9 MIN READ

With over a billion active monthly users, Instagram is an ideal platform for businesses and brands to engage with their target consumers. And while people on Instagram can already send private messages to people, influencers, and companies they follow on Instagram, direct messages are still a vastly underutilized marketing goldmine. See, Instagram Direct Messages allows businesses to communicate with their Instagram followers – but no one in their right mind is going to this individually, let alone manually, at scale. That’s where Instagram Chatbots come into play.

You have probably heard of Messenger chatbots already; they’re handy for businesses that want to engage with their customers in a more personal fashion. They’re essentially text-based interfaces that allow users to communicate with a company. Whether it’s the customer support team chatbot or a bot that generates leads and automates the sales process, it’s all possible. The coolest thing is that after the massive success these bots have seen (and are still seeing) on Messenger, Instagram now has its own platform for chatbots too!

Ready to take advantage of this fantastic opportunity? And use your Instagram chatbots to create a vibrant discussion. Well, in this article, you discover 8 unique methods for increasing your response rate in Instagram Direct through chatbots.

So, What are Instagram Direct Messages?

Instagram Direct Messaging is a private messaging channel on Instagram. Direct Messages, often referred to as DM, is a method for Instagram users and businesses to communicate privately without fear of being exposed to public comment sections on grid posts. According to the overlords over at Instagram, 150 million users interact with businesses each month via this popular social media channel. Though much of this conversation occurs in comments, only a tiny percentage of these conversations are conducted via messaging. All while the conversion rates through conversations are nothing short but outstanding.

The benefits of Instagram Direct Messaging for Businesses

In this section, we’re looking at some of the essential benefits of Instagram Direct Messaging and why you’ll want to consider adding this as a marketing channel in your business.

Send Links within Private Conversations

The ability to provide links to your website using direct messages is one of the main advantages. This is particularly advantageous on Instagram, where clickable URLs are not permitted in normal feed posts or comments. You’re able to use DMs to start conversations with people who are interested in what you have to say. In addition, using Instagram automation with DMs, you may direct people to related material without being present to do it manually.

Instagram Direct Messaging Allows You to Get Personal.

You must have a strong understanding of your target audience to use social media effectively. It might be challenging to satisfy everyone with a general post, but by engaging your followers through private conversations in a DM, you may customize the experience and provide more information on products, services, or content they’re interested in.

Address Customer Support Questions

When consumers have questions, they can use Instagram messages to get in touch with businesses quickly and easily. Answer FAQs – such as stock availability or tracking an order – using Instagram Automation, and provide real-time customer responses. One of the main advantages is that you can engage people directly on Instagram without them seeing what you say or do in public comments. This means it’s easy for you to promote products and services without looking spammy. It also makes it easier for you to deal with spam comments, as you can just ignore them.

Direct Messages on Instagram are Private

DMs are an excellent method to move potentially harmful discussions away from public eyes and are a fantastic approach to handling complaints and defending against potential negative feedback. If a fan or consumer posts a concern in a public area, attempt to steer them into a private conversation via messages.

On public posts, you easily steer to Direct Messages through something basic like:

“Thanks for this question, @username. Please send me a DM with more info, and I’ll happily help out!!”

How to Use Instagram DMs for Lead Generation

With the rise of social media marketing, marketers know that using lead-generation strategies to obtain new connections and prospects is more important than ever before. Acquiring new customers requires a lot of work on your part, not only in terms of time and effort but also to ensure that your marketing message gets through. The best way to do this is to develop a strategy that helps you increase leads and sales by providing value to your audience.

Instagram Direct Messaging is one of the most effective ways to generate leads quickly and easily. Here are a couple of ways:

Send Messages to People Who Engaged with Your Grid Posts

Using automation, you can send messages to people who engage with your Instagram grid posts and target them based on the content they engage with. For instance, if someone liked or commented on a business post, you could follow up by sending them a message about how it would be beneficial for them to check you out further. You can then direct them to your website or another relevant page, offering something of value in exchange for their email address.

Use the Instagram Auto-Reply Message Feature for Lead Generation

Instagram has an “Auto-Reply” feature that allows users to send automated messages to people who follow them on Instagram. This feature allows you to send notifications based on the number of people who follow your account or in any time period. This means that you can automate messages for your customers – letting them know when they might find new content on your feed or make suggestions for products or services.

Send Direct Messages with an Ask

Asking your audience to engage with you on Instagram is a simple way to generate leads. For instance, you could ask your followers to share their favorite posts or tag friends who might be interested in what you have to offer. You might also consider sending them an “ask” – asking for their email address, name, and other information that would make it easier to communicate with them. And giving you the ability to reach out on other channels as well.

That concludes some of the primary benefits of Instagram Direct Messaging. Let’s dig in a bit deeper and see how we can boost the response rate, shall we?

Improve Your Instagram Message Response Rate in 7 Easy Steps

You should be aware of most advantages when it comes to Instagram Direct Messaging. However, if your inbox is a dust bowl, you definitely need to make some changes with the occasional tumbleweed rolling by. In this section, we are taking a look at how to improve the Instagram Message response rate.

Use Instagram Automation

Taking the time to reply to direct messages might be difficult if you don’t have much of it. Using Instagram Automation, you can automate many of your Instagram DMs so you can focus on other social media marketing activities. For example, create an automated message that welcomes new followers and invites them to visit your profile or website. Alternatively, you can create customized flows for answering FAQs and providing a quick answers to DMs. Use a sophisticated solution like Instagram Automation by Clepher to send automatic responses to people who message your company’s Instagram account. By using Ice Breakers and Quick Replies in Instagram, you not only ensure that the automated messages are more likely to be opened, but that people are directly consuming your chatbot’s content.

