Do you want to get more clients into your inbox while spending less time on social media? In today’s episode, I’m diving deep into a discussion on AI and ManyChat alongside Dayna Schaaf. Dayna offers an incredible training for photographers wanting to use Manychat to streamline their business.
The Shoot It Straight Podcast is brought to you by Sabrina Gebhardt, photographer and educator. Join us each week as we discuss what it’s like to be a female creative entrepreneur while balancing entrepreneurship and motherhood. If you’re trying to find balance in this exciting place you’re in, yet willing to talk about the hard stuff too, Shoot It Straight Podcast is here to share practical and tangible takeaways to help you shoot it straight.
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This episode is brought to you by Root to Rise, a mastermind and retreat for female photographers where personal development meets business growth. During the four-month experience, students have weekly calls focused on goals, boundaries, money, and marketing. The program also includes incredible guest teachers, a private Facebook community, and weekly Voxer hours with individualized guidance and mentorship. Sign up today to join the waitlist.
Review the Show Notes:
Get to know Dayna (2:26)
How your business benefits from using ManyChat (4:00)
What is ManyChat? (10:30)
ManyChat ideas for photographers (13:21)
The technical side of Manychat (20:39)
The main purpose for using a chatbot (31:17)
Tips for new ManyChat users (34:30)
Rapid-fire questions (36:17)
Connect with Dayna:
Free ManyChat Training for Photographers
Episode Links:
Review the Transcript:
Sabrina: On today’s episode of the shoot it straight podcast. I am talking with my friend Dana Schaaf and well, All I can tell you, my friend, is you’re kind of want to listen to this episode. You know how we’re always saying that we could spend less time on social media. And yet as solopreneurs, well, I mean, we need to be there, right?
It’s not just the days of sharing cute photos of our kids and what we did on our vacation, but we are running a business largely through social media. And what we’re talking about today is upping our marketing game. Upping our communication game, upping the way we serve our clients and our potential clients in social media using a I.
Yes, that means you’re going to be doing better while having your hands actually inside of social media. Less. Doesn’t that sound like such a win win situation? That’s where we’re going today. I promise you it is going to be a fantastic episode. So let’s get started. Welcome to the shoot it straight podcast.
I’m your host, Sabrina Gephardt. Here, I will share an honest take on what it’s like to be a female creative entrepreneur while balancing business, motherhood. And life myself, along with my guests will get vulnerable through honest conversations and relatable stories, because we’re willing to go there. If you’re trying to find balance in this exciting place you’re in yet, willing to talk about the hard stuff to the shoot it straight podcast is here to share practical and tangible takeaways to help you.
Shoot it straight.
Welcome back to the shoot it straight podcast. My friends today, I’m chatting with my friend Dana Shoff and she’s the marketing director and part of the team behind the, this can’t be that hard brand with my friend on me. That’s how I met her. We haven’t actually met in person. Yet we were just saying, um, before recording that maybe we’ll get to do that next month, fingers crossed.
I’m putting it into the universe that I’ll get to hug you in person because I think that’d be so exciting. Um, but we’ve had some texts exchange, some DM exchange, some email exchange. So, you know, like you’re more than an acquaintance, but I haven’t gotten to hug you yet. So, uh, but I’m so excited that she’s here today and we have a really.
Awesome topic that she’s nerding out over. I’m nerding out over. I have my notebook and a pen ready to go. But before we dive in, Dana, will you introduce yourself to the audience?
Dayna: Yeah. Hi, you guys. My name is Dana. Um, like Sabrina said, I work with Anami over at This Can’t Be That Hard. Thanks And I am the marketing director over there.
So I handle all of our, you know, our internal marketing. And then I also co host a podcast with Annamie monthly called the consistency club, which is all about marketing help for photographers.
Sabrina: Yeah, it’s such an awesome resource. I mean, All of the resources you guys have over there are pretty awesome. I feel like, uh, you know, as soon as I said, this can’t be that hard.
Everybody’s probably like, Oh yeah, we know that. Uh, and, and if you don’t already, you should, uh, I’ll, I’ll have links and everything in the show notes. Obviously today we’re talking about something that I personally have dabbled in just a tiny, tiny little bit. I do use it. I do know of it. I do have things actively running in it, but I have not gone down the rabbit hole of all of the awesomeness.
I have heard some things and I Dana, it’s one of those things where like, I don’t have time. I don’t have time to like go through and do all the things, but you’re going to help us with that today. And I’m super excited. We are talking about using AI to help grow business, streamline workflow and get more inquiries.
And all of this magic All of this magic that everybody’s like, wait a minute, what is available to us through an app called ManyChat? So Dana, we’re going to start at the very beginning for the photographer listening who immediately heard the word AI and was like, no, rolled their eyes. They’re like, nope, I’m out.
Hard pass. Why is this something that we shouldn’t ignore and how can we benefit if we just add it to our business workflow?
