9 Unconventional Ways to Use Your Messenger Channel

Popular Messenger Marketing practices include support automation and sharing news updates. These approaches are fine, but not the most creative.

Messenger allows for a lot of unique, original implementations. We listed 9 unconventional ways in which you can use Messenger Marketing to really wow your audience.

1. Create a ‘Link in bio’ flow for your Instagram account

The three most famous words on social media platform Instagram: ‘Link in bio’. Most people use the ‘website’ section of their bio to link to their main website. This is the only place on Instagram that allows for a clickable link.

Since you only get one link, here, we’ve recently seen the rise of services like Linktree, which will host as many links as you want. Simply add the Linktree address in your bio, and your problems are solved.

Consider using a Messenger flow to do exactly what Linktree does! First of all, it’s a lot more interactive than a simple external website. But it will also come with the added bonus of growing your subscriber count with every visitor that reaches your Messenger channel via Instagram.

2. Run games or quizzes over chat

There’s nothing as interactive and rewarding as gamifying your Messenger channel experience with a well prepared game or quiz. There are several ways in which you could run a quiz, but here’s a good example of how Greenhouse Group ran one for English alternative rock band, Shed Seven.

In this example, subscribers who made it to the end of the quiz were segmented into a winners pool and a winner was chosen at random. Make sure you incentivize people to join in the fun by handing out a prize to quiz winners!

3. Collect donations for charity using a direct payment link

People love running fundraisers through social media. Facebook even offers a native feature to organize a birthday fundraiser. Try collecting donations through Messenger! It’s simply a lot more personal when you hit people up in a conversational tone of voice, directly in their Messenger inbox.

Just send out a broadcast to your subscribers explaining what your charity is all about, and use a service like Paypal.me to send out a link people can use to donate to your charity or crowdfunding campaign. A push notification on Messenger is less easily overlooked than a post on a news feed, after all!

4. Run an ‘ask me anything’ session

If you’re familiar with the concept of an ‘ask me anything’ session, you’ll know this is a powerful engagement tool that gives your super fans the chance to ask you anything they’d like.

Try running this Q&A session through your Messenger channel. It’s a perfect incentive for sign-ups! The exclusivity of the content and the private nature of the channel create the ideal set-up to delight your most loyal fans.

We recently saw Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes do this through Messenger. The execution was on point! Read all about it in our article on how to run a successful AMA on Messenger.

5. Use QR stickers IRL to tell stories in chat format

You know those boring old museum tours where you walk around with headphones and get told stories about the artworks during your visit?

Try setting up a customized, interactive flow for every instalment in your museum. Create a QR code linking to the custom flow’s payload, and you’ve got yourself an unconventional way to tell an artwork’s story.

People scan the QR code with their phone, and can then read an interactive narrative filled with rich media about, for instance, the artwork’s history of creation. How’s that for a cool way to use Messenger?

Added bonus? When these museum guests return home, they’ve got all the info neatly stored in their Messenger inbox, to peruse and enjoy at a later time.

6. Setting up a personal trainer flow in Messenger

There’s a bunch of apps that help you improve your physique by offering short, guided workout sessions. Instead of having to build an entire app, you could do the same on Messenger using I AM POP.

Simply outline a workout routine in several steps. Add Quick Replies that users should tap when they’ve finished the exercise and want to move on to the next.

If you’re up for a challenge, you could set up several of these workout routines, and ask new subscribers questions in your introduction flow to personalize the workout routines they will receive.

This works for any type of productivity/instructional ideas you might have. Think yoga sessions, product onboarding, or instruction manuals, for instance!

7. Use Messenger instead of a landing page

All digital marketers know that data collection through the use of forms on landing pages. These are overused and a little conventional, to say the least. You could even say people are suffering from landing page form fatigue, these days.

Try replacing your landing page form with one in Messenger. This allows you to collect user data in a fun, interactive way. It’s an unconventional format, but people are used to interacting with each other in a conversational way through chat.

Use this to your advantage, and link to a custom flow on your landing page - you could hide this behind a QR code, as well, of course.

8. Send out your monthly newsletter through Messenger (like we do)

A lot of marketers use Messenger as a replacement for traditional email newsletter marketing due to Messenger’s high open rates in comparison.

Consider sending out a Messenger version of your newsletter to your audience. Just make sure you repurpose the newsletter’s content in a chat-friendly way.

We do this, too! This is what I AM POP’s Monthly Messages newsletter looks like in chat-format.

9. Take care of appointment booking through Messenger

Over at I AM POP, we use Messenger to allow people to book a call with us. Every member of our sales team has a direct link to a flow in their email signature that guides users through an appointment booking process.

We’re anticipating a native feature in Messenger that will allow an even more frictionless appointment booking process, as announced by Facebook during their 2019 F8 conference.

Until then, simply create a flow that achieves the same goal - make it as personal and conversational as you like, and don’t forget to add a link to your email signature!

These are just a few examples of unconventional ways to use Messenger. What others can you think of? Let us know by sending an email to hello@iampop.com

By the way, we've collected and uploaded our most popular resources. You can download these resources for free!

Or why don't you connect to I AM POP directly through Messenger at https://m.me/bypophq