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[Report] State of Social Conversational Commerce 2022

People today do everything on their phones. Messaging is how they communicate. Social media is how they connect with brands and discover new products.

That’s why conversational commerce on social is quickly becoming a major strategic marketing investment for brands.

Brands use messaging to build relationships with their customers. But are customers using messaging to connect with brands and, if so, how?

Get the insights from our conversational commerce survey of 1726 consumers in the EU and US:

  • Current consumer experiences messaging with brands
  • How messaging impacts brand perception and purchase decisions
  • Consumer thoughts on privacy and data collection online
  • Existing messaging habits on social and preferences for the future

Download the report

CONTENTS

A Word From Our CEO

max koziolek pofile photo
Max Koziolek
Spectrm | CEO

The way consumers want to engage with brands is rapidly changing. Running ad campaigns you hope your audience will see, using third-party data to target potential customers, or shooting out emails may have worked once. Those days are over. Not only are your ads impersonal static and noise to those you’re trying to reach, but reaching the right people at the right time is getting harder and harder as digital privacy changes are locking marketers out of third party audiences and limiting the signals they can share to improve their marketing efficiency.

But what do consumers engage with all day, every day? Their phones. And what are they doing on their phones? They’re messaging with friends, families, and coworkers. Why shouldn’t they be messaging with brands, too?

Conversational commerce has been growing in popularity for a few years, but many brands are limiting their conversations only to chatbots on their websites — meaning that most brands are waiting for customers to visit their website before they engage in a conversation with them.

At Spectrm, we believe this is the wrong way to think about conversational commerce. Consumers don’t want to have to visit your website at all. Instead, they want to engage with your brand in the same way they’re already communicating with their friends: through private messaging on Messenger, Instagram DMs, or WhatsApp. They want in app messaging experiences that are highly engaging, assistive, interactive, and relevant. Not text-only customer service chatbots just asking “How can I help?”

While many forward-looking brands have already jumped on this emerging channel, we wanted to learn more from consumers about their experiences messaging with brands today, and put some data behind the trend. In January 2022, we surveyed 1726 consumers — 780 from the EU and 946 from the US — about their experiences messaging with brands, if messaging led to them purchasing a product, their thoughts on privacy and data collection, and more. What we found is that messaging has more of an impact on brand affinity and sales than most marketers may be aware of. 

We hope you find these findings helpful as you build your marketing strategy for 2022.

Key Findings

Here are some of the major insights we uncovered from our EU and US consumers and their experiences with messaging brands:

Messaging is the primary way they want to communicate with a brand. 60% of EU respondents and 51% of US respondents prefer messaging over email or phone calls. Top reasons they want to message with a brand are because it’s faster and it’s convenient.

67% of EU respondents and 52% of US respondents have messaged with a company on Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp. They’re mostly messaging about pre-purchase issues, like with product or service questions and shipping and delivery questions.

53% of EU respondents and 43% of US respondents have clicked on a Click to Messenger ad. After clicking on the ad, over half of respondents made a purchase.

Nearly three-quarters of respondents have had a positive experience while messaging with a brand. Additionally, 67% of EU respondents and 54% of US respondents say they are more likely to buy from a brand that offers the option to engage via messaging, and 54% of EU respondents say they’re likely to spend more if a company offers messaging. 

Those who had a negative experience messaging say it was because of a slow response, or no response at all. Over half said their negative experience in messaging disinclined them from making a purchase with that company. Additionally, half of respondents overall have abandoned purchases because a company was too slow to respond.

Consumers want their needs met while messaging — bot or not. As long as they’re able to get what they need, both EU respondents (48%) and US respondents (51.7%) don’t care if they message with a bot or a human. Of those who said they don’t want to talk to a bot, about half said they would change their mind and feel comfortable speaking with a bot if they know they can get instant, useful responses.

Over three-quarters would be comfortable giving preferences to a brand. 81% of EU respondents and 78% of US respondents said they would be comfortable giving preferences to a brand in a private and safe way, in order to receive a more personalized experience. Additionally, 39% of EU respondents and 34% of US respondents said they would be fine with having a company collect their information to use for personalized experiences, as long as they give permission to use it.

