You Don’t Need More Followers – You Need More Conversions

In this episode, we’re busting a huge marketing myth—the idea that more followers automatically mean more success. If you’re chasing vanity metrics like follower count, but your business isn’t making more money, it’s time to shift your focus.

We’ll break down:

✅ Why engagement, relationships, and conversions matter more than numbers.

✅ How to shift your strategy from growing an audience to growing your revenue.

✅ Actionable steps to attract the right people and turn them into paying customers.

Connect with me

Website: www.newschoolofmarketing.com
Facebook: @newschoolofmarketing
Facebook group: @newschoolofmarketing
Instagram: @bianca_mckenzie

Work with me:

🟠 NEW SCHOOL OF MARKETING BUSINESS CLUB: a supportive, action-focused community where business owners get weekly coaching, expert feedback, and co-working sessions to stay consistent, accountable, and strategic with their marketing—so they can finally see real results.
https://newschoolofmarketing.com/club

🔵 MARKETING STRATEGY & COACHING: customised marketing strategies, expert guidance, and hands-on support to help business owners attract more leads, increase sales, and grow sustainably—without the guesswork. https://www.biancamckenzie.com/coaching/

⚫️ CHECK MY WEBSITE: https://www.biancamckenzie.com/

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Transcript

Welcome to the new School of Marketing podcast. I'm Bianca McKenzie, and this is the place where we break down marketing strategies that actually work without the overwhelm.

Before we begin, I want to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which I live and work, the Palawa people of Lutruwita. I pay my respect to their elders, past and present, and I extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples listening.

Today, let's dive in and make marketing work for you.

Okay, today we're talking about something that I see way too often.

Business owners that are obsessed with getting more followers, but they're actually not making more money.

Listen, I get it.

Watching your follower count grow feel feels really exciting.

But if those followers aren't actually engaging with you, turning into leads, or actually buying your offers, they're literally just numbers on the screen.

More doesn't always mean better.

I would actually say that a thousand engaged followers are much better than 10,000 people who literally don't care.

And five, quality leads are much better than 100 random website visitors.

Ten loyal customers are better than a thousand interested people who never buy.

So we're going to shift your focus from vanity metrics to actually real business growth. I'm going to show you how to create a strategy that actually gets more conversions and not just more followers.

All right, let's dive in.

So let's get real. Why do so many business owners fixate on a follow account?

Part of it is validation.

We've all been conditioned to think that more followers equals more success. And yes, in some cases, having a larger audience can help your brand grow. But if you're not actually converting that audience into customers, what's the point?

Think about it. Would you rather have 10,000 followers who never engage, or a thousand who actually comment, share, and buy from you? Or, you know, what about having 100 people visit your website but never take action?

Or five who actually book a call, sign up for your email list and they buy?

The truth is, quality business tweets quantity every time. We know that, right? We know this. Quality over quantity. We say it all the time. So why do we still focus on follow account and vanity metrics?

Focusing only on vanity metrics can actually distract you from what really matters, and that is building relationships and making sales. You're in business to make sales, so let's get real about that.

So if more followers are not the goal, what should you be focusing on?

The first one is engagement. Engagement over followers. Engagement is a much better indicator of success than the number of followers you have. People who comment DM you&share your content are actually more likely to become customers or refer you to other people.

Another one is relationships overreach. Instead of chasing more followers, you need to nurture the ones that you already have.

Reply to comments, send personal DMs and really create content that starts conversations.

And yes, you can sometimes be a bit polarizing or even, you know, controversial as long as it aligns with what you're doing. But yeah, create conversations. And another one is conversions over clicks.

A viral post might get you thousands of likes, but does it actually lead to sales?

Some do, some don't. But it's not about going viral, it's about making sales.

So instead of worrying about reach, you need to focus on getting people onto your email list. You need to focus on booking calls or getting them to purchase your product, obviously without being constantly just having posts that say, buy my stuff, buy my stuff, buy my stuff.

It's about engagement. You need to actually create content, like I said, that starts conversations that really bring something up, brings out value.

