Zach is the Founder of Assistagram, an Instagram growth agency that has helped influencers and Fortune 500 companies accrue millions of new followers on Instagram. Dubbed “the influencer’s secret weapon” by Entrepreneur Magazine, he founded Assistagram to empower influencers such as Les Brown, John Lee Dumas, Russell Brunson, and companies such as ClickFunnels to connect with their target audience and cut through the noise. Throughout his career, Zach has shared stages with powerhouse speakers such as Tony Robbins, Sylvester Stallone, Grant Cardone, Daymond John, and Gary V.
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Resources
Assistagram – Grow Your Instagram Presence.
Instagram Guide – Get your FREE Instagram Growth Guide!
3 Value Bombs
1) The fastest way to set up your Instagram account is to acquire an account already within your niche.
2) You can track if you are on the right path by using hashtags and optimizing your Instagram profile.
3) Use Instagram Analytics to determine the types of posts that give you more engagement and followers.
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Show Notes
**Click the time stamp to jump directly to that point in the episode.
Today’s Audio MASTERCLASS: How to Turn Your Instagram into a Money Making Machine with Zach Benson
[1:36] – Zach shares something interesting about himself that most people do not know.
- He was born in South Korea, his parents adopted him, and he grew up in Iowa.
[3:40] – How realistic is it to make an income from Instagram?
- Zach gets to travel around the world, meet celebrities, get hotel accommodations for free.
- Free travel can save you time and money.
- You get paid for content creation for a specific product or service.
- Partnerships with brands.
- Types of Influencers:
- Micro Influencers – 5,000-25,000 followers
- Macro Influencers – 100,000-500,000 followers
- Celebrity Influencers – over a million followers
[6:59] – What is the best way to get your Instagram set up?
- The fastest way to set up your Instagram account is to acquire an account already within your niche.
- It saves you time, and it drives traffic to your main account.
[8:41] – Isn’t there too much noise for a beginner to stand out?
- It is harder to grow in 2021.
- Zach recommends getting an account that has an extensive page or bigger networks.
- Buy an account that is in your niche.
- Use that account to network with other, more significant accounts.
- It will help your page to get more engagement.
- The year 2021 is all about your network.
- One way to grow the account is through “shout-outs.”
[10:55] – A timeout to thank our sponsors, NetSuite and Flippa!
[13:41] – How do you know if you’re on the right track?
- You can track stats using hashtags and by continuously optimizing your Instagram profile.
- The more your content is seen, the more chance you get to the top posts spot.
- Use Instagram Analytics to determine the types of posts that give you more engagement and followers.
[16:13] – Where does the money come from in the world of Instagram and influencers?
- Once you get a lot of engagement, your account grows.
- Your 1st goal is to get 10,000 followers so you can unlock the story “Swipe up” feature.
- You can put website links into your Instagram Stories.
- A lot of monetization comes from Instagram Stories.
- It is best to catch your audience’s interest – keep them watching, get them to leave a comment, and ask them to follow you.
- Your 2nd goal is to partner with micro and macro influencers to promote your products and create sales.
[19:23] – Zach’s call to action for Fire Nation.
- Assistagram – Grow Your Instagram Presence.
- Instagram Guide – Get your FREE Instagram Growth Guide!
Transcript
0 (2s):
Lights that spark fire nation. JLD here with an audio master class on how to turn your Instagram into a money making machine to drop these volleyballs. I brought Zach Benson on the mic. Zach is a founder of assistagram an Instagram growth agency. That's helped influencers in fortune 500 companies accrue millions of new followers on Instagram, dubbed the influencers secret weapon by entrepreneur magazine. He founded a Assistagram to empower influencers such as Les Brown, John Lee Dumas that's me. JLD Russell Brunson and companies such as ClickFunnels to connect with their target audience and cut through the noise throughout his career.
0 (42s):
Zach has share stages with powerhouse speakers, such as Tony Robbins, Sylvester Stallone grant Cardone, Damon, John and Gary, the incident foundation. We were talking about how realistic it is to make a money from Instagram. What's the best way to rock Instagram in 2021. Is there too much noise out there for a beginner to stand out? How do you know if you're on the right track and so much more? When we get back from thinking our sponsors, don't let QuickBooks and spreadsheets slow you down anymore. It's time to upgrade to net suite. Let NetSuite show you how they'll benefit your business with a free product tour at netsuite.com/fire. Schedule your free product tour right now at netsuite.com/fire netsuite.com/fire Flippa is the world's leading marketplace to buy and sell digital real estate, including websites, e-commerce stores, SAS, businesses, apps, and other online businesses get access to a free instant valuation plus insights on how to improve scalability for your business at flippa.com/fire.
