Octane AI

Octane is a Messenger and SMS marketing platform built for eCommerce stores, currently dedicated completely to integrating with Shopify and Shopify Plus.

This is a fast-moving startup that is releasing features non-stop, so expect new features to have come out by the time this review is live.

If you plan on using the tool for retention, blasts, and deeper engagement, and can allocate equivocal resources as you do to email, then you will want a tool like Octane.

Octane is a Messenger and SMS marketing platform built for eCommerce stores, currently dedicated completely to integrating with Shopify and Shopify Plus.

This is a fast-moving startup that is releasing features non-stop, so expect new features to have come out by the time this review is live.

If you plan on using the tool for retention, blasts, and deeper engagement, and can allocate equivocal resources as you do to email, then you will want a tool like Octane.

Octane has some really great functionality, including a comment-response bot that allows anyone that comments on your posts to opt-in to Messenger.

They do both Messenger and SMS well, allowing for better cross-channel communication.

They currently claim to have the most eCommerce specific flows of any Messenger platform, including abandon cart, browse abandonment, welcome series, win backs, post-purchase flows, and anything else you want to build.

They have artificial intelligence working to identify common questions and proposing answers, which makes for a scalable conversational marketing strategy and mitigates many customer service inquiries.

They have advanced analytics for tracking revenue from Messenger and SMS campaigns.

You can create sponsored message campaigns to anyone engaging with your Facebook page within the Octane platform and automatically tie it to your existing flows.

Octane has some really great functionality, including a comment-response bot that allows anyone that comments on your posts to opt-in to Messenger.

They do both Messenger and SMS well, allowing for better cross-channel communication.

They currently claim to have the most eCommerce specific flows of any Messenger platform, including abandon cart, browse abandonment, welcome series, win backs, post-purchase flows, and anything else you want to build.

They have artificial intelligence working to identify common questions and proposing answers, which makes for a scalable conversational marketing strategy and mitigates many customer service inquiries.

They have advanced analytics for tracking revenue from Messenger and SMS campaigns.

You can create sponsored message campaigns to anyone engaging with your Facebook page within the Octane platform and automatically tie it to your existing flows.

You will want a great marketer in charge of the channel, someone that is tuned into the other marketing efforts. In a large organization, I would consider one dedicated marketer to Messenger. But to start, your head of marketing (or you as the one person show) can handle the workload.

Messenger marketing can be highly interactive, and typically a bit more fun - with GIFs and memes galore. Put someone creative in this role and prosper.

It's 5 minutes to start making money, but a ton of work can go into weekly, and even daily campaigns. As long as you have the proper resources, and a little creativity, I would consider the time dedicated to this channel to be very similar to email, with slightly more responses expected for your customer service team.

The good thing with Octane is that you can start with the plug-and-play version, and re-visit when you have more time to build out robust functionality.

This means that any and every store should have some sort of Messenger marketing strategy, especially if you advertise on Facebook.

As your store grows, and traffic grows, the channel becomes more powerful and you will appreciate the retention tools and customer service opportunities - that is, the ability to communicate with your customers 1 to 1, at scale.

Even with older demographics, or some other "my customers aren't on Messenger" attitudes, or low volume, low traffic stores, you can still deploy a Messenger strategy. Your audience is on Messenger. Messenger is also cheaper than SMS, which means its extremely cost effective.