Earn $139,352 in 30 Days with Automated DMs

I deployed this strategy for a beauty brand that, in the first 30 days, added an extra $139,352 to its Shopify revenue and 19,000 emails to its Klaviyo list.

All this from their Facebook and Instagram users, all automated responses, through their DMs.

And it’s pretty crazy that I only used a giveaway to do all this.

If we haven’t met, I’m Liz, and since 2019 I’ve been running a DFY AI chatbot agency, on a mission to change how online brands monetize their Instagram and Facebook channels, one conversation at a time.

In this blog, I share strategies that help my clients make money with Instagram DM automation.

How We Helped Instagram Users Sky Rocket Their Sales

I’ll take an example of a beauty e-commerce brand with 100k Instagram followers that gets about 40–50 DMs/day across its Facebook and Instagram direct messages.

The brand had an engaged following that it was not monetizing, and, like every e-commerce brand, it was running regular giveaways on its Instagram account. 

They weren’t collecting email addresses from their followers, and they weren’t monetizing these potential customers.

Let me walk you through the three-step process that my team and I deployed for them to capture this low-hanging fruit, build a chat system they continue to use today, and send free push notifications via DMs every time they have a flash sale. 

Too Good to Be True?

Let's make a quick stop here.

I know a lot of people still think that sending out free push notifications via Instagram DM or Facebook Messenger is not compliant outside of Meta’s 24-hour approved window to engage a user.

But I'm here to tell you it is possible and 100% compliant IF you do it right. 

Meta has been rolling this out on Messenger between 2021 and 2022.

I was in their closed beta program with all my clients at the time, doing this before any other brand was allowed to.

Over the last 18 months, I’ve been in the same closed beta program, doing it on Instagram DM.

Thanks to that, I can now show you exactly how this works and how Meta is helping businesses start more one-on-one conversations with their audience to build relationships and sell their products.

Here's the Magic of Automated DMs

Step 1: We mapped out a strategy and told them exactly what to give away to appeal most to their followers based on their brand, their product, and how we saw their followers engage with their brand.

The goal was to get as many registrants as possible.

Then, they modeled giveaway creatives from our internal library, which they used to put up feed posts and Instagram stories. 

The post asked people to tag a friend and check their DMs to finish registration.

It received 3,600 comments, an instant boost in reach compared to its other posts, which received an average of 10 comments.

They immediately triggered an automated direct message that kicked off a series of automated messages.

So this is exactly what happened in their DMs:

Users had to provide their email addresses and then opt-in to the brand’s DM list to register.

Remember sending out the free push notifications we spoke about?

THIS is the secret to keeping it compliant:

Getting people’s permission.

Lastly, they were prompted to use a personalized discount code over the next 24 hours if they were “in a buying mood today.”

My coupon contains my name, Liz, and it expired 24 hours after I unlocked it inside my Instagram DMs.

So, use it or lose it. 

Now, remember this is a giveaway, so we couldn’t get aggressive with the sales piece, BUT despite this, we still got 16.40% of all registrants to buy it, and I’ll show you exactly how we did it, all with automated responses.

Once we got their email and got them on the DM list, we sent out an email complimenting the conversation they’d had in the chat.

So now, the brand is in front of these users via two channels:

Instagram DMs and emails.

An Ace Up Your Sleeve

You can do everything I walked you through using ManyChat.

What you can’t do with Manychat is track whether people are buying, whether they’re not buying, what makes them buy, or why they don’t buy.

All the data you'd want to have

THIS is where our GROW AI software comes in.

So, these people were presented with an offer.

Did the majority buy?

No.

Some did, but most didn’t.

Why would they buy if they could win the giveaway?

This is where our GROW AI software tracked everything users did after being presented with an offer.

It starts value-driven conversations over the next 24 hours to educate, entertain, personalize offers, and VERY VERY SUBTLY and SOFTLY sell.

The emphasis here is on VALUE-DRIVEN conversations.

All This From an Automated DM?

We got 16.4% of all registrants to place an order, EVEN THOUGH they had just registered to win something FREE.

Step 2: Remember, we ran this giveaway for 30 days.

Step 1 was how we captured people from Instagram posts.

What we did over the month was:

1. We got this client to continuously put up Instagram stories by modeling our internal creatives for story-to-DM automation
2. They added a button to their website so that when people clicked it, an automated message was sent, and the same conversation started.
3. We got them to add a keyword trigger to ALL their ads. Whenever someone commented with purchase intent, an automated response was sent that invited them to enter the giveaway or answer any frequently asked questions. 

4. Finally, we had them model one of our creatives for Messenger ads, and we trained their media buyer on how to set up a Messenger conversion ad.

I say conversion because, by default, Meta prompts the user to set up DM ads optimized for CONVERSATIONS.

Exactly what we DON’T want.

And particularly for a giveaway, we don’t want freebie seekers.

We want people with buying power to opt in and chat.

When this ad was clicked or tapped, this exact conversation started.

Instagram DM Automation to Nurture Continuously

They spent $7,836 on this Messenger ad over 30 days, bringing in $22,963 of the total of $139,352.

Step 3: They broadcasted the winners via direct messages when the giveaway ended.

The free push notification we spoke about now had a list of 17,461 people across their Facebook and Instagram DM lists, so they could continue sending out free push notifications. 

The giveaway winners received one specific message, and everyone else was funneled into another chat funnel, a SALES chat funnel, which continued to nurture and sell over the following months.

Furthermore, this brand has been continuously using its DM list every month to announce flash sales, which, on average, earns it $30k every time it sends it out.

Pretty neat, right?

Enough Magic Trick Talk, Time for Some Facts

Final stats over the 30 days of the giveaway?

Drum roll, please...

$139,352 in revenue, 18,938 emails collected with a 96.63% email collection rate, and 17,461 users also opted into their DM list.

The overall purchase rate was 16.4%.

The Messenger ad brought in $22,963 from a $7,836 ad spend, with the highest ROAS and lower CPA in the entire ad account.

Pretty crazy once you remember this was ONE giveaway.

Why did this work so well? 

Nobody is doing it right now; there’s ZERO competition, but I’ve spent the last four years perfecting frameworks like these, particularly for e-commerce brands, coaches, course creators, and influencers.

More importantly, it worked because this brand let my team and I do what we do best.

They had their team execute everything we needed.

They were fast, and, well, they have a great product. A chatbot will NOT fix a bad product.

This isn't real magic after all, this is the power of DM automation.

When you engage people in 1-1 conversations, you build relationships.

Relationships sell more.

A chat funnel inside Facebook or Instagram DMs can build the same relationships it may take you weeks to build with email and retargeting ads, in days or hours.

If you liked this blog, check out this video here, where I break down how to make $15k/Instagram post organically, and follow me for more content on Facebook, Instagram and Youtube.

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