How Businesses Can Re-Engage Customers Using Recurring Notifications On Messenger

Before Meta introduced Recurring Notifications on Messenger businesses could only send promotional messages within a 24 hour period of the individuals last interaction. The only
way to send promotional messages beyond the 24-hour window was to pay for it, using
Facebook Sponsored messages.

Businesses can still use sponsored messages to re-engage with people who interacted with
them via their messaging channels, however, Recurring Notifications allow them to do it for
free.

Recurring Notifications are expected to switch from a free to a paid option for businesses in
the long term. When you consider that more people use social messaging apps than social
media apps on a daily basis, it’s no surprise that Meta are exploring different ways to
monetize its messaging platforms. These updates to messaging encourage practical use
cases and provide important functionality that will help many businesses acquire, nurture,
engage and retain customers on its messaging platforms, it’s a pricing model that could
work very well for them and businesses in the future.

Greater Notification Controls

To stop this feature being misused Meta has provided greater controls, to send Recurring
Notifications, you must receive prior permission from the individual to send them a
Notification by having them opt-in. Also, they have the opportunity to opt out at any time.

Recurring Notifications are currently only available on Messenger but Meta have announced that the feature will be available on Instagram DMs soon.

The Recurring Notification is broken down into 3 communication windows:

Daily

One message per calendar day can be sent. This is active for 6 months, all customers who
opted-in will automatically receive a message to re-opt-in after 6 months.

Weekly

One message per calendar week can be sent. This is active for 9 months, all customers who
opted-in will automatically receive a message to re-opt-in after 9 months.

Monthly

One message per calendar month can be sent. This is active for 12 months, all customers
who opted-in will automatically receive a message to re-opt-in after 12 months.

Meta also provides One-Time Notifications, which allows you to send one message to your customers after 24 hours.

The Way People Connect Online Is Changing

The way people connect on the internet is changing including how we interact with
businesses. More than one billion users connect with a business on Messenger, Instagram &
WhatsApp every week! At a recent marketing event, Mark Zuckerberg said social messaging
has become “the centre of our digital lives” and “people want the same ease of
communication with businesses too”.

Traditional communication channels have become less effective, email opens rates are decreasing year by year. Email provides some degree of tailored updates on topics, but its success is dropping fast due to privacy updates from both Apple and Google which make it hard for marketing newsletters to be seen and measured accurately. SMS campaigns can be very effective but it’s mostly used for one-way marketing broadcasts, unlike Messenger, SMS, doesn’t allow for two-way interactive conversations that result in meaningful connections at scale.

Overcoming iOS 14 With Messenger

With Messenger you can tailor customer experiences in real-time based on zero party data across every stage of your customer lifecycle. With Messenger you can build direct relationships with each individual in a persistent and private one-to-one messaging thread that is independent of the iOS 14 opt-in.

Messenger and other popular social messaging channels can deliver tailored brand experiences at the customer’s convenience in exchange for data that helps enrich segmentation and remarketing. You can identify 100% of customers with their public FB profile and unique identifiers (e.g. email, phone, etc) to map their actions in your CRM. To acquire customers and build relationships, advertisers must find new ways to collect relevant signals in order to provide tailored experiences and drive high-value traffic.

Business Use Cases & Examples

People like to receive tailored, meaningful and timely messages from the brands they want to engage with, Messaging channels can help facilitate this exchange in an interactive two-way manner. Now with the introduction of Recurring Notifications these channels are even more desirable as the subscribers built on these channels can now be segmented like never before and easily re-engaged with business related messages.

Below are a handful of ways businesses can use Recurring Notifications to attract, engage, nurture and retain customers.

Giveaways & Promotions

Recurring Notifications can be used to build hype around upcoming promotions as well as rewarding loyal customers with early access to new product launches, promos and events.

In the example below, Cello Cheese, a leading FMCG brand automatically send a message to individuals who comment on their Facebook promo/giveaway posts, the message sent thanks them for commenting and asks them if they’d like to be notified about future giveaways and promotions, it also prompts them to subscribe to their newsletter – all within Messenger.

Product Alerts

Customers can opt-in in to receive alerts when products are back in stock or new products are released. Several opt-in mechanisms can be used that trigger the opt-in conversational flow in Messenger including direct links in emails and SMS as well as socials ads, website pop-ups and even QR codes. In the example below, a QR code is placed on packaging prompting people to vote for a new flavor they’d like to see, following the vote it prompts them to subscribe to product updates.

Click-to-message ads can also make use of Recurring Notifications by including them as an option within the conversational experience.

