How to sell workout programs to your Instagram followers

Your followers already watch you train. Selling them a program means closing the gap between watching and doing, and on Instagram that gap is a link, a reason and a reminder. Each has mechanics worth knowing.

Where can you put a link?

Instagram has two places built for a link.

Two more places carry the conversation.

• Direct messages. A reply to a Story is the warmest signal you will get. Answer it yourself, and send the link in the reply. A tactic we see often: ask followers to comment a keyword, then send the link by message, sometimes through an automation tool. It turns a public comment into a private conversation. Instagram's rules on automated messages change, so check them before you rely on one.
• Broadcast channels. A one-to-many message feed from a creator to followers who join, where Instagram has given the account access. Followers can react and vote in polls but cannot message back.⁶ It suits weekly reminders to the people who asked to hear more.

Our advice is to keep the bio simple: one link to one program, so the follower does not have to choose.

How many followers will actually see it?

Fewer than you would guess. That is normal, not a sign that something is broken.

These figures come from a benchmark of 1,470 brand accounts using 2023 data, so treat them as an order of magnitude, not a forecast for your account.¹ Two things follow from them.

Small accounts reach a bigger share. An account under 10,000 followers reaches about five times the share that a very large one does. A small following is a real audience.

One mention is nearly invisible. If a Story reaches 6.5% of 3,000 followers, about 195 people saw it. At 15,000 followers the benchmark is 2.6%, or about 390. The rest did not ignore your program. They never heard about it. Mentioning it twice a week for a month is not nagging. For most followers it is the first time.

The last step is small too. One analytics firm puts the share of visits from Instagram to online stores that end in a purchase at under 1%.⁷ That figure covers general shopping and has no published method, so use it only to set expectations: it takes a lot of visits to make a sale, and warm conversations beat cold clicks.

What should you post?

Show the program in use. Instagram's head has said the three signals that matter most for ranking are watch time, likes and sends.² Instagram's own explainer adds that Stories are ranked on viewing history, engagement history and closeness.⁸ People watch, share and reply to training, not to announcements.

1. The session
"Day 2 of [program name]. Three lifts, 40 minutes. The split squat at the end is the one everyone messages me about. Full program is the link in my bio."

2. The reason
"I wrote [program name] for people who [the situation]. It is [number] weeks, [number] days a week, and every session fits in [minutes]. If that is you, the link is in my bio."

3. The reminder
"A few of you asked where to find the program from last week's reels. It is the link in my bio. If you are not sure it is right for you, reply here and I will tell you honestly."

Do you have to label these posts as ads?

Sometimes, depending on where your followers are.

• Your own program. In the UK, the advertising regulator treats a post about your own product as advertising, and expects it to be obviously identifiable as such.⁹ The regulator is likely to expect a clear "ad" label up front, so do not rely on context alone. If you have UK followers, start the caption with "Ad:".
• Someone else's product. If a brand pays you or gives you something to feature it, Instagram's policies require the paid partnership label.¹⁰ In the US, the Federal Trade Commission says to disclose any financial, employment, personal or family relationship with a brand, and to put the disclosure where people see it without tapping "more".¹¹