The way we buy online is changing.
Today’s consumers are no longer satisfied with being talked at. Instead, they want to talk with companies.
They prefer one-on-one conversations that are personalized to their unique needs (not one-to-many marketing message being blasted from a TV screen).
And they’d prefer to do it from the convenience of their smartphone, thank you very much.
More and more, people are finding you and learning about your product on their tablets and phones. And they’re buying from you…
…on their laptop or desktop.
Studies have found that 32% of people who show interest in a mobile ad end up converting on desktop. And 60% of consumers start shopping on one device and continue on another.
Hmm, I sense a disconnect.
Here’s the problem:
People today are using more devices to do their shopping, and they’re using those devices in different ways and for different things.
For example, mobile sessions tend to be more frequent but shorter in duration. This is why consumers today require more touchpoints, across more channels and devices, before a sale is made.
So, you, being a savvy marketer or business owner, are probably wondering:
What’s the best way to bridge that gap and turn more of these mobile prospects into paying customers?
I’m glad you asked. 
There’s a new marketing medium available, which you may have heard of, called Facebook Messenger Marketing… and it’s great for ecommerce!
(Molly Pittman wrote a great post about this topic. Click here to learn the basics of how to use Facebook Messenger in your business.)
The reason this is such an exciting new marketing medium is because Facebook Messenger allows you to communicate with prospects the way they WANT: one-on-one, on their phones, whenever is convenient for them.
It even allows people to converse with your business within the safety of Facebook — which means users will feel comfortable and in control of the entire process.
This makes Facebook Messenger a great way to help convert new prospects into paying customers!
And in this post, I’m going to teach you how you can sell more ecommerce with Facebook Messenger.
But first, I need to make sure you understand something called…
The Conversational Economy
According to a report on Business Insider, messaging apps surpassed social networks in monthly active users sometime in 2015.
This is a huge shift, guys. 
And now marketers are able to take advantage of the massive popularity of messaging apps by using chatbots.
Chatbots might sound complex and intimidating, but they’re really pretty simple:
A chatbot is just a computer or software program developed to simulate intelligent conversation through written or spoken text.
These are becoming easier and easier to create, thanks to — you guessed it — Facebook Messenger.
Make no mistake: In the coming months and years, these chatbots are going to be EVERYWHERE!
Bots are the future of the way we communicate, shop, travel, book things, and use other services online.
Instead of navigating a clunky website interface to book flights, we’ll be able to send a message to American Airlines and have them instantly book us a flight — all from within Facebook.
This trend of auto-conversing bots inside messaging apps is called the conversational economy.
And THIS is what we’re going to be using to help grow your ecommerce sales.
So, without further ado, here are three concrete tactics you can take to sell more physical products using Facebook Messenger:
Facebook Messenger for Ecommerce Tactic #1: Bottom of Funnel Retargeting with a Coupon
Quick: What’s the one part of your sales process with the most potential for increasing your revenue ASAP?
Give up?
It’s what we call the bottom of your funnel (BOFU).
(RELATED: Developing a Content Marketing Strategy)
Prospects in the bottom of your funnel are this close to buying your product.
This includes people who…
- Have already visited your site
- Checked out your product
- Added it to their cart
They’ve demonstrated an interest in what you have to offer, they just haven’t pulled the trigger… yet.
And because they’re interested or close to making a purchase, they deserve to be a high-priority target in your marketing.
So, how can you get more BOFU sales using Facebook Messenger Marketing?
By retargeting people who abandoned their shopping cart and giving them some incentive to complete their purchase (in the form of a coupon code).
(RELATED: How to Use Facebook Advertising Pixels to Create High Converting Ad Campaigns)
Just follow these three steps to get started.
Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of this campaign. This is the exact same process we used to improve our CPA by 30%, from $8-$11 per shopping cart visit to $6.35…
This shows the cost per website purchase…
And as you can see, before the campaign, people adding to their cart was costing us $9.90…
But after the campaign…
Alright, let’s show you how we did it!
Get More BOFU Sales Using Facebook Messenger Step 1: Set Up Your Facebook Campaign
First, within Facebook, create a new ad campaign and set your objective to “Traffic”:
In your Ad Set, edit the placements to exclude everything except Facebook Feeds:
Next, make sure your traffic destination is “Website or Messenger”:
Your targeting should include people who have visited your website, and exclude anyone who made a purchase:
Finally, you want to optimize your ad delivery for link clicks (not conversions):
At this point, your new Campaign and Ad Set should be configured correctly. It’s time to create your ad.
You can choose any type of ad (in this example I’m using an image ad). Just make sure to select “Messenger Text” under “Destination,” like this:
In the text box, you want to write a message explaining to users that they can get a coupon by replying to your message with the word “coupon.”
Here’s what my finished ad looks like:
And when the user clicks the “Send Message” button, they receive my pre-written message:
If you’re following along, congratulations! You’re already halfway there.
Next, we’re going to set up your automated chatbot to reply with your coupon code.
