How to Professionally Reach Out to a Service-based Business (Without Awkwardly Sliding in the DMs)

It’s happened to the best of us.

We’ve seen that little message notification pop up on Instagram, and we’ve clicked it with curiosity. Then we read the message.

“I need photography.”

“What do you do?”

“What services do you offer?”

And with the power of 1 million tiny seahorses, you roll your eyes to the heavens and back down again. Because now, somehow, it’s become YOUR job to tell that inquisitor what it is that you do, even though you’ve already done that before.

Like in your Instagram bio.

Or on your website.

My friend, it is not your job to repeatedly tell people what it is that you do for a living via Instagram DMs. It is ALSO not your job to DM other business owners to ask them about their services.

Let’s talk about the annoyance of DM inquiries, how to reach out to business owners, and ways to foolproof your own business from receiving those direct messages, once and for all.

Here’s why this matters

There are only 480 minutes in an 8 hour work day. Of those 480 minutes, I’m willing to bet that you’re constantly wishing you had at LEAST 500 more.

My point is that lackluster and lukewarm direct messages are not annoying for the mere fact of being annoying (hello, couldn’t you have CLICKED THE LINK IN MY BIO?) - they’re a major time suck.

... sorry, I had to

If you think about it, it can take upwards of 3-5 minutes to craft a single direct message response explaining what you do, what you offer, and how to work with you. And if you get a few of those ambiguous DMs a week… that time starts to add up.

And we are NOT in the business of losing time, are we?

how to send an inquiry

Alright, so we’ve established the fact that answering inquiries via Instagram direct message is not the most efficient use of our time. Let’s flip the script and talk about the *right* way to reach out to a fellow professional.

Almost every single Instagram business account should have a link in their bio, or at the very least, a “contact” button to send them an email. Before shooting an email off, however, try to find their website.

If you can’t find a single thing, scroll down to the next section

Does their website have a one-liner on the main page explaining their services and offer? Are you able to click into a “services” or “contact me” tab?

Not only will it take a mere 30-60 seconds of your time to find that information, but it’ll save you (and the recipient of your inquiry) time, too. What if you reached out and they were totally NOT what you expected them to be? You’d then be forced to look for someone else as a fit. I personally would want to be confident that the inquiry I’m about to send is worth my time and energy.

So, once you’ve taken a look at their site, fill out the contact form OR send them an email. To save yourself some time and energy (again), formulate a request based on what you know they offer.

Your email or inquiry should include:

Your name
Your contact info
Your business name
Your need(s)
If applicable, your timeline

This saves you the back and forth of, “what are you looking for?” and allows you to clearly get your message across to that recipient, so they can concisely answer your inquiry.

Notice - not a single Instagram DM was sent in this scenario. You can, however, follow up via Instagram and say, “Hi there! I actually just sent you an inquiry. Can’t wait to connect!”

*cue warm fuzzy feelings*

if you have to dm…

Let’s pretend we live in a post-apocalyptic world where you can’t locate their contact information or their website. THIS is the time to send the Instagram message.

However, we can still formulate a great Instagram message that actually gets our needs across, without wasting any time. If you need to send a direct message, I recommend sending:

Your name
Your contact info
Your business name
Your NEED(s)
If applicable, your timeline

Juuuust like you would via email, or a contact form.

Again, this will not only allow you to collect your thoughts, but it’ll decrease the amount of back and forth on your end. You’ll have told the recipient almost everything they need to know to give you an estimate, or schedule next steps.

how to foolproof your dms

So we flipped the script earlier, and let’s flip it back again.

We talked a lot about how to reach out to fellow business owners, right? You might have read through those scenarios and thought, “I really hope people don’t do that to me,” or, “Yep, it’s happened and won’t stop happening.”

If so, I have a quick little checklist to take you through so you can foolproof your social media presence from ambiguous and lackluster DMs. Ready?

Is your link in your bio?
Do you have a one-liner that states exactly what you offer in your bio?
When people click on the link in your bio, are they brought to your website? When they get to your website, can they see your VERY clear one-liner above the fold, stating what it is you do, and who you serve?
Do you have a visible “contact me” button on your Instagram and your website?

If the answer is yes - that’s the best you can do. Sometimes, people just don’t… get it… all of the time.

And that’s okay.

If you answered with mostly “yes” and a couple of “ehhh…” work through those “eh” moments. Does your website need a stronger one-liner so people know what it is that you do?

If you were to step out of your perspective and into your ideal client’s, would it be easy for them to know what you offer?

While this work can feel like a slight headache, we might just want to take a moment to thank those ambiguous direct messages for reminding us to recenter and reflect on our business’ messaging across multiple platforms.

Sigh