Messenger Funnels News

Cast your mind back with me to the year 2014, when webinars were considered one of the most popular sales strategies for digital products and online courses.

The standard formula was as follows:

Facebook Ad —> Landing Page (maybe with Lead Magnet as a hook) to gain subscribers for registration —> Email Automation to warm up subscribers and increase attendance —> Live Webinar with “Intro, Content, Pitch” formula —> Sales rolled in!

In 2014, Leadpages alone did over 200 live webinars using this formula and created an amazingly successful SAAS (Software as a Service) product. Specifically, this part of Leadpages’ webinar formula for success in 2014 is what will help most in your webinar conversions today:

Later in this article, I’ll show you how this conversion tactic is the key to Messenger’s success with higher conversions in 2018!

Online business and marketing gurus told us to use this formula with our knowledge and expertise, even if we had no email list, no audience and no product to sell, and many people made money doing exactly that. A few made more than a bit! Most of us are still trying to make this formula work four years later.

Then came automated webinars, and the game changed again.

Once your live webinar converted well, you could turn that video into an evergreen webinar, and all you needed to do was continually send prospects to it to create a money making machine.

As with any marketing tool or tactic, as the public becomes aware of the formula, its “easy sale” effectiveness wanes. 

This is now happening with webinars.

We don’t even use the word webinar in our copy or ads any more. “Training” or “Masterclass” are the norm now, because we all sigh in exasperation when we think of signing up for another webinar, especially since we all know the formula, and don’t want to be sold!

Add to that the average open rate of 20%, and click through rate of 4.5% of email marketing (according to Mailchimp and their image below), and something’s gotta give if you want to continue profiting from webinars.

Don’t get me wrong… Webinars are NOT dead!

In fact, the webinar structure, itself is still one of the most effective ways to impart value and educate your audience.  It’s the whole “One to Many” philosophy that is used in video selling on landing pages and product/service launches.

As webinars, and marketing tactics in general evolve, we need to also evolve our process if we’re going to keep our businesses thriving.

There is a new structure and communication formula that is bringing back the good ole days of pre-2014, and here’s how we’re helping our client Alison J. Prince of 0-100K.com duplicate her automated webinar success each month without Facebook Ads.

Engagement is the Key

The evolution of communication through social channels has changed the game for online marketing, and it’s no surprise that Facebook is taking the lead.

Like all growing companies, Facebook needs to make money to stay in business, and it does that through ad revenue. However, Facebook is also fiercely protective of its user experience. Content that specifically encourages interaction and engagement between friends and followers is prioritized and promoted organically. The key to playing the Facebook game and winning is remembering Facebook’s mission statement which, in one word, is “connecting”.

Facebook started helping us change the webinar game when they opened the doors to Messenger as an automated communication tool in September, 2016.

So, let me show you how Messenger changes our 2014 webinar revenue success model, while also giving it rocket fuel!

Webinar Chatbot Case Study

Alison J. Prince had reached the 2 Comma Club in ClickFunnels in September, 2017 by producing over $1,000,000 in sales with her automated webinar using Facebook ads to get traffic to her sales funnel.

She heard about Messenger automation, and it’s high open and click through rates, and started diving into Manychat, to see if it could help her increase conversions.

Her email open rates were less than 20%, and her click through rates were less than 2%, so if she could increase the percentage of people engaging with her message, and clicking through to her webinar, she could increase revenue without having to spend more on ads. 

Alison and her team spent four months trying to set up a Messenger bot, but realized they were missing some critical pieces to get it to convert, so she came to us for help in creating a true Messenger Marketing and Sales Funnel – a Messenger Funnel.

Reminder Formula

We started by creating a “Reminder Sequence” for her automated webinar.

This is how it worked:

Facebook Ad —> Registration Landing Page —> “Get Reminders in Messenger” button on Thank You Page —> Simple Reminder Sequence in Manychat.

Attendance Increased by 30% immediately when we launched.

We put this reminder formula on hold over the holidays, and picked back up with an entirely different engagement formula in January, 2018.

Engagement First Formula

Facebook Live is one of the best marketing engagement tools available to businesses, and Alison embraced this one since her audience responds very well to her on camera personality (which also happens to be her off camera personality).

January 9, 2018, Alison started doing a weekly Facebook Live on her page with 12,000 followers. Each week she talks about one particular aspect of her eCommerce experience and success, and delivers that knowledge in a pdf lead magnet in the Messenger Funnel. That lead magnet delivers high level value on topics she covers in her online course – in other words, she doesn’t get into the weeds.

