Facebook Messenger's New Tools Are Game-Changing for MarketersWith the release of Customer Chat, brands can take advantage of their websites and acquire new customers for free.

ByJonathan Shriftman

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Major moves in the social space are being made this week; Twitter upped its character limit to280for all users and Tencent bought12 percent more of Snap. But, the most interesting move was actually byFacebook, and it spans far beyond social.

On November 7, Facebook announced Customer Chat, a new Messenger plugin that lets businesses have conversations with customers on their own website. This move not only further strengthens Messenger as the top partner for brands to expand and serve their customer base through conversation, it also places Facebook head-to-head against B2B Silicon Valley darlings like Intercom, Drift and Salesforce.

What sets Messenger apart is its pivot from offering a no-frills chat functionality in 2008 into an end-to-end communications platform while acquiring 1.2 billion users along the way. As chatbots continue to become more elegant, personalization is quickly becoming the next main pillar ofmarketing. This is the perfect time for Facebook to transform Messenger into an immensely lucrative platform for businesses the same way it capitalized on the news feed to become the global leader in the digital advertising industry.

Related:How to Create a Facebook Messenger Chatbot For Free Without Coding

This is only the beginning of what will be a complete overhaul of the way marketers approach their digital strategies. The adoption of what is now both website and mobile integration for Messenger paves the way for Facebook to provide a platform that measures engagement and leads with pinpoint precision -- similar to the current Facebook Ads platform that analyses every digital aspect ofadcampaigns to maximize effectiveness. Salesforce and competitors should be wary; when it comes to adopting trends for the convenience and support of brands, Facebook leaves no stone unturned.

数据备份的过渡。雅高集团ding to areport为什么Twilio, 90%的人说他们更喜欢messaging directly with a brand. However, for many brands building an audience through paid and earned media is an uphill battle. With the release of Customer Chat, brands can take advantage of their websites and acquire new customers for free.

雅高集团ding to theHarvard Business Review, thesingle most important factor in customer loyalty is reduction of customer effort. Having an evergreen, automatic chat solution on-site can significantly ease this process. For example, after launching Facebook Messenger for customer care last year,Sprint saw an increase of 31 percent in private messagesin only three months time. Simply by being where customers are can increase NPS. The days of collecting email addresses are becoming obsolete; customers prefer to communicate instantly and receive real-time updates and notifications instead of filling out lead-gen forms and be left unclear when they will get a reply.

Related:5 Ways Facebook Messenger Bots Can Help Your Business

Most importantly, with Customer Chat, brands can use the Messenger channel as a way to truly personalize marketing, going beyond just a new customer acquisition channel or customer support channel. When a person chats with abrandon Messenger, the brand immediately gets relevant information like their name, photo and location. If the brand builds an intelligent messaging experience from that first Customer Chat (meaning asking questions to better understand users), the brand can re-market to individuals at a future time.

Using AI or a conversational marketing automation engine to segment and engage customers eliminates future one-to-many blasts and tailors conversation. When brands incorporate automated personalization in chat,engagementcan reach rates up to 80 percent WoW.

Platforms like iMessage are perfect for launching social messaging applications (will be exciting to see Apple enter the B2B battle with Business Chat in 2018. and Slack is uniquely situated for at-work messaging. But, as the Chat Wars continue, this strategic move from Facebook Messenger continues to position them as a leader in every front.

Related:10 Facebook Messenger Chatbot Marketing Expert Tips

Wavy Line
Jonathan Shriftman

Director of Business Development at Snaps

Jonathan Shriftman is the director of BD at Snaps, a conversational marketing platform that powers AI chatbots, voice skills and social messaging experiences. Prior to Snaps, Shriftman founded Humin, an A.I address book and messaging app acquired by Tinder in 2016.

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