Dayna: Yeah, totally. And like stick with us if you guys are anti AI because I think this is, you know, as a fellow creative, like I totally get it. I have mixed feelings about AI, but I think this is one of those tools that is more good than bad and can really help us because, you know, as solopreneurs, like we have to wear every hat in the business.
So, I think. Any time that you can streamline and automate any part of your workflow, it’s just taking stuff off your plate, right? So that you can spend your time doing the thing that you should be making the most money for, which is your art, right? So like getting rid of, um, as you know, just as much of that sort of admin almost off your plate as you can.
And that’s what many chat can do for you. So let me back it all the way up and say. Many chat is a it’s a chat bot. It’s a D. It chats with people for you in your instagram DMS and originally it was like its own company. And, you know, there might be people out there that are like, no, no, I’m not going to use that because I heard, you know, so and so got their account shut down using many chat.
That was the fact maybe a few years ago, but Instagram actually acquired ManyChat now, so it is integrated seamlessly with them and there’s no like penalties or any weirdness for using it now. So yeah, so I think that what ManyChat can do for you is really help you up level your customer experience because our generation is increasingly wanting to be able to gather data.
Without the pressure of having to talk to a person, right? Like, we don’t, we don’t want to call customer service. I do not want to talk on the phone ever. Yeah, like we don’t, I’m like, can I just Google the answer? Like, that’s what we want to know. So like, you know, I don’t know, back in the day when we used to go to the mall, like, remember you would like walk in a store and like somebody would be like, hi, what are you shopping for today?
And you’re like, uh, like I’m just browsing, right? Like that’s, that feels. Really aggressive. And so you’re able to use these dm automations to sort of meet your customers where they’re at. So You’re able to give them the information like they’re browsing around the store and instead of you being like, what are you looking for today?
It’s like they’re looking, you know, at a shirt and you’re like, Oh, you like the shirt, huh? Comes in a couple different colors. Like that actually is a helpful experience. And, you know, to push back against that, like, Oh, I don’t want to use, you know, AI and bots. We are actually conditioned at this point to understand that we are talking to an automated system.
And actually that kind of. Brings our defenses down. We’re like, Oh, there’s no pressure right now. There’s not another person on the other end. I’m just going to be able to get the information I need immediately without feeling pressured into like. you know, Oh my gosh, is this photographer going to be like, do I need a book right this second?
You know, so they can just sort of peek behind the curtain of your business and see what it’s all about. Kind of let them self qualify themselves as your ideal clients. And it also helps them at the same time to build a sense of trust with your brand. They’re interacting with it without feeling that pressure.
You
Sabrina: know what I mean? Yeah, exactly. I totally know what you mean. About like back when many chat was seen as like a negative thing. Yeah. I remember, I remember getting DM responses in that format and being like, Whoa, what is this? What is this crazy, weird stuff? And it totally threw me off. And now it’s like, I don’t even, you don’t even bat an eye at it.
Like you’re so used to it. And it’s the same kind of software that is when you are online shopping and things pop up and show you like this come, this goes with these shorts or this comes in other colors or this hurry. There’s only one left. It’s the same stuff. And you’re right. We’re so conditioned to that.
Now we like expect it. We don’t even bat an eye at it. It’s not seen as negative or gross or weird. And. If anything, like you said, it is serving your clients and it’s also showing that you are like super professional. I think using stuff like this is the difference between having like, um, a really wonky kind of not great website that you built yourself on like Weebly versus having like a beautiful custom website with all these things.
You know what I mean? It’s the difference, you know, what it feels like to land on a website that is clunky and weird and you immediately go, this is not legitimate X out. Right. Versus when you land on one that you’re like, Oh, I want to look around. This is amazing. It builds your trust with the person it’s serving them because you’re like, Hey, I’m super legitimate.
I have ways to give you information. I’ve put systems in place. I love that. Yeah. And also,
Dayna: I just want to say like, on top of all of that, put yourself in your client’s shoes. Okay. They’re like, scrolling on Instagram, they, maybe they come across one of your posts, or maybe they’re specifically looking for a photographer or whatever.
And in that moment, let’s say that they actually send you a DM and go like, Hey, what are your prices? Or like, you know, what’s your availability or whatever. The ability for them to, in that very moment, get the information that they are looking for is invaluable because like, Two minutes later, their kid is going to interrupt them, and they’re going to forget, like, if they didn’t DM you, like, right in that moment, like, they’re going to forget that they found your photography, you know, if they didn’t follow you or whatever.
So it’s just a way for them to, in that exact moment, get the information that they’re looking for, again, in a low pressure situation. So yeah, it does make you seem really professional. It up levels your customer experience, and it’s going to get you more inquiries because you’re giving people what they want in the moment that they’re asking for it.
