Airtel, Dior, Tata: There’s a reason why any major brand, from fashion to consulting to automotive is on Instagram! The visual platform offers unique possibilities to showcase your company. With its focus on images and videos, Instagram is one of the most powerful social media platforms for transporting a feeling around your brand, and through this emotional approach, getting more engaged responses from users. There’s a reason why Instagram is one of the few social media channels where users actually reach out to brands first!

Instagram Direct, the platform’s messaging service, is therefore an ideal starting point for engaging users in a conversation, and turning them into loyal customers. In this article, we’ll look at the features of Instagram Direct Messaging, its opportunities for businesses, and we’ll show you how other brands have had major success with Instagram Direct.

Short and sweet: This is Instagram Direct Messaging

• Claim: the ideal channel to build a loyal community.
• User numbers worldwide: Meta has not released specific user numbers for Instagram Direct, but as of 2023, Instagram counts two billion users globally.
• Target group: Young adults. Most users are between 25 and 34 years old.
• Unique appeal: Customers want and seek direct contact with companies.
• Advantages: Instagram DMs are very versatile, promote trust and generate leads.
• Disadvantages: For large accounts, responding to Instagram Direct Messages becomes a challenge.

1. Things to know about Instagram Direct

Instagram doesn’t only have 1.2 billion active monthly users; 90% of these users also follow at least one company. In general, users have a positive reaction to seeing brands on Instagram. In a recent survey, 78% of users said that they perceive brands as popular when they see them on Instagram. And 74% find brands particularly relevant if they see them on “Insta”. What’s even more relevant: In the same survey, 72% of users said that they think that a brand is more engaged in community building if it’s on Instagram.

In other words: brands that are not on Instagram are missing out on the huge potential of customer engagement and community building that’s so unique to Instagram. Of course, being present on Instagram is only the first step. In order to be successful on the social media channel, you also need to actively engage with your community. And that typically happens in the conversational exchange in the DMs! That’s why Instagram Direct Messages in particular can be so crucial for businesses.

In fact, you can use Instagram Direct throughout the entire customer journey, from lead generation to sales to customer service to retention. Think of it this way: stories, reels and feed post inspire and then Instagram Direct Messaging informs and converts!

If you’re still not convinced that your business should be active on Instagram, let’s have a closer look at some stats and numbers that will show you why you’re missing out!

Current user numbers and popularity of Instagram Direct Messaging

Don’t be fooled by the influencers and fast scroll culture on Instagram. The social media platform is one of the fastest ways into the heart of (potential) customers. Did you know, for example, that 200 million people access an Instagram business profile every day, and 150 million people have a conversation with businesses on Instagram every month. According to Meta, daily conversations between people and businesses on Messenger and Instagram Direct have increased 40% in the last year. And the platform is popular around the world!

India has 230 million users, making it the biggest audience in the world, followed by the US with 143 million and Brazil with 113 million users.

Instagram is popular around the world. (Source: Statista)

Features on Instagram Direct

A major advantage of Instagram Direct Messaging for businesses is that it’s very versatile and therefore offers companies different options for communicating with their customers. In that sense, Instagram Direct Messaging is comparable to other messenger app services, in which two or more users send private messages to each other. In addition to classic text content, these messages can also contain photos or videos in order to send users relevant information, entertaining, and even promotional content, similar to WhatsApp’s marketing notifications or the recurring notifications on Facebook Messenger.

It’s also possible to send entertaining GIFs as well as your own Instagram posts or stories via Direct Message. Posts from other users, such as collaborators or brand ambassadors, can also be sent via Direct Messages on Instagram.

But that’s not all. Instagram Direct Messaging also allows communication via voice messages or video calls, and group chats are also possible. Another special feature is the ability to send location pins, so users can find a store or event, for example.

And in 2023, Instagram also launched a new broadcast feature: broadcasting channels. Followers can join these channels, and then receive regular updates from their favorite influencers, similar to the Telegram channels.

With this very versatile set of messaging features, Instagram Direct opens up many possibilities for companies. Especially if you combine messaging with in-chat shopping features, Instagram Direct becomes a very interesting channel for conversational commerce!

Direct Messages and shopping: the next channel for conversational commerce!

Over the years, Instagram has expanded its conversational commerce features, starting with the introduction of Instagram Shops or features like “Shoppable Products” where users can simply click on a product they see, and then buy it. In 2022, Instagram also introduced an in-chat payment functionality, which allows a direct payment in the DMs. That allows businesses to guide users through the entire customer journey on Instagram!

If you use the Instagram Direct API, you can not only use all of these features safely in a business context, but also scale your customer communication on Instagram.

2. Instagram Direct Messaging for businesses: Here’s how your company can benefit

While companies may hesitate to personally address users via Direct Messages on other social media channels, on Instagram this is a form of communication that many followers desire and even initiate themselves.

In fact, there are different reasons why users write directly to a company on Instagram. These range from positive feedback to service requests to job searches, as a survey by the consulting firm Sprout shows.

Reasons why users message brands on social media. (Source: Sprout Social)

This makes Instagram Direct Messaging an ideal channel to seek, expand, and promote direct customer exchange through the entire customer journey.

Increase brand awareness

First and foremost, Instagram is the perfect platform for increasing brand awareness. Users actively search for brands, and there are also influencers from all kinds of industries, product lines and services that help brands to increase that awareness even further, and reach new target groups.

Generating leads, selling more

This starts by generating leads. As mentioned, your Instagram profile is often the first touchpoint a user has with your brand. From here, the most natural way to reach out is on the same channel, through a DM. This can kick off a first conversation that can turn into a consultation, and even a sale. Now that customers can pay directly in the chat, it creates even less friction throughout the customer journey because the users can complete the entire process on Instagram.

Another plus: Even if these contacts don’t convert right away, you always have a conversation to go back to. So, for instance, if the customer was looking for shoes in a size 13, but you only had size 12, you can just send them another message in the same chat when the right size is available. It’s easy, convenient, and leads to better conversions. Major brands have seen significant improvements in their conversion and response metrics once they started to focus on Instagram messaging.

It’s also possible for businesses to take a more active approach to starting a conversation in Instagram Direct, with click-to-chat ads. If users click on these ads, they end up directly in your Instagram Direct messages. Starbucks Indonesia, for example, ran different photo ads for their drinks, combined with a special deal. When somebody clicked on an ad, it opened in Instagram Direct, and automatically started a conversation where the users could choose one of the promotional offers from the ad, and were also asked if the wanted to join Starbucks’ rewards program.

Click-to-chat ads for more traffic to Instagram Direct. (Source: Instagram)

With these ads, Starbucks Indonesia achieved:

• six times the return on ad spend
• a 4.7 point lift in ad recall, and
• a one point lift in intent to visit their store.

Recruiting on Instagram

Another interesting approach is to use Instagram for recruiting. As many young talents check out companies they’re interested in on social media, Instagram is a great way to combine employer branding with messaging to attract new talents faster. The German company Aurubis, for instance, has not only found new applicants faster this way, but the exchange between company and candidates has also been more engaging.

Solve customer problems efficiently via DM

Aside from questions about a brand, problems with a product or service are one of the most common reasons why users message companies on social media. This is exactly where brands can stand out from the competition by responding quickly and helpfully.

As with all customer issues, responding quickly to customer service via Instagram Direct messages is key. Depending on the company and the number of inquiries, it may be worthwhile to set up a special service department or even rely on chatbots — of course with a human take-over option — to be able to resolve recurring inquiries more quickly.

It is, therefore, all the more important to be well-positioned as a company here and to solve customer problems efficiently. Surveys show that customers who have had a positive experience with a company’s customer service have a more positive brand image and are more likely to recommend the brand to others.

Success story: Sephora streamlines all conversations into Instagram Direct

Sephora’s Instagram Direct channel is an excellent example of conversational marketing and customer service via Direct Messages. The customer sees the post of an interesting product collection on their feed and forwards it to Sephora via Instagram DMs, and asks a customer specific question. In the past, these messages were either somehow handled by the social media team, or forwarded to the customer service team, which took more time, and led the customers out of Instagram. That’s why Sephora was looking for a way to keep all the conversations on the same channel.

That’s when the beauty brand integrated the Instagram API. With this, now an Instagram inquiry reaches an agent directly, and the agent replies with a short answer and directs the customer to the product pages, where they can find details.

Sephora can answer customers on Instagram. (Source: Meta)

The results:

• 100% of customers who contact Sephora on Instagram now receive a response on Instagram.
• On average, 15% fewer responses are needed per conversation to resolve a query.

Scale the potential of Instagram Direct with chatbots

Of course, there’s even more potential in Instagram Direct for scaling customer service. With a more powerful chatbot, significantly more queries could be solved automatically, as is already possible with WhatsApp chatbots, for example.

The integration of chatbots in Instagram Direct is very easy via API. The most important thing, whether with chatbot or manually, is to respond quickly and offer customers a smooth user experience. Therefore, especially for simple, often recurring questions, a chatbot is helpful, both for customers and for companies.

For companies who are looking for more advanced chatbot capabilities, it’s also possible to combine Instagram Direct Messaging with an AI chatbot, for example.

But even without a chatbot, Instagram Direct is an important channel for businesses because it not only allows you to better connect to potential customers and sell more, it’s also an ideal way to build a long-term relationship with them!

Build a loyal community

The customers who feel a special connection to a company become loyal and returning customers. And a two-way, interactive exchange with these customers promotes this trust-building a lot more than a one-time interaction on the phone, for example. Especially because consumers are already using Instagram as a platform to find brands they trust, Instagram Direct messaging is a powerful tool for building customer loyalty.

Aside from having one-on-one conversations with customers, Instagram offers additional tools to nurture these relationships. For example, companies can use direct messaging on Instagram to get feedback from customers, launch surveys on new product ideas, or even ask customers directly what offerings they would like to see from the company in the future.

