Your Clients Aren't on Social Media Anymore. Here's Where They Are.

Social media has stopped bringing in coaching clients or clients in general. In fact, I quit Instagram over a year ago, and last year alone I had the best year in my business bringing in more clients than I have before. And I wanna tell you where your potential clients and customers have gone to make buying decisions. If you never watched a video of mine before, hi, my name is Trena Little, and I help established coaches use YouTube as a sales asset. And as I said, almost 2 years ago I quit Instagram and yeah, I hated it, but that's not exactly why I quit it. I laid out all the data that I had. I looked at the amount of content I was putting into Instagram, looked at the amount of content I was putting into YouTube, and more importantly, I looked at the conversions on my sales page from the traffic from Instagram versus the traffic from YouTube. And my YouTube traffic was converting 3 times higher than my Instagram traffic. Well, I was spending way more time creating Instagram content, feeding the algorithm. So the math wasn't mathing for me, so I quit. And it was the best business year I have I had, not only booking client-wise but stress-wise, because I wasn't constantly having to create content every single day for Instagram. So what I'm going to cover here in this video for you is why social media stopped booking clients for you, even if you have great content, where your buyers are actually looking for you now, and the little corner of the content map that's growing the fastest that I don't see anybody really talking about. The reason why social media stopped working to get you clients isn't because of the algorithm, even though the marketing gurus and the Instagram gurus gurus will complain about the algorithm changing all the time. And it's not because you're not creating enough content or good enough content or trendy enough content. It's because social media content and the social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok are made for entertainment. Your potential customer is not in a buyer state of mind when they open up Instagram or TikTok. And both of those platforms are meant to keep people scrolling. So that's not gonna get people to a sales page or people to an application or even people on your email list. And that's why it's not against the algorithm. The algorithm is doing exactly what it's supposed to be doing, keeping people scrolling while they're laying in bed at 9 o'clock at night, just trying to unwind from the day that they had, trying to get their kids on the school bus on time and making dinner. And that's how I want you to really think about the content you're creating on these platforms and you're spending so much time on. Think about your person that you want to watch your video. Let's say you're an accountant and you have a Reel explaining why it's important for your potential customer to be an LLC versus an S corp. And it's a really great video. I mean, maybe that potential customer watches that video. But if it's 9 o'clock at night and they're sitting on the couch and they're unwinding and they're just trying to disassociate from the day that they had, because amen, that's all of us at 9 o'clock at night, give me a yes in the comments if you can totally relate. She's probably gonna nod in agreement. She may even save it and think, oh, that was pretty useful, I should come back to that. And then swipes and the algorithm is serving her a deep dive on the conspiracy theory between Wes and Amanda and when they really started dating. And let's be real, they really started dating in the fall, am I right? And all of a sudden that value you just gave her is out the door thinking about summer house. That platform wants her to keep scrolling and getting that dopamine hit and not learning more about how you can help her with the problem she's currently having. And that's only the half of it because now with the introduction of AI, AI's not even referencing Instagram or TikTok content. So when your buyer, your potential client is in that buyer's mode, in that problem-solving mode, they're more than likely going to Claude or ChatGPT or Gemini typing in very specific problems that they have wanting to figure out can help them fix this. Like, how can I scale my course business over $10,000 a month? Or why isn't my webinar converting? Or why isn't my sales page converting? Or why am I not losing weight even though I'm doing everything right? AI is going to answer those questions pulling references from articles, Reddit, and the number one resource it's pulling ideas from is YouTube content. None of your good reels, none of your good TikToks, None of that content you spent hours working on is going to be referenced when your potential client or customer is looking to have their problems solved. And as I told you, I have the data to back that up for me and my business. So something that you can do, start tracking your traffic to a sales page, to an opt-in page, to a webinar registration page, and start creating videos on YouTube and look at the data. Is YouTube traffic converting higher or lower than Instagram traffic? Because I want you to really think on this. Yeah. When your buyer or your potential client has the exact problem that your coaching problem solves, what is she going to do? Tell me in the comments. Is she going to