"Link in the Bio" - What Should You Put There?

Most businesses have a link in the bio on their Instagram and other social profiles, but most of these profiles struggle to turn online followers into actual leads that can be marketed and sold to. In this episode, we'll talk about growing a following versus growing your actual email list. Which one will have a more sustainable impact on your business? And how to leverage the link in your bio to ensure that you are capitalizing on the traffic that goes through your social media channels. You're listening to the Universe has yous Business. It's the podcast for rising entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and change makers who are here to achieve more while letting the universe do the heavy lifting. And I am your host, Andrew Donovan. Now, the idea for this week's episode really came from a recent survey that we did of a number of entrepreneurs. We asked them, what is the number one challenge you're facing in your business right now? And believe it or not, the first most common answer was lead generation. And this got me thinking. Well, we should probably just start with the very basics, like what link do you put in the bio of your social media profiles? Because most businesses, most of us have profiles on a bunch of social media platforms. So we're generating content, we're spending time every day there, and we're wondering, how do I actually get people to not only follow me, but to end up as a contact on my list that I, I can then market to? And that's really what today is all about. So sharing links on social media is a great form of lead generation. And just to make sure that we're using the same vernacular, when I say lead generation, I'm talking about generating a lead that's on your email list or your SMS texting list. If you are the kind of marketer or entrepreneur who likes to do marketing through like SMS bots or text message bots, things like that. If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry. Email is the most common form of generating leads. Basically, you want to have people's names and email addresses because then you can market to them and sell your offers and your business. Well, we see this all the time on platforms like Instagram where somebody will put up a post and in the caption of that post they'll say link in the bio. And what that means is in the bio of your social media profile. And this goes for Facebook, your business page on Facebook, your Instagram profile, or wherever you can put usually a link. And that link can either be your regular website. So, like, mine would be donovanrising.com or it can be a special URL that goes to a specific place. So we'll talk about what kinds of links you're gonna put in your bio and why you would put different kinds of links. But effectively link in the bio just means that link in the bio, that's all. Now the goal of a link in the bio must be to capture traffic. And this is one of the first mistakes that people make. I'm actually going to talk about a few mistakes that I see all over the place on social. But this first mistake that I see people making is they have a link in the bio that doesn't actually capture traffic. So let's say that I am, let's say I'm an affiliate marketer and I want to promote a yoga pants line that I'm an affiliate for, just for example, sake. And I put my affiliate link in the bio. Well, that could be cool because I'm probably going to send my Instagram followers to my affiliate landing page where they can then buy the yoga pants and I collect a sales commission. But what's the first thing missing in this formula? Well, if I want to have a self sustained business, a business that I can continue to grow, to scale, to shape, to turn into something that I know and love even more through experience, as time goes on, I have to be building my own list of contacts. And if you have a link in your bio that doesn't capture people's information and put that info on your own list, you're making this first mistake. And so I might as an affiliate marketer put my affiliate link in the bio. But if I'm not collecting those leads first, that's a big no no on my part. Because what happens, let's say that in six months or a year I decide not to be an affiliate for that brand anymore. And so I stopped marketing their stuff. But I can't market to people who have clicked on that link because I didn't capture their info myself, someone else did. I gave them the lead and I took a sales commission. But that's it and it's over. Right? So if I had taken the time to make sure that I captured the lead first, well then I'd be able to continue marketing to the people who had actually clicked on that. And does that make sense to you? So you want to understand that the number one goal with traffic on social media, it's not to get followers, it's not to get comments, it's not to get likes. Yes, all of that engagement is important and that's what ultimately creates your. That's your visibility. But visibility is just the very start on social. What's more important and highly, endlessly more valuable than visibility is the rate at which you are growing your own list. In other words, the rate at which you are capturing traffic. So I've seen all kinds of people on social media who have hundreds of thousands of followers, millions of followers, and they don't capture traffic. They have tons of engagement and they promote other people's products, services, offers, etc. But once those offers dry out, or if the algorithm changes, or if they just stop getting campaigns from other companies, then they're going to be in trouble. And this happens all the time because they won't own their own following, they won't own their own list that they can continue marketing to. So the number one goal is to capture