If you want to grow your business, you have to have a way to steadily and consistently generate good qualified prospects and leads that you can move forward through the sales process to a transaction.
Today I'm going to show you how consumer behavior is shifting drastically, and how you can capitalize on that to generate better leads that turn into customers faster and more often.
Like I said, the landscape is changing rapidly and moving in a direction that is making conventional marketing work less and less effectively at generating leads that turn into customers.
This will be a major problem for some companies in your space.
But, it's an even bigger opportunity for those that choose to move quickly and execute what I'm about to show you. Smart companies will capitalize on this change in market behavior and take advantage of it for significant growth.
Others will ignore it, keep doing things in their marketing the way they've always done it, and because of that, get left behind.
And it's already happening.
In this post, I'm going explain the shift that's happening in consumer behavior and show you how you can take advantage of this shift and profit from it in big ways. First, take a look at this image.
Which scenario would you rather have in your marketing???
Scenario A - Email - Send 1000 messages
- OPENS: 20% of 2000 = 400 OPENS
- CLICKS: 3% of 400 = 12 CLICKS
- CONV. RATE: 5% of 12 = 1 CONVERSION
VS...Scenario B - Send 2000 messages
- OPENS: 80% of 2000 = 1600 OPENS
- CLICKS: 50% of 1600 = 800 CLICKS
- CONV. RATE: 15% of 800 = 120 CONVERSIONS
It's a rhetorical question, as you can probably see.
And If you said Scenario B, then this post is for you! And I'll get into exactly how Facebook Messenger as a marketing channel can get you these kinds of results in your digital marketing.
But first, lets start with the problem.
The Problem: Marketing is costing more and more and generating less of a return
With all the powerful tools we implement in our marketing and all the money we spend to get our message in front of the right people, we still fall far short of meeting people where they are and giving them what they need the way they want it.
But there has been no other options up to this point. That's the technology we've had.
Email open rates continue to decline as inboxes are flooded with noise. And it isn't slowing down.
- https://mailchimp.com/resources/email-marketing-benchmarks/
- Average open rate across industries : 20.8%
- Average click rate across industries : 2.43%
I heard someone say we now open letters over the trash can and it's true. When was the last time you read a piece of mail that had a marketing message on it unless it was a pizza joint coupon?
And people just aren't answering the phone anymore. I know I'm not if I don't recognize the number. I get 5 robo-dials a day.
You might just be the one real call they've gotten all day out of the 10...the rest being automated telemarketing calls that waste their time and make them gun-shy of any calls coming in for them.
Conventional funnels with landing pages, thank you pages, email marketing and everything that comes with it are becoming less and less effective
You see them everywhere, and the strategy is always the same. A landing page offering a pdf to download followed by 1-5 emails trying to get you to take a key action like an appointment or consultation or phone call.
And this strategy works, but it's working less and less. People can smell it a mile away, and many just unsubscribe from the first email they ever get and never hear from your company every again. No matter how great your offer is.
If they don't ever see your content, emails, or offers, how can they every get value from it
Landing pages can work well, but they're almost always a terrible experience for the user on a mobile device. Landing pages just don't translate well to mobile devices no matter how you build them.
The user experience is clunky, broken, delayed, and disjointed and not meant for a mobile device.
A landing page is almost never mobile optimized no matter how much you've optimized it for mobile. Did you ever notice that?
If the landing page experience on mobile is bad for your potential customers and it's their first experience and that first experience sets the precedence for how that potential customer is going to view your brand moving forward. (Do you want your brand to be viewed by your prospective client as lackluster because the the bad first experience they had?)
- Landing pages need to be viewed through the mobile web browser which makes everything harder to do for the user.
- Doesn't meet them where they are and communicate with them the way they want to be communicated with. These funnels totally ignore that people use apps and other means of acquiring information and the results suffer because of it.
The email experience isn't great on mobile either.
- Most emails are designed to be viewed on desktop.
- Mobile email clients each handle email differently which makes it difficult to deliver the same message to everyone.
- Spam filters are getting more and more strict and letting less and less through to where it is actually seen by your prospective clients.
- The experience is broken - When you click a link you have to leave your email client and move to another application to view the content.
- People are wise to email marketing, and are less responsive to it with all the endless noise in the inbox next to it.
These funnels take weeks to put together, and thousands of dollars of work before you can even think about putting them customer-facing.
Then weeks and months more before you can even think about optimizing your funnel.
The whole process is a bit of a Goliath.
People are shifting how they do everything from music and media to searching for and purchasing products. It's all going mobile through apps
People are using their smartphones and tablets more than ever before to search for and consume media, information, education, and to search for, research, and purchase products and services.
And they're using apps to do it instead of browsers.
It's eye-opening how prevalent mobile has become
On top of that, people are tuned into their mobile devices while they watch T.V. and movies.
And what about B2B? Same shift happening?
I hope it's clear to you from the statistics above that mobile is the future of business and marketing online.
Now let's look at how people are using their mobile devices.
Spam filters are getting more and more strict and letting less and less through to where it is actually seen by your prospective clients.
