Ep. 76: The 30-30-30 Instagram Growth Strategy: Build Engagement + Followers Fast - Call Her Creator with Katelyn Rhoades

Summary

Podcast Summary: Call Her Creator with Katelyn Rhoades
Episode: Ep. 76: The 30-30-30 Instagram Growth Strategy: Build Engagement + Followers Fast
Release Date: June 25, 2025

Introduction

In Episode 76 of Call Her Creator, host Katelyn Rhoades unveils the 30-30-30 Instagram Growth Strategy, a balanced and sustainable approach designed to help creators, entrepreneurs, and small business owners grow their Instagram presence, nurture their audience, and convert followers into paying customers—all without experiencing burnout. Katelyn, leveraging her expertise as a multi-six-figure marketing agency founder and Instagram growth expert, provides a comprehensive blueprint tailored for both budding and established Instagram users aiming to transform their content into consistent income.

Why Most Content Plans Don't Work

Katelyn begins by addressing a common pain point among Instagram users: the ineffectiveness of random content posting. She explains that "most creators don't have a content strategy. They have a content to-do list," leading to disjointed and inconsistent posts that do not serve a strategic purpose (00:00). This lack of planning results in stagnant engagement, unconverted followers, and the overwhelming feeling that Instagram is a time-consuming platform that yields minimal returns.

Drawing from her personal experience, Katelyn shares how her initial random posts only garnered 800 followers. It wasn’t until she adopted a repeatable system—the 30-30-30 strategy—that her Instagram following skyrocketed to 187,000 followers, many of whom trust her and purchase her offerings (02:30). This transformation underscores the necessity of a structured content strategy.

Introducing the 30-30-30 Strategy

The 30-30-30 Strategy is Katelyn's solution to creating a balanced and effective content plan. She breaks down the strategy as follows:

30% Growth Content
30% Nurture Content
30% Sales Content
10% Wild Cards

Katelyn humorously acknowledges the remaining 10%, emphasizing the importance of flexibility: "I leave that open for wild cards because not everybody wants to play in their content all the time" (05:00). This final segment allows creators to incorporate trending topics, personal moments, or seasonal content, ensuring that their feed remains dynamic and engaging.

Deep Dive into the 30-30-30 Components

1. Growth Content (30%)

Purpose: Attract new followers by increasing discoverability.

Katelyn explains: "Growth content is designed to reach new people, to grow your account. It's not about being perfect. It's about being discoverable." (06:15)

Types of Growth Content:

Hook-Heavy Reels: Utilize compelling hooks to capture attention immediately.
Trending Audios with Value Overlays: Combine popular sounds with informative or valuable content.
Text Carousel Posts with Curiosity-Driven Headlines: For example, a carousel titled "This mistake is keeping you stuck at 1,000 followers. What are you going to do?"
Searchable SEO Optimized Content: Content tailored to appear on Instagram’s Explore page, enhancing visibility.

Pro Tip: Katelyn emphasizes the importance of stopping the pursuit of perfection and focusing instead on creating shareable, savable, and relatable content that resonates with the target audience (07:45).

2. Nurture Content (30%)

Purpose: Build trust and loyalty with existing followers.

Katelyn describes nurture content as: "the glue of your brand. Nurture content makes your followers feel like they know who you are. It's where trust is built and loyalty is formed." (09:30)

Examples of Nurture Content:

Behind-the-Scenes: Showcasing how products are made or offering a glimpse into daily business operations.
Personal Storytelling: Sharing the host’s journey, values, and the "why" behind the business.
Client Wins or Transformations: Narratives that highlight client success stories in a storytelling format rather than straightforward reviews.
Mini Trainings and Quick Tips: Providing actionable advice that adds value, such as "Here's how I made a thousand dollars from one reel."
Voiceover Reels and Engaging Clips: Short, concise videos with clear calls to action to keep the audience engaged.

Best Practices: Consistently show your face and voice to humanize your brand, invite followers into your process, and engage through direct interactions like DMs and stories polls (11:20).

3. Sales Content (30%)

Purpose: Convert followers into paying customers without sounding overly salesy.

Katelyn emphasizes: "Sales content is not always about launching. It can sometimes just be about selling without sounding like a car commercial." (15:00)

Examples of Sales Content:

Direct Offers with Urgency: Statements like "Only five spots left for coaching this month."
Soft Sells: Providing snippets or tips from larger products, enticing followers to purchase the full offering.
Clear and Simple Messaging: Avoiding overly clever or vague language to ensure that the value proposition is immediately clear. For example, "Instagram sales course" is more effective for SEO than "Hot girl sales course."

Pro Tips:

Focus on Benefits: Clearly articulate how the offer solves a pain point or improves the follower’s life.
Consistency: Repeatedly mention your offers to become the go-to person for that solution in your niche (17:45).
SEO Optimization: Use straightforward naming conventions to enhance discoverability.

