Why is everybody talking about Messenger? How can you leverage it from a marketing standpoint? Is it true that it will substitute your email inbox?

But wait, you should be the one making your conclusions. Let me share a few pointers so you can understand what’s happening:

• Facebook Messenger has over 1 billion active users
• This is more than 2x the active users of Snapchat, Twitter, and Pinterest combined
• 80% of Facebook messages have a 7-8x higher click-through rate than email

Don't get caught in the tech dust and jump into this new trend to help grow your audience. Chatbot experts like Sujan Patel or Marni Melrose (both speakers at HUG2018!) have been working for many months now to share their insights and findings in this new, disruptive marketing channel. Sujan explains in his in-depth blog post how you can utilize chatbots for the following scenarios:

• E-commerce sales. The eBay Shopbot integrates with Facebook Messenger and allows users to shop from within the messenger app itself. They can browse suggested items based on the conversations they have with the chatbot.
• Increasing conversions. Rosesland, a company that sells flower bouquets online in Mexico, has sold and persuaded people to buy more products thanks to a well-crafted dialogue flow. Who said you have to smell the roses?
• Increased engagement and customer service. Aviation Infinity is an app that helps pilots make travel planning easier. They built a bot to provide similar functionalities of the native app, allowing users to consult essential information about their flight directly through Messenger. How's that for efficiency?
• For generating more leads. Meet Yeshi. Created by a partnership between Lokai and Charity: Water, the chatbot helps bring about awareness to the water crisis and brings the user into the story behind the brand.

It’s always great to generate leads, but what happens if you can’t convert them? You’re obviously going to be losing money and valuable time.

In her recent post, HUG 2018 speaker Marni Melrose focuses on a critical point about your marketing process. That is, setting up your leads into a CRM account to make sure that every potential business opportunity is visible in your funnel.

Once you have the full view of how leads will interact with your business through your Messenger bot, it’s important to keep creating relevant content for your audience. Consider your bot a person, and nobody wants to hear the same thing over and over again.

It doesn’t matter how new or shiny this new channel looks like, but first and most importantly you have to understand how does your audience interacts with the platform. Then, nurture the relationship with significant features or information that will help them reach their goals.

For more on chatbots, check out Marni's recap from Social Media Marketing World and be sure to join us this April! 

This is only a bit of the cutting-edge intel you can expect at HUG18 on April 12, 2018 at Liberty Station. The full-day event will host 16 experts covering various topics covered under the umbrella of inbound marketing.

Got questions?

Still have questions about whether HUG18 is the right event for you? Check out our last event recap for more info.

SD Inbound is a 501(C)(3) founded to provide free and low-cost education to the local San Diego professional community. Learn more about SD Inbound and how you can get involved today.