by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor
In 2016, The New York Times published an article sharing with readers the surprising amount of time social media, specifically Facebook, consumes out of our day. Active users on Facebook and Messenger reached over 1 billion people and the average amount of time spent on these platforms is nearly an hour.
With users spending about 50 minutes a day using Facebook and Messenger, it’s a no-brainer that you want to leverage Facebook to gain customers and leads. To be successful, your business must change as its customers change. Time spent on mobile devices and social media networks is steadily increasing, so you need to be easily accessible and open to communication.
But recent publications indicate that it won’t be Facebook that’s dominating the marketing world in 2018. Instead, it will be the new ability to use Messenger as a channel to promote your business. Aside from the regular Facebook newsfeed, there are a few ways to also utilize the Messenger app to draw in new customers with your promotional tactics.
One-On-One Promotions
Now, not only can you can create an ad that appears on the Facebook newsfeed, you can take your ad to your audience with a one-on-one experience. You can personalize an ad with a custom message to your audience and choose a call-to-action. When your ad appears on the homepage of Messenger, potential customers are just a click away from chatting with you in real time.
Utilizing Chatbots
If you’re going to utilize Messenger to communicate with customers and clients, a chatbot may be just what you need. By using a Messenger chatbot, you can automatically reply to customers. Instant access and quick replies keep clients and customers happy, and keep them coming back with your excellent customer service. You can create a custom message that will automatically be sent to the customer, giving you time to get back to your computer or phone to reply.
Companies like Food Network and Whole Foods Market also use chatbots to help their followers find other interesting related content and articles. This opens up a new way to reach your audience and allows you to deliver personalized content – you now have a way to give your customers and clients an experience that you otherwise would not have before.
Convenience of Privacy
Taking advantage of the ability to instant message is not only convenient for your customers, it’s convenient for you. Messenger is also a great tool because of its ability to be more private. You can easily handle negative feedback or other matters privately at an instant without ever leaving the Facebook messenger app. It also allows you to keep track of and document all your conversations for quality control or to bring forward later on if they are needed.
Event Reminders and Updates
Another feature of Messenger that works well for marketing is the ability to engage your audience with events outside social media. Facebook users have the ability to sign up for events through Messenger. When they do, they will automatically be sent a reminder for the details of the event. In the days before the event, your customers may be notified and kept up to date about any new information.
This way of communicating updates about events proves more effective than traditional email updates. A study done by Hubspot noted the open rate for Messenger broadcasts was at 80% while the open rate for emails was only at 33%.
Collecting Customer Feedback
Since Messenger allows conversations to be kept for future reference, using data from Messenger chats can be a great way to create better ads that ensure you’re reaching the people you’re targeting. Your communication with customers can reveal a lot about the audience you’re trying to reach – struggles, desires, and wishes.
Messenger is a great place to get feedback and ask opinions. You can get a small piece of the conversations already going on in your customers’ lives. Being able to transform Messenger data into something real and substantial can help you better serve your customers. When you understand more about the people who are using your products or services, you have some great intel into what marketing tactics can help you most effectively reach your target audience and give your business a boost.
Comment-to-Messenger Function
An essential part of using Messenger to help you understand what customers want is the comment-to-messenger function, which allows you to auto-message anyone who comments on your Facebook posts. Instead of using an ad to create a promotion or produce a lead, you become invested – you are taking an approach that is relationship-oriented.
Now, not only can you gain context into the goals of your customers and clients, you have made a way available to have a sales conversation. Offers for products, deals, or special promotions have become relevant to them. Your advertisements aren’t random and they aren’t just considered spam, so your business has an even better chance of success.
The sky is the limit with interactive Facebook Messenger marketing. If you are ready to take it to the next level you might want to look into a service like ManyChat. How have you used Messenger to personalize your marketing efforts? Have you had success? What problems have you encountered, and how did you solve them? We’d love to hear your feedback. Share your comments below.
Donna Amos is passionate about helping Solopreneurs grow their business using everything digital and publishing. She has 30 years experience in sales and marketing for small business. She believes the best gift you can give another is a word of encouragement.
