Social Selling on Instagram: A HubSpot User's Guide | HubBase

Let’s get one thing straight: “Social selling” is not about spamming your product links in people’s DMs. That’s the 2015 approach, and it’s about as effective as a screen door on a submarine.

Modern social selling, especially on a platform as personal and visual as Instagram, is about one thing: starting conversations.

It’s about finding people who have a problem you can solve, providing them with value, building trust, and then, only then, guiding them toward a solution. It’s a subtle art. And when you combine the conversational power of Instagram with the organizational power of HubSpot, it becomes a predictable science.

If you’re a HubSpot user, you already have the best engine for managing customer relationships. Now, let’s show you how to fill that engine with high-octane fuel from Instagram.

This is your guide to social selling on Instagram, the HubSpot way.

Step 1: Optimize Your Profile for Selling (Without Being Salesy)

Your Instagram profile is your digital storefront. Before you do any outreach, you need to make sure your shop is in order. When a potential lead lands on your profile, it should instantly answer three questions:

1. Who are you?
2. What do you do?
3. Why should I care?

Your Profile Checklist:

• Profile Picture: A clean, high-quality logo.
• Bio: Don’t just state what you do; state the problem you solve. Instead of “We sell CRM integration software,” try “We help HubSpot users turn Instagram DMs into deals.”
• Link in Bio: This is your most valuable piece of real estate. Don’t just link to your homepage. Link to a targeted landing page, a free resource, or a link-in-bio page that guides users to your most important content.
• Story Highlights: Create highlights for “Case Studies,” “How it Works,” “FAQs,” and “Testimonials.” This is your on-demand sales pitch.

Step 2: Find Your People (Prospecting on Instagram)

You can’t sell to everyone. You need to find the specific people who are most likely to need your product. On Instagram, this means looking for buying signals.

Where to Look:

1. Your Competitors’ Followers: The people following your competitors are, by definition, interested in solutions like yours. Don’t spam them, but engage with their content thoughtfully.
2. Hashtag Following: Search for relevant hashtags in your niche (e.g., #hubspot, #marketingautomation, #digitalmarketing). Look at the top posts and, more importantly, the people who are engaging with those posts.
3. Comment Sections of Influencers: Find the key influencers and thought leaders in your space. The people asking intelligent questions in their comment sections are your ideal prospects.

The Goal: Identify 10-20 high-potential prospects each day. Follow them, and begin the engagement process.

Step 3: The Art of the “Warm-Up”

This is the most crucial step, and it’s the one most people skip. You would never walk up to someone at a conference and immediately pitch them. You’d introduce yourself, find some common ground, and have a conversation. The same rules apply here.

Before you ever send a DM, you need to get on their radar.

• Like their posts: Not just one, but a few relevant ones over a couple of days.
• Leave thoughtful comments: Don’t just say “Great post!” Add to the conversation. Ask a question. Share a related insight. A good comment is at least a full sentence.

Bad Comment: “Nice!”
Good Comment: “This is a great point about lead scoring. Have you found that engagement on Instagram Stories is a strong indicator of intent?”

Do this for a few days. You’re not just getting their attention; you’re showing them that you’re a thoughtful member of their community, not just a seller.

Step 4: The DM Slide (The Right Way)

Once you’ve warmed them up, you’ve earned the right to send a DM. But this is still not a sales pitch. Your goal for the first DM is simply to get a reply and start a conversation.

The Winning DM Formula:

1. Reference Your Connection: Start by mentioning where you’ve seen them or how you found them.
2. Give a Compliment: A genuine compliment about their work or a recent post.
3. Ask a Question: An open-ended question that is easy for them to answer.

Example Template:

“Hey Name, I’ve really been enjoying your content on topic lately. Your recent post about specific post was spot-on.

I was curious, how are you currently handling the problem your product solves?

Cheers,
[Your Name]”

This is non-threatening, personalized, and focused on them, not you.

Step 5: The Handoff to HubSpot

This is where the magic happens. Once they reply to your DM, your HubSpot integration you have one, right? If not, we need to talk takes over.

1. Automatic Contact Creation: The moment they reply, a new contact is created for them in HubSpot.
2. Conversation Logging: The entire DM conversation is logged on their contact timeline.
3. Trigger a Workflow: This is the pro move. Create a workflow that triggers when a new contact is created from an Instagram DM.

• Assign Ownership: Automatically assign the new lead to a sales rep.
• Create a Task: Create a task for the sales rep to “Follow up with new Instagram lead.”
• Internal Notification: Send a Slack or email notification to the sales rep with a link to the HubSpot contact record.

Now, your sales team has a warm, qualified lead delivered to them on a silver platter, complete with the full context of the initial conversation. They can take it from there, moving the conversation to email or a call to do a proper discovery and demo.

Social Selling is a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Effective social selling is about playing the long game. It’s about building relationships, one thoughtful comment and one helpful DM at a time. It requires patience and empathy.

But by using Instagram to start the conversations and HubSpot to manage them, you can turn this art into a predictable and scalable process for generating high-quality leads.

Stop broadcasting and start conversing. Your pipeline will thank you.