Key takeaways
- Your message share is paid message revenue divided by total revenue, with both figures on the same basis.
- Inboxes most often lose money through reply gaps, one offer for everyone and custom requests that get forgotten.
- A team can take over the inbox once it has a tone guide, a price list and a clear list of what should come back to you.
How do you work out what your DMs earn?
You’ll need one full month and the month before it, both on the same basis, either gross or after the platform fee. Subscriptions, tips, paid posts and paid messages each get their own line, and a custom order paid through a message should only show up once.
Say you had $5,200 in subscriptions, $800 in paid posts, $2,700 in paid messages and $1,300 in tips. With these made-up numbers, the total is $10,000 and your message share is 27%. That doesn’t tell you how you compare with another page, but the direction over three months does tell you something, because a share that falls while subscriptions hold steady points to the inbox rather than to demand. You can run the same split in our income calculator.
Where does an inbox lose money?
You can spot these four problems in your own chats and statistics.
| Problem | How to spot it | What helps |
|---|---|---|
| Reply gaps | Fans wait a long time for a first answer, especially overnight | Covering US and European hours and setting a target for reply times |
| One offer for everyone | Fewer fans buy, and unsubscribes follow mass messages | Separate lists for new fans, repeat buyers and quiet fans |
| Forgotten requests | Custom requests get accepted, then nothing happens for days | One list with the request, price, due date and who’s responsible |
| Flat pricing | Your top buyers see the same prices as everyone else | Testing one higher price level for repeat buyers |
Time zones are easy to underestimate. If your fans are in both the US and Europe, it’s evening for some of them at almost any hour, so a page that goes quiet overnight leaves part of its audience waiting until the next day.
Who pays in your inbox?
Sort your buyers by what they spent in the last 90 days and count how many it takes to reach half of your message revenue. If it’s a small group, those fans need someone who remembers them, replies quickly and knows what they bought last time. If the money is spread across hundreds of fans, you’ll get more out of splitting your list well and choosing good times to send.
A first pass through all of this takes about half an hour, with five minutes for your message share, ten for the time to first reply in 20 recent conversations, five for open requests and their due dates, five for your top ten buyers, and five to write down one change you want to test.
How do you test an offer without pressuring fans?
Start with one offer you’ve approved, and write down what the fan gets, what it costs and when it goes out. After you send it to a defined group, note who bought, who asked for a refund and who unsubscribed, then compare that with a similar group or week, because a longer send list can raise revenue even when the offer is no better.
Made-up urgency and promises about your availability that you can’t keep may close a sale today, but they can cost you the renewal next month. Our guide to PPV and pricing covers price levels.
What does it take to hand your inbox to a team?
Mainly three things: a tone guide with a few of your own replies, a price list you’ve signed off on, and a list of topics that should always come back to you. With those in place, our chat team covers your inbox around the clock, writes in your voice and stays within your limits, and nothing gets promised in your name that you haven’t approved. It’s a good idea to keep reading along for a while after the handoff, and our chat management page explains how it works.
Frequently asked questions
What share of my revenue should come from DMs?
There’s no right share, because it depends on what your subscription includes and how your fans use the page. It’s more useful to compare your own last three months and ask why the share moved.
How often should I send mass messages?
You can send as often as you’re able to keep up the quality while the number of buyers holds steady and unsubscribes stay flat. If you change one thing at a time, such as sends per week, you can compare the results before the next change.
What do fans notice when a team handles the inbox?
They mostly notice faster, steadier replies. We write in your voice within the limits you set and pass anything that needs your decision back to you.
Would you like a second opinion on your inbox numbers? Tell us about your page and we’ll get back to you within 12 hours.