3. Connect Instagram Direct with WhatsApp

Instagram also makes it easy to direct customers from there to your WhatsApp business account. You can create this synergy in several ways.

• Add a WhatsApp button to your Instagram bio
  • Open the Instagram profile page and click on “Edit Profile.”
  • Click on “Contact Options.”
  • Click on “WhatsApp.”
  • Here you need to enter the number associated with WhatsApp to which the verification code will be sent;
  • Enter the verification code on your Instagram profile.
  • The button should now appear in your bio.
• Link your WhatsApp business account in your bio.
• Post click-to-WhatsApp ads.
• Redirect the community to WhatsApp through your stories.

This way, you can leverage traffic from potential customers on your Instagram page and turn it into a personal conversation with your business.

4. Promote Instagram Direct channel properly

You can get your customers to contact you on Instagram Direct by asking them to do so in a story. Stories are often seen, so they’re a good place to point out the possibility of Instagram DMs. But it’s even better with an ad that links Instagram Direct.

Here’s how to create an ad in the Facebook Ads Manager that links to Instagram Direct with a click:

1. In the Ads Manager, go to Ad Creation.
2. Select the message’s destination.
3. In the messaging destination section, select Instagram Direct.
4. Edit your audience, placements, budget, and schedule as desired, then click next.
5. Select your ad format and complete your ad setup.
6. Under message template, select either create new or use existing.
7. Click + create to create your dialogue. When you’re done, click save and exit.
8. Finalize your ad. Click publish to publish it.

Once your ad gets the approval, it will be visible in the selected placements. When someone clicks on the ad, it will open in Instagram Direct, and you can start the conversation right away.

5. How to integrate Instagram Direct via API

The Instagram API grants you access to all the possibilities of Instagram Direct for your business, from integrating chatbots to using a central inbox for your incoming messages to tracking conversion.

Instagram’s Messenger API makes it possible to integrate Instagram Direct into existing software tools. Your customer communication becomes much faster and easier, which in turn impacts customer satisfaction. So, how do you get access to the API? You can, of course, build your own IT set-up, but that takes time, knowledge, and a lot of resources. Or, there’s plug-and-play solutions like Sinch Engage.

Sinch Engage is a ready-to-go messaging software for businesses. It gives you access to the most important messaging apps, including WhatsApp and Instagram Direct, and you can easily answer all incoming messages in one central inbox, and also easily integrate chatbots. Don’t believe it? Try it out for yourself!

The post How to use Instagram Direct Messaging for your business: Everything you need to know! appeared first on MessengerPeople by Sinch.

During their recent Conversations conference, Meta surprised everybody by opening the recurring messages on Facebook back up for all businesses. For the past two years, the feature had been restricted to specific media outlets. Now, every business can send recurring messages on Facebook again.

In the following, we explain how that works, why it’s more effective than e-mail, share some best practices, and we’ll also take a look at companies, such as BMW or eTicket to show you how other brands are using the feature successfully.

Fast facts: A quick introduction into recurring notifications on Facebook

As of May 2022, any type of business that fulfills Meta’s requirements and has a Facebook page can send their customers recurring notifications through the Facebook Messenger. Before, Meta only allowed certain media outlets to use the feature. Now that the feature is back, how does it work?

Setting up recurring notifications on Facebook

A user has to message the business first.

The first rule for sending recurring notifications on Facebook is: The user has to contact your business first. This could happen through a click-to-chat action, a direct message, a reaction to a message, and a few other ways that Meta has defined.

Companies have to reply in 24 hours

Once a user has contacted your business on Facebook, you have up to 24 hours to reply. Messages that are sent within that time frame are allowed to contain promotional content. For recurring notifications, send the user a request for forwarding them a regular newsletter.

Users have to opt in

After they receive your request, users can choose to receive your notifications at a set frequency, which can be either daily, weekly, or monthly. Users are not limited to a time window, they can opt in at any time.

A user selects a weekly newsletter. (Source: Screenshot / Meta)

Important: users have to opt in! Otherwise, you are not allowed to send them messages. Users will also be able to block or mute the conversations at any point. Once a user has signed up for your notifications you are free to send news, updates, newsletters, or regular promotions, and start building closer relationships with your customers.

Renew opt-in

After a certain time period, the opt-ins expire, and they have to be renewed. For daily messages this happens after six months, for weekly messages it’s nine months, and for monthly messages the opt-in expires after twelve months. When a person’s opt-in is about to expire, they get an automated request to opt in again, and continue the subscription.

After a certain time period, customers have to opt in again. (Source: Screenshot / Meta)

Costs

Recurring notifications on Facebook are an optional premium feature on Facebook. This means that you don’t have to use it, but it’s available to you. Currently, the feature is in a trial period where companies can test it free of charge. However, at some point in the future, Meta will charge for this feature (although no price has been mentioned yet).

Accoring to Meta, though, companies that have started using the Facebook notifications, are already seeing some great returns.

13 times more revenue per customer: Benefits of Facebook notifications

Recurring notifications is a Messenger Platform capability that enables businesses to initiate ongoing messages with interested customers anywhere in their journey and on several topics. This allows customers to hear from their favorite businesses in ways that weren’t possible before on Messenger.

Meta

Just like the WhatsApp marketing messages, the recurring notifications on Facebook allow companies to constantly re-engage with their customers. And: because customers explicitly expressed interest in your messages, your chances for a conversion are a lot higher than just sending out a message blindly.

You also get a lot more visibility on a messaging app than you ever would in their e-mail inbox or even by just posting on social media.

Your messaging newsletter won’t be ignored.

By being able to send interested customers a notification at any point of the customer journey, you will also end up creating more meaningful relationships with your customers and create high quality conversions.

At least, that’s what the results of companies that have started using the feature seem to indicate. For example, some companies reported:

• 79% increase in open rate (compared to e-mail).
• 13 times more revenue per customer (compared to e-mail).
• 33% of frst-time buyers from notifications made repeat purchases within 60 days.

How did they achieve these results? The following examples show how brands are using the recurring notifications on Facebook very successfully.

Want to increase conversions? Download our Messaging Communication Playbook for some hot tips! 

BMW: Driving brand awareness

Deciding to buy a new car takes a long time, and it can be tricky for car companies to remain top of mind with potential buyers. That’s why BMW Taiwan decided to use the recurring notifications on Facebook to send out daily content to fans of their Taiwanese Facebook page.

The results:

• 78% opt-in rate to receive notifications
• 10 times increase in campaign engagement (compared to past campaigns)

With recurring notifications, we cannot emphasize enough that we have a lot more flexibility in
our creatives in terms of promotions. We can proactively reach out to customers with
personalized content and fully utilize our Messenger channel as a customer care channel and a
full-funnel channel with better customer engagement.

BMW Taiwan

eTicket: Boosting engagement

As a ticketing platform, it’s very important for eTicket to keep fans updated on upcoming events. Recurring messages are perfect for that. In order to make sure they were sending the messages to the right customers (it might not be ideal to send a message about a Metallica concert to a Taylor Swift fan), they set up their “send-to-Messenger-” plugin on the artists’ event pages.

That way, eTicket was able to send fans relevant news about their favorite artists. They received daily and monthly reminders for events.

The results:

• 72% opt-in rate to notifications
• 65% of fans who received a notification made a same-day purchase

Recurring notifications have been a game changer for fan engagement. This same-day purchase
rate is even more impressive when compared to e-mail campaigns, where it could take a fan up to
72 hours to open their inbox. We’ve seen easier interactions and faster purchases through the
efficiency of recurring notifications.

Adrian Contreras, co-founder and CTO, eTicket

Kee Wah Bakery: Driving sales with opt-ins

The Kee Wah Bakery was looking to connect more with their Facebook fans, and decided to start a ten day trial of the notifications feature. They led their fans through ads to their messaging newsletter. Users that saw the ad and clicked on it, ended up in the Messenger from Meta, and could there opt in for recurring notifications.

As an incentive, Kee Wah Bakery added an exclusive coupon for discounts and promotions for new subscribers.

The results:

• 80% opt-in rate to notifications
• 30% coupon redemption rate

Through Recurring Notifications, we’ve developed closer connections with our customers.
We’ve always shown great attention to the quality of our customers’ experience, starting with
our flavorful pastries. Now, using Recurring Notifications, we’re bringing the same care and
focus to the ways our customers receive information from us.”

Terry Lau, assistant marketing manager, Kee Wah Bakery

ChicMe: New way to reach customers

E-commerce company ChicMe was looking for new ways to reach their customers, beyond e-mail or SMS. They encouraged shoppers to opt in to their recurring notifications on Facebook to receive daily deals. Once somebody signed up, they could also redeem coupons.

ChicMe reached out to shoppers through Facebook. (Source: Screenshot / Meta)

The results:

• 79% increase in open rate compared to e-mail campaigns
• 33% of first-time buyers made repeat purchases
• 13 times increase in revenue per customer vs. e-mail

Urban List: Increasing readership

Australian media company Urban List Perth stands out by sending out 30,000 recommendations per hour to their audience. Their readers receive tips on local culture, lifestyle, travel suggestions, and much more. In order to re-engage readers with content from their partners, Urban List initiated a Christmas giveaway campaign with recurring notifications on Facebook.

People who opted-in, received daily messages about new campaigns and promotions.

The results:

• 88% click-through rate on notifications
• 97% read-through rate on notifications

With recurring notifications, we gain a powerful way to deliver personalized bulk messaging through a social media channel that is popular with our readers. Instead of encouraging readers to visit our website, we can use recurring notifications to create ongoing connections and trust with readers.