The experience is broken - When you click a link you have to leave your email client and move to another application to view the content. On top of that, people have become wise to text based email marketing, and are less responsive to it with all the endless noise in the inbox.
Often times, people don't even see your message.
These landing page funnels take weeks to put together, and thousands of dollars of work before you can even think about sending any real person into them.
Then weeks and months more before you can even think about optimizing anything.
The whole process is a bit of a Goliath.
So, what are they doing on their mobile devices?
Consuming media and using social media and messaging apps
Consumers are using apps on their mobile devices significantly more than web browsers to get things done. And Social Media apps and messaging apps are at the top of the list.
It's clear that people want an instant, seamless, frictionless experience that meets them where they are and gives them the power to do it their way.
Apps give them that.
Your customers are on Facebook and Facebook Messenger and it's easier to reach them and get their attention there than anywhere else.
What is Facebook Messenger & Why Should I Care?
Facebook's Messenger is Facebook's messaging platform and application.
Think text messaging, but through Facebook and 100 times more powerful and better.
And 1.2 billlllllion people use it monthly on both desktop through browser and on mobile through dedicated apps.
And everyone who interacts through Facebook Messenger has a Facebook profile, which means they can be targeted by ads.
Most importantly, this is a messaging app that people use to communicate with friends and family regularly so they're very comfortable using it. And it's how they want to communicate.
So if that's the case, wouldn't it make sense to tap into that channel if you could?
Well you can, and it's one of the best marketing decisions you can make, if you make it soon.
So... let’s talk about that.
Why should you care about Facebook Messenger as a marketing channel?
Statistics that show Facebook Messenger is a channel you should pay attention to
Facebook Messenger is One of the Best Marketing Opportunities You Can Pursue
By 2020, customers will manage 85% of their relationship with the enterprise without interacting with a human (Gartner).
Commerce is moving that way whether you adopt it or not.
This tool and channel allows you to communicate with customers the way THEY want: one-to-one, on their phones or tablets, whenever is convenient for them.
It keeps your customers within the safety of Facebook and removes friction and barriers from the process making it easier to move the relationship forward faster.
And...most importantly, Facebook Messenger Marketing creates conversations, not leads.
It eliminates complex funnels, reduces the time to a transaction, and improves the overall user experience exponentially over conventional channels like landing pages and emails.
The result is a better experience which translates to a better first impression of your brand which leads to a whole host of benefits for both you and your clients in the long term.
You don't need a complex funnel when you interact with customers the way they want.
So... let’s talk about what you would actually get out of Facebook Messenger marketing if you decided to implement it for your business.
Facebook Messenger Marketing - What's in it for Me and my business?
1) Generates a Conversation, not a lead...
In every other type of marketing you can do for your business, you're never in an active conversation with the prospect in real time throughout the marketing process.
Marketing is meant to drive people to the conversation and make that conversation happen. Although it can take awhile. It's never instant.
Facebook Messenger makes this possible.
Now imagine this scene for a minute...
What if when you were watching a tv commercial, you could just walk up and press a button on the screen during the commercial, and a conversation started right there between you and a person from that company?
That is exactly what happens with Facebook Messenger Marketing. The customer clicks the ad, and the conversation starts. The moment they click, they're in an active dialogue with you and your brand.
That means you get to talk to them the moment they're most interested in what you're offering.
It's literally click-to-conversation marketing!
Next, Facebook Messenger is totally disarming and feels trustworthy to the consumer.
Remember how I told you that people are used to using text messaging apps like Facebook Messenger because they use them every day to communicate with friends and family.
When you communicate with your customers through Messenger, you're meeting them where they are and interacting with them on their terms, in the safety of Facebook Messenger.
Compare the difference in experience of these two scenarios.
Scenario 1
You're a customer of a bank. You walk in, and a receptionist hands you a big form with a bunch of info they need from you and then they seat you in the waiting room
VERSUS
Scenario 2
You walk into the bank and a banker walks you back to her private, quiet comfortable office where she has a conversation with you to gather the same info. She offers you a bottle of water and you settle right into the friendly conversation.
The first scenario makes you feel like a number. It's not terrible, but it isn't personal or warm, and it doesn't show the bank cares about you as a person.
Compared to the second scenario which makes you feel like you matter.
You feel comfortable and safe because someone is going to listen to you specifically.
And because you're interacting one-to-one, you have the ability to start a relationship with the banker which makes the bank much more than a bank. It's now has a smiling face attached to it in your mind. You don't think about the bank, you think about Barbara the bank teller.
And through that interaction, your guard comes down and trust begins to form.
It's also dynamic giving you, the customer, the opportunity to ask questions through the process and interact in real time.
2) It gives the customer the simplest path to getting their problem solved without confusion
It feels natural to them so their guard comes down.
Every time you have to leave one app for another to get something done, all the friction reduces the likelihood you will turn into a customer.
Most sales and marketing funnels are comprised of landing pages in one tool, a website on another platform, text based email marketing in another tool, analytics in another tool, you get the picture.
That means that the user is going to have to figure out how to navigate through landing pages and multiple emails and website pages to finally get to the point where they can take the next step.
It's not convenient for them to sign up for something through their web browser on their laptop. Then have to go check their email in another tab or application. Then click the link to go back to another website.
