Although many people use Facebook Messenger every day, the mobile application still remains largely untapped in terms of business potential. For marketers, this is great news: they can capitalize on a vastly popular tool and still have first mover’s advantage. While other marketers are focusing their efforts on advertising, social media, and email, the modern marketer can hone in on a new frontier: Facebook Messenger Marketing.
There are currently 1.3 billion monthly users on Facebook Messenger. With such a large number, it’s an area your business shouldn’t ignore. Here are five different ways you can use Facebook Messenger to help your business generate revenue:
1) Start Planning
Every marketing strategy success is based on the foundation it’s built upon, and without the right planning tools, you may find that your project is all over the place. It’s not uncommon for businesses to have several people working on their marketing team, especially if you’ve outsourced some aspects of the strategy. On the other hand, you might have a business that sells software. Either way, communication is key. Use marketing project planning apps like TeamWeek to communicate with everyone involved in the project to ensure everyone on the team is on the same page and goals are being met.
2) Create Micro Newsletter with Messenger Marketing
Today, new tools like Botletter are sprouting to allow businesses to send email newsletters directly through the Messenger app. While this might seem counter-intuitive, many studies have shown it works. Instead of the traditional email marketing newsletter, you’d send micro newsletter directly to their inbox. While traditional email campaigns have a 20% open rate on average, open rates for Messenger are around 80%. Clickthrough rates for Messenger are also anywhere between 4x to 10x higher than email, depending on your industry and the nature of the messaging.
“Messenger sequences are way faster than email campaign sequences,” says renowned marketing expert Neil Patel. “With an email campaign sequence, you typically should wait a day or two before sending additional emails. With Facebook Messenger, you can send more messages in the next 10 seconds, 10 minutes, 10 days, whatever you want. Best of all, the response is instant and you can engage in real conversations with your leads.”
3) Improve Your Customer Service With Bots
Today’s customers want the ability to be able to reach the businesses they purchase from through several channels. After all, customer service can make or break your business. With half of all new businesses and startups losing half their initial customer base within five years, it’s more important than ever to focus on both customer acquisition and customer retention. One way to do that is to make yourself available more often, and to have a better customer service strategy.
Chatbots help make this possible. Facebook Messenger bots are automated messaging that offer your current and potential customers immediate responses to their inquiries. As you build your chatbot, think about every FAQ that comes to your customer support team. Think outside box, and go through your previous ticket requests to be sure you’ve covered every potential topic. This allows you to generate more high-quality answers across a range of topics. When you’re able to offer an immediate response, you increase the chances of them making a purchase right away.
4) Collect Data for Retargeting
After you’ve set up your Facebook Messenger bots, you can use it to retarget future customers. Retargeting is the process of attempting to reel customers back in that have already demonstrated interest in your product or service. In this case, they may have already interacted with you on Messenger or selected an option that took them to Messenger to opt-in. As you gather information and answers that were collected by your bot, you can use this to create the most relevant retargeting campaigns.
5) Incorporate Your Online Store
After your bot is fully built, you can easily link your online store. Through the Messenger Sales Channel, your customers can view products directly within the Messenger app. For instance, if a potential customer reaches out to your business through Messenger and asks questions about products, they can easily view related products without having to search manually. You can also add a “Buy Now” button, so customers can also purchase products directly from Messenger.