Today I'm sharing three words that I believe will be the next BIG WAVE for entrepreneurs...
Facebook Messenger marketing.
Have you sent or received a message on your phone today?
Chances are that you exchange at least a few messages on your phone every day. And you probably have multiple apps in which you do this.
A message isn’t just a message anymore. It’s also a business opportunity.
I’ll show you what I mean…
You see, messengers are huge these days.
Pretty much everyone with a smartphone uses at least one messaging app, and the use of messaging apps is only expanding.
In 2015, messaging apps surpassed social media in terms of the number of people using them (Source: BusinessInsider.com).
Just think about how big that is.
Now, the latest rising star in the messaging / online business scene is...
Facebook Messenger Marketing
Editorial credit: Chonlachai / Shutterstock, Inc.
Facebook Messenger has been among the fastest-growing apps recently and for good reason.
I know that I personally use it every day.
I actually communicate with more people on Facebook Messenger on a daily basis than I do with texting or phone calls.
I’m not alone either. This is a trend with most people.
With the explosive growth of Facebook Messenger, tremendous opportunities are presenting themselves.
The untapped potential of this platform is mind-blowing.
Before I get into the emerging opportunities for Facebook Messenger, I have to discuss the phenomenon of Facebook itself.
Facebook: The Business That Helps You Build Your Business
Did you know that Facebook is bigger than the largest country in the world?
It's the internet hub for almost 2 billion people, and its number of users just keeps rising...
Source: Statista.com
People spend a LOT of time on Facebook too.
In 2016, Facebook reported that people spend on average 50 minutes each day on its platforms (not including WhatsApp). Source: NYtimes.com
Facebook’s wide-spanning usage has turned it into one of the largest and most robust advertising platforms in existence. And it’s not only among the biggest, it’s also highly effective and highly targeted.
People used to scoff at Facebook, thinking it would forever be a site for college kids to share pictures and post statuses of whatever they were doing.
Very few saw its enormous marketing and business building potential.
These days, almost every business has a Facebook page.
There are also over 3 million active advertisers on Facebook (Source: CNBC.com).
It’s changing the way people do business and providing tremendous opportunities for those who are willing to stay ahead of the curve.
Facebook is a marketer’s dream. Why?
People have VOLUNTARILY given Facebook personal information that companies and corporations would have killed for 15 years ago.
That gives Facebook the ability to create highly targeted ads, unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.
Just look at your friends on Facebook.
How many of them...
- Post their relationship status?
- Have “checked in” at a restaurant or event?
- “Like” fan or business pages?
Pretty much all of them.
Facebook collects all this information and, to fund its gigantic operation, gives savvy marketers the ability to use that information to target business messages to a very specific audience.
This is why Facebook Ads are so effective.
Companies have literally built and scaled their brands on the back of Facebook. It's that powerful of a tool that will continue to revolutionize business.
And now there is a new opportunity on Facebook that will be even more rewarding than traditional Facebook posts and sponsored ads…
Facebook Messenger Marketing: The Soon-To-Be Heavyweight Champ
Facebook Messenger is among the fastest-growing apps in the world.
Over one billion people already use it (source: TechCrunch.com).
Source: TechCrunch.com
Let me repeat that...
OVER ONE BILLION people use Facebook Messenger.
The stats we’re seeing now with Facebook Messenger are staggering.
- Each month... 17 billion photos are sent between people.
- Each day... 380 million stickers and 22 million GIFs are sent.
- Of all Voice Over IP (VoIP) calls, 10% go through Messenger.
(Source: TechCrunch.com)
But that’s not all...
One billion messages are sent between people and businesses EVERY SINGLE DAY (Source: TechCrunch.com).
That’s a lot of customer interaction!
Here’s the kicker...
Facebook Messenger's Marketing Potential Is Virtually Untapped
We’re already seeing some saturation with businesses vying for people’s attention on Facebook.
However, the floodgates of Facebook Messenger have just been opened.
Facebook only started rolling out Facebook Messenger Ads in November 2016...
It’s brand new.
The potential of Facebook Messenger Marketing goes well beyond the ads. Businesses can now send a Facebook Message to anyone who has commented on their page.
For example, if John Smith comments on one of your posts, you can send John a direct message.
Source: MarketingWeek.com
Can you see the opportunity here?
There's a massive wave coming, along with a huge opportunity to ride it.
Think about it this way...
We live in a time where over one billion people can instantly connect with each other.
That is a complete game-changer with potential most people can’t even fathom. And it’s just brimming with great opportunities.
The Unfair Advantages of Facebook Messenger
Facebook Messenger has some unrivaled advantages when it comes to marketing and customer relationship management (CRM).
People are getting accustomed to posts, videos and sponsored ads in their Facebook newsfeed. All of that isn’t nearly as captivating now compared to when it was all a novelty.
Facebook Messaging, however, is completely new territory. Because it’s new it will automatically get more engagement.
