If you’re on social media to build your brand, your Instagram bio is one of the most important tools available to convert prospects into clients! Read on to learn how to optimize your profile and write a bio that will sell.
First things first, make sure you have a business account, not a personal account. Always categorize yourself as a “Entrepreneur” (this allows you to access all the fun music options for Reels and Stories! Remove the “Entrepreneur” label from your profile, though—it just adds clutter and could cause confusion. Also, add your pronouns and try to use a photo of yourself for your profile photo if you’re a solopreneur. If you’re working from a gym/studio, you can tag them too!
Now you’re ready to optimize your Instagram bio. There are five main sections in your Instagram bio, and they all work together to inform and convert those prospects!
Your @handle
Your @handle is how people tag your account, and it also goes in the URL for your profile. Your @handle should be your name, your industry (fitness, fit, etc), your brand name, or a mix of them all.
Look at your @handle objectively and consider if it’s easy to interpret—if your words mix together strangely, consider adding some punctuation, like Kim did here!
Check out @kim_hansen_coach here!
Your name
Your name will show up on your profile and in DMs and aids search. Instagram is making big improvements on search functionality in the app, but it’s still not perfect. Your account name, along with your @handle, are searchable! You should include some keywords for your account—this will make you discoverable to users who are searching for accounts.
Try something like “[Your first name] | [Your title/niche]”, depending on what of this info is included in your @handle, like Leah did here. This is limited to 30 characters, so be creative!
🔗 Go Beyond Social Media to Strategic Marketing:
The FitPro’s Guide to Getting Your First Sale
Your bio
Use a point-form bio that includes:
- What you do: type of training, your audience niche
- Social proof: success metrics, training, press coverage, awards
- Why they should follow: what you share and promote
- Why they should click: a clear call-to-action to click Follow and click the link.
Crystal does an awesome job of including a clear “what she does” line off the top. She’s also doing great by not using hashtags and @mentions in her bio—both of these will lead people away from your profile, and you want them to stay! Crystal should add a line about her services and social proof, to help lead people to the link.
This is limited to 150 characters, so limit punctuation and emojis.
Your location
If you offer in-person services, then add your city to your profile here! This helps Instagram understand where you are based and who to show your content to. If you’re online-only or target clients way beyond your local region, then you can leave it off.
Danni here has her locations listed in her bio, but she should also include the regional location tag for whichever is her primary location. (She’s also driving straight to her Trainerize.me profile with her link, which we love!)
Your link
It’s super important that your link directs people to where you want them to go. Here, Nessa uses her link to book a consultation on her studio website. Both the CTA above it and the link itself clearly communicate what is going to happen from clicking. If you’re a Trainerize trainer, use your link to drive straight to your services page on your own website or to your Trainerize.me profile.
Now that you can add links in Stories no matter how big your audience is, you can use your bio link for one thing, like a consultation, and drive to other destinations from Stories.
So that’s the basics of your Instagram bio! The great thing is, you can test all the different versions you want—just make sure to monitor the results so you know what’s working and what’s not.
Looking for a longer-form bio for other platforms? Look no further…