scroll Instagram Reels or is she typing that problem she has in a Google search bar, in an AI search, or on YouTube? Because until your good content shows up where she's actually looking for the solution, she's not going to find you. And it will not matter how good your Reel is because reach on Instagram is so, small compared to what it could be on YouTube. I'm not here to say like, don't ever post on social. Social isn't dying. It's amazing for entertainment. I think it is great for nurturing a warm audience that you already have. It just stopped working as a discovery channel, and discovery is where you find new clients for your program. Now let's dive into where your potential new clients are. You know, I kind of already gave it away. Spoiler alert, we talked a lot about YouTube, right? But there are 3 main places that I call the search triangle that you need you need to make sure you are showing up on all 3 of these if you wanna make sure you're growing your audience and you're getting in front of new people who are the perfect fit for your coaching program. So we've got this triangle, right? At the very top of the triangle is the world's second largest search engine, YouTube. And when your client is ready to invest in something, when they want to actually learn how to solve a specific problem that they have, she is going to search YouTube. She is going to want to sit and listen to a long-form video before she makes a decision if you are gonna be the best person to solve her problem because she needs to know you understand the depths of the problem she's having. She needs to understand you get her. She wants to make sure you're not just this general coach that talks to anybody. She needs to know you understand her and her specific problem. And that's why long-form content will always convert better than any short-form content, even a YouTube Short. Because when your ready-to-buy client goes to YouTube. She's there to find an answer that she's willing to sit and watch 20 minutes of a video on. All right, let's go to the next corner of the search triangle and you guess it, we've got to have Google in here. Your potential client, your future client is searching exact problems that they're having in Google and they're not searching broad topics like how to grow my Instagram or how to get more likes, right? They are going there to search very specific problems that they have. So they may be searching how to close more Instagram DM messages., or how to lose weight even if I'm working out 5 times a week. This person is searching those advanced level problems. They're not beginner. The person who's ready to invest is somebody who's been trying, somebody who's been doing it on their own, somebody who has had some results and some success, and now they're stuck at a point where they know they need to invest in somebody to help them get past that stuck point. And this is why having YouTube videos is essential in the search triangle because Google will always reference YouTube videos. Because Google owns YouTube and Google's going to try to keep you on their platforms. So YouTube will always outrank any Instagram content, any TikTok content, even if Google starts referencing Instagram content. So if your content is on YouTube, it's also now showing up on Google without you having to do anything extra. Now on the third corner is AI search. And when I say AI search, I'm talking about all of them, right? I'm talking about Claude, Perplexity, Gen— whatever. And this is the fastest growing corner of the search trend. Triangle, and it's the one a lot of people really aren't positioning for takeover. Because I'm going to tell you what the data says is search in AI is going to surpass Google search by 2028. And so that is telling us where this is all going. Google is going to no longer be the number one search engine in the future. AI will be, and you need to be preparing for that right now. So when your potential client is going to AI, and searching those same questions, your ready-to-buy viewer is asking those specific questions. If they're asking those specific questions, like I said, they are ready to invest to get the result that they want because they've been trying, they've been doing things, they've been seeing success, and they're ready for that next level. And AI will pull answers from, you guessed it, YouTube. And I mentioned this in my last video last week. If you didn't watch it, click here. YouTube has recently surpassed Reddit as the number one reference platform now for AI. YouTube transcripts are getting pooled, summarized, incited when it comes to answering people's questions through AI. So if you are creating YouTube videos, it is going to feed AI the answer to your potential client's question. And that's what makes this search triangle so perfect. Both of these corners feed back to YouTube, meaning YouTube is the one thing that you need to do to hit these 3 massive search engines and the 3 main places that your new potential client is going to, to find the solution that you have and to get you in front of them. Let me show you what this search triangle looks like in one of my clients. This is my client Jackie. She has filled her coaching program before through YouTube and playlist funnels. But here's the next level of results she's getting from YouTube. When we look at the traffic sources, the places that are sending her