Facebook Messenger also comes with advantages that the rest of Facebook never even had…
One-to-One = One-to-Won
Facebook Messenger gives businesses a unique opportunity to interact one-to-one with customers. Think of it like a more dynamic, more interactive email exchange.
One-on-one interaction builds relationships and trust with prospects. This allows a business to feel like a small company to their customer, yet still scale up their business.
People hate being sold to, but they love interacting.
I don’t know about you, but I love when brands interact with me personally, especially if there's a real person on the other end.
This build tremendous trust with customers, the kind of trust you can’t get by just running banner ads.
Explosive Growth
As I said before, over a billion people use Facebook Messenger (Source: TechCrunch.com).
Facebook is adding new features and tools on Facebook Messenger that are creating new worlds of opportunities for businesses.
Really, there's so much opportunity here... I cannot stress that point enough.
The Tool That Turns Messages Into Customers
Remember how I said that businesses can message people who comment on their page...
Well, what if we could automate this process? What if we could automatically send a personal message to anyone who interacts with our page or posts?
Sounds like an amazing idea, right?
Well, there is a tool that does exactly that. It’s called...
ChatMatic
Chatmatic is software that automatically sends messages to everyone who comments on your posts or ads on Facebook.
It allows you to reach people where THEY are and not make them come to you. This tool is going to revolutionize online marketing!
Let’s say you have a post on Facebook.
Any time someone comments on your post, Chatmatic takes every single one of those commenters and sends them a private message via Facebook Messenger.
In this message, you can send them a link to your website, opt-in page, sales page, store... etc.
Whatever your goal is for your business.
The message also goes straight to their private inbox. It doesn’t end up in the “Message Requests” box that no one checks.
So this means they’ll see it... probably as a notification on their phone too.
A lot of people don’t click the links on Facebook anymore.
But they’re much more likely to click the link in a private message. Private messages imply a relationship, especially after they’ve already commented on a post of yours.
ChatMatic has seen initial messages on Facebook Messenger that have 80% open rates.
To put this in perspective... even if we were to say that email open rates were at 40% (which would be a high estimate for most companies*), utilizing this tool would essentially DOUBLE OPEN RATES IMMEDIATELY!
*Email open rates vary by type of email and across industries. It's really good to know how a company measures up against other companies in an industry. Here are a couple of great resources that can help you with figuring out where you stand...
- Automated Emails Sent By Organizations (Source: Marketing Sherpa)
- Email Marketing Benchmarks (Source: Mail Chimp)
The message responder is the introduction to your brand.
It builds trust and allows you to engage with customers On THEIR TERMS on an app they already have and use.
Conversation Is Key
Conversation is an incredibly powerful tool, and being a one-on-one conversation makes it that much more rewarding.
In a Chatmatic survey of 1,000 people, 80% of consumers agree that they’re more likely to buy a product after talking to someone, yet only 10% of online businesses say that they actively engage customers in conversation. Opportunity alert!
By using a tool like Chatmatic, it's easy to create automated, scalable one-on-one interaction. That’s like the ultimate secret weapon for marketing.
[BONUS] The Secret New Opt-In Strategy
Facebook integration is also creating new opportunities to gain new subscribers and collect emails in completely new ways. Let me show you how…
The Traditional Opt-In Process
The traditional opt-in process looks like this…
- You have an ad
- People click the ad and are brought to your opt-in page
- On this page, they have the option to opt-in by typing their email address
- You collect their email address
This is the traditional process of collecting email addresses that we’re all familiar with.
Well, what if I told you that this process could be simplified and made much more effective?
New Opt-In Process
With Chatmatic, there's no need to even have an opt-in page.
You can collect people’s emails as soon as they click on the ad link. This skips both the opt-in page and the additional step for people to opt-in by typing their email address.
ChatMatic allows you to create a "Sign up with Facebook" button that gets people to opt into your list, without them needing to type anything.
We just tap into Facebook and grab their email address.
We’ve all done this before.
This is essentially what you do whenever you authorize an app to use your Facebook information. This is the beauty of Facebook’s ubiquitous usage.
So the process goes from...
Ad >> Opt-in Page >> Enter Email Address
To…
Ad >> Facebook Authorization + Collect Email Address
It’s simple, making it much more effective in collecting email addresses. Less is more, especially in a world where most people are busy and distracted.
With the increase of mobile devices, the desire to type out your email address is diminishing. Out of a poll of 5,000 people by Chatmatic, 75% said that they would rather opt-in using Facebook rather than type their email address in an opt-in page.
Again, are you seeing the opportunity here?
By leveraging the major use of Facebook and the one-on-one conversation power of Facebook Messenger, businesses can reach new heights.
As you can see, the opportunity here is MASSIVE, for any type of business. Those who learn to leverage Facebook Messenger now will catch this next big wave.
And the best part is, this is just the beginning...
If you want to learn more about Facebook Messenger marketing and how Chatmatic can help you with your efforts, check out founder Travis Stephenson's free course ChatBot Marketing 101.
