Some customers may miss out on your published content, or prefer to interact with your brand exclusively by direct message. To keep your direct message customers updated, you can offer them the option to subscribe to your marketing content via Recurring Notifications.

In Social Media Management, you can manage the entire process by creating and sending Notification Topics in Engage for your customers to subscribe to, creating Promoted Notifications via Advertise if desired, and then creating and scheduling the subsequent Recurring Messenger Notifications in Publish.

What are Recurring Notifications?

When a customer voluntarily interacts with your brand on Facebook via direct message, you will have a limited timeframe within which you can reply. 

Within 24 hours of the customer’s interaction, you can choose to send the customer a Notification Topic from Engage so they can subscribe to Recurring Notifications from your brand, extending beyond this timeframe. Notification Topics are helpful to provide marketing materials such as promotions or newsletters to your customers who prefer communication via direct message.

When a customer subscribes to a Topic, you can create and schedule daily, weekly, or monthly Recurring Messenger Notifications to all customers who subscribed to your Topic.

How Can I Use Recurring Notifications?

You can create your Recurring Notifications to include images, titles, sub-titles, buttons, and link cards. As such, you can choose to promote your brand in a variety of ways. Please check out the examples below:

Retail

Highlight new products and incentivize customers to make new/additional purchases.

Travel

Inspire your customers with existing travel destinations, or showcase new/upcoming destinations and present exclusive offers.

Events/Media

Let fans know when new artists/shows are coming to town, when tickets are available, and how to get advanced access to pre-sale tickets.

Auto

Showcase new/used vehicles, trade-in deals, offers, and upcoming events.

Process Summary

Using Messenger Notifications in existing communications with users:

1. Wait for a customer to reach out to your brand via Facebook direct message.
2. Within 24 hours, send the customer a Notification Topic, an invitation to subscribe to Recurring Messenger Notifications (via Engage).
3. Create and schedule Recurring Messenger Notifications (via Publish).
4. The users that subscribed to your Notification Topic will receive the Messenger Notification you created in Publish in their Messenger inbox.

Promoting Messenger Notifications to new users:

1. Create an Ad to promote your Notification Topic via Advertise and get a higher number of subscribers. When users click on your Ad, they will receive the Notification Topic with the option to subscribe to your Recurring Messenger Notifications.
2. Create and schedule Recurring Messenger Notifications (via Publish).
3. The users that subscribed to your Notification Topic will receive the Messenger Notification you created in Publish in their Messenger inbox.

Inviting Customers to Subscribe to Recurring Notifications via Engage

Notification Topics can be sent in any Facebook direct message conversation via Engage to allow your customers to subscribe to Recurring Messenger Notifications they might be interested in.

To create and send a new Notification Topic:

1. In Engage, locate and open the direct message from the customer.
2. Next to the Send button, click Select template.
3. Select Manage Templates to create a new Notification Topic. (If a Notification Topic has already been created, skip to step 11).
4. From the top right, click New Template.
5. Select Notification Topic.
   
6. Design your Notification Topic by adding an image and a title.
7. Under Select Frequency, choose from daily, weekly, or monthly Notifications. This will determine how often you can create and schedule messages to the subscribed customer.
8. Select a name for your Notification Topic. This is used to identify and locate your Notification Topics in Engage, Publish, and Advertise.
9. Under Teams and Channels, select which teams and Channels should have access to your Notification Topic. (Learn about the available options in our Templates in Engage article).
   
10. Select Save.
11. Use the Type to filter box to search for your Notification Topic. It will be shown alongside a Messenger icon.
12. Your preview will be visible in the text editor. Click Send.

Creating Promoted Notifications in Advertise

Once you have your Notification Topic in place, you can invite more people to subscribe to your Messenger Notifications by promoting them with Facebook ads. This is also known as a Promoted Notification.

To create a Promoted Notification in Advertise:

1. In Advertise, go to the Ads menu and click Create New Ad in the top-right corner.
2. Choose the ad set for your ad, then click Continue.

