How to set up a direct order campaign
6 min read

How to set up a direct order campaign

Connect with your customers directly on Messenger, showcase your products, and raise conversations to your Inbox when people place an order.
How to set up a direct order campaign

With many physical stores moving their business online, you should make it as easy as possible to order your goods and services. Connect with your customers directly on Messenger, showcase your products, and raise conversations to your Inbox when people place an order.

Why set up a direct order campaign?

A lot of brick and mortar stores are struggling to remain afloat in these difficult times. And a lot of those stores, especially SMBs, are looking for other ways to sell their products. People are putting up phone numbers in store windows announcing that they are taking orders directly. But this means having to manually process those orders, as well.

You can easily automate part of this process with Messenger by setting up this direct order campaign! It’s actually quite simple.

Create a flow that does some of the heavy lifting for you, by asking people which of your products they’re interested in. Offer them a menu including prices based on their choices, and let them place their orders with the click of a button. Ask for and save their preferred delivery address, and escalate the conversation to your Inbox when people have placed their orders.

Pinned-Facebook-post-linking-to-your-direct-order-campaign
Pin a post to the top of your Facebook page

This takes a lot of manual work out of the equation, and it only takes minutes to set up. Simply place a QR code in your store window or pin a post on at the top of your Facebook business page linking to your direct order flow.

Set-up-a-QR-code-linking-to-your-direct-order-flow
QR codes are a great way to drive people to Messenger

You can make the flow as complex as you like, or just keep it nice and simple. It’s up to you how much you’d like to automate, and at what stage of the flow you will escalate conversations to your POP Inbox.

Here’s a visualized example of a direct order campaign workflow in Messenger:

Visualized-example-of-direct-order-campaign-workflow
An example of a direct order workflow

How to set this up in minutes

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Step 1. Log into your POP dashboard

Sign in to your POP account, and go to ‘My Campaigns’ to get started. This is where you create new flows and start all of your chat marketing campaigns.

We added a simple ‘Direct order’ template flow in ‘Templates’. This is a framework for you to edit to your liking. Select it and save it to ‘My Campaigns’ to start building a flow that works for your business.

Step 2. Choose your campaign type

There are several ways you can start getting direct orders through Messenger. Choose what type of campaign to run depends mostly on where you usually interact with your customers.

Do you get a lot of direct traffic to your website? Try adding a Send to Messenger widget to your website. This way, you can convert website visitors into online orders, and build your Messenger audience in the process.

Do you have a lot of likes on your Facebook page? Make sure you pin a post that includes a link to your direct order flow. You can create your own custom links in the chat-editor by clicking the ‘create shareable link’ button.

Which looks a little something like this: https://m.me/username?ref=customname

Try following this example custom flow link to see these in action:

https://m.me/YourUniqueOnlineStore?ref=OrderNow

Are you closed at the moment due to the current COVID-19 crisis? Put up a QR code in your store window so people dropping by won’t be disappointed and are still able to order directly from you, through Messenger.

Of course, you can also advertise on Facebook or Instagram and choose the Click-to-Messenger ad type to drive traffic directly into your flow. Simply target the city you operate from to reach a new audience and watch the direct orders stream in!

Try combining these campaign types to start conversations using different entry points. Maximize the amount of traffic to your direct order flow.

Step 3. Write your Messenger flow accordingly

Depending on which campaign type you're using, you might want to change your Messenger flow a little. For instance, Click-to-Messenger ads start with a greeting message you set up in Facebook Ads Manager, so you’ll have to slightly tweak the copy of the Messenger flow in POP.

The first thing you’ll need to do is go to Facebook Ads Manager and:

  1. Create an Instagram or Facebook post/story
  2. Write the initial response message
  3. Add a button and link it to your campaign flow

You can make your direct order campaign flow as simple or complex as you’d like. However, we suggest you include at least the following elements:

  • Add gallery card carousels. Make the customer journey in Messenger interactive by letting people browse through your products and services.
  • Add images or files. Share menus or price lists in the form of images or documents.
  • Save user input in custom fields. Ask people for the information you need to process and deliver the order, and save it to their user profiles.
  • Raise conversations to Inbox. Make sure you add a ‘Raise to Inbox’ component when people get to a point in the flow where you know they require assistance from a human being.

There’s much, much more you can do, of course. However, we suggest you keep your flow neat and tidy to provide the best customer experience in chat.

Process-orders-directly-in-Messenger
Process orders directly in Messenger

You can use the ‘Process direct online orders’ in our ‘Featured Campaigns’ section as an out-of-the-box solution, too. Just change the copy and content in this flow so it suits your business needs.

Step 4. Launch your direct order campaign

Ready? Time to start promoting your direct order campaign. If you chose to buy a Click-to-Messenger ad, simply publish it and watch the orders come in.

If you’re running an established online business with a large social media following already, you could also consider launching your campaign in different ways:

  • Activate your newsfeed with a Comment-to-Messenger post on Facebook
  • Create an Instagram swipe-up story that links to your flow
  • Add the flow to your Instagram bio
  • Link to it in your Facebook story
  • Tweet a link to the flow

And don’t forget to put up that QR code in your store window! Spread the word so people know they can get in touch and order with you directly through chat.

Step 5. Process direct orders in your Inbox

This is the most important part of your campaign. To ensure timely processing and delivery of orders, keep an eye on your POP Inbox.

If you’ve added ‘Raise to Inbox’ components at the right points of your direct order flow, conversations with people that need to speak to a live agent will pop up as open at the top of your Inbox.

This means you can manually process the rest of the order, and send payment links where necessary. Oh, and don’t forget to thank your loyal customers for ordering with you directly in Messenger, of course. A little personalization goes a long way!

Handle-customer-orders-in-Inbox-on-mobile-device
Handle all orders on the go from your mobile device

You can log into your POP account and process all your incoming orders on your mobile device, as well. There’s no need to miss out on any incoming queries!

How you'll benefit from this campaign

The main benefit of setting up a direct order campaign on Messenger using POP? You will be able to automate part of a tedious manual process. And you are providing people with a smooth and unique customer journey in chat.

Even if your brick & mortar store is currently closed due to the worldwide COVID-19 crisis, you can still service your customers and process direct orders through chat. What can you expect from this campaign?

  • Automate tedious manual processes
  • Reduce customer handling time
  • Provide a unique shopping experience in chat
  • Get more orders for your business
  • Open a direct channel for support
  • Build your POP audience in the process

Best of all, you can set this up on POP in minutes and grow your business using the power of chat marketing!

If you need any help with setting up your product drop notification campaign, don't hesitate to get in touch. Our customer success team is more than happy to help you out!


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You can download this product drop notification campaign tutorial here.

Or why don't you connect with POP directly through Messenger at https://m.me/bypophq