Experiences Messaging with Brands Online

We live our lives on our phones. Mobile has quickly become the primary way that we shop, conduct business, watch entertainment, and, above all, communicate. Messaging with friends, family, and colleagues is natural, convenient, and can be done on your own time. Brands are increasingly leveraging the benefits of messaging in order to build relationships with their customers, and they’re doing so right on their customers’ favorite social media apps. But are customers utilizing this channel to connect with brands, and if so, how?

67% of EU respondents and 52% of US respondents have messaged with a company on Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp

Over half our respondents replied that they have messaged with a company through Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp, with over two-thirds (67.1%) of EU respondents saying they have. However, US respondents were less likely to have, with 52.3% saying yes.

chart about messaging in the European Union and United States

Respondents typically message between one and ten times

For those who have interacted with a brand through messaging, have they done it often? For the majority of our respondents, they’ve messaged with a brand between one to ten times (54.8% for EU, 59.3% for US). The next largest segment (18% for EU, 14.9% for US) has messaged between eleven and twenty times. However, there’s a fairly large percentage of each group (12.3% for EU, 11.1% for US) who said that they’ve messaged over forty times with a company. 

chart about messaging with brands

They’re mostly messaging with product or service questions

It’s always helpful to know why consumers are messaging with a company on Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp. For both groups, they’re mostly messaging about product or service questions, with the US messaging a bit more about products and services than the EU (32.4% for EU, 38% for US).

EU respondents are messaging companies about shipping and delivery questions, too (19.6%), much more than US respondents (10.9%) — possibly because US consumers are often directed to shipping and delivery third parties.

What’s notable is that these are all pre-purchase questions. Consumers want to message with brands to learn more about products and services before they buy, giving brands the opportunity to influence the future purchase.

The other main topic they’re messaging is technical issues (18.5% for EU, 18.6% for US).

The least-cited reasons why they’re messaging? Brand-related questions (6.8% for EU, 7.7% for US), responding to discounts or promotional offers (5.5% for EU, 6.1% for US), and concierge support to buy a product (4.6% for EU, 4% for US).

chart about messaging with a company in the European Union
chart about messaging with a company in the United States

About half have seen a Click to Messenger ad on Facebook or Instagram

About half of our respondents (53.1% for EU, 48% for US) have seen a Click to Messenger ad on their Facebook or Instagram feeds, which is an ad that invites them into a chat with the brand directly on the platform. However, 27.8% of EU respondents and 31.2% of US respondents said they had not seen such an ad. Finally, 19.1% of EU respondents and 20.8% of US respondents weren’t sure or couldn’t remember if they had seen the ad.

chart about click to messenger ad

53% of EU respondents and 43% of US respondents clicked on a Click to Messenger ad

Of those who, in the previous question, had seen a Click to Messenger ad, a little over half (53.4%) of EU respondents said they did click on the ad, while slightly less of our US respondents clicked on it (42.7%).

chart about clicking an ad

61% of EU respondents and 53% of US respondents made a purchase after following the Click to Messenger ad

For those from the previous question who did click on the Click to Messenger ad, did they eventually make a purchase after doing so? The majority of our respondents said yes, they did, with EU respondents being more inclined to have made a purchase (61.1%) than US respondents (52.6%). 

For marketers looking to increase their conversion rate, this finding demonstrates that messaging with consumers is a much more successful channel than other marketing channels, especially since conversion rates for traditional ads are often under 10%.

chart about making a purchase after clicking an ad

Nearly three-quarters have had positive interactions while messaging with a brand

When messaging with a brand, our respondents have generally had positive experiences, with nearly three-quarters (73.3% for EU, 72.2% for US) saying they have not had a negative experience messaging in the past year. However, a little over a quarter (26.7% for EU, 27.8% for US) have had a negative experience.

chart about negative experience when communicating with a brand

Those who had a negative experience attribute it to too slow of a response, or no reply at all

For those who said they’ve had a negative experience, we wanted to know more about why. The top reason for EU respondents was that the response rate was too slow for them (29.8%), while the top reason for US respondents was that no one ever replied to the message in the first place (28.9%). This essentially speaks to the expectation of messaging: You should be able to have a near real-time exchange with someone you’re messaging. However, these consumers were left wondering if there was anyone on the other end. It also reveals that brands who ignore messaging are putting customer relationships at risk, and missing the opportunity to create positive brand experiences.