traffic. And the most common way to do that is to ask for someone's name and email address. Now, anywhere you have an online presence, you really should be giving a clear call to action, some kind of call to action, like a, a link they can click on. And this includes all forms of social media, but it also includes the homepage of your website or just really any landing page that you send traffic to. There needs to be a call to action that captures traffic, because when you capture the traffic, then you can direct them to your sales page or to your webinar or to your email sequence, or just your regular weekly emails or your special offer, your seasonal offer, anything you want to. That is the power of capturing traffic makes sense. Right now, you need to give them a reason to give you their info. In marketing, we like to call this the ethical bribe. And you've seen this in many formats. You've seen it in the format of a webinar. Click here to register for my free webinar or my free online web class, my masterclass, et cetera. And you put in your name and your email address, maybe your phone number if you want an SMS reminder, and you click submit, and that entrepreneur or that business now has your contact info. And then what happens? Well, if they're good at their job, then you'll start receiving emails that introduce the business's story and what they offer you, how they can help solve your pain points and get you more of the things that you want, and then they make you an offer. And if they did their job really well, you've probably accepted some of those offers. So, the ethical bribe, and it's basically a mechanism, we like to call it a lead magnet. A lead magnet that delivers Some form of actual value in exchange for your information. And so those ethical bribes, they can take many forms. It could be a PDF, like a free PDF download, cheat sheets, an ebook. It could be audio recordings, it could be a mini course. It could be a video or a video series, or an email series, or just one. One single email that's got some really important bullet points that offer a lot of value. Basically, any kind of lead magnet that you've opted into yourself, that's something that you could do for your business. And so if you're wondering what you should do, well, the answer, of course, is my answer for you is do what lights you up. Pick a lead magnet that matches your business, that matches the way that you communicate with your audience. And of course, ultimately that lights you up. So the next mistake that I see people making with their social media is they don't have a lead magnet. And the lead magnet, again, because it's the ethical bribe that you offer people in exchange for their information. Lacking a lead magnet on your social media really just means one thing. You're doing all this work to build somebody else's following. And what I mean by that is you might think, think that your social media following is yours, but it's not, because you don't own that traffic. Let's say that you've built up a big Instagram following. Is that your following? No, it's Instagram's following. You might own the handle or think you own the Instagram handle, but it's not yours, it's Instagram's. They can change their policies at any moment, they can change their algorithms, they can change whatever criteria that exists currently that allows that following that's under your handle to see your stuff and to interact with you. But it's not your audience. You just think it is. And that is the. That's one of the biggest misconceptions with social media. And so not providing a lead magnet that captures the traffic means you're building someone else's audience. And that's why I again said that the number one goal is to capture traffic. The next mistake that I see people make is they have too many links or too many calls to action. So sometimes you'll see a profile that has a link in the bio, and it's like a link tree, and you click on that link and it's got many links inside the one link. So basically, you click on that link and it opens up a little mini landing page that has a subscribe to my newsletter box and form and then a link to their podcast and a link to their YouTube and a link to their cooking tips and a link to their free ebook and a Link to their $29 special offer and a link to this and that. And they've got all these links. Well, what's the problem with this? A confused mind never buys. But also there's not a clear direction of traffic flow. If you can make it an easy, easy decision, then you'll capture more people's information. So when you go to my social media right now, you'll notice that like on my Instagram, on my onavanrising Instagram, you'll find a link in the bio and there is a mini landing page that's got many links, but at the top of the page is the most important link and it's a different color and it's really obvious that that's the link I want you to click on. And so that's following the rules of having a clear call to action that captures people's information. And then the reason why you might want to provide other links is just because. Well, as much as we'd like to think that one answer fits everyone, it usually is not. True. Correct. And. And so I've got my one primary call to action that I want people to click on, but then I've got other options too for the people that that primary call to action isn't a good fit for. So where do you start with all of this? And I've got a really simple three part framework that you can follow to make sure that you've got a proper link in your bio so that you can capture online social media traffic and convert it into your own traffic that you can then later market to. All right, so this isn't about how to market to people and it's not about to get a following, it's just how to get