You’ve heard the classic quote, “Swing big.” What if we told you Facebook Messenger marketing was your opportunity to do exactly that?
Facebook Messenger is one of the best ways for ecommerce brands to connect with their customers and increase monthly revenue, and we’ll show you exactly how to do that in this guide. When you’re shopping online with your favorite brands, how important is it for you to have a direct line to be able to connect with store owners to ask questions, receive promotions, hear updates, and discover great products? For customers who are advocates for a specific brand, having a quick way to connect is extremely important for customer satisfaction.
Not only is Facebook Messenger a great way to reach out to your customers instantaneously (open rates reach past 80%), but it’s an opportunity for you to build a stronger relationship with new and current customers. This leads to increased opt-ins, purchases, and retention. This guide will explain the importance of Facebook Messenger marketing for your ecommerce business, how it will help you grow, features you can use with Octane AI and your Shopify store to reach your ecommerce goals, and the positive results you’ll see.
You may have heard about messenger marketing before, or at least engaged with messenger marketing communications with one of your favorite brands. Messenger marketing is the process of using messenger apps and platforms to reach customers instantly to get them interested in your brand or products. Popular platforms include Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and WeChat.
Messenger marketing is used to send promotions and discount codes, send shipping updates, share product releases and news, share helpful content, and answer customer questions. The main goal is to earn more leads from opt-ins so you can continue to have valuable conversations that will drive customers to make a purchase. The type of messages sent are helpful to guide customers to react and complete an action, such as visiting your website, making a purchase, liking your social pages, and more. Sounds good so far, right?
We know what you might be thinking: “Why can’t I just use email?” Well, did you know that there are over 269 billion emails sent every day? That’s a significant increase compared to the 1 billion Facebook Messenger messages sent every day.
With fewer messages filling customers’ inboxes on Facebook Messenger, there’s a better opportunity for brands to be noticed and have their messages be read. This is why Facebook Messenger marketing is a great tool for ecommerce brands.
The other reason Messenger marketing should be a part of your marketing stack is that the average open rates and click-through-rates are higher than email too. For example, the average open rate for an email is between 14-18%, and the click-through-rate is about 2-3%. Like we said before, this is because your customers’ emails have become so saturated with content, so it’s difficult to get your email to stand out among the rest. However, the Facebook Messenger open rates alone average at 80% with a 33% click-through-rate. The difference between the two is undeniable. Even compared to all the messenger platforms available, Facebook Messenger continues to rank as one of the highest and most-used platforms. In fact, the Facebook Messenger app is the third most-downloaded app with well over 1.2 billion users. With the number of people using Facebook Messenger every day, it’s a smart choice for ecommerce brands to use it as their main source of messenger marketing, especially with such high open rates and click-through-rates.
At Octane AI, we see results that are equally as positive, which is why we help brands scale their business with Messenger marketing tactics and features. If you want your brand to be noticed, it’s time to look into Facebook Messenger marketing tactics.
Have you just recently launched a Shopify brand? Check out our inspirational PDF featuring 250+ Shopify brand product pages for some inspiration:
Now that you understand what Facebook Messenger marketing is, you may be wondering how it will help your business. Aside from higher open rates and click-through-rates, Messenger marketing will ensure your brand offers customers a better overall experience. You’ll simply connect, convert, and retain customers over time. Here are a few key differences that will make your business stand out by using Facebook Messenger marketing tactics:
Having a unique and personal relationship with your customers is a major bonus for your brand to stand out compared to the ones that aren’t able to do this. Through Facebook Messenger, you can build that personal relationship by talking to customers one-on-one, greeting them with their real name, and helping them find products they’re searching for based on their needs.
A study by Facebook found when a brand is available and active on a messaging app, 66% of consumers will have more confidence in their purchases. This same study found that 55% of customers will feel more connected to a brand that’s active on a messaging app as well. This shows that Facebook Messenger is a great way to give your customers the confidence they need to build a relationship with you that’s personal. This leads to increased retention and better customer experiences.
Not only is Facebook Messenger great for building stronger relationships, but it also offers a better overall customer service experience. With Facebook Messenger marketing, your brand can offer faster response times, immediate shipping updates, and a familiar place where customers can easily ask questions like they could in brick-and-mortar stores. When you offer an instant way for customers to message and receive responses, you’re already offering a better customer experience than most. In fact, Hubspot found that 93% of customers are more likely to make a repeat purchase with brands that offer excellent customer service. Knowing this, it’s important that your business ensures a positive experience. As an example, check out how Kala Brand Music asks customers questions about what they’re looking for so they can recommend a product.
