64: This Instagram Mistake Is Costing You Hundreds of Leads

🎯 Your Content Isn't the Problem (But Your Conversion Path Might Be)

Let me guess. You're showing up consistently on Instagram. You're creating varied content. You're sharing your personality, your expertise, and your unique perspective. You're doing all the things the Instagram gurus tell you to do.

And yet… crickets. No leads. No booked calls. No email subscribers flooding your inbox.

Sound familiar?

Here's what I need you to hear: Your content might not be the problem. In fact, your content might be doing exactly what it's supposed to do. The real issue? You're missing the clear conversion path between someone consuming your content and actually taking action with you.

And honestly, this is one of the hardest things to see in your own business because you're so close to it. You know your offers, you know your links, you know what you want people to do. But a new person landing on your feed? They have no idea. And if the next step isn't painfully obvious, they're gone.

Before we dive in, I want you to grab my free Instagram Audit Checklist. It walks you through exactly what to look for in your bio, your pinned posts, and your content to spot where your conversion path is broken. Just head to my website and download it now so you can audit your own Instagram while you read this.

💡 The "Figure Out What's Wrong" Moment That Changed Everything

I just got off a one-on-one call yesterday that inspired this entire post. A realtor reached out asking if I do private calls (I do, I just don't advertise them), and she booked immediately. When I asked her to tell me the top three things she wanted to talk about, the number one thing she wrote was simple: "Figure out what's wrong."

So we got on the call and I asked her to explain what she meant by that. Her answer? "I'm not getting leads."

Here's the thing that blew my mind: her content was actually really good. Like, genuinely good. I'm not just being nice (I can't do that, if I don't like your content I'm going to tell you). She's a realtor in a pretty oversaturated market, yet she was positioning herself uniquely. She had varied content with lots of reels and carousels (which, if you're going to make anything, those are the two to completely lean into). She was showing her face all the time. I knew exactly what she looked like before we got on the call. She was sharing her personality, and it didn't feel bland or cookie cutter at all.

So what was the problem?

The journey ended after people consumed her content. There was nowhere for them to go next. Or more accurately, it wasn't clear at all where she wanted them to go next.

When I asked her what she wanted someone to do when they landed on her feed, she said "book a call." Perfect. Clear goal. But when I looked at her bio? No call to action saying "book a call." When I looked at her pinned posts? Nothing encouraging that next step. When I popped into maybe 10 of her posts? None of them said "book a call" in the caption, at the end of the carousel, at the end of the reel. It wasn't anywhere.

And that was the moment. She took a huge deep breath and said, "I'm so relieved that you're telling me my content's good. That's not my problem, because I like what I'm doing and I'm in a good rhythm and I like my content that I'm putting out."

Exactly. She didn't need better design, better hooks, or a better posting schedule. She needed a clear conversion path.

🔍 The Real Question You Need to Ask Yourself

If you're frustrated with your Instagram results right now, I want you to seriously stop and ask yourself: What is my actual goal here? And am I making that abundantly clear?

Because here's what happens. A lot of people think they have a content problem when they really just have a user journey problem. Or a conversion path problem. Or honestly, just a "what the hell do you want people to do next" problem.

And listen, when we're so close to our content (this happens to me all the time, I told her on our call), you think you're being so clear about what you want people to do or how to take the next step. But when an outsider comes and looks? It's not clear at all.

This actually reminded me so much of when my husband and I owned our CrossFit gym and I was the nutrition coach. I would ask people sitting in my office, "What is your goal?" And without fail, you could fill in the blank: "I want to lose weight."

Okay. But I'd be like, "You're not allowed to give me that answer. If I'm telling you you can't say lose weight, what would you say?"

They would kind of laugh, but I was dead serious. I wanted the real reason. So I'd keep asking. "Okay, why do you want to lose weight? And why does that matter? And okay, then why does that matter?"

It's the whole concept of asking why five times, right? And when you keep going, you get to the actual thing. It's typically not about losing weight. It's how you're going to feel after that and why that's important to you. It's about confidence. It's about energy. It's about keeping up with your kids or grandkids. It's about wanting to feel comfortable in your body again. That's the important stuff. That's really tangible.

We need to do the same thing with our marketing. When you tell me you want better Instagram results or more results, I'm going to ask: What does that mean? What's the tangible thing? And I'm going to keep asking until we get to a real answer.

Because if the answer is "I want more likes," honestly, I don't really care. I mean, I love that. But likes aren't going to do anything for me. They're not going to help me grow my business.

Yeah, likes and views can be really helpful data. They can tell us what's catching people's attention or what's resonating. But if your content's getting attention and it's not leading people anywhere, then that's where the story's going to end.

This is exactly what we work on inside The Content Coven. In fact, this past month our challenge was redoing your three pinned posts to make your user journey crystal clear. I provided Canva templates, detailed ChatGPT prompts for the copy, and we edited two of them together on a live call. If you want this kind of hands-on support with your content strategy, join us for $97/month. It's the best investment you can make in your content clarity.

