Messenger is one of the most widely used apps to keep in touch with friends, family, and brands. In fact, there are 1.3 billion active users that businesses can reach through Messenger. It’s available on both Facebook and Instagram with one of its recent updates. Marketing chatbots on these networks help businesses connect with consumers where they already are. You can have meaningful conversations that are tailored to each person. They become more memorable and impactful.
Personalized experiences through marketing chatbots drive more conversions, revenue, and loyalty. This post outlines the use cases, features and benefits of Messenger bots as well as the specific channels and entry points they integrate with. It also shows how you can get started with Messenger bots on Facebook and Instagram to grow your brand.
Use cases for Messenger bots on Facebook and Instagram
How can brands use marketing chatbots built with Messenger? These are three effective use cases.
Guide shoppers from discovery to conversion
The first way is to use Messenger bots on Facebook and Instagram with conversational guided shopping. This is achieved by guiding customers from discovery to conversion using your marketing bot.
Brands deliver personalized product suggestions and content based on the customer’s individual preferences. This creates a unique experience that promotes engagement from the first touchpoint to the last. Learn how brands drive conversions on Facebook with chat automation in Spectrm’s Messenger performance report.
Messenger chatbot conversions are tracked via the Facebook Pixel and Facebook’s Conversion API. Marketers also gain rich declared data from messaging that can also be leveraged for improved retargeting, better customer insights, and higher-quality lookalike audiences. Declared data helps take the guessing out of buyer persona creation and recommendations while conversion tracking with the pixel or API enables you to attribute every conversion accurately.
Improve branding across all marketing channels
86% of consumers will pay for better shopping experiences. Offering memorable and fun interactions through Messenger bots will give long-lasting impressions to the people that purchase from you. It also helps you stand out from the ocean of competitors.
Seamlessly integrate chatbots with the ads and campaigns you are already running on Facebook and Instagram. Automate one to one conversations and remarket to customers directly through Messenger.
Remarketing on Facebook Messenger has some of the best performance in the industry. It averages a 88% open rate and a 56% click-through rate. That’s higher than any other digital marketing channel. Businesses can offer the same delightful experience across all of the channels customers use to interact with them.
Brands can re-engage customers in Messenger to lift conversions in several ways. Standard Messaging allows you to respond within 24 hours with unlimited messages. Message Tags enable marketers to send personalized one-to-one updates to customers outside the original 24 hour Standard messaging window. One-time notifications can be used to request customers to send a follow-up message to get product updates for example.
Pages registered with the Facebook News page Index (NPI) can use news messaging to send non-promotional news messages. Use this to build authority, trust, and credibility with customers. Sponsored messages allow your business to send promotional content outside the standard messaging window to drive sales.
Automate FAQs to educate customers about products and services
Facebook and Instagram Messenger chatbots benefit organic marketing through FAQ automation. Customers can select frequently asked questions about their favourite brands and products. This gives them useful information, builds trust, and helps assist them in making the best decision.
As you collect more messaging data, you can use these to train your brand-specific conversational AI using tools like Spectrm.
Entry points to Messenger Bots to improve discovery on multiple channels
Entry points are where your business brings a user into the Messenger bot conversational funnel. Marketing chatbots enable brands to utilize several different entry points for improving discovery and maximizing how many people you engage.
Click-to-Messenger ads are one of the most effective paid entry points. A customer clicks an ad on Facebook or Instagram and is instantly connected to a Messenger chat with the brand to have a personalized conversation.
Using Spectrm, you can even define entry points from ads into specific conversations in your chatbot, not just the general bot itself. Use this as an entry point to push users to product finder conversations, pages, to engage with branded content, and other assets that help them have a more delightful shopping experience.
On the organic side, Messenger bots can also use a Facebook page’s “Message Us” button as an entry point. You can also take advantage of the official Facebook Chat Plugin to directly integrate the Messenger experience on your website where customers are already active.
Facebook’s Send to Messenger plugin allows you to add a button on your website that allows customers to opt-in to receive messages from your brand on Facebook. This allows you to personalize messages and recommendations based on their profile.
The Checkbox plugin allows you to display a checkbox in forms on your website that allows users to opt-in to receive messages from a Messenger bot. Improve the checkout experience and engage with customers during the most important parts of the buying journey. “Message” buttons on product detail pages help customers get tailored information and answers when they demand it.
Facebook’s Message Us plugin is another entry point that can be used to immediately engage customers with a Messenger bot. When used on desktop, people are sent to Messenger web app and on mobile the native app.
Facebook and Instagram Messenger chatbots can reply privately to customers too. Have one-on-one conversations that sound like a friend speaking to a friend. 36% of consumers intend to message a business on their phone in the next 12 months.
Brands can use Facebook’s m.me links to connect users to specific Messenger bots. Using Spectrm, you can even define entry points from ads into specific conversations in your chatbot, not just the general bot itself. Use this as an entry point to push users to product finder conversations, pages, to engage with branded content, and other assets that help them have a more delightful shopping experience.
