Messenger Marketing: An Advanced Direction for Business Development

Modern Internet marketing uses a huge number of technologies, tools and solutions aimed at attracting the user audience to the company's websites, social networks, retaining the interest of customers, increasing brand awareness. And one of the quite promising and effective solutions is messenger marketing or, as they often call it, chat marketing.

In this case, we are talking about attracting potential customers using instant messengers. Thanks to this solution, the process of selling goods and services is intensified, consulting people is simplified, which ultimately leads to increased loyalty on their part. At the same time, the time and effort of managers, as well as the budget allocated for promoting the brand as a whole, are significantly saved. This is ensured by the use of such automation tools as chat bots, which are built into the application and communicate with a potential client up to a certain stage, until it comes to more specifics. And here a real manager is already involved in the work.

As part of today's review, we will dwell in more detail on what are the key differences between messenger marketing and email marketing, which until relatively recently was widely used to promote goods. Let's highlight the main advantages of chat marketing and the business categories that should adopt this tool. We will tell you which messengers are suitable for implementing this idea, as well as which tools are used in this case. We will also give a number of tips that will allow you to increase the effectiveness of messenger marketing several times, thereby ensuring a stable level of sales of your goods and services.

Chat Marketing and Email Newsletter: Similarities and Differences

In essence, messenger marketing and email newsletters are quite similar concepts, since both technologies are used to send certain messages to clients, potential buyers for the purpose of consulting them, informing them about promotional offers, new products that are just being introduced to the market in order to increase sales. But by and large, this is where the similarities between both technologies end. And it is important to be aware of the distinctive features in order to use both marketing technologies to the maximum in practice.

Let's consider the distinctive aspects based on a number of key indicators:

1. Speed of interaction with potential clients. Chat marketing is what ensures an instant response to user requests. Thanks to this, high customer support rates are ensured. That is, a potential buyer receives an answer to his question in real time. If interaction with the target audience is carried out through an e-mail, the waiting time for a response can be quite long. That is, here it is necessary for a person to go to his mail, read the message sent to him, and if he did not write a response, then at least react to what was written. In most cases, e-mail newsletters are used to send thoughtful and informative materials to the audience that do not require an immediate response.
2. Message format. In most cases, messages sent through messengers are quite short. These are literally one or two concise sentences containing the most important things that you would like to say. In contrast, email newsletters allow you to send fairly long messages containing informative, thought-out text. That is, here the emphasis is no longer on the speed of interaction with potential clients, the depth of their elaboration.
3. Open rate. The effectiveness of any marketing move directly depends on how much a person interacts with the information received. In this case, it is important from the very beginning that the user opens your message and reads it, understands what exactly you want to tell him. That is, the percentage of open rates of the newsletter is a key indicator of the success of the launched campaign. So, if we talk about emails, the average rate here is about 20%, while chat marketing gives an open rate of over 70%. Yes, a lot here depends on what market niche we are talking about or what specific product. But still, the difference is very noticeable. That is, we can say with confidence that the return on such marketing will be much higher than from an email newsletter.

As you can see, both technologies have both strengths and weaknesses. And they are not interchangeable. Rather, these are marketing areas that can complement each other, increasing the effectiveness of launched campaigns. You just need to clearly understand at what stage of the sales funnel it is worth using chat marketing, where a more effective solution would still be an electronic newsletter. By combining these methods, you can get a fairly impressive result and develop a marketing strategy that will ensure the maximum flow of the user audience and, as a result, higher sales of goods and services.

But since our review today is devoted directly to messenger marketing, we will dwell on this technology in more detail.

