There were over 80 new blog posts on Customers.ai’s growth marketing and chatbots blog in 2019.
We packed pages full of surprisingly effective Facebook advertising hacks, critical marketing lessons (some learned the hard way), digital agency growth strategies, major marketing industry news updates, and tactical tips to take advantage of a shifting growth marketing landscape.
As we swing into 2020’s bright and exciting new lead generation tactics, we’re saying “thank you, next” to the stories that the top blog posts of last year tell; reminding ourselves what’s in the rear view to plot a smart course ahead.
This list of Customers.ai’s top blog posts of 2019 were all voted on by you, by your page views, and are served up in order of most views this year.
Naturally, they’re quasi-chronologically ordered; posts published earlier in the year got more eyes by the end of the year. So here are the top 10 posts of 2019, with a splash of bonus posts too good to leave out.
Let’s get to it.
1. Why Facebook Messenger Banned My Page & What I’m Doing About It
Customers.ai founder and CEO Larry Kim is a mad-scientist marketer of unicorn proportions, testing theories from fake news on Facebook to unexpected ad targeting.
But when Larry’s Messenger bot was banned by Facebook? That was a new one for all of us on Customers.ai’s marketing team.
While Larry could have brushed that incident under the rug to keep it out of the public eye, he put it out there for the whole Facebook and chat marketing community to read: a cautionary tale of what can happen when your Facebook Messenger block rate falls outside the range of Facebook’s tolerance.
Most importantly, Larry turns a donkey situation into unicorn learning moment with actionable analysis of what caused the Facebook Messenger marketing faux pas and how to assess and maintain your own low block rate while building chatbots.
These lessons become especially important when, later this year, the writing was on the wall for Facebook marketers, a perfect segue to post #2 of the year…
2. OFFICIAL: Facebook News Feed is Dead
Facebook shuffled the deck with a big reorganization in early 2019. At the heart of the leadership changes?
A focus on Facebook’s private messaging platforms.
From the News Feed algorithm demoting content from brands, to major organizational changes, and the official stamp of Zuckerberg’s F8 2019 talk — Facebook made a massive shift in the direction of privacy and messaging in 2019.
3. Facebook Announces It’s Merging Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram
January 2019, New York Times broke the story that Facebook was planning to integrate its three messaging services: WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger.
As it was told to NYT sources involved with the project, the three messaging apps would still work individually, but WhatsApp users could message Instagram users who could message Messenger users and so on — something that’s not currently possible
Facebook later confirmed the news, saying it was early days but an important step for both encryption and privacy (ding ding ding, there’s that magic word again!) and for Facebook’s ability to catch up to online sales marketplaces like eBay.
What the Facebook message app integration means for businesses and marketers is a streamlined ability to reach a huge majority of chat app users from one management platform like Customers.ai!
Believe us, we can’t wait to hear more updates as this story unfolds in 2020.
4. 27 Facebook Messenger Statistics That Will Change the Way You Think About Marketing
Statistics are key when planning a data-backed marketing strategy.
At the top of Customers.ai’s 2019 charts is a powerful roundup of Facebook Messenger marketing statistics to inform smart 2020 strategy.
Don’t miss these Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger stats that will help you evolve your customer communication, reduce your cost per lead, and execute high ROI campaigns in 2020.
5. 12 Magnetic Ways to Generate Leads with Your Facebook Bot
Is growing leads at the top of your list of marketing goals in 2020?
*Raises hand.*
One tactical shift could drive +25% higher leads YoY or even QoQ.
There are more than 8 built-in lead magnet tools in Customers.ai’s chat marketing platform. This post outlines how to use each, strategically.
By moving your traffic-driving efforts from your website landing pages to your Messenger lead magnets, you’ll see what instant lead capture and automated lead qualification, lead notification and lead nurturing can do for your marketing metrics.
6. How to Create a Facebook Messenger Funnel That Drives Conversions [VIDEO]
Where post #5 drives top-of-funnel leads to your Messenger bot, this popular post of 2019 covers how to nurture those leads to conversions, aka paying customers.
Use the step-by-step marketing funnels here — taught by none other than Facebook Messenger’s own Albert Rios — to go from first hello to happy customer.
And don’t forget to re-engage customers to repeat customer and upsells!
7. How to Start a Chatbot Agency: The 5-Step Process for Launching a Successful Chatbot Marketing Agency
I’m going to go ahead and call it: 2019 was the year of the chatbot marketing agency.
There was a blossoming of training, community, and support of chat marketing agencies.
Established marketing agencies expanded and differentiated with chatbot services. New agencies were born out of the opportunity to launch and grow offerings in the new technical marketing space.
In fact, Customers.ai hosted an 8-session live virtual summit on strategies for accelerating marketing agency growth.
And this post, “How to Start a Chatbot Agency”, gave a step-by-step process for ramping up high-margin chatbot services, answering many of the questions agency owners will face along the way.
8. 18 Chatbot Marketing Tactics That Will Drive Sales in Any Industry
If you’re just getting started with chat and messaging as a marketing channel, get these battle-tested, industry-specific playbooks for chatbot marketing.
- Marketing agencies
- Lead generation
- Automotive
- Beauty, health and wellness
- Community
- Contests
- Dental
- Gyms and trainers
- Real estate
… and a whole lot more.
9. How to Use a Messenger Chatbot for a Facebook Group
We discovered a load of searches are happening every day asking how to mass message members of a Facebook Group in Facebook Messenger.
We hear it asked a lot from our Customers.ai Island Facebook Group community, too.
That’s why we documented the best way to use a Messenger chatbot to stay in touch with your Facebook Group.
10. 25 WordPress Digital Marketing Plugins Every Marketer Needs
Rounding out the top 10 most read posts on the Customers.ai blog in 2019 is this exceptionally handy roundup of the very best digital marketing plugins for WordPress.
With more than 50,000 thousand publicly available WordPress plugins, a tip or two will help you make the right choice when you’re equipping your site with marketing features and functions.
11. How to Leverage Instagram for Business in 2020
One of the marketing channels that had Larry bullish in 2019 was Instagram.
Not only are users flocking to Instagram in exponential droves, but they’re also super engaged with purchasing power. In fact, 83% of Instagram’s billion monthly active users say that they discover new products or services on the platform.
Time to update playbooks for leveraging Instagram for business in the new year.
This 9-chapter guide to Instagram for business covers everything from an optimal bio to bots, IG Stories and IGTV, influencers and advertising on the second most popular social network.
2020: The Year of the Unicorn!
Hope your 2019 was as action-packed as ours. If not, well, 2020, here we come.
Thanks for being one of our cherished chatbot blog readers. Liked this post? Subscribe to the blog for updates in your inbox!
Cheers to learning, sharing, creating, and blowing marketing metrics out of the park in 2020!
Important Next Steps
- Want to talk to other chatbot enthusiasts about chatbot marketing? Join Customers.ai Island on Facebook!
- Check out Customers.ai’s free Chatbot University to learn more about chatbots and Facebook Messenger marketing.
- Don’t forget to sign up for Customers.ai’s OmniChat
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The post Reader’s Choice Best of 2019: Top 10 Blog Posts & What They Tell Us About Marketing in 2020 appeared first on Customers.ai.