If you haven’t encountered a chatbot on Facebook Messenger, it’s only a matter of time.
Messenger apps and chatbots are growing at an incredibly high rate. In fact, they are expected to grow in use by over 24 percent each year, with an estimated market of $1.23 billion in the next seven years. With this kind of fast growth and earning potential, it’s easy to see why so many companies are employing chatbots and Messenger apps to expand their business.
Chatbots and Messenger apps are a great way to grab your customers’ attention and get them the help they need quickly, but they are only effective if you use them correctly. Here are a few tips on how to make the most of your chatbot.
1. Update Regularly
Think of maintaining your chatbot like you would a blog post or an update to your company’s social media campaign. It’s another reason for guests to come back to your website. Like a newsletter or weekly blog post, your chatbot should be updated regularly to reflect the newest promotion or campaign, so the benefits of your chatbot don’t die out with expired Messenger rules and technology.
This approach is a great way to grab people’s attention, remind them you’re there, and get them to your website.
2. Throw in a Dash of Personality
When established your Messenger bot, don’t forget to write a personality into your options. There are all sorts of ways to humanize your chatbot for a more enjoyable interaction that will keep your customers coming back.
Lighthearted, fun responses instead of clinical, robotic ones makes the bot experience memorable, pleasant, and worthwhile to visitors of your website. It will also foster a conversation that exceeds expectations of what a Messenger bot can do. Wondering what to say that will connect with your audience? Consult your personas!
3. Reach Out to Your Customers
Don’t wait for customers to contact or reach out to you with questions or special requests, but seek them out with words of welcome that will put them at ease
- Develop a unique, attention-grabbing welcome message for all visitors to your site
- Incorporate some kind of “let’s get started” button or option
- Come up with friendly, informal greetings for your guests to make them feel welcome and engage them in conversation.
By reaching out to your customers, you are engaging them and being proactive about your company. You are offering assistance or explaining a new promotion, which guests to your website will notice and appreciate.
4. Master the Fine Art of Communication
Allow your bot to be conversational! One of the biggest pet peeves people have with chatbots is that they can tell they are interacting with software and not a person. When the chatbot becomes too glitchy or robotic or doesn’t understand what they are looking for, it’s an instant tell.
One of the best ways to combat this frustration (besides keeping it simple- see #5) is to make your bot’s responses as human and personal as possible. A big part of this? Use your customer’s name.
5. Keep it Simple
Your bot is brand new. While you’re getting started, focus on keeping the language clear and concise. Avoid jargon or technical terms that your customers may be unfamiliar with, or won’t know to prevent customer confusion or difficulty communicating. Also, consider using option buttons and limiting options to 3 choices to keep your chatbot glitch-free.
If you keep things simple, it allows you time to see the patterns and habits of your customers, which can help you build more complex functionalities into the Messenger bot technology to best anticipate the needs of your customers. By learning from your audience’s behavior, you can slowly incorporate more complex, intuitive technology.
6. Promote Your Messenger Bot in a Smart Way
Once you have developed your bot, it’s easy to get excited about its potential. You’ll want to share the bot with all of Facebook, which is a lot like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
Instead, tailor your advertisements to a small, target audience. Promote your Messenger bot in fun, unexpected ways and to specific people. You’ll have more success in this sort of targeted marketing than by trying to appeal to all of Facebook.
7. Inform Your Audience
It’s not enough to just tell your audience that you have a bot. You also need to let them know how they can expect to use it and what purpose you want your bot to serve.
Also let them know:
- The name of your Messenger bot
- Your bot’s intended purpose
- When customers can expect it to be available
- The functionalities and capabilities of your bot
- Where customers can find the bot on your website or Facebook page
In informing your audience of how the bot works, you are helping them know how they can use it. If your customers know how your chatbot is to be used, they will be much more likely to use it.
An example of this? Domino’s Pizza’s chatbot, Dom, can take direct orders, but guests are also informed on the proper steps to correctly do this. They first message Dom with the word “PIZZA” and then proceed in the next message with their order. Customers first learn how to use Dom before interacting with it.
8. Start with Pre-Existing Customers
Don’t start building an audience from the ground up, instead, make the most of an already-developed customer base, like your social media accounts, to introduce your bot. You can automatically notify and update your Facebook followers to inform them of a promotion via your bot.
Do you want more advice on how to market and use your chatbot? Are you ready to develop a chatbot of your own, but maybe you want someone else to handle the technical side of it?
Crush My Market has a dedicated team well-versed in Messenger bot technology who are waiting to help you. Contact us today to find out how fun and easy interacting with a chatbot can be.
Better yet, use our chatbot at the bottom right of this screen!
