Short answer: content turns into clients when every post has a job and there's a clear route from post to purchase. Pick three to five content pillars, post a mix of The 6 Content Types across the three stages of Attract Nurture Convert, and put a "comment below" call to action on your posts so readers become leads. Send those leads to a free resource with a $27 offer on the thank you page, nurture them with emails and stories, then start real conversations in the DMs. Review your top 20% every month and plan your content around what you're selling.

If you're posting every day, showing up on stories, doing the talking head videos everyone told you to do, and you're still hearing crickets when it comes to sales, I want you to know something. You don't need more content. You need content with a purpose, and a system around it that takes people from "who is she?" to "how do I work with her?"

When I started my business in January 2020, no one had any idea who Laurie Burrows was. I didn't have a wall of testimonials. What I did have was a plan for my content and a strategy for getting visible, and that's what took me to nearly $200,000 in sales in my first year as a brand new mum. These days I have a business that's generated multi-seven figures in sales, and content is still one of the main ways people find me, trust me and buy from me. And to be honest, my follower numbers are small compared to a lot of creators out there. It still makes me money, because every post has a job.

Who is this guide for, and what will you have by the end?

This is for coaches, consultants and online service providers who are posting (or know they should be) and want that content to bring in actual clients, not just likes. It works whether you have 300 followers or 30,000.

By the end you'll have:

• Your content pillars, written out.
• Post templates for every one of the 6 content types.
• A comment below system that turns posts into leads, with the scripts.
• A story selling sequence you can run any week.
• A DM conversation to turn leads into clients.
• A weekly content rhythm and a monthly planning process.
• A worked example with the numbers.
• A 30 day implementation plan and a troubleshooting list.

Why isn't my content turning into clients?

When I look at the content of business owners who are struggling to sell, the same problems come up again and again.

1. The content has no purpose. You're posting for the sake of posting. You know you need to show up, so you panic, throw something together and hope for the best. Guessing and hoping isn't a strategy.
2. You only focus on converting. Every post is a sales post, so you forget to attract new people and nurture the ones you've got. Your audience goes stale: those who have bought have bought, those who won't won't, and there's no one left to sell to.
3. It sounds like everyone else. "Know your ideal client. Create an irresistible offer. Post consistently." Your ideal client has heard it a thousand times. If no one is interacting, could it be because it's boring?
4. There's no route from post to lead. People enjoy the content, then scroll on, because you never gave them a reason to raise their hand.
5. Content is your only visibility. You have no control over who the algorithm shows your post to. If content is the only thing you do to get seen, you're relying on luck.
6. Your content doesn't match what you sell. A month of mindset posts won't warm anyone up for a course on Instagram growth.

Every one of these is fixable, and this guide fixes them in order.

The framework: how content fits into getting clients

Everyone goes on a customer journey before they buy, and people can exit that journey at any time. Your strategy is simply how you influence it. It has three stages: Attract Nurture Convert.

• Attract: people become aware of you. This is where your visibility strategy does the heavy lifting.
• Nurture: they build trust with you and see why you're the go to expert. This is where most of your content lives.
• Convert: they buy. This is your offers, your launches and your conversations.

And running through it is the chain I teach everywhere: visibility leads to leads, leads lead to conversations, and conversations lead to sales. If one link is missing, the whole thing breaks.

Here's the reframe that changes everything: see your content as the nurture piece. There are two types of visibility, in front of a new audience and in front of your current audience. Content can reach new people (Instagram is better at it than Facebook, where your posts mostly reach people who already know you), but you have no control over how far it travels. So treat content as the thing that nurtures your current audience and turns them into leads, and ask yourself every day: what am I doing today to make more people aware of my brand? That could be guest speaking, posting value in other people's communities, collaborations, summits or awareness ads. For the visibility side, read the ultimate guide to getting coaching clients from zero.

Phase 1: Build the foundations

Step 1: Choose your content pillars

Your content pillars are the three to five topics you want to be known for. Every single post should fall under one of them. This fixes posting for the sake of posting, and it makes it easy for someone to describe you to a stranger in one sentence.

The mistake people make is choosing pillars that are all basically the same thing. Instead, aim for one pillar in each of these four areas:

• The result: what your ideal client actually wants. Mine is passive revenue, because underneath "more sales", what my clients want is freedom and flexibility.
• The method: how you get them there. Mine is my evergreen strategy: create something once and sell it on repeat.
• The proof: evidence that it works. Mine is building in public, documenting the growth of my software business.
• The person: why you. Mine is mum life while growing a business.

