Studies show that the amount of time people spend on messaging apps exceeds that of time spent on social networks and platforms. Although technology has made it possible to communicate to the masses, people still prefer more direct and intimate conversations.
‘Conversational marketing’ is what the kids are calling it. It is a digital marketing trend that has allowed businesses to maintain a relationship with their customers by simply talking to them. We’re here to tell you how you can incorporate messaging apps into your marketing strategy and keep your brand in your customer’s heads:
Why Messaging Apps?
Most popular messaging apps, like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, provide the convenience of direct contact with anyone, anywhere in the world. Humans are attracted to convenience, and technology feeds us more ways to become dependent with each passing decade.
Consumers are no longer interested in being advertised to by brands on high-horses. They want direct interaction from brands in a way that is convenient for them. It has sparked the opening of messaging channels to conversations with businesses.
People value direct conversation because it makes them feel important. This digital marketing trend shows how brands can achieve this when they incorporate convenient ways of communicating into their marketing strategy.
Choosing the Right App for Your Business
If you already have a good understanding of your audience or consumers, choosing the right messaging app won’t be a challenge. When you understand your audience, you know how they prefer to communicate and which platforms you will find them on.
Keep in mind that this strategy is about bringing the brand to your consumers. Making use of a messaging app that already receives high-traffic from your target market should be the goal.
This way, you’ve already made your brand appealing to them because you’ve come to where they exist online. Perform research to identify a demographic and understand who they are.
Building and Sustaining Brand-Consumer Relationships
The only way people build and maintain relationships with one another is by talking and communicating. It is an exchange that helps us understand each other. Businesses have started to find a way to appeal to human nature by communicating with consumers individually.
A business may never know each of its customers individually because let’s face it, that’s ridiculous. But the use of messaging apps allows customers to feel like the brand knows them and cares about their individual needs.
Because we are social beings at our core, direct interaction (even with businesses) is what we want. The use of messaging apps allows brands to build individual relationships with customers. Trust us when we say that your customers know they’re speaking to a bot, but will respond better just because the exchange gives the illusion of speaking to another person.
Email Marketing and Message Marketing are Quite Similar
As email marketing makes way for the messaging app takeover, we have to give credit to the trend that started it all. Email marketing was the first form of direct marketing to be practised by businesses. Although presently, it’s open and click-through rates continue to decline.
Message marketing, however, shows open rates greater than 80% in the past year as well as a click-through rate greater than 30%. With what appears to be a mass migration of consumers from email to messaging, we suggest businesses get on this train quickly.
Thankfully, most seasoned digital marketers are familiar with email marketing strategies. It means that they can market through messaging apps the same way they do through email. It saves the business a lot of time and makes it easier to implement a message marketing strategy.
How to Collect new Members for Message Marketing
So you’ve worked out a message marketing strategy, but have no one to send messages to. It would be best if you implemented a database building strategy to expand your audience. There are many ways to achieve this but do your research to find out which tool will work best for your brand.
One of the simplest ways you can incorporate direct marketing into your social media is by adding the ‘Send a Message’ button to your Facebook business page. When customers send you a message, it will collect all their data to which you can send ‘sign up’ or ‘subscribe’ messages.
You can also encourage sign-ups and subscriptions by offering a voucher or special of some kind. It’s always a good idea to sweeten the deal with something worth the customer’s while.
The Take Away
Digital marketing trends come and go. It is often challenging for marketers to keep up because of the time it takes to understand these trends and develop new skills. However, with conversational marketing, you are making use of an exchange that forms part of human nature.
Brands are beginning to understand their customer’s needs and therefore, the most effective ways of reaching them. The age of convenience is upon us and to be a successful business means succumbing to the demands of your consumers. As innovative as they currently are, we strongly believe that messaging apps are only the beginning of conversational marketing.
Do you need help keeping up with the latest digital marketing trends? Contact us today via email to info@theagncy.co.za
