Don’t you sell messanger? And they won’t!

Here we talk about sell messanger:

At conferences, after speeches, representatives of companies, they say, we tried and tried. But it is not sold with us through messengers. Your messenger marketing is not at all effective. At the same time, the 50 million companies using just one WhatsApp Business app. And the 175 million people who send messages daily via business accounts say a different story. In the article, we want to show you the main mistakes that prevent you from selling through instant messengers.

Do businesses need sell messanger at all?

We recently published detailed statistics about messenger marketing with a bunch of numbers, so we will not repeat ourselves here. Let’s just remind that in 2021:

•   Far ahead of any other messenger. It is also the most popular messenger in 180 countries around the world.
• 53% percent of buyers prefer companies that can be contacted by messenger.
• The Open Rate of messages in instant messengers is 90% higher than that of emails. And 60% of users read such messages within 1-5 minutes after receiving.
• And 65 billion messages go through WhatsApp alone every day!

Therefore, today one should not ignore such a popular communication channel. Let’s now take a look at what mistakes companies make that suffer from efficiency.

Please note: we mentioned WhatsApp only. Because this sell messanger is use by the largest number of people in our country. But all the errors and examples that we will consider further apply equally to all messengers.

Mistake 1. The chatbot does not solve the problem

Imagine you come to an online children’s toys store. You see in the widget on the website a link to the virtual assistant in the messenger. Go to it, and there you are greets by a chatbot that asks how to help you. You ask him a question about a toy or ask him to choose an inexpensive construction set. And he replies messenger that he can only tell you about. The time of work and how to pay for the goods. Here’s an example, though these are not toys, but one of the “random” electronics stores:

Screenshot from a conversation with a chatbot of a well-known electronics store

Why doesn’t Alyona’s chatbot immediately tell her what she can do? Why waste the time of a potential buyer? We’re not talking about the fact that for some reason. The client is ask to choose-write an answer and not choose an answer. With buttons because even WhatsApp messenger already supports this, although okay, this is already nit-picking.

Well, in this example, the bot at least then told what it can and whatnot. And not just unsubscribed “Sorry, I don’t understand you,” without the ability to even contact the operator.

A much more common problem is when a company makes a messanger chatbot, hoping for it as a magic pill. But no, the chatbot is as effective as it will correspond to the task set for it.

Here are three examples of solving radically different problems.

If you want to take the burden off managers so that they do not answer. The same type of questions from visitors about a delivery, sizes, payments, returns, etc. – Upload it all to the bot. Just don’t do it like Alena-bot. Tell us right away what the bot can do and what can’t.

So you will relieve employees of routine questions, and when the bot is unable to answer a question on messanger. It can always offer a potential client a callback or connect a specialist to the dialogue.

This is the simplest type of bot that your messanger marketer. Some other employee (or even yourself) can assemble in 1 evening on any messenger platform.

If you are an online school, then most likely your pain is a large percentage of potential students who do not reach the webinar/broadcast. Many leave applications and then lose interest and score.

Here we need another chatbot that will “warm up”. The registered leads so that they do not have time to lose interest before the start of the broadcast. For example, a messanger bot can send them. Video reviews of those who have already completed the course, send them to lead magnets like the free book. How to Become a Millionaire in 50 Years or tell them some interesting things related to your topic of study.

If you want to help messanger customers shorten the path to purchase 

and create a virtual seller in the chatbot for this, do like Lewi’s. At some point, they realized that in their online store. It was difficult to sort out among the heap of jeans models and made a consultant in the bot.

In addition to various useful features, you can send their sizes to their bot (by the way. The bot will also tell you how to measure yourself correctly), then ask several clarifying questions, something like “Do you want your jeans to fit your hips?” and will select suitable models for you. And then, based on your search history and previous answers. He will also pre-sell all kinds of messanger accessories that suit you in color, style, etc.

Yes, this is a complex bot, and they have it made inside. The site and not in the messenger, but this is just a good example of solving the problem of choice. You can do something similar and simpler right in the messenger.

These were three examples of approaches to different problems. Each of them is solve in its own way. Therefore the structure of the messenger bot, as well as the resources for creating each of them, will vary greatly. But at the same time, each of them will effectively fulfill its function and improve the user journey to purchase.

