A (6:06)

That's. That's insane. Like, I love that you said that those early years were like your bachelor's degree because I feel like a lot of people, yeah, they Go into entrepreneurship at the beginning and they're like, why am I not good yet? And I'm like, because you're a student. Like, it's, yes, you're. You're not good because you've never done it before. And there's so much room for, like, trial and error. Like, I ran a floral design business for many years before I did digital products. And I learned a lot from that. And it really showed me, like, what I don't want to do because I was like, I don't want to have a product. I don't like a physical product. I don't want to be in person. Like, it's just. There's so much room for error there that I didn't want. But I learned so much from those years of, I wouldn't say failure, but it wasn't this, like, super profitable business. Like, I always ended up spending all the money on the wedding flowers because I wanted it to be better than what they could afford and all those types of things. But it taught me so much. So if you are a new entrepreneur, it's very normal to feel like you're learning and you don't really know what you're doing. And even when you're an experienced entrepreneur, you have seasons of, what the hell am I doing? I literally have no clue. It's very normal.

B (7:13)

So love that.

A (7:14)

Okay, I want to hear your elevator pitch. If someone was like, I literally have no idea what DM automation is, how would you kind of explain it to them?

B (7:24)

Yeah, these days are like one sentence answer for me is that it's an automated marketing funnel that generates leads and sales 24,7 from your Facebook and Instagram content. That's kind of level one, because then, as you know, well, you can run ads and you can do all these different things, but for people to just understand it helps you monetize the heck out of your content in ways that you never could before. I think that just clicks the most with people.

A (7:48)

Yeah, absolutely. And honestly, I'm very weary of using the word automation or like automate, automatic or things like that, because I think a lot of people think when they hear that word, they're like, oh, there's no work involved. And I'm like, this really, truly is the only thing where there is work involved beforehand. And you still have to make sure things are firing and working. But, like, this is truly automated. And I find it so fascinating. And I still remember, I want to say it was in the beginning of 2023, I think is when I started using it. And I had seen it a little bit and there was a lot of talk of people being like, oh, this is so annoying. Like, I hate that people are taking this social out of social media. And I was like, in my head, I kept thinking, if anything, this allows me more time to be social because link sending is automated. And like sending someone something that there's no. There's no conversation happening when someone's like, hey, can I have the link for this? Right, you're sending them the link. And so I remember in 2023, when I first got into it, I couldn't believe it. And I'd had one launch in the beginning of the year where I didn't use it, and then the next launch I did use it, and it just took so much off my plate. Like, I. I couldn't believe how amazing it was. So I love DM automation. It's amazing. Um, okay, can you walk us through, like, one of the most basic automations that somebody could set up? So if someone's listening to this, let's say they either want to start selling a digital product or they're in the beginning stages of selling one. What is kind of like the first automation that you would have them set up?

B (9:15)

Yeah.

A (9:16)

With manychat, is the, like, the company that she works alongside to do all of this, if you guys didn't know that. Manychat.

B (9:24)

Yeah, thank you for clarifying that. And a helpful way sometimes for people to think about it is it's like an email marketing platform but for your dm. So it'll host your content, contacts and anything that you want to send to people you would set up inside of ManyChat. That's kind of the base layer. I will also just drop a caveat now for anyone who's like, I'm already using it in so many ways. Like, what are all the advanced things I can do? We may not get a chance to dive that deep into everything, especially because I know, like, you're wanting to equip, you know, your audience with, like, how can you guys use it in a way that's not super overwhelming and, like, super just all over the place and complicated. So if anyone has any advanced questions later, please feel free to DM me. But I want to kind of be respectful of all the different levels of potential experience and kind of familiarity people have. So to answer your question in that way, then the best first automation that I recommend to anyone, and this is just a blanket statement, though, so I do want to give context, is some kind of freebie that you have that's already working well for you. And the best milestone that I like to look at is have at least. And if you're a little bit below this, it's totally fine. But at least somewhere between a hundred to five hundred people plus have opted into this freebie already through your link in bio or through your link in Stories. It's just a good indicator to know people are actually interested in this thing. Anything less than a hundred tends to be friends, family, peers, colleagues, team members, et cetera. Once you get past that a hundred mark, usually you're gonna actually start to see some real traction for people who are just finding you for the first time, for example. So that's the best thing to point to initially. And then in terms of how you actually set that up, you mentioned how you can have people comment on a post, for example, let's say the word guide, if they wanted to get this free download from you. And then from there you can send them a message that has the link to it and say, hey, here you go, Hope you enjoy it. Peace.

A (11:10)

Right?

B (11:10)

And just kind of giving them the link. So the next version of that is that you can actually then instead of just giving them the link, they comment and then you say, hey, great, I'd love to send this over, like, what's your email? And I'll send it over your way. Now, in that situation, you're now bringing in things like your email marketing platform and a few other things. But it's just like setting up a landing page just to like help people's minds, kind of make it less scary, maybe, is that your landing page is doing the same thing. It's saying, hey, here's a person's name and email. And then I'm sending that info to my email platform because I want to add maybe this tag to them that's going to trigger the right email. And so in the dms, you're pretty much doing the same thing, but it now is more conversational for the format. We also get an 85% or higher email capture rate, which is going to be much higher than a typical landing page at like 20 to 25%. And then from there you can like keep the conversation going so we can talk more about some of those possibilities later. But that's the first best funnel that I recommend anyone sets up. Whether you try it out with the email capture in the DMS or you just go, you know what, I just want to get people the link right now. And I'll try to figure that out later.

