228: The Instagram Growth Playbook That Changed Everything
Marketing Your Business - Marketing Strategies for Business Owners
Stu McLaren
4.9 • 679 Ratings
🗓️ 27 February 2026
⏱️ 17 minutes
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Summary
I've been producing Instagram content for a long time and we haven't seen that much growth. Some posts would hit, most wouldn't, and I had no idea why. Then I discovered a tool that changed everything.
In this episode, I'm pulling back the curtain on the exact system we now use to grow on Instagram. It starts with one hour of research per month, a weekly testing rhythm, and a collaboration strategy that gets 47% more reach. I also share a real example where I analyzed a client's competitors during a VIP day and found that 18 out of their top 20 posts used one specific format. The patterns are there -- you just have to look for them.
In this episode, you'll learn:
• How to use Sort Feed (a Chrome extension) to find what's already working in your niche
• Why monthly research + weekly testing beats random posting every time
• The micro-testing framework: change one thing per week and track results
• How name drops and collaborations expand your reach (with real examples)
• Why we publish three posts a day and how that accelerates learning
📥 RESOURCE: Grab the resources from this episode at https://podcast.stu.me
CONNECT WITH STU:
• Website: https://stu.me
• Book "Predictable Profits": https://a.co/d/4GIi1uz
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/stumclaren
• Podcast: https://podcast.stu.me
• Membership.io: https://membership.io
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So here's something that has been driving me bananas, and I have been producing content for |
| 0:06.3 | Instagram specifically for a long time. And we haven't seen that much growth. In fact, we see |
| 0:12.5 | marginal growth on Instagram. And I'm like, I got to crack this nut. Like, we need to be |
| 0:18.2 | growing this platform because we do so much on this platform with the tiny |
| 0:22.6 | audience that we have. What would be possible if we grew this audience and reached its full |
| 0:28.7 | potential? So our content was all over the place. Some posts would hit. Most wouldn't. And then I'd have |
| 0:36.8 | no idea why. And we were just creating blind. |
| 0:40.1 | And we'd have an idea and we'd create it. But we would check the analytics after posting, |
| 0:45.4 | but we weren't really studying what was already working in our space. And then I discovered a little |
| 0:51.4 | tool that I'm going to share with you in this episode. And it's a tool that pulls the top performing posts |
| 0:57.3 | from any account or topic. |
| 0:59.4 | And I literally just spent like an hour |
| 1:01.9 | looking at the 50 highest performing posts |
| 1:05.2 | in our particular market. |
| 1:07.2 | And oh my goodness, the patterns started to jump out. Specifically, things like text |
| 1:13.8 | first posts with simple graphics, way outperformed fancy videos. I was looking at posts that |
| 1:19.7 | were starting with certain types of hooks or I would look at celebrity name drop posts that |
| 1:25.5 | we're getting three times the reach. So then we created a simple |
| 1:29.5 | playbook from what we found and we started testing different variations. And literally within |
| 1:35.0 | weeks we started to see our average reach more than double. Welcome to marketing your business. |
| 1:42.1 | I'm Stu McLaren co-founder of membership.io and author of predictable profits. Now here marketing your business. I'm Stu McLaren, co-founder of membership.io, |
| 1:45.0 | and author of Predictable Profits. Now here's the truth. You are one great marketing idea |
... |
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