What is messenger marketing, & how to use Facebook Chatbot

Messenger marketing has become an increasingly popular option among entrepreneurs across all industries and niches. It can prove particularly beneficial for those in Knowledge Commerce, however — especially those who operate one- or two-person businesses.

Did you know that almost one billion people spend time on Facebook Messenger each month? That’s a ton of people, many of whom are likely in your target audience.

Best of all, Facebook Messenger isn’t just a single tool or channel. You can use it in myriad ways to keep in touch with your customers, field questions, offer support, and market your online courses.

For instance, you can use messenger marketing on Facebook and through other apps manually. You can also use chatbots, such as Facebook Chatbot, to automate some or all of your marketing through that specific channel.

However, you first must understand what messenger marketing does and how you can use it effectively. Even the most exciting marketing strategy won’t help your business if you don’t execute correctly.

Furthermore, learning the best tips and tricks right off the bat will stop you from making common mistakes. There’s no reason to lag behind the competition if you don’t have to.

So let’s dive into the meat of this concept and discuss how you can leverage messenger marketing and the Facebook Chatbot for your Knowledge Commerce business.

What Is Messenger Marketing?

Messenger marketing refers to the process of marketing or advertising your business through a messenger app. In most cases, it refers to Facebook Messenger, which you’ve likely used if you have a Facebook account.

You might hear entrepreneurs talking about messenger marketing in different contexts. For instance, some businesses install messenger apps on their own websites. That way, they can offer live chat to their customers for marketing and customer service purposes.

Others use the phrase messenger marketing to refer specifically and exclusively to Facebook. This is, perhaps, because of Facebook’s undeniably huge user base and the flexibility of its messaging app.

Regardless of the app you use, you can turn a messenger or messaging service into a marketing gold mine. The more you use it, the more you’ll come to rely on it for things like lead generation and nurturing as well as conversions.

Messenger marketing can serve as a content delivery service, a way to check in with VIP customers, and a channel through which to advertise your digital products. Try using it for as many purposes as possible to expand your business’s reach.

Some businesses have even used it as a way to check in with other participants at a live event. If you like to go to industry conferences and conventions, for instance, you could message people who are there and arrange meetups in person.

What Can You Do With Messenger Marketing?

Regardless, you can break down messenger marketing into several categories:

Marketing

At its most basic, messenger marketing can refer to the practice of marketing your business through one-on-one communication. Think of it as an alternative to email.

While email marketing will likely never phase out of style, messenger marketing offers a few distinct advantages:

• It’s faster and easier to communicate with prospects.

• Your prospects feel as though they’re getting more attention.

• Capturing a conversion can happen faster and more readily.


You can also send shorter, more urgent marketing messages via messenger. There’s no reason to pad your messages with unnecessary images or words, which is great because your prospects expect you to get right to the point.

Advertising 

Facebook Messenger, in particular, offers Messenger Ads, which are specifically designed for the messenger service. In other words, they’re an entire new channel to explore if you want to expand your advertising efforts.

Essentially, you use Facebook Messenger Ads to drive prospects to your message channel. You want them to start a conversation with you.

The most common way to do this is by asking a question. For instance, if you create online courses about fitness, you might ask in an ad a question like this: “What type of fitness course would you like to see next? Message me to let me know!”

How is this different from other forms of Facebook Ads?

Essentially, you’re opening the lines of communication without sending people out of the Facebook page or app. Instead of directing them to landing pages, you’re sending them to a familiar messaging platform.

Customer Support

When customers have questions or concerns about your digital products, you want to respond right away. That’s not always possible with email.

Messenger marketing allows you to respond immediately when someone sends you a question or concern. You can help that customer get the answers he or she needs so you don’t lose out on a future sale.

Knowledge Sharing

Believe it or not, messenger marketing can be useful for educating your target audience. By sharing free information, you’re endearing them to your business.

You could do this through idle conversation or through a more targeted strategy. However you decide to approach it, you send the message that you’re generous with your knowledge. That’s always a good thing in the consumer’s eyes.

Conversation

Prospects might message you with questions or comments unrelated to your business. That’s okay. They’re reaching out, interested in conversation, and they might turn into future customers.

