73: Instagram DM Secrets: How to Collect Emails Without Leaving the App with Heston Roberts
If you’re still telling people to “click the link in bio,” it’s time to upgrade your Instagram strategy. This week, I’m joined by Heston Roberts, a true wizard when it comes to building DM automations that actually move people from your Instagram content into your email list (and eventually, into paying clients).
We go beyond the basics: how DM automation reduces friction, why it can outperform link-in-bio by 60% or more, how to keep things personal and scalable, and what common mistakes to avoid. Plus, Heston shares how to build direct DM-to-email funnels that don’t require landing pages, so your followers never have to leave Instagram to join your list.
If you’re ready to make your content work for you 24/7, boost engagement, and capture real leads (even from just one post!), this episode is for you.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
[03:22] Why DM automation is a game changer for content that works while you sleep
[08:34] The problem with “click the link in bio” (and why it lowers conversions)
[13:41] How DM automations help grow your following through better engagement
[16:57] Step-by-step: turning DMs into an email funnel without leaving Instagram
[21:40] The truth about small accounts: why it still works with low engagement
[26:17] Mistakes to avoid: over-general keywords, automations that feel spammy, and more
[31:06] Using deep links to drive traffic directly into apps like YouTube
[39:45] How to keep it personal (and still scalable) with voice notes and custom automations
[45:58] Heston’s subscription for creators who want to master ManyChat and chat funnels
[48:12] Why even one quality lead can make DM automation worth it
Key Takeaways:
DM automation reduces friction: instead of making followers stop scrolling, visit your profile, and figure out your links, it meets them right where they already are—your DMs.
You can build email funnels inside Instagram: ask followers for their name & email in the DMs, sync to your email platform, and send them your freebie without them leaving the app.
ManyChat (our favorite tool) is a Meta business partner, which means it’s approved and safe to use directly with Instagram.
Even small accounts can see ROI: you don’t need thousands of comments—sometimes one new subscriber or client makes the whole system worth it.
Use specific keywords like “getpod” or “hotguide” to trigger automations and avoid accidental triggers. And yes, keep it fun, like clickable buttons!
Engagement boosts your reach: Every DM automation interaction signals to the algorithm to show your future posts to that person more often.
Deep links can open apps (like YouTube) directly, skipping Instagram’s browser and improving user experience.
DM automation doesn’t replace you—it supports you. Jump in personally with voice notes or live DMs when it matters.
Guest Bio:
Heston Roberts is a 20-year IT and web development pro who turned his passion for social media (it started back on MySpace!) into building smart DM automations that help businesses convert followers into subscribers and sales. He’s the founder of Social Varsity, co-host of the Social Roundtable YouTube series, and a trusted expert in the chat marketing space.
Links Mentioned in This Episode:
A Truth You Need to Hear:
“Your chatbot can be your employee of the month, 365 days a year—so you can stay in your zone of genius and still drive leads while you sleep.” – Heston Roberts
S3 Ep73 Transcript: Instagram DM Secrets: How to Collect Emails Without Leaving the App with Heston Roberts
00:00
If you're wanting to drive more leads and sales in your sleep with the content you're already creating on Instagram, you are in the right place. Today I'm sitting down with Heston Roberts, who basically is a wizard when it comes to building smart, customized DM automations for Instagram. He's helped small businesses and personal brands create powerful automations that actually move people from the DMs to their email list and ultimately to the sale.
00:29
And today I love this conversation because we really went beyond the basics in this one. So if you are already using ManyChat or have dabbled in DM automation, this is where you're gonna learn how to do it better. Think fewer dead end conversations and more email subscribers and a content strategy that works while you sleep. Are you ready? Let's go.
00:56
Welcome to Strut It, a podcast about creating bold visibility on social media with zero apologies. I'm Elizabeth Marberry, your host and Instagram marketing coach. I help small business owners get seen on Instagram and monetize their offers so they can make more money doing their sole lead work. If you're tired of spinning your wheels on Instagram and you're seeking simple, proven Instagram marketing strategies that actually work, you're in the right place.
01:25
Let's dive in.
01:35
Welcome back to the show. I am super excited and thrilled to bring on another guest expert to our show because my job is to make Instagram marketing actually work for your business. And one of the keys of Instagram really driving leads and sales is leveraging DM automation. And so I wanted to bring on an
02:05
expert in this space and I'm so thrilled that he is here. His name is Heston Roberts and he is a 20 year IT professional in web development who credits, now just wait for it, MySpace for his introduction and passion for social media. I was totally on MySpace. I love that that's in your bio. Today as co-host of the Social Roundtable Live YouTube series,
02:33
as well as founder and president of social media marketing agency, Social Varsity, he stands as a prominent figure in chat marketing and the chat bot industry, growing his presence as a social media innovator. And Heston and I actually met on one of his social round table lives that he curated and I was just really blown away by him and his presence and his expertise and I knew
03:02
that I needed to get him on the show. He's known for really creating custom DM automations and solutions for Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger. So small businesses and personal brands can really find ways to work smarter, not harder, which yes, please. So Heston, welcome to the show.