We created a warm up sequence in Manychat that was designed for engagement and free value, and which ultimately led to her evergreen webinar.  We connected that flow to a Facebook Comment Growth Tool, and sat back to watch what magic might happen.

As you can see, Alison offers not one, but TWO freebies before we invite subscribers to watch the webinar.  We also deliver the content based on the condition of an email in the custom field which triggers a zap through Zapier to ClickFunnels.  A tag on the button records who clicked to watch the webinar, so we can segment those people out later for a replay if they didn’t buy the course.

The difference between the previous webinar formula and the Engagement First Webinar Chatbot is that subscribers are engaged with free, high value content three times before we ever ask them to watch the webinar:

Since Alison’s course costs $997, you can do the math for weekly revenue.

Beyond the fact that this model performed so well after only 8 weeks, we need to talk specifically about how Engagement First has helped Alison’s reach on Facebook, and how this model continues to compound her success with her audience and prospects more than six months later.

Facebook Comment to Subscriber Tool

Using Manychat’s Facebook Comment Growth Tool in compliance with Facebook TOS (Terms of service) is what makes this model successful.

During her first few FB Live’s, Alison would ask viewers to comment with a specific word, but that is no longer Facebook best practices for marketing and engagement. Facebook might see that as “click bait” so please don’t do that!

Now, Alison asks her audience to share their views, opinions and experience relating to the topic of the week. We make sure that any comment on the selected post results in an opt in, not just one keyword. When these comments are posted, Messenger pops up and starts a conversation, which allows the prospect to become a subscriber.

This type of engagement is exactly what Facebook wants, so they smile on Alison, and give her an organic boost…. A 75% organic boost at that!

When we first started this Webinar Chatbot journey with Alison, she would boost the Facebook Live’s to increase the comments, and therefore, the opt ins. This is no longer necessary.

So, Alison’s Ad spend on her Messenger campaigns brought more organic traffic than paid, because she was doing what Facebook LOVES….. connecting. And, these boosts enjoy a $0.10 to $0.20 cost per subscriber

So, how do you think the Webinar Chatbot is performing for Alison 6 months in?

Do you see the true power of this model, yet?

Look at the data we are collecting here – look at the conversions based on the specific lead magnet offered. Does anything stand out?

We know what is working and what isn’t.  We know what lead magnets truly lead people to buy at a higher rate, and which perform just so-so.

We have also added some amazing conditional logic to our sequences that deliver specific information based on the value the prospect has already consumed – Facebook Live, lead magnets, and webinar. This has led us to gathering this amazing statistic:  It takes 2.8 lead magnets consumed to get a sale on Alison’s webinar.

All our Webinar Reminder Formula clients are switching to the Engagement First Webinar Chatbot, and are seeing very similar results for their live and automated webinars. 

So, I have one question for you…

When are you doing your next Facebook Live?

MKJ

Messenger Funnels News

UPDATED 9/7/22

If you’re like me, and you regularly chase the shiny objects as they enter your field of vision, you should already know about chatbots and Facebook Messenger marketing. If you haven’t heard of this, check it out, then come back here.

In this post, I will cover two key points about Conversational Marketing, and how you can use it to quickly and painlessly grow your revenue and profits.

I first heard about chatbots in January 2017 from Andrew Warner, CEO of Mixergy. I’m on his email list, and I surprisingly disagreed with him immediately.

Here are my tips to use conversational marketing effectively toward higher revenue and profits.

1. Don’t Build a Chatbot!

During my onboarding call to determine my eligibility to join his first cohort of BotAcademy,  I distinctly remember telling Andrew that Messenger automation wasn’t for “techies” but rather, it was for marketers. I felt his Mixergy audience was the wrong target market for his course. (I can’t believe I disagreed with one of my online mentors, but I did.)

A week later, I joined Bot Academy and was the first person certified by them to build chatbots. But that’s not what I do.

Saying you build chatbots is like saying you build emails in Mailchimp.

The chatbot is just the communication delivery method.

I don’t build chatbots, and neither should you!

Well…technically, I do build chatbots because I understand how to use the main technology platforms that allow for automated communication in Messenger, SMS, Email and Mobile Wallet. But just knowing how to use Manychat or Chatfuel doesn’t do me or my clients any good.

So, how do you build CONVERSATIONAL MARKETING AUTOMATION as opposed to simply building a chatbot?

Answer that question, and you have the powerful fuel for your Conversational Marketing rocket ship, my friend!

