Facebook Messenger marketing – whether you’re well versed in it, barely scratched the surface, or never even heard of it, not to worry! In this article, we’ll take you from the basics to the advanced, so you’ll be able to implement the strategies that can consistently and effortlessly generate extra revenue for your store.
Why Messenger marketing?
You’ve heard us talk about the importance of email marketing a thousand times, so by now, you must know why it’s a crucial component for your business. But what about Messenger marketing? A lot of stores these days are still unaware of the power of Messenger, and the huge ROI it can bring to businesses.
The benefits of Messenger marketing include:
- 4x higher open rate than emails
- 8-12x higher click rate than emails
- 2x higher $/recipient than emails
- Decreased need for customer service
- Interactive way to communicate with your customers and showcase your brand
- Personalized product recommendations for your customers based on their interests
As you might experience, companies try to reach people with email campaigns every day, and many people have hundreds of unread emails sitting in their inbox. However, Messenger is a more private and less mainstream way for a company to communicate with its (potential) customers. This is why we have to make sure we’re not intrusive and each message we send out serves a purpose.
Compared to SMS marketing, FB Messenger marketing gives you the space for endless creativity and almost no limits to showcasing your values, your products, and your brand’s essence.
How to get started?
Similarly to emails, Messenger marketing has 2 parts: the automations (like email flows) and the campaigns.
There are many different software solutions out there that help you set these up, such as:
- Recart
- Manychat
- Chatfuel
At Budai Media, we have worked with Recart and Manychat which have brought excellent results for our clients, and the great thing is that these solutions are constantly improving and evolving, rolling out new features to test and implement.
Types of messages
Automations + Widgets and Pop-ups
Setting up the Facebook Messenger automations is going to be the core of your success with Messenger. You’re able to implement different widgets and pop-ups on your store’s pages, which, in turn, generate new subscribers and thus more revenue.
The most important thing to get started with is to determine what widgets and pop-ups you want to use to start gaining new subscribers. Each widget is fully customizable and has its own purpose, from giving discounts to new customers, to encouraging people to sign up for their order updates.
Based on the customer’s current stage in the buying journey, these apps offer various widgets to hook people in at the right time. Some of our favorites include the following tools from Recart:
Welcome Pop-up
Similar to an email capture, welcome pop-ups can target users and prompt them with a discount or special offer. Upon sign-up, people are taken to their Messenger app, where the bot sequence begins and the offer is shown.
Discount Widget
Offer an incentive to first-time buyers if they subscribe with their Messenger! Whether that’s a 10% discount, a gift that comes with a purchase, or free shipping, these are guaranteed to increase your subscriber list.
Integrations with other apps
Luckily, thanks to the many integrations, you can connect Messenger with your other apps, such as Loox, Wheelio, and Klaviyo, and reach your customers with an omnichannel marketing strategy.
Order page subscription
Let customers know they can keep track of their order right from their Messenger app! When their order is processed, they’re notified straight away. It’s also a great way to offer them a discount on their next purchase.
C2M Ads
Besides implementing various widgets on your site, there’s another way to gain valuable Messenger subscribers. You’re able to run ads on Facebook, which instead of taking users to your website or funnel, would direct them to Messenger, where they enter a special flow.
Previous campaigns that have worked well for us include giveaways and special discounts.
Sponsored Messages
You may or may not have heard, but due to regulations by Facebook, businesses can only send out messages to their subscribers within a 24 hour period from the start of the trigger. (Trigger could be opting in as a subscriber – for welcome messages, or abandoning your cart – for abandoned cart flows, or your order being processed – for order updates)
So, if there’s a special sale on your website, the only way you can reach your subscribers is by running sponsored messages. In the email world, this would be the equivalent of campaigns, except you need to pay for them, and it’s not guaranteed that it gets sent out to all your subscribers.
These sponsored messages tend to show the best ROI, but you need to be careful and not send out more than 1-2 campaigns per month as your subscribers will quickly lose interest.
Optimize your Messenger strategy
Get interactive
A great way to engage subscribers is to ask them questions, to which they can simply respond with the touch of a button. This way you can segment them based on their interest and intentions.
Common questions to ask would be:
- Are you shopping for yourself or for someone else?
- Which categories interest you the most?
- Have you shopped with us before?
- What type of …. do you have? (e.g. skin – to help you show the best skin care product for their problem)
- How many times do you … ? (e.g. workout – to determine which protein powder would suit them the best based on their lifestyle)
These answers give you valuable information about your potential customers and can help you give targeted product recommendations or blog posts, etc. based on their response.
Get creative
How does your customer usually communicate with their friends? Do they use emojis, memes, or GIFs? Do they send images, videos, or audio?
Facebook Messenger marketing automations give you the opportunity to use all of the above creatives. Whether it’s a fun GIF of your product being used, a carousel of various product recommendations, or beautiful imagery that represents your brand, there are no excuses to be boring!
Top tip: Use a mixture of fun GIFs from giphy.com and GIFs of your product to make your messages memorable.
Get effective
Did you know? You don’t have to compromise on gaining Messenger subscribers but potentially losing out on email or SMS subscribers! Thanks to the various integrations, you are able to implement an email or SMS input into your flows, which means you can kill two birds with one stone: You get a Messenger subscriber and receive their email or phone number.
Top tip: Implement the email or SMS input into flows where you offer a discount. This way, before users would receive their coupon code, they’d be required to enter their email or phone number.
Get experimental
Now that you know the ins and outs of Messenger marketing, all that’s left is to get out there and test, test and TEST some more! Just like with Facebook Ads, you need to play around with different variations until you find that one winner ad that’s converting like crazy.
So check what’s working, try new creatives, analyze the data, and as with everything else in business: keep improving!
Top tip: Give enough time to test a new feature. Try a two week period for each variation to test, so you get enough data and traffic to make the decision.
Why not make your retention strategy even more effective?
Target your new Messenger subscribers who have just made a purchase and share with them details about your loyalty program. Whether you have a point system going, where for each action customers can gain loyalty points, or you want to make your referrals stronger, this is your chance to re-engage your fresh customers while they’re still new to your brand! You can share the offer and link them to your loyalty page where they can create a profile or find out more about your program!
Want to learn more? Check out our case study on How we made 18% of a POD store’s monthly revenue with a welcome flow and our podcast episode about SMS and Messenger marketing.
