How Grocers List Fueled Major Growth For Mary Smith (And Her 500K Followers)
If you're a recipe creator drowning in "where's the recipe?" DMs while watching your real engagement suffer, Mary Smith's story (of Mary’s Whole Life) will hit home.
She went from being completely overwhelmed to building a system that grows her audience and revenue automatically.
From 137K to nearly 500K followers (in less than 2 years!), 5% to 21% affiliate conversions, and $100+ Amazon revenue daily, here's her exact playbook.
She breaks it all down on this episode of Food Blogger Pro, too!
Making The Switch From ManyChat To Grocer’s List
After using ManyChat for about a year and a half, her Instagram DMs had become unmanageable. "I got super, super frustrated with the amount of DMs I was getting saying, “Where’s the recipe?” “I’m not getting the recipe.” Literally my inbox was filled with that every single day.”
The constant flood of frustrated followers asking for recipes was creating a bigger problem than just inbox chaos. "I stopped being able to communicate with my readers at that point because I'm missing all these other DMs from people asking me questions or commenting on recipes," Mary says. The tool that was supposed to help her connect with her audience was actually cutting off real engagement.
When she heard about Grocers List, Mary hesitated. Like many creators, she was worried about the technical nightmare of switching platforms. "I was scared of how that transition was going to look. I didn't want to have any downtime in between. I didn't want people to be commenting on a reel from a month ago and not get the recipe because it wasn't connected."
But after a call with the Grocers List team, those fears disappeared quickly. "It was the most seamless transition. Within 24 to 48 hours, all of my previous reels were hooked up so that there wasn't any downtime at all."
Looking back, Mary wishes she'd made the move sooner. "I'm kind of kicking myself for not signing up sooner because there are seriously so many great features to Grocers List and what they're doing."
The switch didn't just solve her DM problem. It opened up entirely new ways to grow her business that she hadn't even considered with her previous setup.
Getting 3,000 New Subscribers in 5 Months With Comment for Recipe and Save to Email
Once Mary switched to Grocers List, email list growth became almost automatic. Using Comment for Recipe, she sets her keywords to "recipe" and "recipes," drops her recipe link in each caption, and anyone who comments gets a link in their DMs. No manual setup for each post like she had to do with ManyChat.
The real magic happens by combining this with Save to Email. Since January, this single feature has grown her email list by 3,000 subscribers. People who are genuinely interested in saving her recipes.
Not only will commenters receive the link, they also have the option to save it to their emails:
(Pssst. Notice how this is a carousel! It means Mary can include multiple links, including affiliate links to her favorite products.)
But one of her absolute favorite growth hacks has been something she learned at the Tastemaker Conference from @whatmollymade’s Molly Thompson (more on Molly’s Grocers List playbook here).
Based on Molly’s advice, Mary created her "Top 10 Most Viral High Protein Recipes" ebook using a Canva template from Etsy in just a couple hours. Then, she turned it into a reel featuring clips from each recipe with trending audio, telling viewers to comment “ebook” to get it for free.
The hook? People have to join her email list on this landing page to download it. "That strategy is amazing because people are getting something in return and then they're put into my welcome series and then they're part of my email list," Mary explains. These new subscribers automatically get her weekly meal plans and regular emails, turning a single ebook download into ongoing engagement.
Mary’s Instagram Story Hack For More Views
Mary discovered something counterintuitive about Instagram Stories that most creators miss. Instead of posting multiple stories throughout the day, she does the opposite.
Her strategy: let all stories expire completely, then post one strategic slide promoting the ebook. The results are dramatic. One story hit 75,000 views compared to her typical 8,000-10,000.
The theory makes sense: Instagram rewards concise story content, and viewers are more likely to engage when they don't have to commit to watching 20+ slides. Mary uses this high-visibility moment strategically, usually promoting her free ebook to drive email signups. It's a simple hack that makes Instagram's algorithm work in her favor.
The Amazon Deep Link Game-Changer
A couple months ago, Mary had no idea what a deep link was. She had to ask her creator friends to explain it. Now, it's become one of her highest-converting revenue streams.
The concept is simple but powerful. When you post a regular Amazon affiliate link on Instagram, it opens Amazon within the Instagram app. Users often aren't logged into their Amazon account there, so they have to sign in, add payment info, and jump through multiple hoops before buying anything. Unsurprisingly, most people abandon the process.
