Instagram Quick Replies are canned responses that you save to drafts within Instagram. You can then send these drafted messages to users asking similar questions instead of typing out each response one by one, making them a “quick reply.”
This feature is only available for business profiles on Instagram, as brands (and personal brands such as influencers) are typically the audience receiving loads of questions needing drafted responses.
You can find and create Quick Replies by following these few steps:
1) Click the three lines in the top right of your Instagram profile page.
2) Click settings at the bottom of the sidebar.
3) Under “Business Settings” click “Quick Replies.”
4) To add a new reply, click the + at the top right corner. Then, insert a shortcut and full message to draft, and click “Save” in the top right corner to add your quick reply to drafts.
5) To edit or delete a Quick Reply, slide the draft to the left and click either “Edit” or “Delete” to confirm.
There are two ways to insert a Quick Reply into an Instagram DM. The first way is to open a direct message and type the Quick Reply shortcut. You then click the blue speech bubble and it inputs the drafted text directly (see below).
This creates the message and you can edit it as needed or send it directly.
The second way to use Quick Replies is to open a direct message and click the grey speech bubble. This brings up a list of your saved Quick Replies, and you can choose the best one to input text directly into your message.
The clearest use for Quick Replies is that you no longer have to type out (or copy/paste) similar responses every time someone asks you a question! This saves a lot of time, as well as maintains consistency in your answers. For businesses or influencers with thousands to millions of followers, there may not have been any way to respond to everyone's inquiries. Now there is! Without the struggle of typing out easy answers or “thank you” messages, you can now reply to everyone with quick pre-written messages.
Even when using Quick Replies, you can personalize the messages before sending them if necessary. Adding someone's name or a nice greeting makes your message a little more personalized and can add to the friendly tone of your response.
It is pretty common for businesses (or influencers with a team of marketing assistants) to have multiple posting on one Instagram account. In order to avoid different answers and different personalities within text, Quick Replies help keep a consistent brand voice, as well as help maintain a similar tone of voice and brand presence.
This is important for your brand to be genuine. If your Instagram posts typically use a lot of emojis and casual language, your DM messages should likely sound the same. Or, if you never use exclamation points or emojis and your Instagram posts are very brand-driven and serious, make sure your Quick Reply messages have a similar tone. You want your messages to sound like one person wrote them all, and they aren't an auto-reply that sounds cold and impersonal.
The majority of your messages can likely be answered with an FAQ page - that's where Quick Replies come in! You can save different frequently asked questions in your Quick Replies, and select the best response to answer everyone's questions. With customer support questions, you will likely have to customize your response even after using a Quick Reply. Addressing the inquirer by name is a good start, followed by making sure your FAQ response directly answers every part of their question.
If your business or personal brand is having a product giveaway on Instagram, you can create a Quick Reply containing all of the information your followers need to know. Chances are you'll receive a lot of questions regarding when the giveaway is, how to enter, how people are selected, etc. Using Quick Replies is an easy way to automate sending all the info and answers to anyone who DMs you asking for more details.
Someone may ask a question about your giveaway that you hadn't thought of answering in your Quick Reply, so you can always go back and edit your response so everyone gets that new info as well!
Engaging with your followers is a great way to ensure they engage with your content too! It also helps grow your following if your fans/followers know how good you are about talking to them and answering their questions.
Replying to inquiries doesn't just mean answering questions, but also thanking your followers for their sweet messages! Many influencers get comments and admiring messages about their posts/brand/style, so having a Quick Reply draft thanking them for their message will go a long way to make your followers feel appreciated.
We've all been in the situation where you message someone and make an awful spelling or grammatical error (their vs. there vs. they're, anyone?) To avoid the awkward *asterisks correction, all you have to do is make sure your Quick reply drafts are error-free, and you know every DM you send will be crystal clear!
Instagram's new Quick Replies update seems to be a huge benefit for brands and influencers with business profiles. Quick Replies help answer more questions and comments faster, and with more ease, a tone of voice, and clarity. It also helps lessen errors, ambiguity, and inconsistency in direct messages to followers. Hopefully users with business profiles will now use Quick Replies to their advantage, to grow their following and increase engagement on their Instagram pages.