The result attracts the buyer. The method builds your authority. The proof makes them believe you. The person is why they choose you, because anyone can teach a method but nobody else is you. More in how to find your content pillars.

Time: 45 minutes. Done when: you have four pillars written down and every post idea you have fits one of them.

And yes, your content will feel repetitive. Good. Go through my content and you'll see the same message again and again with different hooks. That's how you become known for something.

Step 2: Learn The 6 Content Types (and have a template for each)

Once you have your pillars, you fill them with The 6 Content Types. Each one has a different job.

1. Educational content (nurture): how tos, top tips, frameworks, myth busters. Treat each one like a mini masterclass. You want an aha moment or an action step, because if someone takes action from your free content and gets a result, they'll wonder what your paid content is like. Think outside the box: give tips other people aren't giving.

2. Story content (nurture and convert): brand stories, behind the scenes, day in the life, lessons, documentary content. Stories create human connection, emotion and aspiration, and people buy on emotion. My core brand stories are things like finding out I was pregnant two weeks after starting my business, and growing my business as a mum. I tell them again and again. You don't have to share your deepest, darkest secrets. Share the stories people will remember you for.

3. Evidence based content (convert): testimonials, case studies, screenshots and your own results. It shows you can walk the walk, not just talk the talk. If you don't have client results yet, become your own evidence by documenting your journey. That's exactly what I did.

4. Lead generation content (convert): comment below posts and reels, and story polls, that get people to raise their hand. This is the type most people are missing. Step 4 covers it in full.

5. Sales or promo content (convert): content whose job is to sell your offer. Step 7 covers where to put it.

6. Entertainment and inspirational content (attract): quotes, relatable moments and trends that get shares, saves and engagement. You will never catch me doing a trending dance, but relatable and inspirational content helps the algorithm push everything else further.

The first three are the absolute key ones: educational, story and evidence. I break each type down with more examples in the 6 types of content every coach needs.

Step 3: Match the content to the stage

Different content does different jobs. After a lot of testing across my own accounts and the accounts my agency manages, this is what we see working.

• To attract a new audience: short reels of three to seven seconds (they reach more non followers than followers), relatable and inspirational content, and a story told over a video (a clip of you with the first lines as text on screen and the rest in the caption, so people read while it loops).
• To nurture your current audience: talking head videos (longer reels tend to reach more of your current followers), educational carousels (which get saved), "what I would do if" content, and day in the life. My day in the life content always gets the most views, because it shows the freedom my business gives me, which is what my ideal clients want.
• To convert: lead generation content that gets people to comment, and evidence based content, because evidence builds trust and trust equals sales.

Use this as a starting point, not a rule. Post a mixture, then look at your analytics to see which type does best for you.

Phase 2: Turn posts into leads

This is the bit most people miss. A lovely post that gets likes doesn't pay your bills. A post that turns readers into leads does.

Step 4: Set up the comment below system

My favourite way to turn content into leads is the comment below post or reel. It says something like "I've created a free guide that will tell you how to make sales every day. Want it? Comment GUIDE below." Anyone who comments is a lead, because they've shown interest in something you have to offer. An automated reply sends them the link, they opt in, and now they're on your email list. The comments also help the algorithm push the post further. We do these a good few times a week.

1. Choose what you're giving away: a free guide, a free training, a seat at a free live event. It must link naturally to what you sell.
2. Write the post or reel using one of the templates below.
3. Set up an automated DM reply to the keyword (a DM automation tool does this) that sends the link.
4. Make sure the opt in page converts: aim for 40% or more of visitors opting in.
5. Put a $27 offer on the thank you page: aim for 8 to 10% of opt ins buying it.
6. Follow up personally with the warmest commenters in the DMs.

I've also tested sending people straight to a low priced offer from a comment below post. Free offers generate more leads, so the cleaner route is free guide first, $27 offer on the thank you page, then use that low priced offer to sell into your mid and high ticket offers. Everything has a purpose. Add an $11 order bump to that $27 offer and your average order is $38, with 70 to 80% of buyers often taking the bump. More in the thank you page offer.

Time: two hours to set up once. Done when: one comment below post is live, the automation sends the link, and the thank you page has an offer.

If the tech side of this is what stops you, the Funnel Builder inside Ascendia OS builds the opt-in page and thank you page offer for you, and the Copywriter writes your automated reply and follow-up DMs in your voice.

