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Remember when Instagram was all about food pics and picture-perfect grids? That’s long gone. Today, it’s one of the simplest ways to turn followers into paying clients.
In this episode, Samantha is joined by Jake Davey, one of the UK’s leading Instagram marketers, who reveals why now is actually the best time to be on Instagram, and how you can turn it into a lead-generating, client-converting powerhouse.
You’ll learn the simple shifts that move Instagram from a time-wasting scroll into a streamlined strategy for building authority, attracting high-value clients, and scaling your business sustainably.
Instagram is no longer about chasing trends or posting perfect grids. It’s about connection, conversation, and conversion. With Jake’s simple frameworks, you’ll see exactly how to build momentum without overwhelm and finally make Instagram work for your business, not against it.
IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL DISCOVER:
- Why Instagram is still the #1 platform for building personal authority, creating trust, and turning complete strangers into paying clients (00:49)
- Why today is the easiest time for coaches to grow an audience and attract clients (03:29)
- The golden rule of Instagram: market publicly, sell privately (06:20)
- Creating content that speak directly to your client’s challenges so they can’t help but take action (10:12)
- How to automate lead generation and turn comments into conversations (12:57)
- Using feed posts, Stories, and Reels strategically (15:59)
- Why repurposing short vertical videos across multiple platforms is your best leverage (18:33)
- The truth about hashtags and how Instagram actually delivers your content to the right people (21:09)
- The smartest way to use ads on Instagram by amplifying your best-performing content (30:53)
- Jake’s 10-day challenge for posting consistently and building unstoppable momentum on Instagram (38:23)
Want alignment as you scale? Let’s chat.
RESOURCES:
Complimentary Instagram Audit Call
Table of Contents
Why Now Is the Best Time to Grow Your Coaching Business on Instagram
Market Publicly, Sell Privately
Create Content That Speaks to Pain Points
Automate Conversations Without Losing Connection
Stories, Reels, and Feed Posts: Each Has a Role
Why Now Is the Perfect Time to Start
The 10-Minute Consistency Method
Instagram Has Evolved Into a Business Growth Machine
Why Now Is the Best Time to Grow Your Coaching Business on Instagram
Once upon a time, Instagram was all about food pics and pretty grids. Today, it’s one of the most effective ways to attract high-value clients and grow a coaching or consulting business.
It’s no longer about showing up with perfect images. It’s about connection, conversation, and conversion.
And the best part is, it’s easier now than ever before. With more than 2 billion users and stronger organic reach than almost any other platform, Instagram has become a powerful tool for authority building, visibility, and client acquisition.
And here’s the kicker. Millions of people aren’t just scrolling. They’re buying.
Market Publicly, Sell Privately
One of the biggest mistakes coaches make on Instagram is trying to sell directly on their posts. People don’t log on to Instagram to shop. They log on to scroll, to learn, and to be inspired.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t sell. It just means you need to market publicly and sell privately.
Your posts should showcase results, share insights, and highlight possibilities. But the sale itself? That happens in a private conversation. Whether that’s a DM or moving someone off-platform into a call or email sequence, the shift from public to private is where the magic happens.
Create Content That Speaks to Pain Points
Consistency is important, but consistency without strategy won’t get you far. The posts that actually convert are the ones that speak directly to your client’s challenges, and when your audience feels like you’re addressing what’s in their head – the frustrations, the obstacles, the dreams – they lean in.
If you’re worried about repeating yourself, don’t. Repetition is your friend.
Most people don’t see every post you create, and the algorithm rewards clarity of message. Say the same thing in fresh ways and you’ll reinforce your authority while reaching new pockets of your ideal audience.
Automate Conversations Without Losing Connection
If you’ve ever felt drained by trying to respond to every comment or DM, I have some good news for you. Automation can handle much of the heavy lifting.
Tools like keyword-triggered responses can move someone seamlessly from a public comment to a private DM. That means you can scale your conversations without sacrificing connection, and you’ll always have fresh leads entering your pipeline.
Stories, Reels, and Feed Posts: Each Has a Role
Think of Instagram as a mix of tools in your toolbox:
- Reels: Built for growth. They reach new audiences and expand your visibility.
- Feed posts (images & carousels): Perfect for nurturing your existing audience.
- Stories: Where your warmest, most engaged audience hangs out. Great for deeper connection and moving conversations forward.
Leverage each one strategically, and you’ll cover both growth and conversion without burning yourself out.
Why Now Is the Perfect Time to Start
With hashtags losing their importance, Instagram now prioritises keywords and messaging. In other words, when you consistently create content that speaks directly to your ideal client, the algorithm does the targeting for you.
Add in the ability to repurpose vertical video across multiple platforms – Facebook, YouTube Shorts, TikTok, Threads – suddenly, one short piece of content gives you massive leverage.
