Instagram as the whole business

When the DM is the phone line, the enquiry form and the checkout

For a lot of small businesses Instagram is not a marketing channel, it is the entire operation. Everything arrives in one inbox, from people who will not wait.

What they actually ask

How much is it?
Are you taking bookings for December?
Do you deliver to Manchester?
Is this still available?
Hi, is anyone there?

What makes this different from any other business

One inbox holds sales, support and spam with no way to sort them

A serious enquiry, a question about an order, and somebody selling you followers all arrive in the same list looking identical. There is no routing, no status and no queue. An agent answering the known questions immediately means the messages left unread are the ones that actually need you.

Message requests hide the enquiries you most want

Instagram filters messages from accounts you do not follow into a separate requests tab, which is exactly where new customers land. Plenty of businesses discover a fortnight-old enquiry there. An agent connected to the account answers regardless of which tab a message lands in.

Posts keep selling after you have stopped stocking

A reel that did well keeps arriving in people's feeds for months, and generates enquiries about things you no longer sell or dates long gone. Those messages are not a nuisance, they are demand — and the useful reply is what you do have, not an apology.

Setting it up

1
Write out what you would say on a phone callPrices, availability, delivery, how to order. If you have said it fifty times, write it once.
2
Connect the Instagram accountThe agent answers in the DM thread, including in message requests.
3
Add the hosted page link to your bioFor anybody who wants more detail than a DM, without you building a site to give it to them.

What it does not do

Meta's messaging rules apply whoever you use, including limits on messaging someone outside a 24-hour window
It does not post, comment or reply to comments — it answers DMs
It cannot take payment inside the thread

Questions

Does it see messages in the requests tab?: Yes. Messages from accounts you do not follow are exactly the ones worth catching, and they are the ones businesses most often miss for weeks.
Does it reply to comments as well?: No, it answers direct messages. Comment automation is a different job and a different kind of tool.
Are there rules about messaging customers on Instagram?: Yes, and they are Meta's rather than ours. There are limits on messaging somebody outside a 24-hour window from their last message. Replying to an enquiry is always fine; sending unprompted marketing is not.

Where the rules come from

Instagram Messaging documentationMeta's reference for what a business account can and cannot do in DMs.

Other businesses like yours

Answer the DMs you are missing in the requests tab

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