The Hidden Job of Instagram That Most Businesses Completely Miss

0:00Hello, this is Mark Satterfield and welcome to the Velvet Rope Playbook. Tonight's chapter, The Hidden Job of Instagram That Most Businesses Completely Miss. There is a moment in the sales process that almost nobody talks about. It happens when you're not in the room. You're not on the phone. You're not exchanging emails. You don't even know the prospect exists yet. And yet, at that exact moment, the prospect may be deciding whether you're someone that they want to meet. That's what today's episode is all about. And to show you how this works, I want to introduce you to two people who, on the surface, have almost nothing in common.

0:41The first is a woman named Claire Donovan. Claire is 48, lives outside Denver, and owns a company that designs and installs sophisticated lighting systems for high-end homes. She didn't set out to build a lighting company. She studied theater in college and originally wanted to design lighting for stage productions. She spent several years doing exactly that, discovered she was much better at the technical side than the theatrical side, and eventually found her way into residential lighting. Twenty years later, Claire has 14 employees and works on some spectacular homes. And she's very good. Architects like working with her because she understands that lighting isn't simply about whether a room is bright enough.

1:24Interior designers like her because she doesn't fight with them over aesthetics. Builders like her because she actually shows up when she says she's going to show up. Most of her business comes from referrals, which is why Claire has never paid much attention to Instagram. She has an account, technically. Her marketing person talked her into setting it up several years ago. There are some photographs of completed projects, a few pictures from trade shows, a happy holiday graphic from two Christmases ago, and for some reason Claire quite can't remember. there's a picture of her standing next to a lighting fixture at an industry conference in Las Vegas.

2:01She has 863 followers. Claire couldn't care less. When someone tells her she should be doing more on Instagram, she says, my clients aren't sitting around looking for lighting designers on Instagram. And she's probably right. But she's missing something. And we'll come back to Claire later on. First, I want you to meet Tom. Tom Alvarez is 56 and owns a company that handles high-end residential moves. Not the guy with the truck who moves your sofa across town. Tom's company handles complicated moves. A family is relocated from Chicago to Naples and needs contents of a 9 ,000-square-foot house, packed, cataloged, transported, and installed in the new house.

2:44A couple is downsizing and needs someone to figure out what goes to the new home, what goes to their children, what gets stored and what gets sold and what gets donated. There may be artwork involved, antiques, wine, furniture that needs specialized handling. Tom started the business with one truck and his brother-in-law 27 years ago. Today he has a warehouse, a staff of 32, and a client list that would make most moving companies drool. Tom also doesn't care much about social media. He tells people, nobody hires us because they saw a reel. And he's probably right, too. Now, let's see what actually happens.

3:23A couple named Ellen and Robert Morrison have decided to renovate the house they own outside of Denver for almost 15 years. It's a major project. New kitchen, new primary suite, new library, new lighting throughout most of the house. Their architect, who they've worked with before and trust enormously, tells Ellen, you should talk to Claire Dunavant about the lighting. She's excellent. That's it. No sales presentation, no advertisement, no funnel. One trusted person tells another trusted person, talk to Claire. This is exactly how a tremendous amount of affluent business gets generated. Now, here's the interesting part.

4:00Ellen doesn't call Claire, at least not yet. She picks up her phone and types Claire Dunavan Lighting Denver. Claire doesn't know this is happening. She doesn't know Ellen even exists. But Ellen is now in Claire's marketing funnel. That's the part I think people misunderstand about marketing funnels. They imagine the funnel begins when someone clicks on an advertisement, downloads a report, or fills out a form. It doesn't necessarily. Sometimes it begins with someone saying your name over lunch. And then the investigation begins. Ellen finds Claire's website. It's nice. She looks at several projects.

4:39Then she finds Claire on LinkedIn. Then she clicks Instagram. And then there are those project photographs, the trade show, the old Christmas graphic, Claire standing next to the light fixture in Las Vegas. Nothing terrible, but nothing particularly interesting either. And remember what Ellen is doing. She's not looking for entertainment. She's not thinking, I wonder if Claire posts enough reels for me to follow her. She may never follow Claire. She's trying to answer a completely different question. Who is this person? Is she thoughtful? Does she have taste? Does she understand homes like mine?

