This is a rare time in history — for many reasons, but top of mind for marketers is the swelling 1.5 billion active users on Facebook chat, according to the Messenger marketing stats.
With much of the world under lockdown restrictions — the numbers have grown at full tilt.
For example, in Italy, Facebook saw a 70 percent increase in Facebook’s apps’ time.
In many places amidst the pandemic, Facebook saw an increase in messaging volume by 50 percent!
With an average open rate of 70-80 percent on messages sent via Facebook Messenger for business, you can’t afford NOT to use a chat messenger app for business!
This all sounds promising, but what if you are not a marketer or chat expert? We’ve put together a list of the top chat messenger app for businesses that require ZERO experience.
Anyone can be a master chat blaster with the right business tools!
Before you can earn your black belt in jiu-jitsu for lead gen and reach sales and support ninja status, you’ve got to understand chat messaging basics for business.
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Chat Messenger Apps for Business Beginner Tips
How Do I Chat In Messenger As A Business?
Easy! Log in to your Facebook Business page and go to “General Settings”.
Next, click “Messages” and then click “Edit”.
Enable messages on your business page by selecting the option to allow messages to your page, and click “Save Changes”.
Is Chat And Messenger The Same Thing?
Essentially yes, but they are separated by the devices you use to access them. Chat is for desktops or laptops, and Messenger is for mobile devices.
So you know what a chat messenger app is already, then go forth and arm yourself with the Facebook tools and chat technology to blow the ceiling off of your sales and customer support goals.
The Top 10 Chat Messenger App For Business
Whatever your flavor, iOS, or Android, a chat messenger app will suit your needs and turbocharge your customer’s experience.
With a 24/7 chatbot, you can stay in touch with your customers and give the impression that you are always there for them — without lifting a finger. Thus, the first chat messenger app on our list is:
Top Chat Messenger App for Business #1: Customers.ai
This might be a little unorthodox but we’re going to go ahead and put this here: Customers.ai is the platform a business can use to:
- Generate and qualify leads
- Re-engage customers
- And support customers with live chat and automation
… across the many available messenger chat apps that customers use today.
When you use the best chatbot builder to create a customer-focused chat experience for marketing, sales or support, it works seamlessly across:
- Website chat
- Facebook Messenger
- SMS
- WhatsApp (coming soon)
All viewable from a single unified inbox that support live chat and integration with your other business systems, audience segmentation and chat marketing analytics.
With Customers.ai, businesses gain 60-80 percent open rates, 10-20 percent click-through rate, supercharged Facebook Ads, and the best in mobile-friendly.
Want to test out a business chat app experience for yourself? Chat with us in the lower left corner of this very page to give the Customers.ai chat Messenger app a go.
You’ll even be able to jump from the web chat experience into a Messenger chat experience as well as SMS, because Customers.ai chat conversations and automations work seamlessly across all the messaging apps your customers already use, including website chat, SMS, Facebook Messenger and Instagram.
You can use our Free Forever plan to add live chat to your site and re-engage your Facebook fans.
And you can get started with the advanced automations with a free trial as well.
Top Chat Messenger App for Business #2: Facebook Messenger
Facebook Messenger is booming with users across the world. This year, Messenger saw a 10 percent year over year increase in active monthly users
Messenger is also incredibly versatile for a business’ needs thanks to it’s lead generating chatbot integrations with Facebook Ads system and automation capabilities available to businesses who offer support and reengagement through Messenger.
For example, with a single chat messenger app, Customers.ai’s OmniChat, you can automatically generate and pre-qualify leads, manage customer support and FAQ, capture user data, segment a contact list for ad campaigns, remarket/retarget, and more!
Which brings us to our next top chat messenger app for business.
Top Chat Messenger App for Business #3: SMS
When it comes to marketing to your audience where they spend the most time, social media is a runner up, but the bread and butter has to be SMS (Short Message Service) text messaging on mobile devices.
With at least 5 billion people worldwide who can send and receive text messages, you’d be hard pressed to find a better marketing medium.
If that doesn’t raise an eyebrow, try these mind-blowing SMS marketing statistics:
- 75% of millennials say they’d rather text message with a business
- SMS gets 3X higher engagement than phone calls
- SMS get 7.5X higher response rate than emails, clocking in at 30%
Now start rapidly tapping those text messages out like a machine gun! Just kidding. There’s a bot for that.
When we discuss text message marketing, we’re not implying anything manual or employing a high schooler to text your prospects all day. No no, quite the contrary.
We are talking about sending bulk text messages to mass amounts of people… kind of like an email newsletter campaign, except exponentially better.
Enter Customers.ai!
SMS Text Message Blast With Customers.ai
Yes, you can send mass SMS text messages to prospects and customers with Customers.ai’s OmniChat platform!
Text messaging is a super-engaging B2C channel because SMS averages +90% open rates
And 95% of texts are read within 3 minutes of being sent.
To get started sign up for Customers.ai or log in and go to SMS tools on the left.
Click “Activate SMS”.
Congrats! ???? The rest is a piece of cake from here.
- Go to Leads / Contacts and import any phone numbers you already have that have already agreed to receive texts from your business.
- Go to Marketing Tools / Chat Blaster and click New Chat Blast.
- Select SMS as the platform.
- Select your full audience or a segment.
- Add content with the StartBot visual bot builder.
