Is ManyChat Killing Your Sales?

Remember, we're human, and I think people have lost sight of what social media is meant to be. It's meant to connect people, it's meant to build relationships, it's meant for you to engage with their content. It's like, obviously, we're using it for our business to, you know, generate leads and get bookings and things like that, but it's like, at the end of the day, the revenue's coming from the relationships.

Welcome to the next evolution of the podcast Entrepreneur School in the AI Era. We are here to figure out how to integrate AI into the business you've worked so hard to build in a way that still feels like you. I'm your host, Kelly Sinclair, award-winning marketer turned AI platform co-founder. AI has fundamentally changed how I thought about work, systems, and what's actually possible. This show is about navigating that new reality together. It's going to be a wild ride, my friend, but I truly believe there's a way to leverage AI in a way that's intentional, human-centered, and aligned. It's an ongoing evolution, so let's explore because AI may just be the unlock you need to achieve the life-first business you truly desire.

Hello, hello, and welcome back to Entrepreneur School in the AI Era. I have like been on a roll with incredible guests on the show, and today is going to be no different. I'm so excited to introduce you to and to get to chat with Angelica Pompy. She is a business coach, a speaker, and a marketing strategist who helps women build profitable businesses with more clarity, confidence, and visibility, and I am here for it. And also P.S. totally obsessed with her profile picture on Instagram. It's all hot pink, so like immediately we were best friends. Angelica, welcome to the show.

Hi, thank you so much for having me. I am obsessed with your topic of AI, especially with today's day and age. I was like, that's what the world is like revolving around, and I'm like, I can't stay behind, you know. And so learning from you and people that are experts in this field is like I feel like I'm a student again, which is very nice to just learn. And so yeah, I'm excited to talk about how I use AI as a non-techie.

Oh, I love it. I love it. Definitely. I identify as as an accidental techie. I low-key feel like everything we could always talk about all day is just AI. Like, is there even anything else to talk about anymore? The real question, right? But we have conversations on this podcast to frame it up in terms of different ways different people are using it and how they're not. And I know that you have like a major plot twist to drop on us right off the bat with respect to Instagram AI, a.k.a. ManyChat.

Yes, yes. Oh my gosh! ManyChat is an amazing tool. And as somebody that generates a lot of leads and clients from Instagram, I've learned that there's a time and place for ManyChat, and what works best. And so, yeah, I'm excited to dive a little deeper into that.

Yeah, so what's the tea like right off the bat around ManyChat? Do you use this? I feel like I I said to you when we we messaged each other on Instagram before this, I was like, Oh, yeah, the thing that I pretend I have set up that I totally don't, and then when people actually use that keyword comment, I'm like manually sending them a DM like the next day. Yeah.

Oh my gosh, that's so funny. So what I will tell you is ManyChat is not a call to action that you should lean on every single time on your Instagram post, specifically when it's money-generating activity. So I find that ManyChat is a great tool to send out a freebie, sometimes when we have like a viral video and you get a whole bunch of opt-ins. That's a great way to get people into your world. But when you're selling something that's more high-ticket or that you want to make things more so personable, ManyChat is not the place to do that. I actually just hosted an event in New York City, I live in Florida, and so I wanted to make it a point to connect with those that were interested to come to my event. And I still told them to comment the word coffee, but I didn't set up an automation for that. I actually sent them a video message saying, Hey, oh my gosh, I would love to have you at my event. Tell me more about your business. I didn't even, like I know they were interested in the event. Could I send them, you know, an automation, Here's a link to buy a ticket to my networking event? Sure. But that personal connection, and I think with AI a lot of the personal connections have been lost in the sauce, unfortunately, and like that's a great way to make it more personable.

Okay, actually, like let's break this down so much because as you're saying that, I'm thinking not just Instagram responses being automated, but just the whole concept of being able to make make high ticket sales without that extra layer of personal outreach. So right, like I'm applying this to: if I set set up an email sequence that goes out, and then I'm shocked that nobody bought the thing because I had this whole email sequence, like, there must be something there in terms of your strategy around personalized outreach and sales. So, tell me more.

