Reachlee"Are you free on the 14th?"
Answered before you put the brush down.
"Rates for bridal?" "Do you travel to the venue?" "Can you do a trial next week?" Enquiries arrive while you're mid-application, and the bride who waits until evening has often asked two other artists by then. Reachlee sends your rate card, collects the date, venue and phone number inside the DM, and hands the booking to you. It doesn't hold your calendar or take deposits: you confirm, it does the typing.
The short answer
A makeup artist can automate the repetitive half of Instagram enquiries: sending rates, packages and the booking form, and collecting the event date, venue and phone number. Availability and deposits stay in the artist's hands. Reachlee does this on Meta's official API for Instagram and Facebook Pages, answers only people who comment or message first, files every enquiry in a folder, and leaves confirming the date to you.
Where a makeup artist's DMs actually come from
Look at a month of a working MUA's messages and four questions account for nearly all of them: what do you charge, are you free on my date, do you travel, and how do I book a trial. They come from three places. Transformation Reels pull comments that just say "price?". Brides who found you through a friend send a first message with a date in it. And on the wedding day itself, clients tag you in their stories, which is the moment they are happiest to leave a review or recommend you. Three of those four questions have fixed answers you've typed hundreds of times. Availability is the only one that genuinely needs you, and even there you can't answer until you know the date, the venue and how many faces. Automation is worth having for exactly that split: answer the fixed questions the second they arrive, and gather what you need so your one personal reply settles the booking instead of opening a ten-message thread.
- Rates and packages: fixed answers, asked constantly, ideal for a keyword DM.
- Travel and venue: a written policy the DM can quote, word for word.
- Availability: only you know, so the DM collects the date, venue and number for you to check.
- Wedding-day story mentions (Instagram): a thank-you DM with your review link while the day is still fresh.
Set up your enquiry desk in one evening
Connect Instagram, and your Facebook Page if you use one
Sign in with Google, open Settings → Connected accounts and click Connect account. Instagram needs a professional account (Business or Creator) and connects through Meta's own login, so Reachlee never sees your password. Facebook Pages connect the same way on Pro and sit in the same dashboard.
Put your rate card on a keyword
In Automations → New, pick the Reel or post, add a keyword such as RATES or BRIDAL, and write the public reply and the DM with a button to your rate card or packages page. On Pro the same automation can cover any post, your next post, or up to 10 specific posts you choose.
Ask for the details you need to say yes
Open the automation in the flow builder and add an Ask a question step with tap answers such as Bridal, Party, Trial or Group. Add Wait for a reply to save the date and venue in their own words, then Ask for an email or phone, which checks the number and saves it to the contact.
File it, and get told
Add to folder puts every enquiry in a Bridal enquiries folder you can open on the Contacts page. On Pro, an Email me step sends you their name, handle, number and every answer the moment they finish, so you can check your diary and reply in the Inbox.
Catch the comments you missed
If a Reel took off before the automation existed, Retrigger on Pro runs it over the comments from the last 7 days, skips anyone you've already messaged, and paces the sends so it never looks like a burst.
Six moments in an MUA's inbox, each with an automation
Every one of these runs on your own account, in your words, through Meta's official API.
Rate card on a keyword
Comment-to-DM sends your packages link to every person who comments the word you pick, on posts and Reels. A public reply goes under each comment too, so the next person scrolling sees that asking works.
An enquiry form inside the DM
Up to 13 tap answers per question, free-text answers saved under a name you choose, and an email or phone step that checks the reply and asks once more if it isn't valid. No external form for the bride to fill in.
Ice breakers for first messages
Questions like "Bridal rates?", "Do you travel?" and "How do I book a trial?" appear as tap-to-ask chips when someone opens a new chat with you. Two on Free, four on Pro. Instagram only shows them in empty threads.
Wedding-day story mentions
When a client tags you in their story on the day, Reachlee can send a thank-you DM with your review link or a note about anniversary and event bookings. Story triggers are Instagram only; Meta sends no story events for Facebook Pages.
Folders for the season
Bridal enquiries, Trials booked, Party season: folders live on each contact, so the Inbox sidebar and the Contacts page agree. Free includes 3 folders; paid plans have no practical limit. Segments save filters like "has a phone and messaged in the last 30 days".
One reminder for the quiet ones (Pro)
If someone got your rates and neither replied nor tapped, one follow-up goes out between 30 minutes and 20 hours later, inside Meta's 24-hour window. It cancels itself the moment they reply or click.
Wedding season, before and after
The weekend you're fully booked
Back-to-back weddings from Friday to Sunday. Enquiries sit unread for two days, and by Monday half of them have booked someone who answered on Saturday morning.
Every enquiry gets your rate card in seconds and the flow collects date, venue and number. On Monday you open the Bridal enquiries folder, check your diary and reply to the ones you can take.
The transformation Reel that took off midweek
A soft-glam Reel starts climbing on Tuesday. You set up the RATES automation on Thursday, and everyone who commented in between never hears from you.
Publish the automation, then run Retrigger. It works through the last 7 days of comments, skips anyone already messaged, and new commenters keep getting instant replies while it runs.
