How to Create Instagram Content That Drives Real Business Results
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[00:00:00] If you're looking to grow your business as a registered dietitian, you've come to the right place. If you're not sure what to do or what steps to take next so that you can create flexibility and freedom in your life, then you're going to learn a lot from tuning into our podcast here at Dietitian Boss.
[00:00:17] I'm Libby Rothschild, the founder of Dietitian Boss, a fellow [00:00:20] registered dietitian and business owner. And in our podcast, I share the highs and the lows, and I talk all about how to grow your business. Get it started and I interview our clients to date. We've had over 200 interviews from clients who share their journey on our podcast dietitian boss.
[00:00:37] Libby: Hello, and welcome back to the Dietitian [00:00:40] Boss podcast. I'm Libby Rothschild, and today we're diving into one of the most asked topics, how to create Instagram content that actually drives real business results. Well, We've all heard about growing your follower count, but what really matters is turning those followers into clients and income for your [00:01:00] dietitian business.
[00:01:01] Libby: Today I'm breaking down the strategies that work, the mistakes to avoid, and how you can create content that converts, whether you're a new dietitian or looking to take your online presence to the next level. By the end of the episode, you'll have actionable tips to transform your Instagram from a hobby into a business growth tool.[00:01:20]
[00:01:20] Libby: And if you want even more resources, I want you to join our monthly membership for our exclusive content calendars, caption templates, and expert support. We're here to actually review a post that you create before you publish it and help you analyze your metrics after you've posted your content. So make sure to head over to dietitianboss. com to join the library [00:01:40] today.
[00:01:40] Libby: So why is Instagram a powerful tool for dietitians? So you've heard me talk about Instagram for years now. And Instagram has evolved quite a lot, and I want you to leverage Instagram's strengths. Instagram is not just about posting beautiful pictures. It's really a platform for connection, and often we forget about that.[00:02:00]
[00:02:00] Libby: We think Instagram is just about the likes. We think Instagram is about posting consistently. Instagram is about connecting with other humans. There's over a billion monthly active users, and so Instagram serves as a goldmine for finding clients who align with your specialty. Think about how many people out there want help with their eating disorder, want help with [00:02:20] diabetes management, want help with sports nutrition, or prenatal, IVF, etc.
[00:02:25] Libby: And one dietitian that I coached used Instagram. So many have succeeded with Instagram growth that I've helped, as you know, as they've been on the podcast as guests, one particular dietitian that I coached used Instagram to book her first five clients in just a few [00:02:40] months by sharing relatable content and this is all geared around managing blood sugar levels. So I want you to ask yourself, Are you connecting on Instagram and are you posting content that solves a specific problem that people can resonate with, right? Cause we're not here to serve everybody. We're here to serve a particular audience.
[00:02:58] Libby: So we really want to hone in on [00:03:00] who is that audience and how can you connect with them? So why does Instagram work for business? Instagram builds trust. So when potential clients see you consistently sharing helpful, relatable and professional content, they're more likely to view you as an expert that they need.
[00:03:17] Libby: They're more likely to see themselves working with you and to see you [00:03:20] as being part of their journey towards achieving their health outcomes. It's also incredibly visual, which is perfect for showcasing your behind the scenes perhaps meal planning, maybe transformations, maybe tips and tactics, or even just a talking head, meaning you giving some tips and just sharing direct [00:03:40] to camera on how to grocery shop smarter.
[00:03:43] Libby: All right. So the options are endless. You are no longer required to post just food photos. Really you have a chance to create a community where you're connecting. So as an actionable tip here, I want you to focus on creating content that your target audience would enjoy related to their specific pain point.
[00:03:59] Libby: Think about [00:04:00] what problem are you solving that they would pay you for and that's the content you should create. For example, if you specialize in diabetes management, I want you to create posts that answer questions like, what are the best snacks for stable blood sugar? And the more targeted that you are, the more likely you'll attract the right clients.
[00:04:18] Libby: So it might even be the best snacks for [00:04:20] stable blood sugar control, the best breakfast for stable blood sugar control, the best meal prep for a week for stable blood sugar control, or the best desserts for stable blood sugar control. So again, the options are endless once you know the problem that you're solving and you have the ability to connect with your community.
[00:04:35] Libby: I want to talk next about the types of content that converts. [00:04:40] Educational content as dietitians is important. And there's so many different ways to showcase educational content. There are some dietitians doing some sneaky work where you wouldn't realize it's educational because they make it so relatable.
