How to do Messenger Marketing

The one question I get asked the most is 'how to do Messenger Marketing'. That's because it is such a new marketing channel that many businesses are hearing about it for the first time.

I have been doing Messenger marketing since it started and have seen some great successes with it. I realised that educating businesses and drawing more attention to this amazing channel is the path I need to take.

So how does Messenger marketing work?

Here are a few tips that I have used when building chatbots for brands...

Before I get into how Messenger marketing works... let me start with why.

Why Messenger Marketing?

What if I was to tell you that Messenger had 1.3 billion active users every month yet only 1% of businesses have automated chatbots. Yep, that is not a type... 1%! Only 1 in every 100 businesses are using chatbots to engage with their audience.

This statistic gives me chills and what with email marketing and Facebook ads being saturated, Messenger Marketing is a nice new face to the digital marketing family. A face I want to hug and kiss all over because it has turned businesses I have worked on into revenue-generating brands.

if you're still not completely convinced, look at these open rates and CTR's from this chatbot:

Could you ever imagine getting 98% open rates on email?!

Ok, one more bit of information and I promise to move on but this one is far too good not to include.

The most important reason you need to implement a chat marketing strategy is that messaging apps have now taken over social media networks in terms of monthly active users. Again, knowing this, it is insane that only 1% of businesses are actively using chatbots.

How to do Messenger Marketing

Now you know exactly why you should be implementing a Messenger marketing strategy, let's get into how.

What do you want to achieve?

Before you dive right in and start building chatbots, think about what you want to get from messenger marketing. Are you an eCommerce business that wants to improve customer lifetime value? Are you a restaurant that wants to get repeat customers? Do you run a cosmetic clinic that wants to educate prospects?

Think about what your goal is before you start to plan.

Plan your content and objective

When planning what content to share with your audience, remember that Messenger must be treated very differently to email. You should not blast generic broadcasts to your audience but rather conversational messages that give a 1-to-1 experience.

There are 3 different types of content you need to plan; content to build subscribers, content to convert subscribers and content to delight subscribers so they keep coming back.

Let's look at these 3 types of content more closely...

Content to build subscribers

What do your customers want the most? If you're an eCommerce business, maybe it is offers that only subscribers get access to. If you're a restaurant, maybe it is to get a digital loyalty card. If you run events, maybe it is to offer a free upgrade to VIP.

Here is a screenshot from our homepage which has an offer and a button that directs visitors to our Messenger.

Make the offer so tempting that your audience simply can't resist and will want to subscribe to receive their reward. You can then use Facebook Ads and referral links to build subscribers which I will get into further on.

Content to convert subscribers

Once you have your subscriber, keep the message consistent with the offer they subscribed for. If you have promised access to exclusive offers, give them the offer. If they subscribed to get a digital loyalty card, provide the steps to set their loyalty card up.

This will be their first impression of your chatbot so impress them. Keep it fun and entertaining but most importantly... conversational.

Here's an example of our message after a user clicks on the 'notify me' button above.

Content to delight subscribers

Converted subscribers should not fall out of the sales funnel just because they have bought from you. Businesses are valued more if they have a good repeat customer rate.

This also doesn't mean that you should start bombarding subscribers with promotion after promotion. The only thing that will lead to is unsubscribes or even worse... subscribers blocking your chatbot.

Instead, offer them valuable content such as fun games if you're an eCommerce brand, exclusive recipes if you're a restaurant or to offer further support.

Here's an example of a message we send a day after the one above.

Build a main menu to let subscribers navigate

With software like ManyChat, you can build a menu to allow subscribers to navigate and choose what content they're most interested in.

One of the biggest tips I can offer is to place an unsubscribe button here.

This might seem odd but we want to keep our Messenger lists as clean and active as possible. It's all about quality, not quantity.

If subscribers don't know how to unsubscribe, they will most likely block you. Having too many blocks and reports will result in Facebook deactivating your chatbot completely and you lose all your subscribers.

You can use your menu to promote your most valuable piece of content, button to shop, current loyalty program points etc. Make the Messenger experience as easy as possible for your subscribers.

Let subscribers take control of what content they want to see

Beyond the main menu, you can also set up keywords so that when a subscriber types a word or phrase, they receive an automated message. For example, a subscriber could type 'offers' and then receive a message with all the current offers they can use on your website. You could also have 'upcoming events' so the subscriber then receives a message of all your upcoming events.

Here is an example of how it looks:

You can also use keywords such as 'stop' and 'unsubscribe' to let subscribers unsubscribe easily.

You can do all of this with ManyChat.

Use Messenger to engage with subscribers during a live event

This is a great way to use Messenger if you run live events such as conferences and concerts or even if you use Facebook Live a lot. There may be a lot of people in your audience who are not yet subscribed to your Messenger list so this is the perfect time to get them involved.

Give them a reason to subscribe such as keeping to date with meet-ups, the weekend itinerary, the chance to meet up with keynote speakers etc.

HubSpot has perfected this method as seen in one of their Messenger flows below.

To get this working so you're only messaging those that attended the live event, use ManyChat to add tags and place these subscribers into a sequence.

I will provide a step-by-step on how to set this up soon and will link it here when it's done.

Click-to-Messenger Ads

As I mentioned towards the start of this blog post, a great way to build subscribers is click-to-Messenger ads. This type of ad is far cheaper to run than newsfeed ads and has a higher conversion rate, which means... a higher return on ad spend (ROAS)!

In fact, a recent study found that click-to Messenger Ads can reduce cost per conversion by 30x-50x... I'm going to say it one more time, why is only 1% of businesses using this?!

If you're advanced with Facebook Ads then you will know already how to use JSON to create a custom message in Business Manager. If you're not familiar then ManyChat has an easy solution that lets you create a click-to-Messenger ad within their software.

Use the content to build subscribers you have already planned to promote an irresistible offer which users have to subscribe to receive.

Click-to-Messenger Ads needs a whole blog post for itself so I will work on this and link it here when I have done it.

Here is an example of a car dealership using click-to-Messenger ads:

Provide unbelievably fast customer service

What is so great about Messenger and ManyChat is that you can now integrate Shopify so subscribers will get instant updates on orders. You can also set up automated messages so if a customer writes a message with the words 'order' and 'update' in, your chatbot can instantly send them an update on their order.

No more delays, no more backlog of customer emails and best of all... no more unhappy customers!

You can also provide fast customer service for service businesses by allocating messages to team members but also using keyword triggers mentioned earlier to automate most of your customer service inquiries.

This will take a lot of listening and research. Look more closely at the language customers use to ask questions so you can create keyword triggers.

What would you use Messenger Marketing for?

Even though this is quite a detailed blog post, there is still so much you can do with Messenger which I will continue to write about and offer examples of.

What would you use Messenger marketing for?

I love hearing your ideas and turning them into functional chatbots so please, let me know and I will do my very best to offer you a solution.