The popularity of messaging apps is on the rise. Around 3 billion people use such applications right now. This number is higher than that of total social network users. Because of this, it is completely logical to consider the messaging apps as a big part of your marketing strategy for 2020.
When based on monthly active users, the most popular messaging app right now is WhatsApp. Then, we have Facebook Messenger, WeChat, Kik, LINE, and Snapchat.
As you draft your marketing strategy designed to use messaging apps, make sure that you learn all that you can about who uses them. As a very simple example, WhatsApp is very popular in Germany. If you want to promote your services in China, you would need to focus on using WeChat. Similarly, LINE is the best option in Japan.
How To Use Messaging Apps In Your 2020 Marketing Strategy
Everything starts with the messaging app that is the most appropriate for the promoted brand. After this is decided, a plan is mandatory. Some of the best ways to utilize the apps are presented below.
Chatbots
Chatbots are very useful for customers that want to communicate with the brand. These automated systems respond autonomously to questions and there is no need to have human assistance in place. These automated software programs are nowadays quite common, with over 30,000 of them being active on Facebook alone.
The chatbot is not at all difficult to create. A developer that understands technicalities is needed but before you launch the program, make sure that everything runs exactly as it should. If this is not the case, problems will appear. When you cannot hire a developer, check out the tools that are designed to create chatbots, like Mobile Monkey or Charfuel.
Customer Service
Because of the fact that customers these days want answers to their questions as soon as possible, customer service changed. Social media became a support service provider. This is oftentimes utilized in combination with chatbots because of the fact that people cannot be online for every single moment of the day or night.
Advertising On Messaging Apps
The brand needs to be noticed by as many people as it can from the target audience. This is why it makes a lot of sense to advertise directly on the platforms that potential customers actually use. You can now advertise through the most popular messaging apps and you can get really creative when it comes to establishing a direct communication channel with your audience.
As an example, you can send 10-second snaps to the target audience with Snapchat. This is very effective at raising awareness about practically anything when done tastefully. At the end of the day, it can get you more visitors to your local business.
Selling Products
Messaging apps can be used in your marketing strategy when you want to sell products listed on eCommerce websites. As an example, WeChat allows businesses to manage stocks and upload items right through the messaging app. With LINE you can pay for items thanks to LINE Pay services. There are always many different ways to sell products right through messaging apps, as long as you do everything legally.
Games And Competitions
Messaging apps do not necessarily need to be used for doing business, selling eCommerce products, or direct talking. Having fun is definitely a possibility. Messaging apps can easily be utilized to play games and host competitions. As a very simple example, in the year 2014, WeChat was utilized by Chinese people to send virtual envelopes to each other. This led to 8 billion people participating in 2015.
At first glance, competitions and games do not seem like a part of a marketing strategy. However, they are really effective at increasing brand awareness and building trust.
Conclusions
Many businesses do not consider messaging apps as a marketing tool but you can so easily utilize these applications to gain important benefits for what you promote. You need to be sure that you are tasteful though and that you take a close look at what marketing strategies are very effective, based on the target audience. Never neglect the importance of research and monitoring. They can easily be the difference between failure and success.