[00:04:52] Libby: They're having conversations and they're so comfortable with themselves that you don't even remember. It doesn't even, register, Oh, they're teaching me something new that I didn't [00:05:00] know or reminding me about something that I had forgotten.
[00:05:03] Libby: Posting what you teach your audience can perform well. So you want to share bite sized tips, you can do nutrition myths, and you can even talk about how tos. You can start incorporating research, you can talk about weight loss drugs if you'd like. Anything that either is trending, Or that people are [00:05:20] asking you in practice or in your community, and if you're not sure, you definitely want to keep up with the latest science and fads and trends in nutrition so that you can stay on top of those related to the problems that you solve in your specialty.
[00:05:32] Libby: So a specific example would be a carousel post about five low sodium swabs you need to try. Right? That could lead to DMs asking [00:05:40] you about your meal planning services or your consultations and then you can direct them towards what you sell, whether it be consults or an ebook. Then there's relatable content.
[00:05:48] Libby: You want to show the human side of your brand by sharing relatable moments. So this could be your own struggles with meal planning, right? For example, you could talk about how you might have little one at home, or you might [00:06:00] have a child with special needs, or there might be something that makes meal planning a little tricky for you.
[00:06:05] Libby: And you can even make it funny. Add a funny anecdote about navigating the grocery store aisles. You really want to infuse your personality. If you don't find that you're a humorous person, don't force it. Whatever you innately are good at, that should show through in your content. So an example would be posting a reel about [00:06:20] three things every dietitian hears at family gatherings.
[00:06:23] Libby: And your audience would love something like that. Again, it's just an idea. So I want you to make this unique to your personality. So as an actionable tip, focus on your headlines, meaning what are the words that you're saying that's in the post, whether it's a carousel, a reel or whatever it is that has text that you are [00:06:40] creating as a post on your feed.
[00:06:42] Libby: So the first line needs to grab attention and it should also be fairly large. You don't want really small text. So instead of saying three low sodium snacks, I want you to upgrade your headline by changing three low sodium snacks to something like Think low sodium means boring? Think [00:07:00] again. Or snack smart, three tasty low sodium picks.
[00:07:05] Libby: Or your heart will thank you, low sodium snack ideas. So you see how I took that concept and I tried to make it a little bit more interesting. So when you had interesting headings, People are more likely to swipe the carousel, or they're more [00:07:20] likely to watch the reel, or they're more likely to read the caption.
[00:07:23] Libby: And your goal as a dietitian is to get people to want to stick around on your page. So you need to be thinking about how to create more catchy text. I also suggest that you keep the captions simple and direct so you can build complexity as your audience grows and engages more, but [00:07:40] right now, keep it simple.
[00:07:42] Libby: You can reuse captions. We have a caption templates inside of our library over at dietitianboss. com when you join our monthly membership just to make it easy for you. I even create a framework for you to plug and play because I know that captions can cause stress, but they shouldn't because people won't even read the caption if your actual post [00:08:00] doesn't compel them to read the rest of your Content.
[00:08:02] Libby: So make sure you're focusing your time and energy on the heading. That means on the headlines, on what actual text is on your post. You might have heard of the role of storytelling in business, and I want to give some examples because storytelling in business results in making it personal, and making it [00:08:20] personal can help you connect, and connection is what's going to set you apart on Instagram, even if your content isn't beautiful.
[00:08:26] Libby: Stories sell so sharing client success stories with permission, of course or Walking your audience through a transformation that you've experienced yourself is a really good way to make things personal That's how I started off.[00:08:40]
[00:08:40] Libby: I talked about Not liking clinical and I talked about creating multiple revenue streams and that helped me connect with other dietitians and then really start this business. You're a dietitian boss. A lot of our clients have talked about their weight loss journey or their struggles with symptom management, whether it be bloat or infertility, eating disorder, disordered [00:09:00] eating, et cetera.
[00:09:00] Libby: So think about what you're comfortable sharing or what you can share from the results you've gotten from your clients. Talk about how a client has reduced their sugar intake, for example, and saw improvements in their energy levels, right? That's just an example. And then invite your audience to book a call and learn how you can help them too, or invite them to purchase your ebook.
[00:09:19] Libby: If you have [00:09:20] that set up, you want to make an emotional connection. People are going to buy solutions to their problems. So if your story resonates with their struggles, then they're more likely to trust you. On their health journey. So that's why it's so important to connect and be relatable to your audience. So, and every host with a [00:09:40] call to action or every story on your feed with a call to action.
