Instagram DMs can be a goldmine for your business.
150 million people use Instagram direct messaging to communicate with a business each month.
From community management to customer care, brands can generate a lot of business value with the right Instagram DM communication stragety.
With the launch of new Messenger API For Instagram, DMs in 2021 can be the crucial point of effective & direct communication between your brand and customers.
In this post, we'll walk you through everything your need to know about Instagram DMs.
You can scroll through the article or can click on the segments.
- Understand Instagram DM Meaning
- How To Build Your Brand Using Instagram DMs For Business
- Benefits Of Instagram DMs For Business
- Tips To Manage Instagram DMs
- Statusbrew For Instagram Messaging
Click here to download detailed infographic on how to build your brand using Instagram DMs.
Understand Instagram DM Meaning
Usually, Instagram DMs are an under-explored resource when it comes to networking & communicating. However, it can create a lasting brand value leading more customers to your business.
Through a persistent communication approach & apt social media marketing strategy, your brand can create an impact.
Following are the critical points you should know about to get a better understanding about DM meaning in Instagram:
Insight On Instagram DMs
Instagram DMs offer intrapersonal communication between consumers and businesses. It is a private message feature that enables brands to connect to their clients or followers virtually.
DMs marketing helps the business develop relationships with potential clients & is best suited for troubleshooting and better customer service. Instagram DMs can be your secret weapon to generate leads effectively & and to grow sales:
- Text Messages
Communicate with influencers or brands or reply to your prospects who have showed interest in your brand.
To troubleshoot customer's issues quickly, you can create & save replies Instagram DMs. It is stunningly effective to enhance sales, as when you quickly communicate with your consumers, they feel valued.
- Images & Videos
Instagram DMs allows you to use images. Post informative images, informative visual content results in more attention & engagement.
DMs supports the audio-visual content format. Create self-help videos, tip & best practices about using a product. Use entertaining short videos to give a walk-through about your brand or product and send it through DM to your followers. You also can share in-feed video post on DMs.
- Emoji & GIFs
You can humanize your brand using emojis. To set up the brand tone & create a lasting brand impact, use GIFs & emojis. Sometimes sharing this type of content strengthens your relationship with consumers & helps to create a loyal customer base.
It is seen that users respond to GIFs or emojis by sending one back, and in that way, the brand visibility and reach are also enhanced.
- Location Pin
You can help your customers navigate your store through DMs; drop your store location PIN. Or, if your brand is organizing an event, drop venue location pin to communicate with them effectively.
- Video Call & Group Chat
With video call format, you can connect with your customers to give quick demonstrations or troubleshoot. It makes communication real-time & effective.
Also, you can use group chat and have a conversation with up to fifty people together at one time. Create groups of your frequently connected customers, and you can share about any new product update or brand behind the scene.
You can create chat rooms with your prospects and share with them your brand achievements.
It helps to form a community which in return creates a sense of belonging among your clients.
How To DM On Instagram?
Direct message in Instagram has widened its spectrum over the years. Everywhere you see a little paper plane, there is a scope for direct message. Following are the basic steps to know how to DM on Instagram:
- Open your Instagram account.
- Check the paper airplane on the top right corner.
- To select a recipient, tap on the plus sign.
How To Integrate Instagram DM & Facebook Messenger?
Instagram & Facebook Messenger integration allows users to chat using both apps. Follow the steps to use this cross messaging feature effectively:
- Open Instagram setting page.
- Tap on 'Privacy' & you'll find 'Messages.'
- On clicking the 'Messages' feature, you'll land on the message control page. Here you can decide how you would like to receive messages.
- Under message control, you'll find the sections Potential Connections, Other People & Group Messages .
- Taping on each feature you can choose available options: Chats, Message Requests & Don't Receive Requests. Under 'Group Messages' section you can select who can add you to groups.
You can essentially send a post, a reel, an IGTV video, a story as a direct message. You can further reply to stories in direct messages.
While a regular post or story may not be able to accomplish this, a direct message will take you a step closer to your clients.
How To DM On Instagram For Communication?
Your brand needs to follow specific guidelines to deliver communication through Instagram messages.
