MARKETING TECHNOLOGY
Messenger Bot Funnels: How to Nurture Prospects Toward a Sale
A practical guide to chatbot technology
Many people know that chatbots are effective customer support tools. They can be integrated into Messenger to provide customers and prospects with the assistance they need. However, most people don’t know that bots can also be used to create efficient marketing funnels.
Messenger chatbots have gone through a great evolution. In fact, they are now being considered as the next big thing in business, and these considerations are quite deserved.
These tools and the AI power behind them are simply getting smarter on a daily basis. And as huge innovations are being realized in the industry, businesses are being provided with more strategic and exciting ways to utilize them, chief of which are marketing and sales.
While bots were not created to replace humans, their potential in bridging the gap between brands and consumers is immeasurable. Many companies realized this early on and they are enjoying the benefits that come with utilizing chatbots.
It’s not too late for you, though.
In this article, we’ll be showing you how to nurture your prospects towards a sale using Messenger funnels.
The importance of Messenger bots
The vast majority of your prospects are already using Facebook Messenger. You just need to move your brand closer to them by utilizing the platform they choose to communicate with.
Next, you figure out how your products and services can benefit from using Messenger bots. Once you have that figured out, incorporate the bot into your sales and marketing strategy.
Many people believe that email marketing is enough for them. What they don’t know is that typically only 20% of their recipients open the emails they send. And fewer than 5% actually click to check the content or offers.
Facebook Messenger, on the other hand, provides you with 90% open rate as well as 30% click-through rate. Even if you are satisfied with your email list, there’s no harm in supplementing it with bots. You can use both together to achieve more.
In fact, you can use your bot to collect emails so you don’t put your eggs in one basket. Every marketer knows that Facebook is very possessive about their platform. They control everything. If they do not like your business, they can shut your page down. And since your bot works with your page, it will go down with it, albeit not totally.
For this reason, it is important that you collect your users’ emails via Messenger. This will enable you to contact them through email as well as Messenger. The major benefit here is that if one platform goes down, the other stays online. You can even ask your prospects/subscribers for their mobile numbers so you can send them SMS and enhance communication.
Using your Messenger bot to interact with users is quite different from how you use your Facebook Page and email.
First off, the database of your bot doesn’t reside on Facebook. Instead, it lives on chatbot platforms such as ManyChat and Chatfuel. This is why your bot won’t go down totally if Facebook brings your page down.
Secondly, when you talk to people via Messenger bot, you are aware of who they are, unlike in your Facebook page where everyone is just lumped together.
So how do Messenger bot funnels work?
The concept of a Messenger bot funnel is quite similar to that of a marketing campaign you run with tools like Active Campaign or Drip.
This concept relies on the utilization of a sequence of automated messages to achieve a conclusion. The primary aim is to use a message, like a lead magnet offer, to drive people into your funnel. Then you use subsequent messages to drive them through a journey which leads to conversions or a conclusion.
At the beginning of a Messenger funnel, you get high click-through rates and engagement. Further down the funnel, you’ll continue to get these elements as users engage with your bot based on their preferences.
For instance, let’s assume you are selling a product with different colors. You can ask your users what their favorite colors are and your bot will show them products that match their answers.
With an email, however, the numbers decrease as you go down the funnel. This is because email does not offer the unique segmentation and engagement offered by chatbots. Email is a passive platform while Messenger is more of an active platform.
Additionally, chatbot platforms like Chatfuel and ManyChat provide marketers with open rate data. This data is based on the number of messages sent and the times they are opened.
A Messenger chatbot is interactive as users engage with it like they are chatting with friends. Instead of sending long form messages as you do with emails, you can divide your message into shorter sentences that makes it look like a normal chat.
These sentences usually contain the most important detail of your message. And you can add a button after every two or three messages to see the extent of engagement.
Messenger bots have no spam filters like email. Instead, your consumers or prospects have total control on when/if they want to see or stop the messages.
There are no Messenger lists for sale. Users need to opt-in before brands and businesses can talk to them. And users also have control over when they want to opt out.
Nurturing your funnel
Freebies: Before you can nurture your funnel, you’ll have to get users into the funnel. And in order to do this, you need to offer your prospects some freebies, which is usually in PDF.
Everybody loves freebies, especially when they are useful. Offering your prospects useful and insightful eBooks, advice, videos, etc. will allow you to get a large audience into your funnel.
You can ask interested users to leave a comment under the freebie post on your page. Or you can add your Messenger chatbot link to your ads. However you plan to go about it, always ensure that you clarify that the freebie would be sent via Messenger.
Once a user clicks on your link, the Messenger app opens. Your bot will greet and ask them if they really want the freebie. Facebook does not like clickbait and this two-step verification is part of their terms and policies.
Second Lead Magnet: This process is usually automated via the bot. Once a user accepts, downloads, or opens your freebie, the bot would wait for a couple of seconds or minutes (depending on your preference) and send the user a second lead magnet. If your user wants this second lead magnet, they’ll click a button that clarifies this, and your bot sends them the next freebie.
You need this step in order to make your user is comfortable. Your bot should not feel like it’s trying to sell. Instead, it should make the session interactive and engaging.
Doing this is the only way your prospects would feel comfortable enough to listen to what you have to say. Most users will take up to three freebies before being convinced.
Nurturing: This is where you tell your Messenger list about your product/service and show them proof of how it works.
First, you need to ask them something in the lines of “Hey, did I tell you about how my two of my students made $5000 last week?” Since they are already comfortable with you, many of them would be interested.
They’ll ask you for details and you can send them the story in short, simple sentences. As they continue to engage with you, asking different questions, the bot must continue to provide them with answers.
Note that every answer must be given in Messenger and users must not be diverted to a blog post or website. Facebook does not like that.
Another important thing to note is to add a typing delay to your messages. Remember that the session must feel interactive. Don’t overwhelm your prospect with 5 or 10 blocks of messages at once.
Ensure that your bot uses tags to track the responses provided by each user. These tags ensure that you don’t use the same message sequence more than once. When you ask your user the same set of questions five different times, your bot will feel like a stupid automation system. The tags, however, allows you to send unique content to your users.
You can then organize a webinar to show them proof or talk about your product/service. Interested users will be asked to send their emails so as to get the time and date. Your bot will confirm the emails and names of each user. And with custom integrations like Zapier, you can connect Messenger with your webinar platform.
Many users won’t want to enter their name and email. Therefore, you need to set up your bot to use the users’ responses to automate their registration process and set up unique webinar URLs for each user.
The bot can also be used to set up reminders to ensure that more people attend the webinar. Also, it can send your users their unique webinar URL so they can join you easily.
Zapier monitors the activities that are carried out on the chatbot platform as well as on Messenger. Therefore, if a user buys your product after the webinar, you’ll see the data on the chatbot platform. Zapier is able to do this due to the Messenger ID. Without the Messenger ID, you cannot communicate with your chatbot platform from your webinar platform and vice versa.
This simply means that without a custom integration tool like Zapier, you won’t get the data of those who bought your products after the webinar through the chatbot platform as emails cannot be used to make these returning connections.
For webinar platforms that do not integrate with Zapier, you can use a custom integration to connect the webinar’s API to your chatbot platform’s API.
To wrap up: Facebook Messenger marketing will be a crucial marketing channel for businesses across a variety of industries, for the foreseeable future.