So, just like any other funnel or marketing project, you need to start with the end in mind.

What is your goal?

What is your conversion?

Know these things, and you can build the roadmap or the adventure for your audience to clearly understand if you have exactly what they need.

Here are a few of the conversions we aim for in CONVERSATIONAL automation:

• Online course sales
• Webinar attendance
• Challenge participation
• Quiz participation & results
• Event launch nurturing & ticket sales
• Coaching appointments
• Course & Mastermind launch & sales
• High ticket applications
• Nurture sequences to a phone call
• FAQ delivery to in person visit
• Ecommerce segmentation to purchase of item(s), and abandoned cart reminders
• Nurture sequence to service delivery appointment
• Order placement for in person pick up
• Nurturing sequence for fan engagement
• Segmentation for affiliate offers
• And many, many more…

If you have ever used email automation to achieve some of the above goals, then this process will be familiar, but the execution will be very different!

The Power and Uniqueness of THIS NEW CONVERSATIONAL MESSENGER of Your Marketing

1. Face-Twee

I was a Twitter gal through and through before CHAT Marketing, so when Meta opened their Messenger platform for business communication, it just made sense!

That’s why I call the Messenger copy I write “Face-Tweet.”  It’s like Facebook and Twitter had a baby, and every time I create Messenger Funnels, I try to keep each message 160 characters or less, and talk like I’m sharing on Facebook.

Do you see the Face-Tweet thing now?

I also use lots of images, emojis and gifs, because that’s what users of Facebook love. If you try to use emojis and gifs in email, it just feels less professional, right?  Not in Messenger!

Keep your copy professional, by all means, but add the fun that Facebook provides! If you want to learn more, I’ve got you covered! CLICK HERE to learn how to create high-converting ChatBot Copy.

2. KISS

Simple is almost always better than complicated, and Conversational Design is a testament to the “Keep It Super Simple” motto!

I’ve seen and built very complicated funnels with lots of conditional logic, A/B split testing, and technical integrations, but most businesses need simplicity in their message, adventure and conversion first…then we can start using conditional logic based on segmentation or the ASK method!

To create and visualize this adventure, use a mind map so you can see clearly one step leading to another. Tag each button or step so you can segment people according to their preferences or needs as they engage with your funnel.

Another simple rule to follow relates to the frequency of the messages you send.

Unlike in email, businesses should not send daily messages outside the first three when subscribers opt in, unless they opt in specifically for a 5 day challenge, and the like. In fact, I suggest messages be sent no more than twice or three times a week when you’re launching something, or once a week for newsletter-type messages. Please be sure to follow Facebooks Terms of Service closely, and if you do, you WON’T BE ABLE TO SEND MESSAGES OUTSIDE 24 HOURS SINCE THE LAST TIME YOUR PROSPECT ENGAGED WITH YOUR BOT UNLESS YOU EXPLICITLY GAIN THEIR PERMISSION! With permission, you can now message subscribers during one of three possible timelines:

• • Daily for 30 days
  • Weekly for 3 months
  • Monthly for 12 months

With that in mind, using SMS, EMAIL AND OMNI-CHANNEL MESSAGES DESIGNED TO ENGAGE YOUR PROSPECTS BACK INTO YOUR FUNNEL is the best, most comprehensive approach to success in conversational marketing.

Messenger has traditionally been used for personal communication with friends and family, so we really don’t want to bother people with daily business messages, unless they ask us to. If you violate their trust, you will start getting blocked by users, and that quickly leads to your bot being shut down by Facebook.

So, this conversational tool available to businesses is the most powerful, engaging tool we have right now, and we need to maximize its effectiveness through the use of marketing best practices…NOT simply building chatbots.

2. Which Should You Use, Manychat or Chatfuel?

Since this article is trying to get you to think in terms of marketing funnels instead of chatbots, and both platforms are easy to use with ZERO coding skills, I’m not going to go deep into the technical details of either one.

Marketing communication ease and effectiveness is our goal, so let’s get to it by comparing the two platforms based on several marketing purposes. Please remember, as with every tool we use in marketing, the tool is not as important as what you put in it!

Lead Generation

Both platforms have comprehensive lead generation options to get subscribers into your funnel. Landing pages, URLs you can code into buttons on your site, Customer Chatbox, and the highest converting Facebook Comment to Subscriber! (This one is crazy good!)

Let’s look at the Facebook Comment Tool:

The Chatfuel image on the top shows the first step in this process, and outlines where you need to go to continue the steps. You can use different blocks and messages to build out this lead generation tool, because you are not confined to a specific structure.

