As a small business owner, it can be hard to invest in other marketing or advertising campaigns due to the cost. Thankfully, social media has made it easier to access advertising online.
One of the ways that you can connect and market yourself is through Facebook. However, not a lot of businesses try and make use of Facebook Messenger as a means to connect with their target market.
If you are a small business owner looking to upgrade your Facebook Messenger prowess, then read on. Below you will be able to find the different ways on how you can make use of Facebook Messenger.
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Why Facebook Messenger for Business?
Facebook Messenger is increasingly becoming an excellent platform for business owners to communicate with their consumers as the days go by. People are flocking on this messaging app, so it is essential that a business invests in this Facebook feature.
How to set up Facebook Messenger for Business?
There are four things that you have to do before you can connect your Facebook Page to your Facebook Messenger. You first begin by choosing your username. This is, of course, if you still don’t have one.
Your username should appear below your Page’s name. It is a good way of letting people search for you on Facebook and Facebook Messenger. The next move for you is to connect your Messenger to your Facebook Page.
To do this, all you have to do is go to the Settings of your Facebook Page and look for Messaging. Then, in the General Tab, go to Messages, click Edit, choose the Allow people to contact my Page privately by showing the Message button, then you save the changes. After all of this, you should have a Messenger button appear right on your page for your followers.
Now that you’ve got Messenger enabled on your Page, you can do more advanced stuff with it like setting up instant replies and a preliminary greeting for those who message you. These are for the followers who send a message to you for the first time.
There are lots of things you can do with an instant reply. However, you must set it up first. To do this, go to your Page’s settings again. Go to the Messaging tab and under the Sections heading go to the Response Assistant. Flip the switch on the Send Instant Replies to anyone who messages your Page.
After you have turned Instant Replies on, you can then craft your greeting or message by typing it into the entry box. You can even personalize this by clicking on the Add Personalization button. Once you’re finished, click Save.
To improve or better manage the time it takes for you to respond, merely go to the Response Assistant again and flip yes on the switch that says Stay responsive when you can’t get to your computer or phone.
Edit your greeting again on the Message tab so that a message shows when you aren’t present to talk to them. On the Schedule tab, indicate the times when you are unavailable for contact, so Messenger knows when to send the message out.
With this setting in place, your responsiveness rate should improve, and followers who visit your page will be encouraged to contact you through Messenger.
7 Facebook Messenger business tips and strategies
Once you have your Facebook Messenger connected to your Facebook Page and you’ve got your Facebook Messenger instant replies ready, you can now improve your business strategies on Facebook Messenger.
Here are seven tips that you can use to improve your Facebook Messenger game today:
1. Use Messenger Codes
Messenger Codes are scannable graphics on your Messenger profile that makes it easier for people to message you should they not be following you on Messenger. All they have to do is–you guessed it!–scan the graphic.
This is a convenient way of getting to Message businesses or people who are not necessarily connected to or following you via Messenger.
2. Use Messenger links
Messenger links are links that lead to your Messenger. Simple as that. To get your Messenger link, simply tap your profile picture on the Messenger app. Again, tap on your username, after which you press on the Copy Link option to get your Messenger link.
You can use your Messenger link on various external platforms. You can put it on your blog, send it via email on your signature, your portfolio, and so much more. Messenger links are very underutilized, and it shouldn’t be given its usefulness.
3. Use the Send Message button on local awareness ads
Back in 2014, Facebook launched a little something called local awareness ads. Local awareness ads, now known as Reach ads, are ads that help drive local traffic and awareness of your small business.
When you make an ad campaign focusing on Reach on Facebook, utilize your Facebook Messenger. This makes it easier to get traffic to your business because you will be talking to locals who can reach your business better.
4. Provide customer care
The most significant way that Facebook Messenger can help you in your business is by allowing you to communicate with your customers right when they are experiencing issues with your business. On that note, take advantage of it.
Use Messenger as your primary means of customer care for an easier time communicating with your clientele.
5. Provide services via chatbots
A lot of small businesses may not have the time to invest in automation. However, Facebook Messenger makes it easier for businesses to do just that using chatbots.
Chatbots on Facebook Messenger are capable of automating a lot of things for you that you did not know they were capable of. They can give your customers a few recommendations; they can address frequent customer concerns on the dot; they can also mass advertise quickly for any sales or promotions.
Taking the time to learn how to set up chatbots for your business’s Facebook Messenger properly will save you a lot of time moving forward. It will also give you a higher response time rating in the long run!
6. Sell directly within Messenger
There is now a program that helps you sell products directly on Messenger. Before you do that, though, check if you are qualified to do so. If you are, then you are capable of showing the price and the option to buy the item to the person you send a message to.
When you do, it usually shows a photo of the item, the price, and a Buy Now button to prompt the recipient. This is a useful feature that allows you to showcase your product and give the option of purchase right on Messenger.
7. Share your location
Small business owners’ times are spent a lot on managing the business so it can be frustrating having to coordinate locations between client meetups or even other business partners. To circumvent this issue, you can share location via Messenger.
You can either share where you are at the moment or share the designated meeting place for the convenience of others as well as for your convenience.
Small businesses have a lot to keep up with in their continuously growing industries. Aside from competing against big conglomerates, they also have to compete for the attention of clients.
This is why Facebook Messenger can be an essential tool for any small business owner. It is a personal way of directly engaging with potential customers and does not cost too much to set up and maintain.
With Facebook Messenger, your business will surely thrive and build relationships better with customers while producing business results relevant to you.
- How Small Businesses Can Make Use of Facebook Messenger? - April 4, 2019