The second reason for both was that the company (either through a person or a bot) couldn’t answer their questions (27.9% for EU, 28.1% for US). We’ll see in a next section how, if it was a bot who couldn’t answer, brands can improve their conversational AI in order to have better, more responsive answers and exchanges.

chart about reason for negative experience when communicating with a brand in EU
chart about reason for negative experience when communicating with a brand in the us

Over half said their negative experience lead them to not purchase from the company

We know that bad customer service experiences can negatively impact a customer’s desire to purchase from a company. Did this negative messaging experience lead to them not making a purchase from the company? The US respondents (69.6%) were more inclined to not make a purchase after a negative experience, compared to 60.6% of EU respondents who wouldn’t. This high number means that the messaging experience has more impact on sales than brands may be aware of.

chart about negative experience when buying from a brand

Summary

Even with brands just beginning to use messaging to interact with their customers, we’re already seeing a massive amount of engagement amongst consumers. 67% of EU respondents and 52% of US respondents said they have messaged with a company through the native messaging features on Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp.

We also traced their journey from seeing a Click to Messenger ad to purchase. For EU respondents, out of 414 respondents reached by the Click to Messenger ad, 221 clicked on the ad — a CTR of 53%. Out of those who clicked, 135 made a purchase — a 61% conversion rate. For US respondents, out of 454 respondents reached by the Click to Messenger ad, 194 clicked on the ad — a CTR of 43%. Out of those who clicked, 102 made a purchase — a 53% conversion rate. Considering that typical conversion rates for ad campaigns are less than 10%, messaging offers a much more impactful and attributable channel for sales.

Overall, considering that many made a purchase as a result of the interaction, it seems that their experience messaging was positive. That’s what 73% of EU respondents and 72% of US respondents said: They had a positive experience in their messaging exchange that led them to a product that fit their needs.

However, for the 27% of EU respondents and 28% of US respondents who had a negative experience, it was due to too slow of a response, or no reply at all — meaning that those brands failed at the fundamental function of messaging: fast, convenient exchanges. That negative experience also impacted purchasing decisions, in that respondents said they’d be less inclined to want to be a customer of that brand. 

Already, we’ve learned a lot about how consumers feel about interacting with a brand via messaging: Many consumers are doing so already, and their interactions have been very positive, resulting in purchasing from that brand. However, those who have entered into a message exchange with a brand and were let down by response times and the experience took their money elsewhere.

 

Expectations When Messaging With a Brand

Customers have the expectation that if they engage with a brand, that brand will want to serve them, better understand their needs, and give them options of products and services that can fulfill those needs. Additionally, brands utilizing messaging also have the expectation that their interactions will lead customers down an easy path towards a purchase. We next wanted to learn more about customer purchasing behavior as influenced by messaging with a brand. Were they more inclined to buy? Did they spend more? Or did messaging not make a difference in their purchasing intentions at all?

About half have proactively reached out to a brand on Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp

Have our respondents ever proactively reached out to a brand to ask questions via Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp before making a purchase, outside of being served up an ad? About half said they have, with EU respondents being more inclined to (58.5%) over US respondents (46.3%). 

chart about reaching out to brands via messaging

67% of EU respondents and 54% of US respondents are more likely to buy if they have the option to engage via messaging

Does having messaging available make a difference in purchasing behavior? It does, as the majority of our respondents are more likely to buy from a company that provides them the option to engage through a messaging app for assistance as they shop, with EU respondents being more inclined to purchase from such a company (67.6%) than US respondents (54.1%).

chart about engaging with companies via messaging

54% of EU respondents say they are likely to spend more if a company offers messaging

Now that we know that respondents are more likely to buy from a company that offers messaging, do they think they would spend more with that company because of that offering? The majority of EU respondents (53.6%) say yes, they would be inclined to spend more, perhaps seeing messaging as a differentiator from competitors. However, only 39.2% of US respondents said they would.

chart about messaging with companyies via social media

Half of respondents have abandoned purchases because a company was too slow to respond

Finally, have our respondents ever abandoned a purchase because a company was too slow to respond to questions or requests? About half of respondents have abandoned a purchase (49.5% for EU, 51% for US). Couple this with the responses from above about a bad messaging experience negatively impacting sales, and we see this channel having a big influence over customer purchasing behavior.

chart about abandoning a purchase

Summary

In this section, we dug a bit more into expectation and brand perception of those using messaging to engage with customers. First, we discovered that 59% of EU respondents and 46% of US respondents have proactively messaged a brand — haven’t clicked through on an ad, but actually sought out the brand for more information about products and services. As we stressed above, consumers are messaging with pre-purchase questions and the conversations they have will ultimately influence those purchases.