Reply to People In a Timely Fashion

As previously mentioned, using Instagram can help you stay on top of your messages. But what about the times when someone messages you urgently? You need to make sure that you respond in a timely fashion. Instagram Automation helps here by auto-generating messages based on rules, timeframes, and other factors. Use Clepher’s AI Trigger feature to fire automated messages sent whenever someone sends a keyword that matches the triggers. You can also use the Time Delay feature to ensure that every message you send is relevant when it’s received. Using these tools can help you keep up with your messages.

Ask Questions

Including questions in your message is one of the simplest methods to boost your Instagram DM response rate. By asking your followers a question, you’re encouraging them to respond, making them more likely to do so. Questions can also be used on Stories to improve overall Instagram engagement rates. There are other ways to nudge your followers to communicate with you via Direct Message, for example, Q&A in your Stories. Stickers on Instagram Stories have already become popular for this reason, too, so try using them in your Direct Messages to boost the response rate on your messages.

Finally, there’s another invaluable feature if you’re looking to improve the engagement of your Instagram DM; Polls. Polls are an excellent method to gather information for future marketing purposes and provide users with opportunities to communicate with you on Instagram. They can be used in various ways – be it asking simple yes/no questions or more complex ones that might require some explaining.

Use a Call To Action

The goal of marketing on Instagram as a company is to elicit a response. So don’t be too pushy with your requests! You can’t expect people to do what you want them to do without asking them. So, always, and I mean always, tell people what you want them to do by including a call to action (CTA). Personalize your CTA if at all possible. For example, mention them by their @handle to make the message feel more personalized. Use a relevant emoji or image as an additional prompt, and choose color combinations that stand out from your brand’s colors for additional effect. Lastly, recommend comparable products that people are also likely to be interested in if you’re talking with a customer about a product that’s out of stock. It’s these kinds of personalized CTAs that outperform generic ones by 220%.

Offer Something In Return.

The most straightforward approach to elicit a response from your Instagram DM is to add value. Upload an Instagram post to your company’s feed that encourages people to interact with you.

This could include: 

• Free valuable and relevant content (like a PDF).
• A free same of your product
• Selling a service or software? A free trial.

Automate a response to deliver the freebie right away if people reach out via Instagram DM to claim the offer. This is an excellent method for establishing a mutually beneficial connection. The follower benefits from your business (ideally something that shows them how valuable you are and increases their trust), while you may continue the discussion with your followers.

Use Instagram Stories

Did you know that 500 million unique people use Instagram Stories every day? It’s one of Instagram’s most popular features, both for users and businesses. The nice thing about Stories is that they allow consumers to respond or react right away, which appears in the brand’s inbox as a message. In fact, 20% of Instagram Stories responses generate at least one direct message. Make your Stories exciting and entertaining to pique your followers’ interest. Send a quick note to learn more about them and their response if they like anything (or don’t), find it amusing, or share it. It’s an excellent way to start a discussion!

With Clepher, you’re able to use the Story Mentions feature. See, when someone mentions your account (@username) in their story, you can trigger a Flow of messages in a private conversation. The possibilities are endless, you can immediately ask for their email address or phone number, or perhaps you want to butter them up first with some free content and give them a discount coupon for whatever it is you’re selling. Story Mentions is a frictionless Entry Point into your chatbot. It also can be used in both free and paid marketing channels.

It’s easy to set up as well. In fact, here’s how you set up Story Mentions in Clepher:

Watch this video about Instagram Story Mentions with Clepher on YouTube.

Rely on Instagram Insights

Instagram offers a built-in analytics tool so you can see which material performs best with your followers. (Note that you’ll need to switch a personal account into a company account to get access to these insights; if you haven’t already, you may do so here.) The Insights feature locates trends and comprehends the sort of material that connects. Let’s put it to the test. Let’s say that your Instagram Insights highlights the following media items that have the highest engagement rates:

• Influencer-reposted content
• New products announced via Carousel items.

You should focus your Instagram content strategy on these two top-performing themes of influencer marketing and new product releases. Use this data to fuel your Instagram DMs by offering similar deals, such as:

“Reply to this Story now, and we’ll send you a video of a famous beauty blogger using our new products!”

Final Thoughts on Boosting the Response Rate with Instagram DMs

In this article, we’ve reviewed a few methods for improving response rates on Instagram DMs. One of the most important things you can do is answer messages quickly and ask questions to encourage more interaction. You should also rely on Instagram insights to help inform your strategy. It will provide valuable data that will show you where your followers are engaging with content or how they’re responding to specific marketing strategies.

Other ways include asking them about themselves, using polls, Story Mentions by triggering Flows when someone mentions your account in their story, or including stickers on Stories that have become popular because users feel comfortable interacting with brands via DM instead of just liking posts! Once again, keep in mind what kind of message works best for different people. Perhaps you think the best approach is casual, while others prefer a more professional tone.

Whatever your method of choice may be, one thing is for sure – Instagram DM marketing is quite effective! If you take an interest in learning more about it or how to boost response rates, why not give Clepher a try

Want to Start automating your Instagram Direct Messages today?

There’s no question that Instagram DMs have a lot of promise for businesses. Whether you’re using them to improve your engagement rate or convert followers into customers, don’t ignore the tiny paper airplane at the top right of the Instagram app. Just keep in mind that you should respond to Instagram DMs appropriately and ethically. You want to develop positive relationships with users, not spam them. If you’re going to start automating your Instagram messages today, be sure to check out Clepher’s Instagram automation features. Always think about what your follower truly wants when replying to a DM even if you get those automations implemented.

So, are you ready to begin sending immediate answers to people messaging your Instagram account? Clepher’s Instagram features will be live soon.

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