4. Wild Cards (10%)

Purpose: Introduce flexibility and spontaneity into the content plan.

Katelyn explains: "The 10% is wild cards. That's viral trends, personal moments, seasonal content. Think of that as your flex space." (06:45)

Usage: Utilize wild cards to keep the content fresh and allow for creative expression without adhering strictly to the strategy.

Putting the Strategy into Action

Katelyn provides a practical framework for implementing the 30-30-30 strategy over a 30-day period. For instance, if you plan to post four times a week (16 posts):

5 Growth Posts
5 Nurture Posts
5 Sales Posts
1 Wild Card Post

Adaptability: Adjust the focus based on current goals. For example, if preparing for a product launch, prioritize nurture and sales content.

Pro Tip: Repurpose content to maximize efficiency. One idea can be transformed into multiple formats, such as a reel, a caption post, and a story slide (22:00).

Engagement and Community Building

Katelyn encourages listeners to actively engage with her and other community members:

DM Her: Share which content pillar you excel in and which one needs more attention.
Share Your Money Walk: Promote a sense of community by sharing personal milestones and tagging Katelyn.
Feedback and Interaction: Start conversations in DMs, use Instagram stories polls, and engage with followers to strengthen relationships (24:00).

Conclusion and Call to Action

Katelyn wraps up the episode by reiterating the importance of having a strategic content plan over chasing virality. She motivates listeners to adopt the 30-30-30 strategy to achieve sustainable growth and income on Instagram. Additionally, she invites listeners to share the episode, leave reviews, and engage with her on social media to amplify the reach of Call Her Creator.

Notable Quote:
"You don’t need to go viral to be valuable. You just need a plan." (29:30)

Final Thoughts

Episode 76 of Call Her Creator offers a thorough and actionable strategy for Instagram growth, emphasizing the balance between attracting new followers, nurturing existing ones, and effectively converting them into customers. Katelyn Rhoades combines practical tips with personal anecdotes, making the 30-30-30 strategy both relatable and implementable for creators at any stage of their Instagram journey.

Follow Katelyn Rhoades:
Instagram: @thekatelynrhoades
Website: enfluencestudio.com

Powered by Stan:
Stan Creator Store

Transcript Reference

00:00: Introduction to the episode and the 30-30-30 strategy.
02:30: Personal success story emphasizing the effectiveness of the strategy.
05:00: Explanation of the 10% wild card content.
06:15: Detailed definition of growth content.
07:45: Importance of shareable and relatable content.
09:30: Definition and importance of nurture content.
11:20: Best practices for nurture content.
15:00: Introduction to sales content and its nuances.
17:45: Pro tips on sales content.
22:00: Advice on repurposing content.
24:00: Encouraging community engagement.
29:30: Closing remarks emphasizing strategic planning over virality.

This summary captures the essence and key takeaways from Episode 76 of "Call Her Creator," providing a comprehensive guide for listeners to implement the 30-30-30 Instagram Growth Strategy effectively.

Transcript

Kaitlyn Rhodes (0:00)