   Note:

   Notification Topics can be promoted in campaigns with the following objectives: Brand awareness, Reach, Post Engagement, Video views, Traffic, and Conversions. For Traffic and Conversions objectives, only the Unspecified and Website destination types are supported. Currently, Notification Topics can be promoted with single image or single video ads.

3. Follow the process for creating an ad. In the Creative setup screen (step 3 of creating your ad) select the Notification Topic tab to choose a > Call to action from the drop-down menu and select the Notification Topic option below it. From the list of topics, choose the Notification Topic you want to promote with your ad.
4. When you have finalized your ad, click the Finish Ad button.

Once created, your ad will go through the Facebook ad review process and then become active once reviewed.

Using m.me Links in Recurring Notification Automations

M.me links are a type of shortened URL that will automatically open a Messenger conversation with your Facebook Page when clicked. You can copy and share the link to include it in your online communications, such as on your website or in an email newsletter, to give customers a quick way to initiate a Facebook Messenger conversation with your brand.

When you create a Promoted Notification in Advertise, Engage will automatically generate an m.me link for your promoted Notification Topic. From there, you can obtain your m.me link via the Engage Template Editor.

1. Create a Promoted Notification in Advertise.

2. Navigate to the Template Editor in Engage.

3. Find your promoted Notification Topic in your list of templates.

4. Scroll to the bottom of your Notification Topic and will see the m.me links section.

5. Select the appropriate Facebook Page from the drop-down menu.

6. The m.me link will appear for that channel and promoted Notification Topic. Click Copy to copy the m.me link to your clipboard.
   

You can share your m.me link any way you would share a typical link. When clicked, the m.me link will automatically initiate a Messenger conversation with your Facebook Page.

Creating and Scheduling Recurring Notifications in Publish

Once you have created a Notification Topic allowing customers to subscribe to your Recurring Messenger Notifications, you can create and schedule your messages in Publish.

To get started, follow the steps below:

1. In Publish, click Create Post.
2. Under Select Channels, click the Messenger tab, followed by the applicable Facebook Channel(s). Only Channels with at least one Notification Topic will appear here.
3. Click Create Messenger Message.
4. Under Select a Template, search to select the applicable Notification Topic you would like to create a message for.

   Note:

   Users subscribed via this Notification Topic on the specific Facebook channel will receive this notification.

   
5. Under Messenger recurring notification, design your message by adding an image, title, subtitle, up to three buttons, and the default card link.
6. If applicable, schedule a future date and time for your message.
7. If applicable, add labels or an approver.
8. Click Send (or Schedule, if scheduled).

Once sent (or scheduled), your message will be visible in the Publish calendar. It can be shared with users externally and internal users can add notes or approve as needed.

Please bear in mind that in order for Messenger Notifications to be sent successfully, at least one customer must have subscribed to your Notification Topic.

FAQs

Can users unsubscribe from Recurring Notifications?

Yes. When the user subscribes to receive Recurring Notifications, they will have the option to click Manage on their Messenger app, and subsequently unsubscribe. In addition, after a certain amount of time, customers will be asked to confirm that they’re still interested in the Topic.

If a Notification Topic was created for a specific frequency, am I limited to how often I can send messages?

Yes. As you create messages in Publish, you must specify the Notification Topic for which you’re creating a message. Only users subscribed via this Notification Topic will receive the message, and you can only create/schedule a message based on the frequency which was specified when the Notification Topic was created.

For example, if you create a Notification Topic with a weekly frequency, you will not be able to publish/schedule messages to those customers more than once a week. However, you can create as many draft messages as you like in Publish.

Can I share the Recurring Notifications via Engage?

No. You can share the Notification Topics via Engage, though once a customer has subscribed to receive Recurring Notifications from a specific Channel, it’s only possible to create/schedule the notifications on that same Channel via Publish.

Can I send more than one Notification Topic message to the same user, from the same Channel?

Generally, up to 10 unique Notification Topics can be sent per customer over a seven day period. A sub-limit of up to five Notification Topics may be sent to a customer in a day. However, you should consider whether customers are likely to find each Notification Topic relevant and valuable before sending. Customers can block, mute, or report your Channel’s messaging.