Claire Logan, Perth editor, Urban List

Outer Aisle: Boosting sales

California-based company Outer Aisle specializes in creating tasty alternatives to flour products. Their products can be found in stores, but also be ordered online, and they also have a delivery subscription. In order to increase the online orders, Outer Aile created click-to-ads for Facebook that led users to the Messenger where they could opt in for a newsletter. Those who signed up, received a 15% discount on their first order.

Outer Aisle enticed subscribers with a discount. (Source: Screenshot / Meta)

The results:

• 20 times increase in CTR vs. email
• 30% increase in average order value

We were impressed to see how well recurring notifications converted leads for Outer Aisle and
how they performed better than any other channel. Recurring notifications are low investment,
low risk, and high return.

Raquel Luczo, integrated marketing manager, Outer Aisle

Best practices: How to get the most out of recurring notifications on Facebook

While sending recurring notifications on Facebook can be an interesting option to engage with your customers, it’s also important to be very mindful about the process in order to get the most out of the feature.

Be clear in your opt-in message

When you ask people to opt in to receive your notifications, be clear about what they will receive. Will you be sending them daily flight deals, a monthly event update, or weekly newsletters? Let them know exactly what they can expect. That way, you will see a higher opt-in rate and a lower number of unsubscribes.

Incentivize opt-ins

Give your fans a good reason to subscribe to your notifications. Adding discounts, special promotions or coupons will make it more attractive for people to opt in.

Pick the right intervals

Pick the best message frequency for your target audience. For one target group, receiving daily messages might be off-putting, for another that might be exactly what they want. Also: think about the best time for sending notifications to your audience in order to increase the open rate of the messages.

Create relevant messages

The more relevant the messages are to your customers, the better the response will be. Make sure that the messages you send are specific to your target group, and that the content is valuable to them.

Track and optimize

When you are first starting out, it might make more sense to start with one specific use case, and see how that goes, before you expand the usage. That way, you can gather valuable insights first. Make sure to track the performance of your notifications through relevant KPIs to understand if the tool works for you, and how you can optimize it.

Find a good software solution for your company

While using Meta’s cloud API to send recurring messages on Facebook might work for some companies, there are also other options. Especially, if you want to include other messaging apps in your customer communication, such as Apple Messages for Business or Telegram, or if you are worried about data protection, there are alternatives.

Professional business solution providers like MessengerPeople by Sinch have devloped ready-to-go solutions that don’t require any coding skills to get started—data protection guaranteed. With the Sinch Engage from MessengerPeople by Sinch, for example, you can reach your customers not only on the Messenger from Meta, but also on WhatsApp, Telegram, Apple Messages for Business, Viber, and you can even include chatbots!

Check out our solution in a free trial. Our experts are happy to guide you through the product in a web demo, and answer all of your questions.

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The post Recurring Notifications on Facebook: Six examples of successful brands appeared first on MessengerPeople by Sinch.

Instagram is getting broadcasting channels! As Meta announced on February 16, the new feature will roll out gradually, and enable creators to send out broadcasting messages to their followers. Read on to find out what the new feature offers, how you can use them, and why Instagram has just gotten more interesting for businesses.

How do the Instagram Broadcasting Channels work?

Similarly to WhatsApp broadcasting messages, the new Instagram Broadcasting Channels allow creators to send one message to multiple users at once. So far, the feature is only open to creators. According to Instagram, it’s meant to “help followers stay in-the-know with the latest updates and behind-the-scenes moments using text, photo, video, voice notes and polls.”

Creators can also set up polls in their broadcasting messages. (Source: Instagram)

Followers, that receive the broadcasts, can react to the content and participate in polls. As of now, reactions and poll answers are the only two ways for followers to respond to a broadcast, but Instagram promised that more features are to come soon.

Until now, creators mainly shared news with their followers through stories. The one-to-many broadcast offers a new option to connect with followers more directly, and on a more personal level.

The feature has launched with a few select creators in the US and some first features. A broader roll-out will follow in the next few months with more users, countries, and features, such as adding other creators into a broadcast for a collaboration.

Meta also wants to integrate the broadcasting feature into the Facebook Messenger soon.

How to sign up for a broadcast

Users can find broadcasts in the Discovery section on Instagram. This means: Everybody can find a creator’s broadcast and follow it. All followers then receive a first notification to join the broadcast channel. After this, only users that join the channel receive notifications for updates. So, in order to receive a channel’s broacast notifications, users have to follow a two-step process:

1. Follow a channel.
2. Join a channel.

Aside from discovering a broadcast channel, creators can get followers by sharing the channel link in their stories (through a sticker, for example). They can also pin a link to their channel in their bio. After followers join the channel, the broadcasting notifications will show up in their DMs. For now, followers can’t respond directly to broadcasting content, but they can send other users a link to follow and join the channel.

Safety features

Meta said that it’ll treat broadcast messages differently from private messages. And since broadcasts are publicly discoverable, it won’t have the same privacy features as a direct message. However, Meta said that it’s planning on adding different tools to verify users’ profiles, and that the content will be moderated. In addition, users can choose how often and prominently they want to receive a broadcast notification.

When will businesses get access to Instagram Broadcasting Channels?

As of now, Instagram Broadcasting Channels are only open to creators. If successful, it’s likely that Instagram will open the usage up to more users, including businesses. It’ll then most probably be integrated on the Instagram API.

Instagram Broadcasts and Meta Verified: new possibilities for businesses

Overall, the new broadcasting channels, have just made Instagram more interesting for business communication. Especially, if businesses get to use the feature in the future, it’ll open up new possibilities in conversational marketing on Instagram.

Combined with the in-chat payment possibilities on Instagram Direct, Instagram (and possibly Facebook Messenger) will then all offer business the possibility to manage the entire customer journey on one messaging app.

Meta Verified

In other news, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also announced that he wants to test a new subscription service, “Meta Verified”, that’ll allow users on Instagram and Facebook to pay for getting verified. The verified subscription will start at 11.99 US dollars per month (14.99 US dollars for iOS users), and will also come with some other perks, such as extra protection against fake accounts and direct access to Meta’s customer support.

Zuckerberg’s announcement follows a similar move by Twitter CEO Elon Musk who also launched a paid subscription model for the blue check mark on Twitter.

Meta Verified will first roll out in Australia and New Zealand this week, with more countries “coming soon”.

Both changes show a significant shift in Meta’s business model. As ad revenues have dropped over the last quarter, Meta is now looking for new revenue sources. Given that Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger currently have 2.9 billion users combined globally, it’s a smart move to leverage the world’s most popular messaging apps for broader business use.

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The post Instagram Broadcasting Channels are here: What to expect from the new feature appeared first on MessengerPeople by Sinch.

The e-mail notification is out, the messaging notification is in! Why? Because instead of despairing over low click-through rates with e-mail newsletters, marketing notifications sent on messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, or iMessage offer your company a channel where incredible open rates and high engagement are guaranteed.

In this guide, we’ll explain why that is, which messaging apps you can use to send marketing notifications, and how other companies are using them to better reach their customers.

1. Which messaging apps can you use to send out marketing notifications?

With the growing popularity of messaging among users, messaging apps have started offering various ways for businesses to send out notifications to customers directly in-app. From WhatsApp and Telegram to Apple Messages for Business, just about every messenger service nowadays offers a push notification option.

Depending on the use case and app, you might see different names, such as newsletter, broadcast, marketing notification, or push notifications. The idea is always the same, though: using messaging apps send out push notifications to interact with (potential) customers.

Each service has certain advantages and disadvantages. While Apple Messages for Business is ideal for easily reaching Apple users, WhatsApp allows you to reach people throughout the UK, India or Brazil on their favorite messenger, and Telegram offers a free newsletter.

So, depending on the target group, company and market, one service may be more advantageous than the other, or it might even be worth considering a combination of several newsletter services.

Why should you send out push notifications on messaging apps

Notifications that businesses send out to customers proactively are considered push communication in messenger marketing, and they refer to regular information that companies send out to interested users, such as a news update or a special offer. They help build a long-term relationship with customers and strengthen brand awareness. The only problem is that the traditional messaging channel in marketing, e-mail, is currently going through a crisis.

Overcrowded inboxes, a massive amount of newsletters every day, and users who don’t have time or don’t want to read through all the newsletters they’ve subscribed to at one time or another, mean that e-mail notifications are increasingly being ignored or even classified as spam.

Advantages of notifications on messenger apps

Messenger app newsletters, on the other hand, have a major advantage: they land directly in people’s most-used apps—and are almost never ignored. Accordingly, messaging apps offer incredible open rates of over 90 percent and click-through rates of 35%. In comparison, the click-through rate for e-mails is just 3%, and on social media channels it’s only 5%.

Your messaging newsletter won’t be ignored.

Push marketing via messenger apps is therefore popular with organizations and companies alike, especially in media and e-commerce. The reasons for this are:

• Reach: You can reach around 95% of your recipients  (on social media, it’s around 10%).
• Click-through rate: 35 (e-mail%: three percent, social media: five percent, banners: 1%).
• Real-time: The push message is sent in real time. There are no delays in receiving it.
• Lock screen: Push notifications for messaging app newsletters land directly on the lock screen amid messages from friends or family.
• No algorithm: Unlike social media, there is no algorithm in direct messaging. Messages reach the recipient immediately and receive their full attention.
• No spam filter: newsletters arrive directly and do not end up in spam, as is often the case with e-mails.
• Multimedia possibilities: In e-mail campaigns, you can never be sure if your multimedia is displayed. On messaging apps, however, your thoughtfully crafted messages won’t be blocked, and you can create much more engaging campaigns.

This makes push notifications on messaging apps an increasingly attractive channel for customer communication for companies. And the various messenger services offer different options.

3. Sending WhatsApp notifications

After WhatsApp had temporarily discontinued the service, in 2021 WhatsApp re-launched their popular broadcasting feature. With a new price model, the WhatsApp notifications are offer better spam protection for users and more options for companies.

