Amazon Off-site Marketing: Which Marketing Channel is Better, Messenger or Email?

As an Amazon seller, no one knows better than you how difficult it is to build customer relationships. Under Amazon’s policies, it’s hard for sellers to win customer loyalty, so many sellers choose to market outside of Amazon. By communicating with audiences outside of Amazon, you have a greater chance of them becoming your loyal customers.

Email marketing has always been the main channel for developing customer relationships outside of Amazon. But now Facebook Messenger provides another channel to communicate with customers. Some even say that Messenger marketing and chatbots will make email marketing obsolete.

So for Amazon sellers, which marketing channel is better, email or Messenger? This article will provide sellers with some ideas by analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of each.

I believe everyone knows that Messenger is a social APP launched by Facebook, which is equivalent to WeChat in China.

It is undeniable that the marketing messages sent through Messenger chatbot have higher open rates and click-through rates than emails. It is common for Messenger advertising messages to have an open rate of over 90%. Generally speaking, the average open rate of Messenger is 70-80%, while the average open rate of email is 21%. Over 40% is already a great achievement.

Typically, Messenger chatbots have click-through rates between 15% and 60%, far exceeding email’s 4%-5% click-through rate.

Why does Messenger get more engagement than email? On the one hand, it delivers messages in a more personal way. On the other hand, chatbots make it easier to interact with customers, so it can help marketers collect useful data to make attractive offers and create suitable advertising content.

Messenger seems to be better at preventing customers from receiving a lot of spam, and has a high degree of recognition. Most people have received spam emails, and generally do not add subscription emails, but instead feel impatient. Therefore, once a spam email is received, people will immediately unsubscribe from the email, and even do not want to read it, and directly clear the spam email.

On the other hand, the customer churn rate of Messenger chatbots is very high, but those users who subscribe to your Messenger list are very active and have the potential to become your precise target customers. Through chatbot communication and interaction, marketers can get feedback from customers and continuously improve chatbots.

For Amazon sellers, Messenger chatbots can be used to distribute coupon codes (quickly improve product rankings), improve sales funnel conversion rates, and ask customers for reviews. Messenger chatbot marketing methods are more than emails, with less friction with customers.

Finally, because most people now like instant communication, the trend of marketing through Messenger is becoming more and more obvious, which is also a strong advantage of Messenger.

Email Advantages

At this point in the article, you might be thinking: Messenger has so many advantages, why don’t I just stop using email and focus on Messenger? Wait! Email marketing also has its advantages.

First, the older generation prefers to communicate via email rather than instant messaging. According to the survey, respondents aged 56 and above prefer to check emails on PC and rarely use mobile phones. Therefore, if your target audience is an older crowd, communicating with customers via email may be more effective than Messenger.

Second, not all consumers are on Facebook Messenger, but everyone has email. So if you focus only on Messenger, you’ll miss out on audiences that don’t use Messenger. With email marketing, your potential reach is likely much wider.

Finally, email is easier to share than instant messaging. If you want to advertise a product through an email list and want to encourage customers to share it with their friends, just ask them to forward your email. Sharing content through a chatbot may create more friction.

Combining email and Messenger can help your Amazon business succeed.

But whether email marketing or Messenger marketing is more effective depends on the specific circumstances of your business, or perhaps it is most effective to use both channels to interact with customers.

Email marketing is more suitable for longer marketing content and older audiences, while Messenger chatbot is more suitable for younger audiences and it is easier to interact with customers instantly.

Amazon brands can use email and Messenger together to adopt advanced marketing strategies to build relationships with customers. For example, you can send regular emails to your audience to encourage them to buy your products. In addition, you can insert your chatbot link in the email and use a few words to emphasize the uniqueness of the chatbot to encourage users to subscribe to your chatbot. Chatbots can be used to send temporary promotional offers, answer product-related questions, and collect reviews.

Whether it’s email or Messenger, Amazon sellers can use them to promote their business and build deeper customer relationships.