Don’t discourage conversation when it comes to messenger marketing. In fact, make sure you reply to everyone — unless someone sends content that’s abusive or otherwise offensive.

That person might not be ready or willing to buy from you just yet. If you have a conversation, though, he or she might think of your business down the road.

Q&A

A great way to expedite messenger marketing is to create a spreadsheet with common questions you receive and your answers. That way, you can simply copy and paste when you receive those queries from subsequent contacts.

This type of give and take will still feel natural to your correspondent, but it won’t distract you as long from other duties. It’s a win-win.

Why Is It Important?

When it comes to marketing, it’s essential to keep up with trends and changes in your target audience. If you don’t, your competition will leave you in the dust.

Think back just 20 years ago. The Internet was still in its infancy, many people didn’t use email, and nobody had heard of a smartphone — let alone carried one everywhere they went. If you were still using the same marketing tactics you used then, your business probably wouldn’t have many customers.

The same is true today. If anything, marketing trends are changing at a more rapid pace than ever before. Messenger marketing, for instance, is relatively new, but thousands of businesses use it daily to generate leads and nurture customer relationships.

According to a Business Insider report conducted in 2017, messenger apps are now more popular than social media. That’s a huge change. It also reflects the average consumer’s decreased attention span.

If you don’t capitalize on it, your Knowledge Commerce business might suffer. There’s no reason to ignore a potential source of traffic and conversions.

More importantly, though, messenger marketing is important because it represents a new way to connect with your target audience. That’s always a positive thing because you gain access to people you might not have reached otherwise.

Improve Prospect Engagement Rates

If you look at all the tools and channels you use to market your business, you might discover that the highest engagement rates are on channels that require a certain type of immediacy. For instance, you might have low open rates on your emails, but lots of comments on your latest Instagram post.

Engagement rates tend to increase on channels that require immediate attention and that evoke a sense of urgency. Messenger marketing is a great example.

When you receive a message from someone — whether a friend or the representative of a business — you’re not just going to read it. You’ll probably respond, too.

It’s like text messaging. While you might not reply to every text you receive, you’re probably more likely to engage with a text than you are an email.

Engagement rates don’t just depend on urgency. They’re also heavily correlated with the time required to interact.

Dashing off a quick text or messenger message takes seconds at most. People are more likely to invest their time when the amount they need to spend is low.

Conversely, responding to an email typically takes more time. People expect longer sentences, salutations, and other things you don’t put in back-and-forth messages.

Reduce Friction With the Consumer

We’ve mentioned before here on the Kajabi blog that businesses often have to make multiple touch points with a consumer to generate a sale. That’s still true, but it comes down to friction.

Think about the ways in which you interact with businesses and brands. Maybe you see their ads on social media, read their blog posts, or opt in to their email lists.

All of those touch points are valuable, but they also introduce unnecessary friction. As we mentioned before, messenger marketing is quick, seamless, and unintrusive.

Avoid the Common Issues Arising From SMS Marketing

SMS marketing is definitely effective, but it also comes with a few hardships that messenger marketing lacks. For one thing, you need to cross lots of T’s to make SMS marketing work within the law.

Consumer protection laws require you to get explicit permission from subscribers, include certain language in your messages, and maintain an impeccable list. Messenger marketing has none of those drawbacks.

People either opt in or they don’t. They either respond to your messages or they don’t. It’s that simple.

The reduced friction, as mentioned above, as well as the lack of legal red tape make messenger marketing an easier channel to manage. It’s also native to an app you already use, such as Facebook, so there aren’t any new technical issues to learn or understand.

Make More Personal Connections With Your Target Audience

When it comes to marketing, personalization has become synonymous with success. It’s true that you can accidentally over-personalize a marketing message, but that’s not the case with messenger marketing.

The personalization is built right in.

Unlike other forms of communication, messaging occurs on a one-on-one basis. Even if you automate some or part of the process, you’re speaking to a single prospective customer at a time.

That’s powerful stuff. The people with whom you correspond via messenger will feel an instant connection with your business. They’ll appreciate the fact that you’ve taken the time out of your busy day to answer their questions or respond to their comments.