views, those potential clients, you can see what is showing up in her top traffic sources, both Google and ChatGPT. You can see it's right here in her analytics. Google and ChatGPT are sending her traffic every single day, sending her new viewers, sending her potential new clients every single day. So now Jackie gets to keep growing her email list, growing her list of clients for her coaching program, and she doesn't have to be on Instagram all the time. She has YouTube videos that are doing the work for her in the 3 most important search places that her clients are going to find the solution to their problem, and they're being recommended her and her program as that solution. I'm going to tell you, even being in that triangle isn't enough just to get the right person, because if you are creating content, if you're putting content into this search triangle and you're attracting beginner Bettys, people who are not yet ready for your program, people who are just getting started, like somebody who's searching how to grow an Instagram account or what to write in my Instagram bio, those are people that are not ready for a couple thousand coaching program. The person that's searching how to close more in the Instagram DMs, that is somebody that is more serious, and you need to make sure you're attracting your champagne clients with the champagne problems that they're having. That's what my mentor Mariah Coz always says. You create champagne problem content to attract your champagne clients. So how do you know if your videos or the topics of your videos are going to attract them? I've got a free custom GPT for you to plug in your next video idea, and it's going to tell you, are you attracting beginner Betty? Or are you attracting those expert esters, those champagne clients? Because if you're focused on the wrong content, it doesn't matter how many videos you create, how often you show up on search, it's not going to attract you more clients. It's not going to make you more sales because you need to be attracting the people who are ready to invest in you. So grab that custom GPT at trenalittle.com/whoswatching. If you ever thought to yourself, man, I wish I started Instagram earlier, man, I wish I started TikTok earlier, this— your calling to get on YouTube, to take YouTube seriously. If you can really focus on building your niche YouTube channel and create YouTube videos very specific to the best clients in your coaching program, this is your opportunity to dominate AI search when people are looking for a solution that your program solves. Jackie's not just seeing it in her analytics. I'm seeing in my YouTube analytics, even when I'm not posting, I see it. I also have another client who hasn't posted in over a year, and ChatGPT is still driving her views to her videos to this day. And I want you to understand, everybody thinks YouTube is a lot of work. Everybody thinks that YouTube is going to add more to their plate. But what YouTube actually does is it saves you time. It opens up your discoverability. It gets you on the top 3 search places that people are looking for a solution. This is how you get discovered. This is your new discoverability strategy, being on Google, YouTube, and AI. And the best way, the easiest way to do that is creating one YouTube video a week. Take a break from Instagram and just see what YouTube could do for the growth of your application, of your email list. Because when this triangle does the discovery for you, your head really starts to clear up. That stress and that frustration around social media starts to leave. I quit Instagram and then the comparison game, the chasing game, all left. I stopped opening my app every time thinking how good my Reel or my Tuck did, only to be disappointed that it only got 200 views again. The constant overanalyzing, overthinking, am I doing enough on social media, that spiral disappeared. Took Fridays off. In the summer, we're at the pool by noon. But honestly, the first thing that I got back when I was able to quit Instagram and realize YouTube is the number one place, I got back my own head. There are two things to position for your AI corner. One, obviously you got to make YouTube content. AI can't reference something that doesn't exist, right? And two, You've got to make your YouTube channel very niche in a specific lane for your champagne client or your expert Esther, what I call them, because the more AI can understand exactly who your videos are for, the better it can put those videos and reference you to those people. If you're broad and all over the place, AI's not gonna pull from your channel. AI's gonna pull from a channel it knows for certain. This This is the content that will answer this person's problem. I'm telling you, the AI corner of this search triangle is the corner that will make or break your business moving forward. And now is your time to take that corner over for your niche. I wanna show you how doing this and committing to YouTube and committing to a niche has completely changed the lifestyle of my business and how it's allowed me to run my business without being online all the time. In fact, I got an email recently from somebody that says, How do you have time time to do all of this and still take Fridays off, still go to Amsterdam for a week to see a Harry Styles concert? I'm going to show you exactly that in this video right here. Click to watch.