Messenger Marketing for Subscription-Based Businesses

I had the great chance to share a bit of what I know about Messenger Marketing to Ideaspace Philippines.

IdeaSpace helps budding technology entrepreneurs and develop ground breaking innovations and transform these into successful businesses. They continue to provide continuous support for their startups through workshops.

The event also marked the first time that I spoke side-by-side with Allan Ngo (he talked about Email Marketing). Neil Reichl (who discussed Chatbot Marketing) and I were in the Entrepreneur and Freelancers Forum 2020 speakers line up.

After my talk, the question and answer came in shortly for all of the speakers. One of the questions struck me because I did not have the right answer during the Q&A.

The question was:

What possible applications will Messenger Marketing have for subscription services? (For example, premium app subscriptions like Netflix)

a question from Ideaspace startup company owner

Yes, I was not able to answer the question. I honestly do not have an idea. I can not (and do not) make up answers to get over the question. I am not in beauty pageant, where I am required to answer under time pressure.

I told the Ideaspace session participants that I will look for answer to the question.

Thus, this post on Messenger Marketing for Subscription-Based Businesses was created.

To explain, you’ll need to understand Dan Kennedy’s three M’s of great marketing first.

Dan Kennedy’s three M’s of great marketing

Let’s go back to the three M’s of great marketing: MARKET, MESSAGE, AND MEDIA. This is the marketing triangle that the late Dan Kennedy has taught thousands.

Messenger Marketing is just one of the paths that a business owner can take to reach their destination or goal. The goal could be getting new prospects, maintaining relationships with customers, or scaling.

In this case, your customer is the MARKET. Your “subscribe to our service” is your MESSAGE. Your Messenger Marketing tool is the MEDIA.

Take note of the sequence above. It should not be rumbled or your business would be a mess.

Your customer’s buying journey

Go back to the buyer’s journey. What happens when a customer finds out about your business until the time the customer subscribes to your service?

You have to meet where the customers are and use the media — which in this case, Messenger Marketing — to introduce the service as a solution (Message). Then, the customers can eventually make their decision.

If your tool is Messenger Marketing, how would you use it?

You can use Messenger Marketing to engage possible customers via product awareness, then consideration phase, until conversion (subscription).

Messenger Marketing, in terms of product awareness, allows you to engage people into giving information, answering objections, and presenting value propositions.

Start conversations with your customers. Messenger Marketing allows for exchange of responsive messages. If you use the media well to communicate your message with your customer, then your customer will have higher chance to consider subscribing to your service.

I hope this helps!

Thanks to Ideaspace Philippines for inviting me to share what I know about Messenger Marketing with their startups. Thanks, Joni Salang-oy, for all the help. Special thanks to Ginger Arboleda for suggesting that I could do this — and for the push.

I can’t credit the whole answer to myself. Thanks, Nins Mendoza, for reminding me of the three M’s and how it flows in anything that we do as marvelous marketers.