In this age of social media, communication between brands and customers has never been so open. Previously, if a customer had a complaint, it could be painful to get in touch with someone who could help them. Today, many barriers between customers and brands have collapsed thanks to social media.
Currently, over a billion people post every month on Facebook. In fact, 56% of customers would prefer customer service issues to be dealt with via chat rather than phone and expect businesses to respond to them within 5 minutes.
But, 93% of companies do not respect the “5 minute rule”. A response delayed by just 5 minutes can result in a 400% decrease in the chances of qualifying a lead. This can be a problem for large and small businesses that receive a large volume of messages every day or cannot be online 24/24.
The solution ? Make use of chatbots.
What is a Chatbot?
A chatbot is a form ofartificial intelligence that imitates human speech via audio or text.
Two of the most popular forms include:
- Virtual assistants, such as Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, and Microsoft's Cortana.
- Messaging apps, such as Facebook Messenger, Kik and Slack.
The first chatbot (called ELIZA) was developed by Professor Joseph Weizenbaum in the 1960s. Chatbots regained their popularity with the introduction of WeChat in China. People could create chatbots on the platform, but they weren't as sophisticated as those available today on apps like Facebook Messenger.
In 2016, Facebook introduced the option for Chatbots on Messenger , ushering in a new wave of chatbots incorporating artificial data technology into their design. There are two types of chatbots you can use to log into Facebook Messenger: one that can only respond to specific commands and another that works on the basis of machine learning, which recognizes languages and languages, meaning that he "learns" and adapts.
Why you should use Facebook Messenger Chatbot
Besides the ability to assist customer service functions (responding to general queries), chatbots can be programmed to do a lot of other things. You can use chatbots to sell products, deliver personalized content (as Sephora and Forever 21 are known), and even use chatbots to help collect payments.
While you can use chatbots on other platforms, Facebook can get a lot of credit for reintroducing them into the public consciousness (due to its large user base). As a result, chatbots are mostly associated with messaging apps, giving rise to a new kind of marketing known as marketing by courier.
Le marketing Instant Messaging is simply marketing to your customers using a messaging app. The concept is quite similar to email marketing, where you create a list of contacts, send them targeted/personalized content and aim to convert them into customers.
What differentiates messenger marketing from email marketing is that responses are more instantaneous and the exchanges are more conversational (emails tend to be more formal).
Here are some additional reasons why you should use a Facebook Messenger chatbot:
The base of the big users of Messenger Marketing
According to Business Insider Intelligence, the top four messaging apps are bigger than the top four social media networks - and that was in 2015!
In September 2017, Facebook Messenger reached on average 1,3 billion monthly users, against 1,2 billion in April of the same year. To put this in context, Instagram vient de reach 1 billion users in June 2018. More and more conversations between people and businesses will migrate to email platforms.
Also, people are reacting to chatbot technology. More than 1,4 billion people have interacted with a chatbot in 2016, and as chatbots and messaging apps continue to gain popularity, you can expect that number to continue to increase.
Currently, there are approximately 100 000 chatbots on Facebook , against over 30 000 in 2016.
Messenger Marketing is more conversational
Email can be personalized, but not as much as chatbots.
Email is static: you group people by a similar characteristic (maybe they clicked on a particular link or belong to a particular age group). You send a mass email to this list and hope that all the work you do to analyze their behavior will eventually be converted into a purchase.
And let's not forget the elephant in the room when it comes to email marketing: people are becoming weary by inboxes oversaturated to the point where they hesitate to sign up for even an email newsletter. On that note, even if you've already convinced someone to receive your emails, that doesn't necessarily mean they'll open them.
Additionally, fewer people are subscribing to mailing lists due to the extra work required to confirm double participation; it's easier to open a Facebook Messenger thread. Ubisend has found that 45,8% of consumers would prefer to communicate with a company via an email application than by email.
With chatbots, the conversation is on. Audiences are able to receive personalized recommendations on the spot, based on their response to the bot, leading to higher engagement and retention rates.
Messenger marketing has high participation rates
Did you know that chatbots have open rates as high as 88%? Average email open rates are just 18% across all industries.
According to a study by Hubspot, 47% of consumers would buy an item from a chatbot, and 26-36 year olds would be willing to spend up to $ 635 on a business through a chatbot interaction. Additionally, Hubspot found that 37% of consumers would rather buy items through a business's Facebook page than their website.
3 brands that use messenger marketing
Chatbots are rapidly gaining popularity. In fact, it is predicted that by 2020, 80% of businesses will have implemented some form of chatbot automation.
Before you put your chatbot on a leash, it's important to make sure your chatbot is working properly. According to DigitasLBi, 73% of Americans said they would not use a company's chatbot after a bad experience.
To inspire you in messenger marketing, here are some companies that have been very successful with chatbots:
Ebay
eBay first used Messenger chatbots to remind customers of their auctions that are about to expire. They eventually extended this technology to introduce Shopbot, which functions as your own personal shopping assistant.
Shopbot lets you check the site for current trending products, and can even help you find a specific product you want to purchase. All you need to do is type in the details of what you're looking for and the bot will ask relevant questions until you find the item you're referring to.
You can also choose to take a photo of something similar to what you're looking for and then send it to Shopbot. Additionally, Shopbot is the kind of chatbot that learns over time - the more you chat about it, the better able it is to recognize your preferences.
