Developing personalized two-way interactions with customers is crucial for brands, offering a significant advantage as customer journeys grow more complex.
Unlocking the potential of conversations: WARC and Meta’s new study distills recent shopper journey research to boost brand trust and value throughout the customer lifecycle.
Aditya Kishore, Insight Director, WARC, said, “Customer touchpoints have been expanding for several years. While the funnel remains a popular basic structure for understanding the marketing process, we are finding that the way in which we attract, inform, convert and engage customers has a growing number of moving parts. The ability to adapt to different journeys and engage and support customers through the buying process (and beyond!) is likely to be an important asset in driving engagement, customer relationships and revenue for a brand.”
Shekhar Deshpande, Head of Strategy, Global Clients, Meta, commented, “At Meta, we see Business Messaging as a transformative tool that revolutionises how businesses and customers talk to each other. The best conversations feel personal, relevant, and in-the-moment, and build stronger, lasting connections.That said, it’s critical for messaging to be both data-driven and respectful of privacy, so the messages people get are both useful and secure. By using AI and machine learning, businesses can offer personalised relevant experiences that make customers happy and provide significant cost advantages to businesses.”
Key takeaways outlined in ‘Unlocking the potential of conversations: How Business Messaging drives value throughout the customer lifecycle’ report include:
Companies risk losing $3.1 trillion in consumer spend each year (6.7% of their total revenues) due to sub-standard customer experiences
The increasing digital touchpoints, like social media ads and influencer marketing, are transforming how people discover, shop, and purchase products. Brands are challenged to adapt to individualized and unpredictable shopper journeys in meeting consumer expectations.
According to Qualtrics, companies globally risk losing $3.1 trillion annually due to inadequate customer experiences, amounting to 6.7% of their revenues. 80% of consumers switch brands due to poor experiences, with 62% believing businesses should personalize services more (Zendesk).
Abhishek Jadon, VP, Global Media Transformation, PepsiCo says, “There’s a fundamental shift towards long-term engagement versus serving one-time media impressions… The biggest changes in the digitally connected world concern how people discover and engage with you. Our focus is meaningful consumer connection. If you do that with a human-centric lens, you build relationships.”
To tackle this challenge, brands require innovative communication models that can spark widespread interest, nurture it into valuable relationships, utilize these relationships throughout the customer journey, measure results, and optimize media strategies for success.
71% of online adults are more likely to purchase from a company they can contact via messaging
Messaging apps are widely used globally, with 3.6 billion users. Meta platforms host over 600 million daily conversations. WeChat serves one billion users in China, and KakaoTalk is used by 97% of South Koreans for communication.
Many brands lag in leveraging messaging despite research indicating consumers prefer it for familiarity, convenience, and control. Kantar data reveals that 80% of online adults find messaging quick and easy for business communication, with 71% more likely to engage and 69% preferring messaging over calling.
Brands leveraging messaging solutions in their media mix can form direct, personalized connections with customers at scale, gaining unique insights to drive growth across all stages of the customer journey as messaging becomes more measurable, scalable, and AI advancements accelerate.
Rodrigo Silva Menezes, Senior Marketing Manager, Mobile Experience, Samsung Brazil, says, “Messaging reduces the distance between the organisation and the user by being present in an interface that the user is already familiar with. That’s crucial. When we run a campaign using ads that click to WhatsApp, we reduce the number of clicks in the user journey by 80%.”
Re-thinking customer journeys: 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned
While the traditional purchase funnel remains useful from a measurement perspective, its strict linearity looks increasingly outdated.
Newer models, such as the Hankins Hexagon, show that customer journeys are highly personal and extremely fluid and that experiencing a product can lead to a repeat purchase. But equally, if the experience is disappointing or the brand fails to re-engage, it may actively encourage consumers to explore other possibilities.
When a shopper messages, it signals eagerness for engagement, allowing brands to begin a quality conversation. Messaging guides customers through the L.O.O.P., from discovery efforts like paid social and QR codes, to personalized conversations aiding their journey to conversion.
Research by the Baymard Institute reveals that 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned, with messaging being a potent tool to address customer queries. Multiple studies emphasize the importance of promotions, competitions, and rewards to attract non- or light buyers, driving growth.
Isabelle Lafont, Global Head of Care & Consumer Experience, L’Oréal, says, “For me, messaging is really the perfect match. It’s very powerful for marketing, but it’s also important for problem-solving. It’s a big shift in efficiency compared to other channels.”
How to implement messaging solutions efficiently and effectively: The 5 P’s
Messaging can be transformative. By impacting every part of the L.O.O.P., it’s a powerful enabler for logistics, sales and customer service teams. Guided by five fundamental principles, businesses can start small and scale up:
Prioritisation: While there may be advantages in targeting quick wins at launch, attention should turn quickly to key brand and customer needs aligned with the overall brand strategy.
Privacy: According to Deloitte, just 34% of consumers feel companies are clear about how personal data is used. Customers must feel that every interaction is happening with their full permission and brands must operate to the very highest standards.
Partners: Partners can offer ready-made analytics platforms enabling organisations to launch messaging more quickly, test more extensively and scale more effectively.
Performance: Brands need to constantly search out new ways to surprise and delight their customers. In terms of messaging, this means delivering interactions that are increasingly personalised, predictive and multimedia.
Proactivity: To stay ahead of the competition, brands need to be agile, commit to a constant cycle of test and learn, and be informed on how messaging platforms are developing.
A complimentary copy of the full report is available to read here. A webinar discussing the findings on messaging outlined in the report will be held in September.
Discover more on how Meta’s Business Messaging is helping businesses build two-way relationships to establish greater ownership of the customer experience.