Keep Paid Ads Simple
Should you run ads? Yes, but only after your organic strategy is working.
Ads are best used to amplify what’s already performing well, not to test from scratch. So, take your highest-performing content, put a little budget behind it, and extend its reach.
The 10-Minute Consistency Method
The hardest part of Instagram for most coaches isn’t strategy. It’s consistency.
A simple solution is to give yourself a maximum time limit instead of a minimum. Commit to creating content for no more than 10 minutes a day for 10 days. Record a short video or two, post them, and move on.
The result? You build a habit without overwhelm. And once you get into the flow, creating content will feel less like a grind and more like part of your routine.
Instagram Has Evolved Into a Business Growth Machine
Instagram is now all about showing up, speaking directly to your audience’s pain points, and moving conversations into private spaces where business really happens. With the right strategy, automation, and consistency, you can turn Instagram into a client-generating machine that actually works for your business.
ABOUT JAKE DAVEY
Jake Adam Davey is the UK’s leading Instagram marketing expert, speaker, and host of the INfluence Podcast. He helps entrepreneurs and coaches build authority, grow their audience, and generate inbound leads on Instagram — all without paid ads. Jake has supported 10,000+ clients worldwide.
WHERE TO FIND JAKE DAVEY
- Website: https://jakeadamdavey.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/jakeadamdavey
- Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4d5VFomaetwfUkESRjITfC
CONNECT WITH SAMANTHA RILEY
TRANSCRIPTION
Samantha Riley 0:00
Welcome to today’s episode of Business Growth Lab. Today we’re going to talk about Instagram, and I have Jake Davey here, one of the UK’s most prolific Instagram marketers. We’re going to talk about what’s happening in Instagram right now, whether it’s too late. We’re going to talk about organic strategies. We’re going to talk about paid marketing strategies. So strap yourselves in and let’s dive in. Jake, great to have you here. Why don’t you start, actually, let’s start right here, because Instagram has been around for a while. Why does, you know, a coach and expert want to be on Instagram, and what’s happening with the platform right now?
Jake Davey 0:49
Yeah, well, great question. Again, thank you for the opportunity to be here. I’m excited about this, so hopefully we can share one or two useful things for everybody listening. So why do people want to be here right now? I would suggest it’s the strongest platform out there today in terms of your personal authority and personal brand. And that’s continued to grow over. I mean, the platform has been around over 15 years now. It’s just continued to go from strength to strength.
Samantha Riley 1:20
My God, so old, years.
Jake Davey 1:25
It’s crazy. It really is. And I think I started on the platform eight years ago, and I think one of the biggest shifts that I’ve seen personally is this continual move towards the brand. And that doesn’t necessarily mean a business brand, but certainly more of a personal brand, because people are buying from people. They want a degree of trust, they want to feel rapport, they want to feel relationships, they want to feel connection. And the good thing is, it doesn’t have to be perfect. I think we just need to be there and be visible. And so this platform is seen, really, as the number one platform for the personal brand. It allows you the reach, it allows you the visibility organically that a lot of other platforms don’t give now at this stage in sort of going into 2026, 25, 26 and it also has built into the platform all the mechanisms you need to be able to send somebody who has never found you before through to becoming a paying client and customer, and do that consistently without any paid advertising. So that’s a very high level answer, but it provides all the ingredients that somebody needs if they’re doing this on their own, or if they have a small team, to be able to move people from unknown through to buying client and customer and potentially repeat buyer again and again.
Samantha Riley 2:47
Like you just said, it has been around 15 years, which blows my mind, because I can remember when it started, and at the beginning, I wasn’t totally sold on Instagram because, you know, like back in the day, the aesthetic of the profile was just like so perfect. It was very much influencer focused. And here’s a picture of my food. It’s very much changed in the last 15 years. And actually, I would even think that it’s changed in the last probably even two to three years, maybe even two years. Is it too late to get on the Instagram bandwagon?
