So, we guess you've heard rumblings that entrepreneurs like yourself are actually making lots of sales from social media. And how can this be? Isn't Instagram a wasteland for teenagers and selfies? Well, not anymore.
And in this article, we are going to share a little hidden feature of Instagram that you can use for your customer support and boost your brand loyalty like crazy.
Hi there, and welcome back to Serendipity Marketing. We're a digital marketing agency with a mission to help small businesses grow by applying psychology to their marketing strategies.
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So, we are about to cover how to sell your products and services using Instagram's direct messages, also known as the 'DMs'.
Leveraging the DMs on Instagram has worked for multiple clients of ours, from product-based companies to service-based ones. This technique is absolutely organic – meaning that you don’t need to spend any penny on ads and can easily help you boost your sales and profit by +400%. I know it sounds a lot, but really, you have to try it out.
So, just so we're on the same page, let's talk about what direct messaging is on Instagram.
What is direct messaging on Instagram?
Simply put, it's Instagram's private messaging feature, so if you want to connect with someone one to one virtually this is how you're going to do it.
Yes, this means you could direct message Gerard Butler or Britney Spears, or any other person who uses the platform.
It’s basically the new alternative to cold emailing. Direct messaging is where it's at on how to connect with someone virtually.
Now direct messages aren't just text anymore. Did you know that there are six types of direct messages you could send to someone?
1. The first one is a text-based message, so this is the closest thing to texting someone.
2. The second type is pictures, so you could easily send someone a photo from your camera roll or within your message thread. You can snap a pic and send it their way.
3. The third type is videos. Again, you can pull up a video from your camera roll or you can film one directly from your message thread and send it on over. You are going to have to be quick though: the videos can only be 15 seconds max.
4. Now, if the 15-second limit isn't your thing, you could actually just video chat with someone directly in the thread. So similar to calling someone on Facetime or through Facebook messenger, there's now a video chat button where you can call someone up directly in the DMs.
5. The fifth type of DM is a group chat, so if you've got some friends in your industry that you want to gather all together in one thread or you want your family to be together in one thread, you could start a group chat with multiple people on one DM thread.
6. And lastly, perhaps the newest of all the types of DMs are voice notes. We love voice notes. They're our favourite type of message because let's be honest, we are all lazy and it's way faster to hit a button and send a voice note than to type it all out.
Quick question for you. What's your favourite way of messaging someone on Instagram? Do you like to text them, send them a video or send them a voice note? Let us know in a comment below this article.
So, let's get down to the juicy stuff, shall we?
How do you actually use these wonderful DMs to sell your products and services on Instagram?
Well, DMs are my favourite because they help your business grow in five main ways. We are talking about awareness, leads, sales, brand loyalty and connections.
Let us go through each one of these.
Awareness
How do you make sure that someone becomes aware of you on Instagram? So, our favourite tip for this is to actually go onto your 'Explore' page, look at the content that Instagram has catered for you, and there's actually a feature there where you can see stories.
Go ahead and view those stories. If they seem like a great person to connect with, reply to their story. And voilà, you now have a DM thread with a new person who's just discovering you.
Alright, now before we move on with the Instagram direct messaging strategy, have you ever thought about how much you should invest in marketing to generate constant business growth? Click the button below to calculate the ideal marketing budget you should allocate for higher visibility, engagement, and profit.
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Leads
Now, how do you get leads from Instagram? Our best tip is to DM the people who are commenting on your posts.
Now, we know it's pretty common to just like a comment or maybe reply back on your actual post, but we'd encourage you to take it up a notch.
Why not send that person who took the time to comment a private message? You can simply thank them for commenting, but this simple act creates that private DM thread between the two of you where further connections can be made.
Another trick that we love here is to run a poll in our Instagram story.
This way, we can see who chose which options, so depending on their answer, we can then go ahead and tap the paper airplane symbol, open up a DM thread with that person and ask them more questions about why they chose the answer they did.
So, that's just one way to open up a new conversation with someone who can become a new lead.
Sales
How do you get sales? Well, you can send an unlimited number of links in direct messages.
Now, you probably know you only have one link underneath your bio. And then of course, if you have 10,000 followers or more, you can share multiple links in your Stories.
But let's be honest, most business owners don't yet have 10,000 followers. So, your best bet is to start that private conversation with someone in your DMs and then you are not limited to the number of links you can share or the type of link either.
So, you can send your call booking link, your opt-in page link, your sales page link, your checkout link, whatever makes the most sense to nurture that relationship and bring that lead.
Loyalty
So, how do you build loyalty on Instagram by offering private customer support? We know it's the norm if you're going to help out your customers, you usually do it over email or in a private Facebook group, but you would be amazed at how impressed your customers will be when you privately offer them help in a direct message thread.
And do you want to know our favourite feature for building brand loyalty that we mentioned at the beginning of this article? It's called 'close friends'.
'Close friends' is a filtering system that you could use in your DMs to mark the people who you want to send a message to.
So, as a business owner, you could mark all your clients as close friends. Then when you go to share something in your story, don't share it with everyone, just share it with your close friends and that creates that private connection.
Again, if people reply, they're starting that private DM thread with you and it just feels that much more intimate.
Connections
How do you make connections on Instagram? By creating group threads for your peers in your industry.
Instagram is the world's number one social media platform and people are spending way more time there and, in their DMs, than even in their text messaging app.
So, apply this to your business life. Why not gather a group of peers in your industry into one group thread? That way you all have this private place where you can talk about your businesses, maybe even create some brand partnership deals with each other, and just help each other out.
By doing this, you're going to be positioning yourself as a thought leader and a really great connector in your industry.
If you need help with your Instagram or social media marketing to grow your business in terms of visibility, engagement, and profit, contact us today and speak with one of our digital marketing experts to see how we can build the bridge between the point you’re standing at right now and your goals.
