Facebook is majorly for social connections between families and pals, but its Messenger platform is house to over 300,000 customer support, advertising, and sales chatbots – and this number isn’t slowing down anytime soon. Fb opened its Messenger platform in 2016, letting any business create chatbots to interact with the users.
If Fb Messenger Chatbots aren’t high on your list of marketing channels to use in 2019, it could be time to reconsider that decision, and here’s why: Its adoption rate. More than 1.3 billion individuals use Facebook messenger every month making it second most used mobile messaging app after Whats App.
So, everything seems positive for chatbots, but in many cases, users get bored and unsubscribe after the first few days or never interact no matter how many promotional broadcasts you send.
Why do you think this happens? The answer is simple, just like any shiny new thing users get hooked on initially but if we are not able to keep the initial momentum, we often fail to retain the users.
Let’s look at 7 ways to get users hooked on to messenger bots
Set the right expectations
The first and foremost thing is to lay out the rules in the first few interactions. Users should know the capabilities of the chatbot, what it can and can’t do. With this, we can avoid customers posting irrelevant interactions with the bot (like asking a healthcare bot today’s temperature would not yield relevant results and user might get irritated since the bot’s capabilities are not defined properly)
Crisp communication
Now, this is the basic of all communication strategies which we all know since eternity. Which is all the more important in communicating through messenger bots. Remember the chat bubble on the mobile screen occupies a limited space, you need to fit your message in that small bubble. For the same reason the messages need to be crisp, you need to cut one big message into various smaller messages to increase the readability.
Integrate AI in your messenger bot
If you wish to take the user experience to another level, you want a smarter bot which is capable of understanding human interactions. Integrating artificial intelligence in your chat bot is a smart step. But before your bot is smart like we humans are, it needs training! Spend a few hours training your bot with different scenarios.
Use rich media
We all love images in communication correct? Using GIFs, funny images, small video clips, etc make the experience better and convey the message in a better way.
Use action buttons
Action buttons are the prime reason why chatting with bots is fun! If you place highly relevant buttons after bot’s message, users love it since you are literally giving them options which are already in their minds. These buttons are highly important to tag users and segment them accordingly.
Lead scoring
If you wish to send relevant messages to relevant users give them scores. User attends a webinar give 20 points, user unsubscribes deduct points, etc. Maintain a sheet of the scores, tag users accordingly and broadcast correct messages to correct users.
The frequency of the messages
Last but not least is the frequency of the message. The frequency of the message differs as per the industry where the bot is operating. If you are a daily trivia bot you can send broadcasts everyday ( provided they fit into 24+1 rule of Facebook), but if you are a flight scheduling bot what can you possibly send everyday to users? Availability and likability of the content play a huge role in deciding message frequency of the bot.
These are the tips which we think are the most important when it comes to developing a highly successful and engaging messenger bot for your business and brand. Have you started using messenger bot for growth?
January 7, 2019 -
good!