Jake Davey 3:29
Yes, no, absolutely not. So I actually think now’s the perfect time. And I mean that sincerely, and I say this to people who come to and speak to me about this, and they finally are coming around to this idea that, you know what, it’s not about selfies and pics of my coffee. It’s actually a business platform. It’s a place where you can generate, you know, leads and clients consistently. And they’re coming around to this idea. And I genuinely believe it’s easier now than it ever has been. And I say that sincerely, because there’s a number of factors that go into that, partly, the simplicity of being able to use the platform to reach your audience. And we’ll talk more about exactly what that looks like in terms of the type of content that you can share. Secondly, as I mentioned before, the organic reach and the organic visibility is enormous. There’s now estimated about 2 billion users on Instagram, which is as a quarter as a quarter of the entire planet that’s using Instagram today. And it’s not just people that are looking around or people that are, you know, dancing on videos. I think the stats show this year that four out of 10 people in the US. And I know neither you or I are based in the US, but it’s a huge market. Four out of 10 people in the US are going to buy something on this platform this year. That’s four or 10 people going to pull out their wallet and literally pay money now. So it’s got buyers on the organic, reach is fantastic. It’s second only to LinkedIn in terms of the level of net worth of the. Users, which surprised even but you’ve got high value people on this platform as well. And so a combination of the type of content you can share, the reach that you can get organically, the inbuilt features of the platform to move from a public space into a private space or even move people off the platform, has never been easier, and it’s a lot of things are actually simplified now. You know, hashtags are less important, keywords are more important. It works a little bit more like Google than it has done previously. And so all these different factors combined, I think, makes it actually the perfect time to get started. And if somebody is even brand new to the platform, I imagine a lot of people listening have got an account, maybe using it consistently. Maybe, you know, haven’t used it for a while. But even if you’re just getting started, it’s good in many ways, because you’re probably not picking up a lot of the bad habits that people have using as a social user. You know, if you’re going to focus it on business, you focus on the 20% that gives you the 80%.
Samantha Riley 5:59
The results you mentioned then, marketing, or you actually said publicly and privately, and how you use that together. And I know that you talk about marketing publicly and selling privately, whilst that might make sense to some people, can we really break down and make sure that everyone understands what you’re talking about here?
Jake Davey 6:20
Yeah, sure. So if I give a personal example, so I started, I opened my account on the 14th, on Valentine’s Day, 14th of February, 2017 and I was doing it full time. I had just finalized the product, and my goal was to make sales, and it was to sell my product for the first time. It took me four and a half months to do that. And for some people, that might sound like a really good return on time. To some people it might sound like it took ages, but I made my first sale, and it was, it was $4 and my coach at the time, I was delighted. It was the first time I’d ever made a sale.
Samantha Riley 6:58
But it’s gonna work, exactly.
Jake Davey 7:01
Yeah. It’s proven it works. It’s good, yeah. But I just remember my coach saying, why did it take so long? I don’t know. Look at my stuff. This is what I’ve been posting. He’s like, Well, you’re trying to sell everything. I was like, I know that’s the goal. I’m trying to sell my products. It’s great, isn’t it? And he said, No, that’s completely the wrong approach. You’re trying to sell on social media. And people don’t go like if people don’t buy stuff, they go to Amazon. But people don’t want to buy stuff on social media. They go on there for scrolling. They go on there for entertainment, for education, to learn something new, to have their emotions moved, so to speak. And it’s just, it’s habit. And so that doesn’t mean you can’t sell on social media, but it means that. And the thing I remember very vividly of saying, you market publicly, but you sell privately, and so all of your content that you share is lifting people up. Yes, it’s talking about the outcomes that they can achieve. It’s talking about the possibilities. It’s future pacing and such. But you don’t sell publicly. You move people from those visible and those, those public posts into either private conversation, which is direct messages, or off the platform, into your database, into a training, into a phone call, whatever that looks like. And as soon as I made that switch, and I started, you know, really understanding more about how to market rather than just sell, it changed everything. And so in the eight months after that, that was when I did my first 100k on Instagram, and I was just like, wow, this totally makes sense. Now I totally get it. And so I think still, when a lot of people come to us, either they’re not sure what to post, or they’re posting every day, or they’re posting frequently that our Instagram doesn’t work for me. And I think one of the biggest shifts that we help people with when they do that is helping them develop their content strategy. So the next step is clear. So the attraction element, what we call aim, is the aim framework attracts, invites conversations and then monetise. And the first step, really, is building out your profile and building out your content so that attracts your ideal audience before you can then move them into conversations and then into monetizing on or off the platform. And so that’s the biggest shift, I think, is that if somebody asks themselves, is this content for me or is this concept for my ideal audience? Does it speak to their challenges and problems and pain points at some point along their journey? And if it does that, it’s more likely to hit home and you can then start to invite those conversations. And there’s, you know, there’s the software and tools and strategies that you can, we could talk about right now, if you like, that allow you to do that, to move people from public to private.
Samantha Riley 9:41
I do want to talk about the strategy of how we do that, but before we do, I want to help people get really clear when you’re talking about you’re not selling on the platform. Yeah, and this could be, how long is a piece of string question? But what sort of content are you using to move people into that conversation when you’re not actually selling great.
