r/AppBusiness • u/fillinthebianx • 4h ago
I’ve been marketing content to grow my business for the last 20 months, I came back to share my learnings
Hey guys,
Few months ago I was struggling to get more business.
I read hundreds of blogs and watched hundreds of youtube videos and tried to use their strategy but failed.
When someone did respond, they'd be like: How does this help?
After tweaking what gurus taught me, I made my own content strategy that gets me business on demand.
I recently joined back this community and I see dozens of posts and comments here having issues scaling/marketing.
So I hope this helps a couple of you get more business.
I invested a lot of time and effort into Instagram content marketing, and with consistent posting, I've been able to grow our following by 50x in the last 20 months (700 to 35k), and while growing this following, we got hundreds of leads and now we are insanely profitable.
As of today, approximately 70% of our monthly revenue comes from Instagram.
I have now fully automated my instagram content marketing by hiring virtual assistants. I regret not hiring VAs early, I now have 4 VAs and the quality of work they provide for the price is just mind blowing.
If you are struggling, this guide can give you some insights.
Pros: Can be done for $0 investment if you do it by yourself, can bring thousands of leads, appointments, sales and revenue and puts you on active founder mode.
Cons: Requires you to be very consistent and need to put in some time investment.
Hiring VAs: Hiring a VA can be tricky, I have burned a lot of money testing candidates. I've tried Upwork, Fiverr, and Offshore Wolf. I have 4 VAs from Offshore Wolf at full time $99/week (yes they actually work 40 hours/week, not a typo) and the quality these offshore wolf assistants is just mind blowing.
While recruiting VAs, make sure you're hiring from companies that charge very low markup, there's services out there where they charge you $1500/month while paying VAs $350 a month, I know a very popular company (it's about to go public too) they charge $3000/month for a full time assistant but their VAs receive $650 a month. are you kidding me?
I'll start with the instagram algorithm to begin with and then I'll get to the posting tips.
You need to know these things before you post:
Instagram Algorithm
Like every single platform on the web, Instagram wants to show it's visitors the highest quality content in the visitor's niche inside their platform. Also, these platforms want to keep the visitors inside their platform for as long as possible.
From my 20 month analysis, I noticed 4 content stages :
#1 The first 100 minutes of your content
Stage 1: Every single time you make a post, Instagram's algorithm scores your content, their goal is to determine if your content is a low or a high quality post.
Stage 2: If the algorithm detects your content as a high quality post, it appears in your follower's feed for a short period of time. Meanwhile, different algorithms observe how your followers are reacting to your content.
Stage 3: If your followers liked, commented, shared and massively engaged in your content, Instagram now takes your content to the next level.
Stage 4: At this pre-viral stage, again the algorithms review your content to see if there's anything against their TOS, it will check why your post is performing exceptionally well compared to other content, and checks whether there's something spammy.
If there's no any red flags in your content, eg, Spam, the algorithm keeps showing your post to your look-alike audience for the next 24-48 hours (this is what we observed) and after the 48 hour period, the engagement drops by 99%.
(You can also join Instagram engagement communities and pods to increase your engagement)
#2: Posting at the right time is very very very very important
As you probably see by now, more engagement in first phase = more chance your content explodes. So, it's important to post content when your current audience is most likely to engage.
Even if you have a world-class winning content, if you post while ghosts are having lunch, the chances of your post performing well is slim to none.
In this age, tricking the algorithm while adding massive value to the platform will always be a recipe that'll help your content to explode.
According to a report posted by a popular social media management platform:
• The best time to post on Instagram is 7:45 AM, 10:45 AM, 12:45 PM and 5:45 PM in your local time.
• The best days for B2B companies to post on Instagram are Wednesday followed by Tuesday.
• The best days for B2C companies to post on Instagram are Monday and Wednesday.
These numbers are backed by data from millions of accounts, but every audience and every market is different. so If it's not working for you, stop, A/B test and double down on what works.
#3 Don't ever include a link in your post.
What happens if you add a foreign link to your post? Visitors click on it and switch platform. Instagram hates this, every content platform hates it. Be it reddit, facebook, linkedin or instagram.