0 (1m 42s):
Zack say what's up to fire nation brother and share. So the interesting about yourself that most people don't know, Hey, what's up
1 (1m 50s):
Everyone super excited to be here. So most people don't know that I was actually adopted. So I was born in South Korea and then adopted by my parents in Iowa. So pretty much grew up in Iowa, lived there my whole life.
0 (2m 5s):
Very interesting stuff. My man. And now you're over in Korea as we speak, which is cool. That again, it sounds like you're in the next room via Skype. So just lovely stuff, even though it's 4:00 AM your time and 4:00 PM my time. So we are exactly 12 hours apart and fire nation. I'm going to share a little more info about Zack, because we were actually just reminiscing about the old Puerto Rico mastermind days back when we used to have a bunch of awesome people come and attend a great event. And we had Zach as a speaker one year and he came and crushed it. And then we hit the casino afterwards and Zach continued to crush it on the roulette wheel. I was playing a little a blackjack.
0 (2m 45s):
I looked up to some screaming over by the roulette table and you just hit your number right on top. My man, that was pretty impressive.
1 (2m 54s):
Yeah, the good old days. Good times. It was weird. Cause I arrived at the airport and at that time they had the roulette real as like the baggage. Well, yeah, right. And so I basically said, Oh, like, okay, I'm going to call my favorite number. And it landed on my favorite number, which is number five. And then I put like all my money, I guess, or whatever number five. Cause it was like two, 2:00 AM. And it was closing and we all went wild. It was crazy
0 (3m 25s):
Red five or for the wi
1 (3m 27s):
n. And I'll tell you what fire nation, when you can call numbers on a roulette wheel at 37 to one, odds are, you're making $37 for every dollar you put on. That's what you call a money-making machine. But guess what? Zach also knows how to turn your Instagram into a money-making machine. So first and foremost, listen, it's a new world that we live in. So how realistic is it Zach to make income from Instagram? A lot of new exciting features have been rolling out on Instagram. So man, it's, it's really cool. Like before this, I was actually just last week, actually last month I've been in MALDIVES for an entire month.
1 (4m 13s):
And some of the hotels that I've been seeing that costs over 30, $40,000 a night. So not only do I get to travel the world for free and say all these hotels and meet these celebrities and say hotels that like will Smith stays at, but these hotels pay me to come and promote their hotels. And it's it's cool. So yeah, I'm, I'm doing it. But then also a lot of brands and companies are pouring a lot of money into influencer marketing. So influencer marketing is now a $15 billion industry and more and more brands are pouring a lot of money on Instagram and paying these Instagram influencers to promote their products on their Instagram feed and walls because it drives traffic and it drives customers.
0 (5m 5s):
So let's get specific right here on the realisticness of actually making income. So, you know, you're getting to stay at places for free influencers. Is this $15 billion industry now. And of course growing for sure what are some ways that you've really seen that these influencers, people that actually have followings are making actual money in their pocket,
1 (5m 30s):
Travel free travel. So it saves some time and money. And then a lot of these countries like Dubai or the maladies, they pay influencers to come over and create content and share about it. So that's one way they get paid. The other way is that these influencers partner with these brands. So like, let's say a, maybe a Akido like Akido health shaker, or some type of fitness supplement. These companies pay these influencers to create content with your product, do product placement in their videos. And then they pay them to post on their timeline.
1 (6m 10s):
So influencers are getting paid, you know, multiple, multiple streams of income just by creating continents sharing on under walls. So a lot of brands are paying these influencers and by influencers, I mean there's a lot of different levels, right? There's micro influencers, people that have maybe between like 5,000 to 25,000 followers, or there's more kind of like macro level, like a hundred thousand followers to maybe 500,000 followers. And then, you know, kind of more celebrity influencers, people that have over maybe a million followers. So there's different tiers. And you know, depending on how many followers you have, you get paid more
0 (6m 53s):
Talk about 2021. I mean, this is going to be a new year. You know, it's going to be a year, that's going to have some similarities at 2020, it's going to have, it's going to be a year that hasn't differences to 2020 when it comes Instagram, what's the best way to get our Instagram up and rocking in this new,
1 (7m 13s):
Year, there's a lot of cool ways to get your Instagram up and going. I think the fastest way is to still buy an Instagram account because there's a marketplace for these niche pages. So like let's say that you're interested in like fashion or fitness or, you know, motivation. There's actually places on Instagram that you can buy Instagram accounts that are in your niche. And so I always recommend people to first acquire an account like in, in the niche that they, they want to go in because it's, it saves you time and it's kind of growth hacking it.
1 (7m 54s):
And you get to see like what types of content these people are posting and you can use this account to then drive traffic to your main account. So, you know, two is better one than one. So like if I'm trying to get a bunch of motivational followers, then it'd be best for me. And to, to acquire like a motivational account, that's like put reposting all of these motivational quotes and motivational videos from people like Tony Robbins or like Gary V and use that account to drive traffic, to like, let's say my personal account, which is all about motivation, but it's more like my motivational stories in my own experiences.
