In the constant flow of conversation taking place on the social media, business owners and marketers are trying to keep up with their followers’ demands, and run their businesses within the same 24 hours we get every day. At a point, it becomes almost impossible to juggle with all the daily tasks.
Social media automation tools help, but they cannot create and maintain a dialogue. When your followers ask questions, you need to be there, online, and answer them. Or…can someone else do it? Not someone, but something. We are talking about chatbots, the next generation social media automation tools.
What Is a Facebook™ Messenger Bot and What Can It Do?
A bot is a software application working on the principles of artificial intelligence and machine learning to simulate human conversation. That’s right, this is the first step towards sci-fi scenarios where we can talk to robots and give them tasks to perform.
At the present, we can programme bots to talk to social media followers, initiate private chats, answer questions, and remind them about abandoned shopping carts. That is quite a lot, considering the fact that just a few years ago chatbots were only a theoretical concept.
“All right, they sound really cool, but how do these chatbots help me with my lead generation efforts?”
Here are some ideas to consider exploring:
- Chatbots as Primary Customer Service Agent
Here is a simple scenario: a Facebook™ user sees one of your ads or posts promoting a newly launched product. They would like to buy it, but are interested to know whether you can ship it to their location, or whether they can opt for a free trial period. The user will ask their question, usually as a direct message to your Facebook™ page, to make sure that you see it.
But, given the different time zone, it could take you up to 12 hours until you see the message and give a reply. By that time, the user has forgotten about your product and is no longer interested. This is a lost lead. A chatbot will give the answer promptly, and even direct the Facebook™ user to the specific page of your website where they can read all the rules on shipment, free trials, returns, and refunds.
- Chatbots Can Help You Reduce the Number of Abandoned Shopping Carts
The Facebook™ pixel helps you identify the Facebook™ users who abandoned a shopping cart on your website. Traditional remarketing strategies say that you should deliver an ad to that user’s Facebook™ timeline, with a promotion for one of the products they placed in the cart.
A Facebook™ chatbot can initiate a direct messaging conversation with the user, reminding them of the abandoned cart. To make the deal more enticing, the message should offer an incentive, such as free shipping or a discount for the next purchase.
- Increase Opt-In Rate and Email Newsletter Open Rate
One of the ways in which you can use chatbots for lead generation is to remind people of the emails you sent them, and the opt-in forms they did not fill in. Chances are some people did not change their mind, they were simply distracted and forgot about doing it.
A reminder within the next hour can determine a lot of people to get back to what they were doing, subscribe to your newsletter, and open the email with the special offer tailored just for them.
- Deliver Promotional Codes and Track Sources of Revenue
There are many ways in which you can send promotional discount codes to your prospects. And now you can add Facebook™ Messenger bots to this list. A simple message popping up on the mobile or computer screen, and someone will be happy to know they can enjoy a special discount on your products.
Bots can do more than simply share a discount code. Based on the person’s interests and likes, they can select two or three products which are likely to attract their attention. Thus, the chances for getting a sale increase, and you can also track the source of revenue back to Facebook™.