{"id":15339,"date":"2018-05-08T19:00:34","date_gmt":"2018-05-08T18:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.intercom.com\/?p=15339"},"modified":"2020-07-30T12:56:58","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T11:56:58","slug":"messaging-becomes-just-chat-apps-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/messaging-becomes-just-chat-apps-use\/","title":{"rendered":"More than just chat: which Messenger apps should I use?"},"content":{"rendered":"

With our redesigned Messenger<\/a>, businesses can do so much more than chat. The next generation of messengers will be built to help businesses accelerate growth by actually helping teams do work, like process payments or schedule meetings.<\/p>\n

From what was once an interface solely designed for conversation, the Messenger becomes a front desk for your website or app\u2014 surfacing a collection of apps that drive outcomes.<\/p>\n

\"Intercom<\/p>\n

For marketers like me, this is an incredibly powerful concept. It means messengers are no longer just for customer facing teams. With apps on the home screen, we can use messengers to drive conversion rates throughout the customer journey, like targeting certain prospects on the website or nurturing customers within our app.<\/p>\n

In the new Messenger, it\u2019s more about creating a customizable experience for different types of visitors and customers.<\/p>\n

But knowing what apps to use and feature is also probably a bit daunting. We experienced this ourselves when considering which apps to use on our own Messenger Home screen on launch day. What if we got too many replies, wouldn\u2019t that just create a lot of noise? How should we stack rank our apps? Which apps should we show website visitors versus in-app customers? With so many options, the considerations are similar to building an entire landing page<\/a>!<\/p>\n

To help you get started, here are a few tips on how we decided which apps to feature in our own Messenger Home:<\/p>\n

1. Assign an owner for your Messenger<\/h2>\n

Having someone responsible ensures that there\u2019s always someone looking after your Messenger and keeping it up to date. At Intercom, we decided to have our Demand Generation team look after Messenger on our website and our Product Marketing team look after Messenger inside our app. We did this because it aligns with each team\u2019s goals. Our Demand Generation team optimizes the website experience for our prospects (which is the bulk of our website traffic), and our Product Marketing team looks after customer communication.<\/p>\n

2. Define your goals<\/h2>\n

In traditional business messengers the goal is pretty straightforward: chat with (most) everyone! In the new Messenger, it\u2019s more about creating a customizable experience for different types of visitors and customers. When launching our Messenger, we wrote down what we wanted it to achieve:<\/p>\n