Yes. And I love that you use the example of email marketing in a funnel. What I've learned to do, too, in that sense, is I add a video of like, Hey, I want to send you a quick video. And it's pre-recorded, but it's really speaking directly to that ideal client of like, If you are needing support and looking for community in marketing your business, I have the solution for you. Let me show you behind the scenes of what it's like to be in my community. And sometimes when people see a face, they're like, Oh, she's human, you know? We're so used to reading so much online and like having that visual aspect of like, okay, we're people buy from people at the end of the day. And so that one video I find that that's where most people are my like buying into. And like to your point of selling high ticket sales, I literally just sold in the DMs last night a VIP day of $3,400. No sales call, just I prompted with a video and then I just sent voice message back and forth because, again, who has time to read like seven paragraphs? I don't. But it was quick and we were able to figure out if it was a good fit for her. And she was like, No-brainer, sign me up.

I love it. It's like breaking the patterns. So like, okay, tell me how you how you learned this lesson. I'm sure there's like the many failures of Yes. Yes.

Well, I think it came from a personal experience first. I was super interested in this upcoming event in my area and I, you know, commented the word, and I saw all the marketing leading up to it, and I was like, Let me just inquire and see. And when I clicked on it, I was like, Oh, it's just so much to read. And I was in a as a busy entrepreneur, I think for those entrepreneurs that are busy like in the day-to-day still serving their clients, I was just like I had a quick ten-minute window. I'm like, Do I spend ten minutes trying to read the sales page, or can I get like an audio version of this somewhere, figure out if this is the right fit? It was such a long sales page. I was like, Okay, I need to come back to this. And I was like, later that night, I was like, Oh God! I was in the DMs all day with people. And I was like, What was the name of the event? Who was that person? And had I gotten like a personalized message from her, I wouldn't have forgotten her name, probably, because she probably would have introduced herself. And I literally, I didn't attend the event because I couldn't find it again. And we already know the algorithm gods have a mind of their own, so I was like, Hopefully, I stumble upon the content again. But I was very interested, and I didn't get a follow-up. And I'm like, I teach this to my students. The funds are in the follow-up, so you can set up that automation to follow up and just be a message versus like sending the link again. And had she set up, you know, her ManyChat for that follow-up, that would have been a more personable conversation. She could have said like, Hey, where, you know, what are you looking for in events? And I would love to see if mine is a good fit. Like that simple follow-up for her would have got my sale. And so there's like a time and a place to do that, but I always tell people like, I sometimes use ManyChat as a conversation starter. When I'm like putting the word, if

you're interested in a VIP day, comment VIP, the automation to that is, Hey, tell me, what is the current project that you have working on in your business? That's the automation. I take the conversation from there, and sometimes I'll respond back with a voice message or a video from there. Mm-hmm. Cause you're basically just like creating the structure so that it's giving you that flag

so that you can actually like find it in an organized fashion. I feel like sometimes that's where we lose track of things, right? Just, Oh, I put all this stuff out there, but like, where is it? How do I reconcile it all at the end of the day, especially if you do start having conversations and whatnot? So, I love I love that. And

something that I love to do, this is kind of a new feature to Instagram. If you go to your DMs and you hold down on a message, you can label people as a lead, or you can flag them, or mark them as ordered. If I'm having like a warm conversation with somebody that's genuinely interested in what I have coming up or offer, I label them as a lead, and then I just shuffle through the leads like once a month to make sure I'm engaging, following up on them, to make sure if they had questions, to make sure that I'm able to serve them. Because I I love to tell people I'm never selling; I'm serving. My my offers is meant to help somebody and give them a solution, and keeping track of that sometimes, like you say, can be a little chaotic, and I find that just labeling them as leads in the DMs has been an easy like way to follow up. Mm. How long do you spend on Instagram every day? Oh, that's a good one. I would say about an hour or two, for sure, intentionally, like commenting, replying, looking back. And most recently, I was like I usually try to spend the first morning like first half of my day, like the first hour, and then the second hour kind of following up cause, you know, we're busy. We're on Zoom calls, meetings, serving our clients, doing client work. So yeah, about two hours.

