Messenger marketing is a trend that has been making the rounds in the digital marketing industry. Basically, companies send marketing material via messaging applications, such as Facebook Messenger. These messages can come in the form of text, audio, video, images, and can even be sent through chat bots.
Messenger Marketing is effective because it gives the company a direct connection to its audience and target market. Second, there are 1.5 billion users on Messenger giving companies a more efficient way to make their products and services visible. The vast amount of users stems from the fact that more and more people are using their phones to use the internet. Maryville University reveals that there was a 63% year-over-year increase in mobile traffic back in 2016. This hasn’t slowed down, as that number continues to increase to this day.
While messenger marketing can be an effective way to reach your intended audience and potential customers, there are common errors companies make. Here, are a few tips to avoid these mistakes, and you can maximize your results on messenger marketing
Generic Content
One common mistake when it comes to Messenger marketing is using the same material from your other social media platforms in your messages. Aside from being generic, they don’t maximize the capacity and potential of the method, as they were written with other platforms in mind.
You can avoid this by sending tailored messages in your campaigns. This is especially useful for eCommerce websites, as it encourages potential and past customers to revisit your site. ShopMessage aids companies in this process, as it allows them to send personalized messages that are based on a customer’s activity.
The best way to grab your customer’s attention is to maintain a conversational tone that is aligned with your company’s brand. Keep your messages concise, casual, and straight to the point. A good rule of thumb is to avoid sending messages that are longer than three sentences.
Complicated Chatbots
Companies usually bog down the process with unnecessary chatbot complexities. A good way to avoid this is to establish your goals and expectations before setting it up.
Remember, the main objective is to increase sales and build your brand. A focused chatbot is more effective than trying to shove in multiple tasks that could just confuse your entire Messenger marketing strategy.
Your new Facebook Messenger playbook is here. Activate our recommended Growth Plugins and Flows for a guaranteed 4X ROI or your money back. Our lowest plan starts at just $9!
We guarantee that you will see at minimum a 4x ROI in your first paid month with ShopMessage, or we will refund the difference. The only condition is that you have Growth Tools and Flows active for the entire month and you follow ShopMessage general best practices. Here’s how to recover 4x ROI or your money back:
1. GROW YOUR LIST WITH GROWTH PLUGINS Use a popup on your site to prompt the right customers – the ones who use Facebook and aren’t already opted in. Offer a discount or promotion to drive more opt-ins.
WHY USE GROWTH PLUGINS?
Show a popup to Facebook-logged-in customers to get them to subscribe in Messenger. The popup will ONLY show up to users logged into Facebook and will automatically detect and not conflict with existing email or SMS capture popups. WHAT ARE THE BEST PRACTICES?
Offer a Discount. Brands that offer a discount see nearly 10x the opt-in rate. We recommend a 10% off or Free Shipping, but have seen merchants be successful with giveaway entries. The incentive should be the largest portion of text.
Timing: Show the minimized state immediately and fire the plugin after 15 seconds, at 50%+ of page scroll and after a cart update.
Follow-up: Give the customer their discount code in Messenger while introducing them to your brand.
2. ENGAGE USERS WITH AUTOMATED FLOWS Turn on the four most profitable flows to make money on autopilot: browse abandon, cart abandon, order confirmation, and shipping updates.
WHAT’S AN OPT-IN CONFIRMATIONFLOW? Send a confirmation message to your users as soon as they opt-in to receive messages. WHAT ARE THE BEST PRACTICES?
Welcome users to your brand. This may be your first Messenger interaction, make it count!
Reiterate your incentive. Messenger users will refer to their inbox like a digital wallet. Make sure they don’t lose coupon codes when they end their session!
Link back to your site. Make it easy for your users to continue their shopping experience!
WHAT’S A BROWSE ABANDONMENT FLOW? Send a reminder to users who have viewed a product, but have not yet added to cart. We’ll automatically showcase the last product viewed. WHAT ARE THE BEST PRACTICES?
Include one to two lines highlighting a selling point about your brand.
Consider adding a sense of urgency, scarcity or a discount.
WHAT IS AN ABANDONED CART FLOW? Send up to two reminder messages to users who have abandoned their shopping cart. We’ll automatically send their reconstructed cart! WHAT ARE THE BEST PRACTICES?