WhatsApp distinguishes between four types of conversations between businesses and customers.

1. Utility conversations: Business-initiated conversations relating to a transaction, including post-purchase notifications and recurring billing statements to customers who have opted in.
2. Authentication: Business-initiated conversations that enable businesses to authenticate users with one-time passcodes at multiple steps during the login process, such as account registration, account recovery, and integrity challenges.
3. Marketing conversation: Business-initiated conversations to market a product or service to customers, such as relevant offers to customers who have opted in. Any business-initiated conversation that does not qualify as an authentication or utility conversation would also fall under this category.
4. Service conversations: Any user-initiated conversation, such as to resolve a customer inquiry.

The third category, marketing conversation, corresponds to the classic newsletter or push notification businesses send to users.

Push on WhatsApp: From special offers to job alerts

WhatsApp marketing conversations can be extremely versatile and allow for many different use cases.

Relevant news

Obviously, the classic push communication approach is to send out a newsletter, with relevant news alerts that companies send to subscribers at regular intervals (after a previous opt-in!).

Bloomberg Quint, an Indian joint venture of Bloomberg News and Quintillion Media founded in 2016, for example, provides decision-makers and executives with relevant real-time financial market information via WhatsApp.

Content on demand: Bloomberg Quint offers users real-time content from the financial sector.

Service Alerts

Another form of push messages via WhatsApp notification are alerts (utility conversations). This could be public service announcements from your local electricity provider or important updates from your airline regarding your flight. Keep in mind though that you can only send out alerts to your WhatsApp customers with their prior consent.

WhatsApp Notification with a boarding alert.

Job alerts

Another creative option for WhatsApp push communication is to send out job alerts. KCS Medical, for instance, is a medical recruitment company that sends out alerts to help people find jobs in the medical field through a WhatsApp newsletter, and with the help of WhatsApp chatbot Zoe.

Pull on WhatsApp: The user starts the communication

Even though push notifications is the classic way for marketers and companies to approach customers, push marketing is moving towards conversational marketing. In conversational marketing, interacting with customers is no longer about overwhelming customers with messages they never asked for, but about providing them with the information they really want, when they want it.

The difference to traditional push messages is that interest and the request for receiving information come directly from the customers. As a company, you thus draw customers to you (pull communication).

Customers tell companies what interests them

This gives customers the opportunity to access content by keyword or hashtag exactly when they need it. It also ensures that company messages are not perceived as spam and that better customer loyalty can be built. This form of communication is ideal for sending out coupons or special offers. Yet, there are also many other ways to work with pull-style notifications.

The Indian fact-checking organization Newschecker, for example, gives their subscribers the option to choose what service they want to use. In their case, a reader might have a story they would like Newschecker to fact-check, while others might be interested in receiving the latest fact-checked news directly to their WhatsApp.

These examples show that the WhatsApp newsletter has another great strength in addition to its reach: it gives you a lot of options. Companies can thus develop very creative forms of customer communication.

4. Using the Facebook Messenger from Meta to send out marketing notifications

Meta’s Facebook Messenger is one of the most popular messaging apps worldwide, with at least 999.8 million users around the world.

Twelve percent of people on earth use the Facebook Messenger from Meta. (Source: Datareportal)

It can therefore be a very powerful channel for reaching customers. In fact, the Messenger on Facebook offers companies two options for sending news, namely subscription messages and sponsored messages.

Subscription Messages

When push notifications via Facebook Messenger first started out, every business had access to them. Then, Meta restricted their use, and from 2020 to 2022 only allowed media publications that were registered through the News Page Index (NPI) to use the service. However, at the Conversations Conference in May 2022, Meta again reopened Facebook notifications to all businesses. Since then, all businesses can once again send recurring messages.

It will be interesting to see how companies will use the new notification tool in the future, as it’s at least as diverse as the WhatsApp notifications.

Sponsored messages

Aside from the push notifications, Facebook Messenger also allows companies to send messages to customers they connected with them before on Messenger, either by talking to an agent or interacting with a bot. If companies want to reengage with these customers, they can send sponsored messages with updates or an interesting product suggestion.

Facebook Messenger notification from the Indian government.

For the first 24-hour window, sponsored conversations are free of charge. If you send customers messages later, you’ll have to pay the price for a subscription message. These can then, however, include marketing content. Keep in mind though that you can only reach out to users that you’ve been in contact with before on the Messenger.

Tip: In addition, Facebook can also be a great platform to guide users to your WhatsApp broadcasts, either through a click-to-WhatsApp ad or a call to action on your Facebook Page.

5. Telegram Messenger: The easy messaging app for marketing notifications

The Telegram Messenger sees itself as a secure alternative to other messenger apps, and promotes its services with a heavy focus on safety.

Telegram is a cloud-based mobile and desktop messaging app with a focus on security and speed.

As of June 2022, Telegram counts 700 million users world-wide, and it’s currently one of the fastest-growing messaging apps globally. Many of the users turn to Telegram because they’re looking for an alternative to WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger. or Instagram Direct. This means that companies can reach a different target group here than on other messenger apps.

Companies can send Telegram notifications (the subscription feature is similar to WhatsApp broadcasts with the help of commands). There is a key advantage of Telegram over the other messaging apps, though: users can easily search for companies and subscribe to their updates through the Discover feature.

More options with bots

In addition, companies can easily create chatbots on Telegram. These become particularly relevant when it comes to automating the dialogue with customers. For example, bots can take over the prequalification of an inquiry and automatically answer recurring questions.

Unlike on WhatsApp, Telegram notifications are (still) free of charge, so especially if you typically send out your marketing notifications to a large number of users, this can be an interesting alternative.

6. Apple Messages for Business (iMessage): 360 service

Apple Messages for Business was launched in 2018, and is the professional version of iMessage. While iMessage is only for private communication, Apple Messages for Business is exclusively intended as a communication channel between individuals and businesses.

Apple Messages for Business offers companies the opportunity to get in touch with customers directly on the messaging app on an iOS device. Through these notifications, businesses can send content to customers in real time, and the messages appear directly on the locked screen.

It’s important to note that companies are not allowed to merely send notifications. They also have to offer customer service.

Reading tip: check out how the influencer platform stylink is more successful with iMessage newsletters than WhatsApp newsletters!

As one of the most developed messaging eco systems out there, Apple Messages for Business offers companies a wide range of options to accompany and support their customers throughout the entire customer journey. Integrated features, such as Apple Pay or descriptive topic category lists, make the experience pleasant and smooth for customers and employees.

Apple useres tend to spend more

From a technical perspective, you can reach any iOS user in the world with iMessages, no local SIM card needed! If you operate an international business, this could be a significant advantage. And even though there are less Apple than Android users, they tend to spend more. So it might be worthwile considering Apple Messages for Business as an (additional) channel for marketing notifications.

7. Finding the right content strategy for your newsletter

Marketing notifications on messaging apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, Apple Business Chat or Meta’s Facebook Messenger are a great way to send content out quickly and directly. But what type of content should you send? Content strategy, media selection, interaction, timing, and target group are crucial for success.

As with any new medium, the question with messenger apps is: what content works for your business and your target audience? Typical questions that you should clarify in advance are:

• How often do you want to send out messages? Tip: less is more! We recommend a maximum of three newsletters per day!
• How many news topics do you want to send per message?
• Which media (emojis, pictures, videos, language) do you want to include?
• How formally or informally do you want to address your readers?

Also, pay special attention to the teaser text. These are the first seven words that appear on the lock screen — and ultimately encourage recipients to open your messages (or not).

 Learn how to find the right content strategy for your messenger app notifications!

8. How to get subscribers to your messaging notifications

When setting up your newsletter channel for a messaging up, these are the things you should keep in mind:

1. Place your widget wherever you can. Your target group can easily subscribe to your messenger newsletter through the MessengerPeople by Sinch widget. Communicate the widget through all channels available to you, whether online or offline (website, e-mail signature, etc.)
2. Integrate your landing page for the messaging notifications on your website, where users and customers are looking for contact, support, and information.
3. Set up click-to-chat. This means, for example, that you include a link on your website, the newsletter landing page or on any other digital platform that you use. When users clicks on this link, the corresponding messaging app opens directly. You should use or communicate this link on all your touchpoints. This ranges from your website to flyers with QR codes.
4. A QR code will help you, too. It’s another great way for users to access your newsletter directly. You can place it on your products, invoices, or flyers, for example, and thus enable customers to subscribe to your newsletter directly via a click-to-chat link.
5. Use social media to promote your messaging app newsletter. Communicate the number, or use the click-to-chat link to lead people from Facebook or Instagram directly to your messenger service. On Facebook, for example, you can draw attention to your newsletter with videos or the click-to-chat links. On Twitter, you can also post video clips and share the link, while on Instagram you should add the link in your bio, and add the comment “link in bio” to content you post around your notification service.
6. Keep track of all the touchpoints you have with your customers and consider using these to draw people’s attention to your push notifications so that you can get as many users as possible into your messaging service.

11. Send marketing notifications on all relevant messaging apps with “Campaigns”, a professional and scalable tool

For companies that want to take advantage of the benefits of sending out notifications on messenger apps, we have developed a special software solution on our one-stop-messaging software Sinch Engage: Campaigns. With ,Campaigns, you can:

• … access WhatsApp through the official WhatsApp Business API, and use it to send out notifications, and scale marketing campaigns.
• … send messaging app notifications to customers on WhatsApp, Apple Messages for Business (iMessage), Facebook Messenger, Viber, Telegram, and Instagram Direct.
• … start right away, no coding skills needed — even from your home office!
• … manage all messages from any messaging app centrally in your inbox.
• … assign queries as tickets, manually or by automated routing to your team.
• … easily set up automated features like a drag-and-drop chatbot builder that’s easy to set up.
• … integrate existing CRM interfaces so you can link your customer data with your messaging communication.
• … use messaging effectively and at a fair price, with no set-up fees and personal consultation.

