Send as Text Automation

Most automations reply with a DM and stop there. Send as Text goes a step further: Markit can directly prompt the follower's phone number within their DMs, and when they reply, it automatically subscribes them and sends them your customized message as a text — turning a comment into a real text subscriber you own, not just a one-time DM reply.

This is the Instagram-to-SMS flow that makes Auto DM more than an autoresponder.

The two ways an automation can respond

Every automation delivers your content in one of two ways, depending on whether send as text is toggled on:

• Send as text (recommended) — the automation collects the commenter's phone number over DM and adds them to your text list, then delivers your content as a text. This is the default and recommended setup, because it converts a one-time comment into a subscriber you own and can reach again.
• Send within the DM — when send as text is off, the automation just replies in the DM thread with your message (and any links or buttons). The commenter gets your content, but you don't capture a phone number, so the interaction ends there and you can't follow up later.

Use send within the DM for quick, self-contained replies (a link, a code, an answer). Use send as text whenever the goal is to grow an audience you can text again — which is most of the time.

How it works for the commenter

1. They comment on your post and trigger the automation.
2. Markit DMs them asking for their phone number.
3. They reply with their number.
4. Markit checks their Instagram profile for their name. If it finds one, it uses that; if it can't (some profiles don't expose a usable name), it asks for their name in the DM thread instead.
5. Markit adds them to the automation's text list and sends them its campaign — all inside the DM thread. For domestic (US/Canada) numbers, the confirmation message greets them by name, with a button to correct it if it's wrong.

From the commenter's side it's a short back-and-forth in DMs. From your side, a new opted-in contact lands in your audience automatically.

Turning it on

When creating or editing an automation, turn on send as text. You don't need to build a text list first — Markit automatically creates a text campaign for that automation. That campaign is what new subscribers get added to and receive, and you can customize its messages like any other campaign. Leaving send as text off keeps the automation on the send-within-the-DM path instead.

Note: Once an automation is set to send as text, it stays a Send as Text automation — you can't switch it back to a plain DM automation. Create a new automation if you need the DM-only behavior.

See Start a paid community for more on building the list these subscribers feed into.

Removing the compliance disclosure

By default, the phone-number prompt DM includes a short compliance disclosure — who's texting them, that consent isn't a condition of receiving your content, and how to opt out. This keeps your texting program compliant with SMS marketing regulations, so we recommend leaving it on.

If you'd rather keep the DM shorter, each automation has a setting to remove this disclosure from its phone-number prompt. This only affects the wording of that one DM — it doesn't change anything else about how the automation collects or texts subscribers.

Note: Removing this disclosure shifts responsibility for SMS compliance to you. See Terms of Use section 2.7 for details.

People who already follow or subscribe

Markit recognizes commenters you already know and handles them gracefully:

• Already a contact and subscribed — Markit skips the questions and sends your campaign right away.
• Previously unsubscribed (they texted STOP) — Markit sends a prompt to resubscribe rather than silently re-adding them. Once they opt back in, they can comment again to go through the flow.

This means repeat commenters aren't asked for their number over and over, and people who opted out stay opted out until they choose to return.

International numbers

Markit's texting only reaches US and Canadian phone numbers. Anyone who submits a number outside those countries can't receive your SMS campaign at all — so this case is handled differently, and it's important to understand what they do and don't get.

When someone submits an international number:

• They're still added to your audience as a contact, so they show up in your list and count as a conversion. Their number is flagged as invalid for texting, meaning you won't be able to send them SMS later — not through this campaign and not through any future mass text.
• Only the first message of your campaign reaches them, and it's delivered as an Instagram DM — not as a text. Markit takes the very first message in the campaign and sends it in the DM thread so they still get your core content (your link, code, or offer).
• The rest of the campaign is skipped for them. Any subsequent texts in the campaign after that first message are not delivered.

Note: For an international commenter, everything you want them to receive has to be in the first message of the campaign. Anything you put in a later step of the campaign will never reach them.

What this means for you: if your audience is even partly international, front-load your first campaign message with the essentials — the link, the code, the main call-to-action — rather than saving them for a follow-up text. US and Canadian subscribers still get the full campaign as normal; this only affects the international contacts.

Why use it

• You own the relationship — a text subscriber is yours, no algorithm deciding who sees you next.
• Reach them later — a comment is a one-time moment; a phone number lets you follow up for the next drop, event, or announcement.
• Fully hands-free — every qualifying comment becomes an opted-in contact automatically, even while you sleep or go viral.

Tips

• Give before you ask. Open your campaign with the thing they wanted — the link, guide, or code — so the phone-number step feels like the path to a reward, not a toll.
• Match the keyword to the offer so the people who convert are the ones who actually want what you're promoting.
• Tell people what to expect in your caption ("Comment LINK and I'll DM you") — clear instructions dramatically increase qualifying comments.