Include a 15%+ discount. Through extensive testing, we’ve found this doubles the conversion rates.
Include only two reminders unless you plan to significantly vary the content or increase the discount on the third reminder.
Consider adding messaging that relays product scarcity or urgency (eg. “Your cart is going to expire”, “Last chance to claim your cart”).
WHAT IS AN ORDER CONFIRMATION FLOW? Welcome the buyer to your brand with a short thank you, a receipt and an order tracking option. WHAT ARE THE BEST PRACTICES?
Include an upsell. This is your highest intent audience and they’re likely to come back to purchase again!
Include branded content (eg. size guides, how it works info, brand education, new product releases).
3. ADVANCED: GIFT GUIDES, ADS, AND MORE Messenger is an interactive channel. Engage customers in two-way conversations through gift guides and Click to Messenger ads. Re-engage your subscribers through Sponsored Messages. Create custom flows rules for advanced targeting, take advantage of dynamic discounts and more!
Facebook Messenger Marketing gives brands a valuable new channel for growing revenue. Some strategies and tactics will be familiar, and some are brand new.
In this webinar, our co-founder and CEO, Arjun Ohri, walks you through it all. We’ll dive in and teach you everything you need to know to crush it with Messenger.
M.Me Links plugged into a ShopMessage conversation sequence give you a powerful way to engage with your fans, followers, and customers. Here are 7 ways you can set up M.Me Links powered by ShopMessage for your business today.
1. Migrate Your E-Mail List to Messenger
The first thing you should do is distribute an M.Me link in your emails and email signatures. Then email subscribers will convert into more engaged Messenger subscribers—low-hanging fruit!. Email has served us well for years, but you want to make sure that you are able to reach your customers wherever they happen to be. Using your email list to turbocharge the growth of your Messenger list is a great way to increase your ability to reach customers who may not always check their email.
2. Re-Engage Your Social Media Followers
At the same time, you should share links in social media posts. Name me a social media platform that doesn’t give you the way to share links? Tweet your links, drop them in a Facebook post description, pair with a Pinterest infographic pin, and even your Instagram swipe-up links all at the same time! Tailor the next step of the acquisition funnel to reference the preceding step’s contextual content.
3. Leverage Influencer Reach on YouTube and Instagram
While those are going out, why not sponsor a YouTuber / Influencer and have them stick the link in their video descriptions or bio. Drill down deeper with partnerships with your existing network of ambassadors. When you create a mutually beneficial experience for your two audiences with a personalized and enriching for their audience, everyone wins! Then you can both dive into the detailed conversation metrics at every step of the way.
4. Embed Links in Your Digital Marketing Content
Insert a Messenger CTA link in your digital marketing content. Longtail contacts will still receive the same appropriate messaging whether they find you immediately, or 5 months down the road. Imagine your e-book getting passed around and having the tracking to see all the new customers being driven by that document.
5. Print Dynamic QR Codes on Branded Materials
Put it in a QR Code and print it on your packaging materials right away! It’s a great way to remind customers after they receive their items that there’s more you can offer them. Imagine a code on your boxes or bags that can be scanned to hook your customers up with a Free Shipping discount. Forward-thinking brands can even print limited edition promo QR code shirts for your ambassadors to wear in real life. Guerilla marketing at high-traffic events like Coachella or South by Southwest is about to get a whole lot more interesting!
6. Set-up an M.Me Link in your Footers
Have your M.Me link available as a contact channel on your website. It’s a nice alternative if you don’t have a dedicated customer support agent. When visitors have questions or demand to speak to the manager, you can send them here. An M.Me Link designed to handle inquiries and FAQs can be a great way to get people the answers they need without bombarding your customer support channels.
7. Text it!
Last, but not least, consider a text. Daily Messenger volume now exceeds peak SMS volume. Texting a link is a great way to convert your SMS subscribers into Messenger contacts. Conversations happening over Messenger are less disruptive to your customers. At the same time, you can do a lot more to engage through a Messenger chat than through an SMS conversation. Make your brand more accessible via Messenger with additional signals to reach your customers on Facebook.
Ready to start turbocharging your Messenger list growth?
A frustrating Messenger Menu experience will turn off your potential customers. Frustrated customers walk away, happy ones stay. Businesses that are even thinking about using conversational flows to drive revenue should know this.
