7 MIN READ

Recent studies have shown that Instagram is one of the most popular social media sites, with roughly 1 billion monthly active users. This makes Instagram an excellent platform for increased engagement, reaching customers, and generating potential leads. There are some drawbacks to this social medium (Instagram), namely, spammy posts and a lack of engagement. The solution? A chatbot! Chatbots on Instagram are still new, but they’re already proving their worth by helping brands increase engagement with followers in a personal way while generating leads.

So what does your business need to do before getting started today? In this article, you find a couple of the most important things you should know about how these Instagram bots, how they work, and how to get started so you can get set up a bot on Insta right away! Let’s dig in, shall we?

What is an Instagram Chatbot?

An Instagram chatbot is simply a bot (a software application) whose purpose is to engage with users on one of the biggest social media sites today; Instagram. Currently, the most popular platform for bots is Facebook Messenger. Frankly, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that soon bots would appear on “The Gram” as well. One of the primary purposes of a chatbot on Instagram is to increase follower engagement and help the company generate leads from new sources. In other words, it’s a way for customer service teams to be more efficient and effective at managing their community.

An Instagram chatbot allows brands to engage with users directly without going through third-party apps or software. It also works seamlessly in the background of your account. All you have to do is plug-in software like Clepher and set the right features. For instance, the Story Mentions feature can trigger chatbot automations for anyone who mentions your @username in their Story. This feature alone already means better engagement between your brand and followers because the experience is instant.

Research shows that most users are more likely to comment or swipe up when something is in their feed. However, if your brand doesn’t have this feature activated- you’re losing out on great engagement opportunities.

Why are Instagram Bots Are Popular Amongst Businesses

Since most social media platforms require authentic connections between brands and users, Instagram chatbots are a way to “hack” the system so companies can generate leads at an increasing rate. Many big organizations are already using Instagram bots for effective marketing campaigns.

A few things to note about Instagram chats bots include:

• 1) Increased Engagement rates will still be determined by the type of content your company posts, as well as how fascinating your account is. However, having the Instagram Chatbot features on your account lets you squeeze more engagement out of every interaction.
• 2) Instagram chatbots can help answer FAQs and function as a 24/7 support chatbot. Imagine having a chatbot answering all those boring and repetitive questions; it’ll free up much time for your agents.
• 3) A bot on Instagram can direct users through a lead generation or sales funnel as well. Or a bot can follow up with relevant upsells when customers just purchased something from your store, increasing the Average Order Value.
• 4) The key to success with Instagram chatbots is to provide value and information without intruding on your follower’s experience. After you’ve implemented the chatbot features that are right for your brand, results are pretty much immediate.
• 5) As social media platforms continue to update their algorithms. Posts are less likely to reach follower feeds. This will likely push more brands toward using an Instagram Chatbot, as they get to keep contacting them through the chatbot.

Benefits of using a Chatbot on Instagram

There are tons of benefits when it comes to Instagram chatbots engagement. Whether it’s having 24/7 support, improving conversions, or automating sales… All benefits we’ve been talking about the last 4 years with Messenger Chatbots apply to Instagram chatbots as well. However, over at Clepher, we like one benefit in particular. Curious? Well, the benefit is the ability to generate email addresses and phone numbers from Instagram followers. And by doing so, creating additional channels to reach your fan base. This is important because of one single fact. As mentioned earlier, platforms like Instagram continue to update their algorithms. And if you’re heavily reliant on a singular platform, once change could mean you’re out of business.

For instance, when they make updates to their algorithms, Stories and Posts may be less likely to reach your followers’ feeds. And if a particular update gets you 50% less exposure, you can expect your business to be cut in half too. By pre-empting these kinds of things, by generating contact details and having other means of contacting them, you automatically set yourself apart from the competitors that don’t use Instagram Chatbots. These are just a few of the many reasons why your business needs to have an Instagram chatbot representative and show you why every company should be using them as well!

Instagram Chatbot Entry Points

In this section, you discover the Instagram Chatbot entry points. This is where Instagram followers can start to become Instagram chatbot subscribers. Currently, there are five entry points.

1. Direct Chat

Followers can become a subscriber by chatting to your Instagram account directly. It’s one of the easiest entry points to set up. You only need to have your Instagram account attached to your Facebook Page and have a platform like Clepher to manage your automation. Any follower, or non-follower, talking with your brand’s Instagram account now automatically becomes a subscriber.