Sabrina: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Exactly. You’re so right about the interruptions. I mean, how often are we finding people at a stoplight in a car? I mean, in a car line at a checkout lane, whatever. And I mean, we have a quick second to get the information we’re looking for, or we’re distracted and it’s totally gone. Um, I love that.
And you can never find them again, right? Exactly. There is, there is nothing more elusive than
Dayna: that Instagram post that you’re like, Oh, I was looking for that person. You’re like, I can never find them again. Never again,
Sabrina: never again. Absolutely not. Okay. Hopefully we have converted all the people that were like hard pass on the AI.
Okay. Now they’re like, they’re intrigued. They’re interested. They want to know more. Can you explain like what exactly this app is and what it’s doing to someone who’s never used it, never heard of it? What, what is ManyChat? Yeah,
Dayna: okay, so basically you’re going to integrate it with your Instagram. And you can set it up to do a couple of different things.
And I’ll give you some specific suggestions for what I think photographers should use it for. But in general, you can program it to respond to a certain trigger word. So if someone says a specific word, it will respond and start a conversation with them. And then you could also program it to answer like frequently asked questions.
Um, you can also program it to, um, kind of be like an answering machine. And I think that was sort of the original use for it that we all felt a little icky about. It would be like you would send somebody a DM and it would be like, Hey, thanks for reaching out. I can’t get to my DMs right now. But like, if you’re looking to book, here’s the link.
Okay, so that was like the very first iteration of it. And now you can really, um, Personalize it so much that it becomes like an actual conversation and you, you know, you can use like, if then logic, so it can be like, are you looking for this or this? And people can, it’s like those choose your own adventure books that you used to read as a kid.
So they’re like, Oh, I’m actually looking for this thing over here. And then it will ask them more questions about that. You know, Oh, you’re looking, are you looking for newborn? Are you looking for family? You know, Oh, I’m looking for family photography. Okay. Okay. you know, what kind of family photography and you can kind of like ask them a bunch of questions to get them down.
And once you as a consumer have been asked a bunch of questions about your preferences without, without even knowing it, you’ve already bought in. So like from a marketing perspective, you’ve kind of got them on the hook at this point. So now, you know, you can offer them, you know, would you like me to email you, you know, my dress guide or my this thing?
And they’re like, yes, because they know that you are what they’re looking for. You can give them
Sabrina: what they want. Right. Yeah. I love it. I will say to anybody who’s listening, who’s like, okay, that sounds great. But you said the word integrate and I’m not good with tech. I will say, um, many chat is great because it is.
It is pretty user friendly. They have a lot of things already built for you that they’re like, here, take this shell, this example and fill in your own stuff. So you’re not like building, it’s not like building a website from scratch. That’s pretty user friendly. And you can get in there and say, okay, what do I want to do?
And it’s got examples for you and videos and all kinds of stuff. And the integrating quote unquote with Instagram really is like. You turn on your Instagram and the account and it starts working. I mean, it’s very easy, very simple, very easy. And they have, um, a great test mode that you turn on where you can actually like test it in real time to make sure that it’s working before you tell people about it.
Cause we all know how that goes. Um, it’s really great. It software. So you have sev specifically for photogra this app. Let’s jump stra the first way.
Dayna: Okay, so I way that you can use this. You can use a setting called conversation starters. And what this is, is when someone comes to DM you. So like, okay, they’ve seen one of your reels on Instagram.
They’re like, interesting. They hit like send a message or whatever. So they’ve got a blank screen in front of them with the little box at the bottom and they’re about to start typing. And before they type like four options can come up on however many you want. So it’s like things that people ask you frequently.
So it might be like, I would, this is how I would write it. And again, you can do it in however you speak. So like, if I was a photographer, which I’m not, but if I was, this is how I would speak. I’d be like, stock my portfolio, get my pricing info, or get my dress guide, or you know, top Arizona locations guide, or whatever.
And so let’s say that somebody had a different question, like, oh I wonder if she’s available, but then they see like, oh stock my portfolio, and then they click on that, and all of a sudden they’re like at your website, like down, you know, down the rabbit hole of like, looking at all of your stuff. So, You know, or, you know, you say, get my pricing information.
And so you can write like, this is a little automation that I wrote for somebody else. So it’s like, somebody’s like pricing guide and you’re like, Hey Dana, thanks for inquiring about working with me. You’re looking for information on pricing, right? And they can say, yes. And then you can say, great. I have a pricing guide.
I can email to you. What’s your best email address. And then they can write back with their email address. And then you say, perfect. I’ll send that right over. Or you can say, you know, is it better if I email you or text you? And then they can opt. I would rather be texted. I would rather be emailed. And then you can say, you know, this is where the, this is where my marketing expertise comes in as I would say, Oh, one more question before, before you go, help me help you, are you ready to book a session or are you just browsing right now?
