How Messaging Apps May Be the Future of Marketing

If you’ve been on Instagram or Twitter at all in the past five years you’ve likely seen a few accounts with something like the following: “Feel free to message me on Kik at puppielover89”. What you may not have known is that Kik is one of many messenger apps experiencing exponential growth the past several years. With Facebook announcing ambitious plans to expand their own Messenger app to incredible new heights, it may well be time to consider the potential for reaching the vast young audience on this new medium.

Even our friends at Spredfast have dedicated a huge amount of time diving into the potential for marketers in their latest report. Their research convinced us that not only can brands find an audience on messaging apps, it may just be a perfect match.

How Messaging Apps May Be the Future of Marketing

The natural migration of the youth

The younger generation is outgrowing traditional text based messaging and shifting towards more dynamic channels for their flexibility and various new options for expression. This transition really makes sense when you think about it. The new generation is media obsessed, image focused and craving a more dynamic channel for expression than limiting traditional text messages. They want messaging that moves as fast as them, understanding their language by supporting GIFs and complex emoji’s. Young people are going to continue to flock to these text alternatives as long as traditional texting stays as stagnant as it has been. This leaves us with a new viable channel filled with opportunity for marketing. However speaking their language may by the largest challenge we’ll have to overcome.

Speaking the language

82% of Kik’s userbase is composed of youth between the ages of 13-24. This leaves marketers with a pinpointed demographic more precise than almost any other channel. If your product is aimed towards this demo you’ll find yourself a bit overjoyed with the potential for reach. The Spredfast report did an excellent job breaking down the potential of each channel, here’s an excerpt to you can get an idea of what we’re dealing with:

These are serious numbers we’re talking about. To put this in perspective Instagram is currently running on a 400 Million user base. WhatsApp alone can double your exposure to an even more refined and engaged audience than IG in the future. Keep in mind these are only two out of five major messaging apps that Spredfast reported on meaning there are millions more than even these actively engaging with messaging apps.

Messanger Apps

Now is the time to act

Their growth has already been immense but it’s only likely to get even bigger as time passes. Outside of better features, these apps also give users the ability to text across countries for exponentially lower rates than traditional SMS. When you combine all of these advantages it’s almost a wonder that anyone is using SMS at all anymore.

Spredfast gives some great recommendations on staking your claim now on these channels before they get flooded. One nugget of advice we liked was to reach out to the platform directly for engagement around a new campaign.

Get out there and get started before the floodgates open!

While Spredfast is a sponsor for this post, all opinions are true and our own

SME Paid Under

By Annika Bansal

Annika is a Senior Editor at Social Media Explorer. She travels full time and has lived on the road working remotely for over two years. You can check out her Instagram to follow her on the road.

Comments are closed.