This little paper plane – it’s a scope for DMs! DMs are where relationships and connections are nurtured, and that’s why they can become your golden mine. They provide a private space to interact and engage, and answering to DMs strengthens your relationship with followers and helps you create a loyal tribe. It’s also a friendly and intuitive format to share quick demonstrations and answer burning questions, as DMs are a real-time and effective form of communication for all Instagram users.
Do you know what I’ve noticed? The best resource to understand your community is… Communication with your followers. What’s more, with a strategic communication plan, you can gain the most valuable leads to generate future sales and sell your products or services in a non-salesy way. Knowing how to use the DMs feature can open so many opportunities for your profile and/or your business. Today, I’ll be focusing on one dilemma that a lot of creators face, but for some reason, not a lot of them want to admit to wondering: how do you use DMs to make the most of this feature?
Ready to learn more about how DMs can help you build your tribe? Let’s go!
Do You Really Need to Use DMs to Grow Your Tribe Quicker?
Spend about 15 minutes in a group of Instagram creators discussing their tribe building strategy, and you’ll most probably hear quite a few folks complaining about DMs and how much it takes to answer all the messages and how badly they need to outsource it (which is of course not a bad idea in many cases). The top reason why so many creators, and social media managers are missing out on the benefits of DMs? They think communication with single users goes too slow and demands too much energy and time to focus on it. They don’t know how to use DMs. As a confusing result, they also don’t know how to make the direct messages feature work for them! They can’t see the intrinsic value of private messages – but things are changing rapidly and this year, DMs DEFINITELY should be a crucial part of everyone’s Instagram strategy. At least if you want to boost your sales or attract followers who may become your potential clients in the future!
Interesting Facts to Change The Way You Think About Instagram DMs
If you’re still hesitating if DMs marketing is a thing, here are some statistics and facts that you need to know about:
- For starters, here’s the most important thing you need to know about DMs: direct messages are the key way to deepen and maintain connection with your most loyal followers and boost your authenticity
- Over millions of Instagram users message someone everyday via DMs
- DMs are one of the most efficient tools to get in touch with somebody without being face to face
- 81% of Instagram users make purchases decisions based on trust factor
- 70% of social media users say trust is even more important today than it was ever in the past
As you can clearly see, there’s one currency every creator and every on-line business owner needs more than anything else – trust. A trusted creator can easily become a successful entrepreneur! That’s why finding a way to build this trust in today’s competitive Instagram landscape is the most important skill you need. We ALL NEED IT, yup. That’s why I’d like to talk about…
6 Strategic Ways to Make DMs Work For Your Growth
Sold on the idea? Hope so! If you’re ready to get started with your new DMs strategy but not really sure how to start yet, here we go: there are 6 strategies you need to implement to become an expert in the art of DMs. You need to stick to that strategy to drive your efforts, of course! Because yes, DMS take a LOT of time. But time is money – and right here, it pays off.
Let’s break down the DMs strategies that work in 2022:
Voice Notes
Send voice notes rather than typed messages. Why? It adds a personal touch to your communication with followers (and all the potential ones), making them feel noticed and valued. Voice notes can be extremely powerful! A few years ago, I started following a marketing coach and Instagram expert – she’s really popular right now, you know her for sure – Jenna Kutcher. I still sincerely adore her. She was rocking it, so decided to send her compliments and honest words of admiration. To answer that, Jenna sent me a voice note. It was such a huge surprise! It took her about 15 seconds to turn me into the most loyal member of her tribe. From now on, I was buying all her products and reading all her blog posts. That’s the power of trust and connection.
Respond to ALL Messages
There’s absolutely nothing more off-putting to a potential follower than being ignored! Sharing is caring, but replying to people’s messages is caring AS WELL. Don’t leave anyone disappointed, waiting somewhere out there with an expectation of your response! It will be a sad monologue without your reply. Of course, we’re all busy so you don’t have to answer right here, right now – hell no, you don’t have to reply to any DM you receive immediately. But just don’t leave any messages unanswered for days!
Create Content That Encourages DMs
Story stickers are perfect for this. Or, instead of directing people to your blog or landing page via a link in your bio, ask them to message you if they’d like you to DM them with more insights, special pieces of advice, or a freebie!
Don’t Be Afraid to Show Your Human, Less Formal Side
Show your followers that you’re accessible and you care about them. Sure, it’s great to give advice and send valuable insights, but listening is precious as well – so always make sure to listen to your followers carefully.
Use Different Content Formats
Leverage your DMs and experiment with different content formats: short videos, voice notes, images, memes. It will help you keep good communication ongoing! Different people have different communication patterns – so analyze which format works best for YOUR audience.
Ask For Feedback
DMs give you a great opportunity to seek feedback from your community! Instead of asking for feedback in your captions, you can reach out to your most chatty followers and get exclusive insights and precious input about your content or your products/services. Appreciate them, and don’t be afraid to ask for suggestions and user experience insights. They will feel needed and motivated to stay with you – win-win!
Bonus Tip
Keep a close eye on your messages to track your results and positive tendencies, and learn if your DMs efforts are paying off. Analyze:
- Which DMs format your audience loves the most
- What people like to reply to
- Who your most loyal audience is
Believe me – DMs are a truly powerful marketing tool that you can utilize to build long-lasting connections with your target audience. So yup, it’s high time to level up your communication strategy!
It’s Time For DMs Strategy Q&A!
I get asked a lot of questions about DMs and right DMs strategy from our IQ clients, and well, I do my best to answer each one individually! But sometimes, the same set of questions come up over and OVERRR again. So, as I mentioned in the last post, I’d decided to answer the most important ones as part of Q&A column here! Because, I hope it’s valuable and educational for you. Let’s go!
I’m using DMs but I feel like it’s such a waste of time – I can’t see any real results. Where do I go wrong?
If you’re already using DMs but haven’t yet seen any results and you’re not sure it you have a DMs strategy that works for you, consider this your Instagram-growth wake-up call: it’s time to get more strategic and intentional.
Will a new DMs strategy bring me immediate results?
As always, experiments are the best method for evaluating the best answer to that. Well, implementing a new DMs strategy worked for me and for many of my clients and friends – so I truly believe you will witness nice surprises as well.
Who should I be targeting with my DMs?
You’ll be targeting… Your target audience!
The goal, of course, is to deepen your connection with your current audience, build new relationships, and continue doing all of the things they already adore you for, while also getting new people to know you better.
Ask yourself these questions: What my followers would love to discuss with me? What are they researching right now? What can motivate them?
How many DMs can I send per hour?
I’ve researched the topic – right now there is no one universal limit to the amount of direct messages you can send hourly. It varies from user to user, and there are many variables that will determine your personal limit: your account age, trust score it got, whether your messages have a link in it.
But my tip, as always, is to play it safe and not overuse one feature.
Good luck! Let me know how your DMs strategy is working for you – if you any questions I haven’t answered, ask below, and I’ll talk about them in the upcoming article! See you there!