Plus, you don’t have to worry about censoring yourself in a public forum. Every message is private, so you can tailor your responses to the prospect rather than to your brand.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you should go off-brand. Maintain your image and personality in all communication.

You do, however, have more freedom. Experiment with different CTAs and ways of communicating to see what resonates with your audience. Unlike with other marketing mediums, you’ll get instant results.

Over time, patterns will emerge. You’ll start to get a feel for what your target audience appreciates in terms of marketing messages, whether it’s a fast response time or a thorough answer. You can adjust your approach accordingly.

Keep Pace With Messenger Apps’ Rapid Growth

As we mentioned above, messenger apps are growing like crazy. More and more options have hit the market in recent months, and more businesses are jumping on the bandwagon.

If you don’t try messenger marketing for yourself, you risk getting left behind in the dust. More importantly, your target audience might perceive you as behind the times, which could chase them over to the competition.

This doesn’t mean you should adopt every shiny new marketing strategy to unveil itself. We’re writing about messenger marketing now because of its obvious market traction and because of the way it’s dominating communication between consumers and businesses.

Why Should You Choose Facebook Messenger?

It’s true that many messenger apps exist, but Facebook Messenger might be the easiest — and most effective — solution for Knowledge Commerce professionals.

For one thing, Facebook Messenger is extremely easy to adopt. If you have a Facebook account for your business, you can begin using it immediately. If not, you simply need to set up an account.

It’s also familiar. Since so many people use Facebook to communicate with friends and businesses, it’s the logical choice for anyone who wants to stay in better contact with his or her target audience.

We also recommend Facebook Messenger because of the numerous options available. You can run Facebook Ads to send people to the native messaging app, for instance, which reduces friction and helps build trust. You can also host conversations about multiple topics without switching channels.

How Can You Grow Your Business With Messenger Marketing?

As with any other marketing initiative, strategy matters just as much as execution. You need a strategy in place to maximize your ROI from messenger marketing.

Start by creating a goal. Do you want to increase conversion rates? Improve brand awareness? Boost traffic to your blog?

Once you know your goal, you can set up a messenger marketing strategy that helps you achieve that goal. For instance, if you’re hoping to boost traffic, consider using Facebook Messenger to notify subscribers about your latest content.

You might also need a separate app to help you manage Facebook Messenger. We recommend a well-reviewed solution like ManyChat, which allows you to streamline and even automate the messenger marketing process.

Start directing people to your messaging app. You can include “Send a Message” as your CTA in regular Facebook posts, for instance, or even Facebook Ads. ManyChat even allows you to integrate a widget with your blog or website.

Once you have it all set up, it’s time to start executing and tracking the results. We’ll cover attracting subscribers below, but after you have a few subscribers, you can set up drip campaigns to help stimulate conversations or create autoresponders for specific questions. Using Facebook Chatbot can help ease the burden of running your marketing campaign.

Keep track of your messenger marketing initiative over several weeks and months. Watch for patterns to emerge, such as traffic spikes or increased conversions. Specifically, you’ll want to measure the metric you identified as your goal above.

Yes, you can boost traffic and conversions at the same time, but for simplicity’s sake, start with just one metric. That way, you’ll know whether your strategy is making a dent in your goal.

Then you’ll adjust as needed. You might need to change up your response time and other specifics to improve your metrics even further. Let the numbers guide you.

How Can You Attract More Facebook Messenger Subscribers?

For messenger marketing to truly succeed, you need subscribers. However, getting messenger subscribers isn’t nearly as difficult as convincing people to subscribe to your email list or SMS marketing initiative.

When you use tools like ManyChat, all people have to do to subscribe is send you a message on Facebook. It’s that simple. After that first message, they become subscribers.

You can then segment them just as you would with an email list, assign them to drip campaigns, set up autoresponders, or otherwise communicate with them. Just make sure you’re sending them messages that provide genuine value.

Think about all that you’ve learned about email and SMS marketing. You can send out coupons, free tips and tricks, and bonus materials to keep subscribers interested. The more value you impart, the more loyal your subscribers become.