And then you can give them two options, ready to book or just browsing. And when you pop up options for people and they don’t have to actually like type in. They’re so much more likely to just tap one of those buttons and respond. And if they go, yeah, I am like looking to book right now, you can say, great.
What days work best? And then they can say, you know, weekends work best for me, or actually like afternoon weekdays work best for me. And you can say, perfect. I’ll check my calendar and reach back out. What’s the best way to reach you. And then they can leave their email address and then you can end any of these automations at any point and leave it open ended, and then that way you can go into your DMS and you just see this whole conversation that has been had.
with a client on your behalf while you were grocery shopping or at a different session. And now you’ve got somebody who’s like, I, afternoons work great for me. This is my email. And you can immediately reach out to them and say, Hey, it was great to connect with you on Instagram. Like, here’s this, here’s that.
And, and pick it up right from that point. So it’s kind of like a silent assistant, like doing this work for you in your DMS while you’re going about your day. You know, which is
Sabrina: so awesome. I mean, I hope, I hope the listeners are hearing this thinking, Oh my gosh, because in my coaching programs and stuff, one of the biggest things I hear is that how do I get people out of my DMS and into my inbox?
Because it’s hard to manage a business in your DMS, right? We get things get lost and we forget and whatever. How fabulous if all of this is happening without you even having to participate, ultimately pushing people to your inbox, right?
Dayna: Yes. So let’s take it one step further with a different example.
Okay, so that’s just like somebody who’s interacting with you that has questions. Maybe you have a lead magnet that you share with people. Like, again, I keep saying like a dress guide. Let’s just go with that. So let’s say that you have like this dress guide. You can actually create a little chat automation that’s like, you know, maybe somebody comments or likes a post and you can say, hey, if you liked this dress, do you want to grab my like, Best dresses for, you know, moms this spring guide or whatever, and they’ll be like, yes, I mean, if it was me, I would be like, heck, yes, that is great.
I never know what to wear in photos. Right? And then from there, you can actually, they’ll click yes, and it can send them to a form that you have created on your website, and that will capture their information. They’ll just put in their name, their email, it’ll capture their information, send them the PDF, and now they’re on your email list.
Right. Which is amazing because to your point, you don’t own people when they are on Instagram, but when you pull them over into your email marketing, that is contact information that you own. And it’s more than just that it’s, you have more control over when people see your emails that you send out. Even if they’re not opening them, just getting an email in someone’s inbox is like, I always use this analogy of like marketing is like driving down a highway.
And, you know, if you’ve ever noticed when you drive down the highway or a freeway, depending on what part of the country you live in, you’ll see, like, the same billboard five times in a row. Do you ever notice that? That is so intentional, because we need to see the same thing, like, over and over, and you might not notice.
You know, I think the most egregious ones of these are like the law billboards where it’s like, have you been in an accident? Right? So it’s like, everybody knows who their personal injury lawyer is in their town because they’ve got billboards everywhere. But the point is, is, you know, that person’s name, because you’ve seen it a million times.
When you’re able to send an email to somebody, it’s like a billboard in their inbox, whether or not they open your email, They’re still seeing it. Now if you post on social media, are they going to see it? I don’t know. Maybe, maybe not. Depends on how the algorithm’s feeling that day. Like you just have way less control over if you’re able to interact with people.
So being able to set something up like this that will pull people out of the DMs and over into your email is so huge for your business. Yeah, I think so too. Today’s episode
Sabrina: is brought to you by Root2Rise. Bye. A four month mastermind and retreat for female photographers. That is where personal development meets business growth.
During the four month experience, students have weekly calls focusing on a variety of topics that both better their lives and their businesses. Think topics like goals, boundaries, money, and marketing, and many, many others. The program also includes incredible guest teachers. a private Facebook community and weekly Voxer hours where you get individualized guidance and mentoring from me on topics that matter to you and your business.
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reached massive goals and changed the trajectory of their businesses. If you want to get on the waitlist to be notified when enrollment opens again soon, you can head over to the link in the show notes and get on that list. And now back to the episode.
Okay. So be honest. How complicated is it to set up a waitlist? with that many like question answers. Yes is a nose. I mean, I can, I can see the chart. I can see the flow chart of that right. And all of the different things. Um, is it fairly simple or is it, I mean, is there like a lot of room for error?
Where’s the beginner scale?
Dayna: I think there’s a learning curve, but I will say it’s very visual. So I think for visual people like us, It’s that’s nice. So it’s not like you’re not, you’re not putting in code or even like putting it in like a, you know, an Excel document. It’s really a visual flow chart and you’re able to like click and drag things around.
And so from that perspective, like, yes, that part is pretty easy. I do like any technology. There’s absolutely a learning curve here. And so as I was starting to set this up for, this can’t be that hard. And I was like, wow, photographers could really, really like up level their business with this. Then I realized that there was a, an option for me to create templates that, you know, people can copy and paste and just like you were saying, go in and just sort of change The, the wording and so I just created this like training where you guys can watch me go through many track set up some different options that you know, I did like a conversation starter that we talked through this thing with the lead magnets.