Therefore, it is very important to first set the correct goals, which you will achieve using the bot, and only then create it for a specific business process. Maybe at this stage, you will understand that you don’t really need a chatbot?

Mistake 2. sell messanger? Where are the messengers?

For some reason, so many of our clients think that they have made a chatbot, and it will immediately start helping them in working with users. And they ask us, where are the queues from clients to their messengers🙂? But to our questions, “Have you told all your clients about the new opportunities for communication with you?” or “How did you promote your chatbot” the answer is usually “We didn’t know what to do.”

Money and time should be spend not only on the creation/implementation of a chatbot but also on sell messenger promotion. Treat sell messanger marketing not as a one-time “feature” (done once and forgotten) but as a full-fledged lead generation channel with which you constantly need to work. Actually, just like with any other, for example, SEO or Email marketing.

A few examples of how messengers can be promoted

Add a prominent widget to your site where you invite users to go to instant messengers. Do not use an inconspicuous static widget, and do not hide messengers in a submenu. No one will find them there:

You can find instant messanger only by clicking on the “Help” icon, then selecting “Virtual Assistant,” and only then a widget with links to chats will open. The total number of requests per month is 0 people, with a traffic of several tens of thousands.

Tell regular customers on your social networks or email newsletter that you can now communicate with them in instant messengers. Just be sure to show what benefits it will give customers, for example, that they can contact you on any issue 24/7 right on their smartphone, in a convenient chat in WhatsApp messenger. And that now they do not need to call you, write letters, knock on a PM on social networks, etc. – they can contact you even on the way to work in the subway.

If you have a selling trigger chain 

when you create an ad, make a CTA something like “Go directly to WhatsApp” so that clients understand that from the ad, they will immediately go to the chat, where they will be met by a bot (or connected by an operator) and the client does not need will wait hours for the seller to contact him. By the way, on Facebook, you can generally run ads right away with the WhatsApp button under the ad.

In general, actively tell potential and regular customers about the new way of communication and use the potential of instant sell messanger to the maximum.

Mistake 3. SPAM

We keep repeating: messenger marketing is not about spam. In our country, now this is the least spam channel (well, except for Viber), do not turn it into the same horror that now happens with calls and SMS. This is partly why messengers work so well and show an excellent open rate – users are accustomed to this channel as a useful one that does not constantly violate their personal space.

  In messages at all, or you can not send messages in WhatsApp. Everything is possible, but neatly, unobtrusively, with benefit and, most importantly, with the user’s full permission. This is especially true of the WhatsApp Business messenger API, where there are strict rules for collecting subscribers, for non-compliance with which, you can quickly go to the ban. How to properly collect subscribers for WhatsApp, we described in detail in this article.

Treat your users with respect – give them the messanger opportunity to unsubscribe from your mailing list at any time. To do this, when creating a trigger chain, simply add an “Unsubscribe” button to each message. Believe me, they will appreciate it.

By the way, this way, you can at the same time carry out a kind of “scoring” of the work of your bot or auto funnel – if there are a lot of unsubscriptions, then you are most likely overdoing it with selling content or are too intrusive. Or rule # 1 is simply not respected. Your bot is not needed by anyone since it does not fulfill its task🙂.

For example, above, we gave a link to Lewi’s case, and, according to Forbes, the denim bot is useful for most buyers – only 20% turn off the chatbot and buy without it.

So, to summarize: do not spam in messenger. Think over the funnel and communication in such a way as to be as useful to the client as possible. And in the meantime, natively sell 😉.

Error 4. The communication process for employees has not been created

Another thing we like to constantly mention is business processes. In most cases, if an employee somewhere seriously messed up, it is not his fault, but his manager’s who did not debug the process. So it is with messengers. Maybe they do not sell you because of this?

Have you ever come across this: you write to a company in a messenger, and they’re either no one answers for days, or some incompetent employee answers, or even starts responding with voice messages (these cannot be saved at all), and that’s all? We are constantly seeing this.

Or it is also common when a company, for some reason, uses instant messengers for long reads, sends dozens of endless messager sheets in a row, and too formally addresses the client – as if it emailed. Messengers are for another. Because they have become so popular precisely due to the fact that in a convenient short format.

A few tips for building communication in messenger

Onboard employees before launching. And if the script for the bot was written by your content manager/marketer, this does not mean that he should also communicate with leads in the chat 🙂. Everyone should do their own thing because the client is waiting for competent help.