For further reading

None found

The post Marketing notifications for messaging apps: everything you need to know! appeared first on MessengerPeople by Sinch.

When the car is at the shop, owners want to know everything that’s going on. Ideally, in real time. Did they already start with the check? Is something broken? What part has to be replaced? When can I pick up my car?

Especially for larger car dealers, there are so many of these inquiries that service teams can barely keep up. So, how can car dealers and repair shops handle these questions in a timely manner without overwhelming their agents? That’s exactly the question that BMW faced. Their solution: they partnered with MessengerPeople by Sinch to introduce an innovative solution, a WhatsApp chatbot. With great success!

The challenge: solve 4,000 inquiries per day

Every day, about 200 customers leave their BMW at the repair shop for a check-up — and call to check on the status of their car. Especially during peak times, for example when changing summer or winter tires, this results in a lot of calls. Sometimes, BMW receives up to 4,000 inquiries per day.

At the same time, the questions are typically the same. “Is the car ready?” “Can you confirm the pick-up time?”

“In order to free up employees at the repair center, we started handling these questions through a call center,” says Albert Rösch, Head of Service at BMW Munich. That was not ideal.

For one, call center employees still had to answer the same questions over and over again. That’s neither motivating nor efficient. Furthermore, every single one of these calls takes time. Time that the agents are missing when they need to deal with more complex issues. That made the call center solution not only costly for BMW, it also diminished the service quality.

The solution: BMW uses WhatsApp automation to speed up customer service

BMW was therefore looking for a way to reduce the workload for the service team, and, at the same time, improve the service quality for their customers. Their approach: use a WhatsApp chatbot to answer recurring questions.

For this, BMW partnered with MessengerPeople by Sinch and implemented a professional messaging and chatbot solution to automate answers to FAQs.

In a first step, BMW used a tracking system called “Follow Now”. It tracks the data of each car’s repairs in real-time. Customers can then access this information from BMW via WhatsApp.

Customers simply have to type the code #follownow into the WhatsApp chat, and then immediately receive an update about the current status of the car. It’s a simple, but very efficient solution — with impressive results!

The result: BMW leverages WhatsApp to improve service quality

The first positive outcome of the WhatsApp chatbot automation were faster responses. Customers were able to receive updates on their cars immediately, and whenever they wanted.

Our service quality has greatly improved with the new communication channel.

Albert Rösch, Head of Service at BMW Munich

Furthermore, the chatbot reduced the number of customer phone calls, which allows BMW to save resources. In fact, the chatbot works so well that it can solve about 80% of customer queries.

If there is a more complex question, the bot delegates it to the agents, who, in turn, now have more time to thoroughly deal with more complicated issues.

BMW not only uses WhatsApp to answer customer questions faster. The service agents also use the channel to reach out to the customers. If, for instance, they need an approval to install a new part, and can’t reach the customer by phone, they can now just send a text message. That has simplified the process for everybody, says Rösch.

We get almost only positive feedback, both from our clients, and our agents.

That’s why BMW wants to expand the WhatsApp system to more shops in the future.

We will keep working with our competent and commited partner, MessengerPeople by Sinch, as we are more than happy with the collaboration.

More interesting articles about messaging and chatbots

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Lucky – the Chatbot for Car Dealers

The post How BMW answers 80% of its customer queries with a WhatsApp chatbot appeared first on MessengerPeople by Sinch.

Is the Facebook Messenger interesting for businesses? What can you do with it? And what is the current user base? In the following overview, we answer the most important questions around Meta’s Messenger.

1. Short and sweet: Facebook Messenger for companies

Here are the most important things to know about the Messenger from Meta for companies.

• Claim to fame: “Using conversations to build long-lasting customer relationships.”
• User numbers worldwide: 988 million monthly active users (as of 2022)
• Percentage of users in selected markets: India (49.3%); UK (52.8%); USA (49%)
• Target group: popular with large and mid-sized (media) companies
• ​Newsletters: since May 2022, Meta opened up the Facebook newsletters for every type of company
• ​Advantage: many users are already on the platform
• Distinction: suitable for campaign-based marketing
• ​Costs: free of charge (except for ads), but Meta is preparing a paid subscription model

2. The history of Facebook Messenger from Meta

Facebook Messenger was launched as a chat feature on Facebook in 2008. In 2020, the company overhauled the messaging service, and turned it into a separate app for iOS and Android. With Meta’s renaming in 2021, the Facebook Messenger became the “Messenger from Meta”. However, most users still refer to it as Facebook Messenger.

It’s become clear in the past years, that Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg want to focus more on conversational messaging. Already in 2016, Zuckerberg declared the Messenger a top priority.

David Marcus, who ran the Facebook Messenger unit from 2014 to 2018 made it clear that using messaging as a marketing channel was no longer “if”, but “when”.

Since then, the Messenger from Meta has gone through some changes and upheavals, from criticism over the safety of the messenger app to restricting the newsletter usage due to spam and abuse, to now opening the Facebook Messenger to more business features. In May 2022, Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company was working on subscription models for its entire messaging family, which will most likely add more tools for companies to the Facebook Messenger as well.

Over the years, the Facebook Messenger has become an exciting channel for companies with many opportunities from customer service.

3. Current user numbers, worldwide and in selected markets

Taking a look at user numbers of the Facebook Messenger globally, the app has lost its popularity in the past few years. Even though Meta has not released any user numbers recently, based on ad users on the platform, experts estimate that the app has currently 988 million monthly active users. In 2020, this number was 1.3 billion.

Some of the reasons are that younger users prefer other apps like WhatsApp, Snapchat, or TikTok, while new messenger services like Telegram are also gaining more popularity around the world.

According to data from We Are Social, Hootsuite, and DataReportal, this makes the Messenger from Meta currently the number three messenger service in the world.

The world’s most-used social media platforms in 2022. (Source: Datareportal)

As far as user demographics are concerned, Facebook Messenger is typically most popular among the age group of 25 to 35.

Keep in mind, though, that, depending on the market and the use case, Facebook Messenger is still one of the top messaging apps globally. In the following, we’ll focus on a few selected markets that are particularly interesting for the business usage of the Messenger from Meta.

Facebook Messenger users in India, UK, US, Brazil, and Mexico

By sheer user numbers, Facebook Messenger has a very strong presence in the Americas and Asia. In 2022, there are 142.6 million active users in South America and 216.7 million active users in South East Asia. The countries with the highest numbers of Facebook Messenger users are:

1. India: 125.5 million active users
2. Brazil: 63.9 million active users
3. Mexico: 61.9 million active users
4. The Philippines: 56.5 million active users

Based on market share, Facebook Messenger is also popular in North America and the UK. In the US, 49% of social media users are on the app, and in the UK it’s 52.8%.

According to a recent survey in the UK, the brand awareness of the Messenger from Meta reaches 98%, with a user loyalty of 52%.

The Facebook Messenger has an extremely high brand awareness in the UK. (Source: Statista)

In the US, the brand awareness is a bit lower than in the UK (93%), but Facebook Messenger has very strong popularity, usage and loyalty numbers in this market.

Facebook Messenger has a very high user loyalty in the US. (Source: Statista)

For more detailed information on social media and messenger app usage, check out our global overview with the latest numbers.

4. Features of Facebook Messenger

Facebook Messenger offers messaging features such as chat, direct messaging, sending images, videos, stickers, GIFs, files, and audio files. Aside from one-on-one calls and video chats, it’s also possible to have group video chats (“rooms”).

Meta has also set up a payment feature, Meta Pay (formerly: Facebook Pay) that allows users to connect the messaging app with their credit card to make in-chat payments to other users or businesses. This is a feature that Meta is actively rolling out step by step globally on WhatsApp and Instagram Direct as well.

5. How to set up the Messenger on Facebook

Setting up the Messenger on Facebook for your business is very straight-forward. It requires only a few easy steps, and you don’t need any special IT knowledge!

Make sure you’re an admin

First, you’ll need to be an administrator to turn messaging on or off for your page. If you’re an admin, you can follow the next steps. 

Setting up Messenger on Facebook

1. Click Settings at the top of your Page.
2. Go to General, and click Messages.
3. Click to check or uncheck the box next to Allow people to contact my Page privately by showing the Message button.
4. Click Save Changes.

Set up user name

Now, copy your Facebook username (directly below the name of your Facebook page without the @)

How to set up the Messenger on Facebook for businesses.

Tip: If you want to manage multiple messaging apps (like Facebook Messenger, Telegram, and Apple Messages for Business) in one business interface, we recommend switching to a professional business solution where you can streamline all messaging apps into one platform.

6. Facebook Messenger for companies and customer communication

The Facebook Messenger is not only an app that people use privately to talk to family and friends, they also increasingly use it to get in touch with businesses. Overall, more than one billion users message a business on the Meta family of messaging apps every week.

Mark Zuckerberg points out how customers now message businesses. (Source: Meta)

In fact, most users are also more likely to buy something from a business if they can chat with them. According to a Facebook survey, 53% of users say that they are more likely to shop with a business they can contact via a chat app.

Offering customer communication on Facebook Messenger is therefore an interesting option for companies. It can increase engagement, speed up customer service processes, and lead to better conversions and more sales — especially if your company already has a business profile on Facebook.

The Facebook Messenger is an important addition to our overall Facebook presence with more than 30,000 fans. This makes it possible for us to talk to our fan community directly and easily in the one-on-one chat.

Michael Schmittner, Head of Business Development Digital, Radio Arabella

7. Facebook Messenger for companies: chatbots, lead generation, ads, and newsletter

Chatbots on the Facebook Messenger

Facebook was one of the first platforms to integrate chatbots into their messaging platform. This can be a simple rule-based bot, or a more complex AI chatbot. Overall though, for companies, this is a very exciting feature, that can pull its weight from lead generation to customer service.