A (12:15)

That's What I started with you guys, it's. So when you start doing the more advanced stuff, you do have to usually use Zapier to kind of connect the two. And if you don't know what Zapier is, it's literally just a platform that talks to multiple platforms. So if you need manychat to talk to your flow desk, email, Zapier is that bridge between the two. But again, it's additional expense. So in the beginning, I a. I didn't know how to set those up because it is. I will say I love manychat, but it is not beginner friendly in my opinion. Like, it's. It's just overwhelming. And once you learn it, it's not overwhelming. I will say that once you learn how to do things, like, I can go in and create, you know, an automation for my podcast in a minute. It's super easy for me. Super quick now. But in the beginning, I logged in and I was like, oh, my gosh, what is going on? But this is just a reminder that it's not hard, it's just new. Like, that is something I'm always circulating. Even now as I, like, add new things on or I try something new, I'm like, oh, I don't, I don't understand this. It just takes time learning the platform. But I will say, when I first started, I literally just did the comment, you know, the word starter kit, and I'll send you the link to xyz. And then when I worked with Natasha, I was able to kind of see the more conversational things. So even if it wasn't a freebie, even if they were like, selling something else, there's a way to make it super conversational. Natasha, do you have a keyword that they could comment if they're listening to this to kind of just see the flow of something?

B (13:43)

Yeah, totally. I will pull up. I'm like, I can't even think of what words we have available right now.

A (13:48)

I don't want to what I'm gonna do.

B (13:50)

No, that's okay. We just happen to revamp a bunch of our stuff so we're like turning stuff of turning it on. So I have a list, though, of all the stuff that's available. Well, I did actually, so two things. I. You know what? Actually, what will be easiest because it's something that's easy for them to see is I actually set up something with your name, so Abigail A B I G, A I L. And you guys can message me that at Natasha T. Willis and it will take you through Some back and forth stuff. Now, I didn't require an opt in on there because I just wanted to give you guys something free that you can use to kind of see all these different funnel examples. So I don't ask for your email there, but if you want to see an email, you know, funnel and kind of go through that, what you can message me is the word strategy. And that will take you through one of my lead magnet funnels. Now, just caveat, that will add you to my email list, but if you want to get my emails, great. And if not, then just message me. Abigail.

A (14:41)

It's just really cool to see how they work. I still remember the first person I saw it, because I'm not gonna lie, when I started using manychat, I didn't. Nobody was doing conversational, and I didn't know it even existed. So someone did, like, a free summit. And she was like. She prefaced it by saying, like, oh, my chatbot is gonna send you some information. And I was like, oh, that's cute. And then I clicked on it, and it was a whole conversation, and my jaw just, like, hit the floor. I was like, what in the world? This is so cool. And there's, like, variables too, you guys. So, like, if someone clicks on one thing, it would send them something else instead. So I just find it super fascinating. So could you walk us through kind of an example of a more advanced one? I know they can go see that, but maybe just like, if someone was doing a paid product, like, how would you say, okay, this is the conversation you would have with someone who is launching a digital product and they are in the middle of launch. I just want to, like, see what you would have been. And not super complicated, but maybe just, like, slightly more conversational.

B (15:42)

Cool. Okay, so in terms of a digital product kind of launch, typically we have different phases of the launch, right? So I just want everyone to know you can do what I'll walk through now for, like, just purchasing the product. You can do this for a wait list. Maybe if you're, like, working on a product right now and you're getting ready to release it, you can also do this for, like, hey, if you have different phases of your launch, like, I'm gonna be selling it for these 14 days, you know, at a discount or maybe with a special bonus. And then after that, people can still buy it, but maybe they lose that special bonus where the price goes back up. And then maybe the last piece, sue, is like, if you're doing something like a webinar, or maybe there's a freebie that people can get, like, before they're introduced to your product. This will also work for that. So anything that you're doing in your launch, you can essentially use a framework like this. But let's say from your post story, maybe even go live on Instagram, those are all places where you can have people comment or DM you that specific word. So let's say that we had them comment or DM back the word dp. Just like you have your setup, right? Like digital product. So after they do that, what you could do in the DMS is firstly, you kind of reaffirm like, hey, it sounds like you want to learn more about my digital product. That'll help you do xyz. Great. Then from there they're like, yes, tell me a little bit more, or like, I'm ready to buy that. And so once they engage with that message, with whatever option you want to present to them, let's say they just say, yeah, learn more. Like, send me a little more info. Then we actually talk a little more about the product itself before we send them over to the page. Because oftentimes the investment itself is the last thing you want to talk about. No matter how expensive the product is, we want to first talk about how and if this actually will help them. So this is where the conversation is useful. Because even though you may not need to, quote, unquote, qualify your leads for a $27 or even $1,000 offer, because you're like, anybody can buy this and like, get value from this. It's not like, hey, if you don't meet these qualifications, you can't buy. But still giving people the impression that you care or your likeness cares, you know, through your DMS and your automation and being able to say like, hey, just want to make sure, like, this is actually going to help you with xyz. Like, what's your biggest challenge right now? Or what are you looking for help with, like? Or are these the things that you're looking for? So we can present that in kind of a multiple choice option in the buttons. So that's kind of step two of the processes. First, we've confirmed that they are interested in this thing and we're like, cool. Just making sure you still want this. Great second step. Okay, let's make sure it's for you, because that's the most common question people are going to have is, will this work for me in my very unique situation? And so you want to make sure you can answer that for them before you even take them to the sales page. And then finally at that point, you could either keep going and do some more back and forth or you can say, great. Like, so let's say, for example, this was a, a weight loss product or something, like some fitness workouts for your core, maybe $47. We could say, hey, I struggled a ton with, like, being able to work out because I didn't have any friends or anybody that I knew as well. Like, if you're looking for that community, my course will not only give you access to all the training you need, but we also have accountability partners that you'll get access to, blah, blah, blah. Okay, great. I've now had my objection or my will this work for me? Question answered at least, like, to a degree. And then now we can say, and here are all the rest of the details, and we send them over to the page. Because the goal of your sales page, if you have put any effort into it, it's probably going to do a decent job of selling somebody at that point because they've had a couple touch points with you. Now if they don't click, let's say into the sales page, then we can know that and actually follow up with them, let's say a day later and just be like, hey, did you get a chance to check it out? Did you buy it? Like, super excited to help you, you know, get into the Facebook group or pair you up with your account accountability partner. And then they can go. You can give them a few options and say, hey, yep, you know, I'm in. And then you're like, sweet, awesome. Maybe even send them a voice note at that point. That's automated. Or they say, hey, I didn't get a chance to. Or like, I can't afford it, whatever. Have you. And now that also gives you opportunities to. Objection. Handle. So as you can see, there's so many steps that you can, like, take it to if you want to. But to start out, maybe it's just two or three where you're like, here's a little more info. This is right for you. Go check out all the deeds and message me any questions you have. And then you can answer those manually until you're ready to automate that too.

