AUGUST 25, 2023

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Welcome to The Tilt, a twice-weekly newsletter for content entrepreneurs.

Turn Your Instagram Followers Into Email Subscribers

Email is a reliable channel for distributing your best content and promoting (your own or affiliate) products and services. Most importantly, you own access to your audience.

On the other hand, Instagram, with its extensive reach and impressive user engagement, Instagram is a perfect platform to tap into a broader audience demographic and funnel them toward your email list.

How can you use the rented land of Instagram to move your audience to the owned land of your email list? Do these five things.

1. Optimize your Instagram bio for email sign-ups: Tweak your Instagram profile to make it easier for interested followers to sign up for your newsletter.

Your Instagram bio is the perfect spot to place a call to action (CTA) that encourages visitors to subscribe to your email list. However, that might not be your only link, and adding too many links to your Instagram bio can confuse your audience and give it an unprofessional appearance.

This is where a link-in-bio tool like Linktree becomes incredibly valuable. It enables you to create a personalized and easily customizable landing page for your bio link, housing multiple hyperlinks relevant to your brand, such as your website, podcast, and online store.

2. Use Instagram Stories and Highlights: Instagram Highlights are collections of Stories, so even after 24 hours, your Stories remain visible.

Instagram Stories make it possible for content entrepreneurs like you to insert clickable links and CTAs that direct your engaged viewers to your newsletter sign-up form. You could provide sneak peeks of your upcoming content, share behind-the-scenes glimpses of your creative process, or create mini-tutorials geared toward your brand and your audience's interests to motivate your followers to click on the link and subscribe to your newsletter.

3. Host contests or giveaways: By offering a chance to win an exciting prize in exchange for their email, you can spark your audience to engage with your brand and gain potential leads for your business. With this tactic, though, expect a higher percentage of opt-out subscribers because some people will enter the contest who don’t want to receive your content.

However, managing such giveaway campaigns, from creating the rules to choosing the winners, isn’t as straightforward as it seems. Tools like Woorise simplify this process with pre-built social actions (like participating in a poll) or the flexibility to create customized actions for any social platform or website. As with any activity, you must follow the applicable rules and regulations of the platform and related government jurisdictions.

4. Invest in Instagram ads: Organic reach on Instagram can be limited and unpredictable, largely due to ever-changing algorithms and continuously growing competition. Enter Meta’s Instagram lead-generation ads.

Instagram ads allow you to collect information from your followers within the platform who opt-in. When a user clicks on a lead generation ad, they're presented with a form pre-filled with their Instagram profile information, making it easier for them to share their details and, in turn, facilitating a faster growth of your email list.

Keep the following best practices in mind to create captivating ad copies that convert:

• Evoke emotions: Use visuals and ad copy that not only describe your offer but also evoke emotions that align with your brand message. For instance, if your content revolves around personal growth, you might aim to inspire and motivate your audience through your ad copy.
• Use AI-powered tools: They can generate creative captions, suggest the best hashtags, and even optimize your posting schedule based on data-driven insights much more quickly.

5. Monitor metrics and recalibrate: After your Instagram-to-email strategy has been going for a month, review the impact. Look at your Instagram analytics to see how (or if) your audience behavior has changed. Are you getting more clicks? More impressions? Do your ads deliver good click-through rates and cost per conversion? Is Instagram driving traffic to your link-in-bio page or website? Most importantly, is your email subscriber list growing?

If not, adjust your visuals, tweak your text, or update your ad buy to find a formula that works best for your creator brand. Keep checking your analytics regularly because you never know when Instagram will change its algorithm or your audience will behave differently.

– Hazel Raoult

​Read a longer version of this article with visual examples. ​

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• Joe discusses how Amazon might have outlived its usefulness as a bookseller for independent authors. (Content Inc.)
• Joe and Robert go in-depth on the current advertising slowdown and discuss whether Web3 is still mostly dead. (This Old Marketing)
• The Tilt, in partnership with Lulu, will be launching a new imprint that’s specifically designed for content entrepreneurs. Receive updates and be among the first group of creators considered to experience the future of publishing!
• ​Tilt Your Business: A Weekly Mastermind for the Creator Economy will talk Web3 at 12 p.m. US EDT Tuesday. Join host Michelle Peterson Clark and guest co-host Marc Maxhimer for the live discussion.
• ICYMI: How To Create a Great Customer Experience (CX) in a Creator Economy Business​

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