03:26
Thank you so much, Elizabeth. I love that introduction. And believe it or not, you would have definitely been in my top five on MySpace if we had known each other back then. Oh my God. I love it. Oh my gosh. MySpace. Yes. Oh, I can't wait for the DMs about MySpace. If you were on MySpace, will you DM me and Heston and be like, oh my God, I was on MySpace too. Like that is just so epic. Yes. Oh, love that.
03:50
Okay. So before we dive in, because I have so many questions for you about DM automation and really how we can leverage this tool in 2025 and beyond. Tell everybody a little bit about you and how you landed in this role of social media expert, DM automation expert, and guru. Absolutely. Well, as you kind of stated, I'm a 20 year veteran in regards to IT.
04:17
I've been doing it for so long now that I don't remember when I didn't have a computer in my hand. I've been using it, been on social media with MySpace, AOL, Instant Messenger. I've been just in this world since a younging. And as somebody who was always in IT, I kind of always had my hands in regards to social media with chat messaging with Instant Messenger back in the day. And I saw where it was going even after the 20 years of doing web development for
04:45
private companies and public companies and everything in between, I decided to move over into social media because it was something that was just fun. You got to meet people from all across the world. People of same interests, different backgrounds. And it was just amazing to meet so many people in this big world that it just made the world seem so much smaller. But I mean, you talk about the idea of messaging and talking with people, whether it's in a DM or text message.
05:11
It just made it so much more fun and engaging in so many ways. And we all know, we all have a love for Instagram. It's just such a great place, whether you're sharing rails, IG stories, and as they always say, it goes down in the DMs. And I definitely believe that. So that's what kind of pushed me in that direction to learn more about how I can utilize DMs from a personal and business use. love that. I love that. And it's so cool how you have been able to really take the skillset that you developed.
05:41
and continue to evolve it. And what I'm hearing is that you saw kind of the trend in chat marketing, like before it even was a thing. And because you had such a pulse on the industry and you saw the power of that tool. And I love that because you're right. Like money is made in the Instagram DMs. And if your DMs are silent,
06:06
That just means that there's an opportunity for you to really use that and see it as a tool to grow your business. So that's why I'm so excited to bring you on the show. And for people who are listening, maybe they know a little bit about DM automation, but they're still a little, you know, unclear, like what is DM automation and why does it matter? Like why should businesses care about it?
06:32
definitely important for most businesses to learn more about. And I think many people watching this show have actually come across it and not even realized that they've been using it before, whether it's on social media and even outside of social media. Like just for instance, the idea of the bigger concept is chat marketing. And with chat marketing, it's just the idea of using conversation to market a particular product or service. It can be something as simple as when we sign our names for the guest list at a restaurant, because we want to wait for the next table.
07:02
That's chat marketing because when we end up getting is a message in our text messages that says, hey, your table is ready. But we also know that phone number now the company has it so they can send us coupons and discounts for us to come back later. That's chat marketing. But what now has happened is that's been introduced to Instagram where we are now able to automate our DM messages without us having to be in the phone. So I could set up a chatbot that represents myself, my company as a creator or the business owner.
07:31
and set up automated messages when people interact with my chat bot. It might be through the posts that I shared are real or even in my IG stories. When they comment a certain word, my chat bot can respond with whatever I've already programmed for it to say. So if somebody is looking for an answer to a certain question that I have the answer to, they don't necessarily need to get in contact with me who might be busy doing something else or I might be out of office. They can respond to my chat bot.
07:58
that sends them the proper information immediately. So they have a quick response and they're satisfied with the answer as well. Yes, you totally just highlighted. And thank you for kind of connecting those dots of, you know, even if you're new to DM automation, I'm sure you've had that text from the restaurant of your table's ready or like, I love that you connected that piece of chat marketing to DM marketing and why they're so smart, right? And how so many different brands are using that tool.
08:28
I'm curious, and you kind of highlighted it in terms of like now they get the information they need right away. But I remember back in, it was even like 2022, okay, like not that long ago, where it did work on Instagram to say, click the link in my bio, right? Like that was a thing for a while.
08:53
And that does not work anymore or like the conversions are so much lower on that than DM automation. So can you kind of talk us through like why that is like why Lincoln bio is not necessarily the best strategy and why DM automation is so much better? I'm so glad that you worded it that way. It's not that Lincoln bio doesn't work at all. It's just that we have a better strategy now and that's DM automation because we want to meet the user where they are.