Yeah, thanks for the transparency on that because this is like this is the thing you can do, but you also still have to do it. Just like anything, there's no magic button. It's like pick pick a strategy and lean into it. I think that's what's so great and also frustrating at the same time about running a business is everything works and everything doesn't work. So you really have to be intentional and follow through and choose your strategy and lean into it and let that continue. I also really love what you said about your own example of I was interested. I actually wanted to buy a ticket to that event potentially, but I didn't have time to look into it fully, and that's I think where we like forget, and we get up all in our heads as the people hosting and selling things. Oh, nobody nobody was interested, nobody like bought, or whatever. And it could have been for any of those reasons, and you would just actually not know if you don't start that conversation intentionally.

Yeah, absolutely, and like, again, you can use Manychat to circle back if you had it initially set up, but always have something. Follow up with them, label them as a lead. That follow-up is key. And, you know, as a buyer of products, you know, life gets, whether you have kids running around, you know, pet here, husband there, it's like we get distracted, and sometimes that one ping can like get you to generate the sales that you want in your business.

Mhm. And the other thing is that you're reminding me about is just video messages. Like I feel like I remember Well, first of all, you sent me one as soon as we booked the podcast together, and I was like, Oh, yay! I haven't seen one of these for a hot minute. And I remember a huge win I had a long time ago in my business where I wanted somebody who was kind of like medium celebrity-ish status, pretty big person who I wanted to to speak on an event I was hosting. So, I had already, obviously, been engaging and following her stuff for a while, so it wasn't just cold. But I did do a video message to her and asked her to speak on my summit, and she said yes right away, where she normally would never. And then she even like did a whole story thing on the fact that I reached out with a video message, and she said something about like I think she said I had lady balls or something for pursuing that. And I'm like, yeah, cuz it it's so true, such a reminder that, and I just got off a podcast interview with somebody else where we just talked about like the personal touch. And I feel like in this age of AI, the personal stuff has way more weight than it even ever did. What would you say about that?

110%. I think with because it is so accessible, and that people lean into it for like any scenario, it's like, hold on. Remember, we're human. And I think people have lost sight of what social media is meant to be. It's meant to connect people, it's meant to build relationships, it's meant for you to engage with their content. It's like, obviously, we're using it for our business to, you know, generate leads and get bookings and things like that. But it's like, at the end of the day, the revenue is coming from the relationships, and that's what people forget. Like, we're people behind this. Speech, this is the livelihood of our families, and like is that personal touch. Like you said, it can make or break. Like, you're generating re-gen- you generating your dream sales.

Yeah, I think that we can get so hung up in the idea of things being automated, and like make money while you sleep, and set up these AI automations and ManyChat, and even email sequences and whatever. And at the end of the day, you're not making those connections when you do that.

Yeah, absolutely. I was talking to a group earlier this week and they were like, How many of you are when you follow somebody you get an automatic DM that's like, Hey, welcome to my world. What kind of resources do you want? And it was interesting to hear like, depending on who your ideal client is, maybe that might piss them off. But other people are like, Oh, she's serving me off the bat. And I was actually looking into it myself, and I wanted to try that strategy, but I realized that in ManyChat you can't add like a photo. So if I could add a photo or a GIF of me like, Hey, let me give you some resources. I feel like that personal touch will really get people to engage. So I'm like, I'm not going to test the, you know, new follower send a DM strategy just yet, but I would love to see if if that feature ever comes out. I would love to try to incorporate that then.

When you send, so I don't use ManyChat at all. I tried it a couple times, so it's probably changed entirely since I've ever been inside of their system. But when you send something, how do you get some kind of notification that you send something? Like, is there a place that like you can just go look at the things you sent, and then maybe if you did the automatic follow thing, then you can be like, Oh, cool! I'll go in and I'll send a video now, or a GIF, whatever.

Great question. So right now, ManyChat shows you how many people are clicking and the click-through rate, and you can set some automation based if they click it or not. As far as like notifications on your side in your DMs, you do see it only when they respond. So like you don't see it going out. And so the way ManyChat

There's like no sent folder.

