What is Meta Business Messaging

Meta announced its focus on a rapidly expanding space called business messaging, or conversational commerce. Simply put, business messaging uses instant messages to communicate between a business and its customer. While the name may be unfamiliar, the concept is not new. It has become the norm in Southeast Asian countries like Thailand and Vietnam. If you have ever made or changed a restaurant reservation over message then you have used business messaging.

Messaging is Flexible

Businesses can use messages in a variety of ways. For example, an apparel merchant has a sales funnel of discovery, purchase, and post-purchase. During the discovery phase, potential customers can message the merchant with specific questions like color. If satisfied then the customer proceeds into the purchase phase and pays. A confirmation notification is also sent. During the post-purchase phase, if the customer wants to exchange or return an item, this too can be arranged in the same thread. The conversation thread is a unified platform that nurtures a lead into a purchase and delights the customer with an excellent after-sales experience.

Depending on the use case, messages can range from consultative, like asking specific questions, to administrative, like confirmations and shipping updates. Typically the more complex or expensive a product is, the more important the consultative conversations are to the sales funnel. On the other hand, administrative messages like making restaurant reservations are more convenient compared to alternatives like phone calls.

Both small and large businesses benefit from business messaging. Small businesses use it as a way to digitize and scale their online presence. The ease of use and low cost make messaging an easy channel for resource-strapped organizations. Meanwhile, larger businesses view business messaging as a way to provide a consistent customer experience, collect customer insights, and perform remarketing activities. Messaging allows businesses of sizes to scale their personal touch.

The Personal Touch

Because of the pandemic, personal interactions have become more important. Instant messaging was a way to stay connected during physical isolation. Message to friends but also businesses. 7 out of 10 consumers feel more connected to businesses they can message.

Business messages can create one-on-one conversations that provide a refreshing, personalized solution. A conversation thread digitizes the real-world experience of interacting with a business at scale. It empowers customers to reach out to brands and brands to reach out to customers. A two-way conversation. 

Benefits for businesses:

• Handle more conversations. Compared to a phone call, with business messaging a human agent can support multiple customers in parallel. 

• Provide more accurate responses. Human agents are better able to search for the proper solutions. Chat history can also provide better context for diagnosing the issue.

• Better able to triage requests. A lot of questions can be answered simply using automation, like queries about store hours or the status of an order. Thereby freeing human agents to address more complicated and valuable conversations.

Benefits for customers:

• More convenient. Customers can message on mobile and no longer have to block out time like they would for a phone call. There is no need for the customer to be put on hold.

• Faster response times. Compared to email which can take several business days for a response, instant messaging is faster. It is faster to draft replies and clarify questions given the back-and-forth nature.

• More effective resolutions. Because the issues are recorded over text, human agents can better assess the situation including reviewing prior conversation history.

It’s not surprising that customers are turning to messaging for contacting businesses. 3x more people prefer to message a business compared to email.

These results are more interesting when broken down into age groups. Millennials and Gen Z are messaging businesses more than their Baby boomer and Gen X counterparts. According to a survey performed in Asia, Gen Z and Millennials chat with businesses up to twice a week!

Meta’s New Bet

Millennial and Gen Z’s adoption of business messaging signals a trend and shift in user behaviors. Conversations are where customers are and where businesses need to be. Business messaging is growing and Meta is uniquely positioned to capture it. Meta’s user count is unparalleled. It owns the top 3 messaging apps: WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram.

It is no surprise that business messaging is now a focus in light of 2 strong headwinds:

1. Declining ad revenue. Meta’s revenue consists mostly of advertising revenue. However, with Apple’s App Transparency Tracking, there has been a massive signal loss. This resulted in poorer targeting accuracy and in turn less advertiser revenue. Additionally, Meta faces increased competition from TikTok for marketing spend. 

2. Lackluster metaverse results. At the same time, Meta’s Reality Labs, which the company rebranded itself towards, lost $16BN in 2023. The metaverse remains a long-term bet but has lost shareholder confidence. 

The company is seeking new monetization opportunities. We continue to expect further updates from Meta in the business messaging space. Recent releases include Meta Business Suite Inbox which integrates communications for a business across apps into one place. Or the “catalog for small businesses” feature on WhatsApp Brazil. And, of course, the conversational marketing features that 1send is built on. These updates are opening up new ways for businesses to communicate with customers. It can be a game changer for businesses that want to grow.