40. 10 Mistakes Business Owners Make on Instagram (And What to Do Instead)
Are Instagram mistakes silently sabotaging your growth? If you're struggling to drive leads and sales on Instagram, this episode is your wake-up call. I’m breaking down the 10 most common Instagram mistakes I see business owners make (yes, I’ve made them too). From hashtag blunders to engagement fails, I’m giving you actionable tips to fix these errors fast and start growing your audience with ease.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
[06:21] Hashtags Done Right: Why hashtags still matter and how to use them to attract your dream clients.
[08:47] Leveraging Instagram Stories: Why ignoring Stories is a missed opportunity and how to make them work for you.
[10:13] Repurposing Content: How to save time and boost visibility by reusing top-performing posts.
[11:36] Post-and-Ghost? Never: The importance of engaging with your audience after posting to boost connection and visibility.
[13:20] Balance is Key: How to mix promotional and value-driven content for maximum impact.
[17:07] Quality Matters: Tips for ensuring your images and videos are high-quality and eye-catching.
[18:34] Clear Goals, Clear Results: Why every post needs a clear purpose to drive engagement or sales.
[19:31] Seamless Sales: How to make it ridiculously easy for people to buy from you using DM automation.
[20:58] Done, Not Perfect: Why overthinking kills creativity and how to embrace authenticity.
[21:47] The Hook is Everything: How to craft attention-grabbing hooks that stop the scroll in three seconds.
Key Takeaways:
Embrace your mistakes—they’re a chance to learn and grow.
Focus on hooks that grab attention fast—spend 80% of your time perfecting them.
Don’t overthink—authentic content wins in today’s Instagram game.
Consistency and quality are non-negotiable for long-term success.
Quick Tip:
DM me the word "chat" on Instagram to see DM automation in action and grab a free trial of MiniChat, the tool I rely on for automated responses that convert!
Links mentioned in this episode:
Try ManyChat for FREE with my LINK
Apply for a complimentary IG breakthrough call! - or DM me the word APPLY on Instagram and you’ll get the link.
Want to dive deeper into using AI for marketing? Check out my four-part mini-series and my interview with AI coach Juan Galan, one of the most popular episodes to date!
JOIN HOT REELS: The 12-Month Instagram Content Lab
An intimate, strategy-packed mentorship for established business owners ready to create killer content that stops the scroll, grows your following and attracts your dreamboat clients (even if you have no idea what to post and feel like you’re always throwing spaghetti at the wall!)
FREE guide to Monetize Your IG: Seven Simple and Proven Ways to Finally Make Money on Instagram
Apply for your FREE Instagram Breakthrough Call with Elizabeth
Quote
“Perfectionism kills creativity. Stop overthinking and just post your content—your people want to see the real you.”
S3 Ep40 Transcript: 10 Mistakes Business Owners Make on Instagram (And What to Do Instead)
00:00
Today's episode is some real talk with actionable insights and no fluff guidance that you need to grow your business on Instagram right now. I'm gonna be sharing with you 10 mistakes I see business owners often making on Instagram and spoiler alert, I've made all these mistakes myself and that's why I can help you avoid them. I'm gonna be sharing exactly what you can do to turn these mistakes around quickly so your content can really start driving more leads and sales and of course,
00:29
deepening relationships with your prospective clients. Are you ready? Let's do it. Welcome to Strut It, a podcast about creating bold visibility on social media with zero apologies. I'm Elizabeth Marberry, your host and Instagram marketing coach. I help small business owners get seen on Instagram and monetize their offers so they can make more money doing their sole led work.
00:57
If you're tired of spinning your wheels on Instagram and you're seeking simple, proven Instagram marketing strategies that actually work, you're in the right place. Let's dive in.
01:13
Welcome back to the show. I'm super pumped that you're here with me today. We're gonna dive right into it. And the topic today is mistakes. And oftentimes as a business owners, we have exceptionally high standards for ourselves. I don't know about you, but I do. And I can be really hard on myself when I make a mistake or I flat out fail. And I have a little story that I wanna kick off today's episode with, which is.
