe team about how to grow your audience on Instagram by 10,000 ideal clients in 30 days, register for a free spot in the next training at: https://bossbabe.com/growthatinsta  This episode is sponsored by The 90 Day Planner by BossBabe: bossbabe.com/goals

So instead of thinking, how can I sell to people in my DMs, it's really about how can I build a relationship, a genuine connection with these people and get to know them and let them know that we actually care. It's not just a number on a balance sheet for us. It's a human being that we want in our community. Welcome to the Boss Babe podcast, a place where we share with you the real behind the scenes of building successful businesses, achieving peak performance, and learning how to balance it all. I'm Kaye Snells, head of marketing at Boss Babe and your host for

this week's mini episode. These mini episodes are designed with you in mind. Each episode, a member of Team Boss Babe will dive into one topic, whether that's product, sales, marketing, community, or leadership. Consider it your weekly mini training that's super actionable so you can implement it right away. In today's episode, we interview Ellen Kuhl. Ellen serves as the head of sales at Boss Babe and she has a wealth of experience in product launches, content strategy, user experience, and organic sales. So I'm really,

really excited to learn more about it today. And today we're going to chat about how to use Instagram stories to generate leads for your business. So as always, screen start yourself listening to this podcast and share it on your stories along with your biggest takeaway. And don't forget to tag us at bossbabe.inc and hashtag the Boss Babe Podcast podcast a boss babe is unapologetically ambitious and paves the way for herself and other women to rise keep going and fighting on she is on a mission to be her best self in all areas it's just believing in yourself confidently stepping outside her comfort zone to create her own version of success I'm so excited. Okay, I'm so excited because this episode is sponsored by our very own product. In fact, our first ever physical product, the 90 day planner. So our 90 day planner is the daily

resource for ambitious women. We know you've got massive goals and we are here to help you achieve them by breaking them down into a 90 day sprint and and then a step-by-step roadmap so you'll wake up every single day knowing what to work on and every day we'll have you work through very specific easy tools that we've been doing for years and has helped us win. Not only is the planner an amazing resource but it's super cute, it's light, it's going to fit in your handbag, we made sure of that and it's also ring-bound so it's going to be really easy to write on whether you're in the back of the car or on an airplane, it's super convenient. And don't worry if you don't have full clarity yet on your goals, because with the planner, you'll get crystal clear on your top goals for the next 90 days using exercises that we've put in there. So that's

both professional and personal goals. The process that you'll actually be working through in your planner is completely proven. It's something Danielle and I have been doing ourselves for years and we've been testing out this exact planner for a year now as well as getting our clients and employees to work on this exact thing. So if you're a client of ours you'll know that we've got you working through a 90-day sprint. This is an even easier way to do it. So it's going to help you get amazing results, it's going to help you get crystal clear, It's a product that we are so incredibly proud of and is an absolute must have. So go to bossbabe.com forward slash goals to get yours and it's holiday season. So I really recommend buying an extra copy, writing an amazing motivational note to your best friend, telling her you believe

in her and sending her a copy too, because the best thing that we can do as friends is support our other friends in achieving their massive goals. So let me know when you've got yours, tag us. I want to see how you're using it. And I also want to see the amazing results you get from it. So let's dive in. Welcome Ellen to the Boss Babe podcast. Hi, thanks for having me. So you've been on the podcast before and you know, we chatted about social proof at that time. This time, we're going to dive really deep into Instagram stories. And I love that we're talking about this because Instagram stories is really slaying the game right now. It has like 500 million users every single day. And so many people are using Instagram stories to make sales, to generate leads that turn

into sales and really to just build that connection with their customers. So before we dive in into, you know, generating leads, how do you build connection through Instagram stories with the customers of Boss Babe? That's such a great question. We do a lot on Instagram stories and we're always looking at it through a lens of how can we provide value to our audience. Currently, our audience is over 1.6 million followers and we have a ton of people who regularly show up to watch our stories every single day. And it's really, really cool to look into those analytics and see the people who are showing up consistently and then use that information to then build a relationship by reaching out to them. I think that a lot of people miss this opportunity

to really use it as a two-way street because often when we're putting out stories, we kind of see it as like a one-way thing. But people really want to build relationships with the content creators that they're watching. And so whether you have 10 followers, 100 followers, or a million followers, people really want to connect with you. So one thing that we do is we really do look at who's actually watching our stories and then we reach out to them in some way, whether that's checking out their own profile, liking and commenting on their posts,

