Chatbot Marketing: A Beginner's Guide to Messenger Bots

Are you curious about messenger bots? Oh, you haven’t even heard of them? You’re in for a treat because in this blog, we’re going to share with you the basics of chatbot marketing and how you can use this powerful tool to build up your audience and email list and expand your reach in paid marketing activities such as Facebook ads. 

So, what is a messenger bot?

A messenger bot is a piece of software that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to hold up a conversation through Facebook messenger. I know, sounds scary, but don’t run away just yet as they are very easy to use and create. By using a simple interface, you can create a whole conversation between you and your client using a platform they are already familiar with - Facebook messenger. And the best part is, you don’t need any tech knowledge to create one!

Here’s how it works: You ask questions that your audience answers by clicking a button that you already created. As an example: “Would you like a free guide on how to have more energy over 40?”, then you create the answer for them (a simple yes or no). If they click yes, then you can proceed to ask for their email address, and once that has been given to you, deliver your guide right there inside Facebook messenger.

This entire process is fully automated (once you set it up)! Within a few clicks your user can be automatically added to your email list and automatically receive your freebie without them having to go to a landing page. 

Here’s why you need to add messenger bots to your marketing strategy

Did you know that the national email open rates are now under 20%, while messenger bots are going strong at 80-90% open rates?

Messenger bots work so well because they are incredibly fast and easy to use for the end-user. 

There is no doubt that with increased technology comes shortened attention spans for us humans. When I was a kid, if I wanted to talk to my friends, I had to pick up the phone and use the rotary dial to call my friends, from memory. 

Today, we click contacts and let the phone do the work, or command our phones to call the person we want to reach using our voice. (Wait, does anyone even use phones anymore?!)

If we need an answer to a question, we ask Alexa, Google or YouTube to pull it up within seconds. 

And, while watching videos, we get irritated when the video is paused for an ad. 

This is exactly why you need to incorporate messenger bots into your marketing strategy. Your client will not jump through hoops to get to the information they want. They want it now! 

You have undoubtedly one time or another downloaded a freebie from someone, perhaps via a link offered on Facebook. You clicked the link, typed in your name and email, went to your inbox, confirmed subscription, waited for the freebie to be delivered, and opened the email to finally get the freebie. (I’m exhausted just typing all that!) 

Now, with the use of messenger bots, delivering freebies is much quicker and easier for the user: You offer a link on Facebook, someone clicks the link and Facebook messenger opens, they confirm with one click that they understand the legalities, confirm their email address and then download the freebie. It’s that simple. One minute or less. 

The quicker you can deliver information to your ideal client, the better. The main reason you need to incorporate bots into your marketing strategy is to simplify this delivery process so you can get on with building those relationships that translate into sales.  

How to use messenger bots

Wondering how you can implement chatbot marketing into your larger strategy? Here are some of my favorite ways to use messenger bots in my business. 

Grow Your Email List without a Landing Page

This is an obvious one as we just went through the difference of using bots versus landing pages to gather email addresses. As an added bonus, you can integrate your messenger bot to ConvertKit, Active Campaign, Hubspot and Mailchimp. That means that you don’t have to connect zapier to automatically transfer the email address into your marketing system. And on top of that, you not only build up your email list, but also your messenger list. 

The other benefit is that you don’t have to create a landing page. Every time a user has to click on something, the risk of losing them increases. Your landing page never has a 100% conversion rate. In fact, 40%+ is very good, though most people will see closer to 20-30%. You just took that step away by using messenger bots. And while nothing, not even messenger bots have a 100% conversion rate, if for any reason the user doesn’t enter in their email address, they are still on your bot list, so you have a chance to re-target them later.

Increase Social Media Engagement

Social media posts have a very low chance of getting engagement. Facebook's average engagement rate is between 3-4%. Let’s say that you have a post on which you want to build engagement, then run it as an ad on Facebook. You could drive traffic to the post by sending a message to your bot list. Having social proof on a post not only tells Facebook to show it to more people, but it also helps your ad perform better once you boost it. 

Communicate with Leads via Text Messages

Have a morning meditation or a weekly social media tips list that you want to share with your audience? Deliver them via text messaging! It’s simple to build your messenger bots in Manychat (my preferred platform) and then communicate with a text message that includes a link to access the information they want to receive. Don’t forget, people are never too far away from their phones.

Generate New Leads

Messenger bots are incredibly easy to collect leads of any sort. Let’s say you are a realtor and you are offering a home for sale. Using the messenger system, you can gather all the information you need to prequalify them for loans, then get their phone number and email to call them back. Facebook is now offering messenger lead ads which are designed exactly for this and will take over the traditional lead ads, per my prediction.

I am not a realtor, I’m a course creator and a coach, so my leads are different. If I am launching using a webinar, I can invite people to sign up to the webinar through the bot and skip the landing page. That takes out one factor for where I must calculate conversion rate. And then, staying perfectly compliant with Facebook, I can send them a reminder to their Facebook messenger that the webinar is about to start. 

Increase Website Engagement

Another way you can use messenger bots is to connect it to your website through a bar at the top of your webpage, a slide in, a button or a page take-over. Then you can offer them a freebie to build up your email list or lead them down a funnel for whatever it is that you are wanting to do.

Let’s say that you are a health coach and you want to invite people to participate in a quiz that leads to selling a meal plan. You would offer people to enter the quiz on your website, which leads to Facebook messenger and takes them through your questions. Then at the end, you offer them the opportunity to purchase your meal plan. You just connected and built a relationship with your user in 5 minutes - much shorter than the typical 5 days to go through an email sequence. And even if they don’t purchase your meal plan? You’ve just landed a new subscriber and can continue to engage them through your email marketing campaigns. Total win-win.

Use Messenger Bots Offline to Build Your List

One of the most versatile parts of messenger bots is that you can create a link to your bot and promote it both online and offline. Use a program to make a pretty link (my fave is bit.ly), and then post that link everywhere - on LinkedIn, your YouTube channel and in offline networking. One of the best places to post this link is on the back of your business card! (Did you ever think to offer a freebie there?!?)

Let’s say you are a speaker and you are using slides to deliver your presentation. Before you start your presentation, invite your audience to pull up their phones, open their browser and type in this simple link to get access to the slides. The messenger bot triggers the process of asking for their email list and then delivering the slides. (This is a great strategy to get engagement out of your audiences!)

What if you don’t have access to slides? I would often speak in my lead’s groups at a restaurant with no access to any technology. You can still do the same. You offer your group the interactive way to follow your presentation by downloading the slides on their phones so they can follow you while you speak. 

Having a link directly to your bot opens endless of opportunities. Offer it with your Facebook lives, on your Podcast or your YouTube video’s. As most people view your content on their phones, this will not take them off YouTube or whatever platform they were on.

You have probably figured out by now that I am incredibly passionate about messenger bots. Not very many online entrepreneurs are using them right now, which makes it a perfect time to incorporate them into your strategy.

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Vala Vincent is a social media marketing coach who helps online entrepreneurs, course creators and small business owners build up their business on social media. Vala has over 5 years’ experience as a small business owner and went from being an award-winning photographer to helping business owners building up their online businesses. Her specialty is in using the tools social media gives us to build up a list and get clients — all from the comfort of working in your pajamas! You can find Vala on her website or Facebook.