your link set up in your bio and make sure that you're doing it strategically. Number one, choose a lead magnet that matches what your audience wants from you and opens the door to the rest of your business. So if you've got an Instagram following that follows you because you teach really cool tips on cat training, you're not going to have a lead magnet that's your Grandma's favorite top 10 recipes, because that doesn't match what your audience wants from you. Right? So the lead magnet needs to be something that matches what your audience wants from you. It's going to speak to your niche, to the theme of your business. And very importantly, if you do this well, your lead Magnet will open the door to the rest of your business. Because later on down the road, hopefully soon, you're going to make those people whose information you capture. You're going to make them an offer. And so you want your lead magnet to open the door to those future offers. You're gonna make them. Ideas of what lead magnets you could make or use are PDFs like digital downloads, audio recordings, mini courses, a video, a video series, email series, a single email, those kinds of things I talked about earlier. Number two, add that link to your social media bios and direct attention to it regularly. So don't just throw the link up into your social media bios and and assume that people will click on it because they're fascinated by you. I mean your audience might really like you, but you need to tell people to go to that link in your bio regularly. Do it through your stories, do it through reels, through your video posts, through your image posts or your image carousels anytime you're posting. I mean even when you're doing value add posts, you're not asking people to do anything, you're not trying to sell anything. It's still important to remind people that you've got that freebie or that lead magnet in your bio. By the way, can your lead magnet be a low ticket offer? It totally can. It could be a $10 offer, a $29 offer. It doesn't have to be free, but I suggest having something that is free in your bio. That's the most common form of lead magnet. All right, but you can swap that link out for a low ticket offer sometimes. Or if you've got a special product release, obviously you can put that as the link in your bio. Alright. And then number three, if desired, you can use a pre built link in the bio page. Those little mini landing pages like a link tree that can house your main call to action as well as other ways that you want to engage your audience outside of social media. Now to make this really easy, I've got a special treat for you. If you go to donovanrising.com kajabi that's k a j a b I donovanrising.com kajabI you can get an extended 30 day trial of my favorite online business platform that includes pre built link in the bio pages. So when you look at my link in the bio page on my social media platforms, well that link in the bio little mini landing page, that is a pre built page that came on Kajabi and I love it because Kajabi, as you know Houses all of my email contacts and manages all of my emails. It houses my website, all of my offers, my shopping carts, it processes my transactions, and it houses my online courses and digital products that I sell. But we're not talking about all of that. We're just talking about the link in the bio. And this is one of the easiest ways to make sure that you've got a proper lead magnet that you can then share through your link in the bio in order to capture email addresses, in order to capture online traffic that's flowing through your social media channels. So my friend, my hope for you is, is that you will put this plan into action. This is something that is absolutely essential. If you are spending time curating content on social media, but you're not implementing the link in the bio the strategic way that I've discussed here with you, then you need to take those three simple steps that I just gave you, put those into action. And it's something that you can do over a weekend or even less time than that. You just gotta sit down, focus a little bit. And most of us already have content so that we can repurpose into a lead magnet. You don't have to go write a new ebook or make a whole new video series. You can usually take content you've already curated, already created, even like top performing social media posts could be repurposed into a free lead magnet that you then use to capture information. And once you've captured that information, well then you get to market to those email contacts. And so if you use a platform like what I use, like Kajabi, well then Kajabi has all the marketing power built into it. So again, if you want to try out one of those free link in the bio pages, then I suggest going to dawnofanrising.com Kajabi you can get a free 30 day trial. There are other platforms like Linktree that can do the link in the bio, but to me it doesn't make any sense to have an extra subscription that just does the link in the bio when you can use an all in one platform. And that's really why I do mine the way that I do. Because now my link is built into the same platform that actually captures all of my email addresses and where I actually do all of the marketing to those contacts. So what are you gonna do? Make sure that you've got a killer link in the bio that provides an awesome lead magnet that delivers real value and sets up the future marketing and the future offers that you will make your audience. If you found something valuable in this podcast episode, please do me a favor. Hit that share button. Share it with your colleagues and your friends and and rate and subscribe. We so appreciate those ratings and reviews and the subscriptions too. So much love to you and I will see you on our next episode.