Challenges are easy when 8 people join. They get messy when 80 do. Who actually opted in? Who completed Day 1? Who disappeared after Day 3? Who finished the whole thing? The content usually isn’t the hard part. Keeping track of everyone is. I saw someone using Skoot in a really simple way to fix this. Say you’re running a 7-day content challenge. You make a post and tell people: “Comment CONTENT if you want in.” Skoot watches that post for the keyword. When someone comments, it automatically: DMs them confirming they’re in. Tags them as “Opted In.” Then you create simple tags for: Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 …and so on. As members complete each day, you tag their progress. Now instead of trying to remember who did what from dozens of posts and notifications, you can look at someone and immediately see: Opted In ✓ Day 1 ✓ Day 2 ✓ Day 3 ✕ And now you know exactly who needs your attention. Who finished. Who fell behind. Who needs a nudge. And who actually followed through on the challenge. A 3-day challenge, 7-day challenge, 30-day challenge… same idea. You still run the challenge. Skoot just gives you a scoreboard so you’re not trying to remember 80 different people’s progress in your head.

If you’re trying to move free Skool members into a paid community, the first DM probably shouldn’t be selling the paid community. It should be getting a reply. One simple opening DM has been sent 64 times and got 48 replies. (Check attached image) 75% reply rate. The idea is simple: Offer something useful. A resource. A tool. Something that helps them get a quick win. Then ask: “Want me to send it over?” That’s a much easier YES than: “Want to upgrade to my paid community?” And once they reply, you’ve got a conversation instead of another silent free member. But now you have a different problem. Who needs the resource? Who replied but went quiet? Who seems like a fit for paid? Who needs another follow-up? That’s where Skoot fits nicely. You can use it to send the opening DM, follow up with people who don’t respond, then tag and organize conversations as people move closer to paid. So instead of trying to make the first DM do all the selling... use it to get the first tiny YES. Then have a system for what happens after.

Sam has a pretty simple system for booking sales calls from his Skool. When someone joins, he asks for their Skool or YouTube and takes a look. If he sees something he can genuinely help with, he sends a very human message: “Let’s call.” If they’re interested, he sends the Calendly and that’s where the automation takes over. If they don’t book, Skoot follows up. Sam doesn’t have to remember who got a link yesterday. Who said they’d book later or who disappeared after showing interest. In less than 2 weeks, those follow-ups helped book enough extra calls to produce 2 additional $1,000 sales. A lot of people hear “DM automation” and think: Automate the pitch. Automate the offer. Automate the whole conversation. Sam does almost the opposite. The part that benefits from context and judgement stays human. The repetitive part where someone simply needs reminding gets handed to Skoot. That’s probably the sweet spot. You notice the problem, start the conversation, and offer the help. Then let the system make sure interested people don’t quietly fall through the cracks because you forgot to follow up.

Most people write a follow-up DM once… then keep sending it forever. Even if nobody replies. One Skoot user was sending: “bump 👊 #NAME#” 6 sends. 0 replies. His weekly Inbox Insights report made that painfully obvious. So he changed the message to: “hey #NAME# - worth a reply?” Next report: 5 sends. 2 replies. 40% response rate. Tiny sample, obviously. But the idea is useful. Your Skool DMs shouldn’t be static. Every time you send the same welcome message, follow-up, booking nudge, reactivation DM, etc… you’re collecting data on whether people actually respond to it. So instead of guessing: “This sounds good.” You can look at: “This one gets replies.” “This one gets ignored.” Then keep the winners and rewrite the losers. Skoot can send you a weekly Inbox Insights report showing the reply rates for your DMs. You could even paste the report into ChatGPT and ask: “Which messages should I keep, and how would you rewrite the ones getting ignored?” Now every week tells you which DMs to keep and which ones to rewrite. Because the best DM isn’t the one you think sounds good. It’s the one people actually reply to.

Troy closed two people at $7,500 each. No sales calls. Because by the time he asks for the sale, most of the selling has already happened. He spends the time beforehand giving value, building trust, and letting people experience how he thinks. A 3-day challenge is one way he does it. So when the right person is ready, the conversation can be almost stupidly simple: “Opening a few spots. Want one?” “Yep.” “Cool, here’s the link.” Once your community and content are doing the pre-selling, the job changes. Now you need to keep track of: Who raised their hand? Who needs a follow-up? Who has an objection? Who’s ready for the payment link? Who went quiet halfway through? Troy uses Skoot pipelines to keep those conversations organized, then slash commands for the messages he finds himself sending repeatedly. So instead of relying on a calendar full of sales calls, he can move people through the final steps inside the DMs. The goal isn’t to automate persuasion. Do enough persuasion before the offer that the close becomes almost administrative. The selling happens before the DM. Skoot just helps you manage the few steps between: “I’m interested” and “Here’s the link.”