01:39
A couple of weeks ago, I had this awesome speaking gig at the Essence Park Wedding Association, and it was fabulous. My speech and training went off well. I got lots of fantastic feedback and everything, but I made a massive mistake, and that is at the end of my presentation, I had a freebie. I had a lead magnet, so that way people who, you know, loved the information and wanted more information from me and wanted to get on my list could join that list.
02:08
So I had a QR code up on the screen so people could easily get to the landing page and join my list and get that free resource emailed to them right away. It's an email automation we have set up and it's a seamless process. So I was driving back home, SS Park is about an hour from my house and I was driving through the mountains, la de da. So I get back home from the speaking engagement that night and I look at my email and one of the people who attended that night responded.
02:37
to an email that I had sent, an auto email. And my heart just dropped right away because I could see that the subject line was totally wrong. And then she sent me an email kind of flagging it for me and said, hey, I'm not sure if this is the right resource that you said you were gonna send us. And then I looked at the email I had put together and it was totally the wrong email with the wrong guide.
03:01
And I was horrified. I mean, this is obviously not a great first impression of me or my business or my systems or any of that. I used ConvertKit, I went on there, I was trying to figure out, you know, what had gone wrong with automation. And at this point it was like 11 o'clock at night and I was so dead tired. I could not figure it out. And I knew that this automation, this wrong email had already gone out to all these people who had opted into my list.
03:29
And it was kind of an advanced business owner moment because baby business owner Elizabeth would have completely lost her mind and been so stressed and been like, oh my gosh, people are gonna judge me and think I'm not professional and blah, blah, blah. And like, I would have just made this whole dramatic story about it. And instead I was like, you know what? I made a mistake. No one died here. Everything's okay. I'm gonna go to bed. I'm gonna email my incredible assistant right now so she can look into this.
03:59
and get this fixed for me. And I woke up, my assistant had emailed me, she had taken care of it, and it was really an error kind of on both ends. And I take full ownership because learned from my mistake, I did not test that automation. Generally I do, but I just was working really quickly and I had my assistant set it up and I was like, I'm sure it's great, she's amazing, and I didn't test it. And so that is completely on me as CEO and owner.
04:29
And then the next day I just emailed everyone and said, I'm so sorry, you got the wrong resource, here's the correct resource. And I was able to send them a personal note about my time with them and everything was fine. So I share this with you because you have a choice, okay? When you make a mistake, when you fail, you can get really defensive, you can lose your mind, you can get really dramatic about it. And let me tell you, I've been there and it's exhausting.
04:58
Or you can just take a deep breath, try to have a little bit of perspective, and fix the problem, right? You get to be a person, you don't have to be perfect all the time, and the reality is is that when you're playing at a really big level in your business, when you're trying new things, when you're pushing your edges, you're gonna fail, and you're gonna fail a lot. I cannot tell you how many times I have failed in the last 15 years to get to the place where I am now. So.
05:25
I wanna encourage you to befriend failure, befriend mistakes. That is truly the only way you're gonna learn. You better believe that I will never make that mistake again in a keynote speech. I will never ever make that mistake again. So it's actually a blessing that that happened. So it won't happen maybe when I'm at a bigger stage with thousands of people opting into my list, right? These things happen for a reason. You learn, you grow, you move on.
05:51
So with that mindset in mind, I'm gonna share with you 10 mistakes I see business owners making on Instagram right now. We're gonna go through these really quickly. If any of these topics you're curious about, I probably have a full episode on each of these topics, so you can kinda go back and binge on previous episodes, but I'm gonna kinda go through these quickly, so you can kind of have a mental checklist of, wait, am I doing this, am I not? Okay, and then I'm gonna give you a quick tip on how to fix it. Sound good? Let's do it.
06:21
Mistake number one, hashtags. Okay, so years ago, hashtags were a really big deal. You had to spend a ton of time researching them and finding what hashtag was great for your business or your niche or whatever. And that was really back in the early days when the platform wasn't as search engine optimized. So there's been a lot of kind of back and forth of should I use hashtags, should I not use hashtags? Everybody has an opinion about it, but I wanna share with you my thoughts
06:51
working with, of course, building multiple accounts myself for multiple brands and then coaching my clients and then also in all of the creator influencer spaces that I play in and it's this. You definitely need to be using hashtags in your content, but you don't have to go crazy, okay? So I usually post around 15 hashtags. Don't even stress about counting them, okay? If you're counting them, you're trying too hard. But seven to 15 hashtags, it's totally fine.