We also found that brands offering the option of messaging to their customers are viewed much more favorably, with 67% of EU respondents and 54% of US respondents saying they are more likely to buy from a brand who gives them the option to engage with them through messaging. Messaging is often mistakenly assumed to be a customer service channel. The findings show that consumers use messaging for pre-purchase questions about products and services, and that messaging influences purchase behavior and brand perception. 54% of EU respondents and 39% of US respondents say they’d even spend more with a company who offers messaging.

We’re again seeing the positive impact utilizing one-to-one messaging effectively can have for brands. But once again, we’re seeing the negative impact not utilizing messaging effectively can have for brands, as 50% of EU respondents and 51% of US respondents have abandoned a purchase because a company was unresponsive.

It’s worth noting, too, that we’ve been consistently seeing higher engagement numbers from EU respondents, possibly because interacting with brands via messaging may be more familiar to EU audiences, or may have been rolled out earlier for EU audiences than for US audiences. As we’ll see later, too, US respondents have more messaging options than EU respondents, so their attention may be divided or diluted using apps outside of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Feelings Towards Chatbots and Automation

For brands looking to maximize impact with a conversational marketing strategy, live chat isn’t scalable. Brands will need to use chatbots and conversational AI to offer valuable, responsive interactions at scale. Automation is how brands will also be able to gather structured conversational data to gather customer insights and optimize experiences over time. Automation is great for brands, but what do consumers think? We wanted to know more about our respondents’ experiences with messaging humans and chatbots, and what their preferred method of communication would be.

As long as they’re able to get what they need, respondents don’t care if they message with a bot or a human

When messaging with a company, they may be interacting with a person or a chatbot. How do our respondents feel if their exchange is with a chatbot? The top answer for both EU respondents (48%) and US respondents (51.7%) were that as long as they’re able to get what they need, they don’t care if it’s a bot or a human.

The next largest segment (41% for EU, 38.1% for US) said that they don’t feel comfortable speaking with a bot, and that they want a human no matter what — however, as we found in our next question, many are willing to change their mind about that.

Only 11% of EU respondents and 10.3% of US respondents said they prefer to communicate with bots over humans, if they have a choice.

chart about interacting with a bot in the European Union
chart about interacting with a bot in the United States

About half would change their mind about speaking with a bot if they could get instant, useful responses

For those who said that they don’t feel comfortable speaking with a bot in general, would they change their mind if they were able to have instant and useful responses, even if there was a bot on the other side? About half of respondents (51.6% for EU, 46.7% for US) said they would be fine with interacting with a bot if they got helpful responses — meaning that, like those in the last question, fast and accurate results are what matters most, regardless of it being a bot or human.

chart about interacting with a bot

Summary

In order for brands to scale their messaging, they’re going to have to utilize chatbots and conversational AI to offer their customers responsive answers to their questions and relevant choices that will guide them to their next purchase. Not utilizing chatbots and only relying on live agents may be what contributed to the long response times or lack of response consumers cited above — which not only causes negative experiences, but a negative perception of the brand and abandoned purchases.

Consumers are likely to interact more with chatbots in the future as they message with brands, but 48% EU respondents and 52% US respondents said they don’t mind who they’re interacting with, so long as they can get their needs fulfilled and questions answered. (Remember, too, that being unable to get their questions answered in a message also led to a negative experience.)

We did find that 41% of EU respondents and 38% of US respondents said that they don’t feel comfortable speaking with a bot, and that they want a human no matter what. This is likely due to having a bad experience in the past (the aforementioned unanswered questions), or having interacted with bots in other situations that were frustrating to deal with, where they didn’t understand their questions, or were generally unhelpful, likely backed by poorly implemented or limited technology. What may also contribute to this perception is the fact that customers have experienced messaging as a reactive customer service option, rather than as a helpful channel where they can be proactively engaged by a brand and guided in their decision with automation.

However, half of those respondents would change their mind about bots. As it turns out, if they were able to get instant and useful responses to their questions or needs, those who were adamant about not wanting a bot would be fine interacting with a bot. More and more, consumers are saying that as long as they’re able to get what they need, they don’t care if they message with a bot. 

