MessengerPeople is a third-party add-on that can be used to aggregate and handle messages for the following instant messaging applications:

• WhatsApp
• Facebook Messenger
• Telegram
• Apple Business Chat
• Instagram Direct

By integrating the add-on into the Emarsys Platform, you will be able to do the following:

• Send messages to a select group of contacts using a specific instant messaging app. These messages can also contain Personalization blocks.
• Include MessengerPeople campaigns into Automation Center programs.
• Check incoming instant messages for specific keywords to trigger automation programs. You can set, for example, automatic email response campaigns to subscribe contacts for further email newsletters.
• Have an overview of the number of sent messages, contacts and the marketshare of the instant messaging apps they are using.

The MessengerPeople add-on uses an API to communicate with the Emarsys Platform. Once you set up custom data fields in the platform and imported the contacts of your MessengerPeople account, you can group them and set them as recipients of campaigns. These instant message campaigns can be edited with an editor similar to the Email Campaign editor. You can set segments, contact lists as recipients. Alternatively, you can use MessengerPeople campaigns as parts of Automation Center programs, where the recipients are determined by the programs themselves.

Moreover, the add-on can scan incoming messages for specific keywords. These can be linked to specific external events, which in turn can be linked to automation programs for example.

Instant messaging is the preferred channel of a growing number of people, as it allows both real-time and asynchronous communication in an attractive, easy-to-use environment. As of 2019, Facebook estimated that WhatsApp (the favourite messaging app in German speaking countries) has around 1.3 billion active users, followed by circa 1.3 billion active users for Facebook Messenger (the favourite app in the US, France and Eastern Europe). By integrating MessengerPeople, you can cost-effectively reach a large portion of your customers in a new channel next to the traditional emails and web channel campaigns.

Using the Text-2-Events feature, you can offload some of the work from your customer support team by automating a couple of easy processess, such as newsletter subscriptions.

Additionally, you can personalize each instant message to improve one-to-one customer interaction.