09:23
the majority of users on Instagram are in two places. They're already in the DMs and they're on IG stories, as well as Reels. Obviously Reels has blown up on Instagram. So they spend the majority of their time in these places, these surfaces on Instagram, where they're watching some of the latest trends on videos or they're interacting with people's IG stories. Well, instead of telling them, leave that content, go to my personal profile page, look for the link in bio and it might be a.
09:52
few Lincoln bios, who's to say, sometimes it's never just one. You have up, I think it's up to five or 10 links you could put there. Instead of making the user go through all of that, tell them to simply comment a keyword. So if the keyword is something as give me a freebie, if that's a keyword, they could comment it on the IG story. They could comment it on a real post and that automation kicks in with your chat bot and it sends them whatever you've promised them. Whether it's a link, whether it's a PDF, you could send them whatever you want.
10:21
in the DMS and the beauty of it too is the fact that it's always there. Unlike with an IG story link sticker that only lasts for 24 hours and the link and buyer would tell them that they have to go to our profile page. They have to leave our content, which is bad because that's an exit and they don't engage. So they could always pick up on that link later because we all know we all live busy lives. I might be scrolling on Instagram while I'm on waiting like the school line waiting for my kid to come out. So I can't always jump onto the link.
10:50
But now that link is sent to my DM and it's waiting there for me when I have the right time and I'm able to actually engage further with it. Oh my gosh, you explained that so well and brilliantly. And what is coming through to me and to reflect back to you and like to the listener is what Heston just described is really reducing friction for the consumer. So sales 101 is you don't want to make your
11:19
potential client or customer jumps through 10 hoops to join your email list or make a purchase, right? You want to reduce friction. You want to make it as simple and easy for them as possible. we do like our day and age right now, people want it when they want it. And as a business owner, not only does it reduce friction, so ideally you're going to drive up more leads in sales, but
11:48
Why I'm so obsessed with this tool is that I can spend my zone of genius creating the best strategic use of, you know, like filming my content, posting it, using that call to action of, you know, comment freebie and I'll send you my free guide or whatever it is. I can log off of Instagram and go spend the weekend with my kids and come back. And now I have new podcast listeners. I have people who join my email list over the weekend. Right. So this tool really
12:18
empowers us to get off of Instagram and live our lives, right? Like live our lives, work in our zone of genius, and it makes your content do the heavy lifting for you, right? Absolutely. I like to kind of say, I use an analogy. It's like when you're using this chat bot and you're building it, you're kind of building your own employee. And I like to say it's the best employee that you could have. It's your employee of the month every month, because you're building it to meet the criteria of what you want.
12:47
that you want to automate on Instagram. So if you want your chatbot to respond to certain questions that you get all the time, you could build it in that manner and it's your best employee because it'll always do that 24 seven, 365, whether you're at the office or away. As you said, you could be on vacation or busy with other clients or in your zone of genius where you are in content creation mode. No matter what you're doing, your chatbot is there waiting and working for you and it handle multiple.
13:15
messages at once. That's the other thing that we just can't do. We're human. We could try as much as we want to. I don't type that fast, Elizabeth. I wish I could say I type that fast. I don't. Nowhere near as much as a chat bot. So we could actually have multiple messages running at the same time. And we usually do sometimes if you put up on brand new rail and you know it's great. It went viral and you got maybe a hundred comments in the first hour. Could you imagine trying to respond to a hundred comments?
13:42
In one hour? Okay, so this actually happened to me. It's like the best problem to have, but for my dance studio business, this was before like mini chat was on the scene and I'll never forget it. It was like a wedding dance music guide, okay? And it was like comment music, like if you want the guide and I didn't have DM automation set up. Luckily, it totally went viral and there was hundreds of comments and I kid you not, it spent hours responding.
14:12
like replying to their comments and then DMing them links. And it was absolutely insane. And then you also had to be really careful because Instagram would flag you if you sent too much of like copy and paste the same message. Yep, you're right. Let's talk about that for a second. Like ManyChat, for example, if you've been listening to my show, you know that I talk about ManyChat all the time. That is my preferred platform. Heston, is that your preferred platform as well? Yes, absolutely.
14:42
Yeah, so if you guys are not yet using this tool, I do have a gift for you. If you want to DM me the word leads right now, L-E-A-D-S on Instagram, make sure you're following me at Elizabeth Marbury. And I have a little DM automation guide for you with a link to Try MiniChat Pro for free. And we'll make sure we link that in the show notes. Heston, will you kind
15:09
highlight, I know people are listening to this and they're like, okay, Elizabeth, good for you. had like a hundred comments. Like I don't get that many comments. Is it still going to be worthwhile for me to do this? would say absolutely yes. And I'll give you a prime example is kind of what happened to you. I had a friend who works in fitness and he was used to getting maybe 40 comments on a post. So he never thought that he would need many chat. And it just so happens one day he offered a workout guide.
