Make no mistake, when Facebook opened its Facebook Messenger architecture, the marketing world went crazy. Prior to this point, if somebody tries to reach you through your Facebook page, you basically have to either be physically available, or run the risk that your brand will suffer.
Facebook chat functionality and the logistics behind it was, to put it kindly, a strictly touch and go affair. When FB decided to open up its system and allow for Messenger automation, this opened a whole new chapter in the brave new world of AI-assisted customer support and marketing. This move made chatbotautomation. It is definitely one trend whose time has come. Say good-bye to clunky AI. Say Adios to weak brand-killing customer interaction. Customers no longer have to wait. They can get the answers to their questions about your business just like they get their pizza-as soon as possible. No wonder people are excited about FB messenger chat automation!
You have to understand that we live in a 24/7 world. You don't really know where your customers are going to come from. While you may have a fairly local focus, your customer may actually be traveling and calling you from a timezone. What do you do when they can't interact with you or get information precisely at the time when they are most interested in your service or merchandise?
It's no surprise that a lot of otherwise solid brands were faced with a hard decision. They either had to hire people at call centers, or have dedicated staff in order for their brand to be more responsive. Their other alternative was simply to just give a fixed time as to when they will be available.
If you've ever needed customer support, you probably know that this is not good enough. You don't want to try to reach and learn the hard way that the peopl you are trying to get a hold of are not available. You definitely would be more open to their competitors. A lot of businesses were put in a serious competitive disadvantage because of this Facebook chat limitation.
With the new and improved Facebook messenger, brands can set up chatroids. These are sophisticated pieces of software that allow you to respond to your customers on a 24/7 basis.When they reach out to you, you can send them back an automated response along with certain trigger words.
When they enter those trigger words, you can then send them back a follow-up message that is directly tailored to their inquiry.This saves a lot of time, it definitely saves tremendous amount of money, and it gives you a means to communicate with them without eroding their trust in your brand.
In fact, if you play this right, you can turn your Messenger chatbot interactions into a sales opportunity. If you are still unclear as to why Facebook Messenger automation using bots is so revolutionary, here are five key reasons.
Marketers, regardless of whether they're promoting an established business, a struggling online business, or an startup, cannot afford to neglect or overlook of Facebook Messenger chatbot marketing and customer support.
Automate your prospect interactions
Regardless of whether you are building brand visibility through Facebook comments on posts that use the Facebook comment plug-in, or you are active on niche-related pages or groups, you can pump this traffic to your Facebook Messenger chatbot. It all boils down to you engineering, or folding in a logical call to action into all your messaging activities online.
It may seem passive. It may seem like you're not dropping a link, but if you know what you're doing and you're building a tremendous amount of credibility and authority in your brand, people will be eager to find you. Turbocharge that process by making it very easy for people to find your direct Facebook Messenger link, get a hold of your brand.
Once their Facebook Messenger app opens, and they respond to your initial message, you can then filter them through different logic trees so as to give them the message that they're looking for, at precisely the time that they are more likely to act on it.
Use your direct messenger link on paid ads for instant, automated Messenger chat sessions. One of the most powerful ways to acquire new customers on Facebook, is to link your paid Facebook ad to your automated Messenger chat session. This means that when people respond to your ad, they probably would have a very narrow set of questions. You then set up a wide range of different answers to answer that fairly narrow range of questions. This way, you are marketing like you're shooting in a barrel; you know what to expect. It's not like people clicking on that link will have a very wide range of all inquiries. By limiting the focus of your ad, and framing the ensuing discussion in a fairly narrow way, you maximize the chances of that chat session leading to a positive outcome. Maybe you can get people to download a white paper. Maybe you can get people to sign up for your mailing list. Perhaps you can get them to convert on an actual low-dollar order page. Whatever your short-term objectives are, you can set the terms of engagement, and direction of the commercial conversation by simply showing the right ad and tying it with the right logic tree as far as your Facebook Messenger chatbot
Use your direct messenger link on paid ads for instant, automated Messenger chat sessions. One of the most powerful ways to acquire new customers on Facebook, is to link your paid Facebook ad to your automated Messenger chat session. This means that when people respond to your ad, they probably would have a very narrow set of questions.
