Brands must choose the right growth marketing strategy when they are getting started with Facebook Messenger Marketing.

A question we get a lot is how a Messenger marketing strategy fits into the picture when email modals are already involved.

The goal is to avoid creating a conflicting, confusing experience for your customers. Messenger opt-in growth plugins and email capture modals appear and behave similarly.  The last thing you want is getting poor performance from both channels by using them in tandem poorly.

When considering the right Messenger Marketing strategy, there are three to keep in mind:

  1. The customer journey comprises of multiple touch points.
  2. Customers don’t want to be annoyed while browsing.
  3. You want to maximize your Messenger opt-ins.

Understanding The Steps of Your Customer’s Journey

To choose the right messenger marketing strategy to grow your brand, you need to take a look at the various points in your customer’s journey with your brand. Some common events include:

  • Discovering your brand
  • Landing on your website
  • Browsing your site
  • Adding an item to their cart
  • Completing their purchase
  • Becoming a happy customer.
A diagram outlining the steps along that a store owner can offer a promotion: upon arrival, after demonstrating purchase or exit intent, or post-purchase for next time. A merchant can also use a persistent promotion pill that displays during the entire session.

ShopMessage’s team has identified the most common scenarios that a merchant would want to offer their visitors a promotion. The best part is a merchant can use more than one!

If you understand the scope of possible customer engagement points, you can identify where your existing email capture strategies fit into the larger puzzle.

You’ll be able to spot the gaps where you are not engaging with your customers. These are the opportunities where you’ll want to deploy your Messenger growth plugins.

What to Consider When Choosing a Messenger Marketing Strategy

First, you’ll need to determine whether there are any existing modals on your site that you need to take into account.

What to Do If You Have No Email Modals

If you don’t have an existing email capture modal, then this choice is easy. Display your promotional plugin upon arrival with a slight delay.

We also recommend using the exit intent and post-purchase promo strategies for good measure.

A diagram of how ShopMessage's recommended growth tool strategy if your store has no email modals. Use the welcome, the purchase intent, and the exit intent promos. Vary the text and possibly even your discount offer between promotions.

In general, you want to maximize your opportunities to capture opt-ins by using multiple strategies that hit the visitor at various steps in their customer journey.

What to Do If You Already Use Email Modals

If you already have email capture modals, they will likely display upon arrival and/or when exit intent is displayed.

You should decide if you want to replace any of your existing email modals with one of ShopMessage’s Messenger growth plugins. No one would blame you—Messenger engagement rates are the stuff of legends!

The alternative is to find a new step in the journey to prompt your visitors.

A diagram of where brands that use email capture modals tend to display them: upon arrival, and when exit intent is displayed.

Along the customer journey, a majority of brands that are using email capture modals have them deploy upon arrival, or when the visitor has displayed exit intent.

Choose the Persistent Offer strategy if you want your growth plugin to coexist with an email modal.

This subtle pill keeps your opt-in promotion visible, without competing with the arrival or exit-intent modals for attention.

The Post-Purchase Promotion is unique because it displays to visitors that have already converted into paying customers.

Use this time to celebrate your customers and encourage them to turn into repeat buyers.

A diagram that shows email capture modals being deployed upon visitor arrival and upon the exhibition of exit intent. A ShopMessage overlay is recommended at the post-purchase stage while also recommending a persistent promotion display in tandem with the email capture modals.

You can balance your email and messenger plugin displays by targeting your visitors at different sections of their customer journey.

Grow With Messenger

Use Multiple Strategies To Grow Your Messenger Marketing Contact List

Every customer is unique, and every store experience is unique, which is why we’ve put together multiple Growth Plugin strategies to make sure there’s a tool in there for every situation.

Each messenger marketing strategy determines a set of rules governing the behavior of your Growth Plugin and will pre-populate a certain set of messaging into your preset that is appropriate for the timing of your promotion.

Across all of our strategies, you will have the ability to customize every aspect of your Growth Plugin, including:

  • overlay type e.g. modals, flyouts, and full-page takeovers
  • background image
  • messaging
  • typography
  • colors e.g. buttons, text
  • discount
  • your own logo

The Arrival Promo

Maximize your impressions by presenting all eligible visitors an offer moments upon arriving at your store. You can set this to display immediately upon arrival.

An arrival greeting is a great way to guide your visitors’ first impressions of your site. We recommend adding a few seconds of delay, so your promotion benefits from the added surprise/delight of popping-up.

A turquoise and grey Facebook Messenger opt-in capture modal on a minimalist website mockup. The modal says "Welcome!"

A promotion that displays immediately, or very shortly after, a visitor arrives on your site.

The Purchase-Intent Promo

Use this strategy to strike a balance between your customer’s ability to browse the site and maximizing your opt-in rate. Purchase-Intent is defined as viewing the page for X-seconds, scrolling down Y% of the page, or adding an item to their cart. You can customize the timing and page scroll percentage delays based on your typical customer’s behavior.

A pink Facebook Messenger opt-in capture modal on a minimalist website mockup. The modal says "Unlocked!"

A promotion that displays when a visitor exhibits purchase intent. This can be defined by time spent on a page, the percentage of the page scrolled, or adding an item to their cart.

The Exit-Intent Promo

Wait to display your promotion until your customer appears to be navigating away from your store. Catching them on their way out could mean the difference between an abandoned cart and closing the sale.

A yellow and grey Facebook Messenger opt-in capture modal on a minimalist website mockup. The modal says "Wait!"

A promotion that displays when a visitor appears to be navigating away from your site.

The Persistent Promo

This is a subtle, yet visible way to build your Contact list that doesn’t take up a lot of space. This hybrid promotion will render as a pill in the bottom corner of your page until your customer engages with it, or an Intent rule is triggered. When this happens, the pill will expand into a modal, a flyout, or a full page takeover depending on what design you chose.

A blue Facebook Messenger opt-in pill on a minimalist website mockup. The pill says "Unlock 10% Off"

A subtle, yet persistently accessible pill in the bottom corner of your site that visitors can engage with at will. A great way for your growth plugin to co-exist with an email capture modal that may already be in place.

The Post-Purchase Promo

This strategy is different because it targets the customer after they have completed their purchase. Use this to ensure opt-in collection by celebrating your customer with an offer they can save for their next visit.

Promoting at this stage lays the foundation for building a repeat customer while they are still feeling the joy of their purchase. Strike while the iron’s hot!

A blue and grey Facebook Messenger opt-in capture modal on a minimalist website mockup. The modal says "Thanks!"

A promotion that displays after a visitor has completed a purchase. A great way to celebrate your customers and re-engage them for repeat purchasing.

Bottom Line

The customer journey is complex. There are many steps where a visitor can decide they love you or don’t care. You can engage visitors to your site with a well-timed modal overlay to build a connection with your brand’s customer.

Already using email modals? No problem. ShopMessage is designed with Smart Logic to work around existing modals and maintain a positive experience for your customers.

ShopMessage’s Growth Plugins can be powerful tools in your messenger marketing strategy. Conversational brands that engage their customers at the right time in their customer journey will be the ones that win the future of digital marketing.

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