📧 Instagram Should Not Be the Final Destination

I'm going to say something that might sound controversial coming from someone who teaches Instagram strategy, but I need you to hear this:

Instagram should not be the final destination.

I'm going to repeat that. If you're multitasking, come back to me.

Instagram should not be the final destination, and I believe that in my heart of hearts.

For me, the goal is not to keep people on Instagram forever. I actually want them off of Instagram and I want them on my email list. That is my goal. I want them reading my weekly newsletter. I want them hearing from me in a space that I own. I want to keep nurturing them there. I want to keep building trust there. And I want to share stories and member wins and thoughts and tips and ideas. I want a place where I'm not depending on the stupid algorithm to decide if I'm going to get seen that day.

Because that part of Instagram makes me absolutely insane.

Relying on Instagram alone to warm people up is so shaky at best. You're basically posting and crossing your fingers and hoping the app shows it to the people that you want to see it. It's just not my favorite plan. It is way too unreliable.

And I get it. Instagram for me is discovery. It is the visibility platform for me. It is my top of funnel. It's the widest part, the very top of my funnel. And it's great for letting people get to feel my vibe and my perspective and my face and my energy. I'm not anti-Instagram. Obviously, my business literally was built on Instagram.

But I do not think it should be the whole plan, especially if you're asking people to make a bigger leap.

The Numbers Don't Lie

Let me give you some real data. What do they say? Three to 5% of your audience sees what you post on Instagram versus whatever the size of your email list is. That's a 30 to 50 plus percent open rate.

I have 12,000 people on my email list, and I have a 53.7% average open rate. That's a lot more people that I can reach directly versus Instagram. And that's why I am so annoying about email.

I just believe in my heart of hearts, you know, I love Instagram, but email's where it's at.

By the way, I'm just going to plug Start and Grow Your Email List right now. I am going to be running it live most likely in May, and you should hop on the waitlist. I'll put the link at the end of this post because you know it's small group, I hold your hand, and I'll get you up and running in no time at all as far as launching a newsletter.

If you're ready to finally build your email list the right way, get on the waitlist for Start and Grow Your Email List. I'm running it live in May with a small group where I literally hold your hand through launching a newsletter. No more excuses about not having an email list. Let's do this together.

🚨 The Broken Conversion Path: What to Look For

So back to my realtor client. When we looked at her Instagram through the lens of "I want people to book a call," the issues became glaringly obvious:

❌ No clear call to action in the bio. Nothing saying to book a call.

❌ No pinned posts encouraging the next step. New visitors had no idea how to get started with her.

❌ Her carousels weren't ending with a call to action. Just valuable information that dead-ended.

❌ She had freebies, but she wasn't collecting email addresses. You could just click and download. No opt-in required.

That last one was huge. I said, "I see you don't have an email list. We need to talk about this. I know this is not what you want to hear because this is not a low lift thing, but we can make it quite low-key. As a realtor, I think a once a month newsletter would be perfect. That's all you need to do."

Because here's what was happening: There was no follow up. There was no nurturing. She was just posting on Instagram and praying it got in front of her people. Which, as we all know at this point, is insanely hard.

If someone finds you and likes what they see, what do they do next? And is that obvious?

Because if it's not obvious, most people are not going to do the work to figure that out. They're just not. People are busy, they're distracted, and they're half paying attention. They're saving your posts and telling themselves they're going to come back to it, but they probably never do.

And if they follow you in the moment because they want to, they probably won't even remember what your name was when they go to look at your content again.

That's happened to me a lot actually. I'm like, "God, who did I just follow?" And yeah, I could probably go into Instagram and see my recently followed and figure it out. But that's a lot of work. And actually, I never do it.

So we need to stop acting like people are going to do all this work to work with us. You've got to make that next step so clear.

🎯 The Big Ask vs. The Better Ask

Here's another thing we need to talk about: Booking a call is quite a big leap.

If someone doesn't know you from anything and you expect them to see one post from you and then book a call, that's a very big ask.

The better way, and what is happening in this day and age when it comes to the user journey, is that it takes so much more visibility and consistent touchpoints.

So your better ask is for them to download something. A free resource that they find really useful. And she and I talked about that too. I was like, "Girl, this doesn't need to be a big thing." She said her freebie right now is 11 pages. I said, "Nope. No. Find the best part of that. Make it a list. Make it something super simple and usable for your person."

The better path looks like this:

1. They discover you on Instagram

2. They download your freebie and get on your email list

3. You nurture them consistently through your newsletter

4. You invite them to book a call once trust is built

See the difference? You're not asking for the huge commitment right away. You're building the relationship first.

And imagine how different this would look for her if her freebies actually required an email opt-in instead of someone just grabbing it for free and disappearing. Now she can keep showing up in their inbox. She can showcase new houses. She can share local happenings, restaurant openings, stuff like that. She can explain what's going to happen on a call if you get on a call with her. She can talk about great testimonials or positive stories from past clients. She can tell stories to build trust.