even reaching out to them in their DMs to start a conversation based on how well we know them and what they've interacted with. It's a really great way to reward people for showing up for you and also to build that long lasting relationship that very often will turn into a sale. Oh, yeah, I feel like there's so much gold in there. Because sometimes it takes 11 interactions before someone's even considered a lead right and someone decides to buy one of your products like some of the examples for boss babe is we have so many back and forths like people

will for example share one of our viral quotes in their instagram story and then we start a conversation with them and then you know months later we'll'll open that same DM and we'll see that they have shared our podcast and they have shared different quotes and they have decided to join our membership. And just there's like a whole wealth of information in there. So how do you really think about, quote unquote, selling in the DMs? Yeah, I mean, there's so many opportunities for us to sell. And beyond that, as you said, we're really creating a connection and nurturing your relationship. And so at Boss Babe, we're really, really keen to build relationships first. That's how we know not only do we make sales, but we get the right people in our memberships, in our products.

And those people then become amazing word of mouth marketers and loyalists for us. And then they do the hard work for us of spreading the word about Boss Babe. So I definitely encourage people to take the word sales out of the picture if that word is at all daunting to them. So instead of thinking, how can I sell to people in my DMs? It's really about how can I build a relationship, a genuine connection with these people and get to know them? It's not just about showcasing what you have to offer, but also asking people, what made you interested in this piece of content? What did you get out of this? What were your key takeaways? And letting them feel very heard and valued is great for them, but it's also great for you as a brand to understand how people are perceiving the

content that you're putting out. I love that. And I wanted to ask you a few questions about putting together an Instagram story just from scratch. If someone has never really done that for their business, maybe they have a personal account, but they really want to get started for their business. So they start creating the Instagram story. Which features do you really like to use to kind of build that relationship with a customer? Like there's polls, there's these questions, there's these all kinds of stickers, there's a lot going on. So where do you recommend people start? Yeah, that's such a great question. And as you said, there's so many features that we can use and Instagram rewards people who use those features. So definitely we want to be using as many features as apply to us

in different ways and just get really experimental and have fun with it. So regardless of whether it's a story, an email marketing campaign, a webpage, whatever it is, we always want to go back to the goal. So say you're a service provider. And this, of course, also works for a product-based business, but I'll just use the service provider example right now. Let's say your goal is to fill your program with five new clients. So we know very clearly what our goal is out of doing all of this content. It's that we want to find the right people who we can convert into potential clients and then turn them into a sale.

So when it comes time to creating an Instagram story, I would say, what are the qualifiers for your ideal clients? What are the things that you need to know in order to make sure that someone is an ideal client for your program, your product, or your service. So for example, I'm going to give you the behind the scenes of the society launch. We know very intimately who our ideal clients are for the society and exactly where we need people to be in order for them to get the most out of our membership. So let's take a quick pause to talk about my new favorite all-in-one platform, Kajabi.

You know I've been singing their praises lately because they have helped our business run so much smoother and with way less complexity, which I love. Not to mention our team couldn't be happier because now everything is in one place. So it makes collecting data, creating pages, collecting payment, all the things so much simpler. One of our mottos at boss babe is simplify to amplify and kajabi has really helped us do that this year so of course i needed to

share it here with you it's the perfect time of year to do a bit of spring cleaning in your business you know get rid of the complexity and instead really focus on getting organized and making things as smooth as possible i definitely recommend Kajabi to all of my clients and students. So if you're listening and haven't checked out Kajabi yet, now is the perfect time to do so because they are offering Boss Babe listeners a 30-day free trial. Go to kajabi.com slash boss babe to claim your 30-day free trial. That's kajabi.com slash boss babe. We know the questions that we need answers to, and then we can use Instagram story polls to ask those questions.

Story polls are a really, really easy way for people to give you as a brand information about them, their preferences, their goals, their dreams, their desires. So for example, if you watched us during the society launch, you may have seen stories where we said, do you own a business? Yes or no? That's a story poll. The next slide would say, if you do own a business, what kind of business do you own? That is a really great opportunity to use the Instagram story question sticker, where people can actually

type a little bit of information in there. Another way you could do that would be in a, you could encourage people to DM you. However, if people don't really know you that well, they might not be so inclined to DM you. So that question sticker is a really great medium for people to give you feedback without feeling like they have to get into a full on conversation with you. And again, you're then using that question sticker, which is an Instagram feature. And Instagram really, really likes to see that you're using their features. So they'll reward that in their algorithm. And then the next question in our Instagram story might be something like, if you own a business, how much income are