Jake Davey 10:12
So the content that I usually, there’s a number of different ways that you can approach that. And again, of course, it depends on the business, the niche, the product, the service, all these various types of things. But the usual approach that I would recommend with our clients is to get very clear on the challenges, the pain points you know, the struggles that that person has right now. You know that the phrase join the conversation in their head. It’s a lot easier to say than it is to do, of course, but just be really clear on what, what, who is your ideal audience right now, and what exactly do they want? And if you can give them examples and talk to those challenges and problems and pain points and speak to the thing that they want right now, then they’re going to take action, and that action might come in the form of visiting your profile. It might come in the form of consuming more of your content. It might be clicking on a link or commenting a keyword and such in your posts. And so it’s, that maybe sounds quite vague, but the way, the place that I always recommend starting is, what are the biggest challenges, the biggest challenges, the biggest pain points, the biggest struggles of your audience right now, and let’s deeply focus on content around that topic. And just to go one step further on that, quite often when we do that with clients, they think, I feel like I’m repeating myself a lot. I’m saying the same thing, again, again, again. But the reality is, that’s okay, because when Instagram shows you, it’s not showing every video to every person that follows you, it’s showing pockets of content to different groups of people. And so if you think about how much other content information people consume, they’re not going to be overwhelmed because of that. You know that that person is talking about the same topic. Again, if anything, we need to continue to do that, because that again, there’s things behind the scenes going on, but that feeds the algorithm more clearly about who your ideal audience is and what you talk about and how you can help people, but it also just continues to refresh and reaffirm and reassert the fact that you are the expert in this space. And you can, you do have a solution to those problems, that you do have a suggested next step for those problems. So that’s the type of content that would suggest. But there are mechanisms, as I mentioned, about actually moving people from public to private, which we can talk about as well.
Samantha Riley 12:39
Let’s talk about that now. So because once we’ve created this amazing content, and you were talking about, you know, they have to comment a word or whatever it is, how do we then systemise this? How do we create it so that it is scalable and also sustainable?
Jake Davey 12:57
Yeah, well, the good news is that Instagram allows a number of automation tools now and integrates with a lot of software, which it hadn’t done previously. Personally, when back in 2017 when I started, there was no scheduling app that connected with Instagram, so I was posting manually. Excuse me, every four hours, so I used to wake up in the middle of the night to post.
Speaker 1 13:20
That’s crazy. I know, I know, but committed to the cause much.
Jake Davey 13:27
I really was, you know, I wanted the outcome, and so I was committed to doing it. But yes, of course, there’s, there’s a lot more integration now. There’s a lot more software and such, and the tool that makes the big difference today, and automates a lot and does a lot of the heavy lifting, is called many chat and again, some people will be familiar with that. Some people maybe it’s the first time they’ve heard it. But the great thing is that, and in the simplest way I can explain it, Instagram, one of the biggest objections that people had to Instagram in the past was, I can’t. It’s hard to get people off the platform. And certainly when we work with people that you say LinkedIn, they would say, Yeah, but there’s no links. You know, you can’t get, you can’t get people to click on the link in a post and all these types of things. And that’s true, but it used to be that you would send people to your bio and you say, click the link in the bio, and hopefully send people off there. But now the easiest way to do it is the comment keyword with many chats. And ultimately, what that that is, again in simple terms, is when you share a post, when you share a video or share a still image, you can direct your viewers and your followers to comment a specific word underneath the post, and when they do, that triggers the automation, and that can then move people to a private conversation. So the way that I might use it, for example, in my business, is we offer something called the perfect Instagram post. We have an Instagram audit that we offer. We have a number of different resources. And if somebody comes. Comments that keyword, then they will receive a response that says, Thanks for requesting the Instagram audit, thanks for requesting the perfect post. Now, check your direct messages, check your DMS, and so the really clever thing is that somebody comments a word here, and it appears now in a private conversation, in direct messages. And that’s the gap that’s been bridged, which has been missing for so long, is moving from public to private. And so having that set up, it allows you almost infinite scale, because it just continues to fill up your pipeline now with leads who have, you know, metaphorically raised their hand and said, Yes, I’m interested in that resource. Yes, I’m interested to learn more. And then obviously that’s where your nurture sequence can begin.
Samantha Riley 15:44
Love that. Can you talk to us about, and I think this is really important here, the difference that you’re seeing on the platform right now between like, the actual news feed and stories.
