In today’s episode, I’m going to walk you through how to sell using Facebook Messenger marketing.
This is so hot right now, so let’s dive in!
Whether you use Facebook Messenger, Instagram messenger, Twitter, emails, or any other platform, selling by one-to-one written communications is so hot as a business strategy right now.
It’s a little bit hilarious to me that this is so hot right now, because I have been using this strategy in my business since I started in 2013. If you’ve been following me for a little while, you’ll know that one of the most powerful things that I believe you can do in the sales process is be available.
By having that high connection opportunity to discuss your potential offers with your potential clients, you are able to tailor what you recommend to their specific needs, and it sends your conversion rates through the roof.
This is the ultimate in one-to-one selling without needing to jump onto calls with people all the time.
For my Take Off program, when I do a launch, I probably answer between 60 and 90 emails from people who are interested in the program but have questions or just want to talk about their business first.
When it comes to those emails, most of them are resolved just through an email conversation. But every now and then I’ll invite someone onto a call so we can discuss it a little bit further, because I need to make sure that we’re definitely on the same page, and it’s a little bit more complicated.
I’ve been doing sell-by-message for quite a while.
When I was asked about how to use sell-by-message in our business strategies and as a marketing tool, for me, it was a little bit of a step back required because I needed to actually look at what the strategy is that I used, and what the process is that I follow. Because to me, it comes so naturally due to my experience and the level of time that I’ve spent engaging in one-to-one conversations as part of the sales process.
Woman holding phone doing Facebook Messenger marketing in business start-up
I have broken down my five tips for you to really dive into sell-by-message, using the example of Facebook Messenger (regardless of whether you use Facebook Messenger or not, this episode will be super juicy for you).
I just want to say a big shout-out and a thank you to everyone who’s asked this question. It was the most common question that was asked when I did my Instagram stories a couple of weeks ago.
If you’re looking for my advice on something or if you do have questions about any of the strategies that you see online, there are two things that you can do:
1. Look out for my Ask Me Anything posts over on my Instagram stories (you can find me at @tashcorbin)
2. You can always ask a question at any time over at tashcorbin.com/question
A big thank you to all the people who asked questions about using Facebook Messenger marketing!!
I’ve lumped all of your questions in together that relate to sell-by-message, and I’m doing this one episode to answer those questions.
Before I dive into my tips on how to sell-by-message, I do want to say there is a huge difference between smart sell-by-message strategies and sleazily sliding into someone’s direct messages.
At no time do I ever recommend that you do any kind of direct message selling without consent and actually having explicit permission from that person to engage in the one-to-one conversation.
Just because someone comments on your offer on social media and says that it looks like an amazing offer, does NOT mean they’ve given you express permission to send them a private message.
That is not an invitation.
I think this is a really important boundary for us to establish because we are passionate about consent-driven marketing practices. We don’t want someone’s first experience of you to be that sense of you crossing a boundary without having discussed it previously.
I just want to make that really clear from the outset.
I’m not saying that you should be messaging people on the internet who you haven’t got a connection with or who haven’t invited you to message them.
This goes for people who you may have even met before or you know them a little. If you don’t feel like you have 100% confidence that they would be excited or happy to receive your message, don’t send them a message. There are other ways to reach those people.
I just wanted to make that really clear first and foremost.
If you are really curious about consent-driven marketing practices, I do have a free resource that you can find here: CLICK ME
Let’s dive into my five tips for selling using Facebook Messenger marketing.
1. Where does this fit in your client attraction process?
You need to be really clear at what part of that journey is this person on. It’s going to be different for different people.
It depends on when they reached out to you, how they reached out, and what the invitation to jump into their Messenger might have looked like.
Let’s say that you did an Instagram Ask Me Anything, where you invited people to ask you questions about your topic or area of expertise, and someone submits a question.
First and foremost, you want to make sure that you answer that question publicly where appropriate so that you use the tools available to you to answer that question. But also, that is a great opportunity to just initiate a conversation and see if they’re interested in chatting.
I’m not saying that just because they asked you a question, you can then private message them. That’s not an invitation to slide into their DM’s.
That is a reach strategy in your client attraction process. You’re simply building an audience here. It’s still very early in the client attraction process.
You could, however, send them a message to say that you’ve answered their question over on your story, and then give them the summary and ask if they have any further questions.
