O T O 1 0 K I N S T A G R A M G U I D E * Z E R O T O 1 0 K I N S T A G R A M G U I D E * Z E R O T O 1 0 K I N S T A G

@THESTEVENMELLOR
ZERO TO 10K
Growth
INSTAGRAM
bonus workbook
Welcome!
Nice to meet you! I’m Steve Mellor.

I’m on Online Marketing Expert, I’ve grown

multiple pages to over 100K+ both on
Instagram and on TikTok, and I know all of the
nitty-gritty details about how to create content,
grow your audience, and how to turn your
followers into customers — Just by using
social media and content creation effectively.

WHY I MADE THIS guide

Here’s why I made this guide — because
Instagram can be daunting, incredibly difficult
to get started, and to feel like you’re on the
right track.

When you know you’re getting the right advice

— the right blueprint — you can leave the
stress and anxiety at the door and focus on
showing up as the best version of you — and
that’s what we need in the world… More of you
shining your light and sharing your gifts through
content and social media.
I've been in your
Shoes before…
As a dad who has 2 young kids, a mortgage to pay for, and a 9 to
5 job that I wasn’t happy in, I knew I needed to make a change.

I loved social media and always wanted to create content but

everything I tried in the past — failed miserably.

That all changed in 2019, I saw a few others posting educational

design content and thought I’d give it a try.

Over the last 2+ years, through lots of trial and error, I’ve built my
community on here to over 300K+ followers with great
engagement, and consistent and repeatable results.

Why am I telling you this…

This is the guide that I wish I had when I was starting out.

I needed something to say that I was on the right track and taking
my steps in the right direction. This guide gives you that.

But enough backstory… let’s jump in.

This is no
Magic pill
This is not a magic pill.

This Quick Start guide is meant to be a supplemental guide and

not a deep dive into growing your Instagram — It will give you
the framework

…but it’s on you to do the work, deal?

This requires that you put in the work and stay consistent with
this — and yes, more than just 2 weeks of effort.

When done right, between content creation, publishing, and

engaging with your new found community, it should only take you
about 10 to 12 hours per week to grow substantially.

In fact, like I mentioned earlier, it’s the exact strategies that I’ve
used to build an audience from 0 followers to over 160K
organically over the last 2 years.

It all starts with the CAVE principles.

 Cave PRINCIPLES
This is a straight forward set of 4 principles that you need to
follow if you want to be successful on any social media platform.
It’s called CAVE and it stands for this:

Showing up consistently matters, not only for your fans,

C
CONSISTENT
but more importantly for the algorithm. The more
consistent you are, the more eyeballs you bring to the
platform, the more everyone wins.

Grabbing attention on social matters more than what

A
ATTENTION
you’re even talking about. The designs of your content
and your hooks are critical to your success. Court
attention at all costs.

The person who brings the most value wins. If you’re

VVALUE
constantly sharing the same old boring content as
everyone else — you’ll never separate.

It’s a 2-way street. You have to get out there and shake

E
ENGAGE
everyones hand and network instead of expecting
everyone to come to you.
Market
Research
You’re doing your research before blindly diving into posting
content, right? Well, here are some tips that will help you out.

When you let data assist you in making the decisions, you’ll most
likely make the right move.

Look at all different types of mediums, social media apps like

Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, SnapChat, Forums (like Reddit, Quora,
etc.) to get a sense of what the pain points are for that audience.
Market research ex.
Identify the Industry and the top players
You need to know what industry that you’re going into and
who’s who in the content world. Answer these questions:

What Industry am I going into?

Who are the 10 accounts who are crushing in?

What is the top type of content they use?

What are the best parts can I pull from for my brand?

Where does this audience normally hang out online?(Twitter,

Instagram, Quora, Reddit, Discord, etc.)
PICK A NICHE
There are 5 components to a strong niche in
building your online business.

Lower competition

Strong market demand

Solves a market need

Profitable

Passionate About It

When going through this exercise, think about these questions:

1. What am I passionate and could talk endlessly about?

2. What skills do you have that align with your passion?

3. Is the niche you’re identifying even profitable?

4. Am I first in the market with this niche?

5. Am I the best in this market at this niche?

6. Am I different than what's already out there? If no, how can I

add my twist to this to stand out?
 Niche exercise
This is an exercise I like to do that gives me a good starting
point for my niche.

Take out a piece of paper and draw 2 overlapping circles.

On the left fill out ‘what you love and what you’re good at’

On the right, fill out what your part wants and what they will
pay for.

It should look something like this diagram

WHAT YOU LOVE What people

& What you’re Want & will
Good at Pay for

This is the content you make

10x2
TM

Strategy
The 10x2 Growth Strategy is my signature process to generate
organic engagement and, when done right, organic growth.

This works on 2 levels, the first with the group of people (niche)
that you want to be associated with and second, the various
algorithms that are at work behind the scenes.

Make sure to pick your targets at various levels, too. If you’re at

1,000 followers, then choose people who are at 10K, 20K, 50K,
100K, 200K, 500K, 1M, etc.

The chance of getting shares, likes, follows, or just even noticed

from those accounts are greater the smaller they are.

Here’s how it works: You build 2 lists (10 accounts & 10

hashtags) of people who are crushing it in your niche and
hashtags that are commonly used in your niche. Now, in the first
cycle, you’ll leave 2 pieces of engagement on the 10 accounts.
In the next cycle, a couple of hours later, you’ll leave 2 pieces of
engagement on the 10 hashtags.