Customer service isn’t just for people first discovering your brand or for customers who’ve shopped with you before. Customer service is for consumers at all stages of the buyer’s journey, and 56% of global messaging app users say they’ve messaged brands for more information at all stages. This experience is bettered when brands attach the Facebook Messenger widget on their ecommerce website. With the widget, customers can directly interact with you through Facebook Messenger right on your homepage, product pages, and more. By implementing Facebook Messenger marketing, you’re guaranteed to better your customer service and create a simple space where customers can find help. Your Messenger marketing will support a community of loyal customers that will respect you and recommend you to their peers.
Have you been emailing promo codes and sales events to your customers with a low ROI and click-through-rate? You’ve seen the stats for messenger marketing, and it’s time to implement your campaigns with it for better results. Imagine if you sent these promotions to your customers through email, SMS, and Facebook Messenger? With the little bit of extra effort, you’ll have another channel to send value-added content to your customers who’ve chosen to opt-in, which means a higher chance for them to see your campaigns and interact with them. Your main goal is increasing your revenue—what better way to achieve that than by reaching customers and ensuring they notice you?
Another bonus from Facebook Messenger marketing is the ability to build stronger relationships that will lead to increased customer retention. When you offer instant and positive customer service, share promos with customers that care, and personalize the experience, you’re building a relationship that customers will remember. These customers will continue to shop with your brand, make repeat purchases, and head down the path toward becoming brand advocates.
It’s true that 80% of consumer messages on Facebook are about questions relating to products or services, and these shoppers will ask them before they are confident to make a purchase. Knowing that you’ve created the foundation for a strong customer bond, you’ll have created the ultimate way to both acquire new customers through their inquiries and retain them for their lifetime.
Shopify brands using Octane AI to power their Messenger marketing have seen amazing success. Check out our recent case study to learn more about Messenger marketing strategy:
Now that you’ve learned more about Messenger marketing and the benefits for both you and your customers, let’s talk about how Octane AI specifically can help your Shopify store scale your business. Knowing that over 56% of Messenger users say they’ve messaged brands to get more information in all stages of the buyer’s journey, Octane AI has features available that will help you connect with customers and convert them. Here are a few of our top features that Shopify brands love.
Conversational Facebook ads include click-to-Messenger ads and sponsored messages. Both offer many businesses an increase in opt-ins and revenue. Conversational ads are a type of Facebook ad that interacts with users in an automated Messenger chat. Through Messenger, there are many things you can do from advertising a promotion, collecting customer data, retargeting a specific subset of customers, and more.
Click-to-Messenger ads show up for a customer as they browse through their Facebook newsfeed. Similar to a regular sponsored ad, there will be a call-to-action for customers to engage with the ad. When customers click the CTA, it’ll launch a conversation in Facebook Messenger featuring the information advertised on the user’s Facebook feed.
Sponsored messages are direct messages that can be sent to users with targeting options based on audience and event data. Both types of ads are great for reaching a specific audience with a campaign they’ll be interested in, leading to increased opt-ins for your business and more revenue. For more information about conversational Facebook ads, check out Octane AI’s help center
Octane AI allows you to set up custom flows directly linked to customer actions on your website, such as cart abandonment and browse abandonment. For customers that have chosen to opt-in, you can reach them directly through Facebook Messenger to remind them about the products they were interested in.
The Cart Abandonment flow is for, well, when someone abandons one of your products they had added to their cart. You can see their cart and purchase, send them a message on Facebook Messenger to remind them about the product, and even add a discount to increase their likelihood of purchasing that product.
Browse Abandonment messages are reminders to your opted-in visitors about products they were looking at while they were browsing through your store’s catalog. This feature is for businesses on Octane AI’s Pro or Enterprise plan, and it can complement the cart abandonment messages well. However, you can only send one cart abandonment or browse abandonment to each customer every 30 days. Both are great features to re-engage customers to interact with your store and make a purchase.
With Octane AI, we have a series of opt-in tools available to help you capture more leads for your store. Some of our most popular include the welcome pop-up, exit intent pop-up, the customer chat widget, and comment capture. All of these features will encourage visitors to engage with your Messenger bot so you can start a new relationship with them.
The Customer Chat Widget is a small icon in the bottom right or left corner of your site. It allows customers to start messaging your bot directly from your Shopify store. Whether they have questions or want a discount, as soon as they start a conversation they have opted-in to receive updates from you through Messenger. This is a great way for customers to be able to engage with you simply from your site.
