How to convert Instagram followers into subscribers

Discover how to turn social interactions into subscriber growth with Social Auto-Replies. You can set up Instagram campaigns that grow your email and text message lists directly from Instagram messages.

Popular campaigns with this strategy include Instagram giveaways, early access offers, and evergreen campaigns.

This is the first of many exciting new social features from our Gatsby acquisition, a social automation platform. This feature is currently in limited availability.

Step 1: Connect Instagram

Connect your Instagram with Klaviyo in order to set up Social Auto-Replies that grow your subscriber list.

1. In Klaviyo, open Social in the left-hand navigation. 

   • If you don't see "Social," request access to the beta here.

2. Click Connect to Instagram. 
   
   • If your Instagram was already connected, you'll automatically skip this screen and go straight to the Auto-Reply builder shown in Step 2.
     
3.  Once in the Instagram Settings page, click Connect to Instagram.
   
4. In the modal that appears, a best practice is toggle on all settings for the feature to work properly.  
   
5. Click Allow to continue. 

Once connected, you will see the connected Instagram account in the list within the settings page. 

Step 2: Create your auto-reply trigger

Set an Instagram keyword and series of Auto-Replies that prompt your followers to join your email or text messaging list right from their Instagram direct messages (DMs).

1. Navigate back to Social. 
2. Select Auto-Replies. 
3. As a default, the first auto-reply is "access," which is ideal for your Instagram bio and general marketing.
   • Keywords are not case sensitive. Users could send Access, access, ACCESS; all variations would work.
4. Choose to listen for the keyword in DMs, comments, or both. Comments with the keyword still trigger a DM auto-reply, not a comment reply.

5. Pick whether you want this auto-reply to request the customer's email or phone number.

Step 3: Collecting subscriber information

After setting the trigger, scroll down to review the message content.

1. Check the box for Collect email address and Collect phone number to enable those auto-replies.
2. Use arrows to order whether email or phone number is requested first.
3. If you see placeholders like [Company Name] and [Privacy Policy], update the text.
   • Instagram DMs do not support hyperlinked text, so please copy and paste the url to your privacy policy.
4. On formatting:
   • Email: Klaviyo verifies the format (e.g., name@domain.com).
   • Phone: Klaviyo checks that the phone number format matches the country you selected while setting up this auto-reply; phone numbers from other countries need a country code to receive auto-replies. Users can input phone numbers with dashes, periods, no spaces - it's pretty flexible but Klaviyo doesn't understand the message it will prompt the user to try again.
5. Customize the confirmation message.
   • The confirmation message is the last message they receive from this DM sequence, and it typically drives them to look at their emails, check their text messages, or visit a page on your website.

After submission, Klaviyo starts the opt-in process for that channel.

Step 4: Understand the opt-in flow 

Klaviyo’s existing list subscription rules apply to all new subscribers:

• Text messages
  If the list you chose uses double opt-in (DOI), the user must reply YES over text message to confirm subscription.

• Email
  If the list you chose uses double opt-in (DOI), the user must confirm via the link sent to their inbox.

Step 5: View the subscriber profile in Klaviyo

Once submitted, the subscriber's profile will automatically be created or updated in Klaviyo:

The profile will contain the following:

• Subscription Method: SOCIAL_INSTAGRAM_MESSAGE
• New events, including:
  • Started Automation
  • Submitted Email via Automation
  • Submitted Phone via Automation
  • Ended Automation
• New custom profile properties, including:

  • Instagram Username

  • Follower count

  • Whether they follow your account

  • The keyword(s) they used to trigger the auto-reply

These new properties and events allow you to build targeted segments and leverage Instagram engagement as part of your broader marketing strategy.

Test the feature

Test the flow by:

• Sending a DM with your configured keyword and follow the DM prompts
• Search for your new or updated subscriber profile in Klaviyo and confirm the new Instagram properties are there

• Monitoring subscriber growth from Instagram in your Lists & segments dashboard.

  • You can easily create a segment of subscribers who engaged with your campaign. Select the option to "Create Segment" from the menu to the left of each Auto-Reply.

Thanks for testing our new feature! We appreciate your patience with any bugs you may encounter. To share feedback, just click Share Feedback at the top of the Auto-Replies list view.

Additional resources

• Complement this strategy with collecting consent with Klaviyo forms in Instagram
• Learn more about the double opt-in process
• Learn more about Instagram giveaways, early access offers, and evergreen campaigns