Anyone can do this without learning a lick of code. If you need help, we have many resources and detailed instructions on building your first SMS chat bot and chat blast campaign.
We are always engineering new hacks to get you the most opt-ins and leads faster and easier than eating a banana split.
Top Chat Messenger App for Business #4: Instagram
Fun fact: There are more than a BILLION active Instagram users around the globe! Instagram is without a doubt one of the most popular social networks worldwide for staying in touch with friends and following brands.
With Facebook Messenger API’s support of Instagram, businesses can scale messaging communications, follow up instantly and automatically with alerts to notify live agents to jump into the chat.
Customers.ai is developing Instagram messaging tools within the multi-channel messaging platform. If you’d like to reach customers with Instagram messaging, sign up for our early access beta here.
Instagram chat messenger app features for business include tools to:
Business can connect with customers with personal, Instagram messaging to reap bottom-line boosting benefits including:
Get more leads: A business can capture and qualify leads who start chatting in Instagram.
Drive more sales: A business can directly message with prospects who are interested in making a purchase.
Provide superior customer experiences: Messaging tools enable businesses to provide 24/7 instant support.
You will be able to instantly message Instagram users who message your Instagram brand page and more.
Claim your free Customers.ai account and register for the Instagram beta to get first access to Instagram tools for business.
Top Chat Messenger App for Business #5: WhatsApp
WhatsApp is fantastic for staying in touch and safely communicating with international customers.
And of course you can utilize Customers.ai to create a chatbot for the worldwide wunderkin. Customers.ai’s OmniChat allows you to create a chatbot once and apply it across your chat channels, web, SMS, Facebook, WhatsApp, Slack, etc.
Did you know that Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012, WhatsApp in 2014, and has been working on integrating both with Messenger to create an unstoppable chatpocalypse!?
With 1.5 billion monthly active users, WhatsApp is a force to be reckoned with on its own and ripe for marketing.
Every business and marketer should have WhatsApp – which ties in with your existing phone number and allows business branding instead of digits.
Using Customers.ai with WhatsApp, you can automate replies, welcome greeting message, send mass chat blasts with special offers and announcements, and more!
Top Chat Messenger App for Business #6: Slack
There are many ways to collaborate and communicate with your team. If you hadn’t tried Slack before, chances are you have by now — or something relative for a WFH setup.
Slack makes it easy to organize channels that can be public or private and work together no matter where you are.
Chat Messenger App Bonus Tip: Did you know you can seamlessly integrate Customers.ai with Slack? You can receive a notification in Slack when a lead is talking to you in Messenger, SMS, web chat and more using Zapier integrations to Customers.ai!
Top Chat Messenger App for Business #7: Microsoft Teams
Of course, Microsoft Teams should follow (or some may argue precede) Slack in terms of team productivity tools.
Naturally, businesses that run on a Microsoft OS are more apt to Teams, and companies that lean towards Apple are likely happiest with Slack.
They both offer an outstanding platform for collaboration amongst teams in various industries. One obvious advantage to using Microsoft’s platform is it’s integration with Office 365, if that’s important to you.
Also, Microsoft Teams is more geared towards enterprise scale. Although businesses of all sizes enjoy Slack just as well.
Top Chat Messenger App for Business #8: Zoom
You might be feeling “zoomed-out” by now, but it has become an essential part of WFH and, therefore, one of our top chat messenger apps for business.
Whether you prefer Zoom over Skype is more than just personal preference – it depends on how you use them.
They both offer essentially the same functions: chat messaging, video calls, meetings, and webinars.
If you have frequent/daily meetings, then Zoom is probably the ticket.
Did you know you can use a Customers.ai chatbot for Zoom meetings? YES!
Invite more people to your Zoom meetings and send automated reminders for a better turnout!
In a nutshell:
- Invite leads or clients to your Zoom meeting with webchat.
- Mass text the meeting invite with a text message blast.
- Run a Facebook ad to get your Zoom invite in front of your defined audience.
Get Customers.ai’s Free Forever Edition now to create your Zoom chatbot!
Top Chat Messenger App for Business #8: Skype
For more periodic meetings, chat sessions, or video calls, Skype is a great choice. It has held its place in the international messaging and video call space for a long time.
It’s still relevant today and is used by businesses worldwide to stay in touch with customers, vendors, and partners.
There are plenty of different types of chatbots for Skype, but you can consolidate all of your messaging tools into one dashboard with Customers.ai’s multi-channel aka OmniChat bot.
Top Chat Messenger App for Business #10: Google Meet
There was an enormous push for digital transformation at the onset of the pandemic in 2020. Many businesses found themselves scrambling to connect, and many turned to tools and brands they were most familiar with, i.e., Google Hangouts.
Now, we have a business package for Google Hangouts called Google Meet. Another strong contender in the chat messenger app for the business space.
Join Today’s Webinar with Larry Kim!
Or Register for the Free Replay
Learn all about NEW 100% Meta-Approved Automation Tools from Customers.ai with a spotlight on features to 10X Instagram & Facebook Engagement and turn social media into a revenue driver for your business.
Important Next Steps
Whether you are just getting your toes wet in the world of digital marketing or you are knee-deep in chat messenger app land, your business will benefit from these useful chat messenger apps.
Continue your foray with the most simple and powerful automation chat messenger app for business, Customers.ai OmniChat.