Key advantages of chat marketing

The main advantages characteristic of messenger marketing include:

• Increased convenience for potential customers. In this case, a person who is interested in a particular service or product writes his question in the messenger and literally immediately receives a competent answer. So he saves his own time and effort. In addition, all communication is conducted in an environment convenient for a modern person. That is, according to the latest statistics, a modern person spends more than 3 hours a day in messengers. Moreover, constant communication through such channels with relatives and friends makes correspondence more natural, relaxed, which ultimately yields higher results.
• Convenience for business representatives. Operators who work in chat centers can simultaneously communicate with several clients, which eliminates the need to attract additional employees and pay them. At least this advantage works when compared with the company's call centers.
• Increased conversion. A person who receives detailed answers to his questions will be more loyal to the business and is highly likely to place an order. Also, high conversion rates are directly related to a higher percentage of message opens in messengers than in the same email, which we discussed above.
• The ability to use tools that automate actions. The entire process of communicating with potential clients is not necessarily entrusted to real people. The fact is that managers of various companies face a large number of similar questions from people every day. If you make such a list, prepare answers to them, then their distribution can be assigned to chatbots. They will become an indispensable solution at the preliminary stages of communication with clients. A real manager will be able to pick up work with a client at the moment when his or her direct professional intervention is required. This also saves time and effort for company employees.

Now let's talk about what key business tasks chat marketing can solve

Tasks that can be delegated to chat marketing

If you analyze the features and advantages typical of chat marketing, you can easily identify a range of tasks for which this tool is ideal. In particular, we are talking about:

1. Reducing the cost of advertising campaigns while ensuring high coverage of the user audience. The fact is that absolutely anyone can launch messenger marketing, even startups. This technology is quite simple to implement and, moreover, it requires minimal material costs. But at the same time, it provides a fairly impressive coverage of the target audience in the near future after its launch and, moreover, allows you to maintain high engagement rates. But the costs here will be several times lower than the same contextual advertising would require.
2. Simplifying the audience's acquaintance with the brand, the goods and services provided. By and large, you will be able to write your own scenarios, on the basis of which communication with potential buyers for each product will be conducted. If desired, you can also add gamification here, such as tests, surveys and other interactive activities that increase engagement. You can think through clarifying questions in order to understand what exactly your potential buyer is looking for and offer him the most relevant answers.
3. Increasing the efficiency of the sales department and technical support service. Absolutely all representatives of online business know how many questions potential customers have that are not directly related to sales, but at the same time they affect the level of their satisfaction, which in turn will automatically affect loyalty to the business. It is the solution of these problems that can be transferred to chatbots, while real managers will deal with clients who are already set to place an order. In addition, thanks to chat marketing, you can minimize the waiting time for a response, which will also have a positive effect on the attitude of customers to the business.
4. Higher loyalty rates, which is ensured by personalization and personal interaction. Practice shows that over 50% of buyers will return to a particular store with an order if it provides them with an additional discount or some other favorable terms of cooperation. Messengers allow you to personalize each request. So, you can send your message when the client is active, address them by name, pull up their purchase history.
5. Increase the average purchase receipt using proven solutions. By setting up automatic communication with the user audience via chat, you can systematically engage people in communication with the brand. This way, you can introduce them not only to the company, its products or services, but also behind the scenes, reveal some interesting moments that can increase engagement. This way, you will get a warmed-up client who is more likely to make a purchase on the site. In addition, such buyers are likely to contact you again for a purchase, which will ultimately provide a fairly stable and good profit.
6. Instantly notify clients about important events, activities, for example, promotions, an unclosed basket. And the most remarkable thing here is that people do not react negatively to such messages. Moreover, they perceive them as care, which again has a positive effect on loyalty and will stimulate further cooperation.

So which business representatives should use chat marketing in practice? We will dwell on this in the survey below.

Who should use messenger marketing in practice

Messenger marketing is a modern tool designed to greatly simplify and improve interaction with potential clients, increase the level of service, and along with it loyalty, brand recognition. The following business representatives should use it:

