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Based on data from over 10,000 ecommerce brands using Gorgias, those that invest time to build an audience on Instagram have 40x the number of followers on Instagram than orders per month, meaning a brand with 40,000 followers would have about 1,000 orders. If you’re able to convert an additional one follower per 1,000, you’ll see a 4% lift in orders.
Below is a step-by-step guide to engage with your new followers and drive additional sales.
Glamnetic generated $10k in revenue from Welcome DMs
Beauty brand Glamnetic has made welcome DMs part of its Instagram strategy. Agents spend time every day sending DMs to new followers along with personalized Shopify discount codes that include the Instagram user’s name. While creating the personalized codes is a bit more effort for the agents, it paid off.
“The psychological concept of us creating a code with your name usually results in a sale,”
— Mia Chapa, Customer Experience Director at Glamnetics.
The codes were valid for 48 hours, and the agent encouraged the Instagram user to share the code with family and friends.
The interactions start with a simple message from the agent, thanking the user for the follow. The agent then sends a follow-up message about 30 minutes later, asking, “Have you tried magnetic lashes or press-on nails before?” and then the agents would engage based on the responses. In one month, Glamnetic saw more than $10,000 in revenue tied to the personalized Shopify codes.
6 steps to turn Instagram DMs into revenue
McKinsey asked consumers to define personalization. The response? “Positive experiences of being made to feel special.” McKinsey also found that businesses that excel at personalization generate 40% more revenue than those that don’t.
Like Glamnetic, you can create those special, personalized moments using DMs to turn new followers into customers. Gorgias can help you manage the conversations.
1) Send a simple ‘Hi! Welcome!!’ DM
Your agents can send direct messages to your new followers on Instagram. While this can’t be automated in Gorgias, your effort will pay off when you can manage replies.
Send a friendly and on-brand welcome message thanking the user for the follow. You could also opt to include a discount code immediately in the first message.
2) Send a follow-up message
You won’t always get a response to the first message. But your agents can keep the conversation going with a simple and authentic follow-up, like “Let me know if I can help you pick out [enter one of the latest products from your Instagram posts].”
Your agents should wait between the first DM and the second. If you wait at least 30 minutes, it provides a more authentic customer experience and bumps the message back to the top of the users’ inboxes (in case they missed the message the first time).
3) Create a Ticket View in Gorgias
Once you’ve sent the initial messages to trigger a conversation, you can sit back and wait for a response.
In Gorgias, you can monitor all Instagram DMs and reply from one centralized Ticket View.
Within your tickets, you’ll create a New View filtered to Instagram-direct-messages. By creating this shared view, anyone on your team can reply.
4) Use Macros to manage replies
You may be able to anticipate a reply based on the follow-up question sent in Step 2. For example, users may reply that they’re looking at a specific product.
In Gorgias, you can use Macros to save time when your agents reply.
- Go into your Settings and click on Macros
- Give your Macro a Name (like Instagram - Lashes Reply)
- Add Tags, such as IG - DM Sales to easily track tickets tied to these conversations
- Type in your Response Text
When your agents are working with tickets created from Instagram DMs, they can choose from your library of Macros for quick replies.
If the Instagram user doesn’t need any info, that’s ok too! Create a Macro that says something like, “No worries - we’re here if you have any questions!” — saving your agents time as they type replies.
Keep the medium in mind. Any replies you create for Instagram should be very short and easy to read.
5) Offer a discount code
Whether you offer a discount code immediately with the welcome message or after a few exchanges with your agent, your codes should have an expiration date such as 24-48 hours. A short window adds urgency: if the Instagram user is interested, they won’t want to miss out.
You can add the text with the discount code to your Macro from Step 4 or you can add separate Macros to give your agents more flexibility in the discount codes offered.
- Create discount codes in Shopify
- Create discount codes in Magento
- Create discount codes in BigCommerce
And if the customer doesn’t have questions, you can still add the discount code to the “No worries!” macro.
6) Monitor sales and activity from each discount code
When you’re creating discount codes, make them unique to your Instagram this specific tactic. By calculating the revenue from orders that used these codes, you’ll be able to measure success (and the increased revenue over time!). Glamentic uses data warehouse Looker to track its DM Sales program, but Shopify also has a Sales by Discount report.
If you create a Tag for the tickets tied to your Sales DMs, you can also monitor the volume. If you know how many conversations your agents are initiating, you can track the number of replies received since a ticket will be opened in Gorgias. Go to the Statistics area in Gorgias to view Tickets Created Per Tag.
Turn your Instagram followers into loyal shoppers
Brands like Glamnetic, Good American, and Steve Madden get new followers every day. They leverage Instagram through consistent content like Stories, videos, and live sessions to keep their audiences engaged.
When you’ve captured your audience’s attention and earned a follow, it’s the perfect time to proactively reach out – and, hopefully, earn some new business.
Check out The CX Growth Playbook for 17 additional tactics to boost your revenue by 44% — from the first sale and beyond.