Do you find Instagram totally annoying because you can’t add links into your posts?
I mean , you can, technically put a link in your post, but it’s not a hyper one. Which doesn’t mean it’s cool and calm and doesn’t have ADHD, it means it isn’t hyperlinked so readers of your post can’t click on it. Instead, to get to where you want to send them they would have to copy the link and then paste it into their browsers. Some people might do this. Most won’t. People are lazy. Which isn’t me criticising your customers; it’s just a fact – when people have extra steps to take in the buying/exploring process they generally don’t take them.
Instagram only let’s you have one ‘official’ link and that’s your ‘Bio Link’.
So when you read people saying; “If you’d like to find out more about A, B, C then click the link in my bio” this is what they’re referring to.
This works fine if you only want to ever send people to one page on your website. Maybe your homepage or your shop etc.
But if you sell multiple things, have multiple freebies and like to mix it up with what you sell and promote it’s a royal pain in the ass only being able to use one Bio Link as you have to change it with EVERY post to make sure it matches with your most recent post.
And that’s fine (admin work, but fine) if, and a big IF, people only look at one of your posts.
But how many times do you see people who follow you and then go and look at loads of your posts? Or look at loads of your posts and then follow you? What if they’re interested in the product/freebie/offer you were talking about four posts ago? The ‘link on bio’ doesn’t work then, because you’ve updated it to match your most recent post!!
ARGHHH!
Honest, just typing this is bringing me out in hives! It’s proper anxiety inducing!
So this is why people use Linktree. Linktree is an external app which allows people to visit just one page and see all of your current links listed. They click whichever link they’re interested in and are taken to the corresponding page of your website.
But I have two bugbears with it.
The first is that I don’t think it’s very pretty. I’ve worked really hard to make my website really soft and welcoming and a place people want to browse around. I always feel jarred when I click someone’s Bio Link and get taken to Linktree as it feels a bit harsh and too much colour and generally a bit ‘off brand’. But this is just my personal preference and you should play around with your own Linktree and see how you feel it matches your own brand.
The second is the most important reason. Why would you want to put all your effort into great Insta content which moves people to take action and want to click on your Bio Link for more info, only for them NOT TO BE TAKEN STRAIGHT TO YOUR INFO ON YOUR WEBSITE. Remember what I said right at the start about adding in extra steps? Well, using an external app like Linktree is certainly an extra, unnecessary step. Granted, it’s then easy enough for people to find what they want and click a link. But…. my resistance goes deeper. Why send anyone to anywhere which isn’t your website?
Why? You shouldn’t be! End of!
If you have a website THEN SEND THEM STRAIGHT TO YOUR WEBSITE!
I’ve felt like this since I started doing Instagram properly for my marketing and I knew I was dead against having a Linktree page. So I created a blog post where I could send people to. It’s still here for you to have a look at for example purposes (Insta Bio Links Blog Post) and here’s an image;
The blog was finnnnne. It worked. To a point. But only if I kept it up-to-date – and I didn’t! And I’ve created so much content over the years that I liked to talk about stuff when I needed to talk about it; not just in the month I first created it. So the blog ended up not being fit for purpose. I stopped using it in December 2020; which in turn put me off posting to Instagram as I didn’t want to use Linktree, but didn’t have a good way of seamlessly getting people from my Instagram to my content.
Until Kimi came along and showed me the light!
Here’s the utterly magical page I have now; look at this beauty 💕😍
You can see that my current freebie Everything You Need to Know About Marketing, my flagship #LoveYourMarketing Course and my Get Started With Hashtags for Instagram Training; all beautifully laid out. And if I want to jump in and change anything it’s a 5 minute (or less!) job.
And here’s a one minute video to show you my old blog post versus my new page versus Linktree; which one do you think is better?
My new page right? It wins hands down!
Kimi Kinsey is a genius; she takes online business owners from messes to masterpieces. And she published a new blog about why you should use your own website over Linktree and created a really detailed (and free) blog walk through on exactly what to do. And it sang to me – it truly did!
The blog is epic, fab, full of advice and is really all you need if you know your way around your website page builder. Kimi shows you what to do with the Elementor page builder for WordPress, but you could do something similar on plenty of other platforms too I’m sure.
Kimi got such fab feedback on the blog she created a plug-and-play template for people to easily create their own Insta Bio page. It’s called; you guessed it, ‘Link In Bio Page Template for Elementor’
To be fair, I didn’t really need the paid-for template as the free blog gave me everything I needed AND I build my pages in OptimizePress not Elementor. But… I really wanted to buy it to say thank you to Kimi for creating such amazing and useful content (it’s super important to support other online biz owners 💕) and because I love buying pretty courses (it’s the new stationery addiction!).
However; that said, I actually watched Kimi’s supporting video walk-through on how to use the template and I picked up a few new design tips which work across both Elementor and OptimizePress, so that was a bonus!
Here is one of Kimi’s gorgeous examples using her template;
In essence you want to use a page design (an actual page, not a blog post) with no navigation and plenty of centralised buttons which you use as links to your Insta related content. If you’re relatively confident with your website you should be able to have a go as most allow you to create a page with no navigation (often called a ‘wide page’ or ‘blank page’) and most also have a button element which allows you to easily drag and drop buttons in (much like you do inside of your html email builders like Mailchimp and Flodesk). Then it’s a case of making it look pretty and using your brand colours. And then you can super easily show off new content/courses/freebies and easily move things around to be in the best order.
It also prompted me to give my bio an update too as it was probably a few years old now and included hashtags which I wasn’t using regularly on my posts (if hashtags confuse you, my beginners training will help you sort them out!)
But Kimi explains it all waaaay better than I do and you can see her demo page here too: demo Link in Bio page
Using your own Insta Bio page on your website brings people directly into your world; they get a wonderful first impression and an easy-to-scan list of what you have on offer. And you’re immediately getting traffic directly to your website as soon as someone clicks your Bio Link in Instagram; you’re no longer giving that traffic to a third party site such as Linktree.
You know how important I think Customer Service is in your marketing plan and creating a great first impression is all part of Customer Service.
I reckon you can give it a go.
And I want to see when you do. Remember my #donenotperfect advice if you’re wondering to give it a go or not!
I really hope this has been useful, with loads of love and Marketing,
P.S. I got featured in Kimi’s blog; ‘Link In Bio Page Template Examples (Alumni Edition)’ where she showed off what her students had created with her template. I was like Star Pupil! ⭐
Final P.S. There are affiliate links for products in this blog; and all for people and products I’ve used and love. If you purchase using my link I you pay no more and I received a percentage of your sale. You can read about why I’m such a fan of Affiliate Marketing over on my Rescources Page.