5 Great Ways To Use Messenger’s Persistent Menu
5 min read

5 Great Ways To Use Messenger’s Persistent Menu

Facebook Messenger’s persistent menu - the menu at the bottom of the Messenger client - can be a powerful aspect of your Messenger channel.
5 Great Ways To Use Messenger’s Persistent Menu

Facebook Messenger’s persistent menu - the menu at the bottom of the Messenger client - can be a powerful aspect of your Messenger channel.

Since it’s anchored, people will always be able to select any of its options. Use this to your advantage. Today, we’ll show you 5 great examples of how to use the persistent menu.

1. Add a ‘Main menu’ option

Chances are likely that your Messenger channel has a main menu card or flow, which you use to send users to different flows or parts of your website.

First of all, here’s what the Persistent Menu looks like on both desktop and mobile versions of Messenger.

Desktop-and-mobile-persistent-menu-side-by-side

On desktop, you will have to click the ‘hamburger’ button to see the menu. On mobile, it is permanently visible, and you simply need to scroll down to see it.

Most people will end their introduction flow with a menu card, such as the Ziggy Marley Messenger channel, for instance.

Ziggy-Marley-menu-on-Messenger

It’s a good idea to add this main menu to your persistent menu, as well, so people can access it whenever they like. Especially if it’s an elaborate menu, like a carousel of gallery components with lots of options!

Editing-a-persistent-menu-item-1

If you’ve saved the menu as a separate flow, just go to the ‘Persistent Menu’ tab in the ‘Automated’ section and edit one of the options to link the menu flow:

Editing-a-persistent-menu-item-2

P.s. It might take a couple of minutes before changes made to the persistent menu are reflected in Messenger. Patience is a virtue!


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2. Direct people to the ‘Subscriptions’ option

We said it before in our article on successful messaging and we’ll say it again:

A marketing service is only as good as how easy it is to unsubscribe from it.

People always have the option to see all the channels they’re subscribed to, including the option to unsubscribe. Click on the ‘Subscriptions’ option in the persistent menu and it will trigger a flow that displays all channels.

You can edit the name of the ‘Subscriptions’ option, as well as the content flow that’s triggered. Except for the ‘Display: All channels’ component, which is locked in place.

Subscriptions-flow-display-all-channels-locked

We’ve done this so that people who are subscribed to a Messenger channel always have the option to unsubscribe from future broadcasts.

(Of course, you could choose not to show the persistent menu at all. In this case, people can still use trigger words like ‘unsubscribe’ or ‘stop’ to unsubscribe from your channel)

Since new subscribers might not know the persistent menu is there, we advise you to bring it to their attention. Do this either in your introduction flow or, occasionally, in one of your broadcasts.

Similar to adding a second opt-in to your introduction flow, it’s common decency.

3. Make your shop permanently available

If you’re big on driving traffic to your online store through your Messenger channel, consider adding an option in your persistent menu.

Linking-to-you-shop-in-your-Persistent-Menu

This option can direct traffic directly to your store. It can also trigger a flow with a carousel showing off all your latest merch, of course.

In any case, this allows your store to be permanently available to your subscribers. Try ending every broadcast with a note directing people to the persistent menu and check out your latest merchandise!

4. Turn off user input

In the ‘Persistent Menu’ section of the dashboard, you have the option to turn off the user input. This means people won’t be able to send messages to your Messenger channel.

Turning-off-user-input-in-persistent-menu-section

As you can see, this disables the option not to show the persistent menu. This is to make sure that people have the option to go to the ‘Subscriptions’ option and unsubscribe.

After all, if they can’t let you know they want to unsubscribe by sending you a message, they need to be able to do so somehow!

Turning off user input can be really helpful when you want to force users to interact with the buttons and Quick Replies you pre-wrote. It’s the perfect way to set up automated quizzes, games or FAQ-style chatbots.

User-input-being-disabled-in-Messenger

Make sure you think the user experience through, carefully, though! Avoid trying to build something overly complicated that breaks.

5. Introduce a ‘start over’ button

Especially if you’ve disabled user input, adding a ‘start over’ button to your persistent menu can be of great value.

But also if you’ve come up with an exceptionally creative introduction flow, like Circle Sky did, it’s a good idea to allow users to ‘replay’ it.

Simply add the option to the persistent menu and have it link to an existing flow:

Linking-a-persistent-menu-option-to-an-existing-flow

Make sure you have your introduction flow saved to the ‘My Flows’ section of the dashboard, so you can link to it here.

Now, people will be able to reset the introduction flow from the persistent menu.

Using-a-start-over-button-to-reset-your-introduction-flow

Hey there!👋
Start getting creative with your Messenger channel's persistent menu
Get started

These are just a few examples of what you can do with the options anchored in the persistent menu. What other uses can you think of? Let us know by sending an email to hello@iampop.com

By the way, we've collected and uploaded our most popular resources. You can download these resources for free!

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