Do you use Facebook Messenger for your business? ?
If you do (or if you’ve been considering it), there are some serious changes coming to the platform next week!
Currently, when using Messenger for your business, a ’24 + 1′ rule applies. Come 15 January 2020, the + 1 opportunity will be removed.
What does this mean? ?
At the moment, your business could message users multiple times within 24 hours, PLUS outside of 24 hours, you could send ONE MORE message to that person, to try and re-engage them.
If they responded, hooray ? , the 24 hours started again.
HOWEVER, from 15 January, if the user hasn’t responded to your message/s, you won’t be able to send them a promotional message, for instance, to check if they would like to go ahead with a quoted service.
Messenger will limit your messages outside the 24 hour period to those that are NON-PROMOTIONAL and have one of the following tags applied:
confirmed event update
post-purchase update
account update
human agent (not currently available through ManyChat).
In some cases, these message tags are applicable, but you’ll need to be careful that they are used appropriately. I.e. Here’s a reminder for your webinar that starts at 10am tomorrow. NO DEALS, OFFERS, DISCOUNTS ETC.!
To re-engage your audience through Messenger outside of the 24 hour engagement period, SPONSORED messages to your audience are an available option.
If you’re using a platform like ManyChat, messages outside of these rules won’t be sent, which is a brilliant lifeline. If not, you’ll want to be sure that you’ve updated any messenger flows, or that you’re resisting the temptation to message customers outside these parameters.
To make these new rules work for you; you’ll need to consider the wording of your initial messages to encourage your audience to continue to engage with you until you get the desired result. ?
Through Messenger (within 24 hours), get permission to email and SMS your messenger audience, so you’re building lists on platforms you have more control over too!
This is just a simple overview; if you’re stuck with how you’re going to implement this in your business, let me know!