Content Digests

Customers can subscribe to weekly or monthly content digests. It’s a great way to make certain that your customers don’t miss out on any important updates. In the example below, a QR code is scanned on the product packaging which triggers the Messenger chatbot and displays a message incentivising people to subscribe.

To reduce reliance on third-party data and enable 1:1 customer relationships, we are starting to see CPG brands launch conversational marketing strategies to gain new insights and engage consumers in new and innovative ways. Social messaging bots are a great way to achieve this, it’s also a popular marketing strategy with Amazon sellers who are wanting to build direct relationships with their customers.

Events

Event Recurring Notifications allow you to send one-to-one messages to attendees, for example, you could send daily messages to people who are attending a conference spread over several days. In the example below, a SMS message is sent to people who attended an event asking them to leave feedback via Messenger, following the feedback, it prompts them to subscribe to similar events. Concert arenas, comedy clubs, exhibitions, food festivals, etc can all use this strategy to promote events, it can help increase reviews and boost returning visitor numbers.

Reminders

Recurring Notifications on Messenger can be used to send reminders to those who have opted-in. In the example below, a health club, includes a web link in their welcome email to their Messenger bot. Their Messenger bot includes a virtual personal trainer that allows new members to setup workout reminders. The majority of health clubs and gyms lose 50% of their new members within the first six months, ongoing reminders on Messenger can improve membership retention rates by gently encouraging people to build a routine.

How To Send Recurring Notifications Via Messenger

To send Recurring Notifications you will first need to create a Messenger chatbot that includes a Recurring Notification opt-in flow, many fantastic platforms exist which allow you to create chatbots and manage your Recurring Notifications, many businesses prefer to partner with a chat marketing agency or expert consultant to help with the bot build, chat marketing strategy and ongoing management. Leading platforms include ChatFuel and Kustomer (acquired by Meta), however, the most popular bot building and social CRM platform is ManyChat.

Let’s break it down step-by-step on how we can create and send a Recurring Notification inside ManyChat.

Step 1

First you need to create a new flow, click “Automation” in the left-side menu and “+ New Flow” in the top right corner, name your flow something appropriate and relevant such as “Content Digest : Notifications”.

Click “Messenger” to list the different content types available for that channel.

In the list of options you will see the option to add a “Notification Request”, click this option.

Let’s break it down step-by-step on how we can create and send a Recurring Notification inside ManyChat.

Step 2

On topic field, click on “Create”. A new modal that allows you to create a new topic will appear. Add your topic name, select a frequency (this limits how frequently you can send notifications) and don’t forget to check “Automatically Re Opt-In request” to curtail unsubscribe rates.

Step 3

The next step is to update the Recurring Notification content block, add an image and headline that encourages people to opt-in. Make sure to include a follow-up message to people who have opted-in outlining what to expect.

Step 4

To send a message to people who have opted-in for these Recurring Notifications, click on “Broadcasts” in the left-side menu. Select the relevant notification topic, the one you just created will be listed.

Step 5

Create the Recurring Notification message you would like to send, try to make it conversational rather just a one-way broadcast, once you are happy with the conversational flow, click “Go Next” in the top right corner.

Step 6

The settings for the Recurring Notification broadcast will appear, ensure your contacts are opted-in for Messenger and the correct notification topic is selected. You can send the message to all the contacts who match your criteria instantly or schedule it for later, select your preferred options and click on “Send Now” in the top right corner to complete everything.

Success Story - Driving sales with Recurring Notifications

Leading women’s clothing store, ChicMe, wanted to transform how it reached and connected with its audience beyond traditional marketing channels such as email and SMS. Using Facebook Messenger Recurring Notifications, ChicMe sent promos and coupons to shoppers who opted-in to the notifications. The Recurring Notifications on Messenger resulted in a 13X increase in revenue per customer vs. email, making Facebook Messenger ChicMe’s highest performing marketing channel.

Summary

Recurring Notifications allow businesses to re-engage their Messenger customer base on their terms. Customers get to receive updates on topics they are interested in and businesses get to create meaningful connections at scale that help drive action.

The interactive nature of these messages and the powerful segmentation capabilities means that businesses can use them across the customer journey to deliver results faster by shortening the path to conversion. The vast majority of incoming messages are pre-purchase, so brands that use social messaging automation will have a marketing edge.

How Businesses Can Re-Engage Customers On Messenger Using Recurring Notifications

How Businesses Can Re-Engage Customers On Messenger Using Recurring Notifications