15:39
He said, comment the word free. If I remember correctly, he ended up getting, I think, 1,600 comments. What? And he did exactly as you said. He tried to respond to all of them, but he ended up getting action blocked. He wasn't aware of that aspect. If you comment so many times in a short amount of time, you can get action blocked because Instagram will look at that as probably spam behavior. Right. He wasn't even able.
16:05
to collect all of those emails, those leads, he ended up losing it all. The next time, a little bit smarter, he knew better, he actually set up ManyChat. I the next time it was 1,600 leads, if I remember correctly, and in total, because he set up comment reply, it was 3,200 comments on that one post because he put a comment reply for each person, which ManyChat does approve to a certain degree.
16:31
as well as everybody got the free guide and he grew by 1600 new leads with one post. Wow. You never know which post of yours might go viral or it is just something that is taken off of your shoulders in regards to putting your focus on other things. You could end up just saving the chat bot to do that type of work where you put your brain power somewhere else in your business. Yeah. And I love that example.
16:59
you know, if you're in a position where you do like, like to your point, you never know when a video is going to pop off. So you do want to be prepared for that. And I also want to say something totally like vulnerable to you in the audience, which is that my Instagram, like Elizabeth Marbury, I am in very much just like, I'm not in a huge growth phase right now on my Instagram. It's not like I have a ton of videos going viral. So I'm getting tons of new followers.
17:27
but I have a very engaged audience and I still really leverage many chat and here's how I see it as successful is if I log back in and I got one new listener, so one person commented my keyword to get my podcast, that is a huge win, that is a conversion. If I had one new person join my email list, like those are valuable leads to a business owner so.
17:57
If you're listening to this and you're like, like the 1600 seems so far away. Remember that the whole point of this is really converting those like super high value followers who are actual prospects, right? Cause some people who follow you, they have no interest in buying from you. They just want to follow you, right? Oh, I just like Elizabeth dancing in our kitchen. How cute. Okay, great. Thank you. And also like, you know, I have other services I offer. Not everyone's interested in that.
18:25
So the people who are, those are the people that I want on my email list, right? Those are the people that I want to nurture and sell to. So even for me, where I'm not in a big growth mode right now, where I have all these videos popping off and thousands of comments, I still just see so much value in it for business owners because your work, your content, if you create it strategically, and that's like a whole nother conversation and really the whole theme of this podcast is,
18:55
you know, teaching you how to create better content for your business. But if you're really strategic and you have a clear customer journey for your content, even if you're just getting one, two, you're going to get that ROI real quick. Right, Huston? Absolutely. And there's another benefit to it as well, because we're thinking about it from the lead's point of view where if somebody engages with our content, most likely they're interested in our product or service and then we end up getting their information. And you know this very well, Elizabeth, because you teach it.
19:24
On Instagram, that interaction between you and the lead, that helps you with the algorithm. The algorithm now sees that as there's a relationship and that helps you rank higher. So now, because that person sent you a comment or a DM, now when they go back on Instagram, they're more likely to see more of your content. I know it happens to me all the time when I DM people. Usually when I go back on Instagram, I see like three pieces of the content and it's not even the latest. It might be something from last week.
19:53
But it's now an opportunity for me to engage with their content and that helps me see more of their content. So it helps out in that way as well. love that you highlighted that because you're right. Engagement is so important for visibility and you know, we could create the best content, but if no one sees it, like who cares? Right? Exactly. I love that this tool really supports that. And we haven't mentioned this, we kind of did, but it's a meta business partner, right? So what does that mean Heston exactly? They are a
20:21
Official Meta business partner, which is not an easy title to get. What that means is Meta, who is the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, they given approval for many chat to work. And maybe we've been talking a lot about just Instagram, but it works on Facebook and WhatsApp as well. And I'll share a little bit more on how you can make it work outside of those platforms also. We'll talk a little bit about that later, but Meta has given them approval to work directly with their.
20:48
platforms. So it works on all of them, but we're talking mostly about Instagram. it's definitely approved for Instagram use. So you don't need to worry about like, oh, you know, I'm going to be spamming people or like Instagram wants you to use this platform. Yes. Okay, great. So I want to get into we really obviously painted the picture for everyone of like, why they need to be using this tool. What are some common mistakes that people make when they first start
21:18
leveraging many chat or DM automation? Well, there's a few common mistakes that I've seen from people on particularly. There's one right now that I know a lot of people, I'm always on threads and a lot of people complain about this. The fact that as I stated, you should combine it with a keyword so that your chat bot is activated by the keyword. There's actually a way where you could do it where there is no keyword. It is applied to any comment.
21:44
And I've seen a lot of kickback in regards to this strategy because sometimes, it's happened to me myself, I've been scrolling and I've come across a few of my friends profiles where they might be in Disney world or they're at a restaurant. For instance, this last time it happened to me, they were making homemade cookies. And I responded, said something about chocolate chip cookies. And in my DM immediately after I got a proposal for
22:10
some offer that they were giving, it had nothing to do with chocolate chip cookies. Oh no. Absolutely nothing. So unfortunately we do have people that would use a tool in that way. I don't tell my clients to use it in that manner because usually it leaves a negative feeling for the lead. I know it did for me that day and I didn't like it at all. So that's one of the common things that I'm seeing a lot more now. Just to share another one as well in regards to common errors, just the keyword itself.
