You’re probably on this blog because you’re looking for a CRM that supports Instagram integration or because you want to integrate Instagram with your current CRM. This blog post will cover what an Instagram CRM is and what you need to know before getting an Instagram CRM integration. Then, we’ll explain why you need respond.io and how you can use the respond.io CRM Instagram for marketing, sales and support.

What is Instagram CRM?

Instagram CRM is the integration between an Instagram Direct Message API and a CRM. Businesses usually look for an Instagram CRM because they want to receive and respond to Instagram messages within their CRM.

While it is possible, not all CRMs support native Instagram integrations and most of them rely on third-party integrations. This is because CRMs were originally built with email as the main communication channel in mind instead of instant messaging.

Before getting an Instagram CRM integration, here are a few things you should know.

Getting an Instagram CRM: What You Need to Know

To get an Instagram integration to your CRM, you need to understand the Instagram Business account and the types of integrations CRMs support.

Instagram Business Accounts

Instagram only has one business account. With this account, businesses can chat with customers via Instagram Message Inbox, Facebook Business Suite and Instagram DM API.

The Instagram Message Inbox is sufficient for solopreneurs and micro-businesses and Facebook Business Suite for small to medium businesses receiving low to mid-volume messages daily.

Instagram DM API was designed for SMEs and enterprises that need to receive, reply to and keep track of high volumes of messages, automate conversations, monitor agent performance and more.

If you want to integrate Instagram with a CRM, you’ll need Instagram DM API. The integration only works with a business account, not with a personal or creator account.

Note that the Instagram DM API is just an API, so it does not have an interface. To use it, you need to connect your Instagram DM API to a CRM or business messaging inbox like respond.io.

Integrating Instagram with a CRM

How you choose to integrate your CRM with Instagram depends entirely on your business needs and your current CRM. Most CRMs provide Instagram integration either natively or through third-party integrations.

While some CRMs have native integration, they fail to use Instagram DM API to its full potential. They only provide basic functionalities to send and receive Instagram messages with limited chat features, like auto reply and quick reply.

These features might be sufficient for some businesses. However, with messaging being fast-paced in nature, businesses that receive high volumes of messages need advanced automation, like chat routing, auto-assignment and more.

This can only be acquired from a business messaging inbox built for messaging, not a CRM that provides Instagram integration as an afterthought.

Besides that, the native integration provided by CRMs limits the Instagram DM API integration to a single CRM. If a business has multiple CRMs and wants to integrate Instagram DM API with them, it will be unable to do so.

Fortunately, most CRMs, even those with native Instagram integration, allow third-party integrations. If you want to use Instagram DM API to its full potential and integrate multiple CRMs with it, you’ll need a central business messaging inbox built specifically for messaging like respond.io.

Respond.io is an omnichannel messaging inbox that allows you to use messaging apps like Instagram along with traditional channels like email and webchat.

It supports Instagram features like setting up automated FAQs, Instagram Story replies, rich media content and read receipt status. Plus, it integrates seamlessly with almost any type of CRM. Let’s look at how to integrate any CRM with respond.io to use Instagram.

Integrate your CRM with respond.io to use Instagram

Before integrating your CRM with Instagram on respond.io, you need to:

• Enable Allow Access to Messages in the Instagram account settings.
• Connect Instagram to Facebook Business Page.
• Connect your Instagram to respond.io.

After connecting your Instagram to respond.io, create a new Workflow. Then, add the HTTP Request Step in your Workflow to connect any CRM with Instagram on respond.io. By doing so, you can exchange information with your existing CRM while messaging customers on respond.io.

You can qualify sales leads, retrieve updated contact profiles or create deals and tickets on external CRMs without having to go back and forth between your CRM and the respond.io inbox to reply to Instagram messages.

Let's look at how you can use respond.io for Instagram for marketing, sales and support.

Using respond.io for Marketing, Sales & Support

Now that you have all the information you need, here’s how respond.io can benefit your marketing, sales and support.

CRM for Instagram Marketing: Direct Prospects to Your Instagram Profile and Inbox

Businesses are not allowed to initiate conversations with customers on Instagram. However, you can encourage inbound conversations with an Instagram chat link, profile link and QR code and click to Instagram Direct Ads.

Businesses can paste their Instagram profile QR code on their website or physical store and embed the chat link and profile link on a range of digital mediums.

Instead of directing prospects who click on your ads to fill up a contact form, direct them to your Instagram inbox while their interest in your product ads is still at its peak.

Similar to a contact form, you can use respond.io to collect basic customer information by sending a pre-chat survey. This will help you identify if this is a new or existing lead.

If they are an existing contact and have previously messaged you on another channel, you can merge their contact information to get a comprehensive view of their interactions with your business. Additionally, you can exchange and update their contact information on your CRM.

While setting up ads has its costs, businesses can encourage inbound conversations in a budget-friendly way. They can post promo deals on their Instagram Story and get prospects to reply to the story.

If you want to post the promotion on your feed, add a CTA in your caption and share the post on your Instagram Story to get followers to message you directly.

CRM for Instagram Sales: Shorten Sales Cycle

Integrating a sales CRM with respond.io enables you to seamlessly exchange data between both platforms. You can qualify leads on data activation platforms like Clearbit and create deals in a sales CRM like Salesforce or Hubspot in just one click.

This way, agents are saved from the trouble of switching back and forth between respond.io and other platforms to carry out sales-related tasks while conversing with a customer.

Automating a sales cycle allows businesses to eliminate manual sales tasks like lead qualifying and task assignments.

For instance, you can use respond.io Workflows to send qualifying questions when leads message you to determine the sales funnel a lead fall into and route qualified leads to the right sales team.

Managers are free to implement their auto assignment logic like distributing leads equally among the sales team or to a salesperson with the least amount of active conversations. They can also assign existing customers to their dedicated salesperson automatically.

CRM for Instagram Support: Improve Customer Support Quality

Respond.io’s Workflow automation saves agents’ time from performing repetitive tasks like answering FAQs, asking customers the same questions to get the context of their issue and more.

The automation will handle tasks like providing answers to FAQs, sending multiple-choice questions to help customers communicate what they want clearly and sending pre-chat surveys to route and assign customers accurately.

This way, only critical issues will be passed to agents, who can utilize their time and resources to provide quality support.

If an agent cannot solve an issue, they can collaborate on the respond.io platform for support escalation by adding a comment to describe the case or providing background information to another agent.

Agents can also create support tickets on external CRM platforms like Zendesk and Zoho while chatting with customers, with just a click of a button.

To measure the success and quality of a company’s customer support, businesses can send a customer satisfaction (CSAT) survey or track individual or team performance via the advanced reports and analytics feature.

That's how you can use respond.io to conduct marketing, sales and support. The best part is that you can carry out all your tasks anywhere with the respond.io mobile app. Sounds interesting? Sign up for our free trial and boost your customer relationships across messaging channels!

Further Reading

We hope this article was beneficial to you. Here are some articles to help you kickstart your Instagram marketing, sales and support journey with respond.io

• The Practical Guide to Click to Instagram Direct Ads
• A Guide to Customer Service for Instagram
• How to Sell on Instagram DM