No. Mm-mm. You would just have to scroll through. Yeah, you would just have to scroll through your DMs and see what was sent. However, the way ManyChat has it set up now is like before you could just send a link directly, you say, Hey, I want to send you the information that you requested. Click send now, or you can change whatever you want it to say. When they click that, it sends like as if they sent you a DM. Like it sends it like, Send me the link, and then the automation will kick again to send them the link. So I think that's a a great barrier that they've added to make sure that the dialogue is just not one way, Here, here's the link. It's like, Hey, send me the link. They they respond with that, and then you send them the link, and that's where that follow-up can come into play after that. And that's why I'm like when they respond back, then I see it as like an unread message. I'm like, Okay, let me go respond and like where did this person come from?

So, for your business, like, as far as revenue generation, how much of that is coming from Instagram conversations, do you think?

Oh, yeah. I would say I would have to look. I think last time we looked, I would say like 65% of my revenue is from Instagram. And so give everybody some context on what your Instagram like presence looks like, your follower size, like how like Yeah, talk about Okay. Yes, all things Instagram. So Instagram is the place that I hang out most. I don't have a podcast, I have a YouTube channel, but it's just like there. Instagram is where I show like my day-to-day, I show what's working for my students, showing the transformations, sharing my receipts. I post, right now on Instagram five days a week. That is something new for me, and I'm testing it to see if I'm able to generate more leads, qualified leads, and followers. But something that I teach to my students is be consistent three days a week and make sure it's like meaty, meaty substance posts. And so I'm pretty engaged. I usually post on stories Monday through Friday and at least once a day on the stories. And then my posts, I really lean into like three different pillars when it comes to posting. I post content that's like personal lifestyle so people can connect with me as a human, I share about my offers and like the transformation that I sell, and then I also talk about like the receipts that I've the results that I've been able to get for my students. And so like as engaged as I am with people, when I actually go network with people, I do this thing on my phone. It's a QR code, and it's a quick way for me to connect with people. It's I made it on Canva, And I have them scan it, and they follow me on Instagram, and then I usually follow up and say like, Hey, it was so nice to meet you at X, Y, and Z. And when I send that video, then I try to mention either something that we talked about or where we connected. So when I go back or we continue to have dialogue, it's like, Oh, where did this person come from? I have something to reflect on. But yeah, like Instagram is where I hang out, and

I try to make things. I've also found that the dialogue in the DMs is more private versus like having people to comment a word. You know, sometimes that's shameful for some people, and they're like, I don't want to admit that I'm having a marketing problem, or I don't want to admit like I'm not generating sales. So I make the conversation start in stories. That's why I show up a lot on stories. It's like, Hey, tap the sticker tap here if you want more information on how to make your next Instagram sale.

Okay. I the QR code thing, I love that. I I love when events do that. It was at an event recently. It was quite a big event, but it had like a QR code and it took you to all place and all place all the links and everything for people where they're or I do that sometimes, but yours is way cuter. I got to make a a version that's not just a big QR code with nothing else. Yes. And like brand it better. Yeah,

yeah. And I I tell people like, you know, some people have the Blink or the Dot card, but there's so much information on there. Have people connect with you where you show up the most. So if that's on your podcast, or if that's on your email list, or if that's on LinkedIn, but where can people see you active the most? That's where you want to connect with them.

And do you have a system for yourself set up behind that, or do you like just go, I'm just going to link. I'm just going into Instagram and I'm going to manage all the people inside of there, or do you have like another database that you help track yourself with or anything like that?

So we're actually in the process of building that. Because I have been so active in the DMs, I'm needing support now, and what does that look like? How do Where does my team know where to pick up where I left off or where can they do the follow-up? So, we're actually building a system in Airtable of like leads, and what are they interested on, and what was the last point of conversation or last point of contact, so that way I can follow up. Because what I realized, labeling them as a lead in Instagram goes away after 30 days. So, like sometimes people need a little longer. So, I'm like, oh my god, I was talking to somebody, like, you know, two and a half months ago. Who was that? I I can't remember, right? So, I'm like, ooh, okay, we need to get better with the systems. And now that I'm doing more speaking engagements, I'm like I love people, and I love connecting with them, but I'm like I don't want to make sure I don't drop the ball in my court, you know? Yeah. So, yeah, we're building a system in Airtable, something super, super simple, like their name, what service they were interested in, last time they were contacted, and where we left off in the convo. Yeah, for sure, and the platform that you're using to connect with them.