You’re NOT yet at the point where you have permission to pitch to them, and you’re NOT at the point where it’s appropriate to jump into selling mode, but it is appropriate to connect with them, because actually, when they submit their question, they’re sliding into your DMS.
Understand where this fits in your client attraction process.
That’s a very different message to someone who says that they were just on your webinar and have a question about your program and want to know more about A, B and C.
That is a very different part of your client attraction process.
Whenever you have the opportunity to have a one-to-one conversation with someone on Messenger, just ask yourself:
- Where are they in my client attraction process?
- Did they come in on a reach strategy?
- Are they in the nurture process?
The nurture process might be where you’ve done a post on social media about a podcast episode, and someone sends you a direct message to thank you for that podcast episode because it helped them to fix something. That’s when you’re in the nurture phase with that person.
Behave accordingly.
The next stage of your client attraction process is the lead generation stage.
This might be where you tell people to send you a private message if they want to come to your webinar, and the person responds saying that they want to go, and asks you for more details.
Yes – you could absolutely send that person the details, but it’s also an opportunity to ask a couple of questions. You’re in a lead generation phase with them.
You can qualify that lead. It might be that they say they want the details of the webinar so you send them the link, but you also ask them what the number one thing that they’d like to learn in that webinar is. This means that you’re engaging in a conversation with them, and also identifying if that person is an appropriate lead.
Then the final stage of a client attraction process is conversion.
If they’re specifically asking you questions about your products and services, this is your opportunity to sell-by-message to convert.
That’s step one for selling using Facebook Messenger Marketing. Make sure you’re clear on where they fit in your client attraction process, how that conversation has come about and behave accordingly.
One of the beautiful things about sell-by-message is that you can have a conversation with someone who comes in on a reach strategy in your client attraction process, and by asking great questions and having a great conversation with them, some of them will be ready to invest and go straight to the conversion piece simply by having a little conversation with you.
That happens to me quite a bit in my business.
The one thing I want to say when it comes to this client attraction process piece is, if you’re unsure, just start earlier.
I’ve never lost a sale because I didn’t jump for the jugular and go straight in for the sale. I’ve always been very mindful of asking lots of questions, ensuring that we’re both on the same page, and treating someone like a human being that I want to know about and understand BEFORE deciding whether or not they’re going to be the right fit for one of my products or services.
If you’re unsure, just ask questions and treat them as though they’re very early in that client attraction process, and you’ll never go wrong.
2. There’s a difference between active Messenger strategy and passive Messenger strategy
…And there is a ginormous grey zone in between.
An active Messenger strategy would be if someone asks you something on your social media, and you share your thoughts and ask if they want you to private message them with some extra resources. So you’re actively asking for permission to slide into their direct messages.
You are initiating that slide into the conversation with permission. Always with permission.
That would be a more active part of the message strategy.
There are way more active parts of Facebook Messenger marketing strategy that I do NOT recommend.
For example, if someone likes your post on Instagram, and you instantly direct message them. Or someone shares something that you agree with on Instagram, and you direct message them thinking that you might be able to sell to them.
There’s a big difference between just jumping into someone’s direct messages without necessarily having been invited, and asking for that permission.
I’m not talking about any of that.
The most active strategy I would recommend would be sharing something where people are likely to comment, and if there’s an opportunity where they’ve commented back or you see that there might be potential for a conversation, ask permission to send them a direct message and tell them why you want to send them a direct message.
It might be that you’ve got an extra free resource you’d like to send them or you’ve got some extra tips that you want to share.
Always ask in the comments in public. Don’t send them a direct message saying that you’re sorry for sliding into their DM’s but you saw their comment and wanted to connect. That’s what all the spammers say.
It doesn’t matter how apologetic you are or how much you preface it with why you think you’d be a great opportunity, you could have asked for permission in public, and you didn’t.
There’s a big difference between active (that would be the more active strategy) versus the very passive Messenger strategy, which is waiting for people to message you.
I still have people to this day who message me without me necessarily giving them the direct instruction to message me, but that’s because I’ve created a community and space online where people know that they can message me and I love that.
Waiting for people to message you is the most passive of the strategies.
But as I said, there is so much grey zone in between.
Getting the opportunity to have that Messenger conversation can come from so many sources.