Step 5: Add a small call to action to every value post

Even your educational and story posts can carry a small PS: "If you want the training on this, comment TRAINING below." One educational post with a little call to action like that can bring in a steady trickle of leads without ever feeling salesy. Rotate between three calls to action: comment a word for a freebie, DM me a word, or vote on today's story poll.

Step 6: Use lead generation stories

A lot of people watch your content and never engage. Lead generation stories pull those quiet, warm people out. Upload an image or a short video, add a line of text and a poll. The poll options are always a positive and a positive ("Details please" / "Hell yes, send to me"). Never give people the option to say no. If they're not interested, they'll scroll on by. Anyone who votes is a lead you can message.

Phase 3: Turn leads into clients

Step 7: Sell in the right places

You do need sales content. It used to take people around 19 times seeing the same message before they took action, so if you mention your offer once and stop, most people never notice it.

But when we posted pure sales content on our Instagram grid every day, it didn't get the engagement and the reach of all our other posts dropped. So now:

• Our grid is mainly for value and lead generation.
• Most of our selling happens in stories, including story slides that look a lot like a mini sales page.
• We post more promo content on Facebook and in our community, and of course by email.
• When we're in launch, sales and evidence content goes up. Outside a launch, it's mostly value with a small call to action.

As a rule of thumb, about 20% of your content is promotion and 80% is value and nurture.

Step 8: Turn every lead into a conversation

Leads lead to conversations, and conversations lead to sales. These don't have to be sales calls. I grew my business as a new mum without time for lots of calls, so I opened up my DMs, and my conversion rate went up compared with just sending people to a sales page. Use this structure with anyone who comments, votes or opts in.

They'll say yes, "yes, but" (that's an objection you can help with), or no. Always ask why. Then follow up, because people need reminding and most sales come from the follow up. The full process is in getting in the DMs.

Step 9: Know which buyer and which temperature you're talking to

• Buyer A knows they need a solution and is actively searching. They'll compare options on Google, AI search and recommendations. Your job is to be findable and the obvious choice, so evidence content and clear offer content matter.
• Buyer B has no idea they're about to buy. They know the end result they want, they find you, your content nurtures them, you make an offer, and suddenly they're saying "ah, yes, I need that." Most coaches sell this way, which is why story and educational content matter so much.

Your audience is also at different temperatures: Cold Warm Hot audience pools. Cold people need more time with you (a free guide or live training), warm people need a reason to act (a $27 offer, a case study spot), and hot people need an invitation (a story sales sequence or a DM). The colder the audience and the higher the price, the more nurture they need. More in how to sell to cold, warm and hot audiences.

Phase 4: Make it sustainable

Step 10: Get on video and batch it

We're in a trust economy. People have been burned before, there's more competition than ever, and anyone can create 100 posts in an evening with AI. That's exactly why video matters more now. I'll be honest: I used to hate it. I'd throw a little paddy every time I had to get in front of the camera. What made it easy was batching.

1. Plan your ideas and bullet points the day before (I'm better talking naturally than reading a script).
2. Block out a morning. Set up your phone, a light and maybe a whiteboard.
3. Ask yourself a question ("What would I do if...?") and answer it as if you were talking to one person.
4. Record video after video. In about three hours I have weeks of talking heads done.

Then repurpose. One idea can become a talking head, a carousel, a single image with a caption, B roll with a voiceover or text on screen, and a short three to seven second reel with a hook for reach. We turn one idea into eight pieces of content quite easily. Don't worry about repeating yourself. That's what you want to be doing. If you record trainings and lives, transcribe them: every session is full of stories and teaching you can turn into posts. If you want help creating the content itself with AI, The Claude Content Engine sets Claude up to sound like you.

Step 11: Review the top 20% and plan around what you're selling

Once a month, I look at my analytics (views, shares, saves, engagement, comments) and pull out the top 20% of my content. That tells me which topics my audience wants. Then I look at what I'm selling next month and plan around both.

Your content always needs to relate to what you're selling. When I reverse engineered one of my launches, the offer was about content, so the free event had to be about content, so the free guide had to be about content, so the posts had to be about content. Plan it in this order:

I walk through this in how to plan a month of content in one afternoon. Or hand the planning over: the Content Creator inside Ascendia OS plans your month around what you're selling, writes the posts in your voice and schedules them straight to Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and more, so you only approve and record.

