Why Your Business Can’t Ignore Facebook Messenger

Imagine if you could travel back in time to the late 90’s or early 00’s. When people loved receiving emails and open rates were as high as 80–90%.

Do you think you could make more money for your business with email engagement that high?

Well even if you can’t travel back in time, 80% open rates are still possible in 2017.

Just not on email.

80%+ open rates on Facebook Messenger are very possible though. In fact, besides the high open rates Facebook Messenger has a lot of advantages over email…

Unlike email, people have been trained to respond almost immediately to messages on Facebook Messenger.

Until now, it’s been difficult for businesses to start conversations with consumers. That means marketers haven’t had the chance ruin the platform yet, by spamming people’s inboxes. Facebook are doing their best to prevent that from happening.

And now with chat bots, a lot of communication with consumers on Facebook Messenger can be completely automated.

While open rates and also click through rates are very high on Messenger right now, that won’t last forever. But the businesses who get in within the next 12 months will be rewarded.

Here’s a few reasons why you should be using Facebook Messenger for your business…

Facebook Is Very Serious About Messenger

There’s already over 1 billion active users on Facebook Messenger. And if Facebook have their way, that’s only going to grow.

Here’s what I know from paying very close attention to Facebook over the past 12 months — Facebook wants people spending more time on Facebook Messenger.

They know what WeChat has done in China. How reliant the Chinese are on WeChat. And they want to replicate that in the rest of the world.

Facebook is already by far the most dominate player in social media and it’s no going away any time soon.

But if Facebook can turn Messenger into our primary communication channel, like WeChat is in China… Then Facebook isn’t going anywhere for a long, long time.

You can see how serious Facebook is about Messenger by looking at all their major updates in the past 12 months.

Towards the end of 2016 they introduced Messenger ads. Earlier this year, Messenger Day was introduced. They’ve been evolving the gaming space on Messenger. They have made it easier for commerce transactions to take place all within Messenger. Now it’s possible to order food on Messenger in the US.

Almost every week Facebook are adding something new to improve Messenger.

So we can be pretty certain that Facebook wants people spending more time on Messenger.

Facebook Usually Gets What It Wants

About five years ago, Facebook could see how quickly online video was increasing in popularity. At that time, YouTube was the major player in online video.

So Facebook decided they wanted a piece of the action.

Facebook changed their algorithms so video would be given more favorable treatment over other post types. They created auto-play videos in the news feed. They introduced Facebook live.

With these changes, Facebook were able to double their daily videos views from 4 billion to 8 billion in just six months.

Several years ago, Facebook saw Snapchat quickly rising in popularity. At it’s rate of growth, Snapchat was on track to become the next Facebook.

Obviously Facebook saw this as a threat and wanted to stop Snapchat.

In 2013 Facebook tried to buy Snapchat for $3 billion.

Snapchat said no.

So Facebook tried the next best thing — copy Snapchat.

And it worked.

Snapchat is still big but Facebook have been able to slow it down a lot by replicating Snapchat’s features on Instagram.

The point is Facebook will usually find a way to get what it wants. So if Facebook want people spending more time on Messenger and using it as their primary communication channel, then there’s a pretty good chance that will happen.

Two Way Conversation

So now we know Facebook is very serious about growing Messenger. And we know that it’s probably going to keep growing because Facebook wants it to.

Let’s look at why Messenger is such an incredible marketing tool.

If you can create a two way conversation with a potential customer, the chances of them buying from you increase dramatically. Especially if you’re in a service based business.

This is what I really like about Messenger. It helps you start two way conversations with your potential customers quickly.

Most marketing is a one way conversation.

The business is talking to consumers. But the consumers aren’t talking back. Conversion rates for this form of marketing are typically extremely low.

It’s too easy for the consumer to say no.

But when the consumer starts talking back, everything changes. Now they have made a micro commitment to your business. They also feel a stronger personal connection to your business.

Facebook has made it extremely easy to start a two way conversation with your ideal customers in the last six months.

If someone comments on one of your posts or ad posts, you can directly message that person now.

Of course you can also start a two way conversation with potential customers by getting them on the phone, getting them into your store or emailing them.

But getting someone to call you or visit your stores takes a lot more commitment and effort on their end. Responding to a Facebook message is easy. If it’s easy, more people will do it.

Another cool feature of Facebook Messenger, is that as soon as someone engages with your business on Messenger, they instantly become a subscriber. Just like email subscribers, you can message these people any time in the future. You will need a third party tool to do this however, like ManyChat.

If you’re in a service based business, it’s often impossible to get a sale without first having a two way conversation.

So it makes sense to open up the path of least resistance to a two way conversation.

Even if you have a product based business, using Messenger to start two way conversations with your ideal customers will improve your chances of a sale and help to build the relationship with these potential customers.