Then start the process over again each time they get another new email.
The image below is a comparison of a customer's experience through a conventional landing page funnel versus a Facebook Messenger funnel experience.
Each green dot represents a touch.
Each red arrow represents a change from one software, app or device to another throughout the sales funnel process.
With Facebook Messenger, the entire conversion process and conversation can take place almost entirely within one place. It's a straight path to a solution. There's no distraction and no confusion.
It's also instant and really helpful to the person on the other end.
That means prospects trust your brand faster and convert into a qualified lead and customer faster.
Another advantage...you don't have to contend with the rest of the noise in the email inbox. Your customers don't have to jump through flaming hoops to work with you.
And by taking all those hoops that user has to jump through out of the picture, you remove doubt, resistance, fear, and give comfort and confidence to the customer that they've made the right choice.
Facebook Messenger as a communication and marketing channel is natural and aligned with now we communicate day to day, every day. That's half the battle.
People use Facebook Messenger regularly to communicate with friends and family which makes it so much more accessible.
3) It's automated, but not too much.
Once the user clicks the ad, they go directly to Facebook Messenger where the conversation is handled automatically by a Messenger bot
No need to worry. This is super simple. A "bot" is simply a software version of a robot that you program to converse with users through Facebook Messenger just like a person...well almost.
This means that your virtual assistant (the bot) is having a conversation behind the scenes with your prospective client until they're qualified, interested, and ready to talk to someone.
Then, that prospect is handed over to the business to take over and take the phone call or schedule the appointment.
All of the lead generation and prequalification happens automatically.
At the same time, you want to be able to jump into the conversation when you need to. People will have questions and will want to take the conversation in new directions (all very good things), and Facebook Messenger allows you to do just that in real time.
It's as easy as setting up the bot to notify you when someone asks a question or says a certain word in their message.
Now anytime the bot can't handle the conversation, they just hand it off to you or your staff member to answer the question or give the right guidance. It's all seamless and the customer doesn't even know it happened in most cases.
It's all seamless and the customer doesn't even know it happened in most cases.
This component of the Facebook Messenger channel is so important.
In every other type of marketing you can do for your business, you're never in an active conversation with the prospect in real time. That marketing is meant to drive people to the conversation and make that conversation happen.
Not with Facebook Messenger. The moment they enter this channel, they're in an active dialogue with you and your brand.
That means you can...
Optimize in real time.
With Facebook Messenger, you can actually watch the whole conversation with the prospect happen in real time.
You can see where someone is confused or where the conversation breaks down.
Then, you can either jump in right there and take over the conversation yourself or you could go fix it in real time so the next person that went through the flow didn't experience that same problem.
That means almost instant conversion optimization of your funnel in real time. I shouldn't have to tell you how monumental this is, but I will.
This is Huuuuuuuggggggeeeee!
Conversion optimization on a funnel with a landing page would take 4-6 weeks at the minimum in most cases to be able to even scratch the surface of any problems in the funnel and try to fix them.
With a conventional funnel, you need aggregated data from a month or more to see any problems or patterns in most analytics tools. That's just the way it works with statistics based tools. You can only work with aggregated data.
Not with Messenger. You can literally optimize after every conversation because you can see the entirety of the whole stream of communication including anywhere that the prospect got confused or couldn't figure out what to do next.
That means that you can get to profitable campaigns exponentially faster for much less money.
There is no other channel of marketing that allows you to optimize after every interaction with a new prospect or client.
Open up a channel 4 times more effective than email to communicate with your prospective customer whenever you want
- AND -
For someone to get value from the content, emails, blog posts, or offers you send them, they have to consume it/access it/find it.
Not sending your message into their crowded inbox where you'll blend in with all the noise
You're sending them a message through the same app they use to talk to their friends and family
Facebook Messenger has an 80% open rate compared to text-based Email with only 24%. Facebook Messenger has a 56% response rate compared to text-based Email with less than 3%
With Messenger marketing, you're marketing directly to the device in the hand of your prospective customer. Not their computer. Not their crowded inbox.
You're right there in the apps they use the most. That's where you want to be. Trust me.
People spend more than 5 hours a day in front of their device.
Your Next Steps Now That You Know How Huge of an Opportunity Facebook Messenger Marketing Is
Marketing is getting harder and more expensive. People aren't listening to channels like email and phone calls like they used to. They're migrating to apps on their mobile devices to search for your services and products and do everything else.
With this huge shift in consumers to mobile, You need to have a strategy that focuses on reaching them there and engaging with them the way they want to do it - through apps like Facebook Messenger.
Let me ask you two quick questions.
1) Is your business positioned to take advantage of the mobile channel and channels like Facebook Messenger marketing rather than get left behind?
And...
2) Do you want to continue to generate leads that are getting more and more expensive by the day that hardly ever turn into conversations, let alone customers?
If your answer is "No" to either or both of the above questions, Facebook Messenger Marketing could be the solution you need.
And if that's the case, if you want to seriously get started with Facebook Messenger Marketing for your business, or you have some questions, let’s connect and talk.
Click the button below to connect with me on messenger.