A (19:58)

It's so. It's so fascinating how this can all happen, like, coming from you. But it is, it's automated. Like, I'm obsessed with that. Um, now, one question I get all the time is, when is the best time to start using ManyChat? So if someone is just starting out, like, when, when do they know if it's a good time to set this up. Cause I know there is, like a free contact. How would you, how do you, like, tell people, like, hey, you're ready for this? Or hey, you're not ready for.

B (20:25)

Yes. I love this question so much because a lot of the time people get very excited about like, either the next big technology thing that they've seen or just like, you know, they're doing business for the first time. Like you said, they're in student mode and so they don't really know. And I think the detriment sometimes of like, all the information that's available to people is they're like, okay, I'm gonna go run ads and create content and create manychat stuff and create email systems and build a gazillion offers and, you know, you just don't know what order of steps to do things in. So a good decision framework that I have now seen where, like, it's actually worth your time to even, like spend an ounce of effort towards putting something together, is that if your posts are already getting at least 2,000 views or more, and ideally 10,000 plus views, because that means you're likely reaching new people as well, more than the 2000. But nonetheless, Instagram, at least at the time we're recording this, so, you know, who knows, it's going to be very different by at any point that you're listening to the rest of the podcast. Still very useful. Just this specific detail of the fact that right now the head of Instagram has said that 50% of the people who see your post when it first goes out are existing followers, 50% are non followers or new people. And then based on that, it decides to, you know, distribute your post more. So for the purposes of deciding, okay, do I have people who are going to see my posts and actually opt into this thing? 2,000 views, absolute minimum, like on every single post for the last 30 days. That's what you want to aim for. Because if you don't have that yet, unless you're somehow getting a bunch of incoming messages, because maybe your thing is just really attractive and interesting and niche to people. They're like, this is the only person who can help me with this. Like, I've got to DM this person. Most of the time, accounts that have less than 2K views on their reels slash posts aren't really getting a lot of traction both on the posts and the dm. So it's just not even worth your time because you don't have the traffic there Yet. Right. And that's absolutely some of the stuff you help with, right, Is like actually getting your reels to perform well, because then at that point you have demand. You don't want to create something when you have zero demand. And so it's better to put your effort towards that system. Get something that allows you to put out content consistently, get to those 2k plus views, and then now build out a simple automation. And then once that's performing for you and you're like, great, I think I'm getting some extra sales or all my sales now are coming from the dms. Now I could start to add in the email ask and add in some more back and forth and, you know, all of that jazz as well.

A (22:52)

So somebody signs up for ManyChat, what type of content should they be creating to kind of get people to use that keyword? And actually, before we dive into that, do you have, like, a general rule of thumb for the keywords that people are choosing? I feel like I get that question all the time of, like, how do I choose a keyword and how do I avoid it being something that they're using in, like, everyday conversations that would trigger that.

B (23:18)

Yeah, absolutely. So I have a list of, like, the 30 most common ones that we use, and some of those which I can kind of just speak to real quick. What they all hit on is we try to do seven letters max, Ideally anything longer than that. We tend to find people misspell or autocorrect gets them. We also aim to do a word, not a phrase, so that, that way it's all, again, just decreasing the likelihood of someone screwing it up. Something that's easy to spell, an exact word that's related to your business or something that could be related. Like, for example, drop an amen if, you know, whatever, right? Like that's, you know, the kind of. Some people, that's their vibe. And so that works great because that's like a part of their brand. And then finally, just avoid any special symbols or emojis. I see a lot of people do an emoji. Like, there was this guy I saw who knock on name names because I absolutely love this guy, but he was like, drop a chair emoji. I'm like, no one has emoji on their most valid emoji. Said, I think that, you know, it's just something to keep in mind. Now here's the fun part, though, is that Instagram now is using AI to recommend what you should comment on a post. And a lot of platforms are doing this now too, where it's like, when you click in to make a comment, it will present, like, similar comments to what other people are saying, which is both good and bad. Because, like, okay, now everyone's kind of like, being directed to say the same thing. But if other people have commented the chair emoji in that case, or whatever it was, then it might pop up. But you don't want to rely on that because they're still experimenting with it. So those are the things that you want to keep in mind when you go choose a word. And then some of the most common words, as well as, like, things to. One last tip I have actually is you want to choose a word that's aspirational. So, for example, let's say that I was a finance expert. We have a lot of clients that are finance experts. And so they are probably talking about how to get out of debt. And so we don't want to be like, comment broke, or, like, comment poor or, you know, like these kind of ridiculous examples. But I've seen people do this where, you know, you don't want to admit that to yourself.