Brands who are hesitant about using chatbots to automate their messaging because they’re unsure if customers will want them should take note. If your chatbot is designed well enough so that it can help customers get answers and find relevant products, they won’t mind the interaction with an automated system.

Privacy, Data, and Personalization

Data privacy is a major concern for customers these days, and growing privacy laws and restrictions are forcing marketers to get creative with ways they can personalize their customers’ experiences. Considering that messaging with a brand is a privacy-first way of interacting, marketers will look to their conversations to gain declared data they can then use in their marketing efforts. But are customers on board with this approach?

They’re more concerned about privacy than ever before

Online privacy is a topic that concerns consumers more and more. We found that over the past year, our respondents’ concerns about data privacy have mostly increased, with 42.8% of EU respondents and 53.7% of US respondents saying they’re more concerned about their data privacy than ever before — and the increased concern from US respondents is likely due to seeing stories about companies tracking personal information without permission and sharing that data with third parties frequent the news cycle. For 36.3% of EU respondents and for 34% of US respondents, their view around data privacy hasn’t changed in the past year.

chart about views on personal data in the European Union
chart about views on personal data in the United States

They’re fine with businesses using their personal data, as long as they give them permission to do so

How do our respondents feel about their data being collected for the purposes of brands being able to offer more personalization? Top for both groups was that they’re Ok with businesses using their personal data, as long as they gave them permission to do so, with the EU (38.6%) being a bit more in favor of it than the US (33.8%). In other words, customers feel comfortable volunteering their own data in protected, trusted ways.

However, the next largest segment said that they are distrustful overall of how their data is going to be used, with US respondents (24.4%) being more distrustful than EU respondents (18.6%).

The third top opinion from both groups was that they prefer a personalized experience, but want it to be based on their actual volunteered preferences, rather than a business tracking them online without their knowledge (16.9% for EU, 18.9% for US).

chart about using personal data in the European Union
Chart about using personal data in the United States

A quarter of respondents would feel negatively about a brand they’ve never interacted with before targeting them with personalized ads

In considering the aforementioned data privacy concerns, we wanted to learn more about their impressions of a brand that uses third-party cookies and ad platforms to target them with ads. If our respondents saw an ad that felt personalized to them, but it was from a brand they’ve never interacted with before, how would they feel? About half (50.5% of EU, 54.6% of US) said that type of targeting would make them feel neither positive nor negative about the brand. However, about a quarter (25.8% of EU, 26.9% of US) would feel negatively about the brand if they saw that kind of targeted ad. 

chart about personalized advertisements in the European Union
chart about personalized advertisements in the United States

Over three-quarters would be comfortable giving preferences to a brand in a private and safe way, in order to receive a more personalized experience

Finally, to sharpen the point made above about respondents feeling more inclined to provide data if it was used to personalize their experience, we found that 80.5% of EU respondents and 77.6% of US respondents would indeed be comfortable communicating their preferences to a brand in a private and safe way, in order to receive a more personalized experience with that brand.

chart about communicating customer preferences

Summary

Everyone is concerned about privacy online these days, including our respondents, with 43% of EU respondents and 54% of US respondents saying they’re more concerned about their data privacy than ever before. However, messaging provides a way not only for consumers to interact with brands in a one-to-one, privacy-first way, messaging also allows brands to collect data directly from their customers.

As it turns out, respondents feel good about that. 39% of EU respondents and 34% of US respondents said they’d be Ok with businesses using their personal data as long as they gave them permission to do so. In other words, respondents feel more comfortable providing their personal information through a channel like messaging, where they’re volunteering that declared data to the company. Additionally, 81% of EU respondents and 78% of US respondents said they would be comfortable communicating their preferences to a brand in a private and safe way, like through a chat, in order to receive a more personalized experience with that brand.

This not only is a positive for customers in that they’re able to gain a more tailored experience with that brand, but brands are able to collect this zero-party data to use for their marketing efforts. As more privacy laws are enacted, as platforms discontinue third-party cookies, and as traditional marketing channels like email and paid media grow less effective, gathering declared data through messaging is essentially a win-win for both customer and brand.

