If we’ve said it once and we’ve said it a thousand times: if you want to develop a successful marketing strategy, you have to listen to your potential customers carefully.
People don’t want to be sold to. You’ll be surprised at how many online customers, especially the ones from the younger generations, are aware of the digital marketing strategies, i.e., they know that they are seen as a target to be conquered.
Think about this scenario not as a marketer, but as a consumer. When you come across a sponsored post, you perceive it in a different way, compared to an organic one.
This is one of the reasons why in 2019 we’ll hear a lot about instant messaging apps such as Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger.
Marketers conquered even the toughest social networks such as Snapchat and Linkedin, but most of them, especially in Europe, forgot to develop an efficient strategy for IM apps.
It might sound a little corny but if you want your brand to be perceived as empathetic, rather than a bunch of people who just want to sell, you have to develop some reliable touch points for your potential customers.
For you to succeed in this mission, consider customer-centric marketing strategies, designed to help and to attract only the people who need your products and services.
In this larger scenario strategies that include chatbots and marketing automation tools are a must-have if you want to succeed.
To better understand the next paragraphs, forget about the acronyms B2C and B2B, and consider this one: H2H, human2human. At the end of the day, you want to develop a long-lasting marketing strategy and to do that you’ll have to see your potential customers as what they are: human beings.
Overview of Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp
You’ll ask yourself why these two? Well, according to the annual report of Hootsuite, “The Global State of Digital”, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp had been the most used instant messaging platforms in 2018, and their coverage will continue to expand.
This trend is growing for several reasons, such as:
- Users will continue to prefer mobile devices to consume web content;
- Online consumers will demand even more instant gratification and functional touch points from brands.
Just the other day I had some troubles with a purchase I made online: the delivery was two days late, and I had to figure out who to reach to solve the problem.
Putting aside the fact that I struggled to find the contact information of that particular brand, I decided to do an A/B test.
First, I contacted the customer support via e-mail, and then, I did it via Facebook Messenger.
I immediately received an answer on FB Messenger. The customer support informed me that they’d start to figure out what was going on with my order. In the next few hours, they contacted me again giving me all the necessary information I needed to solve my problem, reassuring me and apologizing for the inconvenience.
In the other scenario, in which I contacted the customer service via e-mail, I received a vague answer on the next day, without any guidelines on how to solve my problem.
Obviously the two platforms were managed by different departments, but in this case, this one brand decided to invest more in enhancing the IM touch point.
The customer support managed the situation greatly through FB Messenger, giving me constant updates and finally solving the problem.
The noun itself says it: Instant Messaging App. For this reason, more and more consumers are going to rely on these touchpoints, because they expect immediate assistance and information.
Developing an effective strategy for both WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger might be time consuming but effortless, especially if you’re a small brand with limited resources.
So, let’s have a look at which platform to use for you to reach your goals.
Build a community and increase customer retention with WhatsApp Business
The fact that people typically use WhatsApp to communicate with friends and relatives make brands who use this tool one step closer to building a long-lasting relationship with their customers.
The secret lies in how people perceive the platform.
WhatsApp Business is an excellent tool for all those businesses who already have a customer base and want to have a virtual space for updates, managing customer service and much more.
Let’s have a look at some of the main ways you can use WhatsApp Business.
Business information
This is a great feature if your enterprise has a physical location, such as a bakery or an office.
WhatsApp Business gives you the opportunity to provide some relevant information to your customers, such as:
- Address;
- Website;
- Opening hours;
- The services you offer.
Customer service
If you know your customers and potential customers well, you’ll also know their main concerns and the information they are going to ask for.
WhatsApp Business gives you the opportunity to provide answers to specific questions and to send them automatically, without spending the time to write them manually.
Ah, the beauty of marketing automation. Time-saving is not a distant dream anymore!
Build a community
You can use the tool to build a proper community with your customers.
If you have planned special offers or you simply need a way to give updates, such as variation in the opening hours, and so on, WhatsApp Business is a great platform to rely on!
Besides, you can get creative on how to engage even more with your community.
Generate leads and sales with Facebook Messenger
Do you want to increase the incoming leads or even your sales?
Believe it or not, Facebook Messenger is an excellent tool if you want to reach these goals.
Let’s consider this scenario: lead generation.
If you aim to extend the subscribers of a newsletter, for example, you can set an FB ad based on the Messages goal.
In this article Mobile Monkey makes a great example of how to set this kind of campaign.
Inviting the user to write a message with a specific term, the integrated bot in FB Messenger is triggered to start interacting with the user according to preset criteria.
An effective marketing automation strategy is fundamental here, to communicate the right messages at the right time.
You have to know your Buyer Persona well, so you can develop a funnel according to what he or she is going to ask.
Summing up…
Use WhatsApp Business if you want to:
- Build a community;
- Increase customer service;
- Keeping your customers updated about incoming offers, events or promotions.
Use FB Messengers if your goals include:
- Lead generation;
- New subscriptions to a newsletter;
- Increasing sales;
- Better customer experience.
In both cases, you need to develop a winning marketing automation strategy. This doesn’t happen from one day to the next.
For you to offer solid touch points to your existing clients and potential ones you must know them and keep in mind that you need to be helpful.
Do you want to know a little bit more about marketing automation, how to include it in a wider communication strategy and some other best practices? Let’s get in touch. Ask for your free consultation today and discover how easy it is to generate qualified leads.
