Hi everyone,
In my “Say hi to new followers” automation, I offer a free recipe guide in the initial message. If the follower clicks the button, that triggers the next message with an external URL button to the guide.
I get quite a few people that don’t click, the button but rather write a reply like “oh yes please!” and then the automation stops. Is there a workaround where I don’t have to manually action all of these?
Solved
When followers don't click your freebie button on instagram?
Best answer by Fabio Gaulke
Hi,
Unfortunately, there's no way to cover that cases.
What we do with our clients is WRITE the instruction to only tap the button to receive the freebie... and hope for the best. 😅
+3Hi,
Unfortunately, there's no way to cover that cases.
What we do with our clients is WRITE the instruction to only tap the button to receive the freebie... and hope for the best. 😅
Hey Alex, this is a super common issue with the Follow to DM flow. People naturally respond with text instead of tapping a button, it's just how people behave in DMs.
Two ways to handle this within ManyChat:
1. Set up a Keywords trigger
Go to Automation → Keywords and add common phrases people type — things like "yes", "please", "send it", "I want it", etc. Set each keyword to trigger the same flow that your button does (the one that sends the guide link). You can also use ManyChat's AI Intent recognition instead of manually listing keywords, just describe the intent like "user wants the free recipe guide" and it'll match variations automatically. That way if someone types "oh yes please!" or "I'd love that" it still fires.
2. Use the Default Reply as a safety net
Go to Settings → Instagram → Default Reply (or Automations → Basic → Default Reply). This catches any message that doesn't match a keyword or button click. You could set it to send something like: "Hey! Here's your recipe guide: [link]. If you were looking for something else, just let me know!"
The combo of both is the move — Keywords catches the obvious stuff, Default Reply catches everything else so nobody falls through the cracks. Just make sure to set the Default Reply to trigger "once every 24 hours" so it doesn't spam people who are having a real conversation.
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