Instagram Isn’t Getting You Clients? You Should’ve Been Building an Email List Instead.

Michelle Leotta: Welcome to the Health Coach Power Community Podcast. I'm Michelle Leotta, ex-corporate girl turned certified health coach with over 15 years of experience growing a successful online practice. I started out with no idea what I was getting into and learned a lot of lessons along the way that have given me the freedom to do the work I love and raised two boys as a single mom. I created the Health Coach Power community over a decade ago to make it easier for health coaches to build a career they love and make the world a better place.

Hey there, health coaches! You know, I heard from a newbie health coach last week, and she said, I'm ready to take clients. I just put my calendar link on Instagram, and I hate to burst her bubble, but. I would be really surprised if anyone is booking. I haven't checked with her. This is just a guess, but I wanna talk about it because if your whole marketing strategy is let's post on Instagram and hope that somebody hires you, we need to have a conversation.

For 99.9% of health coaches, this is not how clients get signed. Now Instagram. I'm on Instagram, you can find me at Health Coach Power Community. It can be great for visibility. It just doesn't do much. You know what I mean? Like, and actually getting paying clients. It doesn't go the whole distance that you want it to go.

So in this episode, I'll explain why you wanna focus on an email list instead. I'll explain what that even means and why it matters. So here's the scene. It's very similar to that new coach who put her calendar link in her Instagram bio, and I've seen this happen over and over again. I feel like I've had this conversation many times.

It goes like this. A coach gets really excited because let's say that you just created a new program, or maybe you picked up my kitchen together kit last week, or you created your own super cool challenge, or group coaching intensive, or whatever you're doing. You're excited. I'm excited for you. And I say, awesome.

Who are you gonna offer it to? And that's when I get. Blank stares. Inevitably, there's some kind of mumbled answer about Facebook or Instagram. Now I have been in the health coaching world for a long time, and social media trends have come and gone. Like we used to use Twitter. I was all over Twitter at one point.

There was something called Periscope for a while, and these days, you know, we have Facebook use that's dwindling. I'm not sure what's going on with Instagram or what's next. But in all cases, the path to clients it's just different than what you think it's gonna be. It is very, very rare that there's like a social media post or someone's following you on social, and then they go book a call with you, and then boom, they're a paying client.

Like that's extremely rare. Maybe for that, like 0.1% of health coaches, it happens, but for the rest of us, that's not the move. I hope that makes you feel better. I hope it doesn't make you feel worse. It's just like, Hey, if it's not working for you, you're not alone. I'm gonna tell you confidently from my own health coaching practice of 13 years, and I've worked with thousands and thousands of health coaches over the past years as well.

It just doesn't happen that way. And you're probably like. Why? Why doesn't it work? It does seem like it should. Someone likes your content. They like what that you're all about. They follow you. Why wouldn't they become a paying client next? Like, it doesn't compute when you think about it logically. But here's what I think.

I think Instagram is where somebody might discover you. It's still good for that. Like we come across thousands of new people and businesses and brands, and ideas every single day. For better or for worse, you know, one search of a certain keyword could bring up a hundred different health coaches' content.

So it is easy to find people on Instagram. There's is that, but it's not a place where we necessarily build trust. And I'm gonna say that again. Instagram, social media in general, is where we can be found by lots of new eyes if we're posting regularly and creating good content and using the right hashtags, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

But it's not a place where deep trust is built. And if you think about it, I mean, what is Instagram? It's a place full of fake accounts and bots and polished filters and curated content and special effects. It's a highlights reel, and when it comes to a person's health and their biggest health problems.

That's serious stuff, right? It's very personal stuff, too. It's vulnerable, so it's not like buying a, I don't know, a pair of shoes on Instagram or some sleep gummies. I mean, there's ads for all kinds of things, and people are buying off social media, but when it comes to health coaching, our clients need to feel like they trust us.

They need to feel safe. I mean, let's be honest, right? If you saw someone dancing in their kitchen to a trending audio and uh, you know, you thought that was pretty funny reel and you hit the heart button, that's all good. But are you pulling out your credit card today to hire them and trust them with like, your most intimate and delicate health information? Probably not.

It's gonna take a little more than that, right? So if Instagram isn't bringing you the clients that you're looking for. Here's what really happens. I see health coaches like worrying about their content and their posting schedule and their hashtags, and it's like all your energy might be going into doing Instagram better or doing Instagram more, or whatever social media platform you're obsessing about and probably getting lost in while you're there, right?

Think of all the time spent where you're like, oh, that's funny. And next thing you know, an hour is gone. The reality is, yes, you can up your social media game and if you do, you might get some more followers. You got, might get more likes or watches, or whatever the different metrics are. It's still very rare that it's gonna change the state of your health coaching business.

So my advice, not that you asked, but you're listening, so it's like you're asking, stop investing so much of your time here, please. Post, don't post, I don't care. But you need to do something vastly, vastly different if you want vastly different results. Right. And while we're here, there's another huge reason to not rely on Instagram or any social media platform for finding clients like.

At the heart of it, this is a bad idea because even if it's working like you're in that teeny tiny percent of coaches who are like, yeah, I get all my clients this way. I got a full practice. I'm all booked out, blah, blah, blah. Even if that's working. The fact is, you don't own your social media audiences like they are not yours.

It's a borrowed audience, really. So if your account were to get hacked, if the algorithm changes and it does all the time, if Meta goes down for a day, and that has happened, your business is SOL, and you know what that stands for, you can lose your entire audience in a glitch. Or Instagram could just shut down tomorrow.

