Facebook Messenger for Business

Using Facebook Messenger for business marketing offers a huge advantage over other traditional types of communication, and has transformed the way customers expect to communicate with businesses, with over 20 million messages being sent between customers and companies every month.

Using Facebook Messenger for business marketing helps you communicate with customers and potential customers - the newest, easiest way to build a clientele.

Most often, real people are behind Messenger marketing, while others are powered by bots, and some are even a combination of both. No matter how a campaign is ran, or whether it's using Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, or Instagram Direct, all messaging apps have the ability to create real connections with customers that other businesses only dream about. 

Facebook Messenger, commonly known as Messenger, is a free instant-messaging platform that lets users chat, share pictures, videos, audio, files, conduct group chats, interact with customers naturally. The platform is one of the most downloaded apps in the world, with well over 1 billion active monthly users.

Benefits of using Facebook Messenger for Business Marketing

There’s a bunch of reasons why so many businesses are using Facebook Messenger marketing, including:

• More engagement - casual, easier way to communicate
• Better experiences - less stressful than face-to-face conversations
• More sales - the easier the conversation, the easier the sale
• Lower cost - free to use, and much more convenient
• Shorter contact to sale time - allows customer to get straight-forward answers, making their decision to purchase (or use a service) faster

7 Tips for Using Facebook Messenger for Business Marketing

1. Solve a customer's problem - why are they contacting you? Are they in pain? Headaches? Back Pain? Neck Pain? Be the answer they are looking for and respond by saying, "I can help you!"
2. Reduce costs - Messenger gives your customer a faster response than leaving a message on voice mail, an email, or going through a receptionist 
3. Better conversions - instant messaging allows the customer to communicate faster, and easier, which equates to more appointments and sales
4. Build real relationships - every great customer came from a great conversation, which eventually leads to a great relationship between business and consumer, and can often be lifelong.
5. Create Instant Accessibility - an instant message (especially if a client is in pain) allows your customer to have instant access to you (or what feels like instant access), making them feel less like they are making an appointment with a business, and more like a casual lunch with a friend - doesn't that sound more relaxing?
6. Help customers find services they need and streamlines the process - sifting through a website to find answers to questions about a business is sometimes daunting, but being able to ask or inquire directly is so much more simple - the way it should be.
7. Create awareness - share posts about different services or products you offer by discussing the benefits of the service, how it has helped others, and conditions or disorders that the service may alleviate.

How to set up Facebook Messenger for Business Pages

1. Enable Messages on Your Page

Your page can accept and send messages only if you’ve enabled Messenger.

To turn on Messenger for your page: 

• Go to Messages under General Settings, and Click Edit. 
• Select option to allow messages to your page
• Click Save Changes.

2. Configure Message Settings

There are two settings to adjust for your business Messenger: Response Time and Instant Replies. To access them, go to:

• Settings --> Messaging
• Be sure to Display a Response Time
• Your page’s average response time (how long it takes you to reply to a message) appears in the About box on the left side of your page.

To set the response time for your page: 

• Go to Settings -->Messaging
• Click -->Automatically Show Your Average Response Time for Messages or select another option
• NOTE: Response time will only show up if you visit your page at least once a week and answer 90% or more of your messages

On Vacation or Closed?

When your business is closed, you can set your messaging status to Away, so it doesn’t reflect your response time stats.

To enable this feature:

• Go to your page’s Messages 
• Click Away in the upper left corner

3. Set Up to Send Instant Replies

You can set Instant Replies to go to people the first time they message your page. This feature is located below Response Time under Messaging.

• Write a message - (up to 250 characters)
• Save it 
• Click Use Instant Replies to enable it.

4. Learn About Users Who Message You

Facebook makes it easy to personalize your communications by displaying personal details of the people messaging you to the right of their message. Facebook links to their profile and tells you if the person has liked your page and when, any previous communication between you and where they work, went to school, live and are from.

5. Add Relevant Keywords 

Facebook Messenger for Business allows you to add keywords so you can easily manage conversations.

• Click on Enter a Keyword
• Scroll down to Important or Follow Up
• Add your own keywords

7. Add a Messenger Box to Your Website

Encourage your website visitors to contact you on Facebook with the new and improved Page Plugin.

Add this box to your website to showcase your page’s timeline and upcoming events, along with the ability to private message your page.

Read more about building your business Messenger or through social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.