A small, highly engaged audience will always, always outperform a big disengaged one. And the best part, it's much easier to convert people who already know, like and trust you. When you have those relationships, people will work with you. They will buy from you or they will refer you.

This is nothing new and I know you know this.

Anyway, now that we've covered why engagement and relationships matter more than followers, let's talk about how to shift your your strategy.

The first step is to optimize your content for engagement and action.

So instead of posting for the sake of posting, you need to actually create content that sparks conversations, that really gets people moving.

Use CTA. So calls to action that encourage comments, DMs and shares like get people to take an action, ask questions, run polls in like your Instagram stories, really invite your audience to participate. And I'm going to put here that it's going to take a while because people, your people that are following you, a lot of them might not be actually engaging and they might not have been, and let's use air quotes here, trained to do that. So it's Going to take a while.

And after a while or once you get, you know, a certain type of content out there, people might actually start engaging with it. But I just wanted to say this because sometimes you start posting that type of content and you're like, well, nobody's engaging.

Even though, even though I'm actually doing all the right things, it is going to take some time.

Step number two is nurture your audience like they are already customers.

You need to show up consistently with value driven content.

Share behind the scenes, share insights, personal stories, share your client wins. Treat your audience like a community, not just followers.

So you're really kind of giving them so much already because you your nurturing, nurturing them like they are already customers.

Step number three is prioritize lead generation over vanity metrics. Your email list is way more valuable than your Instagram following.

Instead of just growing your social media, focus on getting people onto your list. And you can do that with freebies, you can do that with like low ticket paid offers.

You can do it with workshops. Some people do it with exclusive content.

It's up to you what you feel drawn to and also what your audience would actually want.

Then step number four, make it easy for people to buy.

If you're engaging with your audience but you're not clearly offering a next step, you're missing out on sales.

So you need to create a clear customer journey. What happens after someone follows you? What are you going to do? And at the early stages when you don't have that many followers, you might actually actively send them a DM saying hey, thanks for the follow, can't wait to, you know, share this journey with you. And like nothing else, like no salesy nothing, just connecting connection. It's so important.

So create a clear customer journey.

Are you actually guiding them to book a call to sign up for your freebie or to actually buy your product? If nobody knows what you are selling and how to buy it, nobody's going to buy it.

So you do need to tell them. You need to tell them what the next step is.

So when you shift from chasing numbers to actually deepening a relationship and guiding your followers towards action, you'll actually start seeing real business growth. It's going to take time and it's going to take consistency, but you will start seeing changes.

Okay, before we wrap up, let's talk about some common mistakes that keep people stuck in the more followers equals more success trap.

The first one is focusing only on growth. Without engagement, you don't actually need more people.

You need to connect better with the people you already have.

Let me say that again. You do not need more people.

You need to connect better with those that you already have.

Mistake number two is ignoring your existing audience.

If you're always chasing the next follower, but you're never nurturing your current ones, you're missing opportunities. What's the point in just more, more, more more followers if you're not doing anything with the ones that you already have?

Mistake number three is not having a clear offer or next step. So if somebody finds you today, do they know what to do next?

And that is something that you need to look at.

So make sure that your audience has a clear path to becoming a customer. And instead of getting caught up in vanity metrics, focus on the actions that actually move the needle.

All right, let's wrap up the big takeaway. More followers don't mean more sales.

It's engagement, relationships, and conversions that actually grow your business.

So here's my challenge for you. Look at your current audience.

How can you connect with them better?

And another one is, do you have a clear path for people to become customers?

And if not, that's your next step.

And if you want support in making real marketing moves that lead to real business growth, make sure that you check out the new School of Marketing Business Club inside. We focus on practical strategies that get results, not just more followers.

You can find all the details at www.newschoolofmarketing.com thank you so much for tuning in to the new School of Marketing podcast. If you found this helpful, make sure to subscribe, leave a review and share this episode with a fellow business owner.

Until next time, focus on what matters and market your business every day.