Running a mass DM campaign
Write a message under forty words with no link, test two openers on a few hundred people, then let the campaign pace itself across days. You can only message people who follow you.
- 1
Check you have something worth sending
A mass DM is a limited resource. If the message is a product update or a newsletter, post it instead — spending the inbox on something that belongs in a timeline burns the channel.
- 2
Choose the audience
Your follower list, or a CSV of handles you gathered yourself. The CSV does not bypass the follow requirement: if somebody does not follow you and has a closed inbox, the message fails.
- 3
Write under forty words
Open with something true about the recipient, ask a question that is easy to answer, and leave the link out. People recognize a blast in about two seconds.
- 4
Test two openers first
Run both against a few hundred recipients before committing the list. A five-point difference in reply rate across three thousand messages is the difference between a good week and a wasted one.
- 5
Check the completion estimate
At 300 messages a day per account, a list of 3,000 takes about ten days. The estimate appears before you launch — better to know then than on day four.
Numbers worth watching
Delivery rate below 90 percent means a list problem: stale handles, or people who no longer follow you.
Reply rate of 5 to 15 percent is normal for a well-written message to your own followers. Under 3 percent means the opener is not working, not that the audience is wrong.
Do not message the same list twice in a month. The fastest way to lose a follower list is to treat it as a mailing list.
More on messaging
- Writing a welcome message that gets replies
Two sentences: thank them specifically, then ask one easy question. No link in the first message. A delay of fifteen to sixty minutes stops it reading as automated.
Still stuck? Email [email protected].