Get More BOFU Sales Using Facebook Messenger Step 2: Set Up Your Chatbot
Now, you’ll need to log into your ManyChat account and click on “Automation” on the left.
Next, add “coupon” as a new keyword:
And make sure you change the targeting to “Message contains” your keyword, like this:
Oh, and here’s one tip from personal experience: Add in common misspellings, just in case your users have a typo.
Finally, write your automated message and make sure to include your coupon code and a link to your shop:
At this point your automation is complete!
When the user types the word “coupon” in response to my automatic Facebook message, the chatbot automatically responds with their coupon code:
Can you see just how powerful this is?
Anyone who abandons their shopping cart on your site will automatically be entered into this campaign and be sent a coupon code with a link back to your product, which will be more than enough incentive to convince many cart abandoners to complete their purchase.
And as you can see here, these automated Facebook Messenger campaigns are still scoring sky-high open and click-through rates:
At this point, you should already have a high-ROI Facebook Messenger remarketing campaign.
You can leave this as-is and watch it make money for you, or you can take one last step to improve your results even more…
Get More BOFU Sales Using Facebook Messenger Step 3: Adjust the Timeline to Maximize Revenue (Optional)
This is when some business people ask me:
Won’t some people buy the product anyway, even without a coupon? Won’t I be missing out on revenue by offering a coupon so quickly?
I have found that this doesn’t make much of a difference in my business. But that may or may not be the case for you.
And if you’re worried about losing revenue from offering the discount too quickly, there’s an easy fix: Just adjust the timeline to target people who abandoned their cart more than three days ago.
Again, you don’t HAVE to make this change. In fact, it might be a good idea to test both versions to see what brings you the best overall results.
OK, so we just talked about optimizing the bottom of your funnel.
Now, let’s look at the opposite end of your sales funnel, the beginning…
Facebook Messenger for Ecommerce Tactic #2: Automated Onboarding Messages
In this tactic, we’ll focus on how you can use a Facebook Messenger chatbot to increase engagement with brand-new visitors.
When someone sends your business a Facebook message, they’re probably looking for a real response from a human being. But sometimes you can’t give a real human response right away (maybe all your customer service reps are busy, maybe it’s 2 A.M., etc.).
In this case, I like to use an automated welcoming message to help answer some of the most commonly asked questions. You can use this initial onboarding message to do several things: 
- Answer FAQs
- Help people find what they’re looking for
- Provide valuable information
- Get people engaged with your brand
Here’s a good example of an automated chatbot message:
It’s a good idea to let your prospects know you received their message and that someone will get back to them shortly. But in the meantime, you can provide them a few helpful links.
(RELATED: Social Listening: How to Create Feedback Loops Between Your Company and Your Community)
I also like to set up a menu of options (these could be FAQs or even just a list of important links like the ones on your site menu bar).
To set this up inside ManyChat, just click on “Automation” and “Main Menu”:
Eventually, you’ll be able to see statistics on which of your buttons are getting the most clicks:
You can use this information to help make your options even more useful by identifying what your visitors are looking for and creating more of it.
In our case, a lot of people want to watch Cindy’s makeup video. So, we’re using this data as a sign that we should create more videos.
(RELATED: The Ultimate Guide to Facebook Video Ads)
Finally, there are some really cool integrations headed to Facebook Messenger that will help you sell more ecommerce with Facebook Messenger…
Facebook Messenger for Ecommerce Tactic #3: Shopping Platform Integrations
The most basic shopping platform integration is using Facebook Messenger to send order confirmations. This is already available on some platforms, like Shopify, and more are on the way.
With these integrations, you can send your customers a message that says, “Thanks for your purchase! Here’s are your order and tracking information.” Here’s an example of what this looks like:
The cool thing about this type of order confirmation is that it’s more likely to trigger a response from your customers, keeping them more engaged with your brand!
And the coolest part is yet to come.
Currently, you can actually send money through Facebook Messenger through peer-to-peer payments.
And Facebook is working on getting users to store their credit card information for quick and easy payments. When that happens, you’ll be able to sell your products through integrated social commerce!
In other words, you’ll be able to run an ad in someone’s newsfeed… and with one click, they’ll be able to make a purchase right from within Facebook.
So, definitely keep your eyes peeled for that in the future, because when that happens, we’re going to be able to do some really cool stuff with Facebook Messenger ads.
(RELATED: Facebook’s Comment-to-Messenger Feature: Everything You Need to Know)
The last thing I want to leave you guys with is this:
Be an Early Adopter
This is one of those times when it really pays to be an early adopter!
Right now, very few of your competitors are using Facebook Messenger ads. (And I bet none of them are using the advanced tactics we covered in this article.)
But it won’t be long before everyone is using chatbots on Messenger. And the more saturated this new channel gets, the lower your response rate will drop.
So far, we’re still seeing fantastic open and click-through rates, but we don’t expect that to last forever. These metrics will decline slightly year-over-year as people get more of these messages, just like they did for email.
So, don’t delay, guys. Start putting these tips into practice in your business today!
