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How to Use Messaging Apps to Increase Traffic to Your WordPress Site

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How to Use Messaging Apps to Drive Traffic to Your WordPress Site

Globally, mobile messenger apps are attracting more and more users every day. In fact, the top three platforms – WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and WeChat – each attract over a billion users per month.

Even though there are more active users on messaging apps than on social media, these platforms are largely overlooked and have only attracted significant investment from large businesses in the last year or two. That means that there is both opportunity and room for error – especially if you are looking for ways to grow traffic to your WordPress site.

The truth is, 67% of users are looking to interact more with businesses through messaging apps, and much of this can be done with the right WordPress plugins to capitalize on this boom. The first step is understanding the messaging apps and then looking at how using them effectively can increase traffic to your WordPress site.

Here is what you need to know.

Messaging Apps: A New Traffic Generation Opportunity

Given that this technology and these new marketing strategies are so unique, very little hard data has been released. However, where some of the larger brands are investing the most of their efforts, as well as how quickly a particular chat platform has been growing, are both fair ways to gauge potential.

WordPress Plugins and Messaging Apps

Adding a share button to your WordPress site is an excellent way to drive traffic and increase engagement. Why? Because it lets users share your information across the platforms they are using. Even better, there are plenty of easy plugins to choose from.

AddtoAny Share Buttons Free WordPress Plugin

AddToAny is one social sharing plugin that will get share buttons for 100 different outlets onto your page. The messaging apps that AddToAny has that you might want to leverage include Kik, Viber, WeChat, and WhatsApp.

Line is another great app that has a share button plugin. One easy way for the half a billion Line users to know you are out there is adding a Line Social Plugin to your site. One simple click on a “Line It” button will get your page in front of many new faces.

You can also go one step further and automate your responses using Discord. WP Discord post plugin for example uses a bot and a Webhook URL, that will notify the readers in your desired channel about each new post that’s been published on your WordPress site.

Top Messaging App Options

So you know the plugins you can integrate on your WordPress page, but what messaging apps should you choose to help drive traffic?

If you’ve used social media marketing for traffic generation before, many of those same skills apply here. Mastering either of these channels and bringing out its full traffic generation potential will be no easy task.

However, once you have the hang of things and your accounts are all set up, you can leave most of the day-to-day functions to bots, and that’s expected on almost all of these platforms. Chatbots provide many benefits to your customers and allow you to use a messaging app to its full potential.

LINE

Messaging Apps to Drive Traffic to Your WordPress Site: Line

Line is a mobile app for instant communication on smart devices. With just over a quarter of a million users, Line offers a lot for a messaging app. It gives people and businesses the ability to interact with each other, create and join communities, and share messages, photos, and videos. They also promote the use, creation, and sale of unique emoticons and stickers. Some key facts about Line:

  • Right now, the most significant section of Line’s user base is in Southeast Asia – particularly Japan (where the app originated)
  • Line users tend to be on the young side with many in the 10-19 age bracket
  • Line’s user base doubles annually

Out of all the chat platforms here, Amazon’s most considerable presence is on Line. Their account and community are dedicated to promoting Amazon’s products and lifestyle. It’s not as interactive as many of the other branded communities and all of the links point directly to Amazon.com. If you have a Amazon affiliate website on WordPress, you can leverage the Amazon connection to Line.

Download Amazon Associates Link Builder

The Amazon Associate Link Builder plugin provides the tools needed to promote affiliate products on your WordPress website. Then, you can use Line to promote your affiliate products. You can reach via Line to ask for feedback, you can promote new products, or you can ask customers to review different products. The trick is opening the “Line” of communications and creating a sense of trust so that potential customers visit your WordPress site first when they are shopping online.

WhatsApp

Messaging Apps to Drive Traffic to Your WordPress Site: Whatsapp

WhatsApp is a wildly popular video and text chat mobile app. With 1.5 billion monthly active users, chances are that you have heard of or used WhatsApp. Some WhatsApp stats to keep in mind are:

  • 42% of internet users aged 25-34 have used or will use WhatsApp
  • Nearly a third of people under the age of 44 have used it
  • In a survey of over 70,000 users, 15% reported WhatsApp to be their primary news source while only 8% relied on Facebook Messenger

To use WhatsApp to increase traffic, you’ll want to take advantage of the “groups” the app offers. However, you may need to segment your efforts as each group can only have as many as 256 members at a time. You may also participate in established groups. Unlike other messaging services, WhatsApp doesn’t allow ads or bots. That means you need to get creative.

Send links to your WordPress blog posts to educate and inform. You can also offer people incentives to get involved with your account. For example, Absolut Vodka created a fictional character, “Steve.” To get an invite to an Absolut party, people had to contact and “impress” Steve.

WhatsApp Chat Free Plugin

There is also a WhatsApp WordPress plugin that allows you to open WhatsApp chat directly from your WordPress site. This plugin allows the WordPress site developer to insert a chat box into the website.

Then, to funnel traffic to the WordPress site, many webpage owners are asking readers to offer feedback on the content via their WhatsApp chat box. They talk to readers to see what resonates with them and then they use the feedback to modify and adjust their content strategy.

