INTRODUCTION:
In today’s digital landscape, customer engagement is the key to building lasting relationships and driving business growth. Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) offers a variety of tools to help marketers connect with their audience, and one of the most powerful features is GroupConnect. This tool allows you to engage with customers directly on popular messaging apps like WhatsApp, LINE, and Facebook Messenger. In this guide, we will focus on how to boost engagement using SFMC GroupConnect specifically for LINE. Learn how to create personalized, interactive messaging experiences that captivate your audience and enhance your marketing strategy.
What is SFMC GroupConnect?
GroupConnect is part of Salesforce Marketing Cloud’s Mobile Studio, designed to deliver personalized messages via LINE and Facebook Messenger. It allows you to manage contacts, and subscriptions, and review messaging activities through these apps. GroupConnect’s integration with LINE has become particularly popular due to the platform’s broad user base in Asia.
A Brief History of LINE: LINE originated in Japan in response to the March 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Due to the damage to Japan’s telecommunications infrastructure, internet-based communication became essential. In just 18 months, LINE had 100 million users, and by November 2013, it had grown to 300 million. By 2020, the app surpassed 600 million registered users globally, offering not only messaging services but also finance, travel, and entertainment tools.
GroupConnect Overview:
- Group Connect is a tool in the Mobile Studio used to deliver personalized Facebook and LINE messages to your customers.
- It is used to send messages to contacts, manage contact subscriptions, and review messaging activities via messaging apps. Currently, GroupConnect supports the LINE mobile messaging app and Facebook Messenger (available only via chat messaging API). The LINE app is integrated into Content Builder and Journey Builder.
- LINE originated in Japan as a response to the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami disaster in March 2011. Japan’s telecommunications infrastructure was damaged nationwide, therefore the focus turned to Internet-based resources to communicate. Within eighteen months of its release, LINE reached 100 million users and by November 25, 2013, was used by 300 million users. By 2020, LINE has reached over 600 million registered users across continents.
- Today, LINE is not just another messenger app that you can use to make free calls or send free messages. Unlike Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, or other popular messenger apps, LINE is a real social network providing many products and services.
- The most well-known apps on LINE’s varied range of services, which covers finance, commerce, travel, entertainment, and communication, include.
- LINE Instant messaging, LINE Pay, LINE Store, LINE Music, LINE Play, LINE News, LINE Healthcare.
Steps For LINE Integration with SFMC :
1. Register on the LINE Developer’s Console:
- Create a Provider and a Messaging API channel.
- After registration, you’ll receive a unique Channel ID and Channel Secret, which will be essential for setting up the integration.
2. Connect LINE to SFMC:
- In Salesforce Marketing Cloud, navigate to the setup and search for LINE to begin registration.
- Input your Channel ID and Secret, name your channel, and complete other required fields.
3. Webhook and Marketing Cloud Endpoint Setup:
- These fields allow two-way communication: Webhook allows SFMC to send messages to LINE, while the Marketing Cloud Endpoint lets LINE send events such as follows or unfollows to SFMC.
Contact Binding and Deduplication
- Once the integration is done you can find all your LINE followers in SFMC.
- Go to Contact Builder -> All Contacts -> GroupConnect.
- While you can import your current LINE contacts into SFMC, new followers who connect to your marketing cloud account via API will be given a LINEID, ChannelID, and a specially created contact key.
- You should take note of the fact that the contact key that your customers (imported into Marketing Cloud from Service Cloud or any other external CRM) have differs from the one that is produced automatically for new LINE followers.
- You can use a LINEID column to combine your current client in All Contacts with a new LINE follower from GroupConnect, assuming that they are the same individual. You can update the Contact key in the All Contacts database with the aid of this field.
Campaigns :
To send a message only once, go to Mobile Studio -> GroupConnect and create a LINE Outbound Message. From there, you can choose contacts, specify the message’s content, and preview the message before sending it. Sends in one go are limited to GroupConnect Lists.
And leverage journey builder for recurrent sends and leverage data extensions as a source. Drag and drop the “LINE Message” activity onto your canvas after finding it. After the activity has been dropped, click on it to choose from the pre-existing messages in Content Builder or start a new one right in Journey Builder.
Add AMPScript for more customization. Don’t forget to preview and test the message before launching the campaign.
You can use a variety of content formats with LINE messages, including such as Text, Images, Videos (from a URL), Audio (from a URL), Imagemaps, Carousels, LINE stickers.
Reports
You can create a set of reports on GroupConnect elements in Analytics Builder -> Got to Reports -> GroupConnect:
- LINE Outbound Message Report to display a summary of Outbound Messages sent to LINE followers within a specified date range.
- LINE Triggered Sends Summary Report with a summary of Follow and Response Messages sent to users within a specified date range.
- Mobile Chat Messaging Journey Builder Activity Summary Report This report contains all journey builder activity-related messages sent.
- Mobile Chat Messaging Summary Report This report contains all chat messaging API send activities.
Data Views
There are also some data views available to get the data from the LINE:
- MobileLINEAddressContactSubscriptionView To view active LINE followers and users who have blocked your brand, you can query this GroupConnect data view in Automation Studio. With Contact Subscriptions, customers can view their current subscribers each day.
- MobileLINEOrphanContactView To view the unfollowed contacts from LINE, you can query this GroupConnect data view in Automation Studio.
Summary
Leveraging SFMC GroupConnect for LINE provides a unique opportunity to engage with your customers on a platform they use daily. By utilizing the advanced features of Salesforce Marketing Cloud, such as personalized messaging, automation, and analytics, you can create meaningful interactions that drive engagement and foster loyalty. Whether you’re looking to send targeted promotions, collect customer feedback, or provide customer support, GroupConnect for LINE is a powerful tool that can elevate your marketing efforts and deliver tangible results. Start exploring the possibilities today and take your customer engagement strategy to the next level.
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