Struggling to shift my Instagram reach from Dutch to English-speaking audience — what would you do?
Background: 8+ years in influencer marketing. Built an agency that hit €1.5M+ annually, worked with 200+ creators across fitness, fashion, lifestyle — including American talent. We were always selective about who we worked with, one-on-one, very hands-on. That chapter is closing. Now I'm building a personal brand to bring this to more people. I've seen what this knowledge does for creators when applied properly, and keeping it behind closed doors doesn't make sense anymore.
The account is about scaling as a creator: how to grow, how to monetize, how to actually make money with your content. Mix of educational content, some filmed with a content agency (higher production), some self-shot. The self-shot stuff that uses analogies consistently outperforms the polished pieces. People relate to it more. If you're trying to scale, use analogies in your content. Seriously.
The problem:
Instagram keeps routing everything to the Netherlands. I post in English. My content is built for English-speaking creators and entrepreneurs. Doesn't matter.
Current stats:
- 68% of followers: Netherlands
- Top country in reach: Netherlands (75%+)
- UK, US, India — minimal, barely moving
I know why this happens. First wave of engagers are Dutch, algorithm reads that as the target audience, doubles down. Self-reinforcing loop. I've coached creators through this exact pattern — even a German creator posting full English content can hit 10M views and still have 90%+ German viewership. The existing follower base acts as an anchor.
I'm only 20 reels in. Low volume. That's probably part of it.
What I'm considering:
- Wait and let volume do the work. Post consistently in English, 4-5x a week and multiple times a day, let the algorithm recalibrate over time. Most likely the right call, just slow.
- Start a fresh account. No Dutch anchor on distribution from day one. But I don't want to run two accounts, and this one's been around. Not going there.
- Small paid campaigns targeting US/UK. Force the algorithm to see English-speaking engagement. I'm not a fan. The content that would make sense to boost has low view counts — we're not talking 20k, 30k, 100k reels. I'd never normally consider boosting content at this stage. Feels wrong.
Honest question:
Has anyone actually done this — shifted their reach from a non-English native country to US/UK on Instagram? Did it happen organically with volume, or did you have to do something specific to break the loop?
Also — India always shows up in everyone's stats regardless of niche, language, or content type. I find it funny every time. Anyone actually cracked why? Might be because of the big population?