There are numerous marketing strategies for businesses, and it can be overwhelming for owners to decide which one to choose. The truth is, you only need one that works. In this article, I’ll explain the benefits of Facebook Messenger Chatbots and how they can be used to bring your business more customers.
Facebook Messenger Chatbots have taken the marketing world by storm in recent years, with businesses such as Marriott, Sephora, Bud Light, Whole Foods, and many more taking full advantage of them.
What is a Facebook Messenger Bot?
You might have heard the term chatbot before, or you might have even interacted with one previously without realising.
A Facebook Messenger chatbot is an automated messaging software that uses AI to converse with people through Facebook Messenger. It allows you to create a sequence with pre-set responses based on what your customer says. This can easily save a business time and money, as it can replace the full-time job of constantly dealing with repetitive questions from different customers.
A chatbot can range from asking one or two questions to asking multiple questions to differentiate your audience’s interests and traits.
Data is powerful in today’s world, so the more you know about your audience, the better you can tailor your services/products to them.
How can a Facebook Messenger bot help your business?
Bots are everywhere on the internet, but there is one reason that makes Facebook Messenger bots stand out: they are Facebook bots. Marketing is all about reaching your customers, and with Facebook having 2.37 billion monthly active users, you could be missing out if you’re not using one.
Facebook Messenger is an extremely effective way to communicate with current and potential customers, as it is currently the third most popular app in the world, used by 68% of app users.
Let’s break down exactly what a Facebook Messenger chatbot can help you achieve:
1. Incredibly High Open Rates
People are more likely to open their Facebook Messenger to check a message than to open a marketing email, which only has an average click-through rate of 3.1%. Furthermore, emails can get lost in junk folders and might not even reach the recipient in some cases. Facebook Messenger is a more personal way to reach out to customers, which is why the open rates of messages are much higher.
Take a look at some open rates we have for a restaurant client of ours:
In the three examples, the average open rate was 93.8%, which is almost unheard of! Imagine sending out promotional content, an offer, information about an event, or questions to find out more about your audience and having nearly every single person open the message? That alone is invaluable.
2. Lead Generation
Generating leads is the top priority for businesses, as without leads or potential customers, your business won’t generate revenue.
Similar to an email list, when you get users to subscribe to your bot list, you can send broadcasts to all users on the list at any time.
Chatbots can generate leads for a business with ease if used correctly. It all comes down to the marketing strategy and execution. For ManyChat, which is the Facebook chatbot I recommend due to its user-friendliness, you can select different types of growth tools. These are tools that can trigger a sequence and get a user signed up to your bot list.
You can choose to have a Messenger URL in your Facebook post that will trigger the sequence when someone clicks on the link, create your own landing page through ManyChat, have a button on your posts such as ‘Learn More’, ‘Shop Now’, etc. that triggers the bot when clicked, or you can connect a post to a sequence and trigger the sequence when you get a comment on the bot.
The choice of growth tool depends on your marketing strategy and the campaign you are trying to run. Each one can be successful, and you should test all of them out for yourself.
One of the simplest growth tools to use is the ‘Facebook Comments’ growth tool if you can easily engage users to comment on your posts.
Here is an example of us running a competition for a seafood restaurant/takeaway and using the comment growth tool:
We asked users to guess how many packets of mayonnaise the owner is holding in the box, and the correct answer wins a £20 in-store voucher. As you can see, we generated 445 comments and reached 16,876 people, and we only spent £66 on the campaign! Through this competition alone, we managed to get 341 leads, which is a total of 0.23p ($0.30) per lead and nothing complicated was involved. So what are you waiting for!?
3. Promoting Offers, Discounts and Events
If you have high open rates and you want to send a message to your bot list, such as promotional offers you’re running or events happening at your business, you have a higher chance of converting your leads into customers who walk through your doors.
Using the same example as above, for everyone who entered the competition, we sent them a voucher for a free portion of chips/fries. We did this because we knew open rates would be high and everyone who entered the competition had an interest in the cuisine. We made it so that the voucher had to be redeemed at the restaurant when the bill came, allowing us to track all the numbers.
The result? 58 new customers coming into the restaurant in just 3 weeks. This is a 17% redemption rate, which is extremely impressive considering the people had to physically come into the restaurant to redeem it.
Pro Tip – If you are running a promotional offer for 3-4 weeks, make sure to send weekly reminders, as people can easily forget to use them. This significantly increases the redemption rate!
Once a chatbot list has been built over time, you can market to them for free with promotional offers and events your business might have.
4. Customer service
As a business, customers demand information 24/7. The more effort a customer has to put in to find something, the more likely they are to give up. This results in businesses losing numerous customers every week as websites and online information may not be up to date.
Customers dislike waiting too long and being on hold. They even ask the same questions repeatedly. Fortunately, chatbots provide a solution. You can create a Facebook chatbot that covers most of your FAQs, such as opening times, location, specials being served, and more.
Being able to provide your customers with this kind of information at any time of day will save your business a significant amount of time and money. Setting up this automation allows your business to focus on tasks that a Facebook bot can’t handle.
As demonstrated, Facebook Chatbots can be an excellent tool for businesses to attract new customers and maintain relationships with existing ones. It’s a time and money-saving tool that every business should utilise, even if it’s just a basic one that covers FAQs. Technology is constantly advancing, and chatbots will become even more capable in the future, so it’s best to get your business ahead of the competition and take action now.
Give it a go and let me know how you get on!