All right, boys and girls, if you're tired of throwing content at the wall and hoping it sticks, if you feel like you're stuck in the post and praise cycle, then today's episode is about to change the game. I'm sharing a simple content strategy called the 303030 method. It's a balanced plan that helps you grow, nurture, and sell consistently without that burnout. Girl, we ain't doing no burnout. And the best part about all of this is that it works whether you have 300 followers or 30,000 followers. So let's dive in. Welcome back, y' all. To call her creator. Powered by Stan. This is the podcast from women who are building brands, creating content, and turning that influence into income. I'm your host, Kaitlyn Rhodes, and today we're going to get tactical. If you're a business owner, digital product creator, social media manager, whatever it is that you're doing, you're trying to show up consistently on Instagram and I see you. But if you actually want to see results, then this episode is your blueprint. So let's start out with why most content plans don't work. This is why your content is bombing. Most creators don't have a content strategy. They have a content to do list. They post a reel one day, a quote the next day, maybe a photo dump on Friday. But it is super duper random. There's no plan behind what each post is doing for your business. They that's why your engagement has stalled. That's why followers don't convert, and it's why you feel like Instagram is a full time job that pays you in likes. How much we getting paid? 3 likes. $3. So if that sounds like you, truly, truly no shame, I've been there. If you scroll to the end of my Instagram account, you gonna see some funny things up in there. I was sharing quotes, I shared pictures of my dog. I showed pictures of my son's toes. Don't know why I did that. My. There's so much randomness on my Instagram from the beginning. But what's funny is that randomness got me 800 followers. And that was it. It stuck at 800 followers. I can never, ever grow. I finally started using a repeatable system, the 303030 strategy. That's where all this comes in. And look at me now, mama. I got 187,000 followers on there. They buy from me. They trust me, most of them. And you can do this too. You just gotta follow this strategy and it's super duper easy. So let Me break down what the strategy is, and then we'll get really nitty gritty with it with some examples. Okay, so the 30, 30, 30 strategy is a content breakdown that ensures that you're not just growing, but you're nurturing your audience and you're driving revenue. You are doing something with your content. You are not throwing that spaghetti at the wall. You are turning your followers into paying customers. So here's how it works. Your content is broken up. 30, 30, 30. So 30% is growth content, 30% is nurture content, and 30% is sales content. Don't worry, I will tell you what that other 10% is. So the growth content is designed to reach new people, to grow your account. The nurture content is meant to build trust with your current followers, and then the sales content converts those followers into paying customers. Now, now, what about that 10%? Because you thought that I didn't know math. And I will tell you that I actually don't know math, but I do when it comes to 30, 30, 30, I know that equals 90, and you got 10 more for a hundred. So that final 10, are y' all sick of me yet? That final 10, I leave that open for wild cards because not everybody wants to play in their content all the time. And I never want y' all to be glued to, like, the specific strategy. Like, you have to have some days where you can just post whatever the crap you want to post. So the 10% is wild cards. That's viral trends, personal moments, seasonal content. Think of that as like your. Your flex space. Right? Flexion. Yeah. All right, so what is growth content, Caitlin? Because right now, sister friend, I'm at a thousand followers and I'm ready to grow. I'm ready to blow up. I'm ready to start this business from Instagram. Let me tell you, I got the answer for you. Growth content is what helps you attract new eyeballs to your page. It's not about being perfect. It's about being discoverable. So types of growth content, hook heavy reels. So three things I'd do if I started over on Instagram in 2025. Very hook heavy. Trending audios with value overlays. That's a trending audio reel. With you putting some type of value, you write it out as the text carousel post with curiosity driven headlines. So maybe that first carousel, carousel graphic says, this mistake is keeping you stuck at 1000 followers. What are you gonna do? You're gonna want to swipe. And finally, searchable SEO optimized content. This is great for the Explore page. What have I told y' all about the Explore page? That is how you blow up your account. I've got an episode about the Explore page specifically and how to get found on there. If you go a couple episodes back, super duper valuable to listen to. Definitely recommend it for your next money walk. Speaking of money walk, I hope you are walking right now while y' all are listening to this podcast episode. And, and if you are, take a selfie, show me that grin, share it to your stories, and tag me the Kaitlyn Rhodes. Call her creator. I've had a lot of gals sharing their money walks. Some of them are pushing their babies in their stroller, some of her walking their dogs. Some are just walking themselves. And I love it. It brings me so much joy. So please keep sharing your money walks, because we're going to start a movement. What matters here, though, with the growth content is that you stop trying to impress and you just try to connect with your. Your perfect audience. You want to make shareable content, savable content, relatable content. Put yourself in your target audience's shoes. You're not making content for yourself. You're making it for them. You are not showing up for yourself. You are giving people a reason to follow you. All right, next type of content was the nurture. Nurturing content is really good. Like, the best way to explain it is like the glue of your brand. Nurture content makes your followers feel like they know who you are. It's where trust is built and loyalty is formed. So some examples of nurture content. This could be behind the scenes of your business or your offer. How do you make it? What do the people do behind the scenes? The girls at Influence, if you follow Influence Studio, they just did an amazing reel this morning. So proud. And. And it's basically like Gracie, like, she's dancing and it's like, oh, I wish I had a social media team that could help me post consistent content. And then she, like, breaks down into a dance with our other team members and they're all dancing and it says to hire us as their social media team. And it was lovely and I loved it. And that is a really good nurture piece of content. And it's salesy, too. But, like, it's more nurturing, though, because it's fun to watch. They're doing a dance. I always love watching people dance on Instagram. Personal storytelling, your why, your journey, your values. I'm trying to think who does a really good job at this? My friend Shelby Clements does a very good job at her why she's always sharing, why she started her