In this article, I’m going to explain why building a facebook chatbot might be your marketing winning strategy.

Like or not, Facebook is still the most popular social media platform on the planet. The company has had great success with Facebook Messenger too, with 1.3 billion people using Facebook Messenger to send 20 billion messages every month.

That may come as no surprise, but you may not know that there are 300,000 active Messenger bots on Facebook.

What are these bots, why are they so popular and what do they achieve for the businesses that operate the bots? Read on to find out why it is so important to create a Facebook bot for marketing.

Introducing Facebook Messenger bots

Chatbots are applications that are programmed to understand human interactions. Typically using artificial intelligence (AI), chatbots can answer questions and execute tasks – placing an order, or changing shipping details, for example.

Customers use a conversational tone to describe what they need or what they want to know, and the chatbot uses AI and pre-programmed chatbot routines to analyse the user’s needs, responding with the right solution – or asking a question.

Yes, chatbots have been around for years, but the latest bots are more intelligent, more capable and more widespread. With new technology, talking to a chatbot can be just like a conversation with people.

In fact, you can find chatbots on most social media channels including, of course, Facebook Messenger bots.

Facebook chatbots are incredibly effective marketing tools

Taking the first steps to create a Facebook bot can deliver excellent marketing results. In fact, several sources prove that Facebook Messenger bots are incredibly effective, especially when compared to channels like e-mail.

One 2018 survey found that people are 3.5 times more likely to look at a message sent via Facebook Messenger compared to a standard marketing email.

You can achieve a lot when you have an audience that is so attentive. Consider the following for example:

1. Bots can handle e-commerce transactions
   
   With the right programming a bot can deal with a complete e-commerce transaction. If your Messenger bot can seal the deal it has two implications.
   
   

   First, your staff saves times and you save money as you remove the need to manually handle relatively simple orders, customers can just use the messenger button to place an order.

   Next, if you create a chatbot that can process orders you reduce the risk that a customer will drop off during the order process – either because they can’t reach customer service, or because they cannot find their way around your online store.

2. Find leads and warm up leads

   
   Identifying the customer leads that you really want to invest in is time-consuming work. You can create a messenger chatbot that does the work for you, asking the right questions and sending the most promising leads to humans to turn around into sales.

   Chatbots can also help warm up existing leads or work to retain customers that you may think you have lost. Real-time chatbots do this by automatically pulling up relevant customer information during the conversation.

3. Turn leads into real business
   
   Yes, chatbots can find hot leads amongst the hundreds of millions of Facebook users. However, your chatbots can also turn leads into profitable business.

   We’ve already pointed out how chatbots can take orders, but chatbots can also convince hot leads to turn into customers. The right call to action, including the offer of a trial, further information or a special discount can easily do the trick.

4. Deliver the care your customers expect

   We all know the typical customer care frustrations. Agents are unavailable, busy or unresponsive. Chatbots are the complete opposite: always online, and always informed.

   Artificial intelligence-enabled chatbots can carry the flag for your business, around the clock. Customer will know that your business is responsive, no matter what time of the day it is.

Of course, Messenger chatbots are not just about reducing your costs or about pulling off the hard sell on your customers.

Instead, you can build your chatbot to perform a soft sell too. To be the conversational side of your marketing, asking questions that touch on user problems and responding with helpful answers.

Messenger chatbots are a terrific way to build a closer and more human relationship with your customers without investing vast amounts of money in staff that do not necessarily deliver direct revenue.

How to create a Facebook Chatbot

Messenger bots can clearly deliver for your business, but how to create Facebook messenger bots? How do you get started with Facebook’s Messenger? 

Acquiring a chatbot is of course the first step. There are several chatbot vendors on the market many of who offer Facebook Messenger integration, but they’re not all the same.

Consider the following points when you pick a chatbot vendor:

• Your chatbot of choice needs to be intelligent, so you need a chatbot vendor that has AI training capabilities. Effective chatbots need capable natural language processing (NLP) too so that your customers can have fluent conversations.
• Particularly if you’re new to chatbots, look for a chatbot that offers an easy-to-use chat flow editor that makes it simple to add actions and operations, and to preview and debug your chatbot.
• Facebook Messenger is not the only effective channel for chatbots, check out chatbot vendors that can publish your chatbot across other channels including your website and WhatsApp.

The right chatbot is only the first step. You also need to think about the narrative you want to create. Some chatbot goals are straight forward – processing an order for example.

However, to get the most of chatbot marketing for Facebook Messenger you need to carefully think about what story you’re going to tell.

Storyboarding your chatbot is a good place to start, and consider including humour into the chatbot experience. After all, Facebook is a relatively informal customer environment.

We’re here to help

New to chatbots? Not sure how to create a Messenger chatbot? Xenioo has been in the chatbots business for years and we know the first steps can be challenging.

Our chatbot platform even includes a free plan which can get you started in no time, with fully featured plans available at a low cost.

Xenioo also offers chatbot functionality across all the common platforms, including Facebook Messenger bots. To get started, simply get in touch with us – either by signing up for a free account, or by contacting us. We’ll get you up and running with a Messenger bot in no time.