And she can warm these people up without relying on Instagram to do the heavy lifting. That's huge.

✅ Your Quick Conversion Path Audit

If you want a quick audit after reading this post, here's where I want you to start. Grab a piece of paper and pencil or type this into your phone:

1. What is my actual goal on Instagram?

Not vanity metrics. Not "more engagement." What do you actually want? More email subscribers? Booked sales calls? Course enrollments? Get specific.

2. What do I want someone to do after they land on my account?

If someone discovers you for the first time today, what is the ONE thing you want them to do? Follow you? Download something? Book a call? Listen to your podcast?

3. Is that next step clear in my bio, my pinned posts, and my content?

Go look right now. Is your bio telling people exactly what to do? Do you have pinned posts that guide new visitors? Are your captions and carousels ending with clear calls to action?

4. Are my freebies helping me build my list?

If you have freebies, are they behind an email opt-in? Or can people just grab them and disappear? (Hint: they should require an email address.)

5. Am I nurturing people anywhere off of Instagram?

Do you have an email list? Are you sending a newsletter? Are you building relationships in a space you actually own?

If your answer to most of these is "honestly, not really," that's perfectly okay. That's actually really good information because now you know what needs attention.

I don't want you to panic and assume your content sucks. Your content might be doing exactly what it's supposed to do. You just might be missing that link between your content and conversion.

And for a lot of you, that missing link is going to be getting people onto your email list.

🎬 Every Post Should Invite Action

Here's something I want you to remember: In every single post I make, I am inviting people to take action.

In every post, I ask myself: What can I offer that makes sense to get these people to take the next step with me?

And the next step with me is to get on my email list. So I'm promoting my newsletter. I'm promoting freebies. I am asking them to do something in every single post. I have a call to action.

And it's typically in two places. In a reel, it's at the end of the reel and in the caption. In a carousel, it's at the end of the carousel or throughout the whole carousel kind of at the bottom, and in the caption.

Because you've got your post readers and your reel watchers and your caption readers. So I'm trying to hit them everywhere.

You can't assume people will figure it out. You can't assume they'll scroll to your bio. You can't assume they'll remember to come back later.

You have to make it so clear that a distracted person scrolling on their phone while their kids are screaming in the background can still figure out what to do next.

That's the level of clarity we're aiming for.

🛠️ Resources & Links Mentioned in This Episode

Programs & Memberships:

• The Content Coven - My $97/month membership where we tackle conversion path issues with templates, prompts, and live feedback. This month we redid pinned posts together.

• Start and Grow Your Email List LIVE - My small-group course running live in May where I hold your hand through launching your newsletter. Get on the waitlist!

• Start & Grow Your Email List SELF-PACED - if you don't want to wait and you know you need to get your list up and running, access this amazing program immediately here!

💪 Making Marketing Easier With a Clear Path

I think we underestimate how much easier marketing gets when we stop trying to do all the things and instead just ask: What do I want them to do next? And have I made that painfully obvious?

That one question is going to be so helpful.

I also think this is one of those things that can be hard to see in your own business because you're so close to it. I know I am. You know your offers, you know your links, you know your keywords. You know what you mean. You know what people are supposed to do.

But a new person doesn't know any of that.

And sometimes just a pair of fresh eyes is going to help a ton. Honestly, honestly, honestly. Either ask a friend to do that who understands your world, or join The Content Coven.

Because if you made a post in The Content Coven right now saying, "Can someone tell me if it's obvious what to do when you land on my feed?" and you drop your Instagram link, you better believe five to six of us are going to chime in and say what we think. And I think that outside perspective can help so, so much. It can be a game changer.

🌟 Instagram Is Discovery, Not Destination

I'm going to leave you with this.

Instagram is such a great place to get discovered. I owe a lot to Instagram. It is a great place to connect. I love being in my DMs with people. I love helping people. It feels like a warm hug when I log onto Instagram.

But it shouldn't be the final destination.

You should get people somewhere deeper. You should get them on your email list where you can nurture them, build trust with them, and invite them into your offers without depending on an algorithm to show your content.

Your content isn't failing you. Your conversion path just needs some attention.

And once you fix that? Everything changes.

If this resonated with you and you're ready to finally fix your broken conversion path, I have two options for you:

Option 1: Join The Content Coven for ongoing support, templates, and community feedback on your content strategy. It's $97/month and honestly the best investment you can make in getting clear on your messaging and user journey. We just finished a challenge where members redid their three pinned posts with my templates and prompts, and the transformations were incredible.

Option 2: DM me about booking a one-on-one call where I'll audit your Instagram and tell you exactly what needs to change. I only offer a couple of these each month, but if you want my eyes specifically on your business, this is the way.

Either way, let's get you some actual results from all that content you're creating. Because you're doing the work. You're showing up. You just need the conversion path to match the effort.

Comment below and tell me: What's your biggest takeaway from this post? And what's the ONE thing you're going to change about your conversion path this week?