Why Every Startup Needs A Messenger Chatbot In 2020 & Beyond
With the global spread of coronavirus, every business big or small is adversely affected by countrywide lockdowns and rise in social distancing.
Some had to shut down, some are forced to cut their costs (by laying off team members and cutting marketing/advertising budgets), and some who managed to stay afloat are facing fierce competition from the well-established competitors.
Hence, the only way startups can thrive in these tough times is by leveraging every tool at their disposal, which can give them an edge over the competition.
Messenger chatbot is such a tool. Bots are the swiss army knife that can help startups sail through these tough times.
Now before we dive into the why & how, let’s take a look at what a chatbot really is:
Chatbots are a new user interface. This user interface lets users interact with businesses using their favorite messaging apps.
Chatbots are nothing but a new way to expose businesses through a conversational interface.
Let’s take an example:
The way you use websites & apps to shop or book a cab, the same way you can shop & book a cab through a chatbot’s conversational interface.
Actually, Messenger bot can help you do much more than that. Let’s see how!
1. Save time & money on customer support
Today, consumers hate waiting to get their queries answered and prefer messaging channels over any other channel to communicate with a business.
And if you are like most startups, then you probably don’t have enough resources to hire a 24*7 support staff, and this is where a Messenger chatbot comes to your rescue.
Messenger bot can be your customer support on steroids!
It can work 24×7 without taking a break or asking for a raise. It can single-handedly handle multiple queries, allowing you to invest your time and money in things that really matter for the growth of your business.
A Messenger bot can assist a user in everyday repetitive tasks like finding your store’s location, your working hours, making a booking, and tracking their package, which saves you a lot of time and money on salaries.
2. Generate 2x more leads & revenue than email:
Since the inception of the internet, email has been the most important communication channel for businesses. The majority of websites collect emails in the name of lead generation because it used to be the highest ROI generating channel. The reason I say it used to be is because it’s not anymore (especially for startups).
Because today on average:
45% of emails end up in spam.
And out of all the emails which see the daylight, only 15-25% are opened and 2.5% get clicks.
Now if you ask me, we can definitely use something better.
See below how Messenger hits it out of the park when it comes to open rates and click-through rates.
Not just that, messenger can actually get you 2x more opt-ins in the first place.
How?
While the only way a user can opt-in with their email is by putting it in a sign-up form, a pop-up, or while checking out. With Messenger chatbots, Facebook offers 10 different ways to opt-in users to your Messenger bot.
That means if you are getting 1000 email opt-ins, Messenger can increase it to 2000 and you yourself can do the math for open and click-through rates you’ll get with it!
Now just to be clear, I’m not saying you should completely replace your email marketing with chat marketing (however you can absolutely do that if you want), but to maximize your returns, I’ll advise you to leverage both the channels to create an Omnichannel experience.
Use your bot to collect emails or use emails to get Messenger opt-ins and see your leads/sales going through the roof.
If done right, all your promotional & cart recovery sequences will generate at least 2x more returns than what you are currently getting.
See below, how a Messenger chatbot cart recovery sequence is performing for one of my client. No matter how good your emails are, they’ll never perform anywhere close to this.
3. Get more ROI on Facebook ads
Facebook opened messenger for business in 2016, allowing businesses to use Messenger’s real estate to show ads and also direct ads traffic to Messenger. This means businesses can now build chatbots on the platform and can directly start a conversation with their audience.
Doing this will help startups in 2 ways:
Decrease ad costs: Since not many businesses are driving traffic to Messenger, the competition is low compared to other destinations, and low competition means lower cost for you.
Make the most of these lower costs and start using Click to Messenger ads before it gets crowded just like the rest of it.
Which brings me to my 2nd point.
Increase Leads/Sales: Even if some businesses are driving traffic to Messenger, most of them are losing money by not connecting a chatbot.
Driving users to Messenger and then not replying to their queries instantly, is doing nothing but wasting your ad spend and creating a bad user experience.
It’s like asking someone to shop on your website and then not providing them an option to checkout. Just doesn’t make any sense.
So you need to connect the Messenger chatbot to your ads because it can instantly take the user on a predefined path by creating a funnel just like emails(actually better), moving them from the awareness stage to the decision-making stage. The only difference is chatbot can do this faster than any other channel like email.
The bot can automate the whole process of qualifying and even converting a lead by having a super personalized conversation with the user.
Final Thoughts
Chatbots are going to disrupt the software industry just like web and mobile revolutions did. They are still in their early stage and Messenger bots are the best place to start off with chatbots.
The early adopters will reap the most benefits, so don’t let this opportunity slip through.
There are 2 ways you can integrate Messenger chatbot in your workflow:
- Hire an expert
- Do it on your own