business. She's always sharing like the, the raw, messy moments. And I love that about her. She does not sugarcoat anything. So if you need some inspiration, you could always check out her page. Client wins or transformations. And this is not just mean, like putting a quote or review on a graphic. This is like another client of ours, Molly Sleepshore. She asks her clients for pictures of them throughout their journey of teaching their babies how to sleep. And then at the end of it, she has all these photos and she can tell a story or share a video. And it really says, like, how we got Waveland to sleep through the night changing X, Y, Z or whatever it is. And then it's just, it's a story and it's not a review. And I love it, but it is a review. But it's in a storytelling way. It's so good our team does those. By the way, if you need some social media management, influence marketing studio is your girls. Nurture content Mini trainings, quick tips. Here's how I made a thousand dollars from one reel break down below. Here's how I get my baby to sleep through the night. Read the caption. Don't say read the. Well, you could say read the caption, but I'm kind of getting sick of the read the caption. So maybe you say something like steal my strategy below or something, or steal my sleep schedule below instead of read the caption. Voiceover reels Talking head clips to talking heads don't always perform that well for me. Until I started shortening them up and having a very clear call to action. Like, what do they need to do next? Oh, they need to grab, they need to comment the word head. And then it takes them to a Google document that I created that explains the strategy for them. Those work really well. But if it's like a snippet of my podcast and a talking head video, those just don't perform as well. And I know it's not my content because I, I share really good stuff on this podcast. I think it's just people get bored. I don't know. I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is. Maybe, maybe the snippets I choose aren't. Aren't the best. Maybe we really, you know, I, I preach about hooks and pulling out the best piece of content when you're promoting it like that. So maybe that's what it is. The thing about nurture content is you need to make sure you show your face, make sure you your voice is shown too. Like can they hear your voice? Are you humanizing yourself as a brand is invite these people into your process. Don't just post the final product, right? You want to let them see what happens behind the scenes. What's the process into it? Be consistent. Connection compounds over time. Start conversations with them in the DM afterwards. Ask them questions. Use your stories, use your polls, talk to them, nurture them. All right. Other piece of content the other 30 was the sales content. Now this is the fun part. Making money. Sales content is not always about launching. It can sometimes just be about selling without sounding like a car commercial. So some examples of sales content could one be direct offers with urgencies? Only five spots left for coaching this month. You know you gotta sprinkle those in DM campaigns. Want help creating your first offer? DM the word start. Have many chat set up or you know your DM automation through Stan have that set up to start the conversation in the DMs. You could always do soft sells. So that's something like this tip is from my Instagram sales machine course and then you give a little tip and that makes them wanna buy the whole course. I need to do that myself. I'm really bad at sales content. I mainly I do this soft sell. But I don't say like this is from my Instagram sales course or well sometimes I do. I'm thinking like if I promote my membership, sometimes I'll be like hey, we've got new templates that we just launched in the membership DM the word canva to get them. So yeah, I guess I kind of do it but I need to get better at it because when I do this it actually really works. So pro tip, sales content works. What matters most with sales content is that you don't just say what you're selling, but you say why it matters to them. How's it going to solve their pain point? How's it going to make their life better? Be clear, not clever. If they don't know what the offer is, they will not buy it. Stop trying to come up with these foo foo fluff fluff names for your offers. Keep it simple, stupid. Have you ever heard that it's also good for SEO too? Like if someone is searching for Instagram sales course and you named it something like hot girl sales course. I don't know, I just. Instagram sales course is probably going to come at the top of the search engine before the hot girl sales course. Just my opinion. Repeat yourself more than you think. I've told you guys that you have to talk about your offer over and over and over again. You're not annoying, you're being consistent and you will be known as that girl. You will be the go to for that thing if you talk about it all the time. Now let's put all of this into action. Take a look at your next 30 days of content. If you're posting four times a week, that's 16 posts. And here's how you would break up the 30, 30, 30. If you're doing 16 posts four times a week, you would do five posts that are growth, five posts that are nurture, five posts that are sales, and then one post would be a wild card. Fun personal. Plan your content around your goals, guys. If you're launching soon, lean heavier into nurture and sales. If you're trying to grow, stack the deck with shareable trending rails. You, you don't need to post daily. You just need to post strategically. And so this 30, 30, 30 will help you do just that. Pro tip here too. Repurpose your content. One idea can become three different things. A reel, a caption post, a story slide, call to action, or go back to the episode of the Rule of three. You take one idea and you turn it into three different reels. I've gave you the strategy for that in the last episode and it's so good it if you want to see consistent Instagram growth and income, you need to plan visibility, trust and conversion. It all needs to balance out. That's exactly what the 30, 3030 strategy does. I would love to hear from you guys if you're doing something similar to this. If you're doing a mix of content, I would love for you to DM me on Call her creator and tell me which pillar are you strongest in right now? Which one are you doing the most? Are you doing more growth? Are you doing more nurture? Are you doing more sales? Which one do you need to show more love to? How can I help you do that? Can I give you suggestions on what to post? Like, send me a dm, let's talk about it. All right, Last thing I'll say here, get in that money walk. Take your selfie. Tag me. If you love today's episode, do me a favor, share it with your friends. Screenshot this episode. Share it to stories. Tag me. Promote it. Help a sister out. Help us get Call Her Creator out into more ears. Leave me a review. Download this episode. All the above. All right, that's it for today on Call Her Creator. Keep creating. Keep selling. And remember, you don't need to go viral to be valuable. You just need a plan. All right. Check out my show notes before you leave. I've got some fun stuff over there linked for you. Thanks.