80% of businesses would want chatbots by 2020. (Business Insider, 2016)
Just like people looking for someone they want to meet; they always end up finding the person at the place he or she chooses to be.
Facebook Messenger is the communication channel where most of your prospects are hanging out. It makes sense to reach them where they choose to be. Currently, there are 1.3 billion monthly active users worldwide on Facebook Messenger, with more than 100,000 monthly active bots on the platform. Building a funnel that nurtures prospects through Messenger chatbots is fast becoming an engaging and effective outreach technique for businesses. Facebook has also reported in their source that there are 2 billion messages between people and businesses every month and that 53% of people who message businesses are more likely to shop with a business they can message.
Why are Messenger Chatbots Important
Messenger chatbot funnels complement and improve upon email marketing. Using meaningful audience interactions and lead magnets can move people into an automated Messenger funnel.
To the people who don’t identify the purpose of using Messenger chatbots when they already have someone’s email address, it is important to know that only 20% of your recipients actually see what you have to say. Furthermore, less than 5% of these people click to see your offers or content. That, is a problem.
How Messenger Chatbot Funnels Work
The Messenger funnel is similar to those you have used, such as Aweber, GetResponse or Drip. Both use an automated sequence that trigger action. The goal of a business is to capture people into the funnel with a lead magnet (e.g. free report), then send them messages that take them through a journey with calls-to-action to convert into customers.
At the top of the funnel, the initial wave of people coming in are called cold traffic. They just want to see want you are all about and what you have to say. As you send them more messages and content in the journey, the number of people who remained engaged with you becomes smaller and smaller. Some might lose interest after a sale. Others might buy your product or service and continue engaging you until they become your retainer. This group of people are the ideal customers as they will be very eager to hear from you and consume your products or services.
When you run such a funnel through an email campaign, only a tiny percentage of people make it to the end. That will basically leave you with almost nothing if you don’t invest in a lot of marketing dollars getting cold traffic at the beginning. Businesses that spend more money into acquiring large number of cold traffic will enjoy more returns eventually, but that doesn’t mean they will achieve a good ROI. With a Messenger funnel, the high click rates at the start make the numbers down the funnel higher as well. The key reason is because your messages are broadcasted directly to their smartphones (if they are using a Facebook Messenger app). They will also receive the same messages if they are surfing Facebook or Messenger on the web. No need to intentionally open an email inbox and get the messages through a lot of cluttering.
What Ways Can Messenger Chatbots Help in Your Businesses
Messenger funnels have higher engagement because people in your funnel segment themselves by sharing their preferences as they engage with your chatbot. This will trigger action from the user. For example, the chatbot can ask them something like, “What’s your favourite type of food?” and users can choose Rice, Noodles or Low-carb. Your chatbot can show rice options to people who pick Rice. So, the people choose their own segmentation. You can also conduct quizzes to gamify your user experience. It is crucial to build engagement with your prospects so you will stand out as a brand. The chatbot will make the messaging process very conversational, just like speaking to a sales person. With each interaction the user has with your chatbot, their responses will be tagged and the data will be sent to Google Sheet. Retaining and managing your customers’ data based on their likes, interests and needs can help you position your products or services better.
We can break down these key features of a Messenger chatbot funnel with the acronym A.B.C.D. – Actionable Steps, Build Engagement, Conversational and Data-driven. This will make you understand how this great technique can help your business grow.
Globally, the Chatbot Market will surpass $1.34bn by 2024. Asia Pacific is anticipated to show the highest growth rate of 36% over the forecast timeline. (Global Market Insights, 2018)
Therefore, if you want your businesses to thrive and grow in a noisy marketing world, you have to catch your prospect where they choose to be, and automate the customer journey.
