So you've heard rumblings that entrepreneurs like yourself are actually making
sales from social media. How can this be?
Isn't Instagram a wasteland for teenagers and selfies and Avocado Pics?
Not Anymore, Rhonda, not anymore. If you're in for this topic,
be sure to hit the subscribe button and the bell so that you don't miss any of
my future trainings on how to use Instagram to grow your business and stay tuned
until the end.
I'm going to share a little hidden feature of Instagram that you can use for
your customer support and boost your brand loyalty like crazy.
Today I'm covering 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 my friend and client,
Becky Keen,
who's a business coach and over the last six months she's already generated over
$40,000 in revenue back to her business all through the free app that we know
and love: Instagram and it's direct messages.
I'm Elise Darma and I've helped thousands of entrepreneurs like yourself grow
their business online through Instagram and today I'm covering sales in the DMS.
Just so we're on the same page,
let's talk about what direct messaging is 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 Josh
Groban who was my childhood crush.
[Playing 'Careless Whisper'] So
move over cold emailing. That's so 1999.
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? The first one is a text-based message,
so this is the closest thing to texting someone. 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.
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.
Now, if 15 second limits 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. 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.
And lastly, perhaps the newest of all the types of DMs are voice notes.
Hallelujah. I love voice notes.
They're my favorite type of message because let's be honest,
I'm lazy and it's way faster to hit a button and send a voice note than to type
it all out. Question for you.
What's your favorite way of messaging someone on Instagram?
Do you like to text them, send them a video or send them a voice note?
Let me know in a comment below this video. 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 favorite because they help your business grow in five main ways.
I'm talking awareness, leads, sales,
brand loyalty and connections. Let me go through each one of these. Awareness.
How do you make sure that someone becomes aware of you on Instagram?
So my favorite 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.
Leads. Now, how do you get leads from Instagram?
My best tip is to DM the people who are commenting on your posts.
Now,
I know it's pretty common to just like a comment or maybe reply back on your
actual post, but I'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 I love here is to run a poll in my Instagram story.
Now I can see who chose which options, so depending on their answer,
I 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 in your business. Sales. How do you get sales? Well,
you can send an unlimited number of links in the 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
over into a sale. Loyalty.
So how do you build loyalty on Instagram by offering private customer support?
Now I 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.
This exact tactic is the reason why I've been able to sell $2,500 retreat
tickets because of offering that support in the DMs.
And want to know my favorite feature for building brand loyalty that I mentioned
at the beginning of this video? 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 coaching clients as close friends or all your course
students as close friends. Then when you go to share something in your story,
don't share it to everyone,
just share it to 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. Lastly, connections. How do you make connections on Instagram?
By creating group threads for your peers in your industry.
Funny Story. My boyfriend of six years has my phone number,
but he's not texting me anymore. He's sending me DMs on Instagram. Why is that?
It's because 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. Now, if you are in for selling more on Instagram,
but you are out for spending more time on your phone,
then you're going to want to hit that Subscribe button.
You're not going to want to miss my next video coming out next week.
I'm going to cover how you can grow your Instagram,
not from your phone but from your desktop.
Want even more Instagram growth tactics, not to be insta famous,
but to actually get leads, clients, and sales to your business?
Sign up for my free masterclass. The link is right below in the description,
and let's start earning revenue from social media.
As always to ease and revenue. I'll see you in the next video.
There is a call button. Is there a call button now? Is it an airplane button?
So there is a now, God damn it,
my fingers are kind of fat for it.
Am I looking sweaty or is it fine?