Because sometimes I'm sure you still send emails and stuff too, right? For sure. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Hi, I was like, girl, I just actually built this. I called it the Relationships Table in Airtable, and it has all of those things like last contact, follow-up needed, anything that I can do to try and keep tasks being assigned to me, without me having to find them again, is definitely like, it's creating that circular motion where, you know, like you do have conversations with people, and then, you know, for us, our our platform, it's changed so much in the last two months, so anybody who, you know, reached out and checked it out two months ago, I have to like follow up and be like, Hey, like a whole new experience ready for you now. Yeah. What do you think about this? And, yeah, remembering to do that personalized outreach has just been a good reminder of that, for sure. Yeah,

absolutely. And I've I've found it interesting, you know, obviously like as technology evolves and things, I've seen people like market themselves as a sales strategist for like social media, and I'm like, interesting. Like people are doing sales on your behalf in the DMs, and I'm like, hmm, like it brings curiosity to me, because it's like, okay, can AI help with this? Or does like the human continue the conversation, not knowing it's you? I think there's some ethical things there that I'm like, I don't know, somebody answering on my behalf, I need it to make clear. But I think it's so interesting how things evolve over time with technology, for sure.

Well, I think for sure we have to have clear disclosure policies around that, right? Especially like if somebody's in your account on your behalf, they have to, yeah, yes, you have to say who that is. But the other piece is just, I don't know, this is totally personal preference. I got pitched in the DMs the other day, an invitation to be on a podcast, and like immediately suspicious. Immediately like, Hmm, is this real? Like the person had a blue checkmark, I was like, Well, that's a good thing. And then I could see that the person that they were pitching on behalf of was following them. So I like, but I went into this whole like having to do research and being on my guard and being like, Is this real? So I feel like that defeats the whole purpose of what you're saying around personal touch for sales is really what the key is. It's not about volume, it's about your personalization.

Yeah, 100%. And I I'm a big believer like you don't have to have like a ton of followers to make impact and generate the sales that you need to in business. Like my goal, I look at every like as one person. Like if 15 people like my content and I get three DMs, those are three different humans that want to have conversation with me. Maybe when I I'm a big-timer and I'm like the DMs are flowing, maybe obviously we'll have a different conversation then. But like I love how intimate my relationship is with my students and the amount of impact I'm able to make in that capacity. And so I really enjoy the conversations, too. I think that's the other part is like people look at it as a burden, and it's like, No, these people want to connect with you. And like you're asking for, you know, three, four, $5,000, that's not going to happen from like one link being sent.

Oh, such good context. And I was going to say, can you contextualize a little further? What do you define as success when it comes to engagement online? Like, are there numbers? Is it just, like what how do you look at that?

Yeah, so as far as success, I look at how much how many opt-ins I got from my email, like as far as like how many comments, people want to join my email list or want a freebie. I also look at how many conversations I'm having in DMs because of my posts. I'm very strategic with my posts now more than ever, cause all of it's essentially like real estate, especially now that I'm in a space where I'm doing like sponsorships and things like that. But for success for me is how much engagement am I getting and am I reaching the right people, like my ideal clients? My goal is not to make a viral post and hit 100,000 people, cause those 100,000 people most likely are not my ideal clients. So, I look for engagement. Like, am I getting DMs? Am I having conversations? Am I getting people on my email list? Because we all know Instagram is rented real estate. We don't own it. And if it goes down like it did for a couple hours last week, I sent an email. I was like, Hey guys, I'm still here. Like, you know, do we have connections with our people beyond the social media platforms?