I also walk you through how to encourage people to book a session like. It’s spring right now. If you’ve got like, I call them pretty seasons, like if it’s like a pretty season right now, but you kind of have to wait for like the super bloom to happen or the cherry blossoms to go or whatever it is, you can start to create like a wait list on, you know, put your post out and be like, if you want to be notified.
When the cherry blossoms pop off, like comment, cherry blossoms, and I’ll put you on my wait list. And then you can, you know, have a little conversation with them in many chat, pull them over to your email list because they’ve asked to be contacted. And then whether or not they actually booked that cherry blossom session with you now they’re on your email list.
So I kind of walk you guys through those. I think those are the three best ways that photographers can use that. And so to answer your question, like. Yes, I think there is a learning curve. However, I think watching someone else do it and then being able to just take the framework and put in your own wording so that it sounds like you, I think that’s the key to making it not feel clunky, is to just you know, update the language so that it speaks how you speak.
Sabrina: Yeah, totally. It needs to match the way you talk on social media. It needs to match the copy on your website. If you say y’all, you need to use the word y’all. If you say, you know, whatever, like it needs to fit. You don’t want it to sound like a robot, even though it is a robot. Like, yep, we’re all too good for that.
Dayna: Okay. So again, I think like, Yeah, to your point, though, it’s like one of those things where like your website, you, you put a lot of energy into it and you set it up and then it works for you in the background, right? So it’s like a, a one in done energy as opposed to being in your DMS all day, every day. I mean, people grossly underestimate the amount of time they spend on social media.
And I would say that is like exponentially more true for business owners on social media. Yeah. It’s like, we’re like. Oh, I spend like an hour a day and we probably spend like four or five hours a day answering DMs and doing whatever. So get that time back.
Sabrina: Yeah. Yeah. I love that. So I’m curious about some things.
How can you like, can you have a zillion of these running at the same time or is there like a limit? Like is Instagram say, well, you got too many automation set up. Like how, how does that work?
Dayna: Yeah. So, okay. First of all, I feel like. Yeah. There’s a couple different tiers of many chat. It’s there’s like a free account, which I think for like 90 percent of photographers is going to be fine.
So like, you don’t even have to pay for this guys. Their next tier is like 15 bucks a month. Um, and that’s really just going to be dependent on how many it’s, there’s not a limitation on how many automations you can have running. It’s more a limitation on how many contacts you can be in touch with. So.
Again, it’s just going to depend how, how many, how successful are you at this? If you’re getting to the point where you’re chatting with that many people, it’s probably worth the 15 bucks a month. The other thing that we didn’t mention at the top is you can set these automations to be for every post on your Instagram.
So let’s say, you know, that anytime somebody comments pricing guide. it will trigger the automation that asks them if they want to get a copy of your pricing guide. That might be on any post on Instagram, but if you’re doing a cherry blossom wait list, that might only be linked to one or two posts, uh, you know, specifically.
So you can really get granular with it and actually just attach an automation. Like once you build one automation, you can copy it and be like, okay. I was doing a wait list for cherry blossoms. Now I’m doing a wait list for like summer splash sessions, or now I’m doing, you know, senior portraits wait list.
Now I’m doing family photos for Christmas or whatever. Once you kind of do it one time, you can copy it and then just attach it to very specific posts. So I would suggest that you have a handful of these running, but not like a gajillion, right? And I also I will say this, I suggest that you use a trigger word that is an otherwise nonsense word.
So, you’re not going to say cherry space blossoms, you’re going to say cherry blossoms, all one word. Because no one’s going to write that unless they are meaning. To trigger your automation and then again, it’s that buy in they know they’ve triggered an automation, right? So they’re not offended When they get a dm from you that they realize is an automation.
Yeah.
Sabrina: Yeah, that is such an important reminder is A weird word. I actually have started doing like initials for things and putting in a number Like if i’m having them ask for details on my roundtable membership It might be trt 24 right for the roundtable 20 because I don’t want it to be something that they accidentally say Which if you’re asking for motherhood or summer or seniors, like those are words people use.
Yes. So,
Dayna: and then all of a sudden, then that is weird because then it triggers and they’re like, Hey, you wanted to know about my senior session. And you’re like, uh, no, I was saying my grandmother is a senior. Yeah,
Sabrina: exactly. Exactly. Exactly. So you do have to get kind of crafty with what your triggers are going to be.
But also I’ll say when errors happen, it’s weird, but like, Tech errors happen to everybody. We’ve all gotten the emails. We’ve all gotten the DMs. Like it’s also not the end of the world. Like you just go, Oh, oops. I didn’t set that up wrong. LOL. And then you go fix it. And it’s no big deal. I always like to say my pet robot is misbehaving.