You then set up a wide range of different answers to answer that fairly narrow range of questions. This way, you are marketing like you're shooting in a barrel; you know what to expect. It's not like people clicking on that link will have a very wide range of all inquiries.
By limiting the focus of your ad, and framing the ensuing discussion in a fairly narrow way, you maximize the chances of that chat session leading to a positive outcome. Maybe you can get people to download a white paper. Maybe you can get people to sign up for your mailing list. Perhaps you can get them to convert on an actual low-dollar order page.
Whatever your short-term objectives are, you can set the terms of engagement, and direction of the commercial conversation by simply showing the right ad and tying it with the right logic tree as far as your Facebook Messenger chatbot programming goes.
Promote your chatbot direct address on your total presence on Facebook
What do I mean by your total presence on Facebook? Believe it or not, if you do anything on Facebook, it is a form of marketing. Seriously, even if you are on a Facebook page, and you're leaving a comment, that's marketing. When people respond to you and you engage in a discussion, that is a marketing opportunity.
Everything is about marketing, and believe it or not, it does have an impact on your brand. If you tell people to buzz off, if you are unresponsive, if you're rude or disrespectful in any way, your brand will suffer. This is why it's a good idea to always tie whatever brand presence you have on Facebook with your chatbot link.
It shouldn't take too many clicks to get to your chatbot link. In fact, whether you are commenting on blog posts that use the Facebook comments plug-in, or you are commenting in specific areas on Facebook pages, or you are engaging with people in groups, call them to action. By constantly saying, "If you want to get a hold of me, click on my profile," You are calling people to action.
Once they click on your profile, your chatbot link should be front and center, or at least should be easily noticeable. Once you get people to click on that link, you can then engage with people on a one-to-one basis. At least this is the impression they get.
This makes your brand come alive. You're not just another selection out there. You're not just another face in the crowd. Instead, you have set in motion a series of responsive engagements that make them feel that they matter. Your chatbot makes them feel that they are important enough to you.
They might not necessarily buy from that engagement, but that's besides the point. If your brand makes somebody feel good, and their interactions with other brands are old and all too mechanical, who do you think they'll come back to? Who do you think they will try to refer to their friends and family members?
This is a no-brainer. So do yourself a big favor and make your total brand presence on Facebook revolve around your automated Facebook chatbot.
Use your chat bot address on all your non-Facebook marketing campaigns
Whether you're marketing on forms, sending out guest posts, sending out press releases, or you're doing any kind of alternative content marketing and outreach, make it easy for people to find your Facebook Messenger chatbot adress.
People have all sorts of concerns. Just as they can find your brand in many different parts of the internet. There has to be some sort of centralizing reception point, or centralized contact point for your brand. This is where your chatbot address comes in. As the old saying goes, "All roads lead to Rome," have the same mindset when it comes to your non-Facebook marketing campaigns.
Everything has to lead to your Facebook Messenger chatbot address. Maybe they read a very interesting article of yours on a forum.
Maybe they liked your response at a message board. Maybe you are answering a lot of questions on Quora, and they have a follow-up question. Maybe they liked your Reddit post and believe that you bring a lot of value to the table.
Whatever the specific form of the situation may be, you can always turn it from a simple request for additional information to a golden marketing opportunity. This should be your mindset, because the more you get people to see your chatbot address, the more opportunities you will give your brand to shine.
The best part to all of this is that you control the conversation. Sure, it is all inbound and initiated on the customer's end, but don't let that distract you from the fact that when somebody reaches out to you, you can redirect the conversation.
You can frame the conversation. This can lead to ever greater commercial opportunities.
Keep the reasons above in mind if you are still on the fence when it comes to Facebook Messenger chatbot automation. A lot marketers are scared off by new technology. A lot of people tend to draw blank the moment they read the word "bot." It's not as scary as you think. In fact, this is the future.
Artificial intelligence is here, and instead of running the risk of being left behind by your competitors, get on this bandwagon now. Please understand that as of this writing, there are more than 300,000 chatbots out there, and the number is increasing every single day. Thankfully, Facebook Messenger chatbots are still not saturated. It's still fairly novel. It is no surprise that their response rate is somewhere north of 80%.
Think about that; that figure blows away email marketing. So if you want a high level of responsiveness, and you want a free method of engaging with your potential or existing customers on a one-to-one basis, get your Facebook Messenger chatbot marketing blueprint by click.