Today you’re going to learn how to make Facebook Messenger Bots, the easy way.
I’ve avoided using Facebook Messenger Bots for quite a long time because I’ve felt a bit intimidated by them.
I thought it was going to be really complicated thought I was going to have to devote a few days of my time to learn how to use them properly but nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact I got my first messenger bot up and working in around three minutes – which is amazing, right?
Table of Contents:
What are Facebook Messenger Bots?
A lot of marketers are using them at moment, I was reading somewhere that there was something like 100,000 messenger bots on Facebook already.
These bots are conversational apps and they use some kind of artificial intelligence.
And the cool thing is we don’t actually have to get hands dirty with cold to make use of this stuff
So we can use them to increase our conversions and increase our sales, and deliver goodwill to our audiences, within minutes.
I’m going to get into ways that you can use them in a second but if you can imagine these little Facebook Messenger Bots are a bit like virtual sales assistants.
They can answer pre-sale questions, they can deliver customer service round the clock 24/7. Its pretty powerful stuff.
While I’m learning about this stuff for the first time I thought I have to share it with you too because I try to share anything that happens in my business so you can benefit too.
So how are other brands using Facebook Messenger Bots? We need some examples to see the kind of things that we can do.
Facebook Messenger Bot Examples
Whole Foods have got a clever Facebook Messenger Bot that helps people to find recipes. That’s a really cool and positive way to use this tech, right?
SnapTravel is using bots to help people to find hotels that sit within a prospects budget – more really positive usage.
And that’s going to give people another reason to engage with the brand and bring more people into their funnel because they can view SnapTravel, and Whole Foods, as companies that have the information they are looking for.
HealthTap is also really interesting. They are using Facebook Messenger Bots to deliver medical advice. How crazy cool is that?
This tells us that there are lots of different ways we can bots and if you want to use if you want to make your own I’m gonna show you how to do that – it’s really simple.
What happens is this; when someone subscribes to you fan page you can automatically send them a message that brings them further into your sales funnel.
You can use bots to promote affiliate links, promote other offers, deliver goodwill content, the fact is you can use them however you like.
Personally, I think if you can decide whatever way you believe is the best way to serve your community, is probably the best way to use them.
Which Services to use?
There are 4 services that I’ve found that let you make Facebook Messenger Bots without messing around with any code or anything complicated.
ManyChat, OnSequel, ChatFuel, and then Botsify are all services that let you build without code.
I’ve already made one with ManyChat, and it was super-easy.
Watch the video above to see for yourself.
The Process
After signing up I literally just:
- Gave permission for my Facebook account to be connected to ManyChat
- Chose one of the ready made templates
- Customized the text
- Changed the picture
It then sent a test message, which showed that everything was working perfectly.
Once you familiarise yourself with the platform, you’ll notice a whole bunch of different tools that you can use to make more advanced Facebook Messenger Bots.
I’m sure we’re going to come back to this at some point in the future when I’ve actually got some subscribers on my page.
A few tips
Maybe you like the idea and you feeling like you’re gonna go for it and set up your own campaigns?
Well, hold on just a second.
I’m going to give you a few tips that you need to know before you dive in to this.
Before you set up your first Facebook Messenger Bot:
- Have an end goal in mind
- Decide what actions your subscribers need to take to achieve that outcome
- Make sure that the end result fits inside your existing sales funnel or your existing strategy.
Once you have your objectives, and you know what actions your subscribers need to take, and you know how it fits into your overall business then you’re going to have to:
- Write good and clear copy
- Ask the right questions
For example you might ask new subscribers what their email address is.
But you gotta do it in the right way, so you might say ‘hey I’ve got this free report for you I’d love to send it over to you so give me your email address and I’ll send it to you right now.
Also make sure that:
- The tone matches the rest of your brand
- Don’t say something that you wouldn’t say in person
- Write conversational scripts
- Have multiple answers ready for a variety of different questions.
- And finally test, test, and then test some more
Done is Better than Perfect
It’s not going to be perfect the first time you set one up, and that’s ok so test it, and tweak it.
The first time we try new things, it’s unlikely it’s going to be perfect so just like most thing in digital marketing we’re going to have to tweak things as we go.
And remember that done is better than perfect.
The important thing is to just get it up and running – it doesn’t need to be the best messenger and it just needs to work.
Don’t be intimidated by this technology stuff, like I was.
Right now we’re in a really fortunate position where a lot of the tools that we need are just point and click.
Look at building a website, for example. If you want to install WordPress there’s literally 2 or 3 clicks of a mouse and then BOOM! you’ve got a fully functional and professional website.
I mean just 10 years ago that process was so complicated and so time consuming most people didn’t bother.
And if we go back further, say 15 years ago, that kind of technology didn’t exist.
So right now we’re in a really positive place and we’re really fortunate to exist in a time where we can just point and click your mouse and get the things we need to improve our businesses – and ultimately our lives and the lives of our families.
I’m gonna leave it there for today, if you’ve found this useful then share it with your network, pay it forward and they’ll probably be thankful to you – and it helps me out in a massive way too.