22:39
Sometimes a keyword might be a little bit too general. For instance, if you use a word like live, L-I-V-E. I had this happen with a client. If you use the word live, well, on the post, you can't control at what point the keyword shows up. So if the word live is also in the word lively or liver. Oh my gosh, yeah. Those words would accidentally trigger.
23:07
the keyword as well. So we have to be a little bit more specific with our keywords. I usually just say, if you want to just be safe, just throw a number at the end. was just going to ask you that because I totally struggle with this. So for example, one of my keywords for my podcast is episode. And I do like that, but.
23:29
You know, if like, let's say, you listen to one of my episodes and you DM me and you're like, Elizabeth, I listened to your episode and I love X, Y, and Z. And then you just get my automation. Like, here's the link to listen. You're like, what the hell? Like I'm pissed at you now. You know what I'm like? And then I have to go back through. I do look at my DMs because sometimes my automation will be triggered in the wrong way. And then I'm like,
23:52
I'm so sorry about that, you know, so there is a risk there. So what is your pro tip there? Like, cause I want one keyword to drive to one link. you, I would say use combination words, get pod. It's very simple. Like one word or? One word, get pod. Cause that applies to all podcasts and it's an action. So the person usually, usually I would say if you are going to use two words, use a verb in the beginning, you know, like if it's a booking, I would say book me.
24:20
It is giving a person a positive action and they feel like they are actually going to do it. It's almost like, think of it like a button. When we see these buttons on Amazon, they say buy now, right? Yeah. Well, take that same idea and just combine the word. Don't put any space in between because if you put a space in between, that's where the accident might occur. Somebody might actually write that genuinely. And the next, know, the automation goes off. But if you combine the word like buy now with no space or get pod, it will work better that way. Less incidents. Yeah.
24:50
it still actually kind of promotes what the person is going to actually embark on when they type that comment. That is really good. So if I did get pod, G-E-T-P-O-D as one word, if that was my keyword and someone commented on my reel and said, I'd love to get your episode, would them writing get trigger my automation in the wrong way or? No. Okay, At that point, it's gotta be the whole, the set of characters in that series.
25:19
The other thing to a keyword is not case sensitive. So it could be uppercase, could be lowercase. It has to be the whole entire word. But if you only put get, then if somebody typed get tink, that would trigger the keyword or something of that nature. Yeah. Okay. No, that is super helpful. My brain is just spinning for my business right now. I'm like, and I love that you actually just highlighted that the way I would describe how you said, think of it as a button.
25:49
When you think of a button, what goes on a button? A call to action, right? Like tell people what to do and make it like fun, like get, grab. Yes, exactly. So you're just like, Ooh, that's more fun. I want to grab that instead of like, you know, I just love that. Like sales psychology really is what that is. So I love that. Okay. So we're all in, we're using the DM automation.
26:13
How do we use DM automation to actually build our email list? Can you walk us through like, what does a DM to email funnel actually look like? This is one of my favorite setups of using DM automation because this is where you really see the difference between the normal strategy and the new age strategy with chat marketing. The traditional way right now is we tell them to comment a word on our post or we tell them to go to a link in bio or
26:42
they tap a link sticker on our IG stories. And what ends up happening is we generally take them to another page. It could be a landing page or wherever it is. Wherever it is, it's not on Instagram. You've now taken them off of Instagram, which we all kind of have an idea that Instagram is not too fond of, right, Elizabeth? Like they want the user to stay on Instagram, but that's what was traditionally done. Instead, we want to try to keep them all on Instagram. So what I like to do is,
27:10
I keep them on Instagram, asking them for their first name or full name and their email address in the DMs. I don't take them off of Instagram. So when I collect their name using mini chat, I can save their name, save any data that they send to me. And then if I have certain platforms connected to my mini chat, like I for instance use MailChimp, I could actually integrate that and send the subscriber's information to my mailing list.
27:38
and they've become a member of my mailing list, but they're still on Instagram, which is great for Instagram because all of that back and forth communication is just more engagement. So now you've converted them on your mailing list, but it's also engagement in the DMs. So now they're more likely to see your content as well. I've noticed using this practice, you can increase conversion by almost 60 % because normal conversion when you take them onto a landing page is between 20
28:07
and 30, I've seen conversion rates as high as 90 with this strategy because it's so easy. And the great thing about it, because it's DM automation, if they don't activate or they don't initiate into that offer, you could just send them a follow-up message, which we can do if we take them on a landing page, because we don't know what occurs between Instagram and that other page. So there's certain advantages that you can utilize as well with ManyChat that really helps to push the conversion in regards to building a mailing list.