The Manychat image on the bottom shows the steps to utilize this lead generation tool are all confined in the “Growth Tool.”  There is no need to wonder where to go next, or how to hook up next steps in this tool, because the structure is built for you.

Do you need the structure of Manychat or Do you need the flexibility of Chatfuel?

Marketing & Sales Automated Sequences

This is truly where I live when building Messenger Funnels.

Most of the messages I send for clients are not “one-off” messages, they are a structured, timed sequence of messages leading to a specific outcome. Again, if you’re familiar with email automation, you understand.

So, let’s take a look at how both platforms handle this fundamental marketing strategy.

Again, Chatfuel allows you to see the sequence of messages as you edit each individual message.  It allows you to take prospects out of the sequence to another block as well, then deliver the next timed message as programmed.

Manychat has the steps confined in the Sequence, and you can add independent flows outside the sequence then return to the next timed message. I cannot see both the sequence structure, and one particular message within the sequence without clicking on that message, thereby progressing to that new screen and leaving the sequence screen shown above.

Do you need the structure of Manychat or Do you need the flexibility of Chatfuel?

Broadcasting

I will admit that sometimes we marketers need to send “one-off” messages depending on the project at hand, so we have the option to broadcast in Messenger.

Just as in email, however, I believe that this particular type of communication should be rare, because all we are doing here is pushing a one-time communication to our subscribers that they may not have asked for.

Manychat and Chatfuel are very similar in their set up of broadcast messages.  The screenshots below again show the differences in the structure of the two platforms.

Again, we see that Chatfuel has you choose which type of broadcast you wish to send before having you create the message…send now, schedule for later, choose your segmented list or autopost messages from an RSS feed.

Manychat has you create your message, and choose the settings of send now, schedule for later, and send only to a segmented population of your subscribers all within the specific broadcast message. You must choose to autopost messages from an RSS feed separately from the other options to broadcasts

Do you need the structure of Manychat or Do you need the flexibility of Chatfuel?

Integration to Conversion

There are a few marketing communication platforms that are fully self-contained, but very few people are using them to their fullest capacity. Almost all marketing communication needs to integrate with another program to fulfill its purpose.  Messenger is no exception.

If you are trying to sell ecommerce products, you need to integrate with an ecommerce store. If you are inviting people to a webinar, you need to integrate with a webinar platform, etc.

Here are the ways Manychat and Chatfuel integrate your Messenger communication with the next steps in your marketing and sales process:

I said I wouldn’t get technical in this article, and I won’t.

As you can see in the above image, Chatfuel has many built-in native integrations, including Zapier. Just like you see in the Manychat example, you can add any of these integrations anywhere in your message to carry out the function you desire at the exact time you desire it from the user.

Manychat has a very comprehensive Zapier integration where you can use any of the programs included in Zapier, as well as web hooks that can carry out complex calculations within your bot.

Again, which do you need…

Do you need the structure of Manychat or Do you need the flexibility of Chatfuel?

So, which should you use, Manychat or Chatfuel?

I recommend basing that decision on the type of funnel you’re building because honestly, both programs are amazing tools! I use them both.  In short, the checklist I turn to when I need to decide which one to use is as follows:

Saying you build chatbots in Facebook Messenger is like saying you build emails in Mailchimp.

The chatbot is just the communication delivery method.

Here is an example of a Chatfuel eCommerce store Messenger Funnel where we we actually call the entire store into a Messenger window so the customer can browse and buy through the eCommerce shopping cart right inside Messenger: Chatfuel Funnel

Here is an example of a Manychat automated webinar Messenger Funnel where we engage deeply with the prospect before we ever invite them to the webinar, and our conversions from subscribers to the bot are over 20%: Manychat Funnel

Which platform you use will be determined by which one speaks your language.

• Do you create like a software engineer with wireframes, mind maps and user interfaces that you build into an intricate, converting adventure? You might prefer Chatfuel.
• Do you create with a mind map outlining a clear path to conclusion with branches leading to new paths and conclusions thinking of the user experience? You might prefer Manychat.
  

Either way, dive in and try them out. If you determine that you prefer one platform over the other, just remember that the other one might also be the one your customer needs.

So, now you know why you should NOT build a chatbot, and you also know which platform you should use to build a funnel.

If you haven’t jumped on this rocket ship called Messenger Marketing yet, you better get on board and strap in because it’s already an amazing ride and only looks to get better from here!