Botsheets is a Google Sheets CMS for Chatbots
Simply enter your data into Google Sheet templates to generate dynamic content for Facebook Messenger.
As Co-founder of AI management company, Janis.ai, our goal has been to make it easier for businesses to manage their conversational experiences by connecting the tools they already use, so I was obviously intrigued by Botsheets, a content management system for chatbots powered by Google Sheets. While you can use Google Sheets as a lightweight database for Chatbots using products like Integromat or Zapier, the real magic is in Botsheet templates. Simply enter data into a Botsheet Google Sheet template and it works like magic, dynamically generating galleries, buttons, images, and other content for Facebook Messenger.
Botsheets, in theory, could be connected directly to a Facebook page, but it launched as a content management system for Manychat, a popular bot making tool for marketers on Facebook. That, in my opinion, is a great “Bot Stack“. Messenger provides a channel with access to nearly 2 billion monthly users, Manychat provides marketing and CRM tools for Messenger, while Botsheets provides a CMS for Messenger.
Bot tools like Manychat make it easy to set up a Chatbot, but managing bot content can be a real pain, especially frequently changing content, and or content you need served from a database and don’t have a database or the technical skills to manage one. Whether you want to make simple data requests from a Google Sheet, or build sophisticated chatbots, Botsheets makes content management easy.
Manychat provides marketers with a “Flow Builder” which makes it easy to create marketing funnels and visualize how users will interact with your bot, but as soon as you have multiple content options, and want to tag users, or set user attributes in Manychat’s CRM it can get really messy and hard to manage. So, think of Manychat’s flow builder as a visualization tool to create funnels, while you can think of Botsheets as a tool to manage content for those funnels. See the difference?
What can you do with Botsheets + Manychat?
✅ Save time with Google Sheet templates. Enter text or {{custom user fields}} into cells and it works like magic.
✅ Generate dynamic galleries for Messenger from your data in Google Sheets. Customize every element of your gallery cards.
✅ Enable bots to search for data in a Google Sheet and generate dynamic galleries as search results in Messenger.
✅ Update cells and delete rows easily by sending simple actions built into your chatbot. You can use Manychat’s native Google Sheets integration in conjunction with Botsheets
✅ Add locations to a Google Sheet and your bot will generate a gallery ranked by nearest distance to users.
✅ Super fast performance up to 10,000 rows. Botsheets connects directly to Manychat flows through dynamic requests.
✅ Link to flows, websites, tag users, and set custom user fields all from Google Sheet cells
✅ Chat Marketing agencies can easily let their clients manage bots without ever giving access to Manychat. Just share a Google Sheet!
This video sums up the core value proposition for Botsheets:
Getting Started
Botsheets is simple enough for anyone to start using and benefiting from right away, but powerful enough that you can build sophisticated chatbots and manage just about everything from Google Sheets. You can get started in 3 simple steps:
Step 1: Get a Botsheets Key
You’ll need a key to activate your Botsheets integration, so you can grab a key and save it somewhere. You can use one key with an unlimited number of chatbots.
Step 2: Get a Botsheets Template
You’ll need a Google Sheet template that will automatically format your data for Messenger. There are free templates for different niches and engagement templates so you can add gamification to retain and reward your customers. Each Botsheet template includes a Google Sheet with data examples, and a Manychat template with example flows that communicate with the Google Sheet template.
Step 3: Learn how to use Botsheets
Learn how to add manage data from Google Sheets and request data from your Manychat flows. You can make simple requests, or create sophisticated multi-step search requests, generate dynamic galleries for search results, build games and more!
What does it cost?
Botsheets is free to use, but your Botsheets key has a limit on the number of requests you can make from Google Sheets. You’ll get 100 free requests each month which is suitable if you’re doing low volume, or have basic needs to retrieve and manage dynamic galleries. The first paid tier is just $19 / month which gives you a Botsheets key that supports 10,000 requests. For about the cost of a glass of wine, you’ll save time and money managing content from Google Sheets at scale, while delighting your customers with a highly engaging and dynamic conversational experience!