A (25:20)

Right.

B (25:20)

It's like when you're marketing to people, it's like, it's not your fault, it's actually this. And here's, you know, how to fix that. So instead we want to choose aspirational world to, like, wealth, for example, or risk.

A (25:30)

That's exactly what was in my head. Yeah, because you're kind of like. You're kind of like affirming that for them. They're like, affirming that as they type it and it's connected to what it is that they're trying to get.

B (25:41)

Yeah. And it feels shitty to, you know, have to admit stuff sometimes, especially if it's a public post. Right. And people are going to see they've commented. So it is helpful to, again, go the aspirational route. Um, so anyways, I won't bore everyone with like, that super long list.

A (25:54)

Could just read us like, 10 real quick so that they can know.

B (25:57)

Yeah, absolutely.

A (25:58)

And one thing I will say, you guys, that I've noticed too, in just, like, research, is that the more connected it is to what you're doing. So, like, I ran a digital product, Bootcamp. Bootcamp is my keyword because it makes perfect sense. I sell a digital product starter kit. My keyword is starter kit for that. Because it makes perfect sense with what I'm selling. So, like, the connection matters too. But tell us, can you just read off like 10 suggestions for things?

B (26:22)

Yeah, absolutely. So bootcamp's actually one of them. Cause it does so well.

A (26:26)

It's like I did your program.

B (26:30)

So a few others that we have, I might end up doing more than nine or ten, but just gonna read off some of the most common ones. So Freedom, Genius, Grateful Health, Joy, Learn, Mentor, Mastery, Profit, Quiz, Scale Shift Secrets, which is a really good one for like anything Secret Wait List, Strategy, vip, Vision, Win. And then the last one, I have it as 5x, but you can actually change that out for any single digit number ideally. So for example, if, let's say your thing that you talk about in your content would help people increase something by a certain amount or even like, you know, clean your house two times faster. Here's my like five cleaning tips, like comment 2x or 5x or whatever. That's a really easy one that anybody can write out. And it's super fast.

A (27:25)

Love it. Those are so fun. Okay, now let's dive into the question I originally asked and then I asked her a second question is what type of content do you see doing the best in terms of like feed content? I know that there's like stories and lives and other places, and after this question I'll ask you another one about that. But what type of content do you see performing the best with these keyword automations?

B (27:47)

Yes, with the content. At the end of the day, what I will give you guys is a like three part framework that even as trends and like different styles of content and everyone has their own format, you know, like those things kind of come and go. You can continue to use a cadence like this because I don't think this will ever necessarily change until like social media completely shifts in terms of like how people actually, you know, are consuming, which, you know, with the metaverse and everything, we're, we're still years away. But for right now, what we have found to work the best now and really over the last four years, specifically consistently on accounts that are between 7,000 followers to 50 million plus, is a three part framework where every three posts, essentially we're trying to follow this cadence. So post one, whenever that gets posted during the week, at whatever time, right. That post has a cta and we say, hey, comment guide. For example, to get the free guide, the second post has a call to action, but it's an engagement question. So we are encouraging genuine discussion in the comments, which is really important for a healthy profile on Instagram as you want to be encouraging conversation, whether you are very controversial and polarizing because that's some people's thing or others of like, you know, stuff like what you do, for example, where you're like sharing behind the scenes. And then you might ask a question about like, how are you doing this? Or what's your life looking like with this? Or whatever. And so that's one way to do it. And then the third post of that three part cadence is no call to action, but something ideally that elicits some kind of emotion in people. And so that could be just like a funny, relatable meme, gif, popular movie, you know, scene kind of thing, like a pov, whatever that relates to your specific audience and gets people to be like, oh my gosh, that was so funny, this is so me. Or like, oh my gosh, this post is crazy. Whatever, right? Something that's really shareable and that's a great litmus test of how good your content is. So you've kind of got the litmus test of like, hey, I actually have people who like want to talk to each other because I'm building a community on my page. And then I actually make good content. So from there then we just repeat that. So we're essentially constantly doing that. 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. And that in itself. Then you can plug in any kind of content that's working for you. Because as many of you have probably found as you start to create your content, you're like, what's a format that's sustainable for me and actually gets me reach and like, performs well for me? And so that's constantly changing as, you know, right? Talking head reels to B roll reels, to highly produced stuff to, you know, on the street, interview style stuff. There's so many different formats that people can use. And so the main goal is like, like with any content creation process is like test out a bunch of them and then whatever performs even just a little bit better than the rest of them. Just like keep doubling down on that, Keep experimenting, keep doubling down. Because ultimately the format doesn't matter to like, the success of your funnels as much as just making sure you're using the call to actions in the right place. And that can be in the middle if you have a video, and at the end as well, but kind of making it subtle in the middle, like, oh, by the way, you know, whatever. And then at the end going a little bit harder with it on that CTA or in a carousel. Every single post, except for the first one.