Customer service bots on the Messenger from Meta

As many customers might explore a business profile on Facebook, it makes sense to offer them the possibility to contact the business on the same channel.

Let’s say a customer is looking at the Facebook page of a restaurant, but has a question about the menu or business hours. Integrating a chatbot directly on the Facebook Messenger makes it easy for the customer to just send a message, and get an automated answer in seconds instead of having to call the restaurant.

The travel and review platform TripAdvisor, for example, uses a Facebook bot to answer frequent user questions, but also to give travel tips.

The beauty brand Sephora also uses a Facebook Messenger chatbot for answering queries on time and at scale. After they first integrated the bot in 2019, they measured the following results:

• 100% of customers reaching out via messenger now served via messenger
• 15% decrease in average responses in all conversations, resulting in more efficient first-answer-resolving

This shows the great potential of combining a Facebook presence with the Messenger and a customer service bot.

Check out 10 inspiring customer service examples of brands on the Facebook Messenger.

Chatbots for lead generation

One of the strengths of Facebook Messenger bots is, that due to the combination of the Facebook site, the messaging features, and their automation capabilities they can offer a lot of additional value for companies in generating leads and helping with customer acquisition. This typically works in three steps:

1. Promotion with ads on Facebook or Instagram (leading users directly into the chat with the bot)
2. Dialogue with the bot in the form of a consultation or quiz that keeps users engaged
3. Retrieving contact information for a follow-up (sending vouchers, white papers, making appointments, subscribing to newsletters, etc.)

You also don’t have to limit the functions of your chatbot to just one aspect. The designer brand Michael Kors, for instance, uses a multipurpose chatbot on the Facebook Messenger. It can answer frequently asked questions, but also has a quiz feature for a fun game around the brand, and it also takes users through current collections to provide shopping inspiration.

The Michael Kors bot keeps users engaged, and inspires shoppers. (Source: Facebook)

Facebook Messenger Ads

Companies can also run ads on the Facebook Messenger. There are two options: sponsored messages and Messenger ads.

Sponsored Messages: Companies can answer customer questions in a 24-hour window without charge. Outside this time frame, business-initiated messages come at a cost (sponsored messages). This means that companies can only initiate sponsored messages to customers, but these can then contain ads. Important: in order to avoid spam, you can only address users that have been in touch with you before as a target group.

Messenger ads: Users see these ads on the Messenger. They look very similar to the ads that people see on their Facebook newsfeed.

Facebook Messenger Newsletter

Recurring messages on the Facebook Messenger can be anything from special deals, weekly promotions, news, marketing messages, or updates. Of course, you can only send out recurring messages if users have previously opted in. Users can also decide how often they want to receive updates, and after a certain time period, they get an automated notification to re-confirm that they still want to receive newsletters.

Opt-in and renewal requests are new features of the Facebook newsletter. (Source: Meta)

Until very recently, Facebook only allowed media companies that were listed on the News Page Index (NPI) to send out recurring notifications. However, in May 2022, the company decided to let all businesses use the feature again.

Since then, some first-movers have reported impressive results. Some companies achieved:

• 79% increase in open rate (compared to e-mail).
• 13 times more revenue per customer (compared to e-mail).
• 33& of first-time buyers from notifications made repeat purchases within 60 days.

Recurring Notifications on Facebook: 6 Examples of Successful Brands

The e-commerce company ChicMe was one of these brands. The company was looking for an alternative channel to reach their customers beyond e-mail or SMS. They used the recurring notifications on Facebook Messenger to send out daily deals. As an incentive, customers received coupons if they signed up for the newsletter.

ChicMe reached out to shoppers through Facebook. (Source: Screenshot / Facebook)

With the newsletter, ChicMe registered a 79% increase in open rate, and a 13 times increase in revenue (compared to e-mail campaigns). This shows how the Facebook Messenger can be an effective sales tool as well.

8. Software solution for using the Facebook Messenger for your customer communication

Similar to WhatsApp, a lot of the business features on the Facebook Messenger can only be unlocked for companies that are connected to the API. For example, the Application Programming Interface allows businesses to send out newsletters or integrate bots.

You can set up your own infrastructure to connect to Meta’s API cloud. This is free, at least for now, but Meta has already announced a paid subscription model for the future. However, this does require IT knowledge and resources. The other option is to work with a Meta Business Solution Provider, such as MessengerPeople by Sinch, who have developed ready-to-go software solutions that not only connect you to the API, but also allow you to get started on the Facebook Messenger right away.

The Messenger Commuication Platform from MessengerPeople by Sinch requires no coding skills, and lets you use all the business features on the Facebook Messenger. In addition, you can also use other messaging channels, such as WhatsApp, Instagram Direct, Telegram, or Apple Messages for Business for your customer communication.

All the conversations run on one centralized desktop platform (ensuring 100% data protection), so you won’t have to switch from one messaging app to another, and you can also integrate your CRM system. It’s the easiest way to start your effective and engaging customer communication on the Facebook Messenger and other messaging apps!

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How to set up the Messenger on Facebook for your business, in just two easy steps

The post How to get the most out of the Messenger from Meta for companies: everything you need to know appeared first on MessengerPeople by Sinch.

WhatsApp competitor Signal has started to remove the SMS and MMS features for Android on their app. The company announced on their blog that they’re doing this to improve the safety and data protection for their users, help save costs, and improve the user experience.

Why Signal is removing the SMS feature

For many years, Signal users could not only send internet-based messages, but also SMS and MMS through the messaging app. Aside from Signal, there are only a few other messaging services that offer this feature, such as the Facebook Messenger from Meta and Google Messages.

The feature has been around for about ten years, when Signal was still called “TextSecure” and used the safety protocol Axolotl. It allowed users to set Signal as their default app for SMS (and MMS). This enabled users to send a text to anybody in their contact list a message through Signal. If the contact didn’t have the Signal app, they would receive an SMS instead.

Now, however, Signal has announced that they will start discontinuing the feature. In a blog entry, the company wrote:

We have now reached the point where SMS support no longer makes sense.

The decision wasn’t an easy one, the company said. Apparently, there were three main reasons for this.

1. Ensure better data protection and security for users.
2. Reduce costs for users.
3. Streamline the user experience.

For Signal, the main issue with the SMS feature is the lack of security. Unlike the internet-based chats, the text messages are not protected by Signal’s strong security protocols. For the company that is known for its high safety standards, and has even been promoted by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk as a safe alternative to WhatsApp, this is a key issue.

At the same time, the feature can also create (unwanted) costs for users because they are being charged regular text message prices for using the SMS feature.

Lastly, Signal also said that they wanted to streamline the user experience on the app. Starting now, the SMS feature will be discontinued. The process will take a few months, so users will have some time to get used to the transition.

What will change for users

The changes will obviously only affect users that have been using the SMS feature in Signal. All other users will not notice any differences.

If you’re using the function, you’ll need to set another default SMS app on your phone. In addition, if you want to make sure that the content of your texts won’t disappear after the feature is shut down, you have to export the messages.

How to export your SMS from the Signal messenger app

Signal will make it possible for Android users to export and thus save their text messages. Basically, you will have to save your Signal text messages in your new SMS app.

Users will soon start seeing notifications in the app that will guide them through the process.

And if you want to use Signal in the future to stay in touch with your external contacts? Then you’ll have to convince them to download the messaging app!

More interesting articles about messaging:

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These 9 Telegram features have changed messaging forever

The post Signal Messenger removes SMS support: “No longer makes sense.” appeared first on MessengerPeople by Sinch.

WhatsApp broadcast, WhatsApp newsletter, WhatsApp push notifications, WhatsApp bulk messages, or WhatsApp marketing notifications: the notification tool on Meta’s green messaging app has many names. But no matter what you call it, the feature enables businesses to communicate directly with thousands of users.

What makes the WhatsApp newsletter even more attractive is that it has incredibly high open and click-through rates, and is a real business driver. Luckily, after banning the feature in 2019, WhatsApp decided to bring the newsletter back in 2021 — with some modifications (less spam for users) and upgrades (more options for companies). We’ll take a look at the broadcasting options that are available for companies, and show you inspiring examples of companies from India that are successfully growing their business with the feature.

What’s a WhatsApp broadcast?

WhatsApp broadcasts are bulk messages that companies send out to subscribers via WhatsApp. The broadcast can be a traditional newsletter, important business updates, but also information about events, or even special deals and offers, which is why WhatsApp notifications can also open the door for conversational commerce.

Now, why would you need WhatsApp to send messages to users, if you can already send e-mails, social media ads, and SMS? Because no other channel offers you what WhatsApp does: incredible open and click-through rates! The open rate of a WhatsApp message is 90% (!!!), while open rates for the most successful e-mail campaigns only reach 27%.

And a WhatsApp broadcast will also get more attention than e-mails or social media campaigns! Compared to e-mails, the open rates for messaging apps is more than ten times as high.

Your messaging newsletter won’t be ignored.

Why are WhatsApp and other messaging apps so much more successful in getting your message to customers? First, users are experiencing social media and e-mail fatigue. On social media, busy timelines and algorithms make it very hard for users to find the information they want. And e-mail inboxes are so crowded that even the best e-mail campaigns might get overlooked.

With messaging newsletters, however, your company’s message ends up front and center on the users’ locked screen. And by using channels like WhatsApp, iMessage, or Telegram, you are already communicating in the same environment as the customers’ friends and family. This makes messaging newsletters a much more personable and direct way to reach customers.

After conducting extensive research, we discovered that WhatsApp is more than just a personal messaging application for our consumers – it’s a tool that is fully integrated into their daily life. We thought that WhatsApp would work perfectly as a content distribution platform, reaching out directly to our readers.