you generating per month? And then you can put two different options. So based on all of those questions, and we asked so many more, we were able to collect a ton of feedback and see who would be a really perfect fit for our membership. And then throughout our Instagram story, we could invite them to direct message us based on if they're interested or if they have questions. Or we can view our analytics just by reviewing our stories and swiping up to see who's watched them, who's responded, how they responded. And then we can reach out to them if it's appropriate, and tailor our response specifically to the information they provided. It's such a great way to make people feel seen, heard, and supported. And we can then start a conversation around their goals. And instead of just getting straight into,

hey, here's the link, we actually want to start a conversation and see what their goals are, open that line of communication, see what questions they have, and let them know that we actually care. It's not just a number on a balance sheet for us. It's a human being that we want in our community. I love that. I think there's so many takeaways there. The first one, take a data-driven approach. Look at your analytics. Look at what that information can bring you. The second one is listen and then sell. And the third one would be make it super personal. I think those are such good takeaways because every person is so different. And if you're just kind of sharing something in your story, it's not going to be the right thing for everyone, right? So I think by really listening to what their needs are, you can then decide what's right for them. And one thing I noticed that we do is sometimes we have a podcast episode that's perfect for the thing that they're struggling with. And then we'll just share that podcast episode with

them. It's very tailored and very personal for that person. So it doesn't always have to be a sell, but it's about providing value. That's what I'm hearing from you. So taking that one step further, once you have generated one sale, you have sold one product, maybe one service, one program, whatever that looks like. How do you then continue to use Instagram stories between your existing clients or people who have purchased the product and new clients or potential clients? That's such a great question. So one thing that we are great at on BossFabe is capturing testimonials, asking for permission to use them, and then sharing people and shouting

them out. So we had thousands of people join the society during our last launch. And once they joined, we asked them, hey, once you log in, check out the resources and get in the community, please let us know how your experience is, what you love. If there's anything that you have questions about or need support with, let us know. And we really make sure people understand that our line of communication is always open to them. Then we would be able to collect all these amazing reviews of people saying how much they loved the resources, the community, and they would give us these amazing, very specific, tangible results that they had been able to achieve even in their first day or two of becoming a member.

For example, some people made new friends instantly, or they found a success kit in the society that was just perfect for exactly what they needed. So we can ask them, hey, thank you so much for sharing your feedback. Can we share this with our audience and tag you? Then we're able to use that screenshot in our stories to continue the conversation and shout those people out, which becomes social proof for anyone who might be on the fence about whether your product or service is right for you. And in addition to seeing that people have actually bought and enjoyed and loved

your product and gotten results, some people may even reach out to that person and say, hey, are you really loving it? And that gives your clients the chance to say, yeah, you totally need this, definitely buy it. Okay, that sounds really, really awesome. And I wanted to ask one last question before we kind of round this up. And that would be, you have your Instagram stories. How do you turn these into highlights? And what tips do you have for anyone listening on how you can turn stories into highlights and make that a really good place to actually like sell your products or services? Absolutely. It's such a great question because once you create content, you don't really want it to disappear after it expires in 24 hours on Instagram stories. So if you have a Instagram story that you spent a lot of time on and you actually saw good results from it, you can click the little heart button, which is in the bottom corner of your Instagram story, and you can click save to highlights. And then make sure that you're creating a name for your highlight that is a call to action or

something very specific. For example, we store all of our IGA results in a highlight called IGA results. So if people are wondering, what kind of results are people getting from IGA, they just click on the highlight and it's full of amazing testimonials that people can see no matter when you posted the story or when they're watching. Amazing. And then for those who don't know, IGA stands for Insta Growth Accelerator. It's a 12 week course that you can take to grow and monetize your Instagram. So that was a quick plug talking about sales. So there were so many amazing takeaways from this episode and I wanted to thank you for sharing them with us. And where can people find you? Awesome. You can find me on Instagram at Ellen Cool. And I'm always on the Boss Babe account as well, making sure that our customers and clients and community feels super

nurtured. So definitely reach out to us there. Don't be afraid to send us a DM. Oh, so if they send you a DM, then they'll be able to talk to you sometimes. Always. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. If you love this episode, please subscribe, download a few other ones and be sure to leave us a review. I want to hear what you enjoyed, what your main takeaways were. And I also really want to know which topics you'd like us to cover next to thank you for leaving a review we'll send you to boss babe 25 which includes d25 essential resources you need for personal and professional growth it covers everything from our favorite rituals books and hacks so if you want a copy leave leave us a review, screenshot your review, and email it to podcast at bossbabe.com.

We'll send you a copy over ASAP. And since we love Instagram, you can go to the hashtag The Boss Babe Podcast and ask your question on the most recent pictures that pop up. We'd love reading through all the comments and use them as inspiration for next episodes. So yeah, thank you so much for listening and I'll see you next week.