Do something like a detailed checklist for employees, from step-by-step ticket processing to communication tone and maximum response times. Pay attention to employees to the length of messages, teach them to tell even complex things in simple language, and, of course, do not forget about literacy.

If you have a complex structure or, conversely, a small business and individual employees are difficult to select for messenger chats, create a bot that will quickly process a user’s request, qualify it and immediately transfer it to a specialist in the required department. Then the client will not have to write to the void, and you will not distract employees – the request will go straight to the competent department, be it accounting or technical support.

Communicate with clients in a “messenger” style: use informal communication, different emoticons, gifs, short sentences, and avoid monologues. Users are accustomed to messengers as a comfortable communication environment, so communicating, in the same way, will only improve their user experience when interacting with you.

Error 5. CRM system is not used

This is partly a continuation of the previous messenger mistake and is more about the notorious omnichannel. Remember how often it happens: you try to call, say, a bank to resolve your issue, and you are constantly switched between employees, and everyone has to tell everything anew? You also don’t have to do it in messengers🙂.

Their beauty is that through almost any messenger platform. You can connect messengers with the most popular CRM systems in a short time. And then all requests, purchases, history of correspondence with the client in all channels (personal in social networks, email, chat on the site, etc.) will be before the eyes of the operator.

The same is with the bot – if the user asked him a question, then when the chatbot connects a live specialist to the dialogue, he will already have all the information. And the user does not need to rewrite everything.

This approach will significantly reduce the processing time of the customer’s request, which means it will have a positive effect on his user journey to purchase.

Mistake 6. Forgotten clients

This is also a fairly common mistake. It is usually found where there is a long sales cycle, and companies that have already implemented chats in messengers but have not yet fully created trigger chains/chatbots / set up an exchange with CRM.

Let’s say there is a large flow of leads to messengers and operators are processing them correctly, but customers are not yet ready to buy. Well, for example, a potential client came in early spring to choose his summer vacation trip and left to think/compare other offers on the market. Such chats go down, and due to the lack of integration with CRM or a configured auto funnel, such leads are forgotten. Or they remember it already when it’s too late – for example, the client bought it in another place.

And this does not mean that he liked it there more. He just turns to 33 companies, has already forgotten what and where he looked, and in the end, he bought in the one that did not forget about him and “reminded” of himself, offering a modest discount.

Therefore, here is the only correct messenger advice – if you know that you will have a large flow of leads (for example, you are going to spin ads with landing in instant messengers), immediately get ready for at least basic automation.

Even if you have a small business and do not yet have a full-fledged CRM solution, the capabilities of messenger platforms allow you to assign tags to dialogs and set up various reminders so that operators come back to warm up potential customers.

Mistake 7. Lack of analytics

Messenger don’t work for you. Or maybe the fact is that:

a) Is your audience not in Vatsap but in Telegram?

b) Or do you sell custom-made T-shirts with prints for the young and active, and you have a modest introverted bot🙂?

c) You have not tested your chatbot, but it has dead-end dialogue threads, and customers just leave, angry at the wasted time?

d) Or, in general, does your operator-consultant scare away potential customers with his rude/incorrect communication?

Like any other lead generation channel, working through instant messenger also needs constant a / b tests and analysis.  

Now CRM systems and providers of messenger solutions allow you to conduct tests and analyze a bunch of necessary metrics right in their interfaces, for example, at least:

• Track the number of unsubscriptions.
• Test different variants of dialogs to select the most converting links.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of agents, the speed of their responses, and the percentage of resolved issues.

Test, evaluate, and optimize work through messenger. This is important.

What is the bottom line?

As you can see, mistakes in the implementation of messenger marketing seem to be commonplace, but many make them. The main thing to take here is to consider instant messengers as a long-term project:

• Decide on goals, decide which messengers are suitable for your tasks and your audience.
• Allocate individual employees to create messanger bots, dialogue scripts, integrations, etc. If this is not possible, contact the specialists, do not try to do everything yourself, nothing good usually comes of it.
• Train employees to work in messengers and keep track of the numbers on a regular basis.
• And don’t make the rest of the mistakes listed above.

And then, instant messenger will become effective tools for generating new customers or retaining regular ones.

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