[00:09:43] Libby: For example, after sharing a success story, I want you to write DM me the word success. To learn how you can get similar results, and that's going to open the door for direct engagement and you don't have to set up a chat bot. You can just manually have them do that and then start a conversation until you get a really high volume.[00:10:00]
[00:10:00] Libby: And then you can start using automation to make your content creation easier with templates. This is something that I find myself teaching almost every single dietitian. Prebuilt templates can be saved on Canva. We also Give you beautiful templates that you have access to for free when you join our library over at dietitianboss. com, because [00:10:20] we know that the design piece can be laborious for some of you. So if you create consistent content, it doesn't have to be overwhelming. If you just change the headline and you're going to change the inside of the. Post idea, right? So like the messages that you're sharing, if you're going to swap that out, but keep the design, you're going to have a template that you duplicate every time you create a new [00:10:40] design, and that's, what's going to live in Canva that you can duplicate every new design that you make, and that's going to make content creation really Templates make it faster and easier to post professional high quality content that prevents burnout. So Canva is our number one tool because you can have ready to use Instagram posts and story templates. So we actually have the same story [00:11:00] template every time we announce a podcast episode.
[00:11:02] Libby: And we have the same templates when we use carousels and we are recapping our podcast episodes with key tips and takeaways on Instagram. So, an example template would be a quick tip Tuesday series that you can save and use while keeping your content fresh and engaging.
[00:11:18] Libby: So, if you have a [00:11:20] series on Tuesdays, maybe you have a template for that series, and you just duplicate that template and create new content within that template every week. So, again, our membership does include custom design templates specifically for dietitians. So you can focus on your message without stressing over the design.
[00:11:36] Libby: All you have to do is hit duplicate and change the brand colors. [00:11:40] And if you're not sure about your brand colors, just pick something basic and that can change with time too. So batch create your posts for the week ahead. At minimum, using templates, even if that's just creating two posts ahead at a time, two thoughts that you have, or if you were, let's say, repurposing your content from an email newsletter that you created or from a podcast [00:12:00] episode, then that's a really easy way to take that content and add it into a template to then schedule on social media.
[00:12:07] Libby: And this will ensure that you stay consistent, which is critical for building trust and momentum. Right. So then I want you to track and optimize your content. So I want you to think about analytics because it's so easy to get so caught up in creating [00:12:20] consistent content or creating improved content that we forget to look at our metrics.
[00:12:24] Libby: So to pay attention to our analytics, like our engagement rate, saves and shares. Right. And I wouldn't worry so much about the likes. So the engagement rate saves and shares are going to help show you how valuable your content is to your audience. And if you notice that one post or one [00:12:40] type of post tends to perform better than you want to pull out elements of posts that do well and try to recreate.
[00:12:47] Libby: Versions of posts that are better performing so that you can learn what your audience really wants. And this usually takes time. It can take three months, six months, nine months of consistency for you to analyze and [00:13:00] redo what works best to find out what version of content is really specific to your audience to build trust.
[00:13:07] Libby: So, for example, if your post about meal prep tips gets more saves than other content, then you want to double down on that topic. More specifically, maybe meal prep for breakfast does well, or meal prep for blood sugar control [00:13:20] does best, or meal prep for intuitive eating, whatever it might be. just giving examples.
[00:13:25] Libby: I want you to pay attention to what types of content work best. Our most successful clients, our influencer clients, follow this. with success. They double down on what's working and they spend some time and effort finding out what works. It doesn't happen overnight, but if you give it some [00:13:40] time, just like anything, anytime you're analyzing results you can start to learn and analyze those trends.
[00:13:45] Libby: And we have that skills dietitians. That's what we do when we're assessing our patients. And that's what we do when we're assessing our content online. I don't want you to overwhelm yourself. So it's normal to focus on just one or two features on Instagram at a time. Because I know that Instagram can [00:14:00] feel overwhelming.
[00:14:00] Libby: There's a lot of updates. There's a lot of changes. There's a lot of you know, chatter out there that you should post reels that you should do certain things. And where some of that might be true, you want to focus on what can you do consistently that fits into your business without burnout. You don't need to master everything at once.
