Are you using Instagram to grow your business? Then you’ve come to the right place. Here, we will explain what the Instagram widget for website is, how to set it up and how Instagram web chat benefits businesses. Plus, we’ll also show you how to automate responses with respond.io.

Instagram Widget: An Introduction

Today, there are more than 2 billion active users and more than 200 million business accounts on Instagram. It’s no wonder businesses are leveraging Instagram to promote their brands, drive sales and provide support to customers.

To allow customers to communicate directly with you, businesses can add an Instagram widget (or Instagram web chat) to their websites. Customers who click on the widget will land on your Instagram profile, where they can slide into your Direct Messages (DM).

Businesses can respond via one of these three methods: Instagram App Inbox, Meta Business Suite Inbox and Instagram Direct Message API. The first two options are for micro to small businesses with low volumes of messages.

If you’re looking for a more advanced solution, opt for Instagram DM API and connect it to a messaging inbox like respond.io to manage all the incoming messages. For this article, we’ll be focusing solely on Instagram DM API.

Let’s move on to the next section where we’ll show you how to integrate Instagram widget with your website.

How to Set Up Instagram Widget for Website

The process for setting up an Instagram widget is simple and can be done quickly by following these steps.

To get started, navigate to Settings > Growth Widgets. Then, click Add Widget and choose Instagram Widget before clicking Create Widget.

After that, enter the website(s) where you want to add the chat widget and select the account you want to create a widget for.

You can add a pre-filled text or customize the widget’s appearance by clicking on the Advanced Settings buttons. Finally, click Generate Widget, copy the generated script and install it on your website.

If you want to connect with customers across multiple channels, an omnichannel widget can help. You can also opt to add a website chat widget to your website.

Now that you've successfully set up your Instagram widget, we’ll show you how businesses can leverage it to maximize its potential next.

How to Use Instagram Widget for Your Business

Here, we’ll share examples of how businesses can use the Instagram widget for sales and support.

Instagram Widget for Sales

Through the widget, customers can visit your profile, browse your shop, send inquiries and check out purchases without leaving the app. You can also enjoy messaging features like read receipts and generic templates to highlight your products to customers.

The Human Agent Tag – available to selected businesses (like respond.io) under Facebook’s Beta Program – extends messaging window to 7 days, giving salespeople additional time to reach out to prospects after the 24-hour messaging window.

Next, we’ll look at how businesses can use Instagram widgets to handle customer support.

Instagram Widget for Customer Service

One advantage of using Instagram widgets is its ability to help businesses provide real-time support.

For returning customers, support agents can identify them by their Instagram handles and access the conversation history in a messaging inbox like respond.io, thus providing agents with context to customize support for each of them.

Additionally, support agents can take advantage of the Human Agent Tag to follow up on complex inquiries at a later time. We’ll share details on how to automate responses with respond.io next.

Handle Instagram Conversations Easily with respond.io

In this section, we’ll go over the different ways to create Instagram-related chat automation on respond.io’s Workflows.

Instagram Web Chat: Automate Responses to FAQs

Imagine the number of people asking the same question in a day. Instead of replying to them one by one, you can automate responses to frequently asked questions (FAQ) on the Instagram widget.

Questions like “What are your operating hours” can be automatically answered without any human intervention. This will greatly reduce agents’ workload and allows them to focus on important matters.

Businesses can set up FAQs natively on the app, but Instagram only allows a maximum of four questions and responses. By contrast, you can set up to 10 FAQs and responses via the Multiple Choice Questions Step with respond.io’s Workflows.

Instagram Web Chat: Set Up Away Messages

As much as businesses want to be there 24/7 for their customers, it’s simply not possible. However, you can set up Away Messages to automatically respond to customers outside business hours and let them know when to expect a reply.

Respond.io’s Workflows also allows you to capture customer information by adding the Ask A Question Step. You can save the responses as Variables to customize your replies.

For instance, you can ask customers if they want to view the menu or leave a message for the support team. If they choose support, you can route them to the support team. Check out some examples of away messages on Instagram that you can use.

Instagram Web Chat: Route and Assign Customers Effortlessly

When customers start a new conversation, it’s important to identify which team within the company will be responsible for handling the conversation.

Chat routing reduces the conversation resolution time by identifying the customers’ inquiries and assigning them to the right team. A reduction in conversation resolution time will lead to higher customer satisfaction.

To further reduce response time, you can create a pre-chat survey to collect contact information. You can use the information to customize Workflows and implement auto assignment logic to connect customers to agents efficiently.

Whether you’re using it to market your product or provide customer support, integrating Instagram widgets into your website can benefit your business. Want to get started with Instagram widget? Connect your Instagram account to respond.io now.

Further Reading

Want to learn more about how to use Instagram to grow your business? Check out these articles:

• How to Use Auto Reply on Instagram
• A Guide to Using Instagram Business for Multiple Users
• How to Use Click to Instagram Direct Ads