But how could a messenger menu be conversational?
The Problem Faced by Businesses on Messenger
Here’s a story about the current state of the persistent menu using the analog phone to illustrate the problem faced by Businesses on Messenger today.
Imagine that a customer calls your store’s telephone number. It rings and rings until finally, the customer hangs up because no one was there on the other end.
Slightly better would be if the customer could call and get at least a menu of choices. “Push 1 to Browse Collections. Press 2 for Frequently Asked Questions. Choose 3 for…” and so on, and so forth. As ridiculous as Pushing 1 to browse products sounds, this is basically the functionality of the existing persistent menus on Facebook these days.
No one likes to be left hanging on the other end of the line, not knowing if they’ve been heard. The Messenger can now be paired with a conversation to create an engaging, frustration-free customer experience.
But what if when a customer Pushes 1, the voice on the other end starts asking more questions. It learns what types of products the customer is looking for, or what size, and what color before it takes them to your site.
It’s almost as if there WAS someone there on the other end of chat the first time the customer came in.
ShopMessage’s Messenger Menu provides the tools you need to automate this concierge-style experience to more deeply engage with your customers.
No one likes a boring menu.
Why You Should Care About Messenger Menus
There are over 20 billion messages being sent on Messenger between people and businesses each month. Customers are already using this channel to engage with your business.
The persistent Messenger menu is the first line of defense protecting your customer support channels from incoming customer requests. It gives customers control of their interaction with your brand.
Customers get the ability to navigate through a couple of layers of menu items to find what they’re looking for.
How Messenger Menus are Getting an Upgrade
The trouble with this is that the customer journey is often complex, with many steps. You might need to ask your customers 3-4-5 or more questions to understand their needs and direct them to a solution.
With the existing persistent messenger menus, nested menus provide at most 2 levels of clarification. Your customers will need to click a link to some destination and the onus is on them to find what they are looking for from there.
ShopMessage’s conversational message sequences provide an extension on the standard persistent menu capabilities. You will be able to anticipate your customers’ needs and present their solution, automatically.
TL;DR: You can set up a large tree of messages. You can have up to 93 Titles with 75 calls-to-action. 3 menu items with 5 sub-menus each having 5 double-sub-menus. The math checks out.
This is what 75 menu CTAs look like.
This is certainly a lot of options, but a lot rides on you choosing the right hierarchy on the first level choice.
What if your customer needs more guidance?
Sometimes the customer needs a little extra help, and there may not always be anyone around to help. The phone will just ring and ring and ring. The dots that show the person on the other end of the chat is typing will never show up.
ShopMessage introduces the ability to take any of those numerous menu items and plug a message sequence into it. Doing this unlocks a much more robust way to further engage with your customer.
3 Ways Brands are Using Messenger Menus to Guide and Engage with Their Customers
Providing highly targeted product recommendations using a product quiz
Reframing FAQ as a conversational interaction instead of a long page of a text
Telling your brand story, fireside chat style
Basically, Customers can interact with your brand through a series of quick reply buttons in the conversation that narrows their search, categorizes their needs, and funnels them to the correct landing page.
And best of all, you can create and manage your Facebook pages’ persistent menu right from the ShopMessage app where you’re already using other flows to drive sales.
3 Benefits of Using ShopMessage’s Messenger Menu
Take customers deeper into your chat experience using images, videos, carousels, and message quick replies before presenting an outbound link to your website.
Track customer behavior such as purchases on your site that direct results of interactions with different Menu items.
See which conversations are engaging your customers the most. Understand what’s resonating about your brand by following the data.
Newcomers will see a Get Started option to engage with your page’s Messenger channel.
Where Does Your Messenger Menu Live?
The persistent menu appears in Messenger chats with your Facebook page.
When a customer engages in a chat with your brand, and you have a persistent menu configured, it will be visible at the bottom of the viewport window.
To activate your menu, the “Get Started” button must also be enabled. New users attempting to chat with your brand must have a way to opt-in to receive messages from your Facebook page.
You can optionally disable the input field that allows customers to type whatever they like. Brands that don’t have the resources to invest in a dedicated human to respond to inbound customer requests would benefit.
