How to get clients for a digital marketing agency: a week of cold DMs on Instagram

A marketing agency can start reaching new clients on Instagram this week with outbound from one account: one niche, an offer that fits in one sentence, and 15 to 30 personalized messages a day to the businesses you choose. The first message mentions something you noticed on the business's profile, the second, three days later, brings a mini audit, and two short follow-ups close the sequence. Every reply gets an answer the same day, and on Friday you decide, niche by niche, what changes next week. DM Hero runs this plan from your agency's Instagram account: the campaign sends your four messages, a reply stops the rest, and on Autopilot the AI Setter answers replies and sends your booking link.

Content, referrals and SEO wait for clients to find you. Outbound decides who sees your offer this week. This plan is for a full-service agency or a social media marketing agency (SMMA) that wants new clients from a chosen niche. The whole process, from the list to handing a conversation over, is in the Instagram cold outreach guide.

One niche and an offer in one sentence

One niche makes three things easier: you know what to look for on a profile, your examples come from businesses like theirs, and on Friday you can see what worked. Pick a niche where you already have a client or two, so the second message can mention a result you got for someone similar.

The offer fits in one sentence when it says what you deliver, for whom, and what makes the first step easy:

Import the businesses from that niche as a CSV file, with the niche in a column called niche, so DM Hero can compare niches later.

If you sell automations to local businesses

Agencies that sell online booking, reminders or replies to messages to local businesses can use the same plan, with the observation about the customer's path: the bio says booking by phone only, the link in bio leads to a page without prices, a question about opening hours waits under a post. The offer fixes one step of that path, and the mini audit shows the other two. Which local industries to start with, and what to write to each, is covered in How to sell to local businesses on Instagram.

First message with an observation, second with a mini audit

Build the first message around one thing you noticed on the profile: a new service, a second location, a gap between what they offer and what the profile shows. Say in one sentence what you do, and end with a question that is easy to answer with yes, such as an offer to send two ideas. Examples of first messages are in How to write a cold DM on Instagram.

The second message goes out three days later and brings a mini audit: three short points about their profile, one sentence each, and an offer to send an example or a fix for the first one. Write only about what anyone can see on the profile.

In DM Hero, keep the observation and the audit in two columns of your list and tick them at import: the campaign steps then use them as {{custom.observation}} and {{custom.audit}}. Each field fits a mini audit of three short points, and DM Hero sends a step only once its field is filled in for that business, so no message goes out with a gap.

This is how it reads for an agency that makes short videos for dental clinics:

Conversation with fernway.dental

1. You: Hi, saw you started offering clear aligners in September, but there is only one post about them on your profile and no reel yet. We make short videos for dental clinics. Want 2 reel ideas for aligners?

2. You: Quick follow-up with 3 things I noticed on your profile: 1. Your highlights don't show prices or treatments yet. 2. The last reel is from August. 3. The link in bio goes to the home page, not to booking. The first one takes an afternoon to fix. Want me to send an example of how other clinics lay it out?

3. Prospect: Good points, the highlights have been on our list for ages. How does working with you look?

4. You: We come once a month, film for two hours and deliver 8 edited reels. Easiest is to show you on your own clinic: in 15 minutes I'll walk you through a plan for the first month. Would you be open to a short call?

5. Prospect: Ok, Thursday afternoon?

6. You: Great, pick a time on Thursday that suits you: (booking link)

The clinic got three specific points before anyone mentioned a price, and the call came up only after they asked how working together looks.

A week on one account

Run the first week from one account. On a new account, set the daily pace in the DM Hero extension to 15 to 30 messages. The extension sends them from your agency's account with pauses between messages and a break at night.

A new campaign in DM Hero already has the shape of this sequence: four steps, 0, 3, 5 and 7 days apart, each gap counted from the previous step.

1. 1

   Day 1: first message

   One observation and a question that takes a yes

2. 2

   Day 4: mini audit

   Three points about their profile and an offer of an example

3. 3

   Day 9: short follow-up

   One new piece of information

4. 4

   Day 16: last message

   An easy question that closes the loop

The daily pace covers every message in the sequence, and DM Hero sends the message that has waited longest first. Add businesses to the campaign in daily batches rather than the whole list at once, and the mini audits go out on time. At 20 messages a day, the first three days send first messages to 60 businesses, 20 a day, and the next three send those 60 their mini audits.

Put your week into your own numbers:

• Businesses reached this week: N, about three days of your daily pace.
• Replies: N times your reply rate, which this week measures for your niche.
• Calls: replies times the share of replies that turn into a call.
• Clients: calls times your close rate.

Then count backwards: the clients you want each month tell you how many businesses to reach each week, and from how many Instagram accounts. Every DM Hero plan includes a monthly allowance of cold DMs per account: 1,000 on Starter covers a month at 30 messages a day, and Pro includes 3,000.

From reply to call

Answer replies the same day, while your audit is still fresh.

• A question about price: give the amount or a range, say what it covers and ask one question. More in How to answer "how much does it cost?" in a DM.
• An objection: acknowledge it, ask what is behind it and offer one small step. Ready replies are in Common sales objections in DMs.
• A yes: send the booking link with one sentence about what the call covers, and the prospect picks the time.

In DM Hero, the AI Setter handles this part. It works in two modes. In Suggestions it drafts replies in the inbox, and you approve or edit them. On Autopilot it answers within minutes, handles the objections in your playbook, answers price questions from your knowledge base and sends your booking link when the conversation gets there. When a prospect shares a phone number or email address, the setter hands you the thread with that contact. For the replies you write, quick replies insert a saved answer with a shortcut such as /price. The setup is in How to set up an AI appointment setter for Instagram.

Friday review by niche, and when to add an account

On Friday, look at people, not messages: how many businesses got a first message, how many replied, how many calls you booked. With the niche in its own column, DM Hero's Analytics compares niches (Industries in the app), campaigns and templates by people: for each one it shows the reply rate, the chance that it is really the best of those you picked, and how many people it needs for a reliable answer. After the first week, use that comparison to choose the niche for next week's list and the message you rewrite first.

A Friday review ends with one of three decisions:

• Keep the niche and the messages when replies come in and turn into calls.
• Rewrite one message when businesses answer the audit but not the first message, or the other way round. Change one step at a time, so the next Friday shows what helped.
• Add a second account or a client workspace when the plan works and you want to reach more businesses or run it for a client.

In DM Hero, every Instagram account is a rep. Pro multi-reps gives each account the full Pro allowance, assignment rules, lead and campaign rotation across accounts, a dashboard for each account and one for all of them. When you run outreach for your clients, Multi-client gives each client a separate workspace with their own accounts and data, all run from one dashboard.

Start with one account and one niche: Starter, Growth and Pro each include an Instagram account with the AI Setter, and Pro multi-reps and Multi-client add accounts and client workspaces as the agency grows. Compare the plans on the pricing page, and on a demo we will show you how the first week would look for your agency.