2019 Facebook Messenger Chatbot Lead Generation Guide for Small Business Owners

In 2019, if you’re not using Messenger Marketing yet, specifically Facebook chatbots… you definitely want to start soon!

Yeah, there’s a lot of hype about it, and how it’s revolutionizing online marketing for business. But, as a small business owner, you don’t really care about that.

All you want to know is: Will it get me leads? Will it get me buyers? Will it save me money? Will it make me money? Well, 100%, the answer is Yes. Yes. Yes. And…still yes.

The hype isn’t just hype. Marketers are genuinely excited, because it works… really really well.

It has (by far) the highest open rates, and click through rates of any other medium (see numbers below). It can be easily automated. It can lead to saved time, saved money, more leads, more referrals and reviews, higher customer satisfaction, and more repeat business.

Is this just because it’s the next big thing? Sure, maybe. Only time will tell if the impressive results last. But that’s just all the more reason to get in while the water’s hot. And even if it declines in time, it’s likely chatbots will remain a top performer in lead generation for a long time coming.

How an Effective Facebook Messenger Bot Sequence works, in a nutshel

Yes, your leads will know they are interacting with a bot (it’s best not to try to hide that fact, most people will know right away). But, studies show, people don’t mind. Messenger bots still create a sense of personal connection, build trust, and have engagement and interaction rates that blow all other mediums out of the water.

What Are the Problems with Messenger Marketing?

The main benefit, its personal touch, can also twist into its biggest downfall. If you do it wrong, and you spam people in their very personal private messages, they will turn on you. And you’ll alienate good leads, and good clients. Basically, it’s a personal space thing: people feel violated if you invade their personal space and shout sales pitches at them. Just don’t be that business.

It’s essential to use the marketing medium right… you don’t want to possibly burn bridges with your customers.

You don’t want to use aggressive promotions or long winded messages. Facebook Messenger campaigns need to be short, sweet, and apply a personal touch. Plus, you want to apply the right codes if someone is clearly saying “Stop” or “Go away!” so your bot doesn’t keep bothering people who don’t want to be bothered.

Another important note: if your bot is there for customer service reasons, you don’t want to end up spinning people around in circles trying to get an answer to a simple question. This will make people… well, dislike you.

If you don’t have experience in designing Personal Messenger Bots, it’s a very good idea to get an expert to design it for you. The design takes a bit of know-how. But it should be very simple for anyone to use once it’s built.

So, now that you know how to not be a pain in everyone’s butt with your Messenger Bot, let’s take a look at how a chatbot can make your life easier.

How Can Messenger Bots Save Time?

The key to a Bots saved time is via automation. It runs 24/7, and replies instantly. This saves your and your customers time too.

• UK’s Juniper Research estimated an average of 4 minutes of saved time per inquiry. [source]
• You can automate FAQs in direct responses.
• Answer prospect questions within the bot rather than them navigating a helpdesk for answers.
• You can automate Lead Gathering.
• You can automatically Segment Leads.

How Can Using Your Messenger Bot Save Money?

Basically, more automation means less paid labour time. Plus the targeting ability of social media advertising leads to saved costs overall.  

How Does a Messenger AI Bot Gather More Leads (at a Lower Cost?)

There are many ways that using bots can accomplish this! First and foremost the high interaction rates, and the immediate contact information gathering:

The moment a potential lead clicks your opt-in message or interacts with your bot you already have all you need to remarket to them directly: compare this to a landing page where average lead conversion is 5-10% after clicking on ad… for messenger clicks your re-marketable lead conversion becomes 100%. [source]

• You can offer giveaways, direct customers to landing pages, or even complete full sales funnels directly via a chatbot.
• You can easily segment leads, simply by asking what they’re most interested in, there is a much higher likelihood they’ll answer survey questions presented via conversational messenger bot.
• You can even replace landing page forms, instead gathering lead data directly via messenger.
• Hubspot recorded a 477% reduction in their cost per lead when they implemented Facebook Messenger marketing. [source]