28:36
Wow, oh my gosh, that is so epic. So I just wanna say what I heard. So I know it helps me to digest, but also the listener to kind of be like, okay, all these steps. traditionally, and honestly, this is how I currently use ManyChat, and I've been looking at other ways to use it in a more strategic way. It does work really well for me, but of course I'm always looking at improving. So the sort of,
29:06
original way of doing it with MiniChat was I comment a keyword, you trigger my DM automation with, let's say it's my free monetizer IG guide. In that automation, I have a link to my landing page for my free guide. Then they have to click that link, go to my landing page, and then they're entering their name and email and getting on my list. And then they're getting my email automation from that free guide.
29:34
What you described is actually less steps for them, right? Because they're commenting the keyword. I'm DMing them a message and giving them the opportunity. Let's say this free guide example, you would say, awesome, I would love to send you the free guide. know, drop your name and email here. They're dropping it into the actual DM with Instagram. Many chat can be connected to your email marketing.
30:03
platform and you could set it up where when they drop it in it is connected into your email platform and then from there this is where I'm a little confused. So if I have email sequence set up to deliver my freebie and say like hey Heston welcome to my IG world here's your free guide in an email with that PDF link how does that happen? Because like that's why I traditionally use a landing page right because that triggers
30:30
that email to be sent because the landing page is housed through my email. But if I get their name and email in many chat and I understand their information will go to convert kit or I use kit for my email, it'll go there. How is that next step? Like how are they funneled into whatever they're supposed to be opted into? Does that make sense? makes perfect sense. It's one of very next questions that I usually get when I tell my clients this whole entire sequence, which they usually are very happy to hear me say.
30:59
It works the same exact way. when you do sign them up through many chat and keep it all in the DMS, because I actually been doing this for the past two years. Yeah. Almost the same exact setup that you just described with somebody as me to email address and name. They get the rest of my email sequence because that's what I have programmed in MailChimp. So once you send over the lead's name, their data, the email service provider.
31:27
takes care of everything at that point. So if you have a sequence set up, that's what's gonna happen. If you don't have a sequence, then they're not gonna receive anything else. But here's another thing that you could do also just to satisfy the user even more, because you've promised them a deliverable, which is this free guide, and you told them you're gonna give it to them in an email. But if you wanna go to extra step, you can still send it to them in an email, but maybe you can even send it to them via the DM as well.
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depending on what it is. Now, if it's something like an image where you can easily send it to them, like maybe it's an infograph or a chart, they now have it in two places. They have it in the DMs and they have it in the email. Generally, I like to keep it in the email because I'm kind of training my audience. Here we go with the psychology part. I'm training them to understand that when you see my email address, that you receive something from me, it's something good. So if that very first email,
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they get something from me and they didn't go through a landing page. It is all on Instagram. They're most satisfied because it almost happens immediately. mean, happy client, happy lead. I'm a happy business person. That's what I love about this really is a win-win for everybody involved. The customer and the owner and just everyone. I love it. I want to mention something that you said. Yeah. You said that you're looking at
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ways to use ManyChat more strategically. I want to say first off, that is such a great position to be in because what I've noticed is majority of people, they use it for what ManyChat is simply best known for, which is just to send links, but it could do so much more. So I'm so happy to hear that you said you're looking at other ways that you could strategize and optimize your processes on Instagram to better your relationship with your leads. And I think that's a really key thing that a lot of people should do.
33:21
Yeah, for those that are watching, go ahead and set it up to, you know, create links, send links in the DMs. Cause that's what it's best known for. But there's so many other ways. Like I just mentioned the integration with email service providers, but you can integrate with almost anything. If you connect to a Zapier, you could connect them with any of those apps that Zapier is connected to. I built one just the other day with Google worksheets and Calendly. And you can connect those directly as well. So the limit is pretty much Zapier in a way, depending on what app.
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They don't have, but in a way it's really your own creativity. Like what do you want to go out there and do? And I think many chat is capable of doing all of it from the DMS, where it's just, you know, sliding the DMS, keeping it in the DMS. The algorithm will love it. I call the algorithm uncle Al. So uncle Al will definitely love the fact that you're keeping people on Instagram, but you're still getting the conversions on whatever other app that you have integrated with it. And it's just, as you said, it's a win-win for both the lead and the creator.
34:19
Yeah, oh my gosh. I'm so glad you pointed out more use cases because I, you know, I think if we don't know it's possible, we're not even like thinking in that way. I know that you tested out an automation on me at one point and then I was testing something similar on myself, but it was like sending a link, but also there was like a really beautiful image. It would be great. Like I remember you mentioned something like this could be really cool for like a real estate agent.