Instagram DMs are the entry point to create an impactful brand identity. To ensure effective use of this Instagram feature, your skills & executions have to be on point. Check out the following points to know how to DM on Instagram to make an impact:
Whom Should You Target?
Narrowing the target audience is crucial to generate qualified leads. It identifies your target group whom you want to reach through Instagram direct messaging.
- Monitor the most engaged followers on your Instagram account. Observe the followers who regularly comment, like, or share your posts. You can send them special offers or share about new product updates or any upcoming event or contest. Connecting to the most engaged followers on your profile is essential to lead them in your marketing funnel.
- Influencers can be your next target group. Instagram influencers get massive attention on their feed; as brand, you may not get the required attention when you comment on their post. You can connect to them through DM. DM to share about your service or products. Also, you can share appreciation notes about their profiles & feeds.
Image Source: Kiyashmi Instagram
- Use DMs to communicate with clients who are complaining about a product or who are seeking help. If someone is complaining about your product on a post, politely drop a private message on their inbox offering help. Check out your tone and make sure to solace the issue they have to address.
When a client is angry with a brand, they may bad-mouth it or leave negative comments. Resolve it quickly to avoid public fall-out.
Follow These Instagram DM Best Practices
Be careful while using Instagram direct messaging, because if DMing goes wrong, it can smash opportunities, as well as negatively impact your brand & customer base. Refrain yourself from doing the following while using Instagram DMs.
Follow certain practices to avoid spamming on your follower's account.
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Don't message repetitively to the followers who are not interested to hear about your brand or product. Also, avoid sending generic copy-pasted texts to hundreds of followers' accounts.
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Maintain dignity & ethics while promoting products. Refrain your social media team to explicitly promote your brand or business by sending the bulk of promotional content to the followers who didn't even ask for it.
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When you promote your brand through direct messaging, focus on value creation. Keep your brand's traditional advertising to the bare minimum, share informative content.
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Be friendly & casual, but whenever you form any group for group chat, try to inform the followers personally on the inbox about the group's purpose. Seek consent. Focus on brevity & DM to the point.
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As a brand, make sure that you reciprocate to all clients' messages or queries with equal importance. Ensure to treat everyone with respect; not replying or replying late damages the brand reputation & image. Business who responds quickly with a friendly touch creates lasting impressions on followers.
How To Build Your Brand Using Instagram DMs For Business
Building a brand requires effective two-way communication with customers. The best resource to understand your customers is your customers.
With a proper strategic plan of communication through DM, you can gain the best leads to generate future sales.
Knwoing how to DM on Instagram can open opportunities for your brand to stay visible among the crowd & to create impactful brand awareness. It generates leads & helps to create effective personal customer service.
Check out the following points to get the details of how DMs can help to build your brand:
Connect & Build Relationship
Instagram is a community driven platform; as a brand, to make your corporation credible, it's vital to communication with your followers. Your followers will support your brand if they feel valued.
DMs on Instagram helps brands stay connected with your customers & followers in a personal way to craft authentic relationships.
Instagram direct messaging is a perfect way to enhance & strengthen your brand's connection with your clients; you can create a meaningful communication channel with your current or potential followers, and the clients can gradually enter your marketing funnel.
When your followers or clients mention or tag your brand on Instagram, thank them via a direct message; when your followers or clients share stories about their passion or hobbies or a new venture, appreciate them through direct message.
It shows that you value them. Also, if your fans reply to your Instagram stories or reels, make sure to reciprocate through direct message.
With Statusbrew Engage Inbox, you can automate workflow to reply to customers in real-time. Statusbrew allows quickly responding to incoming conversations with Saved Replies.
Value Customer Loyalty
Show your followers & potential clients that your brand is accessible & you care about them, creating the sense of belonging to a community augment your brand awareness and image.
Supporting & appreciating your followers makes your brand's Instagram community stronger. Get engaged with your followers, potential clients to build your brand.
Instagram DMs are the best way to prove to your customers that your brand values customers loyality.
Answering customers' queries or appreciating them may be part of your brand customer service effort, but it shows that the brand is committed to them for customers.
Also, add value and information to the content you are sharing with them. It is good to communicate. But also make sure to listen to them carefully.
