With Instagram Direct Messaging Grow Your Side Hustle

Personalized, helpful outreach can go a long way.

As Instagram passes the ten-year mark, the social media app has become more popular than ever, especially for businesses: A third of all Instagram Stories come from business accounts, and 20% of these posts elicit at least one direct message from a consumer. 

While new video filters and widgets roll out each month to help us create better content and express ourselves, the app’s most lucrative feature is one that entrepreneurs may easily overlook: Direct messaging.

Business owners and consumers alike are becoming increasingly comfortable with conversation within the direct messaging function. This is a big opportunity if you’re just getting started with a new product or service and need a scrappy, zero-cost outreach strategy.

With direct messages, you can privately build your network and even pitch your services. Since Instagram also houses all your past posts on your profile for browsing, you can show off your work and let prospects vet you without ever leaving the app.

Users now spend nearly an hour a day on Instagram alone, and you can use that hour to cash in on your side hustle. Here are three suggestions for using Instagram DMs as a lead generation strategy.

Offer free help at the outset

Personalization continues to be a white-hot trend in marketing. Rather than copy-and-pasting a bland message a hundred times over and spamming everyone in sight, take a moment to examine the account of each prospective business you find. Identify where you might be able to help out. Then send a thoughtful, customized message and offer to serve them — for free, at first.

Almost no one is willing to spend the time or resources it takes to offer a pro bono trial period, which is why this approach can give you a competitive advantage. If and when you deliver great results, the receiving party is more likely to engage with you, refer you, or even buy from you.

Read more: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/346784