The Instagram Bio Link Is NOT What You Should Be Using (Here’s What Is)

If you’re still telling people on Instagram to tap the “link in my bio”… STOP doing that. It’s outdated and there’s a better way to direct people where you want them to go.

You can tell people to comment a certain word, and whatever link you want to send them will be automatically DMed to them.

Be it a lead magnet like a link to a free eBook, a link to your contact page, or a link to your product!

And it’s all automated so you don’t have to manually one by one send these DMs!

So instead of instructing people to click on your Instagram bio link, we’re going to show you how easy (AND FREE) it is to get this set up.

But we’ll also say that if you’d rather let an expert Instagram marketing agency handle all of your social media marketing for you…

…so you can drive results and still have time to run your business, we do that for small businesses every day.

So if you want a free, custom marketing proposal and quote, schedule a meeting today.

What Is The Alternative?

If you’ve been doing an Instagram marketing strategy for your brand for a while now…

…you may have seen a lot of posts going around, where it says something like, “If you want XYZ sent to you, comment this word.”

A lot of influencers are doing this, like this one which says, “If you want our outfit details sent straight to your DMs, comment the word LINK.”

Small businesses can get in on this too!

Imagine you want to directly promote a landing page that captures email addresses in exchange for a free lead magnet.

You can promote the lead magnet on social media and set it up…

…so that if someone comments EBOOK or whatever you want the word to be, a link to that landing page is automatically DMed to them, from you.

If you’re thinking, “That’s great I won’t need to constantly tell users to click on my Instagram bio link”, then how do you set this up?

The trick is to use a free tool called ManyChat.

And we’ll preface right now this is not sponsored.

We are not getting paid to mention ManyChat in any capacity, we’ve never done partnerships like that on this blog.

We just talk about what works on this post.

So, ManyChat offers a few services, but the one we’re talking about is their automated Instagram marketing service.

“Manychat’s Instagram DM is simple to use. No code visual interface. Automates your marketing, customer support, lead generation process, and much more.”

So you can see in this little visual they have on the page that you set up automation in their software…

…this is what it looks like to you, and then this is what your audience sees in their Instagram DMs as a result.

Then they have some examples of how it can be used. If you’re in e-commerce, you can use it to increase revenue and sales.

It says, “Help customers find the right product inside Instagram DMs. Automatically answer product questions, create product quizzes, and send customers to the point of purchase.”

If your business model is lead-based, it says, “Save time by qualifying leads with automated conversations.

Collect and store emails and phone numbers. Jump in where needed and speak with qualified leads in real-time.”

If you’re just looking to generate more social media engagement, you can use it for that too.

“Boost your follower count, comments, and reactions by running messaging-powered campaigns, like giveaways, promotions, and contests.

Make it really easy for customers to start conversations with you and ensure they get a response.”

And lastly, you can use it to deliver instant support. “Increase customer satisfaction and save your team time by automating customer support answers.

Respond to FAQs with pre-built answers, capture support information from customers, and notify your team to chat live if needed.”

So if you’ve ever set up email or SMS text message automation, you can see it’s kind of the same principle, but with Instagram comments and DMs.

Or, if you’ve NEVER set up email or SMS automation before, don’t worry! Because this is a really user-friendly way to dip your toe in the automation pond.

And, what we also love to see is that Manychat is an official partner of Facebook and Instagram, so using this tool is 100% Instagram-approved and safe to use. Not all tools are.

Some tools get your account flagged or even worse, banned. But not with Manychat.

So let’s look at their pricing plans. And yes, we did say this was a free digital marketing tool because they have a free option.

But they have bigger, paid plans too in case you need to scale.

The free plan allows you to get started with access to Manychat basic features to engage up to 1,000 contacts FREE OF CHARGE.

The pro plan allows you to Grow your business with access to all advanced Pro features, starting at a cost of $15 a month.

And then they have a premium, custom plan at a fixed monthly rate that you’ll need to book a demo to solidify.

We’re guessing most of you would only need the free plan, MAYBE the pro plan depending on what you’re looking to do and the size of your audience.

If you scroll down, they have a calculator where you can enter the number of contacts you expect to engage and it’ll show you:

a. which plans can cover that and

b. how much those plans would cost

The Key Features Of This Tool

Aside from replacing the usual “click my Instagram bio link” in your captions…

…with the free plan, this tool is compatible with Instagram Direct Messages, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp. These are 3 key features of this plan:

1. You can automate conversations.

Unlimited custom flows to engage up to 1,000 contacts and note that contacts are customers that have interacted with your bot through any of the channels.

Contacts may not be deleted or unsubscribed on the free plan.

2. You can acquire new customers.

Access basic Growth Tools to drive leads to your automation.

3. You can segment your contacts – 10 customer tags.

With the pro plan, this tool is compatible with Instagram Direct Messages, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, SMS Text Messaging, and Email.

You get everything the free plan has plus the following:

1. Engage unlimited contacts. Scaled pricing based on contacts
2. Expand customer reach. Unlimited Growth Tools and Keywords
3. Build advanced campaigns. Unlimited Tags, Custom Fields, & advanced Segments
4. Optimize performance. Manychat Analytics & Insights tools
5. Save time. Integrations with tools you already use
6. Make it your own. No Manychat branding- we love that for small businesses trying to build brand recall,
7. Email support, anytime.

So, we think once you start digging in and setting up your campaigns, you’ll start to see the advantages of the pro plan.

Otherwise, the last thing we’ll say is that if someone is on your Instagram post and the CTA in your caption is to tap your Instagram bio link?

Then maybe when they get to the link in your bio, it brings up a linktree or something…

…and they have to pick an option from the ones available, click that, and wait for the page to load, that’s like 3 or 4 more clicks than what’s necessary.

If they were already on your post, they could’ve just commented the keyword you instructed them to…

…and the exact thing they need would be DMed to them instantly, automatically, without you lifting a finger beyond the initial setup.

That’s the beauty of this tool and why it’ll save you time while pushing your followers further down your sales funnel.