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because they could literally like show, it's one thing to send a link to a home, it's another to be like, here's a visual of this house and a visual of this house and a visual, like all in the DMs. Yeah, do you have any other like examples of how, I think those use cases are really helpful because yeah, if we don't know it's even possible or it exists, like we can't even think bigger about it. Exactly, yeah. And sometimes it's best to be shown what's possible and then you create your own ideas.
35:16
So I'll use that same one as an example where it's the gallery feature that you're speaking about on MiniChat, where you're able to create like a gallery of images and how I use it. We were speaking prior that I have a YouTube live series that I host every week. So what I do every week is I update one of those gallery slots to that YouTube thumbnail. So I have about five slots of this gallery and it's all like the last five weeks of my YouTube show. And I just keep updating from episode to episode.
35:46
So when you go in there, I don't just send you a link, you actually see the thumbnail and you slide on it and you see all five of them. And then there's a button that says, hey, click this to watch. So you could from that one keyword, you see five thumbnails and you're able to watch five videos. And I use a deep link. So at that point, I don't just take you out of Instagram, you open up YouTube app and it goes directly there, which makes it easier for conversion if that person wanted to subscribe to my channel.
36:16
Oh my God. So I've never heard the term deep link, but I think like the way you described it, tell me if I'm understanding and then yeah, reflect back to me. Okay. Go right ahead. So this is so interesting because I've totally noticed this and it, that's one of the things that bugs me about Instagram. So for example, one of my clients is a seven figure Etsy shop owner and she has a link to her Etsy shop. She does like customized picture frames.
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and I wanted to buy one. So I went into her link in her bio because I just, you she's my client. So I was like, that's where it is. So I clicked that link and then it opened up her shop. But then I was like trying to get to a different page or I was trying to go back and I like could not do it. Like I had to like hit the X and then it was like weird. I just got like stuck in this weird cycle. I think it was trying to get me to log into Etsy and I didn't have a Etsy login and like
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It totally didn't work for me. And I sent her a message and I was like, oh my gosh, like this is something we need to fix for you, know, for your business. So what you described, when you say a deep link, you're saying that that doesn't happen because the reason why that's happening to me is that link to her Etsy shop, it feels like it's like embedded in Instagram. Like it's like, I'm still there on Instagram.
37:39
That's Instagram trying to keep you away from leaving. That's what Instagram is doing. They're saying you're not leaving here. You cannot leave our app. You are a prisoner. Yeah. So you're exactly right with deep link. Deep links are the type of URL. They're a special URL. They don't look different, but they just operate different. For example, I use mine with YouTube. So when they do click on this, you know, when they comment the keyword and I give them that list of five YouTube videos, each one has a different deep link URL. And when they click on it,
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instead of leaving Instagram or I should say instead of the Instagram browser showing up and then it loads YouTube in that way, instead of that, YouTube opens the actual app. And because most likely you're already logged in, it makes it easier for you to just hit subscribe or follow some of my other videos once you're finished with the first one. And it does apply for other apps as well. If there's another app that it can open, it'll be able to do that with a deep link.
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How do you find deep links? You have to create them. Give me a second. I'll tell you that one that I'm using right now. Mine is URL Genius. That's the company that I use and they're pretty good. I've never used another one, so I can't really say if they're really cheap or not, but to me they're cheap because my bill every month is like $5 maybe. It changes depending on how often the link is clicked. Okay. That's interesting. I don't think I've ever went more than $5.
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Obviously the most successful you're getting hits with your links is going to go up, but it definitely works. And I've been able to grow my subscribers on YouTube through this. is such a hot tip. I absolutely love that. I'm curious if people are listening and they're like, I love this. I love everything about this. I'm worried Heston that if I use DM automation, it's going to lose that personal touch with my audience. So I'm just curious.
39:36
What are your thoughts on that? Or do you have any like workarounds if there's an owner or a small business that's like, but it's really important that there's like a touch point with someone on our team or like, how does that work? The good thing about ManyChat is if you do have a team and using it as a team in a way where it's multiple people in the DMs on ManyChat itself, they have the ability for different team members to take over certain conversations. So if you really want to get granular and control that when people interact with your chat bot.
40:05
You could actually have it assigned certain messages to certain people using mini chat, but it's all technically coming from your one Instagram account. So you can do it that way. But in regards to the personal question, that's something I get a lot as well in regards to sometimes people just want to jump in and talk themselves. You know, they might want to leave a voice message. And I think that's really great. It brings a little bit of authenticity to the conversation. It makes the person feel a little bit more relaxed. But if you do want to keep it with the DMs.
40:34
You can just apply it to certain specific scenarios. Like if you own a store, I'm positive in your list of FAQs, you probably have what time is the store opened? What's the address of the store? You know your FAQs that you get all the time. Why spend time every single day stopping what you're doing, whether you're in the zone of genius content creating, or you're doing invoices, just to answer the same message you get all the time. And instead you can have a chat bot respond with the time of operations for your business.