Jake Davey 15:59
Sure. So again, take note, make no assumption about who’s listening and how, how much they’ve used Instagram before. There are, there’s a number of different parts of the platform. The News Feed is where people share their posts which might be pictures, there might be videos, there might be carousel posts which have multiple images or multiple videos in one post, and they will stay on your feed. They will stay on your profile for as long as you wish. Them to stay there. Predominantly, they can be viewed, viewed by anybody. So when you post, then Instagram throws it out into the Instagram sphere, and a combination of followers and non followers will see those posts. There are, by the way, stats which different types of content will be shown to different types of audiences, which we can also talk about shortly. Instagram Stories work slightly differently. They work similar to stories on Facebook, which is that you can create a story, but it’s predominantly only shown to your followers. So really, your followers, and actually your most engaged followers, will be kind of notified when they open the app that you shared stories or that you’ve got recent behind the scenes stories. And stories stay there for 24 hours. They are a bit more off the cuff. You know, they don’t need to be curated as nicely and but they but the great thing about stories is that they are shown to your warmest audience, and they can again be used for lead generation. And so that comment keyword that I mentioned before, which operates on your posts, you can also use the comment keyword on your stories, so it’s a great opportunity again, to move people from public to private. So where your feed, if you like, your reels and your posts and your carousels are more forward facing or more public facing. Your stories feel a little bit more intimate. They feel a little bit more behind the scenes and a very small selection, or a much smaller selection, of people going to see those. But the good thing is that the small selection that do see those are probably your top five or 10% most engaged people on the platform. So it’s a great opportunity. If you think the 80, 20 principle, you’re really getting the most engaged people in those stories consistently seeing your content.
Samantha Riley 18:20
Love that. Love that so much. The profile you mentioned, still images, we’ve got videos, yeah, is that only reels these days that you can share different formats?
Jake Davey 18:33
But my strong suggestion is that reels are the way to go. So reels, short, vertical video. And my honest suggestion would be for somebody who’s again starting out or doing this on their own, without a team, or maybe with a small team. Is it the best leverage you can get today to build your audience and build your brand and reach people and attract clients and customers, and then convert them into direct messages with the Many Chat feature is Instagram reels and ideally, creating content and sharing content that is less than 60 seconds long. And the reason I say that is because if you create a vertical video under 60 seconds, then you’ve got maximum distribution across other platforms as well. So that re or that vertical video can also go onto Facebook. It can also go on to threads. It can also go onto YouTube, shorts. It can also go onto Tiktok. I don’t use LinkedIn frequently, but I don’t know if it can yet, or maybe it will do soon. And so you’ve got one type of content, and it can go across, you know, five, six different platforms, which is huge leverage, yeah, and it’s, it’s the first time in a long time that that’s been true. You know, if you think we’ve almost come full circle without sounding like a nerd on this topic, but it’s. When social media started, it was one type of one type of format. It was a certain size, and it was the same thing. You could post on every platform. And then Twitter, you know, took a different direction, and LinkedIn took it and and all these platforms, and then suddenly have to create specific types of content for specific platforms, which is just exhausting, and we’ve almost come full circle now that one short, vertical video can be distributed across five or six different platforms and give maximum leverage. That is, that’s really good value for people that are starting out or just want more consistency, or just want, you know, minimum input for maximum potential output. So that’s where I would encourage people to lean into at the moment, is short, vertical video.
Samantha Riley 20:43
Nice. You talked about your content being shown to a wider audience. You also mentioned earlier that,you know, hashtags kind of aren’t where it’s at anymore. How do we ensure that we’re continually growing our audience on Instagram? Where are we finding these people? How is our content winding up in the lap of our ideal audience?
Jake Davey 21:09
Yeah, yeah. So hashtags, for a long time, were associated with Instagram and expanded reach and the opportunity to get into new parts of the platform and in front of new new eyeballs, so to speak. And it’s been announced very recently that actually hashtags don’t have such a big impact now on people’s growth and reach the the interesting thing is that, because there are different types of content that you can share, and I just come back to the two or three simple examples, Instagram reels, carousel posts and still image posts. So the statistics now show that again, there’s a rough 80, 20 when you share a Instagram reel, then that is predominantly going to be shown to non followers, so at least 80% normally, of people that are not following you are going to see your reel. So just simply by default, you know if, if only 20% is your audience and 80% is not purely by default, that means that by posting reels, you’re more likely to expand your audience, expand your reach, and reach more people. Now on the flip side, when you share carousel posts and you share still image posts, they are 80% shown to 80% of those predominantly is your existing audience. So only 20% is a non follower audience. So that, in itself is really interesting, because it’s almost like you could create two different types of content, one with the purpose of growth reels, one with the purpose of nurturing your existing audience, carousel and still image posts, and we personally, on my account, I get better engagement on carousels and still images because it’s people that know me, whereas I get more growth from the reels because I’m reaching a wider audience. And so it’s that just knowing that in itself, I think, is, is very helpful. Not many people would know that, but by default, that will expand your reach. Now how do you target? It maybe feels harder, because you think people naturally would think, well, hashtags are gone, so how do I actually target and get in front of the right people? Well, the cool thing is that, because the platforms are just so smart now, there’s all these. There is AI software inside the platform. You know the algorithm is just getting cleverer and cleverer is that if you show up and you continually speak and you use keywords, use key phrases, use certain language, you’re talking specifically to your ideal client and your ideal audience, purely by default of what the topics you’re talking about and how you’re delivering that message, Instagram will find its way to your ideal client, because it will find its way to people that are consuming content like that already. And so the keywords in your in your you know, the the software can pick up the things you’re saying, of course, in your in your videos, but it can also pick up the keywords that are in your written caption as well. So loading, you know, your videos and your written captions with those keywords specific that your audience is looking for, will mean that that content gets seen in front of the right audience, and that, I think is extremely exciting. It’s also extremely powerful right now. So, it probably feels like you’re posting into the void, because there’s, there’s fewer things that we can control, so to speak. But at the same time, I actually think it’s more exciting, because so long as you stay aligned with the message that you want to get across, and it just continues in that vein, Instagram will find that audience, and it will grow that audience, and it will put your message in front of the right people. The heavy lifting for you.