07:20
If you wanna do more than 15, you can, but here's the key. You wanna think about hashtags as a way to really filter your content in front of the right people. So a big mistake that I see people make with hashtags is they go way too broad. And let's say I'm doing a post about, maybe I'm walking outside and I'm kicking the fall leaves and I'm sharing, you know, five mistakes I see business owners making on Instagram. But like the video is like me walking in the fall leaves.
07:50
A mistake I see businesses make is they might say, hashtag fall leaves, hashtag fall thoughts. Do you guys see how that actually doesn't relate to the content of the video? Well, the content of the video is mistakes that business owners make on Instagram, okay? So all of my hashtags would be targeted at business owners, Instagram growth, Instagram marketing. It's not targeted at fall leaves or fall vibes or anything like that.
08:18
So try to really be specific with your hashtags and make sure that they are in alignment with the content that you're posting. I hope that makes sense. Mistake number two, and I should have said this at the beginning, these are in no particular order. This is just what came out of my brain. So it's not like this is the biggest mistake, this is the smallest mistake. It's just, they're all things that I'm seeing right now on Instagram. Okay, mistake number two, ignoring Instagram stories. So Instagram stories,
08:47
is really a magical place where you can connect with people in a super real, raw and personal way. So think of stories as your behind the scenes moments, show your day, share a quick tip, let people see a bit of your personality. You can go as wild as you want. Last week I shared with you a very specific strategy that you can use in stories if you're wanting to drive more leads to your email list or sell your offers.
09:15
but definitely don't forget about stories. In addition to just forgetting about them, which is a mistake, the other thing I see businesses fall into is they start sharing just like quotes that they like or just totally random stuff. And okay, you can do that from time to time, but if your entire Instagram story strategy is just like sharing other people's content, why?
09:44
totally a vehicle for you to deepen your relationship with your followers and drive more leads and sales. So if you're always just sharing other people's content, that's not gonna really move the needle for your business. So you need to really think about how am I going to use stories? Yes, I'm gonna have fun with them. I'm gonna not overthink them. But at the same time, if you're gonna do it, you wanna have some strategy behind it as to how is this going to actually achieve the goal.
10:13
I have for my Instagram. Mistake number three, not repurposing content. Okay, so it is a mistake if you are recreating every single post from scratch, okay? It's exhausting and honestly, it's not the best use of your time. So what you wanna do is you wanna take what's worked well before and repurpose it. So turn that top performing post into a story, into a carousel or even
10:41
repost the exact same video caption music again as a real. I've done this before, it can work really well and this keeps you visible without burning yourself out and ensures that your best ideas don't just disappear after one post. You should be rinsing and repeating a lot of your ideas. If you feel like you're constantly having to come up with new things, you're definitely over-complicating the process and you need to spend some time.
11:09
really refining your content strategy. That's so much of the work that I do with my clients in my group and private programs because it's easy to overthink this stuff, right? There should be some redundancy. Remember, the life of our content on Instagram can be short-lived. Yes, some of it can last for weeks. I've had that happen, but a lot of it is short-lived. So you should be repeating yourself and definitely repurposing your best performing content. Mistake number four.
11:36
neglecting engagement after posting. I've never ever done the thing that I've heard so many people recommend which is like right after you post or like right before you post you have to go and engage with people for like 30 minutes. I don't have any like really strict rules about it but
11:54
The mistake that I see business owners make is they'll put in this effort, they'll create content, and people are commenting on their posts, and then the business owner never responds to the comments. Or the business owner just likes the comment. Could you be more lazy? Like, if I'm gonna comment on, sorry, I'm being really mean right now, but you guys are here because I tell it to you straight. If I'm going to take the effort to comment on your post a thoughtful comment, even an emoji, you guys, I want a response. I wanna know that you care.
