Facebook recently announced on F8 Conference that its Messenger app has reached 600 million users, a 50% growth from last year. Considering similar mobile chat apps such as WhatsApp and WeChat, the number of mobile chat accounts is approximately three billion.
Messaging apps are clearly the killer apps on mobile, but U.S. brands and retailers have not yet made themselves available via mobile chat. With an effective, omnipresent messaging experience, brands may now be able to effectively leverage mobile, which has been the thorn in the side of marketers for years as apps and advertising have both failed.
For consumers, being able to interact with brands via messaging apps would provide obvious benefits: highly personal support instantly; all communication kept within a single thread; the elimination of phone calls and interaction via other customer support channels; and anytime, anywhere communication on the apps they are using every day. Brands could better nurture relationships, drive loyalty through better customer experiences and decrease operational costs if artificial intelligence is leveraged to automate most of the interaction. The biggest game-changer, however, is that messaging leverages on-demand explicit intent (i.e. the person is stating exactly what they want, when they want it) combined with implicit intent -- if brands could carry context forward.
Message to Marketers: Mobile Chat is the Next Killer App
No comments:
Post a Comment