Are you currently looking for the next big platform to advertise your brand on?
Well…. Not going to say Facebook Messenger is the next big thing… but it certainly can bedepending on your vertical or your level of creativity.
There have been plenty of Facebook Messenger adoption fails by brands, but there have also been some huge wins for brands that have jumped to Facebook messenger to create a seamless lead generation/nurturing machine.
What Is Facebook Messenger?
- Facebook Messenger is Facebook’s new hybrid of email and texting in terms of communication
- As a user, you can easily contact one of your friends via a call or text in messenger.
- From the User Perspective, you can find it here
How Does it Work?
How Does it Work from a User Perspective??
Well regardless of whether you’re on your phone, tablet, or desktop, you can use messenger to communicate with your Facebook friends via a text, group text, call, screenshare, and more.
Here’s what your messenger inbox looks like:
How are marketers using it? I’d say the three main buckets marketer are using this feature for are the following:
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- Customer Service
- Lead Generator
- Lead Nurturer
Questions To Ask Yourself Before Deploying Facebook Messenger
As we all know, whenever innovative apps or app features release, there’s a period of time where need to focus on understanding user behavior. The same holds true with Facebook Messenger.
The first thing we must ask ourselves about Facebook Messenger is, How do users use it? Is it as personal as a text? Is it less direct like an email? In between the two?
Obviously, there’s plenty of questions we can ask ourselves when trying to jump on something like this – but it’s important to understand how to communicate as best as possible with Messenger
After all…You could easily annoy your list and no one wants that.
Why Facebook Messenger?
While there is risk of trying new innovative apps or features, there comes potential of great reward of unsaturated land.
Right now, Messenger is a feature the majority of advertisers/community managers should be using but most aren’t. Facebook Messenger is a conversation, it allows brands to be more personal
With that said, those conversations you set up can be automated very similar to email marketing.
…For example, you could use the tool ManyChat to create separate “lists” of users to broadcast based off of past behavior within Messenger
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- IE: Anyone that responded to a SEO Messenger Ad for Power Digital is likely interested in SEO and should be nurtured with valuable SEO content
- IE: Anyone that’s already purchased from you should be messaged differently than non-purchasers, etc.
The Difference Between “Click to Message” Messenger Ads and “Sponsored Messages” Messenger Ads
If you’re reading this, that means you’re familiar with Facebook advertising.
And if your’e familiar with Facebook advertising, you understand that Facebook ads typically require nurturing and that requires a solid email strategy to accompany it.
Often times as Facebook advertisers, we’ll generate our lists through lead generation efforts with the intention of email closing the customer through nurturing sequences..
Messenger Ads allow us to have a softer version of list building and broadcasting through Click to Message Ads and Sponsored Messages.
Click to Message: These ads are in the user’s news feed and drive straight to messenger. The goal is to get users to message you.
Sponsored Messages: These are messages that we can send to existing messenger conversations. This means we can broadcast users that have already messaged us. Very similar to broadcasting via email!
Facebook Messenger as Customer Service
Facebook Messenger allows customers/potential customers have an additional outlet to contact your brand should they need further info. For example, this could be someone that wants to return a product and can’t get through on phone or email
…You could also have a human manage the conversation and integrate Facebook’s “work hours” features to let customer/potential customers know that you’ll be replying when you get back into the office.
The whole goal in this case is being a new way for customers to contact your brands with any comments or concerns, and to do so as easy and transparent as possible.
…This would not be an ad!
Facebook Messenger as a Lead Generator
You can create ads to click them to messenger to give them a welcome message when they click
You want to entice these users to respond to you – so make the welcome message very conversational.
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- IE: Give them something of value or ask them a question
For example, Hubspot did a great job with messenger with their SEO survey. “How much do you know about SEO?”
(DISCLAIMER: Sorry about the low battery in the following screenshots, as you can see I like to live life on the edge)
Now I’m not an SEO wizard, but I certainly was curious in what my score would be so I started answering the questions. So I messaged them…
Now when someone replies, that’s technically a soft lead right there because we can continue to broadcast messages to them.
Hubspot was not only able to get me to comment – they engaged me with relevant content and then asked if I needed SEO help.
When I clicked “Chat with Hubspot” they were then able to qualify me more by looking to get me to schedule a call with their team.
This is an example of how you can start softer in terms of messaging with Facebook Messenger, and slowly get more salesy for gathering more contact information.
…And if I don’t convert right away on the Schedule a Meeting… they can now continue to broadcast me and build trust until I feel ready to convert.
Just be careful as we’ve mentioned when you broadcast, Facebook Messenger can be annoying if the message doesn’t resonate.
For myself personally, I’m on ClickFunnel’s messenger bot list and I don’t enjoy the constant salesy messages.
…No knock to them! You can’t resonate with everyone and I’m sure he’s ROIng his messenger bots… it’s just something to think about as I’ve been blasted over the last 3 months from his messenger bot and I haven’t replied once.
Facebook Messenger as a Lead Nurturer
Here’s the real value of Facebook Messenger – the ability to nurture leads or customers.
…As I’ve mentioned, there’s plenty of similarities between email marketing, sms marketing, and Facebook messenger.
If we’re strategic in getting users to download a piece of content or reply to a welcome message regarding a certain solution you offer, now you can continue to broadcast and segment these users through ManyChat
For example, Someone that has replied to our messenger “Give me SEO Tips” should get segmented to our SEO “list” within ManyChat and now we can continue to message these users with relevant SEO advice.
Wrapping Up
Right now I’d say at the time of the writing that Facebook Messenger ads is past the wild, wild west state in terms of adoption, which means why you not be first to market to implement messenger for your brand…
…after all you surely could see some dramatic wins over your current marketing efforts.
What’s your thoughts on Facebook Messenger?
Is it an awesome way for brands to engage with users?
Is it an obtrusive annoying way for brands to spam users?
Share you thoughts in the comments below.