Sorry about that. Yeah. It’s, it’s literally not a big deal. So I’m curious, you mentioned the conversation starters and how, if somebody goes to send you a DM, it’s the questions are up there. Can you have that running with these other things that are pulling them into DMs? So there’s multiple things that can be happening in the same place at the same time.
Yeah.
Dayna: Okay. So conversation starters, again, I, there’s, so there’s two things in there. Um, in their basic automations, one is called conversation starters. And the other one is called like a, an automated response. I recommend a conversation starter over an automated response, because again, an automated response is like an answering machine.
It’s like, hi, sorry, I can’t get to my DMS right now. Okay. That does feel just a little like basic. And so I think the conversation starters, they just pop up on the screen again. It’s a little hard to describe this, but visually when you see it, it will totally make sense, just options they can pick. They can choose not to, and just D and just send you like a totally different message, they can ignore those.
So yeah, conversation starters are kind of like a pop up on your website. That would be like a good way to describe it. And then these other automations. You can, um, the, the different ways you can do it are if someone comments on a post, if someone DMs you with a specific word, like again, it could be comments, any comment on this post will trigger, or they have to comment cherry blossoms, or they DM you the word cherry blossoms.
Or they reply to a story. So there’s a bunch of different ways that you can, I mean, really, once you go down the rabbit hole, like the possibilities are endless and you can kind of decide what works best for you. Like how do people like to interact with you? Are you really good at posting stories every single day?
Do you get people replying to your stories and being like, Ooh, so pretty or whatever, then that might be a great way for you to do it. Versus if you have more people commenting on your posts and reels, maybe that’s a better way to do it.
Sabrina: All of this is so fascinating. I’m curious. One thing that I have found is, is there a way to set like an expiration date on these?
Or do you just have to go in and manually turn them off? Like when you’re done with that thing?
Dayna: That’s a great question. I don’t know the answer to that. I think you just have to go in and like switch it off, but it’s really easy. It’s like just a little button. Yeah. That’s a great question, Sabrina. Yeah.
Well, cause I have,
Sabrina: I’m so good about not, not good about it, but I’m. I will set them up, but then I set them and forget them and then I go into many chat and I’m like, Oh, that’s from last year. I should toggle that one off, you know, um, which nobody has said those words, but still in theory of somebody found a post and something old went viral.
And then, you know, that could open up a can of worms. So, yeah. Yeah, I’m curious if they have that setting. I
Dayna: bet if they don’t, they will soon.
Sabrina: Yeah, because I feel like that’d be so awesome to have an expiration set on it so that it just automatically turned itself off. Yeah, that would be super cool. I mean, let me
Dayna: just say the integrations they already have are so cool.
You can send photos, you can send a video to them. Like, there’s just so many different things that you can do. They’re starting to, um, roll out like predictive response. So like if maybe your trigger word is pricing, but somebody DMs you and goes, Hey, I was curious about your prices. Predictive AI could be like, I think they’re asking about pricing and this.
Automation is about this and they’ll say, are you curious about pricing? And then they can pull them over. So like, that’s just in beta right now, but like, you know, it’s, it’s getting really smart back there.
Sabrina: Yeah. That’s really cool. I’m like, okay, I need to spend a couple of days and really up my mini chat game because right now it’s very basic, which is super helpful in the basic mode.
But. Yeah. Yeah. And I’m thinking for me personally, as somebody who has two very different parts of her business, right? Like under one Instagram handle, I’ve got photography, but I’ve also got education. And within both of those multiple offers, how amazing would it be to just right off the bat? Like, what are you here for?
Photos or education? You know? And like, so cool. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I love it. That’s amazing. So, okay. We talked about using the conversation starters, um, helping people kind of pick their own path. Um, we’ve talked about how we can use many chat for lead magnets and wait lists for those, what you call those pretty season sessions.
Anything else that you’re loving in there right
Dayna: now? I feel like those are my top three. I mean, I, I think that the main purpose of using a chat bot like this, like you said, is to pull people over to your email and then like. Please have an amazing, you know, like be emailing your list regularly so that you’re like keeping in touch with them.
Nothing’s worse than like doing all of this work to pull somebody out of your DMS and then like, it’s just crickets in your email list. But I think those, like, I don’t want to overwhelm everybody. I’ll just say from an organizational perspective, like again, to talk about what you were saying, just maybe keep a list somewhere like on your notes or whatever, where you have all your trigger words, like, you know, You know, like you said, the TM, whatever your TNT equals, TRT equals and you just say, you know, asking people about, you know, this membership or this cherry blossoms equals getting people on a wait list so that you can remember as you’re making your social media posts, what is inappropriate.
Trigger to put in there. Yeah, you all have probably seen these like if you look around people will say comment Whatever or you know, I think it’s really popular right now for like, um fashion influencers to say like comment and 61 and then you know It sends you like all the links for what they wear and then I
Sabrina: Yes, I do that on a daily basis.