The bridal party enquiry
The maid of honour asks for a group price for the bride, bridesmaids and mothers. It takes a dozen messages to learn the date, the venue and how many people.
She taps Group, types the date and venue, and leaves a number. You get an Email me alert with all of it and send one reply with a quote and the deposit details from your own booking process.
What Reachlee AI answers for makeup artists
On Growth ($14/mo) Reachlee AI answers DMs from the knowledge you write, such as packages, trial policy and travel fees, in the sender's language. It never invents a price, a date or a link.
"How much for bridal plus two bridesmaids?"
If your package list covers it, the AI quotes it as written. If the combination isn't in your knowledge, it doesn't guess: the conversation is flagged Needs you in the Inbox and you get an email, or a Telegram message if you connect it.
"Do you travel to my venue? Is there a fee?"
Write your travel policy once, with the areas you cover and how fees work, and the AI answers from it. Change the policy and every later answer changes with it. Nothing it says goes beyond what you wrote.
"Can you do my date?"
The AI can't see your diary, so it doesn't pretend to. The "Reachlee AI answers, hot leads go to you" template sends anyone asking to book into a Hot leads folder with a note that you'll reply personally, and lets the AI handle everything else.
What a makeup artist actually needs
Free gets you started: 1 Instagram account, 1,000 DMs a month, 100 active contacts, 10 leads, 2 ice breakers and the rate-card automation. Most working MUAs outgrow it in wedding season. Pro ($9/mo) adds unlimited DMs, contacts and leads, your Facebook Page, any-post and multi-post triggers, follow-ups, Retrigger, 4 ice breakers and the Email me alert, and removes Reachlee branding from your DMs. Growth ($14/mo) adds Reachlee AI with 1,000 credits a month for package and travel questions. Business ($29/mo) adds 5 team seats for a hair and makeup team.
Start freeMakeup artist questions, answered honestly
Can Reachlee take bookings or deposits for me?
No, and that's deliberate. Reachlee doesn't connect to a calendar and doesn't take payments. Whether you can take a date depends on your diary, the venue's distance and how many faces are booked, and a tool that confirmed dates on its own would eventually double-book you. What it does is everything before your yes: it sends your rate card or booking form, asks for the date, venue and number, files the enquiry, and tells you. You confirm and take the deposit the way you already do, whether that's a booking page, a contract or a bank transfer.
Will brides feel like they're talking to a bot?
The messages come from your own account, in words you write, with their first name filled in. To a bride it reads as a quick reply from an artist who's organised. Paid plans carry no Reachlee branding; the Free plan adds a small "Automated with" note once per contact and a branded page when someone taps a link. If you use Reachlee AI, it writes in your voice and steps out of any thread for 48 hours as soon as you reply yourself, so it never talks over you mid-conversation.
Is automating DMs allowed? Could my account get restricted?
It's allowed when it's done through Meta's official API, which is the only way Reachlee works. Reachlee is a Meta-verified Tech Provider, connects through Meta's login, and only messages people who commented, replied to a story or messaged you first. It respects the 24-hour messaging window and Instagram's one private reply per comment, paces sends, and pauses an account automatically if Meta asks it to slow down. The accounts that get restricted are the ones using browser bots that mass-follow or message strangers.
What about "can you do this look?" with a photo?
Photos people send arrive in your Reachlee Inbox inside the conversation, so you see the reference next to their answers. Keyword automations match text, and Reachlee AI reads text only, so a photo on its own gets no automated answer. For a makeup artist that's the right behaviour: judging whether a look suits a skin type, a lighting setup or a long wedding day is your call. You can reply from the Inbox with photos of your own.
What happens when someone asks something the automation doesn't cover?
A keyword automation answers its keyword and nothing else; every other message stays in your Inbox for you. On Growth, Reachlee AI answers questions that your written knowledge covers. When it can't answer, when someone complains, or when they ask for a person, the conversation is flagged Needs you and you're alerted by email, or on Telegram if you connect it. You choose which of those alert instantly and which wait for a digest, and set quiet hours.
Does it work on my Facebook Page too?
Yes, from Pro. Your Page gets comment-to-Messenger, keyword replies, up to four ice breakers, email and phone capture, follow-ups, product carousels and Retrigger, and Reachlee AI on Growth, all in the same dashboard as your Instagram. Two things are Instagram only because Meta doesn't provide them for Pages: story triggers, including the wedding-day story mention, and the follow check. Your Page and your Instagram count toward the same three connected accounts on Pro.
A Reel blew up before I set this up. Can I still reach those commenters?
Yes, within limits. Retrigger on Pro runs an automation over a post's comments from the last 7 days, skips anyone you've already messaged, and paces the sends. Seven days is Meta's rule for private replies to comments, and it applies to every tool. Comments older than that can't receive a private reply from anyone, so the honest move is a public reply asking them to comment again, which the live automation then answers instantly.
Is the Free plan enough?
For trying it, yes: one Instagram account, 1,000 DMs a month, 100 active contacts and 10 leads, with the rate-card automation and two ice breakers. The limit most MUAs hit is leads, because every phone number captured counts, and in wedding season ten goes quickly. Pro at $9/mo removes the DM, contact and lead caps and adds the Facebook Page, follow-ups, Retrigger and the Email me alert.
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