Samantha Riley 24:49
Yeah, I love that. AI, you talked about it, then from behind the scenes, what are you seeing with people creating or using AI to create? Create captions, to create reels. Are you noticing anything?
Jake Davey 25:08
Yes, is the short answer. There are loads on the platform right now with AI, and it’s like with many things, it’s, it’s, I say, relatively new, but it’s relatively new for a mass market. And so there’s, there’s a number of different ways that people can use AI now, of course, and I’m probably not the most qualified person to talk about that, but we use AI every day in our business. You know, we encourage our clients to use AI and the various tools, and that might be anything from the creation of your as you mentioned, like the captions, the written captions that accompany your post, to simplify that, through to creating the scripts for you, through to the video editing that you would see, you know, really high quality editing that can be done now by one person who is not a video editor, simply by filtering it through one or two of These AI tools, which are very affordable, you know, $10 a month, to have something professionally audited or sorry, professionally edited by AI tools is incredible, through to content being created with AI.
Jake Davey 26:16
Of course, and you know, AI videos, enhanced images and videos and such.
Jake Davey 26:22
So, it’s prevalent right across the platform. I think the thing that I’m seeing, but at the same time, and I say that, I actually see some of the best results that our clients have had in the past. Well, even this year, actually, some of the best results our clients have had, they’ve had no heavy use of AI at all. You know that the ones the clients that are winning right now with those are not the ones that are spending hours creating an AI video. They’re the ones that are still showing up every day, speaking directly to the camera, videos under 60 seconds, talking about the specific challenges and pain points, light editing, not heavy editing. And actually, of course, there are people growing very quickly with AI, but we focus more on the kind of the coach, consultant, expert, Speaker market, and for those, I think, still being authentic, being yourself, showing that you’re a real person, not an AI robot and such is more important than it’s ever been. So for us personally, how do I enhance it? I enhance it when it writes my scripts for my videos, I use it to enhance the captions that I write. And occasionally I’ll use it to look at competitors’ content as well, and what they’re doing well and what we could incorporate in ours. We’ve tested a few softwares for visuals, but I don’t love them at the moment. I prefer to for me to show up consistently, and so I don’t know that necessarily answers the question, other than to say it’s not certainly, what at the moment, I don’t think people need to race to worry. Oh, my goodness me, I feel so behind at the moment. And I think that’s a big thing a lot of people tend to find is it feels like we’re behind, because the rate of change is so quick. You know, AI tools are changing every day, but significant changes are happening every quarter or so. So it constantly feels like we’re behind. Feels like we’re behind the tide. But I would just lean into even more so, into the things that only you can talk about, the things that only you can say, the evidence that only you can show, and continue to show up as a real person. Because even with all the AI things that happening right now, the main thing that people will want, or the thing that will be more prevalent than ever, it’s going to be real connection.
Samantha Riley 28:45
I think, and I, and on that, I feel like the people that are only using AI, they’re starting to lose their own uniqueness and their own you know, what makes their voice a little bit different? Because using any AI, any large language model. It’s pulling from all of the other people that are speaking and sort of bringing it together, rather than just using your own voice. And I’m the reason I ask that is because I’m, personally, I can tell when someone’s written it and when it’s been written by AI, not just because there’s em dashes in it and you know, a certain way that it’s written, but it just does. It sounds so generic, and I think that right now, we’ve got such an opportunity to stand out by using our voice, not totally, not using AI. Like we’re like, you, we use a lot of AI in our business, yeah, but I don’t use AI to write for me.
Jake Davey 29:41
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. And that that leans in perfectly to, you know, the belief that we have at the moment with, well, for our own brand, but certainly with our clients as well, is, how do you stand out? And I think the way that you stand out is not. By necessarily doing the same as everybody else, not by necessarily chasing all the trends that other people chase. And I think that’s where it can get exhausting. I think is, is setting the parameters of what good looks like for you and ensuring that you continue to, you know, speak, say that we said, say the things that only you can say, show the things that only you can show, get across very clearly why you’re different and why it makes sense for people to want to work with you. So yeah, I think it’s more important than ever.
