Customer service is a critical component to helping you earn sales for your business. Your audience expects you to answer their questions and help them when they need it.

But if you’re overwhelmed with people contacting and messaging your business with questions, you’re probably struggling to provide top-tier customer service.

Luckily, there’s a solution to this problem: Chatbot marketing.

Chatbot marketing enables you to support your customer support team by providing your audience with answers to common questions and other helpful information, like your return policy, operating hours, and more.

In this guide, we’ll share how to use chatbots successfully and answer some common questions about chatbot marketing!

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What is a chatbot?

Chatbots are automated pieces of technology that enable you to program responses to people’s queries. This technology often involves using artificial intelligence to craft responses to people’s questions. Chatbots can be used with your site’s chat function, but they’re mainly used with Facebook Messenger.

How to use chatbots successfully

Want to start using chatbots for your business?

Here are four tips on how to get started with chatbot marketing:

1. Generate a list of frequently asked questions

Before you use Facebook messenger bots or integrate a bot into your site’s chat function, you’ll want to generate a list of frequently asked questions. There are numerous questions you get that you must answer every day, multiple times a day.

To save your business the hassle of answering these questions all the time, create a list of frequently asked questions and their answers to program into your chatbot. That way, when people ask these questions through a Messenger bot or the bot on your site, you can answer those questions fast.

Not only does this save your business time, but it enables your audience to get answers fast. When they get answers quickly, they’re more likely to purchase products because they don’t have questions holding them back.

You can compile a list of questions using:

• Your customer service team
• Your social media messages
• Your social media comment sections on posts

2. Generate a conversation tree

If you want to know how to use chatbots, start by creating conversation trees. Conversation trees are an excellent way for you to map potential conversations so you can provide the appropriate response to people’s queries.

A conversation tree maps out the potential ways a conversation can branch out and how chatbots can respond to those conversations.

Let’s give an example. Pretend that you own a pet store. The first question you may ask is, “What pet are you shopping for?” So, the possible responses could be things like:

• Dog
• Cat
• Fish
• Guinea Pig
• Lizard
• Snake
• Bird

Then based on that response, you may have a specific series of questions for that animal. So, for example, let’s say the person responds “dog.” This response may trigger a question like “What do you need for your dog?”

The person chatting may respond with phrases like:

• Dog food
• Dog toys
• Dog leashes
• Dog collars
• Dog medicine
• Dog shampoo

Then, based on which response they give, you could program the chatbot to make numerous responses. For example, if someone responds, “Dog food,” you may deliver top brand recommendations or ask more questions about the dog, like the size or brand preference.

Now, if someone had initially responded with “lizard,” this conversation would look different.

That’s why it’s critical to use conversation trees. These trees help your business anticipate responses and guide the conversation.

3. Let people know they can reach a human at any time

When you use marketing bots, you want to ensure your audience knows they can talk to a human at any time. You need to give them the opportunity to speak to someone in customer service if they don’t want to interact with a chatbot.

Now, that’s not to say that people will avoid chatbots every time. In fact, 55% of people prefer to talk to a business through chatbots. People like interacting with your business through these bots, but at the same time, they can only do so much.

For example, if someone has an issue with a product they received, a chatbot won’t be able to help with processing the return or refund. The chatbot may give information about your return and refund policy, but that user would need to speak with a human to see if they can return the product and get a refund.

In this case, too, someone may want to speak with a customer service representative immediately to get their return processed. So, when you build your Facebook messenger bots or any marketing bots for that matter, let people know how they can get in touch with a human.

4. Give your marketing bots a personality

When you create a messenger bot, you need to give some personality to your bots. People like using marketing bots because it can often feel like they’re talking to a real person, so adding some character to your bots can make the experience more realistic.

So, how can you make your bots more personable? Here are a few suggestions:

• Create a personal and exciting greeting
• Craft automated responses that sound like a conversation
• Give your chatbot a name
• Make your chatbot into a character

Here’s a great example from Lego. They created a chatbot personality that’s a robot, known as Ralph, to help Lego lovers find gifts for their loved ones.

They put personality into their chatbot to make it exciting and engaging for their audience.

So, you can use their chatbot as an example to help guide you through crafting a personable chatbot for your business.

Chatbot marketing FAQ

When you build Facebook Messenger bots, you may find you have some questions about crafting these bots.

Here are some common questions about chatbot marketing:

How do I build a messenger bot?

If you’ve never built a chatbot before, you may not know where to start or how to do it. Luckily, some programs can help you craft the perfect chatbot for your business.

Some popular programs include:

• Chatfuel
• Mobile Monkey
• Botsify

If you don’t want to use one of these programs, you can build a chatbot directly through Facebook’s platform.

What are the benefits of chatbot marketing?

There are numerous benefits to using chatbot marketing for your business.

Here are just a few benefits:

• They save you time: Chatbots save you from having to answer the same questions every day. It enables you to focus your time and energy on questions that require a more in-depth response.
• They save you money: Chatbots can replace tasks that would otherwise be completed by a human, which saves you money on labor.
• They provide quick customer service: Chatbots enable you to answer your audience’s questions faster. You can’t always be available to answer questions, but chatbots can be there 24/7 to give answers to basic questions quickly.
• They help leads convert faster: When your audience gets answers to their questions faster, they’re more likely to purchase because they got answers to questions that may have stopped them from buying.

Are there different types of chatbots?

Yes. There are two main types of chatbots you can use:

• Rule-based chatbots: With rule-based chatbots, chatbots scan for specific keywords to formulate a response based on the keywords in the question. So, for example, if someone asks, “how do I order a dog leash,” some key phrases here might be “dog leash” and “order.”
• AI-powered chatbots: With AI-powered chatbots, you use machine learning and language processing to deliver a formulated response. These chatbots help develop natural conversations with your audience.

Get started with chatbot marketing today

Chatbot marketing is an excellent way to provide your audience with customer service fast. You can help them find relevant products they need and get them to convert.

If you aren’t sure how to build marketing bots that work best for your business, WebFX is here to help. We offer Facebook chatbot marketing services that enable you to create chatbots that provide great customer service and help you earn more sales.

Give us a call at 888-601-5359 or contact us online to speak with a strategist about our Facebook chatbot marketing services!