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!