The Welcome Pop-up feature appears from your Messenger widget the first time someone visits your site. Usually this message will welcome the visitor and offer a discount code. When someone clicks the CTA, the messenger bot will trigger a conversation with the discount code for that visitor. You’ve now collected a new opt-in with this feature.
Similar to the Welcome Pop-up, the Exit Intent Pop-up encourages customers to subscribe to receiving messages through Messenger when they indicate they’re about to leave your site. For example, if they start to hover their cursor towards closing the page, the Exit Intent Pop-up will trigger a message reminding them to stay or offering a discount to entice them to continue shopping.
Comment Capture is a way for you to get opt-ins from your Facebook page rather than from your website. Once visitors have commented on one of your Facebook posts synced to the Comment Capture tool, they’ll receive a message from your bot asking if they would like to subscribe to your Messenger updates. This is a great tool to capture the interest of people who may not know that they have an option to receive updates from your store directly through Messenger.
There are many other opt-in tools available through Octane AI, but we’ve covered a few popular ones above that we’ve seen brands have great success with. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you’d like to learn more about the features available for your Shopify business with Octane AI.
The ROI from Facebook Messenger marketing has proven to be positive with more and more brands over time, and this is something we’ve specifically seen with the Shopify brands using Octane AI to power their SMS and Messenger marketing. We’ll share a few insights into how some of our brands have been performing recently below.
When customers choose to engage with you, it leads to an increase in revenue because you’ll start to grow your subscriber base and send each individual promotions, discounts, and other valuable messages that will drive them to make a purchase.
The opt-in tools have been successful; as Octane AI continuously makes regular improvements and updates to features, customers using our tools start to see an increase in visitors subscribing through the opt-in features. Recently, brands have found visitors opting-in at an average of 5.68% through the Welcome Pop-ups, 4.10% through the Exit Intent Pop-ups, and 8.76% with the Add-to-cart Popups. These numbers continue to increase as Octane AI updates and brands become more familiar with the features and tools they can use to increase their opt-in rates.
Offering coupons through welcome messages and exit intents, opt-in options on your website like pop-ups and on check-out pages, sending cart abandonment messages, and click to Messenger ads are all key ways you can start increasing your subscriber base and build relationships with customers where you can reach them instantaneously and effectively.
One of the most important results Octane AI brands see is the overall increase in monthly revenue. It’s true that over 66% of consumers will feel more confident to make a purchase when a business is available over a messaging app. This is one of the reasons that brands like Live Love Gameday have seen their revenue increase 10x after installing Octane AI on their Shopify store.
With the opt-in tools, increased engagement, personalization, and better customer service experience, Octane AI’s brands have seen great success with increasing their monthly revenue. For example, one beverage brand specializing in zero sugar syrups, Skinny Mixes, saw an additional $280,000 in monthly revenue alone with Facebook Messenger and SMS marketing tactics.
Aside from Skinny Mixes increasing their monthly revenue using Facebook Messenger and SMS, the Shopify Plus brand saw a lot of other great results from their Messenger marketing tactics too. In fact, Skinny Mixes saw a recovery rate of 19% through abandoned cart messages sent, and they use a variety of opt-ins tools to encourage customers to opt-in to marketing communications. These direct messages see 80-95% open rates!
With Shopify Plus and Klaviyo as part of their tech marketing stack, Skinny Mixes has created a set up that has had a significant impact on their monthly revenue and engagement. The best part is that your brand can replicate their tactics for your own Shopify store. If you want to learn more about how they did it, you can download our full case study and learn how your brand can do it too.
Messenger marketing is a new opportunity for your Shopify business to grow in more ways than one. With Facebook being one of the most-used messenger apps, it’s important to learn how you can use it to your advantage to market products, campaigns, and more to drive sales and continue to grow. We’ve shared the tips and tricks in this guide and how Octane AI specifically can help; now it’s your time to shine.
If you want to learn more, book a demo with our team.
Or, download our complete playbook.
Take a big swing at any opportunity for your brand to grow, and watch it skyrocket past your competitors.
1. A personalized relationship with each unique customer
2. A better overall customer service experience
3. A new way to campaign timely events for increased engagement
4. A stronger relationship that will last throughout the customer’s lifetime
1. Conversational Facebook ads
2. Cart abandonment and browse abandonment
3. Opt-in tools
More opt-ins
Increase in revenue
The 250+ Page Playbook on Facebook Messenger & SMS Marketing for Ecommerce
Fast-growing DTC brands implementing this playbook have connected with 18x more customers, doubled their 7-day ROAS, recovered 5x more abandoned cart revenue & increased AOV 25%.
This article originally appeared in the OctaneAI blog and has been published here with permission.
