What's New at Aspire: Instagram Direct Messaging
In partnership with Instagram, Aspire is excited to announce our latest and greatest feature launch!
We’re thrilled to be one of Instagram’s first partners to gain access to a new series of APIs, which lets brands and agencies access Instagram’s Creator Marketplace via a 3rd party influencer marketing platform of their choice. Leveraging Instagram’s Creator Marketplace APIs, we built Instagram Direct Messaging (IGDM) capabilities integrated directly into our platform to help brands discover well-aligned creators, streamline communication, and increase response rates.
Aspire and Instagram team up to announce Creator Marketplace APIs
Watch the video below and keep reading to learn what this means for the future of your partnerships.
What is Instagram Direct Messaging?
Instagram Direct Messaging (IGDM) is an integration we tested in partnership with Instagram to enable brands to connect their Instagram accounts to Aspire, streamlining the discovery, outreach, and communication of every partnership.
With the new integration, brands can send campaign invitations to creators via Instagram DMs — which most creators prefer because it’s native to the platform they know and love! Brands won’t ever have to leave Aspire for these conversations, and creators will have these DMs directly in their priority inbox on Instagram. It’s a win-win.
Why did we build Instagram Direct Messaging?
Influencer discovery is notoriously one of the most difficult parts of any brand-creator relationship.
First, brands need to find creators who are not only well-aligned with the brand’s goals, messaging, and image, but also meet their budget constraints. Then, in the outreach process, creators need to respond to invite emails in a timely manner to participate in the campaign. And through it all, brands need transparency and centralized communications across all team members.
We’ve heard from brands that campaign invitation emails are generally met with poor response rates. This may be because the email gets lost in their inbox, or because email is simply not the creators’ preferred channel to receive new project requests.
Instead, brands report having better response rates when reaching out to creators through Instagram Direct Messages. However, the process of manually sending individual DMs is not scalable, which is why most brands haven’t leveraged the native Instagram feature for creator discovery — until now.
With the new integration, brands have access to every email and DM conversation all in one place on Aspire.
How do I set up Instagram Direct Messaging on Aspire?
Follow these simple instructions to get started with IGDM on Aspire.
- Head over to the ‘Integrations’ tab in your account and click ‘Instagram (Meta).’
- Near the bottom of the page, you’ll see a ‘Add Account’ button. Click to connect your Instagram. Note that you need to be the account owner or have admin permission for your Instagram account’s Facebook page. Only one account can be selected to use for Direct Messaging.
- On clicking ‘Add Account,’ you’ll go through the offline flow on Meta to share your account permissions for Instagram Direct Messaging through Aspire.
4. Once you allow permissions, you should see your Instagram account under ‘Connected Accounts’ on Aspire!
Instagram Direct Messaging is available for all brands on Aspire starting today. Contact your Customer Success Manager or Aspire Support team to request access.
View Instagram Direct Messaging in action in our partner webinar, Meta + Aspire Present: The Power Of Personalization.