Enhance Customer Support
Many customers reach out to brands on Instagram seeking help or product support or to gain information about product use cases.
When your clients share any comments, it is recommended to discuss the issues in a private setting, i.e., through direct messaging.
It minimizes the risk of creating a panic among your existing customers about the products or creating a negative brand impact.
Quick customer support is an integral part that enhances sales and generates leads; it also develops a good brand identity.
DMs support you in addressing your customer issues with a short span and creating effective brand impact.
Leverage DM to use different content formats like images, videos, or voice notes to make customer support service easy and informative.
Make Industry Connection
Use Instagram DMs to establish & to make new connections.
Influencer marketing is an excellent way to enhance the reach of your business & to make your brand trustworthy.
Instagram influences us to have a piece of good knowledge about creating content about a product & posting it at the right time.
Popular influencers mention their contact information on their profile bio, but sometimes email gets unnoticed. So use Instagram DM to connect to them quickly and set a solid initial step for collaboration.
Collaboration with influencers helps draw followers' attention to your product as their Instagram handles are highly interactive & they have knowledge about placing a product post to gain followers' attention.
Image Source: Kiyashmi Instagram
Influencers have power to influence people to buy your product.
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Monitor their platform and research their area of interest & value.
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After that, send them a friendly message & elaborate on the reason for connecting them, what you are looking for and how it can benefit the influencer.
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Instagram DM from a brand quickly gains Influencers' attention, so make sure to do your homework well.
Apart from influencers, you can connect to other corporations of the same niche to maintain goodwill or create collaboration.
Product Shoutout
Use DMs to announce a new product or service launch. Instagram gives you the liberty to create a private chat group of your loyal followers & you can inform them initially. You can use DM to deliver your dedicated followers a sneak-peak or a walk-through of the new product.
You can also run contests through DMs to drive more engagement and enhance visibility to new product launches.
Instead of sharing the details of a new product, communicating in a closed group of customers encourages your clients.
Image Source: KITKAT Instagram
You can also appreciate them choosing your brand for a long time by sharing special offers related to new products or can share coupon codes through DMs, which can be used online.
If your brand is looking to enrich your most engaged customer base while announcing a new product launch, DMs are a perfect way to achieve your goals.
Ask Feedback
To build a brand, it's crucial to work on improvement, and for that, you can use DMs to seek feedback from your followers. Observe your comment section, to find people highly vocal about your brand.
You can find a group of followers who, apart from interacting on posts, also shares valuable feedback & opinions about your product.
Instead of asking for feedback on a public forum, you reach out to this section of your fans to get exclusive input about your brand.
Drop a direct message appreciating them for understanding your product and helping your brand to improve. And then ask for more feedback, user experience, and suggestions.
Asking their feedback is beneficial in two ways:
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Your followers feel motivated to take necessary action;
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Your brand can get the actual market scenario of how people perceive your product.
Benefits Of Instagram DMs For Business
Over the years, Instagram has proven itself time and again to be an excellent platform to conduct social marketing and help your brand grow manifold in sales and services.
With its variety of attractive and valuable features, you can constantly reach out to your customers.
Direct & Easy Communication
Apart from maintaining a good customer base and keeping business up, you can also use direct messages on Instagram to keep good communication going.
You can post stories about your upcoming events and sales, asking customers and users to make inquiries and suggestions through direct messages.
Loyal Community Building
Direct messages further help you to maintain a good customer base and even widen your loyal customer base. When you send a direct message to a customer, it automatically makes them happy and feels unique.
It brings a sense of importance to your customers' minds.
It is also a way through which your customers find it easier to keep up with your services and know of new products and offers. It saves their time, and in return, increases your loyal customer base.
Quick Coustomer Service
Knowing how to use Instagram DMs enhances your brands coutomer service. You team is proactive & acessible to your clients through DMs.
Swift coustomer service creats a good impression about the brand as follwers feel that the brand values them. It results in the enahced brand image & revenue growth.
Boost Lead Generation & Sales
Direct messages have a better chance of making a more significant impact on the users and customers.
They are a great way to generate leads. Any user is more likely to check up on a direct message, with a greater possibility of following that lead to check out products and services, as compared to a general post or story.
