What is Facebook Messenger Marketing?

Facebook Messenger marketing is similar to other forms of marketing – except it’s done through Facebook’s messaging app. You can connect with your customers or clients and send the same sort of content and information as you would via an email marketing campaign. However, chat is a much more informal platform and creates an intimate personal tone with your customers. The recipient of a Facebook Messenger message is far more likely to engage with it than if it had landed in their email inbox. It is also instant and interactive, allowing Messenger users to reply to you directly if they wish. All of this creates the sense that the customer is being contacted personally by your brand rather than just being a name on a mailing list.

Chatbots are automated programs that can take your Facebook Messenger marketing to the next level. They can answer questions, conduct conversations, send content, make appointments, book reservations, provide customer service, and direct customers to your website. You can offer your customers the option to speak to an actual person while letting chatbots deal with enquiries instantly and effectively. They also enable you to quickly reach your prospects on a huge scale in comparison to responding manually to messages.

Increased open rates, higher levels of engagement and interaction with prospective customers, more personalized messaging, are just a few of the benefits of using Messenger marketing. We go into them in more depth below…

Achieve Much Higher Levels of Engagement and Conversions
Statistics show that your prospects are far more likely to open your Facebook message than an email. According to Constant Contact, overall open rates for emails across all industries are 14.7%. If the email relates to Education then that average goes up to 15.8%. If you’re in Marketing, it drops to 12.1%. Facebook Messenger messages, in contrast, have an overall average open rate of between 50 to 80%. And that’s before taking the click-through rates into consideration.
Overall click-through rates for emails hover just below the 7% mark. When it comes to Facebook messenger, however, that shoots up to between 20 and 60%. With stats like this, it’s clear why more and more brands are turning to Facebook Messenger for their marketing needs. More of the right clicks leads to increased leads and conversions.

Increased Trust Levels
Increasingly, people are viewing a lot of their email as spam or junk. Inboxes are often full of unopened emails and many are deleted without being read. Email marketing can be considered intrusive, and your prospects may be skeptical that the contents of your email will be to their interest or benefit. Or, worse still, that it may contain a virus that will wreck their devices. Facebook Messenger does not, as yet, carry these negative connotations and trust levels in comparison are far higher as a result.

Facebook Messenger is Super Easier to Interact With
Unlike email marketing, Facebook Messenger recipients do not need to take a laborious scenic route if they want to get in touch with you. They can just reply directly to your message. Messenger messages naturally tend to be shorter than emails too, removing the work of wading through long paragraphs of text. This lends a more natural and organic feel to the communication you have with your customers.

It’s a Marketer-friendly Medium
Some brands use SMS as a marketing medium. Rarely a weekend goes by without Dominos informing several million people that they can get a great price on pizza. While you may be able to effectively reach your audience via SMS, it is quite a restrictive method of communication. With Facebook Messenger, you can send links, images, videos, direct customers to specific pages on your website and add call to action buttons. In addition to this, customers won’t ever need to pay SMS charges to reply to you.

Adds a Personal Touch
Interacting with your customers via messenger adds a personal touch that is not easily achieved through other methods of marketing. There is a passive feel to most forms of advertising, whether it be magazine, television, email or billboard. The information is projected at the audience who have very little say in the matter. Facebook Messenger marketing, on the other hand, is an interactive experience. Responses are tailored for your customer personally, whether that be answering their queries, directing them to the right place, or making an appointment.

Reach Customers with Direct App Communication
Television advertising has long been focused on reaching a brand’s target market. This is why you are more likely to see advertisements for baby products during daytime television shows rather than during half time at a football match. But what if your audience isn’t hanging out in front of the television much anymore? Studies show our social media use is continually increasing, not just as a platform to post statuses and share content but also as one of our main methods of direct communication. 1.3 billion people use Facebook messenger monthly. Your target market is already on the app. It makes sense that your business should be too.

Chatbots are fast becoming the most popular way to increase sales online. Messenger bots are also ideal for customer service, to answer frequently asked questions automatically, or used to speak directly with your customer services team.

Selling Products and Services
Facebook Messenger is fast becoming a lead generation tool for businesses around the world. The use of chatbots to help sell products is also gaining in popularity. Responding quickly and offering information about appropriate products or services points your customers in the right direction. This can be linked to your website to make sure information and prices are always up to date. Products can be viewed directly in the app and you can also add a Buy Now button. Furthermore, you can even add Facebook Chat to your e-commerce site and take your customer journey to the next level.

Customer Service Becomes More Efficient
Customer service can be handled efficiently via Messenger. Chatbots can be employed to deal with standard queries such as tracking orders or answering questions regarding products, services, prices, opening times and so on. It also gives you a golden opportunity to squash any negative feedback or complaints as quickly as possible. A lot of the time customers are annoyed by the handling of their grievances as much as the grievance itself. Facebook Messenger gives the customer the impression of direct contact in a way that other complaint methods do not. This enables you to reach out to them empathetically and deal with any issue as quickly and efficiently as possible, limiting damage to you brand image in the customer’s mind.

Building Strong Relationships with Potential Customers
With prospects more receptive to your messenger communications, it offers the perfect opportunity to build lasting relationships with existing and future customers. This may take the form of sending them entertaining content or interactive gameplay. Some brands offer giveaways, for example, a free app download. All of these communications have the potential to build a positive image of your brand in the customer’s mind and make them more likely to choose you over the competition.