1 (8m 35s):
If that makes sense.
0 (8m 36s):
It makes a lot of sense. But I think a lot of people are going to wonder, Hey, is there just too much noise out there? Like there's just too many people trying to do the same thing. Just like posting quotes on Instagram or quick little inspirational messages or just reposting things that other things are posting. I mean, is there too much noise for a beginner to stand out in today's world it's 2021.
1 (8m 56s):
So it's, it's become a lot harder to grow. So that's why I recommend that you acquire like a big pager. You get into these bigger like networks with other pages that have, you know, massive amounts of followings, because it's really about your network. Because with the big network, you can then get your content seen, known and heard all over the place by getting engagement from these bigger accounts. So step one is to really like either buy an account that's like in your niche, use that account to network with other bigger accounts, get into what's called engagement groups so that you can get your content seen and liked by accounts that have maybe 50,000 followers or a hundred thousand followers.
1 (9m 50s):
And when you do it still hits the algorithms so that when, so that your content is seen, seen on their feeds and their timelines, which then drives traffic to your page and hopes your content, get more engagement and in your page get more followers. So in 2021, it's all about like your network because the bigger your friends are and your friends on Instagram are, and the bigger the network groups that you're in, the more that you will grow, because the only way to really grow now and here in 2020 and 2021 is through a out network. So it's basically like a shout out or shout outs.
1 (10m 31s):
So you, you, you are promoting so other people are promoting you on their walls saying, Hey, like, go, go follow Zach. Or Hey, go follow John, you know, for more motivation or more travel. And so you have to get a bunch of these shout outs into, into to actually grow your account,
0 (10m 50s):
The fire nation. We're going to be talking about how you can know if you're on the right track. Where does the money actually come from? And we'll talk about automating some of these things cause listen, I know not everybody that's listening has all the time in the world to grow these things from the ground up. When we get back from thinking our sponsors, considering selling your business or wondering where to even start, when it comes to finding out how much your online business is worth, meet flipper, the world's leading marketplace to buy and sell digital real estate, including websites, e-commerce stores, SAS, businesses, apps, and other online businesses, their mission to give every business owner a pathway to exit. So how do they do it for starters, visit flippa.com/fire and get access to a free instant valuation for your online business plus insights on how to improve sellability.
0 (11m 36s):
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0 (12m 17s):
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0 (12m 59s):
Right now, let NetSuite show you how they'll benefit your business with a free product tour at netsuite.com/fire schedule your free product tour right now at netsuite.com/fire netsuite.com/fire. So Zach we're back and, you know, before the break, we talked about how realistic it is to make money from Mr. Graham, the best ways to do it. Is there too much noise out there? How can we actually stand out as a beginner? How do we know if we are that beginner? If we're on the right track, what are some of those signs,
1 (13m 28s):
Basic things that you can still do and still, and things that still work today are using the right hashtags and optimizing your profile on Instagram. And by doing like two, these two simple tricks by using hashtags that have smaller number of posts on them, you can get your content seen. And eventually as your content is seen more, you're going to start to hit the top nine posts, 12 posts for that, that hashtag, which is going to get you more followers. So the best thing that you can do, like when you're first starting out is to start with a really big hashtag this down narrow down, like start with the hashtag, like, like if you're in the real estate industry, for example, it started with the hashtag real estate, which probably has millions and millions of posts on it because it's really big one and everybody uses it.
1 (14m 23s):
And, and when you type in the hashtag real estate, people are gonna, you're gonna find other hashtags that have, that are related to real estate that have a lower number of posts. And you want to use those hashtags when you're first starting out on your posts and you want to create, you know, write down 25, 30 different hashtags, which equal hashtag set. You want to create multiple sets of these hashtags that have, you know, 50 to a hundred thousand posts on them, a hundred to 250,000 and so on, like lower than a million. And you're going to start to see some trash. And I mean, you'll be able to tell by your internal Elidel analytics on Instagram, that, you know, these certain hashtags give you more followers or more impressions, more reach, more engagement.
1 (15m 10s):
And so you always want to be checking like on like, you know, in your internal app, like on Instagram and seeing the analytics every day, every week to see which types of posts give you more engagement, more follows, what time of day your followers are engaging with you. And to use that data, to create content posts when they're most active.
0 (15m 40s):
So where exactly Zack does the money come from, like really uncover this box of seemingly secrecy and confusion that a fire nation may have about where exactly this money in this world of Instagram and this world of influencers actually comes from.
