Contacts, leads and email capture
Everyone who talks to your automations becomes a contact, so you can see who is interested, who shared an email and who booked. This guide covers where contacts come from, how email capture works and how to keep the list organised.
Where contacts come from
A contact is created the first time someone interacts with one of your automations through a comment, a Story reply or a DM. It keeps their Instagram handle, profile photo and the whole conversation, and records its source (Instagram comment, Story reply, Direct message, Automation or Campaign) so you can see which posts bring people in.
People who book through your booking page become contacts too, with the details they entered. You can also add contacts by hand with Add contact, or import them from a CSV file. Contacts from Instagram belong to the account they messaged; contacts added by hand or from the booking page show under every account.
- @mia.torresInstagram comment · High intent, Guide interestQualified lead
- Jordan LeeDirect message · jordan@… · Product interestOpportunity
- Priya ShahBooking page · ConsultationCustomer
- @sam.ortizStory reply · New leadLead
Contact statuses
| Status | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Lead | Someone who interacted but hasn’t shown buying intent yet. |
| Qualified lead | Someone who tapped a button, passed follow to unlock or shared an email. |
| Opportunity | Someone you’re actively talking to about buying or booking. |
| Customer | Someone who bought or booked. |
Collect emails inside the DM
Email capture is part of the Get more sales goal, on Growth and Scale.
Create a Get more sales automation
Pick the posts or Story and the keyword.
Write the ask
Tell people what they get for their email, such as the full guide or a discount.
Askenly confirms it
When someone replies with an email address, Askenly confirms it in the chat and saves it to their contact.
The email sequence starts
A short sequence follows up over the next days. It stops when they click a link in an email, buy or reply.
Following a lead by email
The automation’s Emails tab lists every lead it collected, with each email sent and any reply received, so you can see where each person is in the sequence. Replies show in your Inbox as email chats and you can answer them there, from your business name.
A reply that is only “stop” or “unsubscribe” takes the address off your list, and every email carries an unsubscribe link. Out-of-office replies are kept but don’t stop the sequence.
Keep your contacts useful
- Add tags such as High intent, Consultation or Customer so you can filter quickly.
- Filter by source to see which automations bring the most leads.
- Import an existing list as CSV. Duplicate or invalid rows are skipped and counted, so nothing is added twice.
- Export from the Import / Export menu when you need the list in another tool.
- Tell people what you’ll send before you ask for their email, and send only that.
Contact questions
Does a contact count toward my plan?
No. Plans limit DMs, automations, accounts, posts and bookings, not contacts.
What happens to contacts if I disconnect Instagram?
They stay. Disconnecting only stops automations and posting for that account.
Can I see everything a contact said?
Yes. Open the contact or their chat in the Inbox to see the whole conversation, automated messages included.
Tags and filters
Tags describe what a person is interested in, such as High intent, Product interest, Guide interest, Consultation, Customer or New lead. Add them by hand from the contact, and use filters to see one group at a time, for example everyone tagged Consultation who hasn’t booked yet.
Status describes where they are: Lead, Qualified lead, Opportunity or Customer. Change it from the contact as the conversation moves on.
Import and export
Import / Export → import takes a CSV file with a name and an Instagram handle or email for each person. Askenly shows how many were added and how many duplicate or invalid rows were skipped.
Export downloads your contacts as a CSV file you can open in a spreadsheet or upload to an email tool. Cells that start with characters a spreadsheet would treat as a formula are escaped, so an exported file is safe to open.