But how do you get subscribers in the first place?

Converse With Your Subscribers Immediately

Start the conversation. It’s as easy as that. Maybe someone leaves a comment on one of your Facebook posts. You could message them to thank them for their comment or to continue the conversation.

Don’t be afraid to interact with people on Facebook. It might seem intimidating at first, but remember that people are used to communicating via the messenger.

When people message you, respond as quickly as possible. You want them to know you value their time. Provide lots of detail, but don’t write a novel. You want to conversation to come across as effortless.

Of course, sending individual messages isn’t your only option.

Automate Your Messenger Marketing With Chatbots

Automation can make messenger marketing even more effective. Autoresponders and drip campaigns work just as well on messengers as they do with email and SMS marketing.

The goal here is to lead your subscribers toward a specific goal, such as buying one of your online courses. You can gently guide them toward that goal through strategic drip messages.

Chatbots are useful for messenger marketing because they allow you to set aside more time for creative work, such as creating your next online course. It’s a set-it-and-forget-it option, though of course, you’ll want to continually update your automated messages to make sure they resonate with your audience.

However you decide to implement messenger marketing, consider using a combination of automation and manual communication. That way, you get the best of both worlds.

What Does the Future of Messenger Marketing Look Like?

As with most marketing tools, messenger marketing will continue to get smarter as time passes. We’re already seeing incredible advancements in artificial intelligence, and AI is well suited to a platform like online messengers.

It’s also likely that more and more conversations will take place on mobile devices. That’s why it’s essential to use a mobile-friendly platform for every marketing initiative you undertake. Kajabi, for instance, offers mobile-friendly templates for your website. If you decide to implement a chatbot on your site, you don’t have to worry about turning off customers.

As technology gets smarter, so do consumers. Expect your target audience to begin to expect more from your messages, whether it’s links to documentation or landing pages or in-depth answers to technical questions.

Don’t let that turn you off, though. Remember that you’re an expert in your industry and that you want people to come to you for advice. If you show them you’re willing to provide that advice, they’ll be more likely to check out your digital products.

Use Kajabi to Turn Your Knowledge and Content Into Products You Can Sell

At Kajabi, we’re determined to help Knowledge Commerce professionals succeed. That’s why we celebrate and share the stories of our #KajabiHeroes. When one of our customers meets a milestone, we want to share in their joy.

If you haven’t joined the Knowledge Commerce industry yet, now’s the time to explore it. We live in an era devoted to knowledge, but teaching no longer happens exclusively in stuffy classrooms or through educational institutions.

In fact, online learning can happen regardless of the teacher’s credentials.

It’s easy to get started. Sign up for our 14-day free trial so you can get the hang of Kajabi and explore our myriad features and benefits. You can even begin setting up your first online course!

You’ll discover that you have access to an unprecedented wealth of tools built right into the platform, from email marketing and social media integration to blogging and webinars. You don’t have to invest in expensive third-party tools to grow your business when you choose Kajabi.

After you’ve set up and branded your business, give messenger marketing a try. It’s a useful, free complement to the marketing tools we provide, and it’ll give you an instant connection with your target audience.

Conclusion

Messenger marketing isn’t some fad that will quickly fade out of the public interest. It’s growing faster than just about any other marketing channel.

Knowledge Commerce professionals need to realize this if they want to grow their businesses as fast as possible. When you have a direct connection with your target customer, you don’t want to squander it.

From Facebook Messenger and Facebook Chatbot to other messaging apps, you have lots of options from which to choose. Plus, you can use messenger marketing for a variety of different purposes.

Answer prospects’ questions about your digital products, provide customer support, run advertisements that lead to conversations, and help prospects realize that you offer the best digital products in the business.

You can use Facebook Messenger or some other service. EIther way, you’ll be able to converse directly with members of your target audience.

In the future, messaging apps will become even smarter, especially when it comes to chatbots. You’ll have more opportunities to cement relationships with your prospects and customers, so you might as well get in the habit of using a messenger service now.

No, messenger marketing won’t replace email, SMS, and content marketing, but it’s a fantastic supplement. Plus, it’s free to use, which means that all you have to invest is your time.

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