They could shut it down and say we're done. And that's terrifying if it's your only marketing channel. So this is why I'm excited to announce my brand new List Growth Lab Workshop to help you build an audience that you actually own. I'm gonna walk you through the exact formula that's helped me add over 35,000 names to my mailing list through the years, and we're gonna talk about how, yes, social media can play a role and the entire process of building a mailing list.

I'm gonna distill it down into a very easy-to-understand formula that you can apply and benefit from. To sign up, you're gonna go to HealthCoachPower.com/ListLab. Now I get it. When you're on social media, it kind of feels like you're doing something. You know you've accomplished something, and yeah, right.

It can help with visibility, and you can connect with people there. I'm not trying to say that everybody should ditch social media tomorrow. Again, I'm on there, so just think about it this way. If someone sees you on Instagram and they're curious, like they're really curious about what you do, and they want to know more about you, and they wanna know about your business, they're probably going to either visit your website, which, if you have one, is hopefully linked in your bio, please.

Good. Okay. Or they're going to say yes to something that you're offering for free. And that's even more effective. But both of those are chances to get your followers onto your mailing list. In fact. And I have seen this so many times, so I'm gonna say it. It's a huge mistake to let anybody visit your website without.

As soon as they get, get there, you know, they should see a prompt to join your mailing list. You should be offering something right there on your homepage to capture an email address. And it would be an even huger mistake. And I also see this all the time to give away something for free. You know, you work really hard, you put together some sort of free gift, and then you're giving it away without collecting an email address in exchange.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We gotta get these people onto your mailing list because that is where you take the relationship to the next step. You know that next stage, that's where you can actually nurture the relationship, and that's. The magic happens because then they're on your mailing list. Now you can show up in their inbox.

You can be consistent. You don't have the algorithm telling you when, how, and where you can show up. Right? You become a voice. They start to trust because of that consistency, you know, you're not. You're not just hoping that your stuff is getting in front of the right eyes. You are able to put it in front of the exact right eyes, and you're not trying to get their attention in the middle of their scroll when they're probably at a red light.

We don't want that. We wanna show up where decisions actually get made and transactions happen, and that is email. It's just a totally different mindset. Just think about when you're on social versus when you're in your email inbox. When you're on social, you're there for entertainment, you're there for distraction, versus when you're checking your email, this.
It's all about the stuff that you care about, that you've signed up for, things you need to take care of, right? That's what comes to your email. So let me define the whole email list thing, just because some of our newer health coaches maybe haven't heard all this stuff before. An email list, I know it sounds like a piece of paper or maybe a spreadsheet where you just, you know, keep all your email addresses of all the people you know, but that's not it.

When we're talking about your list, I mean a list of people who have opted in. On purpose, through a professional email marketing platform like Kit or MailLite, or MailChimp. And by the way, you can get started with any of those services for free. So it's a no-brainer to do this. In fact, we have a free setup tutorial for Kit, just walking you through step by step exactly how to get yourself set up.

That is currently my top choice for health coaches. So if you need to get your email list started, you can go to HealthCoachPower.com/MailingList anyway. These people on your list have chosen to be there, and they're not hitting the unsubscribe link that's at the bottom. And that means they still wanna hear from you.

I know some of you, maybe you have your list set up already, and you're thinking, but I only have 30 people on my mailing list. You know, what's the point? Here's the point. 30 email subscribers is more valuable, more powerful than a thousand Instagram followers because those 30 people are the ones paying attention.

They've raised their hand again, they asked to be there. They're the ones who are positioned best to become paying clients. And if you need a few more reasons, if I haven't convinced you already, I mean, I've been doing this for, what is it, 16 years now? So I have years and years of data to back this up.

But think about this. Email lets you follow up consistently, and clients need that. Like a lot of my clients, or even when you go to buy something, you're like, maybe, I don't know, huh? Maybe I'll wait. Maybe I'll do it later. Uh uh. And it's the emails that are reminding you that make you go, Oh yeah, I gotta do it now before this deadline, or I have to do it now right before this date hits.

So. It's the follow-ups that you're able to do with the people who need to hear those follow-up messages. Also, as mentioned, you get real data from your email service, so you can see who opened, who clicked, you know, what worked, what's not working, and that is really valuable so that you can improve. And email, as I said, is where people are in decision mode.

Social is for scrolling, but email, that's where the action happens. So, like I said, for 16 years now, whenever I promote a program or an offer, I guarantee you almost every single buyer will come from my email list. Like, I could put it out on social media every single day, and yet 99% of my buyers are gonna come from the email list every single time.

So think about it. If you wanna stop wasting so much time on social media and what Health Coach doesn't, if you finally wanna have an audience that you can sell to, people who are actually happy to hear about your offers, 'cause again, they're the ones who are like I wanna learn from you. I want more from you.

Like, these are the people who are gonna be psyched when you have a program to offer. I would love for you to join my upcoming list Growth Lab workshop. I'm gonna show you exactly how health coaches can grow a real email list beyond your friends, beyond your family members, right? Expanding your reach and use it to sign paying clients.

Remember, you can go to HealthCoachPower.com/ListLab and grab your spot. I'm not saying that you gotta quit Instagram. If you love it, great. It's fun, it's creative. I'm thinking of doing a creative little reel to go along with this episode, right? It just, it's kind of fun and it's part of the marketing ecosystem, if you will, but please stop expecting it to do the heavy lifting when it comes to getting clients.

Think of it this way. Social media is like a window display. Your email list is the store. Thanks for listening, and I hope to see you inside the List Growth Lab Workshop. Take care, everyone.

Thank you so much for listening to the Health Coach Power Community podcast. Please take a moment, leave a written review on Apple Podcasts. It helps us reach more coaches and allows me to bring you this free content every week to join us live. Ask your questions and have a direct line to me. Join our free Facebook group at HealthCoachPowerCommunity.com.