Kik

Messaging Apps to Drive Traffic to Your WordPress Site: Kik

Kik is a free instant messaging mobile app that allows users to start new conversations easily by scanning their Kik code. It enables one-to-one and simple group messages. Noteworthy facts about Kik include:

  • Much of Kik’s personal branding seems geared for teens and young adults
  • 70% of Kik’s audience are between 13-24
  • It is one of the top 10 messaging apps for teens in the US

Kik only began offering the ability for brands to use bots in mid-2016. This means that you can now build a Kik bot for your WordPress site and grow traffic. A Kik bot can actually be more effective than traditional chats. This bot can be used to automatically send updates, newsletters, and special offers to customers so that they visit your WordPress site to see savings and deals.

Many brands, including Sephora and H&M, have begun to use Kik as an alternative means of providing recommendations to customers. In one breakout campaign by Sephora, the brand received over half a million chat bot interactions through Kik.

WeChat

Messaging Apps to Drive Traffic to Your WordPress Site: Wechat

Boasting the highest ratio of daily active users, WeChat is in a unique position. This mobile voice messaging and texting app has some interesting statistics:

  • 90% of WeChat users are under 36
  • Over 90% of WeChat users are based in China
  • 83% will use WeChat at or for work

Buzzfeed, for example, has used WeChat to attract new readers or returning readers that want to find unique content. The company set up a bot that would give recommendations based on keywords, providing a curated experience for users.

WeChat plugin for WooCommerce

There is also a WeChat plugin for WooCommerce that activates WeChat payments for WooCommerce sites. The benefit of adding this plugin to your WordPress site is its simple payment options. Customers come back and traffic increases when things are easy, and the WeChat plugin makes it that way. This plugin makes it possible for QR code payments, and payments via WeChat mobile.

Discord

Messaging Apps to Drive Traffic to Your WordPress Site: Discord

Discord is a Voip mobile app, that is all about communities. Most of those are built around games and fandoms – that’s where Discord started. Many, however, are political or set up to discuss specific types of issues. Discord is one of the few community-based messaging apps that allow you to join a community to seek out traffic as opposed to contacting individuals. Some pertinent facts about Discord:

  • It’s an example of a successful but niche chat messaging service.
  • Its group structure and overall design are meant to appeal specifically to gamers
  • It also appeals to groups that want to establish tight-knit communities with the constant communication

Creating your own community or joining another are both viable ways to grow your presence on Discord as well as direct other Discord users to your website.

WP Discord Post Free Plugin

As mentioned briefly earlier, there is even a WordPress Plugin called WP Discord Post that will post your WordPress posts to your Discord channel. Those that engage with your Discord channel will have the opportunity to easily link to your site.

Facebook Messenger

Messaging Apps to Drive Traffic to Your WordPress Site: Facebook Messenger

Having decided to make the chat feature of Facebook to operate as a stand-alone app allowed users to connect with their FB contacts in a way similar to SMS text messaging.

As far as growth is concerned, after its separation from the Facebook app, Facebook Messenger had:

  • 600 million users in April 2015
  • 900 million in June 2016
  • 1.2 billion in April 2017

Major brands use Facebook Messenger as a tool for getting direct access to their target audience. The NBA Champions, The Golden State Warriors used Facebook Messenger to create a “Warrior Playoff Assistant.” This was a way to get users to opt in to receive updates for the team’s playoff agenda.

Download Messenger Customer Chat Free Plugin

There is a plugin that allows you to add a live Facebook Messenger chat to your website. It allows you to send updates via Messenger when you’ve posted new content on your WordPress site. You can also use Messenger to ask customers to fill out feedback forms. These two simple engagement techniques can drive significant traffic.

SnapChat

Messaging Apps to Drive Traffic to Your WordPress Site: SnapChat

This mobile-based social media platform has a unique distinction from other platforms, since all posts self-destruct seconds after being viewed by the user. Some key facts about Snapchat include:

  • 71% of Snapchat users are under 34 years old
  • 70% of Snapchat users are female
  • 30% of millennial internet users regularly use Snapchat

Snapchat has been used by many brands to reach their audience in an effective and engaging way. The WordPress-based website MTV News uses Snapchat to give their audience access to exclusive content that they can’t find anywhere else. This may be behind-the-scenes footage, outtakes, or promotions. When SnapChat followers see these short clips of exclusive footage, they are drawn to the website to see longer clips. Thus, website traffic grows.

Which Messaging App Should You Choose?

Above, you can see six of the most popular options for messaging apps that can help you grow the community around your WordPress site and send more traffic your way. That said, not all messaging apps are created equal.

Before you decide to invest time and money into building a campaign for a given messaging platform, consider who your audience is and where they are most likely to be.

Messaging Apps Can Do More

Want more than just traffic generation? With WordPress and AI, plus a popular messaging app, you can get more than just extra members for your group or more visitors to your WordPress site. You can collect relevant data that allows your website or business to grow in the most profitable direction. You can also convert the curious into lifelong fans of your voice or your brand. The potential of messaging apps for marketing is just beginning to get realized.

Do you have additional for using messaging apps to increase traffic to your WordPress site? We’d love to hear your thoughts below!

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3 Comments

  1. Andrey Kirillov

    Without Telegram (and some would say, Viber) this list looks unfinished, to put it mildly. If you claim that the article is geared towards the US audience, then why include WeChat, which is mostly used in China.

    • Kyla

      We tried to cover the largest social messaging apps, which I think Anastasia did a great job of! But good point on Telegram – while I’ve never used it, I have heard of it before. Viber is new for me though – I’ll have to take a look!

      • Andrey Kirillov

        Telegram has more users than Discord, if we speak of the largest.

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