When you:
- Do podcast episodes, you could tell people that it’s okay to send you a private message
- Do a Facebook Live, you could invite people to direct message you
- Are posting on social media, you can put the little message button in to encourage people to message you
There are so many different ways to encourage people to come into your direct messages, and there are so many different ways to create a conversation where it would be appropriate to suggest that you take the conversation to private messages.
The big grey zone between very active and very passive Messenger strategy in terms of striking up that conversation is your playground.
My biggest recommendation is to play. Experiment. See what feels good, what people engage with, and what works and doesn’t work.
Always be curious and unflappable about that Facebook Messenger marketing strategy.
3. You have two ears and one mouth – use them in that ratio
Even when you are typing, make sure you use them in balance with each other
Ask questions before diving into giving answers.
The worst thing you can do in a conversation with someone is jump in with:
- Advice that they don’t want
- Strategies that they didn’t ask for
- Stuff they’ve heard thousands of times before
Ask questions, and ask what they’ve tried before.
Ask really meaningful questions about what they’re finding the most challenging, what they’ve tried before, what they’re looking for and what their goal is.
And most importantly, listen to what it is that they’re saying.
Two ears, one mouth.
4. Be honest
Congruence is key.
I know that there are marketers out there who teach you to hire someone to pretend to be you in direct messages. I think that that’s a mistake – I don’t think that that’s built on ethics, and I don’t think that that is congruent.
If you send a direct message to me and you get a reply from someone in my team, they will tell you that it’s someone from my team. They won’t pretend to be me.
I understand that outsourcing is all the rage and that you could have scripts so that it would be your words. I understand that. But as far as I’m concerned, when it comes to really role modelling ethics in business, congruence with my values, and just being really transparent in the process (one of the four pillars of consent-based marketing), then for me, it is important that it’s really clear who that person is talking to, and that we’re honest about that.
My team do help me with direct messages from time to time (especially when I’m doing some of those more active strategies where I’m asking people to send me a message if they want the link to my next webinar). They will send that link to people who direct message for that, but they’ll say that they’re from my team.
As far as I’m concerned, honesty and integrity are a non-negotiable in my business, and I would recommend (especially when you’re first engaging in this marketing strategy of selling via message) that you do the same.
There is nothing wrong with saying, “Hey, it’s Grace from Team Tash here”. There’s nothing wrong with that.
It’s the same when people email, and it’s the same when people message.
I’m very upfront about who the person is talking to, especially about whether it’s me or not because people want to feel like when they’re talking to me, they’re talking to me, and people want to be able to trust that.
Trust is one of the biggest factors that you want to make sure you protect in your business.
5. Ask and SHHHH
Just like on live sales conversations or Zoom calls when you’re having a conversation with someone about potentially working with you… ask and shoosh!
If someone asks if you have a payment plan, and you have three different options, don’t send them a whole essay about all the different payment plans and everything that you can do with them.
You don’t need to do that.
If someone asks if your program would help with X, just tell them that it does (if it does) and why, and then SHOOSH!
Ask a question and shoosh.
You don’t need to have perfectly manicured polished and sparkly pictures.
When people are messaging you, they’re messaging you because they want to engage with a human, not a perfectly manicured ad.
Don’t copy and paste perfectly manicured ad responses into those messages.
Engage with them like a human and give them time and space to discuss, think, answer and ask their questions if they have them.
There are my five tips for selling using Facebook Messenger marketing:
1. Where is this person in your client attraction process?
2. There’s a lot of grey area between active and passive marketing strategies to strike up those conversations. Play with it and experiment.
3. Two ears, one mouth.
4. Be honest about who is engaging in that message
5. Ask and shoosh (just like you do on a one-to-one live call)
If you’ve found this really helpful and you’d like to start using Facebook Messenger more as your marketing approach WITHOUT necessarily investing in a lot of ads, I have a great free resource with you.
It’s called My $0 Facebook Marketing Plan.
You can go and gain instant access to this free training HERE.
If you have any follow up questions or lightbulb moments that have happened as a result of this podcast episode, come over to the Heart-Centred, Soul-Driven Entrepreneurs Facebook group, use #podcastaha, let me know you’ve been reading episode number 269, and share any questions or lightbulb moments that you might have about selling using Facebook Messenger marketing
Until next time, I cannot WAIT to see you SHINE.