Preferences and Plans for the Future

We’ve already learned about how customers interact with brands through messaging on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, and what they typically message them for. We’ve also learned about their inclination to spend more with brands who offer messaging, and how they feel comfortable offering data through messaging so that brands can create more personalized experiences for them. Now, we wanted to better understand why customers use messaging and what they want from engaging with brands going forward.

Top Reasons Why Consumers Communicate with a Brand Via Messaging

Messaging with a brand through a messaging channel on Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp has its many advantages. But what do consumers see those top reasons being (we asked them to select all that applied)?

For EU respondents, the top reason they would communicate with a brand through messaging is because it’s faster (49.4%) than other channels. They value the immediacy of the exchange, as they’re looking for answers quickly so they can continue on their journey.

For US respondents, the top reason is because it’s more convenient (41.1%), in that with messaging they get to choose what to answer and when to answer. They’re not necessarily looking for speed, but messaging that fits around their behaviors and needs.

For US respondents, the second most popular reason was that it’s faster (37.8%), while the second most popular reason for EU respondents was that it’s more convenient (it’s more convenient because they can choose what and when to reply [31.3%], but also that it’s more convenient because they can leave messages out of working hours and the brand gets back to you by email [31.3%]).

Another top reason cited by both was that messaging offered the ability for them to have a single place where they can always come back to the conversation (24.2% for EU, 26.7% for US).

chart about reason for a communicating with a brand via messaging in EU
chart about reason for a communicating with a brand via messaging in EU

Top Three Ways Respondents Want Brands to Use Messaging

We saw in a previous section that respondents are messaging brands with pre-purchase questions on products or services, in order to get more information and guidance before buying. But what would our respondents ideally like messaging to be used for, outside of customer support? We asked respondents to choose all that applied, and both our EU and US respondents replied with the same ranking:

The main way they want brands to use messaging is to serve up personalized offers and coupons (47.2% for EU, 42.7% for US) — back to the desire for personalized experiences we saw above.

The next most popular way they want brands to use messaging is to help customers find products based on their unique preferences or needs (44% for EU, 41.4% for US).

Third, respondents want to use messaging as a single, convenient place to manage my communications with a brand that I can always come back to (29.4% for EU, 41.2% for US).

Other ways respondents want to use messaging is to learn more about a brand and what they stand for (26.8% for EU, 29.2% for US), and getting personalized content, like videos, articles, and upcoming events (24.6% for EU, 26.3% for US).

chart about messaging a brand outside of customer support in EU
chart about messaging a brand outside of customer support in US

Facebook Messenger is the preferred platform

When it comes to preferred platforms, both groups of respondents say they prefer Facebook Messenger, though US respondents prefer it much more (54.8%) than EU respondents (35.8%). The second most preferred platform for US respondents is Instagram direct messaging (18.5%), while for EU respondents, it’s WhatsApp (33%). US respondents also had a higher “Other” response, meaning that they have more options for messaging, possibly diluting their responses above.

chart about messaging preferred platform

Messaging is the primary way they want to communicate with a brand

Of the ways to interact with a brand, the majority of respondents would choose to do so via messaging, with it being favored a bit more by EU respondents (60%) than US respondents (51.4%). These aren’t just a small number of consumers who want to message. The majority of customers are looking for personal conversations with a brand above other channels that have traditionally dominated customer interactions.

Respondents also still like to communicate by email (25.5% for EU, 29.8% for US), and there’s still a segment that prefers a phone call (14.5% for EU, 18.8% for US).

chart about engaging with a brand

Summary

The top reasons why consumers communicate with a brand through messaging? Speed and convenience — essentially the reason why we all use messaging in general to communicate with friends, family, and colleagues. We can send a message when it’s convenient to us, directly to whomever we want to communicate with, and know we’re likely to get a reply in seconds. It’s the same expectation for brands. As we saw above, brands who failed on speed (slow response time) or convenience (didn’t reply at all, couldn’t answer questions) lost consumer trust and business.

In terms of what consumers would like to see from brands in messaging, they’re not only looking for product information, like we saw above. They’re hoping messaging can give them personalized offers and coupons, and help them find products based on their unique preferences or needs — in other words, they want more personalization served up through messaging channels. They want messaging to provide assistive experiences to guide them in their purchase journey. They also like having their messaging channel as one specific place where they can conveniently manage their communication with a brand — and that brand can sit right between messages from their family and friends in their inbox.