How brands can benefit from Messenger bots on Facebook and Instagram
What are Messenger bots capable of? When used for marketing purposes, they optimize a brand’s marketing funnel and turn it into an automated conversation. This helps drive your target audience towards valuable actions and delivers multiple benefits.
Build meaningful and long-lasting customer relationships
Facebook Messenger chatbots help you build lasting relationships with customers. They provide an accessible channel for support and removing friction to drive sales.
Using Facebook and Instagram instantly exposes your business to a massive audience of 1.3 billion on Messenger and 900 million through Instagram’s app. This larger reach can be translated into conversions and revenue with the right marketing funnel and strategy.
Download Spectrm’s infographic on the growth of messaging apps to learn more key statistics every marketer needs to know. Delivering personalized experiences makes customers more loyal in the long term. You will increase the average lifetime value of shoppers and how long they return to purchase again.
Generate more qualified leads
Messenger chatbots enable brands and enterprises to generate more qualified leads. You can easily prospect, qualify, and acquire customers in a single conversation. No more segmenting anonymous visitors, preparing lead nurturing streams, or analyzing forms. Businesses can use Spectrm’s conversational marketing platform to design conversation funnels, capture every lead, and qualify them during the engagement.
Collect declared data to improve other marketing campaigns and understand customers
Marketing chatbots collect very valuable information called declared data. Information that is volunteered by consumers during a conversation. No longer do you have to perform marketing based on hunches. Ideas. Assumptions. You are capable of knowing exactly what consumers want to confirm ideas. This data can also be leveraged in other marketing campaigns to improve their performance.
Instagram and Facebook Messenger chatbots are capable of understanding complex customer intents. Not all people communicate the same way. Marketing chatbots with advanced artificial intelligence and natural language processing (NLP) can understand customer intent to deliver appropriate responses. They can be easily trained to get more intelligent over time. Regular chatbots aren’t capable of doing this.
Messaging performance metrics you should track when using Instagram and Facebook Messenger chatbots
What metrics should marketers should be measuring when using Messenger chatbots? Below we highlight some Messenger performance metrics available in the Facebook Ads manager.
For a deep dive on conversational marketing KPIs that go beyond simple messaging metrics, check out this post on marketing bot key performance indicators that can be tracked to analyze the return on investment and success of your chatbot.
Messaging conversations started
How many people have engaged with your business through Messenger? This is determined by measuring the amount of customers that view your attributed ads relative to how many start a Messenger conversation.
Messaging conversations started = Total interactions / Total conversations started
For example, if your Messenger chatbot reached 10,000 people and 1,000 people started conversations, that’s 1,000 messaging conversations started or 10%. This is important to measure as brands can improve how many conversations they start over each iteration of the chatbot.
Messaging connections
Messaging connections is the total amount of people your business can contact with Messenger. This is an important metric to measure because the more connections to customers you have, the more conversions and revenue you can drive.
Messaging connections = Total number of open connections with customers through Messenger
Increasing the amount of Messaging connections a brand has creates opportunities to continue or start conversations. Engage them with timely offers. Follow up directly in chat with personalized content and product recommendations.
New messaging connections
The number of people your business adds as messaging connections through attributed ads are measured as new messaging connections. Brands should measure this key performance indicator to ensure they are increasing the amount of connections with customers.
New messaging connections = Total amount of people who start new conversations with your brand
For example, if a conversational ad campaign reaches 20,000 people and 50% of people start a Messenger conversation, that is 10,000 new messaging connections.
This metric only includes the new conversions that customers start within an attribution window. It does not include conversations started by users who have messaged your page in the past.
Cost per messaging conversation started
The cost per messaging conversation started is the total cost of starting a conversation with customers through Messenger. Being able to analyze and reduce this results in acquiring more customers and creating meaningful engagements at a lower cost.
Cost per messaging conversation started = Total cost of messaging conversations / Total conversations started
For example, if the total media spend on a conversational Messenger ad campaign is $5,000 and it results in 100 conversations, the cost per messaging conversation started is $50.
Final thoughts on Messenger marketing chatbots
Messenger is one of the best channels to reach customers where they already are, create meaningful connections, and personalize shopping experiences. Marketers can leverage them for many different purposes.
Guide customers from discovery to conversion. Control every touch point and deliver a delightful brand experience through a variety of entry points. Automate FAQs and information to educate customers and increase conversion rates.
Utilizing Messenger on Facebook and Instagram in this way buildings meaningful long term customer relationships. Your brand can generate more qualified leads and improve prospecting. Use declared data from customer conversations to improve other marketing campaigns and better understand what customers demand.
You need to measure Messenger chatbots for the most success. Some of the main metrics you should track include:
- Messaging conversations started
- Messaging connections
- New messaging connections
- New blocked messaging connections
- Cost per messaging connection started
Want to learn more about how your business can grow with Messenger bots on Facebook and Instagram? Get in touch with one of Spectrm’s conversational marketing experts today.