Samantha Riley 30:29
Yeah, yeah, totally. We’ve talked a lot about organic content, and I’d love to touch on where does, where does paid ads come into this strategy? Is it something that you feel like people need to be using right now? And if so, how are they using paid marketing?
Jake Davey 30:53
Yeah, so we use paid ourselves. We have a number of clients that do that. It’s not something that we teach in great detail. And that’s purely, I think, partly, purely because of the platform that we use is still so strong. Organically, if you compared, they’re not the same. But if you compared Instagram versus Facebook, you know, Instagram organic reach is still excellent. Facebook, you really need to be playing on that platform.
Samantha Riley 31:24
Yeah, that’s right.
Jake Davey 31:26
So it’s the majority of time. The advice is, we strongly recommend organic as being the best way to go on Instagram today, I really do even more so with the recent changes that are happening, but I think where paid comes in is that paid is there to end paid is there to feed the winners. And so there’s, there’s many different ways that people can approach ads and running paid ads and search. But actually the way that our clients, who are getting the best results about the moment is they’re just doing really similar, really simple things. And what I mean by that is, number one is we need to find the winners. So when I say the winners, that there’s a degree of testing with any type of marketing, organic or paid. Obviously paid is faster. You get faster feedback, but it has different upsides and downsides. And so we need to find and feed the winners. So if somebody, for example, is working with us, and let’s say they’ve posted 30 reels over the last 30 days, there will be some outliers there. There’ll be maybe one, maybe five, of those reels that have performed five or 10 times better than their own content. So the first thing that we would do is look at, well, why is that the case? And let’s go and create more content in that vein. So either it’s the topic that they talked about, or it’s the way that they structured the reel, or very likely, it’s also the hook that they used that has kept the attention and increased the views. So the first thing then is to go and create more of those. And that’s where we’re continually going back and looking at what worked, and how do we keep enhancing that now, the where paid would come in, my recommendation is that if somebody spots a winner, that that’s the opportunity to just simply put some money behind that particular post and expand that visibility, and just kind of even with a few dollars a day, but just boost that reach and boost that visibility and get it out in front of a wider audience. Now, how do people then monetize that? Well, the cool thing is, obviously, with the comment keyword, you can still use that comment keyword feature, but one of the biggest strategies being used at the moment with Instagram is having the call to action where people view your profile or visit your profile. So it’s not a direct click the link and go and get the freebie, or go and join my email list or anything like that. It’s actually moving towards, you know, if you enjoyed this post, view the profile, go and see more posts like this. And so that’s that was working really, really well. The prerequisite for that, which is something that we teach in our framework, is, of course, making sure your profile is optimised. So when somebody lands there in the first three seconds, they know what you do. They know how you can help them. Your story highlights are all you know. Set up the right way to potentially lead people off the platform and into different areas of your business. Your three pinned posts are set up to position you to tell people how they can take the next step, to maybe share testimonials and success stories. So having those things in place is very, is important. And so I would, I would see this stage, particularly with Instagram, that the the ads is there to accelerate the winners. And it’s like the cherry on the icing on the top of the cake, rather than being the foundation for the business growth right now. And that’s the way that I recommend clients approach it. I think it’s a lot more secure and organic marketing is the foundation of everything that we do. So. So that’s, that’s personally how I would approach it, and how we approach it and our clients approach at the moment.
Samantha Riley 35:06
Yeah, love it. Now. I know that you have got a free resource for our listeners today that’s all around an Instagram audit. Can you tell us a little bit more about, you know, what that is, and the kinds of people that this would work for or who need it?