A (30:55)

Yeah, I saw someone. It was, I can't remember who it was now, but she had a carousel. And it was like a storytelling Story selling carousel, I should say. And in between each slide, she had the call to action. Like, comment XYZ if you want more. And I was like, from a user standpoint, I didn't really love it, but.

B (31:14)

Just like a whole slide.

A (31:15)

Yeah, the whole slide was if you want more information or if you want. It was. It was pretty compelling though.

B (31:19)

Okay.

A (31:20)

Like, I couldn't decide if I liked it or not. And I'm like, I want to try it eventually just to see. Because it did just keep reminding me, like, oh, if I want more than I need to comment that. But wait, I want to read the rest of the story. And so I was like, it's just so fascinating how people work that in. I will say for me, if I'm doing a talking head video and I'm going to have a call to action, I try to say it at the beginning and the end. So I'll do like the hook. And then if I'm doing one where I'm like, I want this to go to more new people and be like, and if you don't know, I am, this is me. And like, here's a little bit about my story. And then I'll do like the first little part and then say, now if you want more information, just comment this keyword and I'll send that over and then dive right back in. And then again at the end, I'll say it and then it will be the first line of my caption. Because I'm really trying to like, remind them that, like, if you want more, this is the keyword that you need to be saying. There is a cadence to it, you guys, and it's something that like, you'll kind of learn the places to do it. Sometimes I find that, like, when my reel isn't super intentionally selling, having that in the caption works really well. And other times, like, nobody comments a keyword, right? Like, it's. And it's just kind of like a. I'm gonna test things out and not attaching so much like, well, this didn't work, so I'm never gonna do it again. Like, no, that's not how this works. It's gonna take multiple times of trying something. And I wanna say too, before we dive into the next question, Jenna Kutcher is a really great example of that three part cadence. She does that. I can like spot it now because I know that you teach that and I. I've learned that from you. So I can see it. But it's a great, like, go scroll her feed and See, like the order that she does it and she'll do like a conversational one, a note, call to action, and then the CTA that's like clearly selling her product. I do feel like she tends to have a lot mixed in because she does live launches where it's like a freebie too. And that's totally something you could do as your call to Action one. Like I did one last week and it was like, here are the only four business books you need to read from someone who's a million dollar business owner. And that was my call to Action one for the week. So it doesn't just need to be your product in that cadence. Of the three posting now, I'd love to know what are all the ways that we can be using manychat called Actions? I feel like everyone, well, not everyone, but a lot of us know the post ones because we see them and we participate in them. But what are all the different ways that we can be utilizing those on Instagram as a whole?

B (33:32)

Yes. Okay, so there are nine different ways that people can be using so, so many.

A (33:38)

That's amazing.

B (33:39)

There are quite a few, which again, also, just as a caveat, please don't allow yourself to be like, oh my gosh, I've gotta do all of this now and get overwhelmed. But instead start with one. And I will say that posts are one of the best places to start because 70% of our traffic overall for each client account tends to come from posts. So you're gonna get the most bang for your buck. Whereas I think people tend to get a little bit overwhelmed with like, oh, I've got to get up stories every day and, oh, and I have to go live and like all these things, you know, so just focus on getting your posts done first and then when that's in a good place, if you want to, getting into stories and other stuff can be helpful. Okay, so we've got commenting on a post or a reel. Just to be clear, that can be a single image. Carousels, reels, videos, anything essentially that goes on the feed. Then you have replying to a story. So these are where somebody at the bottom of the story, usually the call to action is actually send a message or reply to this story. So all they have to do is just type in the word there and that's it. Then we have the bio. So the bio. And this is, um, kind of a paired one. Honestly, I usually don't pair them together, but I realize it might be easier to think about it like this, where you have like places from your profile that someone can then go in to message you. So what we tend to see happen a lot is somebody sees a piece of content or an ad from you, and instead of going into that piece of content or that ad, they actually go to your profile. They're like, oh, this is kind of interesting. I'm hooked enough in the first couple of seconds. Like, what else do they have to offer me? And then they want to go binge your content and or like, learn more. So if we have a call to action word in the bio, ideally in the second line of the bio, because then that way it won't get stuck in the like see more section. Then from there we can say, hey, DME guide for a free guide, for example. And so now all these people who would have otherwise done nothing binge your content, but maybe like hopped out, been disappointed, maybe buy some of the content for whatever reason. Right. Or message you a very specific question. They all now go and enter this free guide funnel. And then you can also do this with like story highlights too. So very strategically setting up a story highlight so that that way you are getting leads from those instead of it being like all the places you've traveled or like, you know, just a lot of the just kind of random ones.

A (35:51)

That people will throw up are the highlight ones. So if you created like a story automation and you posted that and then you added it to your highlight, do those still work?

B (35:59)

Yes, exactly.

A (36:00)

So it's not like a separate one for the highlight. You would just do the story automation and then save that story to a highlight.