Ankit Dikshit, Bloomberg Quint, India

And with WhatsApp being the most used messaging app in the world, it makes it the perfect channel for businesses to reach and engage users throughout the entire customer journey!

How can I set up a WhatsApp broadcast?

Companies have two ways to set up a WhatsApp broadcast: you can use the WhatsApp Business app or the WhatsApp Business Platform (formerly known as WhatsApp Business API).

Important: According to WhatsApp’s policies, you’re not allowed to use the private WhatsApp app for commercial purposes. Violating this policy can get your account blocked.

The WhatsApp Business app was specifically designed for small businesses with up to five employees. While it’s free of charge, you can’t integrate chatbots, it doesn’t guarantee data protection, and you can only contact a maximum of 256 users per broadcasting list, so it won’t allow you to scale campaigns. If you send out more than the allowed limit, WhatsApp will block your account.

The WhatsApp Business Platform, on the other hand, gives you access to the WhatsApp interface, and depending on the size of your business and success of your campaigns, you can send out anywhere from 1,000 to 100,000 to an unlimited number of messages to users.

From message limits to templates: read how to set up a WhatsApp newsletter campaign, step-by-step

You can set up your own IT infrastructure to access the interface (requires IT knowledge and resources!), or get easy access through professional Business Solution Providers (BSP) like MessengerPeople by Sinch.

Using a professional solution for sending out WhatsApp broadcasts has several advantages:

• You can get started right away, no complicated IT infrastructure needed.
• It’s a ready-to-go solution that doesn’t require any special IT skills.
• It’s possible to integrate AI-based chatbots with an easy chatbot builder.
• You don’t have to worry about data protection laws (data privacy compliance is 100% guaranteed).
• You can not only send out broadcasting messages on WhatsApp, but also on other messaging apps like Telegram, Instagram Direct, the Messenger from Meta, iMessage, and many more — and manage it all from one dashboard.

Requirements

With the new WhatsApp newsletter, there are certain requirements that businesses have to fulfill in order to be allowed to send out bulk messages. After all, WhatsApp wants to make sure that users are not being spammed with notifications they don’t want to receive.

There is certain content that businesses are not allowed to promote with WhatsApp notifications, such as:

• adult content
• alcohol, tobacco, drugs, or similar products
• gambling
• defense weapons, ammunition, explosives, or similar items
• animal sales
• health products or medication (although there are some exceptions)

Businesses also have to use the WhatsApp templates for their messages. Until now, WhatsApp had to pre-approve these templates before companies were allowed to send out messages. However, since October 2022, there is an automated checking process, and businesses can start their campaigns right away.

Of course, if a campaign is in violation of WhatsApp’s policies or if users file complaints, WhatsApp reserves the right to stop campaigns.

Costs of WhatsApp notifications

WhatsApp differentiates between two types of messages, user-initiated messages and business-initiated messages. The WhatsApp broadcasts are categorized as business-initiated messages.

• user-initiated messages: the users starts the chat
• business-initiated messages: the business starts the chat

User-initiated vs. business-initiated messages. (Source: Meta)

Depending on the type of message, there are different costs. Messages that your customers send to you are always free (and you pay a lower fee for follow-up messages). If a company sends out a message to a customer, there is a higher fee which depends on the user’s country code.

For example, for users with a UK code, the price is £ 0.0467. In India, the current rate for business-initiated messages is 94.30 Rupees, and in North America you pay US $ 0.0147. You can see the full pricing list on the Facebook developer site.

The cost per conversation by country. (Source: Meta)

Successful with the WhatsApp newsletter: 6 inspiring examples

1. Bloomberg Quint: Reaching 200,000+ readers

When the financial news outlet Bloomberg Quint launched its WhatsApp channel in India, it was one of the country’s first business news messaging services for decision makers and executives on the go.

As Bloomberg Quint was looking to reach more readers, the publication partnered with MessengerPeople by Sinch, and started using the WhatsApp broadcast feature to send out important stock market and financial news to its subscribers.

With the newsletter, Bloomberg didn’t only meet its target of reaching 100,000 users, but was able to more than double that number to grow its community to more than 225,000 active users.

2. Newschecker: Fighting misinformation

While digitalization in India is growing, digital literacy is still very low in the country. This makes the spread of misinformation online easy and fast.

In order to educate Indians on different topics, the fact checking organization Newschecker worked with MessengerPeople by Sinch to launch a WhatsApp broadcast where subscribers can send in stories they want to be checked, or simply read fact-checked news.

The WhatsApp newsletter makes it easy for Newschecker to reach many readers, and thus, stop the spread of misinformation faster.

3. Netflix: Increasing viewership

In the very early days of the WhatsApp broadcast messages, Netflix already recognized the potential the tool held. In 2017, the streaming service launched a WhatsApp newsletter campaign in India that has since also been rolled out in the UK.

The idea: Netflix would send subscribers notifications whenever they came out with a new movie or TV show that could be streamed on WhatsApp. Users could choose to enable the update, and select what type of content they would be interested in. Subscribers would then receive regular messages on new content.

Netflix sent interested readers regular updates on new shows and movies. (Source: techjockey)

This example shows how useful WhatsApp newsletters can be to re-activate users, keep them engaged, and of course, it also helped Netflix increase viewership for their new shows.

4. Adidas: Getting more members

In December 2021, Adidas India updated their website. With the relaunch, they also introduced a new membership initiative. In order to spread the word, and get more members, Adidas used the WhatsApp broadcasting function.

Adidas India promoted their membership program through a WhatsApp broadcast. (Source: Freshworks)

5. Flipkart: Increase buzz around sales campaign

India’s large e-commerce marketplace Flipkart offers pretty much anything, from lifestyle products to electronics to groceries. For their sales campaign “Big Billion Days”, they were looking for a way to increase attention around the event.

Instead of betting on online ads or social media promotions where it’s very hard to stand out, they decided to reach their customers in a conversational way: through WhatsApp.

In a campaign that involved conversational flows, multimedia, and elements from India’s famous TV show, Kaun Banega Crorepati (including host Amitabh Bachchan as a chatbot!), they were able to get users’ attention, and increase the buzz around their campaign considerably.

With WhatsApp, Flipkart got a lot more attention for their campaign. (Source: The Convert Way)

With the WhatsApp campaign, they were able to:

• get 3.5 times more conversions
• seven times more high-quality visitors
• generate 2.5 million US dollars in revenue

6. Big Bazaar: Growing the customer base

The retail chain Big Bazaar launched their two-hour delivery service back in April 2021. It already included the option to order through WhatsApp.

Introducing 2 Hour Home Delivery from Big Bazaar for anything you need! Order online at https://t.co/swIZB6cgIt or Call/WhatsApp on our store numbers to place your order.

*For Mumbai Stores. pic.twitter.com/j1hwwgSeGt

— Big Bazaar (@BigBazaar) April 7, 2021

After launching the new service, Big Bazaar reached about 50,000 orders per day. In order to grow even faster, the retailer started sending out special deals on WhatsApp to newsletter subscribers.

Big Bazaar used a WhatsApp broadcast to grow their customer base. (Source: Freshworks)

Through their WhatsApp broadcast, customers were able to get discounts on certain groceries, which added an extra incentive to shop at Big Bazaar, and was a clever way for the company to increase its customer base.

Telegram, iMessage, and more: Are there good alternatives to WhatsApp broadcast?

WhatsApp isn’t the only messaging app companies can use to send out newsletters. Telegram, iMessage, and now even the Facebook Messenger offer options for bulk messaging. Are these viable alternatives to WhatsApp? They definitely can be!

Telegram

Telegram is the rising star among the messaging apps. It has far fewer users than its competitors (700 million vs. WhatsApp’s two billion), but it’s the fastest growing messenger service right now. In India, Telegram is more popular than the Facebook Messenger!

There are also some newsletter features that are unique to Telegram. For one, the newsletters are free of charge, you don’t need to get your newsletter templates pre-approved, and you don’t have to worry as much about Telegram pausing campaigns. So, especially for promoting fast-selling deals, this might be a better-suited channel.

Facebook Messenger

Meta re-opened the recurring notifications on the Facebook Messenger for all businesses this year. Before, only companies that were registered on Facebook’s news index were allowed to use the feature.

The Messenger can be an interesting option if your customers are primarily on Facebook, but also if you want to expand your user base. Keep in mind, that in some markets, like the US, the Messenger is still more popular than WhatsApp!

Apple Messages for Business

With Apple Messages for Business, you are able to reach a different target audience than with WhatsApp. Yes, there are fewer Apple users than Android users, but they tend to spend more! In addition, Apple doesn’t charge businesses additionally for sending out newsletters on Apple Messages for Business, so there’s also a cost advantage over WhatsApp.

If you’re running an international business, you can reach Apple customers without needing a SIM card for each country (like you do for WhatsApp).

And you also don’t have to worry about open rates!

On iMessage, we have message open rates of over 90 percent. When we send out iMessage links through our newsletter, we have a click-through rate of more than 60 percent.

Kara Dilling, Business Development Manager at influencer affiliate platform stylink

So, depending on your product and audience, this might be a good alternative for you.

What about Threema, WeChat, or Notify? Check out our complete guide with all WhatsApp newsletter alternatives!

Send out newsletters on multiple messaging apps

What if you don’t just want to stick to one messaging app, but use several to send out your newsletters, and reach even more users? That’s possible with a professional messaging solution like the Messenger Communication Platform (MCP) from MessengerPeople by Sinch.

With the MCP you can send out newsletters on practically every messaging app, from Telegram to WhatsApp to Apple Messages for Business. It all works on a centralized platform, so you don’t have to switch back and forth between applications, and you can even integrate chatbots and automated opt-in and opt-out messages.

