In the five-link chain that takes a stranger from seeing you to paying you, links two and three are a story that asks for something and a DM conversation. They are the links nearly everyone skips, and they are where the calls actually come from.
Most coaches put all their time into Reels, then wonder why a Reel that did well produced zero conversations. The Reel did its job. It got seen. It just had nowhere to send anyone.
What Goes on Stories (Not Your Laptop)
When founders ask me what to put on stories, they are expecting me to say behind the scenes, your coffee, your desk. No.
Your stories should be going somewhere, and the last one should ask for something. Think of it as a sequence. The first frame sets up a problem your buyer has. The next couple build the case. The last one asks them to do something.
The ask can be small. Reply with a word. Vote in a poll. Tap a link. Send me a message if this is you. What matters is that it is something they do, because every one of those is a hand going up, and a hand going up is what link three needs.
Stories Are the Hinge
Stories are the one place on Instagram where you are talking to people who already picked you. They followed you. They tapped through. They are right there. It is the warmest audience you have, and most founders use it for a picture of their laptop.
Content, a story with an ask, a DM, a call, a deal. Stories are the hinge. Take them out and your Reels have nowhere to send people. And this works with 300 followers. If twelve people watch your story and they all fit your ideal client, that is plenty to start new conversations. You do not need a big account for link two. You need the right dozen people and an ask.
On cadence: post stories every single day. That is non-negotiable, because the day you skip is the day the twelve stop tapping through. But run a full sequence that ends in an ask two or three days a week, not seven. A hard ask every day wears people out. The other days are lighter, a quick take, a client win, a question, still going somewhere, just not always to the same door.
Cold DMs Are Not Dead
I want to kill the idea that cold DMs are dead and automation replaced them. Cold DMs still work. People kill them by pitching straight away.
And look at where Instagram is going. When it passed three billion monthly users in September 2025, Adam Mosseri, who runs it, said almost all of their growth came from DMs, Reels and recommendations. Instagram said it would reorient the app around exactly those three. Being good at DMs is not optional.
So if I am reaching out to someone I know is in my ideal client profile, I do not send the pitch on the left. I ask about something they posted. "Saw your Reel on skip-level one-on-ones. Do you run those with every new client or only once they have managers under them?" They answer, because it is a real question about their work, and now we are having a conversation.
My own version is even shorter. I search my niche, find profiles that fit, and send: hey, do you get clients from content? Cold, no prior engagement, no warm-up. It works because it is a real question that the right person actually wants to answer, and the wrong person ignores, which is fine. The point of the opener is not to sell. It is to find out whether there is a conversation to have.
Keyword Automations, Once Views Are Consistent
Keyword automations, where someone comments GUIDE and a link fires automatically, are great too, once you are getting consistent views. Specifically because an automation that sends a link when someone comments only works if people are commenting.
So many people are worried about the wrong thing way too early. Your last video got 500 views and zero comments. You should not be worrying about which automation to set up right now. Get the views and the comments first, then automate the reply.
Warm DMs: Go Talk to the People Raising Their Hand
DMing warm leads is huge. Somebody watched your story, answered your poll, saved your carousel, replied with the word. Go talk to them. "Saw your vote. Which part breaks for you, making the videos or knowing what to post?" They tell you, and now you know exactly what the call would be about.
So cold, automated, warm. You will use all three. And there is no one script that turns DMs into calls, no matter what anyone is selling you. What works depends completely on where that lead is at. Someone who voted in a poll once needs a question, not a booking link. Someone who has replied to three sequences and grabbed your freebie is ready to be asked. Read the thread, not the template.
Once they have asked you for something, links four and five take over: the freebie, the email, the follow-up and the call. That is its own post, a lead magnet for coaches.
Engagement: Start With Who Is Already Engaging
Engagement is part of link three, and most people get it backwards. The standard advice is to comment on the biggest accounts in your niche and borrow their audience. Two problems with that.
First, it only works if your comment actually has a take. Nobody has ever clicked a profile because someone commented a fire emoji. The comments that make a stranger want to know who said it do one of three things. They ask a question only someone who knows the job would ask. They share a similar experience you had. Or they offer a counter take, politely. Any of those is a reason to click. A row of emojis is not.
Second, and this is the bigger one, big accounts put you in front of their followers, and most of their followers are never going to buy from you. Go look at a big account in your space. Half the comment section is people selling the same thing you sell. You are performing for your competitors.
So flip the order. If anyone is already engaging with you, even a few people, start with them. Story viewers, people who replied, people who commented. It is a small group, but they are way warmer and they know your name. If nobody is engaging with you yet, which is where most people start, go straight to your ideal client's posts. Skip the guru and find the buyer. Five comments a day on their posts, with a take, and the same twenty minutes you would have spent under an influencer's Reel starts producing profile visits from people who could actually hire you.
The Bottom Line
A Reel gets you seen. A story with an ask turns a viewer into a hand going up. A DM turns the hand into a conversation, and the conversation is where the call comes from. Post stories every day, ask two or three times a week, send cold DMs that ask instead of pitch, and spend your comment time on buyers instead of gurus.
All of that sits on top of content that has to keep coming. If making it is the part that breaks for you, that is why I built CreateSocial. Ideas from your own expertise, pulled from a knowledge base of your site and your notes, a teleprompter so you are not doing seven takes, subtitles in eleven styles, captions written for TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook and X, and one recording turned into Reels, carousels and written posts for every platform. There is a free trial. Or book a free fifteen-minute call and I will look at your profile and tell you which link is breaking.