Engagement = Like, Comment, Share, Save, Story Reply, DM,

Repost their content to your stories, Like or Reply to people who
commented on their post.
10x2 homework
Who’s crushing it in your niche? Who’s getting crazy
engagement? What creator is posting things that you wish you
could post? Write those accounts down below.

Write down 10 accounts who are crushing it right now in your

particular niche:

Write down 10 niche hashtags that are constantly used within

your industry. When engaging on the posts within these
hashtags, make sure to find posts that are related to the
hashtag itself (no spam please).

How often are you going to engage with these 2 groups

(accounts + hashtags) in a day?
Pick a
Theme
Themes are just visual styles that make your brand on
Instagram cohesive and visually appealing at the same time.

When I talk about themes, it’s basically your color scheme and
layout design. Instagram is highly a visual platform, so you need
to find a way to stand out.

Now, it doesn’t have to be perfectly curated, but it has to be

clean and YOURS. People should be able to recognize a post of
yours by the format, font, color scheme, graphics, mood, or any
combination thereof.

You want to avoid jumping around themes too often or not

giving it a solid chance to do well by abandoning it too early.
Pick A theme
Remember, this is your brand and it’s your first impression.
Choose your fonts, colors, and layouts wisely.

What are the colors of your brand?

What fonts make up your brand? Choose 1 Header font

and 1 body font

What type of layout are you going for?

What design elements are you including in this theme?

Audit your
Profile
There are seven parts of your profile that need to be aligned in
order to truly convert people to hit that follow button.

Username, Profile Photo, Name (with keywords), Bio, Call To

Action URL, Story Highlights, Grid / feed.

Again, like your theme, this is your first impression. How you
perform here will determine if someone is going to follow you.

Username — Make sure this has longevity, it’s easy to

recognize, and you can secure this name on other social media
apps! It will make it easier for followers to find you.

Name — make sure you use your name + a keyword or two

from your industry.

Profile Photo — Make sure it’s super crisp. If you’re a personal

brand, it should be a photo of you. Also, make sure the logo
pops and is consistent across other social channels.

Bio — Your bio should be your digital billboard, use it to attract

your ideal client and make sure they know that you’re the one
for them.

Story Highlights — These are great for taking your fans behind
the scenes, providing mini trainings, sharing results, and adding
more context to your posts.
Audit your profile
Remember, this is your brand and it’s your first impression.
Choose your fonts, colors, and layouts wisely.

USERNAME Thestevenmellor

Profile photo 100 100K 1K

Name Steve » Marketing + Branding

1st line — Elevator pitch
2nd line — Your authority
Bio 3rd line — sub authority
4th line — Call To Action
Call to action url 5th line — Call To Action URL

Story highlights

Grid/feed
Build a Bio
link page
Whether it’s a service like Linktr.ee or you custom build
your own bio link landing page, it’s a must that you use
a link in your bio.

Personally, I like building my own because it gives you

the added boost of SEO in Google and helps drive
traffic to your own website as a byproduct. This is
obviously good if you’re thinking long term.

However, if you need something quick, inexpensive,

and gets the job done, then a service LinkTree is the
perfect option.
Build your linktree
Here’s an example of how I built my page out, but feel free to
add links that are relevant to your Ideal Customers journey.
Build Your evergreen

Content
Funnel
Creating content is the prerequisite to growth.

You’re not going to grow unless you create and show up

consistently.

You’re also not going to grow if you don’t connect with people
through content, on your content, and on their content too.

Create content that is value packed.

This may come in the form of how-to content, sharing tips and
tricks, sharing mindset challenges and things that you’ve
overcome in your journey.

Whatever it is that provides value, quick wins, takeaways, etc.

Whatever that is — post that type of content — and do it
consistently.

Now the question becomes ‘how do we do that consistently’

The answer… a content funnel.

Building your funnel
Video is the main driver of engagement lately, so naturally
Reels is where you’ll start.
Don’t complicate the process! Reels are meant to be quick,
authentic, and real content.
Here’s a cheat sheet of how I like to use this funnel 👇
TikToks, Reels = Mass Exposure
Comments = Networking
Carousels = Education
Stories = Nurturing + Connection
Lives = Authority Building + Nurturing
DMs = Connection + Sales
Match the right format with the end goal and your growth will
skyrocket. Try thinking about setting up your content this way, it
should help you produce more content that connects with your
audience and matches their needs.

REELS
MASS EXPOSURE / REACH

EDUCATION

CAROUSELS
AUTHORITY BUILDING + NURTURE

LIVEs
ACTION + SALES

DM
Run your
Engagement
Strategies
You’re in the home stretch of this mini-guide so now this part
comes down to getting your reps in and being consistent.

Whatever engagement strategy that you deploy, be consistent

with it and do it every single day. The more you post, engage with
your niche and community, the more face time you get it.

This game is all about consistency, providing insane value, and

positioning yourself as the go-to resource.

Now get to work and start connecting with people and posting
some amazing content.
Start posting content
 S PECIA L O F F ER

Upgrade to the 1-hour video

course with templates
BY THE END YOU’LL HAVE:
• A perfectly setup profile page
that will attract (and keep) the
right type of followers.
• A clear and focused niche that
help you build your authority as
an expert in that space.
• A well-rounded engagement
strategy that will skyrocket your
connections and positioning
• A content blueprint that will
help you churn out ideas
consistently without crippling
anxiety about posting every day.

Upgrade for just $47