Get in touch with our local team in India, and we’ll be happy to guide you through our solution!

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Newsletters for Messaging Apps: Everything You Need to Know!

The post WhatsApp broadcast: 6 inspiring examples from India appeared first on MessengerPeople by Sinch.

If you’re curious to find out how you can use WhatsApp to grow your business, look no further than MissPompadour. They managed to turn the messaging app into a sales tool — with a 90% conversion rate!

We talked to Erik Reintjes, CEO of MissPompadour about how they got started with WhatsApp Business, how retailers can use messaging, and why the tool is such a success for them.

MissPompadour: from the WhatsApp Business app to a professional software

Can you sell something as personal and emotional as DIY paint online? For many years, the paint industry said: no way! Customers are very demanding when it comes to picking the perfect paint for their homes, and nobody thought that selling paint online would ever work. Until MissPompadour tried it!

The German company switched their business model from a brick-and-mortar store to an online-only shop, and has been incredibly successful with the move. Why? Because MissPompadour has always understood very well how to use social media to their advantage.

They promote their products on visual platforms, such as Pinterest and Instagram, and create YouTube tutorials for their customers. Chatting with their customers on digital channels has therefore always been part of their communication strategy, says Erik Reintjes, CEO of MissPompadour.

From the very beginning, the company saw WhatsApp as a direct and personal communication channel. Even in their brick-and-mortar days, co-founder Astrid Reintjes would always give customers her personal WhatsApp Business number in case they had questions. This worked very well, until the business started growing.

Once we had more than five agents dealing with WhatsApp consultation on one smartphone, we outgrew the WhatsApp Business app.

Erik Reintjes, MissPompadour

The problem: companies that use the free WhatsApp Business app have to manage all the incoming queries on one single smartphone. Having to pass around one device to all agents, is very inconvenient. There’s also no way to automate the service or scale it, and data protection is also not guaranteed. That’s why WhatsApp Business doesn’t work for most businesses that have more than five employees. The solution? Switch to the WhatsApp Business Platform!

That’s also what MissPompadour did. They partnered with MessengerPeople by Sinch who set up a professional and ready-to-go messaging solution for WhatsApp Business for them.

This has taken their customer communication to the next level.

Conversational Commerce? “WhatsApp is a sales tool for us!”

One of the reasons for MissPompadour’s success with WhatsApp is that it’s tied in with their entire digital communication strategy, as Erik Reintjes explains.

Social media is the customer catcher. WhatsApp is the conversion channel. 

How does this work?

Because MissPompadour understands that DIY paint requires thorough consultation, they use WhatsApp to help their customers before they make a purchase. Typically, this is where most questions come up because customers want to be 100% sure they’re buying the right paint.

That’s why MissPompadour integrated the WhatsApp chat button directly into their product sites, so customers can start a chat as they’re browsing paints. WhatsApp makes it easy for them to send pictures or videos of their homes and start a video chat with a customer agent. This makes the conversation simple and fast.

Images and videos are a great way to inspire and engage shoppers.

According to Erik Reintjes, it’s also more convenient than e-mail or phone: “For any successful e-commerce business you can’t only offer e-mail or phone, you have to be available on all channels. If you have a product that requires consultations, the next logical step is to offer WhatsApp as a communication channel.” That’s what made their move from an offline to an online business so successful, say Reintjes.

This shows in their 90% conversion rate. A chat that starts on WhatsApp typically ends in a sale.

How does MissPompadour manage 500 WhatsApp Business chats per day?

Given their high conversion rate, it’s important for MissPompadour to guide as many customers as possible towards their most successful sales channel. The key to steering users towards the WhatsApp channel is to communicate it everywhere, says Reintjes. His tips for getting more users to talk to you on WhatsApp are:

• integrate WhatsApp at every touchpoint, and always include the call to action “write us on WhatsApp”
• every other sentence in marketing should be “get in touch with us via WhatsApp and ask us anything”
• communicate your WhatsApp service on every flyer and booklet, that’s what we do

Reading tip: How to grow your WhatsApp user base

With their effort, MissPompadour now handles around 500 WhatsApp Business chats per day. In an unusual move, the e-commerce business decided not to use chatbots for their service. “Chatbots are important, and can be very helpful. For our business, however, the personal touch is crucial”, says Erik Reintjes.

Currently, eleven agents handle the customer queries from Monday through Saturday. It’s a lot of effort, but still ends up being cheaper than a call center solution. What comes in really handy is the messaging solution from MessengerPeople by Sinch that allows the team to handle all customer queries on one platform.

Is it worth for MissPompadour to put this much effort into WhatsApp

Clearly, a personal WhatsApp consultation requires resources. You need agents that have the time to talk to customers, and answer all of their questions. Is it worth it? For MissPompadour, the clear answer is: absolutely!

Our business wouldn’t work without WhatsApp!

Erik Reintjes

Especially if your product requires a lot of support, it’s definitely worth it to move your digital customer service to the very personal and direct WhatsApp chats. Erij Reintjes thinks that it also sets them apart from their competitors: “If you want to grow your e-commerce business, there’s no way around WhatsApp.” In fact, MissPompadour is looking at expanding their WhatsApp service.

MissPompadour uses the Messenger Communication Platform by MessengerPeople by Sinch

When MissPompadour decided to switch their WhatsApp Business communication to the WhatsApp Business Platform, they chose the messaging solution from MessengerPeople by Sinch.

It doesn’t only get them access to the WhatsApp API, it also…

• ‍ … ensures 100% data protection. 
• … lets you easily start campaigns to send messaging newsletters and marketing notifications to your subscribers. 
• … allows you to get stared within a few days and without IT effort, even from a work-from-home setup! 
• … lets you edit and reply to all messages centrally, regardless what channel they’re coming from. 
• … helps you assign customer inquiries as conversation tickets to your co-workers manually or automatically through auto-routing. 
• … enables you to easily set up automation with the drag-and-drop chatbot builder with AI capabilities, which is free of charge. 
• … use WhatsApp and other messaging channels effectively, at fair price, and without a set-up fee for maximum personal digital consulting! 

More articles about WhatsApp for businesses

Green tick for your WhatsApp Business account? This is how it works!

The post How MissPompadour manages 500 WhatsApp Business messages per day appeared first on MessengerPeople by Sinch.

Women’s Best focuses on sports clothing and supplements for women. The global brand reaches 1.3 billion people a year, in 150 countries, in several languages, and receives hundreds of incoming messages every day.

Processing them as soon as possible and offering good quality service at the same time is therefore no easy task. The challenge is not only to respond to the customer’s initial inquiry with a fast and high-quality answer, but also to provide helpful, relevant information and engage in active dialogue with the customer.

How do they manage that? We sat down with David Kurzmann, Women’s Best CEO and co-founder to find out how WhatsApp Business has helped them reduce the workload for employees and make customers happier.

Why WhatsApp Business Platform was the best solution for Women’s Best

As a global brand with many digital communication channels, the Austrian company Women’s Best was growing fast and needed a new way to process their customer inquiries. Web chat and e-mail didn’t meet the customers’ expectations, so the company knew they wanted to switch to a more modern communication channel that their customers loved: WhatsApp.

In order to offer quick and direct support, relieve their agents, and meet their high standard, Women’s Best implemented the WhatsApp Business Platform into their customer service. Together with MessengerPeople by Sinch, they set up an all-in-one messaging solution, says David Kurzmann.

The platform that MessengerPeople by Sinch offers is a perfect tool for this, and allowed us to dramatically simplify our processes.

David Kurzmann, Women’s Best

The Women’s Best support team and marketing team worked together with MessengerPeople to implement the messaging app as a communication channel within four weeks. “We particularly value our collaboration with MessengerPeople by Sinch because of their quick and flexible product development cycle”, says David Kurzmann.

How Women’s Best uses WhatsApp for their customer service

Women’s Best uses the Messenger Communication Platform for two main use cases: customer service and notifications.

As the Messenger Communication Platform streamlines all your messaging channels into one central interface, Women’s Best is now able to handle all of their messenger chats on one platform, including WhatsApp.

The centralized system allows the service team to:

• Answer all incoming customer inquiries personally.
• Offer customized pre-sales and post-sales.
• Support the customers during their purchase.

The WhatsApp service is available in multiple languages, and on the “contact us” page on Women’s Best website. As the majority of customers came to Women’s Best website on mobile devices, it made sense for the company to include the messaging app into their support channel mix.

In addition, customers can also choose to receive automated notifications, such as order confirmations or shipping information directly on WhatsApp.

The results: Women’s Best increases customer satisfaction

For Women’s Best, introducing a professional messaging solution to their customer care was successful on multiple levels.

First, they were able to speed up their customer service. With the messaging solution, they achieved a 50% faster processing time for each customer inquiriy. A single agent is now able to resolve 40 WhatsApp conversations in an hour.

At the same time, Women’s Best managed to reduce the number of e-mails by 70%, says David Kurzmann.

And: customers are happier, too! Customers especially appreciate the faster response times and how simple it has become to contact the company via messaging apps. This, understandably, has a positive effect on purchasing behavior. Women’s Best is already seeing direct sales results from their customer-centric service approach.

Getting started with a professional WhatsApp solution

A professional messaging solution like the Messenger Communication Platform from MessengerPeople by Sinch can simplify your customer communiation and grow your business.

It…

• … guarantees 100% data protection for your customer communication
• … allows you to get started right away (no coding skills needed) — even from your home office
• … lets you manage all of your messages centrally on one platform, regardless of what messaging channel they’re coming from
• … lets you route conversations manually or via auto-routing to a specific agent
• … allows you to integrate chatbots easily
• … gives you access to WhatsApp and other messaging channels at a fair price, with no set-up fees and full digital support

More articles about WhatsApp for businesses

Green tick for your WhatsApp Business account? This is how it works!

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