B (36:07)

Yes. And as a side note, for those of you who are like, already using manychat or you go in and you're like, which trigger do I use in there? There are actually two different ones. There is a DM one, like someone sends you a message, that's the trigger name. And then there is a someone replies to your story. I recommend for anybody who's starting out to only do the DM1 because that's going to trigger on your story. The story one itself, like the specific one that ManyChat gives you, has other features available in it, like liking the person's message and like delaying your message. Stuff that honestly, you probably don't want to mess with initially because it's just more decisions for you to have to make instead of like, just get them the thing. So just a little side note on that. Okay, so we've got commenting on a post, replying to a story/DMing bio on the profile, story highlights, and then we have story tags. So this might be. For example, you guys might be listening to this podcast right now and you say, hey, I want to put this on my story. Because I just loved how Abigail or Natasha said. And from there, once you tag me or Abigail in that story, or both of us, then you could get a message from us that says, hey, thanks so much for tagging me. And then that can be an invitation into, oh, by the way, do you have my free guide on xyz?

A (37:16)

That's so cool. I didn't know that second step.

B (37:19)

Yeah, so that's the next one. Then we already talked about direct message, so that was one of them. Then we have links. So with links, you can send somebody from an email, from a podcast description from literally anywhere that you can put a link or even a QR code, send them directly into your dms. So the way to do that and you can do this even if you don't have automation set up. It just won't trigger anything when they get there is you can send people to ig, me, forward slash, M forward slash your username. And that will send people to your DMS instead of to your Instagram profile.

A (37:55)

That's so cool. Look at you with all these workarounds. It's like, you know, it's my job.

B (38:02)

Yep.

A (38:03)

So that's links.

B (38:04)

Then we have ads for just super quick on ads. Someone can click on the ad and start a message with you in a conversation instead of going to your landing page. And then they can also comment on your ad. So very similar to a post where then they can receive the message from there too.

A (38:17)

Gotcha.

B (38:18)

And then our last two are commenting on a live. So this is very similar to post, except someone's hops on your live. They see you're there and then they drop in a comment and then they now receive. I will say, lives are really untapped opportunity. So many people don't go live because they're like, what am I going to talk about? What's the point of this? What's the ROI on my time? But the cool thing is that you're going to get 85 to 95% of people who are passing by, even if they hop on for like five seconds. If you have a pinned comment on that live that says comment guide, for example, to get my free guide, then that alone will allow you to collect 85 to 95% of people who see the live at least into your DMs to get them into that next step. So it's a huge so Smart conversion mechanism. And you can do it for whatever size followers you have.

A (39:03)

Right.

B (39:03)

Obviously only your followers are going to see your live, but then from there afterwards it'll get posted as a post. So if you keep it pretty short, like five to 15 minutes max, then it can be a great, like longer form piece of content that people actually really like and they can opt in on your posts anytime going forward too. So it's kind of a two for one.

A (39:21)

I will say with lives, it's really fun to do a Q and A you can get. If you're worried like nobody's going to ask me questions, you could do a story like a box before a question box, asking for questions. And then start the live by answering those. Because I find that when you start answering questions, it prompts people to ask more questions. And then I've seen people as well do it where there's like a sale during the live. So if you say comment this keyword and you can get my product for $30 off during the live, only like they have to grab it during the live. I've seen those a lot on TikTok, not as much on Instagram because like you said, I don't see a whole lot of people doing lives, but I find those super fascinating because it gives them like a deadline to grab it and you're like, okay, I'm only going to be live for 10 more minutes and then the sale goes away. If you want to grab it, like, go grab it. So I feel like that would be. I need to take more advantage of lives. I just get so nervous with them.

B (40:11)

Yeah, no, TikTok Live and TikTok shops are absolutely insane. There is a whole culture there and so it'll be really interesting. Not to digress, but when the Tik Tok ban happens, since they are talking about that happening in the new year, all those live people will probably hop over to Instagram or YouTube Live for that matter. And so if you start going live now, folks, it's going to be really helpful for just kind of taking advantage of that opportunity because, yeah, so many people appreciate lives also now. Okay, now we're starting a little bit of a rant on lives. But as a side note, lives are so powerful and will probably continue to become bigger. And bigger is just what we're seeing with like live streaming becoming bigger because it's real versus with, you know, posts and images and even videos now. So much of it can be manipulated. And yes, eventually lives will also be able to get manipulated. But right now it's like, very real.

A (40:59)

Yeah.

B (41:00)

So people appreciate that. Okay, last one is broadcast channels. If you're not already using a broadcast channel, don't worry about it. Completely ignore for the next 10 seconds. Because I don't want you to worry about another channel that you have to manage right now if it's already a lot for you to do all the other things. But if you have a little bit of capacity, or you can repurpose old posts, maybe email newsletters you're doing, even podcasts, and you can send little bits of like, advice, wisdom, inspiration, whatever during the weeks in there. Then once a week you can drop a little message in your broadcast channel and say, or during a launch period even, hey, like, I've got this thing, for example, I've got a sale going on until tomorrow. If you want to get access to this, just DM me this specific word. And then from there people can click in. If you at your profile in there. So you were to put like, for example, at Natasha T. Willis in the message, people can click on it and then go into your DMS from there. Or you can do the little trick I mentioned of the IG me forward slash M link and that'll send people too. So either way. But then that gets people into your DMS and allows you to send traffic back in because they're already in the DMs, they're just in a different.

A (42:04)

Yeah, they're already there. That's.

B (42:06)

Yeah. So those are the nine.

