So, you took the advice all business coaches and social media strategists have been shouting from the rooftops ever since Reels debuted. Maybe you even went through my Reels course, the Reel Traffic Toolkit, and implemented the strategies you learned. You realized you didn’t have to dance, sing, or do anything too trendy. Instead, you’re being yourself and educating, entertaining, and evoking emotion in your ideal clients. And now, you’re seeing growth as a result! 

But now what? How do you utilize the traffic you’re gaining?

As service-based entrepreneurs, we differ from influencers because our main goal isn’t to mass grow our accounts. Our main goal is to turn our followers into paying clients. So while growth is great, it doesn’t mean much unless you know the next steps to take to bring your followers through a customer buying journey. An effective way to do this is through DMs! Yep, by essentially sliding into your followers’ DMs, you can make that touchpoint and sell them on your services. And don’t worry, we’re not using any sleazy car salesman tactics. This blog post will take you step-by-step on how to make a genuine connection with your new followers so selling feels natural and mutually beneficial.

Step 1: Create interactive Instagram stories every day

By using Reels and targeting your ideal clients through them, you can feel confident that your new followers are ones who are invested in your content and they appreciate the value you provide. The next step is to continue providing them with the value they originally followed you for, but with a slightly different strategy — getting them to participate in the conversations you’re having. And there’s no better way to do this than with Instagram stories!

How do you get your audience to participate? By using Instagram’s stickers such as polls, questions, or the slide bar. For example, if you’re a wedding professional, you can post a photo of a band and a packed dance floor from a recent wedding and use the poll sticker to ask your audience, “Will you have a band or DJ at your wedding?” From there, they can tap “DJ” or “band.” Alternatively, you could use the question sticker to ask, “What was your first dance song?”

Getting your audience to engage is incredibly beneficial, not just because the algorithm rewards accounts that are being engaged with but also because people love it when they can be a part of your brand’s story. You’re adding another, deeper level of investment.

Step 2: Engage with your audience through direct messages (DMs)

Creating engaging stories means you’re capturing the attention of potential customers. If they’ve taken the time to click through and tap on your stories, it’s safe to say they are pretty invested in your brand! This is when you can reach out to anyone who responded via direct messages (DMs) and start a conversation.

The key is to start out slow and easy. Don’t sell right away and instead, get to know them! Ask them some easy questions such as, “What made you choose a DJ?” or “When is the big day?” Don’t jump straight into the sales bit. One of the most common reasons we service-based business owners get ghosted is asking for big favors way too fast. (By the way, if you’re getting ghosted way more often than you get final sales, you have to check out this conversation I had with the brilliant Alan Berg on the top nine reasons we get ghosted and how to fix that.)

I know many of us creative entrepreneurs became business owners because we love making connections with other people. So while this is your chance to make a sale, it’s also your chance to nurture a genuine friendship! And a genuine friendship not only can result in a fun experience for both of you once you start working together but also a strong network of referrals!

Step 3: Sell in your DMs (without sleazy tactics)

Now that you’ve got the personal conversation going and you’ve established some trust, you can transition into selling your services by asking them if they still need your particular services for their wedding. If they say yes, offer a link to your booking calendar so they can book a consultation with you.

If they don’t need your services, try to still provide some value to them by offering to send them vendor recommendations. This is an opportunity to recommend some of the vendors you love to work with who would appreciate the referral! They will likely do the same for you in the future. It’s a win-win-win!

Final thoughts

I hope this gave you some clarity on how to turn your new followers into paying clients! I know it can be a lot to keep up with, especially when you have a million other tasks on your to-do list. So if you want more strategies on how to turn your followers into quality clients, check out my Followers to Sales Blueprint, which will walk you through more effective scenarios similar to this.