Messenger marketing is heavily tipped to be the future, and if you haven’t heard of it, now is a good time. With some of the facts pointing towards its growth, and some of the names supporting it, it’s hard to disagree that it might even take email marketing’s spot at number 1.
Both should still be used at the same time, but messenger is definitely the new, exciting marketing powerhouse.
In this post, we’re going to explain what it is, how it works and why marketers all over the world are raving about its possibilities.
What is messenger marketing?
At its most basic form, messenger marketing is about talking to a customer or potential customer on any form of messaging app, be it Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Line, Skype, Slack, WeChat, Telegram or any of the other popular messaging app logos that could be on your home screen. Quite self-explanatory, but a good starting point. This can be through a person behind a computer or by a Chatbot (we’ll get into these later).
Subscribers
To get the most from Messenger Marketing, you have to understand it like an email subscriber list. You build up a list of Messenger subscribers which you can ‘broadcast’ to when needed.
See the chart below and the high rate of subscribers over the period of a month.
Messenger Marketing is the new kid on the block for sure, but is definitely carrying a huge amount of potential.
Why is it so loved?
As a marketer, it’s important to be on platforms that are good for your target audience. The thing with messenger, however, is that literally everyone is on it.
Messenger boasts 1.3 billion users, which is increasing by 100 million every 6 months. Those numbers are honestly too big to ignore, and messenger has been a huge untapped market for a long time.
As well as this, you can do a lot of things you can’t with previous marketing methods, like SMS. With messenger being a primarily social app, your marketing material can be presented as such. This includes GIFs, photo galleries, videos and more. A huge talking point is that you can send clickable call-to-action buttons, which can make it extremely convenient for customers to access your service.
Email list contacts can be acquired through asking for permission on messenger, and there are an infinite number of other ways you can engage and interact with customers, going from booking appointments to conducting surveys about your product.
What makes it better than SMS or email?
Traditional channels like email or SMS are definitely more prone to spam. Neither of these really have anything (other than the email junk folder- which is very imperfect) that can protect the user from receiving viruses, phishing scams or whatever else a party is trying to take advantage of users with.
Because of the general mistrust in emails and SMS, both methods have worryingly low open rates and click-through rates, and don’t generally garner anywhere near as much attention as legitimate companies are expecting from their promotional material.
With messenger, this isn’t an issue. People hugely trust the system because it’s one that’s almost exclusively used for socialising. As well as this, there are a wealth of precautionary measures that stop spamming from happening.
When you get a message from an account that doesn’t have you as a friend, it comes up in your message requests, and you’re given the option to mute them and report them to Facebook too. With pages, no page can send you a message unless you have previously engaged with them, or if you’ve given them permission elsewhere. This filters out all spam and makes sure users don’t get annoyed at unwanted messages. You can also opt out at any time when you’re communicating with them!
This is tough for marketers at first glance, but overall, it’s a really healthy feature that cuts out all spammers, and leaves only those who have interested customers. If a customer is angry at their inbox being full, they’re less likely to even see genuine marketing messages, never mind reply.
This means higher open rates, read rates and click-through rates for your business. When a user’s inbox isn’t comparable to the wild west, they’re surprisingly cooperative- messenger currently holds an 80% average click-through rate!
(See the broadcast report below, this current broadcast acquired an unheard open rate of 95%!)
People use messaging apps constantly for contacting family, keeping in touch with friends, organising social events, chatting to people they’ve met online and for an infinite amount of other reasons. As a business, you’re talking to them in the easiest place. They don’t have to go anywhere or leave the app they use the most, it’s just like any other conversation.
How can I make full use of messenger marketing?
- Short and sweet messages are a must. Messenger marketing should be extremely easy to digest, because people don’t want to read 1000 letter emails anymore. In the age of information, attention spans are on a gradual downwards slope. People in general are getting used to shorter, straight to the point messages when talking to friends and family, and they expect the same when talking to a company.
- Ask questions! Engagement is important, and the longer you can talk to customers, the more you can teach them about your product or service, and the more likely you are to get a lead.
- Look into all the features. There’s a lot of things that can be done on messenger especially, and using as many as possible (within reason) keeps your chats interesting and effective. Carousels are a personal favourite, but see what works for your business.
- Read your reports. You can keep track of your active subscribers, see who has opted in and out, check your click-through rates and an abundance of other statistics to do with your message history with consumers. These can shed major amounts of light onto your campaign and give you the tools to reach a wider audience.
- Use a Chatbot. This is the easiest way to have full one-to-one conversations with every customer, without the need for a huge customer service team. You can use these wonderful bots to give information on your product, answer queries, fish out leads and more!
So, what exactly is a Chatbot?
According to Oxford Dictionary, a chatbot is:
“A computer program designed to simulate conversation with human users, especially over the Internet.”
It’s essentially a member of your team, that does all the mundane leg-work for you. They handle multiple requests from users at the same time, reply instantly, can answer questions and generally converse with customers 24/7. They’re a huge part of messenger marketing and really worth the effort in the long-run.
Where should I start?
As you can’t message people without permission, getting permission is a good place to start. Use your already existent marketing channels to build up a subscriber base. Make sure to put links into your website, social media pages, online ads and whatever else you have at your disposal. The more you do, the bigger your head start.
If you have an event or offer on, be sure to mention this in your messenger campaign. Having a conversation topic in mind gives more substance to your conversation and sheds some more light on what your company does.
A big thing to remember is that you’re talking ‘with’ a customer, not to them. Be conversational. While you should definitely fit in as much information as you can, you’re helping a customer and discussing your services, not coldly selling a product. Provide them with value and a service. If they want to buy, they will, if they don’t, they won’t. Just be friendly!
The future of Messenger Marketing
Messenger marketing is really blossoming into a major marketing channel, and knowing the basics can really help give a company a boost with a younger demographic, improve their customer service, make them appear more tech-savvy and give them more leads! It’s a win-win and being ahead of the curve is what every company should aim for.
Want a Chatbot for your company?
We here at TribeMiner can develop the perfect messenger funnels for you, script and automate your Messenger bot, and help build a strong relationship with your tribe! See a full list of our services and prices here:
https://www.tribeminer.co.uk/service-item/messenger-marketing/
Or, alternatively you can check out our chatbot we built for our business card below…
Simply open up Facebook Messenger on your phone, press on camera then point the camera at the circle Messenger Code on the business card below, hold your finger on the screen to focus on it and see the magic happen!
(For the lazy people you can simply click here instead
Check our business card bot)