Manually sending links? In this economy? No, thank you.
Theresa Dinh had a major headache. Her Instagram DMs were packed with folks asking for her free resources, and she was stuck in a never-ending cycle of copy-pasting links.
So that meant: Hours wasted. Unhappy followers. And potential sales? POOF! Gone.
So, she turned to Manychat. And in one day, she gathered 200+ emails, boosted her engagement, and got one post in front of way more people than usual.
21,426 more people, to be exact.
Here’s how she did it.
The Challenge
Theresa is a content creator coach helping small creators find their voice and build an audience. She knew that building an email list was important, but actually getting her Instagram audience to click those links? That was another story.
“I was offering a lot of free resources and asking people to click the link in bio, but people still didn’t get it,” Theresa explains.
Even when they did go to her link in bio, they’d get lost in a sea of links. And when that didn’t work? She resorted to manually sending out links. Yikes.
“This took a lot of time. And because of that, I just wasted time,” she says.
She needed a fix. Fast.
The Goal
Theresa had two simple goals on Instagram: grow her email list and sell more of her digital products. She wanted a simple, hands-off way to:
- Get folks to actually see her resources
- Automate DMs giving out her freebie so she wasn’t glued to her phone
- Collect emails without a complicated funnel (or a whole new system. She was on a budget, after all.)
“I attended Manychat’s Instagram Summit and just saw how it worked, and then I just wanted to try it out because it was for free, so I had nothing to lose.”
So, she built her first automation. And that’s when things got interesting.
How it Worked
From “link in bio” to automated DMs in three easy steps.
Step 1: Make ‘em need your freebie
Instead of the usual “link in bio” approach, Theresa created an Instagram carousel post offering her content vision board freebie at the end with a simple call to action: “Comment VISION and I’ll send it to your DMs.”
“So I hook people in with valuable and fun content and then when they’re like, ‘dang, I get all this premium content for free,’ then I hit them with another freebie at the end,” Theresa explains. “Works really well!”
Step 2: Let Manychat handle the “hard part”
As soon as folks commented, Manychat instantly:
- Sent them a DM with a greeting (and a button to click)
- Asked for their email address
- Delivered the freebie directly in their DMs
And if they didn’t click? No problem.
“A feature I really like is the one where if they didn’t click the link [in the DM], you can send another message in a few hours, like ‘Hey, did you check it out? Do you have any questions?’ Because of that feature, people ended up clicking the link and getting my stuff,” Theresa shares.
Step 3: More comments, more clicks, more sales? Yes, please
One post. One automation. 200+ email sign-ups in a single day. 🤯
Not only that, but the engagement pushed her post to reach more than 20,000 people — far beyond her usual reach of 3,000 to 5,000.
The Results
- 255+ email sign-ups in one day. Read that again: One day!
- 21,426 accounts reached (way above her usual reach)
- 35,255 post views
- 409 comments (high five for higher engagement!)
- 90% of her sales now come through Instagram automation
- $22,322 in sales for her Canva carousel template digital download
Why This Works (and Why You Need it, Too)
That’s right: no gatekeeping here.
The old way
Post and hope that folks hit your link in bio. Manually DM ‘em, wasting hours, and convert only a fraction of people (if you’re lucky!).
The new way
Reply instantly to comments, grab the email addresses of more folks, give ‘em what they want, and encourage more sales — all inside Instagram.
Swipe This Strategy
- Post with purpose: Create an Instagram carousel post that gives valuable content and includes a freebie at the end.
- Drop the magic keyword: Make it fun. Make it catchy. Make it impossible to forget.
- Manychat slides into their DMs the second they comment: It sends a message, delivers the freebie, and most importantly, grabs their email address. (Use our free “Grow your email list” template to get started!)
- Follow-up automatically (so you don’t have to): People get distracted. They mean to check their DMs, and then…life happens. So, a few hours later, Manychat gives them a gentle nudge.
- Watch your email list (and sales) go way up: You get engagement that turns into actual revenue. So good, right?
If you’re still stuck manually sending links and begging for clicks, it’s time to automate with Manychat.
| Step 1: Sign up for Manychat (oh, did we mention it’s free?!) Join 1 million+ smart brands and sign up for a risk-free trial. No lock-in contracts here. | Step 2: Build your first automation (with a lil help)Choose from one of our ready-to-go templates and get it up and running faster than someone getting distracted before clicking your link. Oh look! A squirrel! | Step 3: Secure the bag! 💅No, really. Get more sales from Instagram every time you post. |
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