Facebook Marketing is different than it was 10, 5 even 3 years ago.
It’s more crowded, competitive AND complicated than ever, leading to higher consumer expectations.
Between rising consumer expectations and the increase in competition, businesses are focusing on boosting conversion rates.
This is where chatbots come in.
What Are Facebook Chatbots?
Chatbots are computer programs designed to emulate human tasks. Facebook chatbots are connected to your Facebook Business Page and contact visitors via Messenger.
They’re used to automate various parts of the customer acquisition and retention processes in an effort to save time and resources.
Just imagine having a 24/7 customer support agent for your Facebook Page!
Fun fact: chatbots tend to yield much higher engagement rates than emails.
How Facebook Chatbots Work
When a potential customer visits your Facebook Business Page, they’re greeted by a chatbot who asks them a basic question via Facebook Messenger.
Something like “Hi, is there anything we can help you with?”, followed by a short set of automated responses the visitor can choose from. Each response will populate a different follow-up question or answer.
The idea is to automate human tasks to make the process faster and more affordable.
Because the conversations are via Facebook Messenger, users can continue their conversations after leaving your page. Chatbots can also send users updates, just as if they subscribed to your newsletter. It’s a better alternative to the News Feed for nurturing leads.
But they can do more.
There are 3 main types of Facebook chatbots, each specializing in certain tasks.
Marketing Bots
- Lead Generation
- Remarketing
- Branding
Sales Bots
- Conversion Optimizing
- Cart Recovery
- Lead Qualification
Customer Care Bots
- FAQs
- Order Updates
- Surveys + Feedback
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Setting Up Your Facebook Chatbot
There are a number of chatbot builders to choose from, each specializing in certain areas (volume, support, affordability, etc.). Consider what’s going to be most important for your Facebook Marketing Strategy and choose accordingly (we prefer Mobile Monkey).
Once you’ve made your choice, connect your builder with your Facebook Business Page.
Then you can start building a dialogue. This involves writing out a list of questions and answers for your chatbot to provide. Consider what questions potential customers might have and how you would want them answered.
Answers to questions will likely lead to other questions and so on, hence a dialogue.
Once complete, you’ll be able to view insights and optimize the performance of your chatbots for better results.
Maintaining Your Facebook Chatbot
Naturally, goals will vary.
As an example, maybe you want to increase conversion rates among new page visitors by making necessary information more accessible.
You can analyze chatbot conversations and see where users might drop off, then make gradual fixes to help conversations run more smoothly. It’s all about improving over time to develop the best results.
You’ll also want to periodically test your chatbot to ensure its working properly.
As you capture conversations, you may realize you left some questions unanswered. You can always create new dialogues and add to old ones to keep them fresh.
Final Thoughts
No matter how you look at it, Facebook Chatbots are great for generating leads and improving brand engagement among existing clientele. They are the future of Facebook Marketing.
Feeling overwhelmed?
If you think Facebook chatbots can help your business, but don’t know where to start, you can contact the experts at Active Web Group. We’ve helped brands of all sizes and industries with social media and other practices for over 20 years.
