The Pew Research Center suggests that, amongst adults under 50, chat is the preferred way to communicate. Facebook Messenger has 1.3 billion users, and that figure is growing – it beats out every other social media platform for active use. If you can’t reach your customers on this particular app, they may be doomsday preppers living off the grid.
As it stands, Facebook Messenger users exchange approximately 2 billion messages with businesses monthly. That’s an eye-boggling statistic for companies. And all the back and forth bears fruit. New York Times bestselling author Neil Patel mentions that colleagues who used a Facebook Messenger bot marketing campaign garnered an 88% open rate and a 56% click-through rate (CTR).
These are impressive numbers that indicate success rates far more significant than email marketing. People are 3.5 times more likely to open a Facebook Message than a marketing email.
In May 2018, marketers deployed a collective 300 000 bots through Facebook Messenger for conversational commerce, triple the amount from the year before. That’s many businesses, sure. But given the steady growth, it’s a fraction of what will likely be commonplace in a few years. According to an Oracle survey, 80% of businesses would like to be wielding chatbots by 2020. Savvy marketers (that’s you!) would do well to harness this potential and capitalise on a first-mover advantage.