Step 12: Use what's working right now

My team and I studied the creators who have grown fastest on Instagram recently. Three things keep coming up:

• Documentary content. People love following a real journey. I'm documenting the growth of my software, the good, the bad and the ugly. What could you document that's relevant to your ideal client?
• Series content. A named series people come back for. I'm running one called Gap in the Yap, for everyone who has been posting talking head videos every day and still isn't making sales.
• One core problem. The creators who blow up talk about one problem, not a hundred different things.

Your weekly content rhythm

Here's a simple week that covers every stage. Adjust the volume to your capacity, but keep the balance.

Worked example: a business coach selling a $997 programme

Example (illustrative numbers): a business coach with 2,000 Instagram followers selling a $997 group programme. Free guide: "How to get your first 10 clients without a big audience". Thank you page offer: a $27 mini course with an $11 bump.

The week's comment below reel: "I've made a free guide on how to get your first 10 clients without a big audience. Want it? Comment CLIENTS below." Over a month she runs four of these, plus her PS calls to action and two lead generation stories a week.

That's roughly $4,000 from the core offer plus a few hundred dollars from the $27 offer, from content she was already posting. The difference is that every post now has a job. And when she DMs the 30 warmest commenters each month, her conversion goes up again, because conversations are where trust turns into a decision. Track your own numbers for a month, then aim to improve one at a time.

The actual DM she sends: "Hi Sam, you commented on my reel about getting your first 10 clients! Did the guide come through OK? Out of curiosity, where are you at with clients right now compared to where you want to be?"

Your 30 day implementation plan

What mistakes should I avoid?

• Posting without a call to action. Fix: every post gets a PS, a comment word or a poll.
• Selling on the grid every day. Fix: grid for value and leads, sell in stories, Facebook and email.
• Sounding like everyone else. Fix: give tips other people aren't giving, and tell your own stories.
• Content that doesn't match the offer. Fix: plan from what you're selling backwards.
• Letting leads sit. Fix: DM commenters within 24 hours and follow up.
• Creating from a blank page every day. Fix: batch once a month, repurpose your top 20%.
• Relying on content for visibility. Fix: add one thing a day that puts you in front of new people.

Troubleshooting: if it's not working, check this

Your action plan

Today

• Write your four content pillars.
• Label your last 15 posts by type and stage.
• Post one comment below post or reel using a template above.

This week

• Set up your comment below automation and thank you page offer.
• Run two lead generation stories and DM every voter.
• Add a PS call to action to every value post.
• Run the 8 slide story sales sequence once.

Next 30 days

• Batch one morning of video and repurpose it.
• Follow the weekly content rhythm.
• Track comments, opt ins, $27 sales and clients.
• Review your top 20% and plan next month around what you're selling.

If you'd rather start with something free, have a look at my free resources.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take for content to turn into clients?

It depends on how warm your audience is. A hot audience can buy from a single story. A cold audience usually needs more time with you, which is why lead generation content that pulls people into a free guide or event speeds things up so much.

How often should I post to get clients from content?

Daily is a good rhythm on your main platform, but consistency matters more than volume. Batch your content in one day a month, repurpose your top performers, and spend the time you save on visibility and conversations.

What type of content gets the most clients?

For converting, lead generation content and evidence based content work best, because one creates leads and the other builds trust. They only work if educational and story content have already done the nurturing.

Should I put sales posts on my Instagram grid?

Test it, but in our account daily sales posts on the grid lowered the reach of everything else. We keep the grid for value and lead generation and do most of our selling in stories, on Facebook and by email.

What should my comment below post offer?

Something free and specific that links directly to your paid offer: a guide, a short training or a seat at a free live event. Free offers generate more leads than sending people straight to a paid offer.

What if I don't have client results yet?

Become your own evidence. Document your own journey and results, share what you're implementing and what's happening, and ask early clients for feedback you can share.

Do I need to be on video?

In a trust economy, video makes a big difference because people want to connect with a real person. Batch it, talk naturally rather than reading a script, and turn each video into several other posts.

How do I know what content is working?

Once a month, pull your top 20% by views, saves, shares and comments, and track how many leads and sales each call to action brings in. Do more of what works.

Laurie Burrows is a revenue growth strategist for coaches, consultants and online service providers, with 15 years of experience in marketing and sales and a business that's generated multi-seven figures in sales. She's the founder of Ascendia OS.