{"id":7406,"date":"2017-01-06T12:45:37","date_gmt":"2017-01-06T12:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intercom.com\/blog\/?p=7406"},"modified":"2024-07-25T11:34:28","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T10:34:28","slug":"before-you-send-your-first-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/before-you-send-your-first-message\/","title":{"rendered":"12 steps to create a great messaging strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"

An effective messaging strategy is the bedrock upon which you can build customer engagement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Unless your customers value what you say, any attempt to persuade, educate, or motivate them to use your product will likely fail. They will either mentally or literally unsubscribe from you, and you\u2019ll lose the opportunity to engage them in any way.<\/p>\n

If your message isn\u2019t sent to the right target audience it\u2019ll feel like spam to whoever gets it.<\/p>\n

Therefore, customer messaging strategies come in a variety of forms including emotional connection, positioning statement, or unique selling proposition (USP), depending on the overall goal of the marketing strategy.<\/span><\/p>\n

To create a message strategy that has real impact, ask yourself these 12 questions each time you send a message. Answer all 12, and you can be sure you\u2019re sending the right message in the right tone to the right person at the right time through the right medium.<\/p>\n

12 questions to ask each time you send a message<\/span><\/h2>\n

1. What\u2019s the context?<\/h3>\n

We\u2019ve all been handed a flyer on the street for a restaurant we\u2019ll never eat at. It\u2019s irritating. Not because the restaurant is offering a bad deal. It\u2019s because a flyer about pizza doesn\u2019t matter when we\u2019ve just filled up on sushi. These marketing messages are totally out of place and appear downright rude.<\/p>\n

But imagine if they were always accurate; if you only got the flyer when you were hungry and looking for pizza. Carry on imagining. This level of accuracy isn\u2019t possible out on the street. But it is possible for your customers inside your product.<\/p>\n

Context is king for communication, so think carefully about your customers\u2019 environment, location, and activity. (You can figure this out easily thanks to tools like FullStory’s Session Replay<\/a>)<\/p>\n

2. Who is the target audience?<\/h3>\n

If your message isn\u2019t sent to the right audience it\u2019ll feel like spam to whoever gets it. It\u2019s mostly common sense. Don\u2019t send your long-time users a welcome message<\/a>. Don\u2019t promote feature X to users if they\u2019re already paying for and using it. Don\u2019t contact your freemium users for feedback about your paid features. Don\u2019t invite customers from California to your meetup in New York. You get the point.<\/p>\n

This kind of customer targeting is simple with Intercom<\/a>. You can drill into your userbase to identify the exact groups of users to talk to. Targeting a smaller group means you\u2019ll get fewer replies, but your message will make more sense to more people, so you\u2019ll see higher open, click and reply rates, better quality responses, and fewer negative responses.<\/p>\n

3. What should trigger the message?<\/h3>\n

Maybe you want to send the message to everyone 7 days after they sign up, but only if they\u2019re paying you more than $50 dollars per month. Or maybe you only want to talk to customers on your free plan living in the US. You can trigger messages based on any combination of your users\u2019 attributes.<\/p>\n

But what about their behavior? Intercom lets you easily track your users behaviour as Events<\/a>. You can automatically send them messages as soon as these Events happen. Here are some examples:<\/p>\n