With increased leads, you can expect sales to grow further. Direct messages make it easier for customers to decide if they want to buy a product.
It also helps people have a better perspective of a product, essentially allowing them to decide upon the product they should go for.
Tips To Manage Instagram DMs For Business
Instagram direct communication builds brand through creating space for personal, private, and swift communication between the consumers & marketers.
Its Instagram feature is less formal, and followers who take time to DM you demonstrate that they are showing interest in your brand.
Your efforts should be limited to observing what followers perceive about your brand, but you need to prepare a plan to manage Instagram direct messages. It is essential to keep the network of communication running.
Instagram DM Templates
To save your time, prepare an Instagram template. Following are a few sample Instagram templates that can be handy for your brand.
To Appreciate Your Followers For Connecting
Hi, thank you for following us. We appreciate you reaching out & welcome to our Instagram community. Please feel free to share your feedback/suggestions about our products.
To Collaborate With Influencers
Hey,(name) we are(mention about your brand & service). We scrolled through your profile and were amazed by your product placement and creativity. Your organized & aesthetic profile caught our attention. We would love to collaborate with you (mention project name). We are open to ideas & creative thinking. Looking forward to hearing from you. (Link to brands work)
Offer & Review Message
Hey, we appreciate you for following our profile. Thank you for taking the time to engage in our content. As a token of appreciation, we would like to offer you a loyal follower discount. (Discount details & promo code). We would like to know your opinion about our brand. Feel free to share your feedback (share the review link). Thanks again!
Addressing Unhappy Customer
Hey, thanks for connecting us via DM. We have seen your recent update/comment on the issue you're facing. May we hear elaborately about the trouble you are facing to solve the problem ASAP? Apology for the inconvenience that occurred.
Managing Communication As A Team
To get top-notch results using DMs on Instagram, prepare a proactive team. Your social media team is accountable for making communication quick & smooth with customers.
Discuss with the team, observe your competitors, understand the market, and set up a strategy to reach out to clients or support customers' issues. Check out metrics and set up responding time.
Image Source: 5WPR / 5W Public Relations Instagram
Set up a calendar & set a specific time when your team will respond to the message over inbox. In that way, the workflow is organized. Use saved replies on Instagram to make your communication faster.
Use social media tools like Statusbrew to enhance efficiency & to reply to all social media messages from one dashboard.
Statusbrew's Multi-Agent Collision Detection feature in Engage refines your team sending repetitive replies to the same conversation by multiple team members.
Organize Inbox
You should further have good management of your inbox. Management of inbox essentially means your ability to swiftly sort through, respond to, and find a DM from a customer.
The inbox of Instagram allows you to filter your messages, which in return allows you to view read and unread messages together.
Instagram inbox further provides you with the option to flag a message. This is important to highlight a message that you may be having difficulties replying to at the moment. You can also flag conversations that you feel are important or are your favorite.
While having a conversation with customers, you should know that replying speed is crucial.
The faster you can respond, the better impression you make.
For the same, Instagram allows you to create shortcuts to custom messages that you are most likely to respond to customers' queries with.
Statusbrew Engage Inbox can help you manage all social media conversations easily & ensure that you reciprocate your customers' comments swiftly.
Measure Metrics & Set Achievable Goals
Monitors reach and impressions on your post and check out your audience's needs & interests.
You must always have a clear set of objectives that you want to reach through direct messages.
It would help if you always kept in mind that you set goals that you are sure about achieving. Setting unrealistic goals will only make a wrong impression on your brand.
Ask your team to monitors fans' comments on your posts as it will help the brand to understand how the posts or products are performing. While connecting with customers, use straightforward language and avoid using jargon.
Statusbrew For Instagram Messaging
Statusbrew is your one stop solution for all social media engagement activities.
All your Instagram comments, ad comments, mentions & direct messages are synced and delivered in your Engage Inbox along with conversation from all your other social media profiles.
With features such as Rule Engine, Collision Detection, Saved Replies, Team Engagement Reports, you can empowers your team to be precise, quick, and efficient in managing customers' queries.
Book a free demo with Statusbrew to understand To Maximize Impact Of Instagram DMs For Business.
Statusbrew is a unified tool that supports Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Linkedin, and even Google My Business!
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