A (42:08)

There's so many different things, and I feel like one of the coolest ones that I still need to get on is quizzes. Because now the quiz can essentially live inside of manychat, whereas before you had to have like a third party party that you'd send them to the link. And there's all this, like, friction between, like, going on Instagram and then leaving to go to do it on the quiz platform. Whereas with ManyChat, the quiz is happening inside of your DMs, which I just think is so fascinating. And I think quizzes are such a great way to kind of like weed out people who want to buy from you and people who don't necessarily need what you have to offer. Because sometimes people, like, don't know and we feel like a brokered record saying who our product is for. And then they're like, oh, is this for me? And then the quiz allows you to kind of like qualify them or not. And again, it's conversational, like back and forth, which I love so much.

B (42:55)

Yes, 100%. Lots of good stuff. You can do with quizzes. And again, a quiz is a great one to do. Like the third or fourth kind of fun. I mean, for you. Yeah, for you, 1000% do a quiz immediately. Right.

A (43:08)

But I know, don't judge me. It's taking me so long.

B (43:11)

For anyone who's starting off, don't worry about starting off with a quiz. But it will be a really powerful thing. So again, just a reminder to like take inspiration as you're listening to us and not be like, I need to go.

A (43:20)

Don't be overwhelmed and feel like you have to do it all. Okay, this is kind of a fun question. I know this is not going to at all be the typical results for somebody using manychat, you guys. So keep that in mind. But what is the most comments one of your clients has gotten on an Automation post?

B (43:33)

Yeah, 160,000.

A (43:36)

Oh my gosh. Was it Tori? I feel like.

B (43:38)

No, it was Erica Kohlberg. Oh, like the most followed lawyer on social. Yeah.

A (43:43)

Oh, she's fascinating. She's the one who does the skits, right?

B (43:46)

Yes. Yeah. Where she's like so and so. I'm an airline attendant or whatever. Right. And then like, here's what you should say to this person.

A (43:52)

Oh my gosh, that is so many comments. That's wild. Okay. I just, I was so curious about them. Um, okay, last question. Is there anything that people should kind of like avoid doing on many chat? Is there like something you see a lot of people doing that you're like, please don't do that. That's just starting out with manychat. Yeah.

B (44:12)

I think the biggest thing is just making sure. Well, number one thing, just a reminder because you can get really excited about all this. Right. Is making sure that not every single post you ever put out ever has a call to action. And that's why the three post cadence is a helpful initial rule. You might break it every so often if you like just have a crazy Black Friday offer and you really want to have some back to back posts. But we will try to do no more than two to three back to back posts.

A (44:36)

I feel like in launching it's a little bit different. It can for some people.

B (44:40)

You did mention Jenna as an example. And Jenna Kutcher is a great example of how during launches, and I see this with her in every single other client that we do really big launches for, where it's like hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars like during that launch that are being generated. And the biggest important thing is to not silo your audience because Only a small percentage of your total audience is actually going to buy that stuff that you're promoting. So you don't want to go. There was a situation, I think last year where one of our clients posted like 14 posts in the span of three days, all with a call to action.

A (45:11)

Oh, my God. Right?

B (45:12)

And we're like, like, look, dude, like, no one's engaging with your stuff. Why is that? Maybe because you've completely isolate, like, just said screw you to all the other 90 plus of people who aren't going to buy your stuff, but, like following you. Just they don't want to buy the thing or they're already a customer, whatever. And so during Jenna's launches, what you will notice, and maybe this will change in the future, but at the time, at least we're recording, we always follow the three post cadence during a launch. Now, we used to not. But now, especially with just like more and more people doing CTA posts, we are really mindful of it. So we will do like a very relatable or funny post and then we'll do CTA posts and then we do a like, relatable personal brand behind the scenes post. But it will have some kind of question, right? And then it's like a relatable funny whatever and then back to it. So that allows us to not silo people who are like, I want to buy this from you.

A (46:05)

And I will say I do think that that works a little bit better for people who run ads, in my opinion, because she's still getting the clicks for this for the launch from the ads as well. If I have noticed that, like with someone who's launching and they're not running ads, not necessarily having the call to action in every single post, but having even if it's relatable content, being about what it is that you're launching, and even if you're asking the question, like, it does need to still be related. Like, I think Jenna just did her podcast lab launch and when she did one of the relatable ones, it was like about talking all the time and like calling your best friend and, and like she had a trend where it was kind of like listening to voice notes. Um, and it was like she still kind of made the connection, but it didn't have a call to action. But I, like I said, I do think that, like, you can get away with that a little bit more if you are running ads during the launch as well. But yeah, every launch is so different for each person. And Jenna has, you know, a very well established Business. So hers obviously gonna look different than any of ours. But yeah, I did notice that in her last one that they were. They felt more connected this launch, in my opinion.

B (47:11)

Yeah, that's interesting feedback because I do think if I'm thinking back to some of the ones I know, there's like, not all of them are related, so I will say that it doesn't have to be, but it can benefit the launch in that way for sure. But I think she did someone, like, gardening and like, her relationship, like other random where, like, had absolutely nothing to do with podcasting also. But in terms of the ads kind of helping the performance of organic, I will say what's interesting is, like, at the end of the day, you don't know for sure. Right. Because it's like, ad traffic does help you bring in more people.

A (47:42)

Yeah, this is totally just a personal opinion, you guys. I don't have any data behind this. I just feel like that makes more sense.

