Barry Levine says, “Like shopkeepers in previous centuries who talked to customers one at a time, digital marketers need to master the art of the individual conversation.

Except that now it’s at the scale of millions of individual conversations.

“Messaging apps are morphing into relationship platforms,” Forrester vice president Thomas Husson told me. He’s co-author of a new report from the research firm, “The Future of Messaging Apps” ($499).

That future, he indicated, is best represented by WeChat, which has become a major vehicle for all kinds of communications, control and transactions in China.

Chinese consumers spend more than a third of their mobile device time in WeChat, which has over 10 million official brand accounts. Users regularly make purchases within the app, plus conduct a growing number of other activities — like booking a doctor’s appointment, scheduling a marriage ceremony, even remotely controlling the lights in a hotel room.

“In the next stage of [messaging apps’] evolution,” Husson said, they will be “not just about you and peers, or you and friends, but you and the environment”.

Forrester: Here are some ways marketers can adapt to messaging apps

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