Keyword-to-DM flow

This is the automation most teams ship first. A follower sends a keyword (in a comment or a DM), and Scrollmark replies instantly with a link, a coupon, or a welcome message. It runs forever once published and handles thousands of conversations without human effort.

What you're building

1. A follower comments a keyword on a post (or DMs it to you).
2. Scrollmark detects the keyword and sends a DM with your offer.
3. An optional time-delay follow-up nudges anyone who didn't click.

Step by step

Create the journey

Open Journeys from the sidebar, pick your Instagram account (or Facebook, TikTok — the pattern is the same), and click Create Journey. If you're on Instagram, the Keyword in Bio template gets you most of the way — load it and customize from there, or start from scratch.

Set up the trigger

Drag a trigger node onto the canvas.

• For comments: choose User comments on a post. Pick the post (or leave it on "Any post"). Under Filters, add a Keywords filter and type the word you want to match — e.g. SURPRISE. The match is case-insensitive.
• For DMs: choose User sends a message and add the same keyword filter.

You can add both triggers to cover comments and DMs at the same time.

Add the DM action

Connect a Send a direct message action to the trigger. In the message editor, write your reply. You can use @ to insert the user's first name, Instagram username, or any custom variable.

A simple example:

Hey @Instagram Username! Here's your surprise: https://example.com/offer

Add buttons if you want — a URL button that opens the link directly, or quick-reply buttons that branch the conversation into sub-flows.

Add a spam guard

Drop a Condition node between the trigger and the DM, and choose Actions over time. Set it to something like "no more than 1 DM per user per 7 days." This stops the same person from triggering the flow repeatedly.

Optional: follow-up after a delay

Connect a Time Delay node after the first DM (e.g. 24 hours), then add a second Send a direct message:

Just checking — did you get a chance to check out the link? Let me know if you have questions!

Publish

Click Publish in the top bar. The journey goes live immediately and starts matching events. If you're cautious, enable Test Mode first and whitelist your own account to do a dry run.

Tips

• Keep the keyword simple. One word, no spaces. LINK, DEAL, MENU, JOIN. Anything a follower can type without thinking.
• Put the keyword in your bio or caption. The journey handles the reply — but someone needs to tell the audience what to type. "DM us SURPRISE for 20% off" in the caption is the trigger for this whole machine.
• Use Brand Safety settings to set a cooldown period so the same user can't re-trigger the flow within a few days. Open Brand Safety from the journey top bar.
• Track link clicks. If you paste a URL into the message editor, Scrollmark automatically wraps it in a tracked link so you can see click-through rates in Analytics.

Related pages

• Journeys — how the builder works
• Triggers and actions — full list of trigger filters and DM message types
• Custom variables — store and reuse data across steps