12:23
And what's really cool about this is sometimes I will respond to a comment with a question, if it makes sense, and that person will respond to me. And what does that do? That tells the algorithm, oh my gosh, this post is really interesting. A lot of people are interacting with it and your engagement will go up. So do not post and ghost my friends. You definitely need to interact and be a person, be social on social media.
12:52
It doesn't have to be a ton of time, but maybe you just set a timer for five minutes every day where you're just going through and making sure you've responded to every single comment, DM, message, as much as you can. At some point you'll stop and you'll move on to other things, but do the best you can to really engage after you post. Mistake number five, posting only promotional content. Nothing says I'm just here to sell you stuff.
13:20
Like only posting promotions, okay? So that would be if you're still kind of in that mode of you're posting Canva graphics of your upcoming workshops or your master classes or your sales. And it's like, I go to your feed and like eight out of 10 posts are kind of like that. Or it's just like, look at me, look at my stuff, grab my services, look at my upcoming workshop. Okay, that is promotional stuff. And I get it. You want people to know about your offers. Of course you do.
13:48
But building trust means giving value too. So I did a whole episode on this attraction content versus promotional content. So go back and listen to that if you're curious about, okay, what content should I be creating? But it's really helpful if you share tips, behind the scenes or even some personal wins, struggles, like people really resonate with stories. Essentially when we say put value into your posts, all we're saying.
14:17
is help your ideal client feel seen, heard, appreciated, understood, helped. Be an empath with your ideal client. Solve a small problem for them. Give them a solution. That's what we mean, and then as you do that, you will become known as this expert, and people will think of you as the go-to person, so when they need that product or service, you're top of mind. Quick little break from the mistake list.
14:46
The Hot Reels wait list is officially open. Hot Reels is my 12 month Instagram content lab. It is a small intimate group of ambitious business owners who are wanting to really understand how to play the game of Instagram, how to create killer scroll stopping content that is going to attract their dreamboat clients and drive more leads and sales. We have so much fun in this group. We have group coaching calls, we have Q and A calls, we have a...
15:14
community group where you can drop your content in every week and I give you feedback. Everyone is rooting for each other. We share wins all the time. It is popping in there. One of my clients this week said she's having her highest revenue month yet in her business. And when I asked her, how did your clients find you? She said most of them found her and loved her Instagram content. And side note, it's not like she has a massive following or gets
15:42
a million likes on every single post. A lot of your buyers won't even like your posts, okay? So it's really miraculous to be in this group where people are making sales, they're stepping out of their comfort zone. One of my clients was really afraid to get on camera and use her voice, and now I see her showing up on my feed every day. This is not just about content and business, it's about personal transformation, and I would love to support you. The wait list is now open.
16:10
If you want to be the first to know when the doors open, you get early access, exclusive savings, and the juiciest bonuses. So if you're even remotely curious about this program, highly recommend that you DM me the word hot, H-O-T, on Instagram, and I will send you the link to join the wait list. Make sure you're already following me so I get that message. It doesn't go into my spam folder or my request folder. So DM me the word hot on Instagram.
16:40
or you can go to the website and you can see all of the details of the program if you go to elizabethmarberry, M-A-R-B-E-R-R-Y.com slash hot, H-O-T. I would love to support you in there. Okay, mistake number six, using poor quality images and videos. So Instagram is a visual platform, so quality really matters.
17:07
And look, I'm not saying you need a full studio setup. You absolutely do not. My first viral videos, and I still do this to this day, were I would set up my iPhone against my water bottle on my kitchen table, okay? So no excuses. But you do want to be mindful of lighting. You wanna make sure that you're well lit, and you wanna make sure that the quality of your videos and photos is really strong. So you don't want it to look really grainy.
17:36
My biggest tip for that is seriously wipe your camera lens. Everyone's like, I do, I promise. I'm like, no, you don't. I can tell by looking at your content. It looks like you forgot to wipe your camera lens. So clean that camera lens, my friends, so you get crystal clear photos and videos with your iPhone or your Android or whatever the heck it is that you're using. We all have these really powerful devices in the palms of our hands, so no excuses. And please, please, please, no horizontal,
18:05
photos or videos, they really don't look good on the feed. They don't take up that full real estate of the screen. I know that there's content on there that goes viral, that is horizontal, but generally speaking, please keep everything really vertical. Aim for clean, vertical images and videos that reflect your brand's personality and style. Mistake number seven is not having a clear goal for every post. Now, I don't want you to overthink this, but every post should have a purpose.
