Want the people who already comment on your posts on your email list, without asking each one by hand? This template collects the addresses for you and still gives everyone who says yes the freebie they asked for.
Kshitij Maheshwari
Someone comments CHECKLIST, taps one button and is asked for their email in your DMs. Each email is saved, and the checklist follows. Copy the template.
Offer a freebie in a post and ask people to comment CHECKLIST. Every commenter gets a DM with a single "Yes, send it" button, and the tap brings "What's your best email?". The address they type is saved on their Inrō contact before the checklist link arrives, and anyone who skips the question or never answers still gets the link.
Only comments written straight under the post count; a reply inside someone else's comment thread is ignored. CHECKLIST matches as a whole word in any case, so "Checklist" starts the flow, and so does "send me the checklist please".
Inrō's comment to DM automation takes care of the sending. Each commenter also gets a short public reply, one of three that Inrō picks at random ("Sent, check your DMs", "Just sent it to your DMs", "It's in your DMs now 🙂"), and it shows up only after the DM has left.
It is tied to one post, whichever you publish first once the trigger's start date has passed. Copying the template sets that date, so you refresh it right before posting (check 1 in the setup below).
The opening message reads "Want the checklist? Tap below and it's yours." with "Yes, send it" as its only button.
Why not ask for the email straight away? Under Meta's private reply rule, a comment earns the commenter a single message from you, and the chat only continues when they answer it (Meta for Developers, checked 22 October 2026). A tap on "Yes, send it" counts as that answer and doubles as their opt-in, which clears the way for the email question. Someone who has not tapped after 6 hours drops out of the flow at that point.
The single button matches the data: 32% conversion with a single button, against 2% with three, in Inrō's DM Benchmark of 798,041 conversations. It is a benchmark-wide number; none of it comes from this flow.
After the tap comes an Ask for information step, the builder step that asks for one detail and stores the answer on the contact. Here it asks "What's your best email? Your checklist comes right after." and writes the reply to the contact's email, a standard contact property.
People rarely type a bare address. Inrō pulls the email out of a full sentence, so "sure, it's jane@example.com" is saved as jane@example.com. When the account's AI features are on, AI looks for the address first; otherwise Inrō spots it by its format. AI credits are spent only when an email is found, and with no credits left the format check still works. If the contact already had an email, the new one takes its place.
A reply with no address in it gets one more try: "That doesn't look like an email. Try again, or reply SKIP to get it without one." In the builder, that is "Ask again when reply doesn't match", with "Maximum retries" at 2 and "After last attempt" set to "Go to next automation step". A second reply without an email, whether it says SKIP or anything else, moves the person on: the checklist arrives and no email is stored.
Silence is covered as well. With no reply within 2 hours of the question, the checklist goes out on a second path. The re-ask does not restart those 2 hours.
The checklist arrives as a link card titled "Checklist" with an "Open it" button. Whoever opens it joins the folder "Checklist: clicked", from either path, so one folder holds everyone who used the freebie.
On the path where the person replied, an unopened card gets one follow-up after 2 hours: "Have you checked the link yet?" Those 2 hours only time the nudge. The link stays live, and an open the next day still puts the person in the folder.
Copied as it is, the trigger listens for CHECKLIST on your next post, ignores replies to other comments and runs once per person, so a second comment from the same account starts nothing.
Before the CHECKLIST post goes up, work through this list:
Same steps, different wording, folders and resource. The name below opens that version to copy.
Coaches and educators: a free plan. Keyword MEALPLAN or MEAL PLAN. The opener says "Your free meal plan is ready. Want me to send it here?", the email question promises the plan "right after, here in the chat", and the card is "Free meal plan" with the button "Open my plan". Link the card to your own plan and swap "meal" for yours (workout, study, budget) in the keyword, opener, question and card. Name your own folder. Coaches and educators version
Turn comments into sign-ups: with this template, a keyword comment opens a DM that asks for the email, saves it and sends your freebie. For the whole method, from picking the freebie to using the list, read how to build an email list from Instagram.
Each address is saved in the email field of the person's contact in Inrō, and a newer address replaces an older one. To see your list, open your contacts in Inrō's Instagram CRM and add the contact filter "Email: has email". From there you can export those contacts with their emails.
You can pass each address on as it arrives. Add a step after the email question that sends it to your email tool, either through Make (see Make and Inrō's other integrations) or with an HTTP request. Inrō's public API can read your contacts too. All three are on the Pro plan.
They still get the checklist. A first reply without an address brings the re-ask; answering that with SKIP, or with anything else that is not an email, sends the link card. So does staying silent for 2 hours after the question. No email is saved for that person.
Not sure how it work?
Read posts about templates on our blog.
Become a creator
Submit your template to the Inrō template gallery and get featured – all in just a few clicks.
It clones straight into your account. Change the message to sound like you, then switch it on.
