What is your most lucrative business asset?
Most people would say it’s their email list, which for the average online retailer was responsible for 50% of revenue in 2015.
But all that is changing.
Messaging is the new way to communicate with customers—particularly Facebook Messenger.
There are over 900 million people on Facebook Messenger, with 60 billion messages sent daily compared to only 20 billion texts sent daily.
And soon you’re going to be able to push notifications directly into customers’ and prospects’ Messenger inbox (where open rate is very high), and give them brand updates, shipping and tracking information, promotions, and more.
And they’ll be able to make one-click purchases right from your message!
So pay attention to this communication channel.
Soon there will be an ad objective available allowing you to acquire access to people’s Messenger accounts, like we currently do for Facebook Likes in our Like Campaigns.
And because Facebook has opened the platform up to third party developers, you’ll start seeing different apps that integrate with Messenger.
In fact, Facebook just announced an integration with Shopify that allows Shopify merchants to send messages to their customers, so it’s already happening! (If you’re on Shopify, make sure you have Facebooking messaging enabled.)
This is a really exciting shift for retailers, and it opens up a whole lot of opportunity for us as ecommerce merchants.
And of course, I’ll keep you updated as this develops—I can’t wait to see what results we get!
Video Highlights
0:13 WhatsAPP and Facebook Messenger have 60 billion messages per day
0:37 Facebook rolled out messenger integration with Shopify
1:13 You will now have a list of Facebook messenger addresses
1:54 Click one button inside messenger to make a purchase
2:20 Enable messenger communication channel on Shopify
2:47 Run ads to collect messenger addresses
3:06 900 million people on Facebook messenger
3:16 Messenger is changing Retail
Click Here For Video Transcript
Hey, Ezra here with you from new.smartmarketer.com. I’ve noticed I’ve started doing this. Hand gestures are a funny thing when you’re speaking. This is a new one for me, so watch out for it.
What I want to talk about today is messaging. Now, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger have 60 billion messages per day, as opposed to only 20 billion text messages sent per day in America. So, messaging is really how people are communicating. And I predicted in 2015 – it didn’t actually come true in 2015 but it’s coming true now – that messaging would be a key communication channel between businesses and consumers.
Now, Facebook just rolled out Facebook Messenger integration with Shopify, so now when someone buys from you – you should go into your Shopify store, by the way, and enable it – you can build a list of customers who are on Facebook Messenger. Used to be as business owners that we thought of our community, our group, our customer list as an email list. And 50% of all revenue in 2015 for eCommerce businesses came from the email list, so people’s email list. It’s the most valuable asset you can have, is an email list of a group of customers.
Well, that’s now changing. Now, you’re going to have a list of email addresses and a list of Facebook Messenger addresses, where you’ll be able to actually direct message content to people the same way you would email them, right inside of Facebook Messenger. We’re going to see this Messenger as a communication platform for business to consumer explode this year. There’s all kind of apps being developed for Facebook Messenger. They opened it up, Facebook opened it up and said anyone can develop an application to work inside the Messenger. It’s kind of like an inbox now.
And we’ll be able to, as retailers, send people shipping notifications, send them tracking notifications. When we hold a sale, we’ll email them about our sale, we’ll run ads about our sale. And we’ll also send a Facebook Messenger notification, and they’ll be able to click one button in that Messenger inbox and make a purchase.
So, messaging is really how people are communicating. Email is going to kind of die out with the millennials. The younger generations are just not emailing, they’re messaging. And so, you want to be paying attention to this communication channel. There’s nothing to do yet other than, if you have a Shopify store, just go ahead and enable the Messenger communication channel.
But I want to tell you to be on the lookout for this because you’re going to start seeing ads to you for little things that you can do with Facebook Messenger and it’s going to be a big channel of communication between you and your customers because it’s where they are. It’s right on their mobile device, they’re carrying it around with them, the notifications pop up right on their screen. Even if the screen is locked, it’s like “Bing! You got a new message,” and the open rate is so high. So, for the next year or two, it’s going to be a phenomenal channel.
And there’s going to be an ad unit out there, it’s coming, where you’ll be able to run an ad, and instead of collecting an email address, someone will be able to just click “Yes”, and it will be essentially you’ve collected their Facebook Messenger address, you’ll be able to just message them the same way you would email them. So, you’ll be able to build groups of people on Facebook Messenger.
Very exciting. Nine hundred million people on Messenger at the moment, so, very very exciting channel. Wanted to let you know to look out for it and to make sure to enable it in your store, and also just tell you that this is changing retail. I mean, this is really a fundamental shift for us and it’s very exciting and I’m happy to be a part of it and happy that you’re a part of it.
Thanks for watching these videos. Ezra here from new.smartmarketer.com. Catch you in the next one.