18:34
So whether it is to attract new followers, engage and nurture your current ones, or prompt people to join your wait list, or grab your sale, it's imperative that you know what you want from each post. Now, does that mean that one reel can't attract, nurture and convert? Absolutely not. One reel can do all those things. But when you're creating, it can help you to just have that one goal in mind of
19:03
who it is that you're speaking to, because all three of those avatars are different people. The people who haven't already followed you, they don't even know who you are. They're totally cold. The people that you're trying to nurture, they know who you are, but they're needing to deepen their relationship with you. And then you have those lurkers who are like your biggest fans, and they are just dying for you to invite them into the offer so they can buy it. So it can really be helpful when you're creating content to think about who you're creating it for. Mistake number eight.
19:31
making it harder for people to buy. Now this is a big one. If someone wants to work with you, don't make it complicated. I highly recommend that you use DM automation. If you want a free trial on my favorite DM automation app, which is ManyChat, DM me the word chat, C-H-A-T, and I will send you a link where you can try it out totally for free. It's pretty simple to set up and it's awesome because essentially,
20:00
when someone is consuming your content and you make the offer of a freebie or a sale or whatever it is that you're wanting to build They can keep doing what they're doing. They comment a keyword and then they get whatever it is that they want right away They don't have to wait for you to drop your kids off at school come home Take a shower like by that point they've already moved on to other things So with dm automation you really reduce the friction to the conversion and it is a total game changer so please
20:29
Just make it easy for people to buy your services. If you're not clear on how someone could just quickly buy your service on Instagram, you better believe your customer is not clear. Mistake number nine, struggling with consistency due to overthinking. Okay, perfectionism kills consistency. Perfectionism kills creativity. You don't need each pose to be groundbreaking. You really don't. The goal is to show up consistently and connect with your audience over time.
20:58
So give yourself permission to post without overthinking it and let go of the idea that it needs to be perfect and focus on really showing up regularly instead. Instagram is definitely a really fun place right now because the authentic content is doing so much better than the overly polished, overly curated content. People just want to see you, the real you, your real opinions.
21:24
the real thoughts behind your brand, your mission, your values, all of that. So try not to overthink and just post your content. And finally, mistake number 10, not refining your hook. If you can't grab someone's attention in the first three seconds, the post is dead in the water. That's just the reality of today's social media. So you need to spend 80% of your content creation time.
21:47
really refining your hook. So the hook could be the text on screen, the visual hook, all of that, that really grabs attention fast, make it bold, make it intriguing or relatable. Anything that makes people wanna stop scrolling and see what you have to say. Again, in our Hot Reels 12 Month Content Lab, when you leave that container, you will be so on fire with your hooks, your content strategy, you'll know exactly what to do to drive more leads and sales.
22:15
in your business on Instagram. So make sure you DM me the word hot on Instagram, or you go to elizabethmarberry.com slash hot to hop on the wait list. It's totally free to jump on the wait list and then you will receive exclusive access when doors open. All right, there you have it. The 10 mistakes I see business owners making on Instagram and how you can avoid them. The key takeaway here is that small changes make a huge difference. So maybe just start with one or two of these.
22:45
and see what a difference it makes. Thank you so much for tuning in and don't forget to come back next week for more tips to help you grow and make the most of Instagram for your business. As always, if you're loving the show, drop a review. It helps get the word out so we can all grow together. And I cannot wait to start it with you next time.
23:06
Thank you for listening to Strut It. If you're ready to start leveraging Instagram to grow your business, then you're gonna wanna grab my free Monetize Your IG Guide, where you'll learn seven simple and proven ways to finally make money on Instagram. You can grab your guide at elizabethmarbury.com slash freebies. That's Elizabethmarberry.com slash freebies to get my Monetize Your IG Guide.
23:36
If you got some incredible value from today's episode, be sure to leave a review and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. And I cannot wait to start it with you again next week.