41:04
Because at that point, honestly, the lead doesn't care if they get that information from you or from a chat bot. They just need that particular right information. if it's something more aligned, like maybe you're a baker and they want to know what ingredients are in a product, they might want to hear that specifically from you. So it really depends on the user case. And I think you have to really apply it in the right way, depending on the scenario.
41:27
Yeah, that's so brilliant. And depending on your goals and the size of your team and the size of your account and all of that, it's funny from the show, I'll often say like, send me a direct message on Instagram with like your biggest takeaway or like, what did you like about the show? Or sometimes people do, they'll like send me a message and I always respond with a voice note. And I cannot tell you people are shocked. They're like, I can't believe it's actually you.
41:56
And it's like your voice speaking to me. So for anyone listening, let's put me to the test right now. I want to get a DM from you after this. I want you to tell me what you thought of my conversation with Heston. And of course you're going to follow Heston over on Instagram as well, but I want to hear from you and then I will send you a voice memo. I do like to do that. And I'm still in a place in my business where I can. I hope I always can honestly, cause that's important to me, but yeah, it's all.
42:25
as with any kind of marketing advice, at the end of the day, it really needs to be customized, which leads me to like people, I'm sure are listening to this and they're like, I need to hire Heston to build me a chat bot and connect all of these pieces and be strategic with DM automation. So you've been so generous with all of your time today and all of your tips for us.
42:50
If people want to work with you and follow you and connect, like what is their next step? And of course, we'll be sure we link everything in the show notes. Of course. Well, first off, if they have to get MiniChat and the best way for them to do that is get that affiliate link that you're offering. I'm sure it's in the description notes. So make sure you guys get MiniChat first. But there are two ways to work with me. Generally, if you want to work with me one-on-one, I do offer done for you services because each situation is different. We went through a number of scenarios just today.
43:19
Every business is different. So their needs and wants are different as well. So I do offer done for you services where I can customize your chat bot to exactly how you want it. But I am very excited Elizabeth, because we were talking about this a couple of weeks ago and I can finally announce it. Finally, I have actually opened up an IG subscription where it is specifically catered to teach many chat and not just how to send links. I want to teach many chats full potential of what it's capable of. So we're going to be doing how to send links.
43:49
the right way, the email conversion, building mailing lists, using only DMs. We have so much that I want to cover. And I finally have a place where I could do that because I noticed that when I was doing that on just Instagram, not a lot of people fully understood in my, I should say in my public feed, not a lot of people fully understood exactly what many chat was. So was kind of getting lost in space a little bit, but now I have this private community and everybody else is kind of on the same boat. we're not just learning for myself.
44:18
It's a true community. We're learning from each other as well. So I just opened it up. The best way to get to it is to go on my Instagram, social.varsity. And first off, you got to follow me. Oh yeah. But once you follow me, then you'll see the subscribe button show up. And if you go there, you'll see all of the details for my subscription. It's at a very, very low cost for a monthly rate, as well as you do have a 14 day free trial and you can cancel at any time.
44:43
Oh my gosh, that is a no brainer investment. Everybody go join Heston's subscription on Instagram and give him a follow. And I know that you also are really big on YouTube. We will make sure that we link everything in the show notes so our people can come give you the love because I know that they're going to need your expert support to really implement all this. So thank you Heston so much for being here. was such a pleasure having you on the show.
45:12
Thank you so much for having me. I truly, truly, truly enjoyed being here on your show with you, Elizabeth. You're always a great person to talk and just chat with. Always love hanging out with you. Aw, thank you so much. I appreciate that. Well, that is a wrap, my beloved listener. I hope you learned so much today. I hope you are going to either check the show notes for the links or don't forget after you followed Heston on Instagram, you follow me over there, Elizabeth Marberry.
45:40
Make sure you DM me that keyword leads, L-E-A-D-S, and I will send you a guide that does have my mini chat link that will give you a month of pro totally free and PS, a subscription to manychat is actually very affordable. You start at like $15 a month. So don't be afraid to try this tool out, really learn how to leverage it, invest in hiring experts like Heston to help you do it in the best way possible. But
46:09
I hope you got so much value out of today's episode. If you did, please take a moment and share this episode with another business colleague, Bestie, who is trying to figure out the mystery that is Instagram. I so appreciate you being here and I cannot wait to strut it with you next week. Thank you for listening to Strut It. If you're ready to start leveraging Instagram to grow your business,
46:36
then you're gonna wanna grab my free Monetize Your IG Guide, where you'll learn seven simple and proven ways to finally make money on Instagram. You can grab your guide at ElizabethMarberry.com slash freebies. That's ElizabethMarberry.com slash freebies to get my Monetize Your IG Guide. If you got some incredible value from today's episode,
47:04
Be sure to leave a review and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, and I cannot wait to start it with you again next week.