Removing the ability to send messages effectively removes the expectation that a reply is coming soon. This, in turn, removes the direct point of frustration.
Your Messenger Menu is accessible from the main navigation.
How to Get Started with Your Messenger Menu
The Messenger Menu feature is live! To access the persistent menu, click the Messenger Menu item from the side navigation of your dashboard.
Here you’ll be able to set up your menu. Different stores will have different menu requirements. Next, learn to make the most out of your Messenger Menu.
5 Tips for Making the Most of Your Messenger Menu
Go beyond a simple set of nested links. Don’t just cross your fingers that you have what your customer needs.
Integrate your brand’s Messenger Menu with ShopMessage’s conversation message builders to create a more engaging, responsive experience for your customers.
Send your customers exactly where they want to go. Why send them to a landing page with your latest product releases if they have a preference for discounts and clearance?
Utilize quick reply button navigation so your customers can tell you what their preferences are. Based on their responses, you can present to them a collection of the most relevant products.
Communicate in your brand’s voice. A conversational medium deserves a conversational voice. Give emojis a try. Who doesn’t like to be greeted with a smile?
So, how about it? Are you ready to get started with ShopMessage?
M.Me Links (a.k.a M-Me Links, Messenger Links, M-Dot-Me Links, Mmmmm links) are an essential component of your conversational marketing strategy for two reasons.
First, Facebook Messenger stands to be THE revenue channel of 2019 for businesses on Facebook. You may have an email list already, but do you get 80% open-rates and 25% CTRs on your emails?
M.Me links allow you to migrate your users over to a more engaging and effective conversation channel with your customers.
Second, ShopMessage combines the versatility of a hyperlink, the efficiency of automated user flows, and the authenticity of a conversational interface. This triple-threat marketing tool helps you collect all the info you need while building an ongoing relationship with your Messenger contacts.
This new functionality enables businesses to create a scalable concierge-style experience for customers discovering their Facebook Messenger chat from across the internet.
M.Me Links take visitors from around the web to your Facebook Page’s Messenger channel.
What are M.Me Links?
In 2016, Facebook announced M.Me Links. These are a native feature that allows businesses to spread links around the internet for potential customers to discover. When clicked, these links open up a Messenger conversation with your Facebook business page.
Facebook created usernames for your Facebook pages which make it easier to find your business on Facebook. We set “shopmessage” as our custom identifier. When you click https://www.facebook.com/shopmessage, you’re taken to the Facebook page for ShopMessage.
You business page’s M.Me links also use these identifiers. When you click https://www.m.me/shopmessage, you’re taken to a Messenger chat conversation with our business page.
When you arrive in this conversation, one of two things will happen:
Visitors who do not have an existing conversation with our Facebook page on Messenger will see a “Get Started” button. When a user clicks this button, they are saying to Facebook “Yes, let me talk with this business. Let this business to talk to me.” Clicking the button will display the Messenger thread.
If you have already had an existing Messenger thread with our business, then you will see our history together.
Why You Should Care About These Links Now
Although Facebook has honored custom ref params on M.Me links since the feature has been available, you couldn’t use them for much more than tracking traffic.
Don’t get me wrong, tracking traffic is important. In fact, ShopMessage lets you track link clicks and revenue associated with customers earned through each of your M.Me links so you can drill down into the traffic sources that are working for you.
But what if you don’t want the customer journey to stop there?
Now you can continue the conversation with the people clicking through to your brand. You’ll be able to customize a unique set of responses for users that click M.Me links made in ShopMessage. You will also have data tracking the clicks and sales driven by your custom M.Me links.
This is the first significant improvement in your customers’ experiences with M.Me Links since 2016. Now visitors can receive an immediate response from your brand that speaks to where your customers are coming from.
They won’t have to type in anything and wait for a human to respond. Your chat experience will be more engaging because it says the right thing to your visitor as soon as they arrive.
Oh, and we made it so you can make your custom ref param any string of text you want. Remembering and sharing links should be easy.
How Your Customers Benefit From Better M.Me Chat Experiences
The key change here is context.
Now, you can craft intelligent, thoughtful responses that acknowledge the preceding context of your customer’s journey. Rather than staffing someone behind the chat, your responses will be ready to deploy whenever a visitor appears through your link.