1 (15m 58s):
So once you're using the right hashtags, are you doing these engagement groups or you're networking with all of these bigger accounts and you're getting your content seen and heard and all over the place you're going to start to grow. And the first benchmark that you want to hit is 10,000 followers. Because when you have over 10,000 followers, you unlock a really cool feature called the story, swipe up. So you can actually put website links into your Instagram stories. Now there's over 600,000 people using Instagram stories every single day. So when you have over 10,000 followers, you can do a call to action, say, Hey, swipe up to learn more.
1 (16m 40s):
And a lot of companies, a lot of influencers, a lot of people are monetizing Instagram stories really well because, you know, step one, you peak somebody's interest by having an optimized profile, right? You can put one website link, one link in your Instagram profile bio. So they see your, see your bio. They see your page, they see your content, you know, they click, you know, piques their interest on Instagram. You have to really peak their interest in, you know, a matter of seconds, like a couple of seconds to get them to click, to keep watching, to comment, to hit follow. And then, you know, it's, it's multiple exposures.
1 (17m 22s):
So when you have over 10,000 followers and you can put links in your Instagram stories, that's another exposure, massive exposure, and another opportunity for monetization, because you can put a, another link in there and then with a call to action. So that's like the first step is getting over 10,000 followers. And the second step is just, you know, to work with other, like a lot of brands and people. So the first step is $10,000. Once you have 10,000 followers, you want to partner with other micro influencers, other influencers, macro influencers, get an army of them, you know, creating content posting about you, sharing your product.
1 (18m 10s):
And through that, once you get a whole army of that, like, you know, 20, 30, 40, 50 influencers promoting you, you have user generated content that you can use on your page and also, you know, have all of these influencers promoting your product. And that's, that's what really creates the sales.
0 (18m 28s):
So furnish, I really hope you're understanding this process in how it works and where it works through. And, you know, there's a reason why people like myself and Russell have been using a Assistagram to increase our followers and to increase our overall Instagram influence and do all these really cool things with it. So Zach, why don't you kind of break it down for us, how fire nation could potentially get involved with you at Assistagram? You know, even if it's just at least learning more from you about this process. So give us a final value bomb slash takeaway from this episode, give us a way that we can learn more about you at a Assistagram and work with you at Assistagram.
0 (19m 8s):
And then we'll say goodbye.
1 (19m 9s):
When you go to our website at Assistagram.com. Another awesome dive bomb is, is that we have like awesome growth hacking guide that you can grab. And it teaches you a little bit about like, like stuff that we talked about, but a lot more how to optimize your profile to hashtags engagement groups, everything is on there on the free guide. So you can grab it a Assistagram.com and think of a Assistagram as your own like personal virtual assistant or your own Instagram graphic designer, growth team member. That's doing everything for you, creating your content, polishing up your content repurpose and your content doing posting for you, doing the hashtag student engagement groups, hundreds of thousands of manual actions that you have to do every single day, but don't want to do because you don't have time and you want to focus on other things.
1 (20m 1s):
We do it all for you, and we grow your account. Thousands of followers, real followers, targeted followers every single month. So that's what we do. We'd love to help. We'd love to set up a call with you guys. And yeah, you can find out more at Assistagram.com. Fire nation Assistagram.com
0 (20m 21s):
Learn more from Zach and, you know, have some of the benefits that some of the people that, like I said, myself, Russell Brunson and Les Brown and others have had from his services. So fire nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with in hello. You've been hanging out with ZB in JLD today. So keep up that heat and you can head over to eofire.com type Zach in the search bar and his show notes page will pop up. He's actually been on the show a few times. You can listen to past episodes for awesome Instagram tips, and these are the best journals in the biz. So check them out and Assistagram.com. You can check out more about Zach and his business there. And Zach, I want to say thank you brother, for sharing your knowledge, your value, your truth with fire nation today, for that we salute you and we will catch you on the flip side.
2 (21m 8s):
Thanks a lot. Hey,
0 (21m 9s):
Fire nation today's value bond content was brought to you by Zach ans listen, successful entrepreneurs. They accomplish big
2 (21m 17s):
Goals, huge goals.
0 (21m 18s):
That's why I created the freedom journal to guide you in accomplishing your number one goal in 100 days. And we're talking to step-by-step. So visit the freedomjournal.com and use promo code podcast, fire nation, which we'll get you a $15 discount. And thank you for listening to my podcasts and I'll catch you there, or I'll catch you on the flip side.
2 (21m 37s):
Flippa
0 (21m 38s):
Is the world's leading marketplace to buy and sell digital real estate, including websites, e-commerce stores, SAS, businesses, apps, and other online businesses get access to a free instant valuation plus insights on how to improve sellability for your business at flippa.com/fire. Don't let QuickBooks and spreadsheets slow you down anymore. It's time to upgrade to NetSuite. Let NetSuite show you how they'll benefit your business with a free product tour at netsuite.com/fire. Schedule your free product tour right now at netsuite.com/fire netsuite.com/fire.
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