There are certain accounts that are like, Target hauls, and Amazon hauls, and whatever, and I’m like, send me that link, and they’re like, what’s up, and it’s fabulous. It is
Dayna: absolutely fabulous. It is, and it’s also terrible, but, you know, it’s like, when you make it, you can see as a consumer, if you haven’t done that yet, go try it on like some influencer’s account, so that you can experience it for yourself, and you can see the psychology of how, When it’s just that easy for you to say yes behind the scenes and you know that you’re not, like, talking to an actual person, you feel a little anonymous, how much more comfortable you are and willing to, you know, hop on that email list, give them whatever, get texted, you know, a little guide, like, it really is, the psychology works.
It really works.
Sabrina: Yeah, and it’s, you know, We like things so fast and we’re so impatient and going back to what we were saying. I can be at a stoplight and I will DM one of those influencers, whatever, and 25 and I immediately am like, that’s the shirt I was looking at. Add to cart, Amazon checkout. And it’s all just so seamless.
And I’m done before the light turns green,
Dayna: you know, or, Or let’s say you comment to them, the light turns green, you forget about it, then you’re in bed hours later and you’re like, Oh yeah, I forgot I wanted to buy that shirt. Yes. And now it’s actually in your DMs. So you remember, otherwise there’s no way you would remember to go back and comment on that again.
Yes.
Sabrina: And it’s the amazing power of the unread message as a reminder, you know, when you go to check your Instagram and you’re like, Oh yeah, I have this DM in here. Look at that. Not that
Dayna: either of us is texting in the car.
Sabrina: No, no, never, never do that. I would never do that. Um, okay. This is so amazing. I, uh, these ideas definitely have my wheels turning.
I’m sure our listeners as well. Um, I can already imagine that they’re like super motivated. They’re going to hop online. They’re going to immediately check out the app. And maybe get overwhelmed by learning something new. Okay. Any tips for a beginner? I know you did say there’s a training and we’re going to have the link for that.
Do you think that’s the best place to just watch somebody else do it? I
Dayna: do. I mean, I feel like again, as a visual learner, which I’m sure everybody is, and it doesn’t have to be the training I need. Many chat has a ton of tutorial videos. And so I think if you just go in with the mindset of like, okay, I’m going to spend I think if you give yourself an hour, you will know it enough to set up your basic automations.
And then from there you can decide, you know, how much. Further, you want to fall down the rabbit hole again. I think just equate it to like learning your gallery software for the first time or learning your CRM and you know, it does at first you were like, Oh, this is so overwhelming. Now you don’t even think about it.
You’re like compose message, do this tag, like all the things, right? Exactly. So, yeah, I think just give yourself time to get to know it. Make sure that you preview. Do that. It’ll show you. There’s like a thing where you can say, um, preview and it brings up like a phone screen and it’ll show you exactly what it looks like.
And you get to interact as yourself,
Sabrina: you know,
Dayna: and click and do whatever. And if you happen to have two Instagram accounts, like if you have a personal one and a business one, then I would suggest doing that. set it live, test it yourself, and just make sure that everything is like going off the way you want it to.
Or ask your, like, ask your bestie
Sabrina: to do it for you. Hey, can you DM me the word, whatever, and do, I mean, Koli and I have done that many a times, like test each other’s mini chats just to make sure that they’re working. Yes. Yes. I think those would be my, my top tips for just getting started. Yeah. Okay.
Awesome. This has been so fun. I can’t wait to hear the response from this. Dana, I end every episode asking some fun, kind of rapid fire questions that have nothing to do with what we talked about. Because everybody wants to get to know you better. So, um, what is your current favorite coffee shop order?
Dayna: Ooh. Um, ooh, I know this one. Okay. I am really into a dirty chai right now, but with a, with a blonde espresso shot, I didn’t even know if that was a thing. And like the barista was like, try this. And I was like, wow, that’s really good.
Sabrina: Yeah. I love a dirty chai. A little less. It’s like one pump less of the chai because it can be a little too much, but adding the espresso to it, Ooh, it’s like chef’s kiss.
It is so good. So good. Um, okay. Dream vacation. Money is no object. Vacation time is no object. Where are you going? Okay.
Dayna: Right now, I feel like Japan is at the top of my list. I’m watching that, that show Shogun, and it’s like so good. I just think Japan is so beautiful, and it’s like, it’s just been at the top of my list.
And I feel like also, if you could go there with an unlimited budget, what you could That would be
Sabrina: amazing. I know. I, I have wanted to go to Tokyo so bad. I have been to China. I’ve done all that. I love that part of the world, but I want to go to Tokyo so bad. So okay. That’s awesome. Okay. We’ll go together.
Okay. Sounds good. Sold. Um, okay. Thinking back over the course of your career, what was a decision or an investment that you think was the biggest game changer?