1. Online stores, delivery services. Using the messenger, your customers will be able to select products and place orders, pay for them, cancel them if they deem it necessary. Also, increased convenience consists of the ability to track the status of purchases, choose suitable delivery methods and times.
2. Beauty studios, barbershops, fitness clubs, medical centers. In this case, chat marketing will help you choose a free time for an appointment, make a reservation, confirm the appointment. At the same time, clients will receive reminders about the upcoming visit, that is, they will not miss the planned visit. If we talk directly about medical centers, then the results of diagnostic tests can also be sent to chat messengers, which will eliminate the need for a personal visit to the clinic.
3. Cafes, bars, restaurants, pastry shops and other catering establishments. You can order food delivery to your home, book tables, or even halls for special events, conferences, and seminars via messenger. You can also track the order status and cancel it if necessary.
4. Various financial institutions, including banks, credit centers, and insurance companies. In this case, you can use chat marketing to send out information about the movement of funds, inform clients about certain financial products, remind them of the need to make a payment, or close a contract after all payments.
5. Mass media, media centers, and digital agencies. Messengers can automate the process of publishing news, announcements, and information materials. But Digital agencies will be able to send useful content to clients via messenger, offer discounts or special offers, acting as a lead magnet, invite to seminars and other events.
6. Online schools, educational courses, seminars. Through chat marketing, you can easily and quickly register students for trainings, courses, master classes, send out promotional offers, class schedules, remind about the need to complete a particular task and notify about its verification, including with grading.
7. Hotels, including chain hotels, travel agencies. Messenger marketing in this case is a good tool for booking rooms, rescheduling or canceling reservations, ordering excursions, tickets to various cultural centers, and attractions.

These are far from all the possibilities and areas where messenger marketing can be used today. Alternatively, you can also use it to connect your clients to loyalty programs, offer personalized discounts, and arrange closed sales. That is, this technology can be implemented in absolutely any B2C business. The only thing that needs to be determined here is at what stage interaction with the user audience can be entrusted to bots, and where it is worthwhile to directly involve specialists.

With B2B business, the situation is somewhat different, since here each client must initially have their own personal manager. The one who will lead the project from scratch until its completion. In addition, it is extremely difficult for a fairly large business to communicate with consumer markets through autofunnels. This is especially true in the case of sales of fairly expensive goods, when the decision is made by more than one person.

Messengers through which you can organize chat marketing

Today, each of us actively uses messengers to communicate with our loved ones, friends, to introduce professional activities. But in this case, we are talking not only about individual applications, but about a fairly impressive set of software tools that allow you to exchange messages and automate these actions. In particular, these can also be social networks, corresponding applications on the site, the same online chat, or a solution built into a specific program.

So, if we talk about messengers that are in high demand among the consumer market today and on the basis of which you can organize chat marketing, then it is worth highlighting:

• Telegram. One of the most common and popular messengers today, through which you can easily promote your brand and individual products, share news, new products, and information about promotions with the consumer market. And you can set up the reception of messages either directly in the chat company or connect a bot.
• WhatsApp. In this case, you can organize communication with the consumer market through a phone number linked to your company or connect your account to the WhatsApp Business offer, which has already implemented a fairly large number of templates for working with the consumer market. Here you can choose a communication scheme that suits you, configure auto-responses. Whatsapp also provides a solution for medium and large businesses, in particular the WhatsApp Business API. This program is connected through special intermediary services and allows you to set up standard mailings, as an option in cases when you need to inform clients of important information. This can be information about booking tickets, hotels, reminders about making an appointment, registering for a webinar, etc.
• Viber. This messenger has a Communities function that allows you to organize a community directly within this service. Here you also choose the most suitable way to communicate with clients, such as a business message, a chat bot.
• VKontakte. Today, this social network provides the ability to integrate messengers with a built-in SMM strategy. As a result, you can create a separate community or page where work will be carried out aimed at servicing customers and increasing their loyalty. But the messenger itself will be used to provide consultations and conduct transactions. VKontakte is the platform that will allow you to conveniently send out mailings. Moreover, you can connect this messenger to targeted advertising, which will significantly increase the effectiveness of the work performed.

Now let's get acquainted in more detail with what tools can be used in chat marketing.