Since the first introduction of Shopbot, eBay has found that users were three times more likely to inquire about its products via Shopbot than on the market.
Pizza Hut
Image source
Did you know that Pizza Hut has sold his first pizza online before Amazon sells its first book? According to their twitter account , they sold their first online pizza in 1994 and continue to push the limits in this space.
Since August 2016, customers can order pizzas while chatting with Pizza Hut via Twitter or Facebook Messenger. Customers can connect their Facebook and Pizza Hut accounts so that the robot can see past orders and easily access delivery information. The bot can also give answers to frequently asked questions and information about their latest promotions.
Thanks to this method, Pizza Hut facilitates the ordering of pizzas, which helps to improve sales, especially among impulsive consumers.
Trim
( source )
Trim is a financial startup that helps you take charge of your finances by identifying areas where you could save money. They first launched their SMS chatbot in 2015 and later expanded to Facebook Messenger.
The bot works with a simple principle: it scans your invoices for recurring subscription fees and asks if you want to cancel a subscription. All you need to do is answer "cancel gym" or "cancel Netflix" and they will do it for you. Their unsubscribe bot has become very popular on Messenger, introducing new users to the brand, with a retention rate of 94%.
Currently the bot is not making any money directly, but the retention rate is an important measure to note.
Facebook Messenger Ads
With a slightly different approach to Facebook chatbots, Facebook also introduced Messenger Ads towards the end of 2017.
For Facebook, that made sense for two reasons:
- The growing popularity of messaging platforms (of which Facebook has two: Messenger and WhatsApp) and their high engagement rates
- Facebook is tightly integrated with Facebook Messenger
Facebook started offering ads that split the Messenger home screen, but this feature has also evolved to give brands the ability to send sponsored messages to users who have previously messaged their business.
Here is a breakdown of the current options of Facebook Messenger Ads:
- Messenger Home : announcements that appear on the Messenger home screen.
- Sponsored messages : appear in the Messenger inbox as a brand message.
- Click-to-Messenger : announcements linked to a Messenger conversation window. These appear on Facebook and not on Facebook Messenger.
Tommy Hilfiger is an example of a company that successfully uses Facebook Messenger ads. With their chatbot TMY.GRL , they launched a series of click-to-Messenger photo and video ads featuring products that we just saw on the runway. When users clicked on the ad, the chatbot could help them with their purchases.
The best 6 tools of Bot Facebook Messenger
With a variety of Facebook Messenger bot tools on the market, you can't tell if you can actually build a chatbot from the platform itself, and you can even find plugins to integrate the chatbot into your. WordPress site. That said, it's a bit more complicated compared to the rest of the tools that will be featured below. If you're up for the challenge, Facebook has plenty of resources, such as how-to guides, case studies and forums, to help you in your DIY process.
If you prefer to use a pre-built tool, here are some of the best ones to build your Facebook Messenger bot, coding knowledge is totally optional:
ManyChat
ManyChat is a tool that allows you to easily create a Facebook chatbot in just 2 minutes. It allows you to build a chatbot for marketing, sales and support functions without coding experience through a visual drag and drop builder. All you have to do is connect your Facebook page to ManyChat!
Additionally, ManyChat offers all the tools you need to convert your audience into subscribers, such as auto sequences, autoresponders, instant notifications, broadcasts, and more. Once you sign up for a ManyChat account, you have access to a free video training course which will guide you in creating a chatbot.
MobileMonkey
If you want to integrate e-commerce with Facebook Messenger, MobileMonkey (formerly ChattyPeople) is the best platform to do this. You can easily create chatbots without coding knowledge. Integrations with tools like Shopify can help you monetize a fan page, but you can also use MobileMonkey for the simpler purpose of answering customer service questions. MobileMonkey offers a limited free plan if you want to give it a try before you dive head first into messaging marketing.
Smooch
Smooch is more of a chatbot connector that bridges the gap between your business apps and different messaging platforms (like Slack, Facebook Messenger). Messages from your messaging app will be sent to the business app, consolidating all conversations into one app for a smoother workflow.
In addition, Smooch connects your software with data from other sources (voice assistants, CRM, e-mail, SMS, social messaging platforms, etc.), to enrich the profile of each customer, putting each conversation in context. .
Suites
Sequel is a platform that lets you create bots for Facebook, Kik, Viber, and Telegram. What's great about Sequel is that it makes it easy to create bot using multiple templates like StoryBot, GameBot, PublisherBot, PersonalBot, and ChatterBot. Of course, you also have the option of designing your own bot, with or without a template!
Chatfuel
Chatfuel promises that you will be able to build a fully functional robot without coding, all in 7 minutes. One of the best things about Chatfuel is that it's free until your first 500 monthly active users. Chatfuel is used by trusted brands like Adidas, Buzzfeed, TechCrunch, and MTV.
Botsify
Botsify is another Facebook chatbot platform which is ideally used for customer service functions. Some of its notable features include website integration (to get even more cross-platform support from your chatbot) and an easy drag-and-drop template designer. Botsify is recognized by big brands like Apple and Shazam.
Final reflections
Customers expect quick responses from businesses and turn to messaging platforms to facilitate a connection. Chatbots are the fastest, most cost-effective way to connect these parties, with a higher engagement rate than email. Fortunately, there are tons of tools you can use to build chatbots, even without coding experience.
