How to Use Instagram DMs to Grow Your Business

Messaging has always played a huge role in everyone’s lives. Since the dawn of the internet we’ve been using DMs or PMs to connect with others. Instagram DMs have proven to a valuable point of contact for prospects and customers. Let’s make the most of Instagram DMs and use it to grow your business.

In this article, we’ll discuss how to use Instagram DMs to grow your business.

Why Use Instagram DMs to Grow Business

Take a brief look at the features it offers, there’s no rocket science involved in how it can be used to maximize businesses. It has simple features and it is simply a tool to convey messages to the receiver without publicly showing them. Remember that beauty is found in the simplest of things. Hence businesses, small and big alike, are taking refuge in this feature. Trying to slide into DMs.

We will further discuss how it can be used in the best way possible to gain profit and grow businesses. You can also see How to Leverage Instagram DMs to Get Customers for additional resources about utilizing DMs.

How to Use Instagram DMs

Even the best things in life would be useless if not used in the best way. Right? That’s exactly how it is with Instagram DMs. If you have the right strategy and if you know how to directly target your audience, nothing will be able to keep you from taking full advantage of this tool. Instagram DMs have great potential to add value to your brand and grow your business. With the approaches explained below, you will know how to market your product according to your customer’s needs:

3 Different DM Strategies

If you don’t know the right strategy, then you’re probably missing out on leads and sales that can benefit you beyond belief. It is one of the most powerful ways to directly connect with your followers and potential customers. 

The Permission Marketing Approach 

The permission marketing approach refers to an approach in which the consumer permits the seller in advance, allowing the service provider or seller to market their products. For example, when we sign up for e-mail subscriptions while browsing through a site. We allow them to send us e-mails that’ll contain information about certain products. In Instagram DMs, we use this approach to first take permission from our followers, asking them if they would like to receive information about our products or not. Permission marketing ensures that our target audience has signed up for the information we send them, increasing the chance of our product being accepted by our customers willingly. This strategy is cost and time-efficient as it saves us the risk of being declined. In a world full of automated and bot sent messages, this strategy will help us feel welcomed by our target audience

The Quick and Dirty Pixel Approach

Do you know that you can retarget everyone who visits your website by installing a Facebook pixel? Now the question would be, how it could be related to Instagram DM?

Since Facebook and Instagram are the ‘same’ you could always curate your message with a call-to-action (CTA) to check your website. Keep in mind that you have to install Facebook pixel on your website or landing page so you can track those audiences who have been visited and retarget them through Facebook or Instagram ads.

The Relationship Building Approach 

Let’s put it like this, the seed of your brand is planted within the brains of your audience the first time they come across your brand. Whether it’s through Google or a magazine or simply through someone else’s mouth. That is how your relationship with your customer is planted and comes into existence. Now you must be thinking, what role do Instagram DMs play in this story? Well, you’ll find that out soon. You see, when a person heard about your company or brand they’re most likely to reach out to your website, if not, they will follow you on Instagram. We think people reaching out to Instagram pages rather than websites is more likely to happen as they will be curious to find out reviews posted by your existing customers. 

However, when they land on your Instagram page, that’s when you will put these DMs to work. As we discussed earlier how easy it has become through Instagram DMs to reach out to your customers and build rapport with them. Hence, as soon as you get the notification that you have been followed by a user, the first thing that you have to do is build a relationship with your client. This approach is pretty much self-explanatory as our main focus in this strategy is to build a bond with our customers. We can do that by asking if our customers are satisfied with our services if they have heard about our latest products or by simply giving them a discount code to make them feel like they’re appreciated. All these steps will surely help you connect to them on a different level. 

How to Find The Right People to DMs

Now the next thing that must’ve popped up would’ve been “How should I find users I can DMs?” We have a solution to this problem as well. We have listed below the most effective ways to find the right people to DM. 

Using Instagram Search

Imagine how broad the spectrum of Instagram search would be with a billion users now. Unfortunately, from that one billion users, not all of them can be your target audience. However, Instagram allows us to search for users individually through locations or hashtags.

As discussed above. Searching for users individually can be a little tricky, so one of the best ways to target individuals is to go through the following list of those who belong to the same niche as you. For example, if you have a makeup brand. You can follow makeup bloggers and reach out to people who follow them and can feature your product in your videos. It’s not as bad as it sounds. Even if you have to keep searching for an hour straight, you should do it. Why? Because what if the people we miss out on are our potential customers. 

Using IG Hashtags

In the noisy social media world, you have to do a lot of research and sometimes hard work for achieving your goals. And speaking of hashtags particularly, it’s a vast, vast world of hashtags you have to dive into, to find the one you’re looking for. But don’t worry, it’s completely doable.

Let’s say you’re a hairdresser so it’s obvious that you will target an audience that gets a haircut quite often or likes to experiment with their hair. So you will search for “hairdressers” and 100,000+ users will show up. Good thing is, to spread your business you do not have to target big bloggers with thousands of followers. You can simply target normal people who would be interested in the kind of services you provide. We get it. It sounds like a lot of hard work. But once you start putting this into practice, you will for sure be able to target your desired audience. 

Using Existing Customer Data

Did you know that you can generate more leads from existing customer data? How? This is how. Once your customers feel appreciated and satisfied with your product, the chances of them sharing their experience get very high. Following are the ways you can satisfy their needs:

• Share discount codes: Who doesn’t love discount codes? Discounts can brighten everyone’s day especially if it comes from their favorite brand. Tell your followers that you appreciate their existence on your page whether it is through the words in the caption or any other way possible. Trust us, they will never want to leave they will share their delightful experience with others. 
• Provide exceptional customer service: one thing that irritates customers more than any other thing is bad customer service. When they come in with questions and leave with more questions. You must make sure that you provide great customer service if Instagram is where your followers spend most of their time. 
• Hold a contest: ever heard of the term “Giveaway”? If yes, then it’s a great way to boost engagement and get maximum shares. Giveaways are modern-day lucky draws where customers take part to win and one or two lucky winners get the prize. This is an amazing way to get back in touch with your customers and get numerous shares. 

Brands Who Nailed Instagram DM to Grow their Business

Kardashian Collection

As a way of testing the waters, Kim Kardashian broadly utilized the informing benefit to send a selected photo to the first 15 of her followers. There is a hashtag in the picture, which at that point is a good start to increase awareness about the “KK” mindfulness. Isn’t this a great way to spread the word?

Michael Kors

Michael Kors, the famous luxury brand, announced a giveaway for its followers through Instagram DM, asking them to post pictures with the hashtag #MKDirect. This practice made hundreds of people share pictures. A huge amount of user-generated content came into being which gave Michael Kors a huge profit. 

Hyatt

The grand hotel chain wished selected followers a “happy holiday season”, Not all followers but just influencers who were likely to share it.

Conclusion 

Instagram is a great platform to instantly reach out to your customers, and with the help of this tool called Instagram DM, you can convey your message directly to your customers in the blink of an eye. However, keep in mind that too many messages to the same user will annoy them and make them think you’re a bot. You need to use it wisely and keep Instagram DMs as a great tool to grow your business and not just for sending personal messages. Ampfluence as an Instagram Growth Agency has proved that Instagram DM is a powerful method to grow business. Check out our Community Management Service to find out more!