Deep links change everything. Instead of opening Amazon within Instagram, they take users directly to their Amazon app, where they're already logged in with saved payment information. So rather than being a total pain, it becomes a one-click purchase experience.
The results speak for themselves. Mary's conversion rate jumped from 5% with regular affiliate links to 21% with deep links. She's now averaging 11 cents per click, which is 10x higher than what she pays for the deep link service.
Seeing these numbers, Mary set an ambitious goal for June: post something from Amazon every single day. So far, she's averaging about $100 in daily revenue from this strategy alone.
Mary’s Exact Amazon Deep Link Playbook
Mary uses deep links in two main ways. The obvious one is Instagram Stories, though she discovered something surprising about her food-focused audience. "I will get literally 10x more people clicking on clothing links than I will food," she admits. Even when she’s sharing recipe content, followers constantly ask about what she’s wearing.
Here’s an example:
Then, she’s able to save these stories to a highlight for her audience to find later, too.
The second approach is more subtle. When her McGriddle muffins reel went viral, she didn't just link to the recipe. Using Grocers List's carousel feature, she added a second card with a deep link to the protein gluten-free pancake mix she used in the recipe:
The compound effect was powerful: people went to her site for the recipe (driving traffic and email signups) and over 550 people bought the pancake mix through her Amazon affiliate link.
This strategy works so well because it feels so natural. It doesn’t feel overly salesy or pushy. Just promotes a product she uses and loves.
Trying Something New: Mary’s Weekly Meal Plan System
Mary launched her weekly meal plans just two months ago, and it's already become one of her most valuable services. The structure is consistent and manageable: one breakfast, one lunch, five dinners (Monday through Friday), and one dessert every week, delivered to subscribers every Friday morning at 8 AM.
The behind-the-scenes process is where Grocers List really shines. Mary uploads the URLs for all her chosen recipes into the platform, and within five seconds, it generates a complete, curated grocery list for the entire week. A brand-new PDF feature now automates the formatting, though Mary was previously copying and pasting the grocery list into Canva herself.
Her final product is a two-page Google Drive document that subscribers love. The first page shows graphics of all the recipe photos for each day, and those photos are clickable links that take people directly to the full recipes. The second page is a printable grocery list they can take to the store.
Mary's made the grocery lists smarter through trial and error. The system pulls ingredients directly from her recipe cards, but she's learned to optimize the output. If one recipe calls for "ground beef" and another specifies "grass-fed ground beef," she'll condense them into one line item. She also excludes everyday spices that most people already have like: salt, pepper, garlic powder, because including them makes the list feel more overwhelming than helpful.
The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Subscribers constantly thank her for saving them time, and Mary's integrated the meal plans seamlessly into her overall email strategy. Instead of maintaining separate lists, everyone who signs up for her emails gets both the meal plans and her regular weekly newsletter.
The newest feature takes convenience even further. Grocers List now allows direct integration with Amazon Fresh, complete with affiliate linking. Subscribers can grocery shop straight from Mary's curated list, and she earns commission on those purchases, turning her meal plans into another revenue stream.
For Mary, the time savings alone make the system worthwhile. What used to take hours of manual work now happens automatically, freeing her to focus on creating content and building other parts of her business.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
Mary's growth over the past 18 months shows exactly what's possible with consistency and a constant push to be just a little better every day.
Let's break down the numbers...
Audience Growth
3,000 new email subscribers in 5 months
Amazon Affiliate Revenue
Conversion rate jumped from 5% to 21% using deep links
Averaging 11 cents per click (10x ROI on deep link service costs)
$100+ daily revenue from consistent Amazon posting strategy
For Mary, these aren't just vanity metrics. They represent multiple revenue streams working together to build a sustainable creator business while actually saving her time and reducing the overwhelm that was killing her engagement with her audience.
Grow Your Business Like Mary
What started as a simple switch from ManyChat to solve a DM problem became the foundation for multiple revenue streams. Mary didn't just grow her following, she built a sustainable creator business that actually saves her time instead of consuming it.
The proof is in her results. But the real win? Mary can focus on what she loves – creating recipes.
For recipe creators feeling overwhelmed and questioning their existing toolkit, Mary's playbook proves there's a better way. Sometimes the solution isn't working harder, it's working smarter with the right tools.
So if you’re ready to give Mary’s playbook a shot, try Grocers List. And be sure to follow @maryswholelife on Instagram for more inspiration.