Actionable Takeaways for Marketers About Conversational Commerce

The Main Takeaway

The main takeaway? Great messaging experiences have a direct impact on brand affinity and sales.

As we saw above, consumers want to message with brands. They want the speed of messaging and the convenience of messaging as well, and the vast majority have also had a positive experience interacting with brands via one-to-one messaging on social media. But messaging isn’t just a fun experience. Consumers are more inclined to purchase with a company who offers messaging, and are more likely to spend more money with that company as well. Messaging isn’t just a nice-to-have feature, but is a major channel through which brands can interact with customers, build relationships, and drive sales.

Another major takeaway? Bad messaging experiences have a direct impact on brand affinity and sales, too.

Conversely, we found that negative messaging experiences also have an impact on consumers’ perception of the brand or if they’re willing to spend money with them. Negative experiences stemmed from the fact that when the consumer messaged with the brand, it wasn’t fast or convenient. While messaging is supposed to be a quick, direct back-and-forth, consumers were met with slow replies, or no replies at all. Those particular experiences — whether due to faulty technology, live chat agents unavailability, or simply not having built a robust messaging system — left customers frustrated and feeling ignored. This made them less likely to buy from that company in the future, and respondents said they’ve abandoned purchases from companies who took too long to respond. A poor messaging experience directly led to a loss of sales for the company.

Takeaways for Today

What can marketers do to create a great messaging experience, and leverage one-to-one messaging as part of their conversational commerce strategy?

Make one-to-one automated messaging a major marketing channel.

With the positive experiences customers had with messaging, and with the high conversion rates we found — and considering that we live in such a mobile- and messaging-first world — marketers need to incorporate one-to-one automated messaging into their marketing strategy. Too often marketers relegate messaging channels to customer service or think of chatbots as a website tool. That is missing a major marketing opportunity to generate more sales and build long-term customer relationships on messaging channels. As we’ve seen above, and as consumer behavior would show, brands need to meet their customers where they are, on the social media apps where they spend their time each day. The high engagement rates we saw above are because brands were making it easy for customers to interact with them on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Use chatbots to scale messaging and provide a great messaging experience.

Consumers are looking to have their needs met when messaging with a brand, whether it be getting answers to questions or learning more about a product — regardless of whether they’re speaking with a human or a chatbot. Don’t be concerned that customers won’t be inclined to interact with a bot, and focus instead on creating the best chatbot experience you can by guiding shoppers and leveraging conversational AI. The more conversations your chatbot has, the more sophisticated it will get, learning more context-specific responses to give customers a better chat experience. Chatbots are the only way you’ll be able to scale personalized customer experiences across messaging platforms. Messaging automation is how to become a brand that’s always available when your customers need you, with an always-on conversational marketing strategy to influence their purchase decisions.

Focus on privacy-first declared data collection via messaging.

With increased data privacy laws and the discontinuation of third-party cookies, marketers are looking for ways to gather data on their customers in order to better target them with a more personalized experience that converts. How about collecting that data by asking them? Inviting customers to have a chat with your brand means that you get to ask them questions about their interests, habits, budget, and more. As we saw above, they’re more inclined to offer that information via a one-to-one messaging channel. This type of declared data is collected by you, not a third party, and you can use it to drive customers to immediate action, to better inform your marketing efforts, and to better serve your customers.

The Move to One-to-One Messaging Begins Now

Consumers want marketing that talks with them, not at them. They also want to have these conversations where they’re spending their time already: on messaging apps such as Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. They want to message with brands in the exact same way they are messaging their family and friends. They want convenient, fast, and engaging communication with brands. That communication will greatly influence their purchase decisions and brand experiences.

The old ways of marketing — blasting one too many ads out to the public, chasing audiences around the web, and using third-party data that’s unreliable and increasingly limited — are no longer going to connect you with customers in the ways that you want. 

The future of marketing is conversational, and the future of conversational marketing is automated one-to-one messaging in private channels. Start leveraging one-to-one messaging today. The data shows your audience will be there, they’ll be happy you sent them a message, and they’ll reward you by choosing your brand over others.

Methodology And Participant Demographics

In order to provide greater context around these findings, here are more details on who we surveyed and the methodology used. Starting on January 31, 2022, we surveyed 1726 consumers: 780 from the EU and 946 from the US. The survey was conducted online via Pollfish using organic sampling. Learn more about the Pollfish methodology here. 

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