Your customers won’t experience the confusion of getting excited about your brand, clicking the link, and not having any kind of follow-up to push them through to the next step of your marketing funnel.
Merchants using ShopMessage can use M.Me Links to create a conversational experience. These messages greet visitors coming from different traffic sources across the web in a contextually relevant way. A few words go a long way in easing the transition into a Messenger conversation with your brand.
You can tailor your custom ref parameters to different incoming customer experiences.
3 Examples of Possible M.Me Customer Experiences
1 A user clicks a link in your email newsletter, blog or twitter feed and receives a dynamic discount code. It’s a great way to thank them for their readership.
2 A visitor sees an ad on Instagram with a link to learn more about your products and services. Clickers are taken to a Messenger chat thread that asks them some easy quick-reply questions. These can help identify where in the purchasing cycle they are or what their preferences are. Then you can send them a link to the most appropriate landing page.
3 A customer receives their item. The packing slip has a QR code on it. When scanned, it sends them an animated gif in Messenger that thanks them for being a loyal customer.
There is no limit to how many M.Me Link parameters you set up. Just make sure that each parameter is unique to your page.
How to Get Started Using Conversational M.Me Links
ShopMessage merchants can create conversational M.Me Links like they would other growth plugins. Select M.Me from the list of Growth Plugin types in the Growth Plugin creation flow.
M.Me Links are a type of Growth Plugin. This is because they help businesses grow their relationship with more customers in Messenger. Using M.Me Links made through ShopMessage is a win-win. They create a great experience for your customers while growing your brand’s list of Messenger contacts along the way.
Contacts created through your M.Me growth plugins will qualify for other Messenger Marketing flows you have set up in ShopMessage. This includes customer retargeting flows like cart abandonment and browse abandonment. Instead of just creating a chat, you’re creating a future relationship with these visitors.
Lastly, M.Me Links work across the internet wherever links are shared. Here are a few ideas to help you get started.
7 Strategies to Grow Your Messenger List with M.Me Links
1. Migrate Your E-Mail List to Messenger
Distribute in your emails and email signatures and convert those email subscribers into more engaged Messenger subscribers. Email has served us well for years, but you want to make sure that you are able to reach your customers wherever they happen to be. Using your email list to turbocharge the growth of your Messenger list is a great way to increase your ability to reach customers who may not always check their email.
2. Re-Engage Your Social Media Followers
Share them in social media posts. Name me a social media platform that doesn’t give you the way to share links? Tweet your links, drop them in a Facebook post description, pair with a Pinterest infographic pin, and even your Instagram swipe-up links! Tailor the next step of the acquisition funnel to reference the preceding step’s contextual content.
3. Leverage Influencer Reach on YouTube and Instagram
Sponsor a YouTuber / Influencer and have them stick the link in their video descriptions or bio. Drill down deeper with partnerships with your existing network of ambassadors. Create a mutually beneficial experience for your two audiences by making the experience super personal and enriching for the audience, with detailed conversation metrics at every step of the way.
4. Embed Links in Your Digital Marketing Content
Insert a Messenger CTA link in your digital marketing content. Longtail contacts will still receive the same appropriate messaging whether they find you immediately, or 5 months down the road. Imagine your e-book getting passed around and having the tracking to see all the new customers being driven by that document.
5. Print Dynamic QR Codes on Branded Materials
Put it in a QR Code and print it on your packaging materials. It’s a great way to remind customers that there’s more you can offer them. Imagine a code on your boxes or bags that can be scanned to hook your customers up with a Free Shipping discount. Print limited edition promo QR code shirts for your ambassadors to wear IRL for some guerilla marketing at high-traffic events like Coachella or South by Southwest.
6. Set-up an M.Me Link in your Footers
Have your M.Me link available as a contact channel on your website. It’s a nice alternative if you don’t have a dedicated customer support agent. When visitors have questions or demand to speak to the manager, you can send them here. An M.Me Link designed to handle inquiries and FAQs can be a great way to get people the answers they need without bombarding your customer support channels.
7. Text it!
Daily Messenger volume now exceeds peak SMS volume. Texting a link is a great way to convert your SMS subscribers into Messenger contacts. Conversations happening over Messenger are less disruptive to your customers. Become more accessible via Messenger with additional signals to reach your customers on Facebook
