7 Ways To Use Facebook Chatbots For Marketing and Sales

There are more than 1.3 billion active users of Facebook Messenger worldwide. That’s about 18% of the World’s population.

This widespread adoption is why so many businesses now view Facebook messenger as a crucial channel for communicating with their customers and potential clients. It’s a huge reason there have been so many social media tools built around this channel.

There are various marketing trends to watch out for when it comes to technology and automation. Communicating with your leads using Facebook messenger has some big advantages over more traditional marketing channels like email and phone. One such advantage is the use of chatbots for marketing. Chatbots are automated programs that engage your prospects and customers in interactions that can feel surprisingly human.

Chatbots are easy to set up and can help you increase customer satisfaction while saving you both time and money (here’s how to build a chatbot). They are also easy for your customers to use and many people prefer interacting with a chatbot instead of calling a representative on the phone, especially for simple questions.

This does not mean all chatbots need to be simple. Using chatbots for sales activities normally conducted by humans is a great way to gain an edge over your competition. Keep reading for 7 innovative ways you can configure a chatbot to grow your business.

It used to be a lot easier to find users to engage with your Facebook posts. In 2018 alone, total likes, comments, and shares across Facebook fell 50% compared to the year before. This is a big problem because social proof is such an important element of your marketing.

With engagement getting more difficult, it’s important to get the most out of each prospect that engages with your posts. That’s where an auto-responding chatbot comes in to play. By configuring your bot to automatically respond to users who comment, you can start the relationship off on the right foot without having to lift a finger.

Even better, once someone responds to your bot, they will be added to your page’s messenger contacts for easy follow up, either automated or manually.

Note that Facebook does require you to disclose the auto-responder in your initial post. A good example of how to do this would be to write something like “Comment to this post and receive a 10% off coupon in messenger.” This is one of the most effective ways to use chatbots for sales.

If you are making a chatbot for sales, you may want to consider having it act as a gift finder. A gift finder is the chatbot equivalent of an associate in a retail store who provides friendly guidance to a customer about which products to buy.

The result is not only an increase in conversions but also an increase in overall order value as the bot can naturally suggest additional products and upsells to the customer’s purchase.

The gift finder is such a natural use of the chatbot because it simulates the powerful interaction between a customer and a salesperson in a store. This is a true win-win as it increases your sales and leaves your customers feeling much more confident in their purchases with you.

Chatbots are not just for enticing new customers, they are also an ideal way to keep in contact and reward your existing customers. Studies have shown that a 7% increase in customers using a loyalty program can mean an 85% increase in lifetime customer value.

Fig : Customer Loyality Program

There are three main benefits of using chatbots as part of your customer loyalty program.

Forget punch cards that are easily lost or asking your customers to download a whole app on their phone just to join your loyalty program. By integrating a chatbot, joining your loyalty program is as simple as sending a Facebook message, something most of your customers do daily.

When your customers interact with your chatbot for their loyalty rewards, they will be having a life-like conversation and the bot will have all of their information available instantly. The result of this is your customers feeling like they have a private concierge at your company.

Anytime a customer chooses to interact with your chatbot, it opens a 24-hour window where you are free to reach out to your prospect with a promotional message. This means every time a customer checks their loyalty program information, you can also make sure they receive a message with your most current offers and promotions.

If you’ve ever developed a lead magnet for your business, you know it can be a struggle to generate interest. At best, typically between 10% to 20% of visitors to a landing page will input their email to receive a free piece of information. This means 80%-90% of all the money you spent to get those visitors is wasted.

Once a user makes the first click to engage with your chatbot. You instantly capture them as a lead. You have their first and last name, their location and most importantly, you have a foolproof way to contact them. This means that every single engagement with the bot is a lead, that’s a 100% conversion rate!

It is not very often to see people consider the efficacy of qualifying leads as hot leads or cold leads in business and online marketing. Of course, not all leads are created equal. Subpar leads can waste a lot of time for your sales team. That’s why a chatbot is a perfect tool for qualifying potential customers before any human resources come into play.

This qualification process can be as simple as having the bot ask questions like “Are you planning to buy a new car in the next 6 months?” to a more complex, branching interview with several outcomes. Using chatbot decision trees, you can engage your prospects in a very detailed interview, having the bot ask only the appropriate questions based on their previous responses.

Running a contest is one of the most fun and dynamic uses of chatbots for marketing. A contest is also one of the fastest ways to grow your messenger list and encourage viral growth. The chance to win something from your business makes readers of your post much more likely to take the first step of interacting with your bot.

The cons of using a chatbot for running contests is that you may end up with a lot of weaker leads who simply signed up for their chance to win a prize, but have no real interest in buying from you. That’s why it’s important to pair this method with some of the other techniques on this page for qualifying and warming up leads.

From a technical standpoint, chatbots are easy to set up. The real magic lies in the messages themselves. It’s important to make sure that the things your bot is saying reflect the impression you want your prospects to have about your business. Using the methods above, you can make sure that your leads receive personal service, without you having to spend the time or money.