10 Strategies for Driving Email & SMS Sign-Ups via Instagram

Instagram offers a visually engaging user experience, with over 1 billion active members, making it a massive platform to reach a wide audience.

It allows brands to showcase their products and services in an engaging and creative way, and can be a great tool for building brand awareness and recognition, as well as establishing a unique brand identity.

The platform offers features such as Stories, Reels, and live videos, allowing brands to engage with their audience and foster a sense of community.

For brands posting on Instagram with the intent of list building, a few tactics can make the difference between success and failure. Here are some ways to ensure your first-party data capture campaigns run efficiently.

1) Add a Call-to-Action in Your Instagram Bio

For e-commerce, having the website featured in the bio could make more sense, so people can get there quickly and shop.

One option would be creating a LinkTree page hosting multiple links. If people click that in the bio, they’d go to a simple landing page that could feature the brand’s website, newsletter sign-up, and more.

It’s cost-effective, affordable, and surprisingly popular with audiences worldwide, with a 12% year-over-year growth in subscriber opt-in rates in 2022.

This idea has recently gained popularity for various reasons, including being a quick method of connecting with your audience, a high engagement rate, and a higher open rate compared to email, 98% compared to 20%, respectively. And since 90% of people read a text message within the first three minutes of receiving it, it’s a highly effective way to communicate with your customers.

2) Create a Custom Landing Page for Instagram Followers

This can be a simplified design with no major bells and whistles. But, rather than directing them to your homepage, direct them to a page that allows them to get signed up quickly.

You can take it a step further and make it a page that only is discoverable via the link in the Instagram bio (or Instagram story, post, etc.).

3) Utilize Stories, IGTV, and More

This is especially effective if a brand has over 10K followers. However, stories, posts, and IGTV can be good newsletter reminders. Whether the posts focus on promos and sales, blog content, or anything else, each post can be a good stand-alone push for newsletter sign-ups.

Direct followers to the specific landing page mentioned above (if created).

4) Offer Incentives to Sign Up

Make the newsletter alluring by mentioning they’ll receive early promos, email-only sales, and all the brand-specific information they want.

However, some followers may need more. Offering a special product, discount, or something else for new subscribers via Instagram can help inspire them to sign up.

5) Give Followers a Sneak-Peek of the Newsletter

You don’t want to give too much away, just enough to pique their interest. This feels similar to incentivizing, but it’s still different in that we’re asking them to join you in this other realm where you can build a deeper relationship with them.

With this in mind, consider what you’re sending out via email. Not strictly promos and sales, but content they can engage with. Blogs, interactive emails, etc.

6) Add an Email Button to the Profile

The account would need to be a business profile for this to be an option. This could be a direct email address for Instagrammers to reach out. While it’s not immediately signing up for the newsletter, brands still have their email address.

7) Add a Lead Form Action Button to the Profile

This is a newer roll-out from Instagram. To add a lead form action button, open the Instagram app, tap the Edit Profile button, and scroll down to Action Buttons. You can only have one Action Button live at a time, for now, at least.

Select Add Lead Form from the list of action buttons, then choose the type of form. With a standard lead form, Instagram automatically adds a form that collects users’ email addresses, phone numbers, and other details.

8) Do a Sweepstakes that Requires Email Sign-Up

No matter what the actual giveaway is, make the requirement for participation by providing their name and email address. They’ll receive a confirmation email for entering and a warm-up email with a discount code to shop.

You can then determine what flow is best for them to be added to.

9) Include Sign Up Opportunities in Automated DM Responses

This is only a solid idea if your brand receives lots of DMs.

Open Meta Business Suite and go to your inbox to set up a welcome message.

Select Automations and create a new instant reply.

Write a short message prompting users to provide their email addresses. Keep it short and sweet so users can read and respond quickly.

10) Have Influencers Encourage Email Sign-Up

Find accessible and affordable influencers in the brand niche and create a collaborative opportunity for followers. The influencer will incentivize them to sign up for our newsletter. Offer the influencer a free product to try and review, something they can utilize in their content.

Summary

Being on Instagram can provide brands with a unique opportunity to reach a large audience, build their brand, engage with their audience, and advertise their products or services effectively.

Hopefully, you snatched a few nuggets from the above info. Contact us today if you want to learn more about first-party lead capture.