Yeah. I totally got that email and I was like trying to edit a video that I was going to post. I was like, I'm never even doing this. Like, what the heck is happening, right? I was going to ask, okay, just a couple more nitty-gritty questions. Yeah. With your okay, cause people who have been around on this podcast for a while know that like my my background is marketing and brand, and I always was the flag waver for how to build visibility without relying on social media.

Mhm.

I never like fully quit. I I quit Actually, I think it was a I took a whole summer off social one time. I don't think it was last year. I think it was the year before. But, anyways, just to cause if you don't like it, like you said, if you don't enjoy, your first of all, your energy is just not going to It's going to come through that you're posting out of some sort of obligation, and it's going to be a self-fulfilling prophecy of, I post three times a week, it does nothing. Why do I keep doing this? Well, because that's how you feel about it. Right? But for you, when you look at what that posting strategy looks like and the types of calls to action and whatnot that you mix in there, like how often are your Is your goal to get people to, you know, comment a word so that you can follow up either so you have a DM conversation or so you eventually get them onto your email list as well? Like what does that look like?

Oh, great question. So, I don't sell in every every post. I try to make one connection post, so how can people connect to me and my story? I try to do a attract post, so attracting my new client, and then I do a sales post. That's where I do that call to action with a specific word. And I think that variation is important because people don't want to feel like they're being sold to all the time, and again, we want to make sure that they're connecting with you on like a human basis of like, Okay, she's posting care, you know, content in carousels. She's posting reels of herself. I think the biggest the biggest pivot most people see specifically on social media is when they start showing up. Like so many of us are scared to be seen, and it's like people have to see you to understand, Oh, I want to work with you. I have a sister company for my photography business, and it's a faceless business. Like we don't show who's running it, we don't show the photographers, and it is so stinking hard to sell that service versus my photography business. We're showing behind the scenes, we're showing us, we're talking to camera, we're showing us in the works of like doing shoots, and it's like completely different because they see people in action. And so, yeah, I recommend doing a piece of selling content once a week, connection content, and attraction content.

I love that. When I'm like taking notes over here, going, Well, I'm making these podcasts, so here's my thought process: making these podcasts, they're getting repurposed across every platform. Like we will have clips. They will go on Instagram. Like what is the point of just putting it on one platform when we've been sitting together for half an hour now, having a wonderful conversation, so much value in here, and I want to remind people to go and listen to the full thing and to see you and hear from my guests and and connect. And actually, okay, well, I was like, that's such a nice segue into the end, but I want to give you one more opportunity, Angelica, to like drop any more bombs of goodness, ah, or like a hot take on us before we leave.

Ooh, hot take! Your next 100k is waiting on you to show up. So make it personable and be unforgettable.

Ooh, that is a beautiful quote. We shall we shall make content with that. Absolutely. Okay, so everyone's going to come follow you on Instagram now, because they know they're going to get an amazingly personalized video message from you when they do. So let them know how to find you, and I'll make sure all the links are in our show notes as well.

Yes, absolutely. I'm Angelica Pompy everywhere, A N G E L I C A P O M P Y on Instagram, Facebook, website. Send me a DM if you listen to this. I would love to know what was your biggest takeaway, and you will get a video message back from me if you do.

I have got to say to my listeners, seriously, if you are not reaching out to every single guest I have on this show, like, they're here to connect with you. They're inviting you. Anybody in the Human Design who's a projector, you are invited to reach out, to connect, to have conversations, to learn more from anybody who like lit you up or got your curiosity going, so please do reach out to Angelica. Thank you so much for your time, lady!

Yes, thank you. This was so awesome, and I can't wait to see what else is in the pipeline of the AI world as it literally changes day to day.

Oh, the like my head is spinning just at all times. So stick around, we shall continue to report back.

Thank you for listening. If this episode got you thinking about how AI is impacting your business and what it might look like to integrate it in a way that actually fits, I'd love to help you think that through. You can book an AI strategy chat using the link in the show notes. It's a space to talk about where you are, what's shifting, and how to move forward with intention. And if this episode was helpful, please share it with another business owner who's navigating this evolution, too. And make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss what's coming next.