[00:14:18] Libby: Just start with either [00:14:20] a post or a carousel to keep it simple, and then you can move on to stories and reels. But make sure that you're focusing on one thing at a time. As an action tip, review your analytics weekly and use the insights on your analytics to plan your next posts. For example, if your reels are outperforming carousels, then you might want to make more reels.
[00:14:39] Libby: [00:14:40] Or if your content around meal prep is doing better than any other type of content, then you want to double down on testing. What about meal prep? What aspect and tips about meal prep are most beneficial for your audience of small tweaks? can lead to big results over time. A common mistake that you're going to want to avoid, because we all make them, would be [00:15:00] overloading with information.
[00:15:02] Libby: So keep your posts clear and concise. Too much information can overwhelm your audience. So instead of long captions about meal prep, Break them into carousel posts with one tip per slide, and you also don't want to neglect consistency. So posting sporadically does make it hard to [00:15:20] build momentum on a professional feed.
[00:15:22] Libby: So you want to aim for two to four quality posts per week and stay consistent. If four is too hard, start with Two planning ahead can really help here at dietitian boss. We plan a month ahead and we repurpose everything from our podcast. We are testing, adding some other content types, but we, everything we do is [00:15:40] repurposed.
[00:15:40] Libby: We're trying to drive content to our podcasts. We're trying to also drive traffic to our membership, which we know our clients love and our community enjoys. So think about the goal of your Instagram and what can you do to reach that goal? So set a content schedule that you can stick to and in our membership, we provide preplanned [00:16:00] calendars as well as actual post templates and caption templates that can help you stay on track without burnout.
[00:16:05] Libby: We also offer content reviews every week, so you can upload your content in our community platform and we'll give you feedback. You can also bring them on live calls and we'll give you feedback on your content so that you don't have to tweak and make these adjustments alone. You can do this [00:16:20] with a team.
[00:16:20] Libby: I want to talk to you about calls to action that convert. So you want to turn engagement into action. So every post should have a clear call to action, whether it's asking your audience to comment, share, or book a call or guiding them towards the next step. So you're probably familiar with people asking you that a trend for [00:16:40] a post to say, you know, DM me a meal plan.
[00:16:44] Libby: If you want. Me to send this to your inbox, or you want me to DM you with this cheat sheet so you can do something like that. And if you don't have the automation set up, which is usually with many chat, then you can manually send people that engage with you what the response [00:17:00] would be to that post. But you do want to have some way for them to communicate with you.
[00:17:04] Libby: So I do encourage you to use call to action and adjust the call to action for that particular post in your business. You do want to encourage next steps. So your goal is to move people from followers to paying clients. Don't lose sight of that. Don't be afraid to directly invite them to work [00:17:20] with you if they show interest.
[00:17:21] Libby: So an actionable tip here would be to say, DM me the word meal plan for more personalized tips, or click on the link in my bio to book your discovery call. So test different approaches and see what resonates most with your audience, but make sure you're always asking them to do something. You're always moving them from follower to potential paying [00:17:40] client.
[00:17:40] Libby: So as a recap, Instagram is more than just a social platform. It's more than just an opportunity to curate beautiful photos. It's a powerful tool to grow your business when you strategically, we've had success with hundreds and hundreds of dietitians who have followed our formulas for growing on Instagram, specifically by creating a clear message.
[00:17:59] Libby: And [00:18:00] engaging meaningfully on the platform. So by focusing on targeted content, storytelling, and consistent calls to action, you can turn your followers into clients and achieve real business results. Thank you for tuning in today. And if you're ready to uplevel your Instagram strategy and create content that converts, I want you to join our monthly membership called The Library.
[00:18:19] Libby: You'll get [00:18:20] exclusive templates, content calendars, and expert advice from me. to help you build a thriving online business. Don't wait. You want to start turning your Instagram into client generating machine today.
[00:18:32] Looking for support to grow your dietitian business or even get started. I invite you to join the library, our monthly [00:18:40] affordable membership that shows you exactly what to do every step of the way so that you can create the business of your dreams. Not sure if it's the right time. The membership gives you an option to.
[00:18:51] Go at your own pace. We have modules, a roadmap to show you exactly what to do, and monthly live calls, as well as new content that we release every [00:19:00] single month based on requests. Inside of the library, we have four stages of business. So whether you come in getting started or you want to enter the membership and grow or scale your business, we have the appropriate resources for you and our team, including myself, available to answer your questions.
[00:19:15] Head on over to dietitianboss. com and check out the library today. [00:19:20] We'd love to see you there.