Dayna: I mean, I don’t know if I could pick like one thing specifically, but I think. I am such a fan of online education for the same reason that we’re talking about right now.
I like to be able to do things at my own pace. I just think that being able to watch someone else do something and so, you know, being able to say like, oh, here’s this little, whether it’s a paid course or free training, just not being afraid to say, I’m going to go learn how to use this piece of technology.
I mean, it’s like when I was like, I, I really want to learn how to use many chat. Yeah. And immediately I think when you, when you feel really empowered about how to use a piece of technology or software, then you can get really creative. Like once you have the basis, then you can get creative about how to use it, right?
Like, so I think just switching out of my creative brain for a second to be like, let me learn this really, really well. And then I can get creative about all the ways that I can implement this into my business. Yeah. And I mean, just think
Sabrina: like, I don’t know, 20 years ago, the only way you could learn stuff was like going to the community college and taking a class.
I mean, yeah, I mean, it’s a blessing and a curse, the internet, the internet, but the amount of stuff that we can say, I want to learn to do X, Y, Z, and it could literally be anything from cooking to raising puppies to, I mean, like whatever. And you can learn anything online.
Dayna: It is so easy. Yeah. It’s so amazing.
Yeah. I actually set aside 30 minutes at the top of my day. Like as soon as I sit down, I spend 30 minutes learning something. So like I just watch, there’s so much free education out there and you know, maybe you don’t have 30 minutes, maybe you only have 10, but I think if you just commit to always, always be learning, like the amount of knowledge you can call is like unbelievable.
Sabrina: Yeah, totally. I agree. It’s, it’s awesome. Um, okay. If you were not in marketing, what do you think you’d be doing? Thank you. Okay, so
Dayna: this is a, this is a fun question. I actually, um, used to be, still am, an actor. So I, um, you know, like, for the first, like, 15 years of my life, I lived in L. A. and I was on, like, a bunch of TV shows and movies.
No, you wouldn’t recognize me. I’m, like, that small role. Like, I’m, like, the girl who’s, like, doctor, we’ve got, like, a code six. You know, whatever. So. I, I just really love the film and entertainment industry, um, and I still do that. So I think that’s kind of what led me into marketing in the first place, because being an actor, you have to sell yourself, like you have to be marketing all the time.
Um, and so that just became like a really, and you’re a solopreneur wearing all the hats. So like that just became a very natural, um, blend of two things that I love. Like I really love business and I love marketing and I love entertainment. So I, that’s an, that’s an easy one for me. And that’s what I, that is so
Sabrina: cool.
I did not know that. Um, are you like actively still like auditioning for stuff?
Dayna: Yeah, I do. Well, to talk about like how the industry has changed when I first started, you had to go in person. Like to the community college, but not like to the studios and audition in person. And it would take all day. So it was like, you know, just like trekking, driving around LA.
Now I live in Arizona now because my husband went to law school here. So we’ve moved here and now I’m still able to audition because everything is virtual. So I just like set up a little studio in my, in my office. And if I, you know, get an audition, I just do that. And then if they decide they want to book me, then I.
Hop on a plane and I fly to New Orleans or Atlanta or LA or whatever. So yeah, it’s pretty cool how the industry technology has changed that industry. It’s, it’s really
Sabrina: fun. That’s wild. I cannot imagine. I cannot imagine setting up a little studio and like doing my acting on my computer and like sending it.
I mean, that’s so cool because I bet that’s opened the doors and made it so much easier, you know, like that’s incredible. I love that. It’s pretty Yeah. Okay. Before we go. Tell the audience where they can find you. Where’s the best place to connect with you?
Dayna: Okay, I think y’all should come over to at this can’t be that hard on Instagram, or that’s also our website.
I think that’s probably I’m behind the Instagram there. So if you know, if you don’t trigger a mini chat automation, it’s me who’s DMing with you most of the time behind the scenes. And then you can also check out the consistency club podcast. So you can just wherever you listen to podcasts, it only comes out once a month.
We’re just giving you some like a marketing strategy. Again, that idea of always be learning just to give you like a little nugget of like marketing inspiration. So you can start to, you know, learn and, and uplevel your marketing every single month. So you guys can just, wherever you listen to podcasts, you can do that as well.
Sabrina: Awesome. Um, I will have the links to all of that and the training in the show notes. Dana. Thanks for being here today. This has been so fun. Thanks so much for having me. This was so great. All right, friends. We’ll see you next time. Talk to you later. Thanks so much for listening to the shoot it straight podcast.
You can find all the full show notes and details from today’s episode at sabrinagebhart. com backslash podcast. Come find me and connect over on the gram at Sabrina Gebhardt photography. If you’re loving the podcast, I’d be honored if you hit that subscribe button and leave me a review until next time.
Bye my friends. Shoot it straight.
