After Mark announced the famous line “the future is private” during F8, we have been trying to decode what that means.
Some theories say newsfeeds will disappear. Certainly, that’s not happening anytime soon. I believe we no longer have to think about what he meant. And you’re about to discover some fascinating news about the future of marketing.
It’s chat marketing!
Let’s remember, in 2014, Facebook purchased the messaging service WhatsApp for $19 billion. The acquisition price was staggering for an app that made little money and was largely popular outside the United States. Now this entire transaction makes sense!
Buckle up!
I just came from a 3-day convention hosted by ManyChat and got to see the future of marketing. The conversations I had with marketing legends like Mari Smith, Neil Patel, and the founder of Many Chat were just amazing. I had the chance to speak with entrepreneurs and marketing directors from prestigious marketing companies like Social Media Examiner. This is a convention that will be a regular on my calendar of events!
So literally I’m back from the future to tell you that Chat marketing is a mandatory strategy for your biz!
No matter the size of your business or the industry, you must have a plan to include chat marketing! Take this as my official Motion To Add Chat Marketing to Your 2020 Plan. By the way in case you don’t know I’m an attorney!
Reason 1: SMS Wins Email Marketing
Texting versus email. Is that a real debate? I don’t think so.
I personally don’t believe that email marketing is dead. But certainly, users don’t treat all emails the same way.
I’m sure you have subscribed to your favorite mentors and they send you newsletters, updates, promotions, and invitations. You might have plenty of those that you haven’t opened. Then, on the other hand, you purchase something from Amazon and they send you the order confirmation and of course, you open that one!
Email opening behavior has dramatically changed. You can blame the marketers! With 269 billion emails being sent per day, and nearly 50% of these being spam, our inboxes are becoming increasingly cluttered. For this reason, transactional emails are the ones getting read.
There’s gotta be a better way to communicate with our contacts in bulk and get on their eyes.
SMS open rates are as high as 98%
Research shows that SMS open rates are as high as 98%, compared to just 20% of all emails. And, on average, it takes 90 seconds for someone to respond to a text and 90 minutes to respond to an email.
Furthermore, 75% of people have suggested that they’d be happy to receive an offer via SMS – this is why 65% of marketers say that SMS marketing is a “very effective” method for them.
Why SMS open rate is so high?
SMS messages are great because they’re short and get straight to the point. If you are targeting, for example, c-level executives or influencers, SMS will get you to them.
With a 160-character limit, organizations have to be sharp in their approach and can’t fill their SMS messages with loads of fluff and pointless information.
Short, precise copy that grabs attention is a must, plus any links to vouchers, tickets, surveys, and attachments.
If you think these numbers are impressive, let me tell you about Chat marketing.
Reason 2: Consumers Prefer Live Chat
As marketers, we need to listen to the audience more closely and act upon the trends that we see! Consumers are more educated. They know what they want and they want it fast. For these reasons, consumers prefer live chat support.
If a customer has a question, they are now more likely to visit your website and try to engage with a member of your team via live chat. Do you have a live chat?
You might have tried to add live chat and it gave you nothing but frustrations. It seems like businesses fail to meet live chat demands.
For instant support, customers opt for live chat. But they’re rarely satisfied – most customer chat experiences end with frustration.
Businesses prefer speed – quick connection times and quicker responses. But here’s the disconnect: consumers care more about getting their issue resolved, even if it takes a bit longer.
Businesses that prioritize customer satisfaction over live chat speed metrics will see huge benefits. Consumers are more likely to remain loyal, engage in positive word of mouth, and spend up to $500 extra per month with businesses that provide effortless live chat experiences.
Facebook messenger bots came up with a plugin to serve as live chat. Many business pages are using them as growth tools, which takes us to reason number 3!
Reason 3: Facebook Messenger Users Are Skyrocketing
Messenger marketing has become so hot. It’s the art and science of reaching customers at scale using Facebook Messenger platform, much in the same way marketers have relied on email marketing and newsletters. Messenger marketing can yield over 80 percent open rates, multiples more effective than email.
To see the scale of its popularity, check out a comparative look at the top mobile messaging apps by monthly active users. Messenger outpaces the runner up by more than double. (Source)
This makes developing a marketing strategy around Messenger critical to your business. Imagine your social media communicating with people who truly find value in your content and then your bot platform will help them with customer service. You = 🙂
You’re probably thinking … who has time to do all that? Who will be answering all these questions on messenger? Do I need to give up my entire life to just chat with anyone on the planet? NO! All you need is a bot to answer. And that takes us to reason 4!
Reason 4: Alexa, Siri, and Google Home
Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer in fiction movies. We all have it at home. And to be honest, giving our hands and eyes a break from typing and reading is very nice. Especially when you’re cooking and multitasking.
We are a family of 6 and we have Google Home. Our Google is in our kitchen. It’s our best friend! We ask about the weather each day. If there’s a holiday, we ask the story of the holiday. If kids want to know “what’s the ugliest animal on the planet”, they get it! (It’s really useful, to say the least).
What’s the business strategy behind Alexa and all of the AI we know by now?
Alexa is the public face of Amazon’s AI efforts; the facilitator that will help customers navigate – and consume – Amazon’s empire.
In simple words, you should have an Alexa representing your business.
✔️ Design a bot
✔️ Give it character
✔️ Be fun
✔️ Be useful, even when it takes your users a bit longer to get the info, they will get used to!
As you can tell, I’m very motivated about chat marketing in 2020.
I just released my messenger chatbot and her name is Marice. She would be so happy to meet you!
Click here to chat with her and come back with feedback!
PS- we are at 5% of our content load with Marice so she is still learning!
I’m sure you will have lots of questions about messenger marketing. Subscribe to notifications so you can get alerts as soon as I write another article about this.
