If you aren’t familiar with chatbots, you may be missing out on a valuable tool for your marketing arsenal. We’ll look together at how you can use a Facebook Messenger bot to generate leads for your business. Not sure if you’re interested yet?
Take a look at this:

• 95 percentof consumers think chatbots benefit customer service.
• 57 percentof consumers like the instant service of chatbots.
• 47 percentof consumers would buy something using a chatbot.
• 80 percentof businesses plan to have a chatbot by 2020.

Now are you ready to discover more about using a Messenger bot to generate leads? Facebook Messenger chatbots can help your business by:

• Acting as a highly engaging top-funnel marketing channel
• Blasting content (like an email blast but in chat)
• Doing quick surveys
• Doing webinar signups
• Automating drip campaigns to nurture leads
• Collecting new lead info (like lead forms in chat)
• Supporting sales through integrated customer relationship management
• Sending event and appointment reminders
• Simplifying customer service
• Giving directions
• Scheduling appointments
• Automating on-site chat
• Answering common questions
• Routing users to an agent

3 Basic Ways to Use a Messenger Bot

There are numerous ways to use a Messenger bot through Facebook to generate leads. Here, we’ll give an overview of 3 basic ones to help you get started.
 

Live Chat Bot

With this bot, Facebook users click on your ad and activate your bot. The bot asks several questions requiring specific responses to proceed. Once that is completed, a conversation with a live agent will start.
This is a great way to screen for quality leads that are genuinely interested in your service or product. When the live chat begins, you can continue to direct the relationship to the places you want it to go.
Here’s an example of how it can work. We’ll imagine you are advertising tours of local area attractions.

1. Facebook Ad. Want to explore interesting places near your home? Get free advice from our local travel expert and receive 3 amazing offers for nearby attractions — enjoy the summer with your family!
2. Opt-in message. When a user clicks on the ad, they will receive an opt-in message via Messenger. No clicks on the offer means the bot flow will not be activated. To increase the engagement, your opt-in should be relevant to the Ad and motivate the user to perform a specific action (click the link or reply).
3. Gather some useful information. If your opt-in was successful, you should provide a few value driven questions to engage the user. In this example, your bot asks questions about their general location, interests, motivations for visiting, and places they want to see.
4. Offer a free consultation/chat. Once the user submits their answers, and is clearly engaged with the bot, offer a free consultation via live chat with a local travel expert.
5. Chat. If the user agrees to chat, send them a notification that an agent will contact them shortly. This also a chance to ask additional questions your expert might need for the consultation, like an estimated travel budget.

Lead Generation Flow Bot (with integrated with CRM)

This method of using a Facebook Messenger bot works exceptionally well for businesses that require leads to be contacted at a later time (real estate, automotive sales, etc.).
This is a great way to collect a lot of lead information that you can use for direct selling techniques.
Let’s imagine you are selling a home.

1. Facebook Ad. Create an image or video Ad showing the home and offering a tour.
2. Opt-in message. When a user clicks on the ad, they will receive an opt-in message via Messenger. No clicks on the offer means the bot flow will not be activated. Use another photo of the home and ask “Do you wanna take THIS for a test drive?”
3. Provide useful information. Provide the customer with more details about your offer. Focus on highlighting the benefits of your offer and why that customer should use it or buy it now. Try to attach a sense of urgency, like “Only 3 showings left!”
4. Qualify the lead. Here you can ask some relevant questions about your offer. “When can you meet for a tour? Today? This week? Next Week?”
5. Gather contact information. The first and last name will be collected automatically, but we recommend getting a phone number and email. More information can be gleaned through the sales call.

When the customer finishes the bot flow, the lead information should automatically be sent to CRM, email, or Google Sheets for you to proceed to the next step.
 

Content + Follow-Up Bot

This bot flow allows you to promote useful content (articles, eBooks, informational video) that is followed by a unique offer.
This is a great way to demonstrate value to a potential client and engage with them.
For this example, you are providing a great guide on writing engaging blog posts.

1. Facebook Ad. In the Ad we can offer a free guide.
2. Opt in message. A relevant opt-in message.
3. Qualify the lead. Before you offer the content, you can ask one or two questions to get a better understanding of your customer. This is not required as the focus should be on providing the content right away.
4. Provide the content. This is the step where you provide the content that you promised them. It can be as simple as a message with a PDF version that can be downloaded right away.
5. Follow-up message. You already have a subscriber to your Messenger channel; however, the main goal is to generate a lead. According to Facebook policy, you should follow-up with a customer, with any offer, within 24 hours.

You should experiment with this number and try following up 1, 3, 12 and 23 hours. Your follow up message to the content should be relevant to your offer. In this case, you could provide a free consultation about writing blog posts for their business website.
Have you used a Facebook Messenger bot successfully for your business? What are some bot-building sites you recommend? Share your advice and experiences with us in the comments below!