Contents
- What is Messenger Marketing
- The Difference Between Messenger Marketing and Email Marketing
- Advantages of Messenger Marketing
- Who Benefits from Messenger Marketing
- Capabilities of Messenger Marketing
- Popular Messengers for Business
- Services for Setting Up Messenger Marketing
What is Messenger Marketing
Messenger marketing is a modern process of attracting and retaining customers using messengers. These platforms provide businesses with unique opportunities to sell products and services, as well as to consult customers. Through the automation of processes, such as chatbots, companies can significantly save on budget and employee time. For example, after registering for a free webinar, I immediately received an informational message and a gift via Telegram, illustrating the effectiveness of this channel.
The Difference Between Messenger Marketing and Email Marketing
Although messenger marketing and email marketing have much in common, it is important to understand the key differences between them to maximize the effectiveness of each channel.
Main Differences:
- Speed: Messengers provide instant interaction with customers, making them ideal for customer support. In contrast, emails are often used for more thoughtful communications.
- Message Format: Messages in messengers are generally short and have limited formatting options, whereas email newsletters can be more informative and diverse.
- Open Rates: Messages in messengers are opened significantly more often (70% - 98%), while the average open rate for emails is only 21%.
Thus, both channels have their strengths and weaknesses, and their combined use can create a powerful marketing strategy.
Advantages of Messenger Marketing
Messenger marketing offers numerous benefits for both customers and businesses:
- Convenience for Customers: According to VCIOM, many Russians spend more than 3 hours on messengers and social networks, making communication with companies feel more natural.
- Cost Savings for Businesses: Operators can engage with multiple customers simultaneously, reducing personnel costs.
- Increased Conversion Rates: The high open rate of messages in messengers gives companies more sales opportunities.
- Automation: Chatbots reduce staff workload and allow easy scaling of the business without the need to expand the workforce.
Who Benefits from Messenger Marketing
Messenger marketing is particularly beneficial for the following professionals:
- Marketers and SMM Specialists: It is a powerful tool for promoting brands and products.
- Sales Managers: Use messengers for communication with customers and upselling.
- Support Services: Provide consultations and gather feedback through convenient channels.
- Other Departments: Can use messengers for invoicing, sending confirmations, and updates.
Capabilities of Messenger Marketing
Messenger marketing offers a plethora of tools that adapt to business needs:
- Live communication with customers in real time.
- Chatbots for handling inquiries and supporting customers during off-hours.
- Integrations with CRM systems and other services.
- Audience segmentation using tags.
- Conducting surveys and collecting feedback.
- Creating trigger-based campaigns to warm up customers for purchases.
- Sending transactional messages.
These capabilities allow for effective engagement with customers at every stage of their journey.
Popular Messengers for Business
There are many messengers on the market, and here are some of the most popular in Russia:
- WhatsApp: Ideal for small businesses and allows the use of WhatsApp Business for creating message templates.
- VKontakte: Allows integration of messengers with SMM strategies to increase customer loyalty.
- Telegram: Offers the ability to create channels for promotion and communication with customers.
- Odnoklassniki: Has an active audience over 55 years old and also enables consultations.
- Viber: Allows for the creation of communities and the use of chatbots for communication with customers.
Services for Setting Up Messenger Marketing
There are various services that help automate and simplify work in messengers:
- Chat2Desk
- Textback
- Webim
- 13chats
- JivoSite
These tools allow multiple operators to be connected, ensure security, and consolidate different messengers into a single service.