One of the secrets of Facebook Messenger bot marketing is that it is a great platform for capturing additional user data, like emails addresses, phone number or whatever else you need to grow your business. (In fact, here's a case study on how we use Facebook Messenger to grow the email list and drive organic traffic for a publisher.)

As of 2016, more people actively use messaging bots than social networks. This represents a massive opportunity for marketers to reach people where they are. So it’s no big surprise that Facebook recently opened up its API to allow brands to create an owned presence on Messenger. While most brands initially used it as a customer service channel, businesses are increasingly expanding what they do on Messenger: broadcasting content, driving conversions, and engaging 1:1 with potential customers.

To leverage Messenger in such ways, brands generally rely on Messenger bots. And with the emergence of tools like ManyChat, creating a Messenger bot has become a democratized process that doesn’t require knowledge of programming or artificial intelligence. Any brand can use ManyChat to create simple bots that capture email addresses, drive traffic to their websites, and create entirely new value propositions that take advantage of Messenger’s 1:1 nature.

Today, we want to take the conversation one step further and talk about growth. Because if you create a bot but not an audience, you’re only going to be talking to yourself—and you’ll be missing a massive opportunity.

Here at BlueWing, we’ve long trumpeted the merits of Facebook as a B2B advertising platform. Although LinkedIn is fantastic, we’ve found Facebook to be the most cost-efficient way to reach senior executives using paid social ads. (Consider that 79% of senior execs check Facebook for thought leadership compared to only 68% who check LinkedIn.)

The duopoly of Facebook and Google has a stranglehold on the digital advertising market. In 2016, the two giants accounted for 77% of the growth in digital spending. Google is running things on the inbound side, allowing digital marketers to serve up contextual ads based on what a user is searching for. On the outbound marketing side, those same advertisers are using Facebook to push content into the News Feeds of highly targeted groups—and this includes plenty of B2B players. Facebook’s partnership with Dun & Bradstreet and outstanding custom audience tools give B2B campaign managers a wealth of creative options for getting in front of ideal clients.

Here’s an unsurprising fact: Facebook is a digital behemoth, and it’s growing consistently among all age groups, per Pew data and also the lived experience of everyone reading this blog post. But here’s something that might surprise you: the most popular social media platform is also increasingly the go-to source for B2B senior executives and decision makers seeking business content, besting its closest competitor LinkedIn in a pair of recent surveys.

There's a wave of change sweeping through the ad industry right now. Creative talent is leaving corporate powerhouses to start their own shops. Established agencies are dealing with the structural challenge of creating content for both traditional media and emerging platforms. Programmatic, native, and social advertising each claim to be the next big thing. Agencies are lining up and placing their bets.

Seasoned creative pros Eve Asbury and Tina Cervera, the co-founders of Wit & Measure, are building an agency from scratch in the middle of it all. We caught up with them to talk about creating a scalable infrastructure, how to compete with bigger agencies, and the biggest piece of advice they have for creatives looking to branch out on their own.

“There is no such thing as a free lunch.” These cautionary words of wisdom have been repeated around offices since before the 1930s. Fast forward to the digital marketing landscape of 2017, and the saying might be as relevant as ever.

Update 3/6/17: It appears as part of their recent redesign, LinkedIn has moved most of their advanced search features to their premium Sales Navigator plan. Although it will run you $65 to $80 a month depending on your plan, we still think there are few better ways to prospect based on firmographic data.

Finding new clients has never been easier. Whether you’re a freelancer, a consultant or a brand, the internet is a wonderful place for B2B brands to reach out to that ideal client criteria list you made. In fact, you can do it from the comfort of your computer; you can even amplify those little efforts with a credit card. You just have to know where to look (and how). If you’re a B2B brand, you know the best place to start finding new clients is LinkedIn. As the social network for B2B professionals to cultivate relationships and leads, LinkedIn is a massively useful database that contains all the contact information you need to turn that ideal client into a real one. Want to know how to find new clients on LinkedIn? Look no further.

Facebook is estimated to generate $4.8 billion from advertisers in 2016. That’s because there’s never been a platform that allows advertisers to scale targeted campaigns so quickly, and brands big and small are seeing results.

There are hundreds ways to target a user on Facebook, including where they live, their job title, their relationship status, and how much money they make. Want to hit single dentists who love the NBA in Wisconsin? No problem. You can be up and running in 15 minutes.

In addition to its demographic and interest targeting capabilities, Facebook has been consistently improving its Custom Audiences product since its introduction in 2013. In a nutshell, advertisers can use Custom Audiences to introduce their first-party data into Facebook advertising campaigns. With this method, they can serve hyper-targeted ads against someone who visits their website, views a certain video or signs up for their newsletter. (Ever spend 5 minutes on an e-commerce site, and notice their ads following you around on Facebook? Yeah.)