Develop Facebook and LINE Messages with GroupConnect

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

Create effective group messages using GroupConnect.
Follow GroupConnect best practices.

GroupConnect offers you highly targeted messaging for a specific group of contacts. Because GroupConnect interacts solely with the LINE messaging app and Facebook Messenger (via REST API), you already know a lot about your audience based on their profiles. In this unit, you learn the best ways to make use of this information and bring your GroupConnect strategy into Journey Builder.

Open Up

GroupConnect is an effective way to get subscribers to open your message. Research shows that 98 percent of Facebook Messenger users open messages, while the average email open rate hovers just shy of 25 percent. If somebody has taken the time to follow your account, you’ve got a great chance to attract their attention. Plus, you can send messages to targeted individuals or filter lists for future sends. That said, use this information wisely. You don’t want to take the chance of ending a relationship with poorly planned or too-frequent messaging.

The Chat Messaging Experience

Let’s follow Simone Wright as she handles the digital marketing for Scott’s Restaurant and Bar. Simone wants to help Scott’s communicate via its customers’ mobile devices in a more meaningful way. So she starts to develop her strategy.

Scott’s has plenty of fans on its Facebook group, and Simone wants to send messages to VIP customers with special offers. She plans her strategy around five different categories of activities.

Capture Data

There are three tried-and-true methods to begin capturing subscriber data.

Use web-based forms or social media (through a follow on a Facebook account, for example) to initiate the relationship. You can create and include predefined response messages and questions to accomplish this goal. For example, this method could include an automated “Thank you!” message after somebody subscribes.
Integrate plug-ins for LINE or Facebook Messenger into your brand’s mobile apps. A simple checkbox can start the opt-in and conversation.
Create QR codes for users to scan and begin the data capture process, such as linking to a web form.

This subscriber information helps you create contacts in your Marketing Cloud Engagement account that can be used later for segmentation. Make sure you include any applicable attributes in your contact records to ensure you capture all relevant information.

Create Content

After you’ve captured the data, it’s time to provide relevant messages to your contacts. Here’s how.

Personalize content using the information you’ve already captured.
Segment the messages to make sure contacts receive only the messages that apply to them. Remember, contacts you gather from Facebook or LINE are already highly segmented, but the captured information allows you to build even better segments.
Include rich content as part of your messages. Because you’re managing one or two platforms at most, you have a good idea of how the messages display.

Enhance the Experience

Every message should enhance the subscriber’s experience with your brand.

Send welcome messages to your contacts as soon as they subscribe to start the connection on a good note.
Create and preview your messages in Content Builder using the available GroupConnect templates to make sure you’re sending the correct message and everything is in its place.
Send multi-content and carousel messages as part of a customer journey with Journey Builder. Automate your interactions and still maintain a personal touch.

Use Automation

GroupConnect already includes automated messages for the LINE app, and you can use the GroupConnect API to set up triggered messages for both LINE and Facebook Messenger. Automation Studio also helps you set up recurring messages in GroupConnect. All of these features help you maintain regular activity with your contacts without overwhelming them with irrelevant or too-frequent messages.

Send LINE Messages with Journey Builder

LINE messages can include several different types of content.

Text
Images
Videos (from a URL)
Audio (from a URL)
Imagemaps
Carousels
LINE stickers

And get this: A LINE message can include five of these elements, and the larger carousel messages can include up to 10 messages in a single send! Simply put, you can send a lot of content. Once you’ve crafted your messages, you can include them in Journey Builder activities. For example, you can send a message to a new contact, then follow up with a random split to test messages and see which gets a better response.

GroupConnect API

The GroupConnect API helps you interface with both LINE and Facebook Messenger accounts. In fact, the only way to use GroupConnect with Facebook Messenger is with API calls, so you’ll want to be comfortable with a little coding to make the most of the integration.

Follow these steps to integrate with the GroupConnect API (or, if this isn’t your thing, have your preferred software developer lend a hand).

Create your Marketing Cloud Engagement API integration. This step allows your Marketing Cloud Engagement account to authenticate and send requests using the REST API.
Register your LINE channels or Facebook pages for use with GroupConnect.
Use the app to send messages via Facebook or LINE by sending requests using the REST API.

Take a look at this sample code for sending a message via Facebook Messenger. This example sends a REST API request containing the Facebook message after a contact completes a purchase.

Example: Send a Facebook Messenger message using GroupConnect

Host: https://YOUR_SUBDOMAIN.rest.marketingcloudapis.com
POST /ott/v1/send
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN
{
  "messageKey": "e1c35141-6e5c-4bc2-813b-60f969e52b0d",
  "messageGroupKey": "CanBeAGUIDorAny100UnicodeCharString",
  "from": {
    "senderType": "messenger",
    "senderId": "503868699681937"
  },
  "to": {
    "ottId": "FBfacdb735074f7c492c0bf190fa99020",
    "userReference": "1938cd4d34cc4db0b109756b8a9b14ff"
  },
  "message": {
    "subject": "Message Name",
    "contents": [{
      "type": "text",
      "text": "thanks for purchase"
    }],
    "customKeys": [{
      "messagingType": "RESPONSE"
    }]
  },
  "validityPeriod": 30
}

And that’s just one of the many ways you can use GroupConnect to connect with your customers on Facebook and LINE—whether through highly targeted messages or wide-reaching campaigns.

Remember that you’re not just interacting with a mobile device. Our devices are an extension of our lives. So when your messages work to make your customer’s lives easier, better, or more productive—and you're respectful of their time and space—you can foster meaningful relationships for years to come.