B (47:48)

Yeah. But for some of our clients who, like, are purely organic, they don't run any ads. I don't necessarily notice a, like, if anything, because they're so good at running organic traffic and, like, content and, like, creating great posts, it's so tough to tell. So I do think it's. It's more anecdotal than it is like, like, data driven only because, you know, people will be like, oh, if you start running ads, then, like, Instagram will tank your, you know, reach and different things like that. It's just like, there's not enough.

A (48:15)

There's no data. Yeah.

B (48:16)

And it's like, for sure, there's so many conspiracy theories that there's a lot. So lots of stuff that, like, comes out, you know, years later. It's like the government's like, oh, that was true, you know, But I think that we can only do the best that we can. And so if you are relying on organic, great. Just like, be mindful of all those things. And if you can start to run paid ads, that's awesome because paid advertising is such an incredible tool once you know how to harness it and just, you know, be smart about it.

A (48:42)

And something else I will say about launching too, is that when you're launching, you can be talking about the product in multiple areas as well. So, like, let's say your first one was the call to action, and the next one was, like, relatable. Maybe your stories for that day is hard selling, and that's something that I teach and do, is that, like, you're selling hard selling in different places each day. So it's not necessarily, like, for my launch, I'm doing eight single slide pictures for every single launch. And it's all the same because also, people consume content in different ways. So if you're selling in different areas, you know, still connecting and nurturing the audience you still have. But I will also say, if you're someone that's launching for, like, four days, and all four days is, like, all selling, like, don't stress about your audience. They'll be fine. They're not going anywhere. If you're doing longer launches, I would say be more mindful of making sure that you're, like, including them in that. Because for me, especially as a user too, if I see someone launching, I'm not about to unfollow them for 4 to 7ish days. But if I'm like, okay, they're two weeks in and they are not doing anything else, and that's all they're talking about and they're selling and everything, I'm like, okay, like, can we, like, get to know each other a little still? Can we connect? Like, what's. What's going on? So I do think, like, if it's shorter again, different cadences for different things and sizes, but I'm just getting into the nitty gritty now, so 100%. Okay. So if someone is like, wow, I love this episode, I want to dive more into this. I want to learn more about it. You guys can actually comment the word Abigail. My name, A B, I G, A I L. And you can kind of see a behind the scenes of some of the wildly profitable. What do you call them?

B (50:14)

Like, yeah, just like a DM funnel system.

A (50:17)

Yeah, a funnel. There we go. You can see somebody else's funnel and kind of see how they work and get more information from Natasha. Um, she is kind of her who I've learned in the beginning days, kind of everything from, like I said, I was already using it. And then I found her and I was like, I love the way she teaches and I had a lot of fun kind of getting to know her and her team.

B (50:37)

Oh, I appreciate that so much. And yeah, just a heads up, guys, that'll be on my account, not on Abigail's.

A (50:42)

Oh, yeah, I didn't.

B (50:43)

All good. That'll be on my Natasha T. Willis. Just so you're not getting a bunch of people messaging you.

A (50:49)

Why is everyone sending me my name?

B (50:52)

Yeah, that'll be on mine.

A (50:53)

Oh, my gosh, that's funny.

B (50:54)

You can just message that to me or comment it if you want.

A (50:57)

I will attach her Instagram account below for you guys. She has two, she has her personal. And then it's also, I think it's the other one. Natasha. Schoolbots. Or is it just.

B (51:05)

Just Schoolbots.

A (51:06)

Okay, cool. So I'll tag both of those for you guys down below. I find what they're doing so fascinating and it's just, it's so funny. Anytime I see someone who's like a big name and they're launching with a many chat automation, I'm like, like I know who you working with. Like I can see how good they're doing it. I'm like, I know who set this up for you. Like this is too good to be anybody else. Sidebar. Are you guys like the only company that does what you do? I feel like I've never heard of anybody else who does it at the scale that you do it.

B (51:32)

As of right now it appears to be so. And it's been interesting because what I've noticed is that there's been a lot of people have like come and gone in this industry since we've now been in it for almost seven years. And you know, I didn't know how to create an information business or courses or run marketing campaigns or work with clients or anything when we started. And so we kind of learned all this from scratch at the same time. And so there's been a lot of people have kind of come and gone but at this moment in time there is not a company that I know of that like specifically does things the way that we do it for the types of people that we do it. There are a lot of people who will do like more simple automations or you know, are kind of like freelancers that work on their own. But no one that like works to the degree that we have and has the amount of data that we have of like 100 million plus messages that we like, like can use to analyze and like optimize.

A (52:24)

So it's at least right now fascinating. I love it. It's, it's so cool. Like truly is. There's so much money in like niches and niching down like even further. Like right now they are mainly working with like the same type of client making like a similar amount of revenue and like that's who they've like niched in on and it's just so fascinating. I think people always get so afraid to niche down and I'm like, there's a lot of money in that because your client knows exactly if you are for them or not. Like it's so easy to be like, oh, yeah, like you're my ideal person to help me. Whereas if you're like, trying to help everyone, then you're spending all this time telling people, ah, no, I don't think we can help you.

B (52:59)

Yeah, I digress.

A (53:00)

So much fun to talk about all this stuff. Tasha, thank you so much for coming on the show and to all the listeners. I will see you guys next week. Thank you so much for hanging out with me and my guests today. If you learned anything from our episode, I would love it if you could share it over on your Instagram stories and tag me at abigailpugh until next time. Love you, mean it.