Using Facebook Messenger Bots Like a Boss

Facebook Messenger bots have become an indispensable part of the online marketing landscape. In other words: they have proven their worth for many brands. Yet there are still many companies that do not take advantage of this great opportunity.

Do you belong to the latter group, but do you want to change that in 2021? Keep reading and I’ll take you to step by step into the wonderful world of Facebook Messenger bots

What are Facebook Messenger bots?

Let’s start at the beginning. What is a Facebook Messenger bot anyway? And what exactly can you do with it?

In other words, why would you spend your precious time using such a bot?

For starters, one of the main reasons for creating a chatbot for many people is precisely to save time. At the most fundamental level, these bots offer a way to automate simple jobs and processes.

A chatbot is a piece of software that uses AI to conduct simple conversations with people.

Especially for customer service, this can save a lot of time and annoyance for both your employees and customers.

A Facebook Messenger bot is simply a chatbot that “lives” within Facebook Messenger. You can use this bot to further grow your Facebook and your Facebook Messenger marketing.

Why using Facebook messenger bots is a good idea

First of all, a Facebook chatbot offers your target group an accessible way to get in touch. This makes it a lot easier for people who are already active on Facebook to communicate with you.

In addition, it is still a fairly unexplored market. Because as said: there are still relatively few companies that make use of this.

While you can achieve a lot with a Facebook Messenger bot, such as:

• Reach your target audience directly. Where marketing emails usually go directly to a spam folder, the open rate of Facebook messages is usually higher.
• Relieve your customer service (and save yourself money). Because the simplest conversations are automated, you can lighten the workload for your customer service. Moreover, you are available day and night without having to use night shifts.
• Find interesting leads among the other users. A Facebook Messenger bot can help you identify the interesting leads among all users, so you can pay extra attention to them.
• Deal with e-commerce. With the right script, the bot can even take care of sales for you. Pleasant for your customers, because they do not have to leave the comfort of the familiar Facebook environment for it.
• Re-engagement of old customers. Because bots are good at remembering information like no other, you can use them to go that extra mile. For example, a bot can remind someone that he or she sent flowers to the mother-in-law around this time last year.

Creating a Facebook Messenger bot yourself: practical tips

Unsurprisingly, technology has made it easy to create a Messenger bot. You have to come a long way with the right tools.

Are you still unable to figure it out, or do you just want to brainstorm what I could do for you?

Please send an email (reach@outreachway.com). State what you want to achieve with your Messenger bot and what your question is exactly. Then I will contact you as soon as possible to think along with you.

To get you started, here are a few steps to go through for your own Facebook Messenger bot.

1. Choose your platform

You need a platform to build in the Facebook Messenger bot. You don’t do that on Facebook itself.

There are several platforms that can make building your chatbot easy. My favorites:

• Chatfuel
• Manychat
• MobileMonkey

With all these options you build an excellent Facebook Messenger bot. So it is a matter of your personal preference which one you choose. Fortunately, you often have a free trial period so you can try out what works for you. Nevertheless, I recommend that you think carefully beforehand so that you can get the right setup in one go.

The next steps may differ slightly per chosen platform but hopefully will give you the necessary inspiration for what to take into account.

2. Link your Facebook page

This usually happens automatically in the setup of your chosen platform, but it is of course very important to actually be able to show your bot in the future.

3. Choose your greeting

Then it is time to actually start making the bot. It starts with the welcome message that users see when a session begins.

This post will give your attendees an idea of ​​what to expect and what to do next. So this is a very important message.

4. The welcome message

You can make it even more personal with a welcome message when a conversation starts.

Here you can greet your visitor by name and further explain how he or she gets the most out of the chat session.

Think carefully about what you want to achieve with the chatbot and try to give the bot the voice of your company. How do you greet someone when you answer your company’s phone? What tone do you want to set for the conversation that will be started?

5. Remember the standard answer

A standard answer (referred to in the platforms as a “default reply”) is a response that the chatbot displays when the user’s question is not understood.

This is therefore an essential part of your Facebook Messenger bot because it helps your user when the chat threatens to deadlock. For example, you can:

• Ask to rephrase the question
• Refer to your customer service
• Refer to a contact form

6. Build

The further building of your Facebook Messenger bot is completely dependent on your organization and the goal you have with the bot. The mentioned platforms will in any case help you in the construction process, but the final design is of course up to you.

It can help to first sketch out what you want to achieve on paper. What is the ultimate goal that you want to move users towards? From that endpoint, reason back to the first contact option and determine what steps need to be taken to achieve it. What information do you need from the user to achieve the goal and what questions do you need to ask?

You will then request this information step by step.

The other way around is of course also possible: start from a few questions that are frequently received by customer service and build the automatic response sequence from there.

Also Read: 7 Facebook Marketing Tips for Small Business