Messaging apps are becoming all the rage nowadays – as a matter of fact, it’s almost impossible to find someone who’s constantly plugged into social media platforms yet isn’t intimately familiar with messaging apps. Precisely because they’ve become so popular recently, marketing gurus around the world are beginning to explore messaging apps as a mechanism for distributing their message to a target audience with greater efficacy than ever before.
Are messaging apps really as promising as some claim they are? Here’s why messaging apps are becoming central to marketing endeavors, and how you can use them to boost your business.
The privacy pivot is coming
The primary reason that social media platforms are embracing messaging apps right now is that we’re in the midst of a privacy pivot. Major platforms like Facebook and Twitter have been inundated with accusations that they’re failing to protect the individual privacy and data security on their users, and most of these allegations are very well-founded. In an effort to dispel these criticisms while continuing to dominate their industry, major social media platforms like Facebook are pivoting to privacy – not because they care about users, but because they understand it must be done to remain profitable.
Enter the messaging app, which is the future of social media. Rather than broadcasting everything to the public so that anyone can read it, future social media arrangements will be much more intimate, with a focus on direct communications between two people or members of a small group rather than a focus on one-to-all conversations where everybody is involved whether they want to be or not. Marketers, such as those hosting an event at The Venue at Friendship Springs, are beginning to realize that these direct communication channels are brimming with advertising opportunities ripe for exploitation, which is where your business can benefit from this ongoing trend.
The primary way that your business can enjoy a boost from messaging apps is by tapping into a massive new audience; WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, Kik, and other instant messaging services already have millions of users around the world. By advertising on these channels, you’ll thus be broadcasting your message to a huge audience of potential consumers who may otherwise be ignorant of your brand’s existence. If you check out some excellent examples of brands that are already leveraging instant messaging services for marketing purposes, you’ll see how big a boon this can be.
Brands are getting personal
The shoe brand Clarks is a great example of how certain companies are using instant messaging to get personal; by reaching out directly to users, you’re making a more personalized appeal than you would be if you were relying on a billboard or generic banner ad which could be seen by any passerby or digital browser. Instant messaging, as amocm knows, reaches out and forms an immediate bond between you and your message’s recipient, which can render the entire marketing operation much more liable towards success from the very get-go.
Furthermore, the opportunities to gain riveting consumer insights are untold; one of the finest benefits of using instant messaging marketing is that customers often respond, detailing the ways that your marketing effort is failing and succeeding so that you can incorporate that feedback into future endeavors. Sometimes, the feedback you gain is valuable customer data; if a customer is a frequent respondent to your messages, for instance, they could be an ideal candidate for your rewards program, or indicative of what your target audience’s primary demographic is.
In order to know how to use messaging apps to boost your business, it’s advised that you familiarize yourself with the good, the bad, and the ugly apps that so many millions of users are already making use of on a daily basis. Choosing popular messaging channels can help you disseminate a message, but niche channels may be perfect to reach your peculiar but lucrative target audience in a niche industry. As always, remember to put the recipient first in your instant messaging marketing strategy, as users who feel as if they’re being preyed upon will seldom respond to your initiative positively. Over time, however, you’ll soon discover that instant messaging marketing is continuing to take off because peer-to-peer direct messaging is the true future of social media.