Messenger Bots - the whole caboodle

Most of us use Facebook Messenger daily. The Messenger platform has had towering growth over the past years and is now the third biggest social network by users after its mother platform: Facebook and newly acquired Whatsapp. As we all know - but do not think enough about - where there are eyeballs marketers will attack. Until recently, Facebook's Messenger platform has been pretty shut for marketers. Nevertheless, recently Facebook has been pushing for Messenger ads and liberating their API this year. Marketers and Programmers have already attacked however it is an FMA (first-mover advantage) game still. Very few in the current market is utilizing the extensive features that are now available. And I am about to give you all the information you need to understand messenger bots, why they are excellent (for now at least) and what you can do with them to generate more sales, leads, biz dev or create amazing relationships with your customers.

Let's start with FMA (first-mover advantages) and why this concept is relevant in this case: 

If you were born in the 70's, you might remember email coming to the market in the late 90's. The people that jumped on would be categorized as early birds and early-adopters. Being one and executing to the fullest extent would include several perks: Underpriced eyeballs and ears from potential customers, little to no competition in the marketplace both for content and ad-biddings as well as stronger attention from end users towards your content due to less "abundance of content in the market space." 

The people that did it right were able to generate massive ROI across all aspects of business - not only monetary. Hence they were able to win and continue winning through 2000 and beyond. Facebook Messenger Bots is an FMA-type-game right now. Meaning all these benefits can be gained by anyone jumping on and executing. Let's dive deeper into the Messenger Bots world: 

Liberating the API and why you should care 

Facebook has announced that they are liberating their API for the messenger platform. In my opinion, this is mainly due to that they want more creative stuff happening on Messenger beside just conversation-based actions. They have introduced games on the platform and is pushing for video/photo content as well as audio and not only written conversations - from a user to user standpoint but also in groups and invitation-like systems.

How can your company or brand put relevant content in front of the user on the Messenger platform? This is a key question to ask, and it can be in any medium, shape or form. As of relevance to this article, the liberating of the messenger API means a lot for bots as well. You will now be able to mass-send messages with a set, yet flexible format to comment on posts, Auto-respond to messages, provide offers based on customers/consumers askings, and much more. Solely through third party tools though Facebook has several features already built into the platform as of today. 

General ROI - What can you expect from messenger Bots? 

Probably before you read more, you would like to know the ROI of Messenger Bots. Let's go back to the email example. In 1998, being an early adaptor, your Open rate would sound something like 60% and your CTR (Click Through Rate) might have been something like 30% or even as high as 70%+. Depending on the business, niche, market. You can and might expect the same results with your Messenger bots campaign. And to be quite frank, I think you can expect even better Open Rates and CTR with Messenger bots due to the fact that "tech" isn't as new as in 1998. And Messenger is different; it is personal. 

The circle effect - Email is back! 

Yes as you have read above and as clearly stated in this title - Email is back! Keep this in mind when running Facebook Bots Campaigns. How can you take your adequate, old school email knowledge and deploy it into this "new" medium and execute adequately. It's different, but having info and experience at hand can make a difference in a fast paced world. 

Messenger bots for comments on posts (comment bots) 

This is where things get interesting. If you have been doing Facebook ads, you know there is significant ROI. Messenger Bots are free (or very cheap at least, often under $40 a month). I recommend using either: ManyChat or MSG Hero. But ManyChat is my favorite by far. 

Facebook Comment Bots works in a way that you can set up a bot that automatically scans comments on your post or FB advert and hence the bot sends out messenger content to everyone commenting on a selected post or anyone that you choose should receive a message by choosing set variables. 

This is such a powerful tool, and I know for a fact that several businesses are going to build their business on the backbone of Facebook Messenger bots like companies did with Email back in 1998, AdWords in the early 2000 and like people have done with Facebook marketing in the past years.

Facebook Posts or Facebook ads?

So before we dig deeper into the practicality and the different ways of doing Messenger Bots let's discuss where you should deploy time and capital. Regarding commenting bots - should you choose Adverts (dark posts) and/or Facebook posts on your business FB Page? The answer is both. It depends on your objective and goal in mind as well as industry. Do your business have a lot of organic traffic and engagement from a regular Facebook Post? Then you should set up messenger bots campaign that put value and relevant information/content in front of the commenters. Bringing them value and a "thank you note" for engaging with your business is incredibly powerful. This can be simply a thank you note, a coupon code, an article or just simply starting a conversation with your audience. 

On the other hand, do you have little organic traffic on your page, and few page likes? Then I suggest focusing on deploying the Messenger Bot towards Dark Posts - Facebook Ads. However, I would recommend working on increasing the organic reach, and the presence of your Facebook Page through using Messenger Bots as well. 

leads & Direct Sales 

You might want to use Messenger Bots only to gain leads, or you might be using it instead of cold-emailing or even direct sales or conversions. Regardless of what you think is the best strategy and what you want to optimize for. This is how you can generate leads via a messenger bot set-up: 

Go to ManyChat and set up a Comment Bot. Run a Facebook dark post or regular post on your wall. Try to formulate your general descriptive, CTA and requirements in a way that incentivizes the end user to comment on your post/ad. In the sent out message, you can push for some of the following marketing objectives: 

- Email signup

- Article views

- Purchase conversions

- App installs 

- video views 

I would recommend adding UTM Parameters to the URLs to measure the results in Google Analytics (GA). 

Facebook contests

Are you running a lot of contests on your Facebook Page? Are you receiving hundred's if not thousands of comments on contests you're running? Why not follow up and provide value upfront via sending a message to the people taking part in the competition through using a bot? Let's look at an example: 

Say you are selling vitamin water. Regularly you have contests where you give away 24 Vitamin Waters to the winner. You might be a big or small business. Regardless you are hitting culture perfectly and do have a high organic reach on your Facebook Page. Numbers are, usually about 5k+ comments on FB posts. Most of the people commenting are interested in your brand and do care. They wouldn't comment on a contest about Vitamin Water if they didn't relish the product to some extent. 

Moreover, using a Messenger Bot, you could auto send a message to everyone taking part in the contest after they have commented; providing them value up front. You can even set a timer, so they receive messages after you have chosen a winner. It is important to understand that, with messenger bots, you can actually engage with your customers, not only through content but also directly in their messenger inbox. 

Biz dev like a king 

Do you want to biz dev and network on Social Media. Why not set up an advert targeting people interested in cooking for instance and do something like this: 

Can you hire people with messenger bots, I say YES! 

Now I am really getting into my creative mindset here, but I mean with Messenger Bots the opportunities are just endless. I am pretty sure you can hire people with messenger bots and - quite frankly - It's probably more efficient than many of the current state of the art HR Tactics (no offense). Especially if you are struggling with reach!