Tools that can be used in chat marketing

You can organize effective messenger marketing using different tools. Here are the most common and popular solutions:

1. Chatbots. This is what will automate these jobs and delegate some of the jobs that were previously done by real people to bots. In this case, the program will automatically respond to user requests, in particular, accept messages, identify the application, independently answer a number of the most common questions and transfer the dialogue to the manager if direct human intervention is required. They are also used to send mailings, personal discounts. Alternatively, in practice, it may look like this. You send a buyer who has already worked with the store a message in a messenger of this format: “Send a photo of your look with our bag and get a 20% discount on a new order.” After that, there will be two response options such as “I want” or “I don't want”. If a person replies that he would like to take advantage of such an offer, he receives a corresponding promo code, by which he can place an order with a discount. In the future, the bot can be used for additional consultations or, alternatively, for making an appointment with employees.
2. Chats. This is already a classic and familiar solution for many, during which direct communication is conducted with a real manager or operator of a particular store of the company. By and large, such service has a positive effect on the loyalty of the user audience, increases the level of trust. But at the same time, the workload of the sales department itself increases significantly. Excessive expenditure of real time of managers has led to the fact that recently classic chats are no longer used independently. They are mainly combined with chat bots to reduce the workload of the sales department and increase the efficiency of work.
3. Advertising mailings. This is a type of email marketing, which we talked about at the beginning of our review. That is, it involves sending messages to users who have left their contact information and agreed to receive such letters. This method is used to send text messages, links to certain product categories, images, and even discount coupons. By and large, email newsletters can increase sales, reduce the cost of attracting new customers, and improve conversion. But again, the problem here is that not every person opens such a message. And as we said above, email marketing should be combined with chat marketing to significantly increase conversion.
4. Branded stickers. A fairly new direction that involves adding special stickers to messengers, with the help of which product branding is performed. As a result, company recognition increases, its image is strengthened, and user audience engagement improves. Potential customers will be able to use your stickers, thereby joining your company, feeling like a part of it.
5. Communities, group chats, and channels. This is what will help to most effectively convey information about your products and services to the target audience, systematically warming it up and preparing it for a purchase. In this way, you can distribute information about your products, latest news, promotions, share news, reviews, systematically involving buyers in communication, exchange of opinions.

Again, to get the maximum effect in practice, it is necessary to develop a comprehensive strategy that includes all these tools. And here it is important to understand how each of these options works and use these opportunities to the maximum.

But one of the rather serious difficulties is the correct setup of chatbots. This is especially true for applications based on neural networks. You must teach artificial intelligence to communicate with your audience in such a way as to get the maximum return in the end. And here a few simple rules will help you.

Additional recommendations for increasing the efficiency of chat marketing

To increase the efficiency of messenger marketing in general, it is necessary to approach the solution of the task in a comprehensive manner, pay attention to many aspects, including the correct setup of the chatbot itself. And here the following recommendations will help:

• Focus on solving the client's problem. Initially, you must understand the problem of your potential buyer, that is, what he turns to you with and offer the most effective solution. That is, you simply need to hit the nail on the head, as they say.
• Communicate with clients. This will help people start trusting you. And this, in turn, will automatically spread to the brand as a whole, increase the level of loyalty, and lead to people turning to you for purchases.
• Prepare personalized offers. That is, do not work for the entire audience according to the same scenario. Think about what specific thing you can offer to each individual person. Set up an appeal by name. If there was a previous communication, then you can pull out part of the story from there to show the person that you remember him.
• Show a visual benefit for the buyer in collaborating with you. Move away from loud general phrases, focus on specifics. That is, during communication with the chatbot, your client should understand what exactly you are offering him and understand that this will really be the best option for him.
• Make sure that the incentives of the brand and your target audience coincide. This way you can create a strong partnership that will be beneficial to both parties. That is, you get a loyal client, and your client gets a quality product or service on attractive terms.

As you can see, there is nothing complicated here, but it still requires a comprehensive and professional approach.

Let's sum it up

Chat marketing, especially with the use of artificial intelligence technology, is a very promising and effective direction for business development, its promotion on the Internet, attracting new buyers of goods, services and retaining the attention of regular ones. To get the maximum effect from it in practice, it is necessary to develop a comprehensive strategy, which also involves the use of additional tools in a particular niche. By following the recommendations we have provided in our review, you will be able to optimize these works, choose the most suitable solutions for yourself, which will ultimately contribute to increasing the efficiency of your work and achieving your goals.

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