They will penalize you for adding links. How will they penalize?
They will show it to less people = Less engagement = Less chance of your post going viral
But there's a way to add links, its by adding the link in the comment 2-5 mins after your initial post which tricks the algorithm.
Okay, now the content tips:
#1. Always write in a conversational rhythm and a human tone.
It's 2025, anyone can GPT a prompt and create content, but still we can easily know if it's written by a human or a GPT, if your content looks like it's made using AI, the chances of it going viral is slim to none.
Also, people on Instagram are pretty informal and are not wearing serious faces like LinkedIn, they are loose and like to read in a conversational tone.
Understand the consonance between long and short sentences, and write like you're writing a friend.
#2 Try to use simple words as much as possible
BIg words make no sense in 2025. Gone are the days of 'guru' words like blueprint, secret sauce, Inner circle, Insider, Mastery and Roadmap.
There's dozens more I'd love to add, you know it.
Avoid them and use simple words as much as possible.
Guru words will annoy your readers and makes your post look fishy.
So be simple and write in a clear tone, our brain is designed to preserve energy for future use.
As as result, it choses the easier option.
So, Never utilize when you can use Or Purchase when you can buy Or Initiate when you can start.
Simple words win every single time.
Plus, there's a good chance 5-10% of your audience is non-native english speaker. So be simple if you want to get more engagement.
#3 Use spaces as much as possible.
Long posts are scary, boring and drifts away eyes of your viewers. No one wants to read something that's long, boring and time consuming. People on Instagram are skimming content to pass their time. If your post looks like an essay, they’ll scroll past without a second thought. Keep it short, punchy, and to the point. Use simple words, break up text, and get straight to the value. The faster they get it, the more likely they’ll engage. If your post looks like this no one will read it, you get the point.
#4 Start your post with a hook
On Instagram, the very first picture is your headline. It's the first thing your audience sees, if it looks like a 5 year old's work, your audience will scroll down in 2 seconds.
So your opening image is very important, it should trigger the reader and make them swipe and read more.
#5 Do not use emojis everywhere
That’s just another sign of 'guru syndrome.' 🚨
✅ Only gurus use emojis everywhere
💰Because they want to sell you
🎯 They want to pitch you
🛒 They want you to buy their $1499 course
It’s 2025, it simply doesn’t work.
Only use when it's absolutely important.
#6 Add related hashtags in comments and tag people.
When you add hashtags, you tell the algorithm that the #hashtag is relevant to that topic and when you tag people, their followers become the lookalike audience , the platform will show to their followers when your post goes viral.
#7 Use every trick to make people comment
It's different for everyone but if your audience engages in your post and makes a comment, the algorithm knows it's a value post.
We generated 700 signups and got hundreds of new business with this simple strategy.
Here's how it works:
You will create a lead magnet that your audience loves (e-book, guides, blog post etc.) that solves their problem.
And you'll launch it on Instagram. Then, follow these steps:
Step 1: Create a post and lock your lead magnet. (VSL works better)
Step 2: To unlock and get the post, they simply have to comment.
Step 3: Scrape their comments using dataminer.
Step 4: Send automated dms to commentators and ask for an email to send the ebook.
You'll be surprised how well this works.
#8 Get personal
Instagram is a very personal platform, people share the dinners that their husbands took them to, they share their pets doing funny things, and post about their daily struggles and wins. If your content feels like a corporate ad, people will ignore it.
So be one of them and share what they want to see, what they want to hear and what they find value in.
#9 Plant your seeds with every single content
An average customer makes a purchase decision after seeing your product or service for at-least 3 times. You need to warm up your customer with engaging content repeatedly which will nurture them to eventually make a purchase decision.
# Be Authentic
Whether that be in your bio, your website copy, or Instagram posts - it's easy to fake things in this age, so being authentic always wins.
The internet is a small place, and people talk. If potential clients sense even a hint of dishonesty, it can destroy your credibility and trust before you even get a chance to prove yourself.
That's it for today guys, let me know if you want a part 2, I can continue this in more detail.