2. Ice Breakers

Ice Breakers on Instagram provides a way for users to start a conversation with your chatbot with a list of questions or options. You can customize your Ice Breakers with different text and spice it up with some emojis. A singular Ice Breaker is allowed as well. Each Ice Breaker can be linked to a Flow (a sequence of messages) of your choice. On Instagram, once someone is about to engage with your chatbot, they’ll see the Ice Breakers, and they simply tap on the one that is most relevant, or most interesting, to them.

Pro Tip: We always recommend having some sort of human escalation path set up. You can set up an IceBreaker to trigger this human escalation path on tapping so that people don’t have to go through automation if they don’t desire to do so.

Check out this entry in our Knowledge Base to learn more about Icebreakers

3. Story Mentions

You can use Story Mentions on Instagram as both an entry point and a trigger. When someone on Instagram mentions the username of your Instagram account in their Instagram story, Clepher will reply instantly. There are endless uses for automating Story Mentions messages, but just to list a few: you can send short thank-you notes, start entire automated conversations, and even trigger business automations. Story Mentions Triggers support customer engagement at scale and help businesses kick off conversations from a simple mention.

Check out this entry in our Knowledge Base to learn more about Story Mentions.

4. Post Engagement (Private Replies to Comments)

Once set up, you can get your chatbot to privately reply to any person commenting on your Instagram post. It’s a great way to follow up with your most engaged fans and followers to generate more subscribers. Private Replies allows you to reply to comments made on Instagram posts with a single message on Instagram. There are endless uses for automating Private Replies through Post Engagement, but just to list a few: coupon distribution, use-it giveaways, short thank-you notes, and more.

Check out this entry in our Knowledge Base to learn more about Post Engagement.

5. Instagram Ads

Think Click-to-Messenger Ads for Instagram, a.k.a. Click-to-Instagram Ads. You can set your Instagram ads to automatically send people to a chat on Instagram once they click on them, or you can even remotely trigger that contact flow of yours. When you enable this option, people who click on the ad will be directed towards Instagram. Inside Clepher, we give you the JSON code belonging to each message. You can use this snippet of code in your Instagram Ads to let Facebook know which message you want to trigger once someone clicks on your Ads.

Tips for your own business’s chatbot on Instagram!

You must keep your followers engaged with content that will be useful to them. If they feel like the chat is too promotional and doesn’t provide any real value, they’ll unsubscribe, and the conversation will stop working. One of the best ways to approach using a chatbot on Instagram is to think about it as an additional level of customer service. Your goal should increase engagement with your brand and help customers find answers as quickly as possible. Your chatbot should be the first contact point for addressing customer needs and providing service. You can even use your chatbot to increase subscribers of your email list or as a way to distribute coupons and discounts!

Don’t just send messages about what you’re selling- provide value and talk about things that will interest them. Your goal with using a chatbot on Instagram is to increase your follower engagement and drive more people to your website to become customers. It’s also essential that you send value to keep them engaged with the content. When building a business chatbot on Instagram, you should keep your messaging straightforward. Make sure that it’s clear who your chat is sent from and what industry your brand is in. For example, the Clepher bot sends its messages from “Clepher,” and we talk about our software and connect to customers personally.

One of the essential elements of having a chatbot on Instagram is authenticity. If people feel like your bot isn’t “real” and feels more like a random piece of software, then they won’t be interested in engaging with it. Finally, when building a chatbot for Instagram, it’s vital to use language that your customers understand and relate to. You want to create a bot that your audience will find helpful and be willing to engage with.

Today’s Final thoughts on Instagram Chatbots

Your brand’s Instagram account is a powerful marketing tool that can help you connect with your customers and generate leads. With the right tools, such as Clepher for Instagram, it’s possible to automate customer service on social media platforms like never before! By leveraging these chatbot features- private replies, post engagement triggers, and click-to-Instagram ads -you’ll be able to engage one of your most valuable assets: your followers. Whether you’re looking to increase sales or just bolster lead generation efforts, having an automated chatbot account will help you have more time in other areas of running a business. 

Interested in taking Instagram Chatbots and Clepher for a spin? Our Instagram features are going live soon, and we got a special going on right now we’re about to close down too; check it out here.

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