5 Reasons To Use Facebook Messenger For Growth Marketing

5 Reasons To Use Facebook Messenger For Growth Marketing

Because it works.

Four times. That is the amount of growth that Facebook Messenger has seen in messages between users and businesses on a monthly basis in 2018 — going from 2 billion to 8 billion. And this growth is showing no sign of slowing.

It’s clear that Facebook Messenger marketing is worth exploring, but why exactly? We’ve got the top 5 reasons.

1. Your brand’s relationship with customers is what has the biggest impact on purchase decisions

And the best way to build a relationship is through 1:1 communication. So good — truly good — conversations lead to conversions.

Think of the conversation you have with your favorite in-store shopkeeper or barista. They ask questions! As you talk with them, they recommend things that make more and more sense for you and your needs.

When a customer feels understood, and catered too, they bond with a brand. Facebook Messenger, the channel used for one-on-one communications, is the most effective way to build the kind of trust that has always worked IRL at scale, on the web.

2. Unmatched customer information and data

Customers share information about themselves because they want to be understood. With 1:1 messaging channels like Facebook Messenger already feeling like a personal, catered space, brands using them can gather really valuable data from their audiences.

Using a platform like Paloma, when someone opts in to Messenger a pre-scripted conversation automatically gets sent. That first conversation can act as your “salesperson” — qualifying the lead, and even converting them. Along the way, the responses from that customer to everything from location to style preferences can be captured, forming a super robust customer profile.

Our customers see 73% of their leads on Facebook Messenger complete those first conversations.

3. High growth, improved ROI

“It’s not a matter of if but when you should get on Messenger” — Stefanos Loukakos — Director, Head of Messenger Business at Facebook

According to a study shared at F8, advertisers testing out Messenger in their ad campaigns saw an 8% increase in reach and a 7% decrease in cost. Numbers like this would make any brand sit up and pay attention — these percentages are significant in a world where new growth channels are lucky to see anything over a 1% change.

And brand are seeing more growth on top of increase in reach and decrease in cost. Take the Australian Open. Wanting to find a way to turn more browsers into ticket buyers, the Australian Open implemented a Messenger bot and saw a 24x ROI increase compared to ads leading to website and 170% more conversion.*

Sephora’s reservation assistant provided 11% increase in booking rates, and Tommy Hilfiger saw 3.5x the money spent. These brands are just scratching the surface of the capabilities of Messenger as a high-value growth channel.**

Fanta distributed 2.6 million coupons for a new drink flavor at McDonalds using a Messenger bot — 1/3 of those coupons were used IRL, in store. Also, Fanta saw a huge increase in recall and in campaign recognition.*

What makes these numbers so high? A customer-centric approach to marketing. With Messenger being an opt-in first channel you’re working with higher quality leads.

4. Remarketing that’s actually pleasant

You have the data, you know your customer — now you can send targeted conversations to them that they’ll love and appreciate because your outreach is relevant. By using a conversation format, customers get to participate, providing an engagement opportunity that maintains the brand relationship even if it doesn’t immediately convert.

Messenger outperforms the more common email channel in open rates and CTR: Brands that use Facebook Messenger for marketing campaigns are currently seeing open rates of 80% or more and click-through rates greater than 30%, while average email open rates at around 5.9%-18.8%, and the average click-through rates around 0.4%-2.1%.***

The extra magic? No matter where the customer is, this is all happening in the same channel. So whether they opted in through the plugin on your site, or an ad on instagram, everything is happening on Messenger wherever they are.

5. Your customers are on Messenger. Be with them!

You probably already know this, because inbound direct messaging is an issue for a lot of brands. Keeping up with customers that are reaching out through Messenger (and IG, and Twitter dms..) is too much bandwidth for a single community manager.

And we know it’s not going to stop — 54.4% of US social media users prefer messaging with brands over email, phone and online chat (per a study on messaging App Usage Worldwide in 2017), and according to a 2017 Facebook-commissioned Nielsen Study, 67% of people plan to message more with businesses over next 3 years.


Platforms like Paloma, where you can manage automated conversations and customer data, make it possible to take advantage of Messenger — one of the highest performing marketing channels we’ve seen to-date. Doing the work to funnel customers to the right opportunities and solutions, effectively scaling 1:1.

What are your brand’s plans? We’d love to help.


We’re now accepting partners for our private beta. Interested? Send us a direct note hello@getpaloma.com to be first on the list when we open to the public.


References:

*Messenger for Business Keynote at F8 2018

** Internal Facebook Business Case Study, Sephora

*** 2016 report from Statista