5:17Does she seem like someone I'd enjoy having involved in this project for the next nine months? And perhaps most importantly, does what I'm seeing reinforce what my architect just told me? That's an entirely different job for Instagram. We tend to think of Instagram as an audience building platform. How many followers do you have? How many views did a reel get? How many people liked it? How many people commented? Now look, those numbers do matter, but there's another number you'll probably never see. How many people looked at your Instagram because someone else had already told them about you? They didn't discover you there.

5:56Instagram wasn't the top of the funnel. It was actually somewhere in the middle and its job was validation. Someone hears about you. Then they investigate you. Then they decide what they find makes them more interested or less interested. This isn't unique to Instagram. Your website does it. LinkedIn does it. Google does it. Your podcast does it. YouTube does it. Your online presence collectively creates an answer to that question. Who is this person? And the more expensive or consequential the decision, the more likely someone is to do a little investigating before raising their hand. So you remember Tom and his high-end moving company?

6:40A wealth advisor has a client who's moving from Boston to Palm Beach. The advisor says, there's a guy named Tom Alvarez you should talk to. He handles this kind of thing all the time. The client looks him up. Tom's website explains logistics, license, insured, storage, packing, transportation. Look, all necessary information. Then she finds his Instagram. And suppose instead of random pictures of trucks, Tom has a collection of short videos answering questions like what you should never put on a moving truck. How do you move a wine collection without destroying it? What should happen to valuable artwork before movers ever touch it?

7:20What do people usually forget when they're moving between two homes. Now something has happened. The wealth advisor said Tom, shows Tom that he knows what he's doing. And within five minutes, Tom's online presence has provided evidence that the wealth advisor was right. Tom still didn't get the client from Instagram. That's important. He got the opportunity from a referral. Instagram helped the referral do its job. And that's a distinction worth understanding. So here's something I suggest you do after you finish listening to this episode. Pretend someone you respect has just recommended you to a wealthy prospect.

8:01You don't know who the prospect is. You don't know they're looking at you. Now Google yourself. Don't look at it as you. Look at it as them. Visit your website. Look at your LinkedIn profile. Look at your Instagram. Look at your YouTube channel if you have one. And ask yourself three questions. First, is it immediately clear what I'm exceptionally good at? Not your title, not your list of services. What would someone come away believing you're particularly good at? Second, is there evidence? Can they see you talking intelligently about the problems they care about? Can they see examples or stories or ideas or other evidence that people trust you?

8:43And third, does everything reinforce everything else? Because that's where the funnel really gets interesting. Your referral says one thing, your website says another, your Instagram says another, your LinkedIn profile looks like it hasn't been touched since 2019. That's not really a funnel. That's a collection of disconnected marketing pieces. A good marketing funnel creates continuity. Someone hears about you and becomes curious. They investigate, become interested. They consume some of your thinking and become impressed. Eventually, they decide, I'd like to talk to this person. That's what you want.

9:21So, to wrap this up, I think we sometimes put too much pressure on individual marketing activities to produce a client all by themselves. Did Instagram generate the lead? Did the podcast generate the lead? Did the referral generate the lead? With affluent clients, the answer is often, all of them did. One created awareness, another created credibility, another deepened interest, another kept you visibility, and eventually something caused the person to contact you. That's why I think the better question isn't, are my prospects on Instagram? The better question is, when a prospective client encounters me anywhere in my marketing funnel, does that encounter make them more likely to take the next step?

10:08because your Instagram account doesn't necessarily need to turn strangers into clients. It's sometimes it just needs to turn someone you told me that you're good into now I understand why. And that is an extremely valuable job. So if you'd like to work with me personally on this, this is exactly the kind of thing we can look at together. Not simply whether you need more Instagram followers or more website traffic, but how your entire marketing process works together to attract, reassure, and ultimately convert more affluent prospects. So if you'd like more information about working with me personally, visit getwealthyclients.com where there's lots of information.

10:51And if you're listening to this on the Velvet Road Playbook, thank you for spending this time with me. This is Mark Satterfield. I'll be back with you soon with another episode. Bye for now.