Jake Davey 35:21
Yeah, absolutely. So we’ve, I think we, I think we found that the number one thing that people want when they come and speak to us is just to know. And I had this even the other day. We had an event over the weekend, and three people said, could you just take a look at my Instagram account and tell me if I’m doing the right thing, which I totally get. But obviously we get asked that quite a lot. And so what we did is we actually, we created something called the Instagram audit, which literally does us that it gives you the opportunity for to have direct feedback on exactly what is there right now, so you know how you’ve positioned your yourself as an expert or as an authority, as a coach, as a as a leader, as a speaker. Is your profile set up the right way as almost like a landing page, is how I would usually position it. Is the goal here to capture that traffic and capture people when they land there and get them to take the next step? Is it set up the right way to allow you to do that, or what tweaks and improvements might you make? And then how you, once you’ve got that foundation set up, well, how are you actually attracting people there? What content you’re sharing. What’s the message in the content? How frequently you’re posting? So it’s, it’s kind of a real clear overview about, these are the things that you’re doing right now. We can, kind of, we almost colour code it with people. It’s like we rag it, so to speak. So red, apple green. These areas are really strong in terms of how you are set up to attract people. These areas need some improvement. These areas are really strong in terms of how you convert people. These areas need some improvement. And these areas are really strong in terms of how you’re monetizing right now, but these areas could well be improved as well. And so the clients that we worked with over the past few years, the clients have generated over $22 million in sales through Instagram that we’ve worked with. And so I feel pretty confident that we can help people you know, along those three lines of attracts, invite conversations and monetize to be able to enhance their profile, so that even from the traffic that they’re already getting, and even from the time that they’re already spending, already spending, they could 2x 5x even 10x the return in terms of leads, in terms of calls booked, and then in terms of clients from the program as well. So the Instagram audit is something that I would offer to anybody who’s listening, watching and would like to get access to that. It’s completely free. There’s nothing to buy, you know, even if, even if you wanted to. So it’s just the opportunity for somebody to have feedback directly on what they’re doing.
Samantha Riley 37:49
Definitely go and grab a copy of that. The link will be just below wherever you’re listening. And, of course, go and follow Jake on Instagram. That goes without saying, so you can see the awesome stuff that he’s doing over there. Jake, it’s been so great to chat with you today. I’d love you to leave what is leave us with a thought. What is one thing that you would like to leave us with, that we can really concentrate on or focus on over the next 30 days?
Jake Davey 38:23
Perfect. I have something for this actually. I actually know I’m gonna say so I listened to a podcast at the start of this year with a guy called Greg McKeown, and he’s the author of a book called essentialism, which is ultimately focusing on just one thing, a bit like Gary Keller’s book, the one thing. And he was being interviewed in this podcast, and he said that he hadn’t missed a day of journaling for eight and a half years. And when I heard that, I was like, That’s crazy. That’s a really strong habit this guy’s built. How has he not missed a day of journaling for eight and a half years? And he basically told the story where, when he’s journaling most or when most people start journaling or writing their diaries and search, they set an upper limit, kind of a minimum thing that they need to do. I must write a page a day, or I’ve got to do half an hour. I’ve got to do an and so it’s just we obviously have days where we don’t do that, we miss the target and search, and then we feel overwhelmed like we failed in search. And so people don’t do it. But the way that he did it is, rather than having a minimum he actually has a maximum limit. And so the rule for his journals is that he’s never allowed to write more than five sentences for a day. And when I heard that, I was just like, that’s genius. That’s so easy. You know, everybody can do that. And when you have a maximum limit, you know that it’s not just going to go on and on, not you can see the end. You can see the finish line already. And so his thing was minimum one sentence, maximum five. Now, even if he’s had a really good day, he wants to write loads, maximum five. And so I just thought, what? How do I make that relevant for our audience, so that they could get more consistent with that content and build their community as well? Yeah. And so the way that we position it with our audience was 10 days of video content. So you do your kind of talking direct to the camera for 10 days, but it’s maximum of 10 minutes, which maybe doesn’t sound like even enough time to get a video done, but believe me, you get very good at it very quickly. And the cool thing is that if you just commit to 10 days maximum, no more. You’re never allowed to do more than 10 minutes a day. These videos are 60 seconds long. You can probably record two or three on specific topics relevant for your audience, and you feel good about it, and there’s no pressure to do anymore. So I said I was doing the thing, and I’m doing the thing, I’ve done it, which is great. And actually, what tends to happen then with, I say many of them, majority of them, is that on day 11 and day 12, they’re like, Well, this is easy, like the inputs. The inputs are so easy that the outcomes will take care of themselves. And the big shift that I try to have with our clients is don’t focus on all these other people that got millions of followers and millions of views. Focus instead on just doing the inputs. And if we can make the input simple, the outcomes will take care of themselves. So the thing that I would offer to anybody listening would be, if you’re just thinking about, how do I get more consistent? But it’s taking too much time. I just, I just want to see some progress 10 days in a row, maximum 10 minutes that you’re allowed to record video. You might need to do some light editing or send it to somebody to do it for you. But the maximum amount of time you’re actually allowed to record a video is 10 minutes, and then that’s it. You’re done. You move over to the next thing, and you continue with your day. And that one thing alone has probably had some of the biggest impact with our clients over the past few months.
Samantha Riley 41:30
I love that so much. I love it so much. Jake, thanks so much for sharing everything you have. You have just given so much value in this episode, and I really appreciate that. So yeah, thanks for coming on the show.
Jake Davey 41:45
Pleasure. Thank you so much. I’m delighted to be here, and as I say, hopefully it’s been useful for people listening, and it can improve their results if they’re using Instagram right now. Love it. Yeah.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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