Episode 4: How changing my Instagram Strategy delivered clients (without sales pressure)

Authentic Online Marketing with Ruthie Gray

How Changing my Instagram Strategy delivered clients (without sales pressure)! (Click here for show notes.) Featuring pro-coaching member, Cathy Lawdanski @cathy_lawdanski on Instagram. These interview episodes highlight pro-coaching members, sharing their personal triumphs and how they made Instagram work for them. Cathy Lawdanski is a consultant and team leader with Rodan + Fields. Her jam is helping midlife women grow in their personal development and faith. She believes you are never too old to try something new or to have great skin! How changing my Instagram Strategy delivered clients without sales pressure Minute 2:15 of Changing my Instagram Strategy: Struggling for a strategy Q: Before you found your footing on Instagram, what was your Instagram platform like and what were some of your frustrations? A: As a blogger, I was trying to build my platform to build up numbers to get sponsored posts. There was never a strategy. But when I joined Rodan + Fields, I was looking for people I didn’t have to cold-message so my content would resonate with them and they would come to me. Before, the goal was to get as many followers as you could, it didn't matter who it was, brands just wanted to see numbers. It’s different now and especially if you're into relationship building because people buy from people they know, like, and trust - it's all about the relationship. Minute 4:10 Experiencing the breakthrough on Instagram Q: So you're saying that before, you were trying to grow your numbers and not so much reach into the individuals. What made you change - what was the breakthrough that helped you to finally start really seeing how Instagram works and start reaching your ideal audience member? A: In my company and other companies I saw younger women using Instagram in ways that were appealing to me. I watched their content and somehow got connected with you during that time and your coaching, so I took some of the free courses that you offered as I was changing my Instagram Strategy. One of the first ones was on Instagram stories. That progressed into a paid course on how to make Instagram work for your business and then into personal coaching sessions with you which really honed in on strategy specifically for me and my business. So I saw it working for others and I knew it could work for me. When I started blogging in 2015 I didn't know anything about it so I knew the value of investing in good training instead of trying to Google everything. You have to wade through a lot of garbage, and time is money. R: I agree with that and you don't know whose advice works and who’s doesn't, so the best thing to do is to try someone's free course first and see if that works and Cathy's talking about my 7-Day Instagram Story Challenge where you learn about gifs and how to change your color page and things you can use in stories to get started. That was the first thing she did, and then she invested in a Pro Coaching group of mine (which every once in a while I reopen), and I won her over but it was with my free stuff first. Once you try someone's free training you can find out if you like their style of teaching or not that. My style resonated with her. Minute 7:20 - Finding your target audience R: Cathy the the part about how you saw the younger bloggers being able to figure out Instagram... the bloggers and the business women that are our age in mid midlife - they’re the ones that I am trying to be a voice to in there are the ones that I seem to attract because I did finally make it work for me and they've been told they need to be on Instagram and they go over there and get confused. C: Our (middle) age group falls into two camps: it's either I can't do it. I don't see the point or Okay I can learn it and it's not too hard. Finding someone who can teach you - listen, I have a college degree and I was at professional capacity, I raised kids,