Guides

The comment-to-DM keyword funnel

Every Dailyz post ends by asking for one word in the comments. When someone comments that word, they get your link by DM within a couple of minutes, and optionally a short public reply under their comment. It runs through the official Instagram API from your own account, it is part of every plan, and it takes one panel to set up: a keyword, a link, a message.

How it works, step by step

1. The closing slide and the caption ask for the keyword. That line comes from Call to action in your Brand voice, for example: comment MENU and I will send it.
2. A follower comments the word. Matching is whole-word and ignores case, punctuation and a leading hash, so "menu", "MENU!" and "#menu" all count. "Menus" does not.
3. Autopilot reads the comments on every post you published in the last seven days, at most every two minutes.
4. For each new comment carrying the word it sends a private reply: your DM message with the link in it, straight to the commenter's inbox.
5. If you keep "Also reply publicly" on, it also posts your public reply under the comment, so the thread shows the funnel working.
6. Each comment is answered once. Handled comments are remembered, so a restart never DMs anyone twice. Instagram also allows one private reply per comment, within seven days of the comment.

It is not a chatbot. A comment without the keyword is left alone for you to answer in your own words. Dailyz does not reply to every comment in conversation.

Setting it up

1. Connect the Instagram account from the Instagram panel. It has to be a professional account, Business or Creator. Instagram asks you, on one consent screen, to approve publishing, reading comments and sending the DM reply. Without the last two the funnel cannot run.
2. Open Autopilot and scroll to Comment-to-DM funnel. Check the switch is on.
3. Keyword. The single word people comment.
4. Link to send. What lands in their DMs.
5. DM message. Use {link} where the link should go and {keyword} if you want to echo the word. The default reads: hey! here is the link you asked for: {link}.
6. Also reply publicly and Public reply. The default public reply is: sent you a DM. Turn it off if you would rather the thread stayed quiet.
7. Press Save autopilot. The panel shows DMs sent so far, so you can see it work.
8. Open Brand voice and make the Call to action ask for the same word. The next post you generate will carry it on the closing slide and in the caption.

Autopilot itself has to be on for the sweep to run. The switch at the top of the same panel covers writing the day's posts, publishing at your times and answering keyword comments, all in one loop.

How to pick the keyword

• Name the thing they get. MENU sends the menu. PRICES sends the price list. BOOK sends the booking page. A follower who reads "comment MENU" knows what arrives, and a DM that delivers exactly that gets opened.
• One word. The field takes a single word and the match is whole-word. "Send me the menu" will not trigger it; "MENU" will.
• Not a word people type by accident. Avoid "yes", "love", "this", or an emoji. You want the DM to go to people who asked for it.
• Easy to spell on a phone. Short and common beats clever. Capitals on the slide make it read as an instruction.
• Keep it stable. Older posts keep asking for the word they were written with. If you change the keyword, change the Call to action at the same time, and expect the old posts to stop converting.

What link to send

Send the one thing the post promised, at the page where they can act on it. Not the homepage.

• A restaurant: the menu page or the reservation page.
• A salon or clinic: the booking page for the service the post was about.
• A realtor: the listing, or the page that collects a request for the price list.
• A gym or coach: the trial sign-up, or the class timetable.
• A shop: the product the post showed.

One link per workspace at a time. If you change it, the next DM uses the new one. Keep the DM message short and human; the default is a good shape. If you want the page to know where visitors came from, add tracking parameters to the link yourself before you paste it in.

How it looks to the follower

They swipe to your closing slide, which says something like "Comment MENU and I will send it." They type MENU under the post. Within a couple of minutes a DM arrives from your account: "hey! here is the link you asked for:" and the link. If you kept the public reply on, "sent you a DM" appears under their comment, which tells the next reader that commenting works. Instagram shows the DM as coming from your account, because it is.

Why it is part of every plan

A comment is the signal Instagram counts, and the DM is where the link lives, because a caption cannot carry a tappable one. Asking for a word does both: it earns the comment and it delivers the link to the person who asked. That is why every Dailyz post ends with a keyword and why the funnel is included on the One brand plan and the Unlimited plan alike. There is no add-on and no per-DM charge. The Autopilot panel is where the switch lives, next to the posting times, so the whole day's automation sits on one screen.

What an agency charges for the same thing

Agencies call this community management: watching comments and DMs and answering them. It is often sold as an add-on to a posting retainer, and a posting retainer for one brand runs $500 to $2,000 a month. Rate cards vary, so ask what the add-on costs before you compare. Dailyz includes the keyword part of that job, one comment to one DM with one link, at $99 a month for one brand and $249 for unlimited workspaces. It does not replace a person answering a real question in the comments. It does make sure nobody who asked for the menu is still waiting three days later.

Three rules

• Keep the promise. If the slide says MENU, the link must open the menu.
• Answer the rest yourself. The funnel handles the keyword; the questions are still yours.
• Stay on the official API. Dailyz never has your password and never logs in as you. Tools that do put the account at risk.

For the rest of the daily routine, see How it works and the other guides.