Businesses use Facebook as a way to connect with leads and customers, and Messenger is one of the best tools within the platform for building those relationships.
Principally when used together with bots that automatically chat with users through AI technology.
With bots, businesses are able to show users that they care about their individual needs. They can answer customers’ questions, listen to product suggestions, or even just send a funny GIF.
Thanks to some new updates from Facebook, now businesses and marketers no longer need a third-party tool to run these bots.
Now, they can also set up bots that automatically respond to users who click on ads, all from the company’s Facebook business account.
In this post, we’ll show you how to take advantage of this new update and use Facebook Messenger bots to nurture Facebook leads for your business.
Cool uh? Let’s dive in!
Why Are Facebook Bots Beneficial for Lead Nurturing?
With a bot, your lead gets immediate attention from your company even when no one from your business is online.
Your bot can start building a relationship between the customer and your company, and your sales team has a solid foundation to work with when they follow up.
After the bot has interacted with the lead, you can download lead information from Ads Manager and integrate it into your current lead-management system.
Without even speaking to the lead, you’ll already have information about their interests and needs to start building a solid customer relationship.
Messenger works equally well on mobile or desktop, so your Facebook leads get the same attention and experience in whichever format they prefer.
This is an advantage over standard ads that link to a website landing page, which may not provide the same experience on mobile.
What Facebook Messenger Recent Update Means for Lead Nurturing
Messenger bots have existed for a while, but, until now, you had to connect a third-party software to use them. They also were typically activated when a customer sent a message to your business or visited your page.
Now you can build a lead-generation bot directly in Facebook Ads Manager. With this update, a user is directed to your bot after clicking on your Facebook ad—no need for them to send a message first.
Instead of creating the bot from scratch, you can use Facebook’s templated questions and answers in Ads Manager to write your bot’s conversations.
Facebook also allows you to ask short-answer questions, like, “What city do you live in?”, and you can even ask open-ended questions, like, “How can we help you?”
Questions with preset menu options are easier for the bot to handle than open-ended questions, though.
With preset answer choices, you can predict the type of answer your lead will give; you can then set up a series of questions to collect more information than you would with a single open-ended question.
Messenger bots allow you to immediately communicate with Facebook leads, so you can provide fast, reliable support.
And, with the new ability to build bots from Ads Manager, it’s easier than ever to set up these automatic conversations.
How to Set Up an Automatic Messenger Bot
All it takes is four simple steps to set up your first chatbot in Facebook Ads Manager.
- Step #1: Set up your Facebook ad campaign, and select “Messages” as your objective.
This will direct leads to Messenger when they click on your ad.
- Step #2: Go to “Budget and schedule.” Under “Optimization for ads delivery,” select “Leads.”
- Step #3: In the Ads section under Messenger Setup, select “Create New,” and choose the “Generate Leads” template.
- Step #4: Now click “Create Chat,” you’ll be able to choose questions for your bot’s conversation with leads.
The bot can ask your leads for the following information:
- Phone number
- Address components (city, state, zip code, and/or country)
- Job title
- Company name
- Gender
You can also select “Short Answer,” which allows you to write a custom question where the user writes their own unique answer.
Or you can select “Options,” which allows you to create a custom question and give the user a series of answers to choose from. For suggested preset answers by industry, check out this resource from MobileMonkey.
- Step #5: Once you’ve set your bot’s questions and answers, click “Save and Finish.”
Your lead-nurturing bot is ready to go!
4 Ways you Can Use Bots to Nurture Facebook Leads
There are a few different ways businesses are using automatic messenger bots to nurture Facebook leads.
For each method, we’ll suggest the questions you should use to set up your bot, as shown in Step 4 above.
1. Figure Out Your Customer’s Needs
Create noninvasive questions designed to guide the customer to tell you what types of products they are interested in. Once you know what your customer is looking for, you can make personalized suggestions and help them find products they’ll love.
If you are a rental company, for example, start by asking what type of rental they are looking for, and use the answer options to provide them with a list of rental options to choose from. You could then follow up by asking what type of event they are planning and how many people will be attending.
Before asking personal questions, provide a disclaimer so leads trust your brand enough to answer. You might write something along these lines:
We’re now going to ask a few questions to get you connected with the right sales associate.”
You can type the disclaimer directly into the template.
To see how this works in action, give a look to the Original Coast Clothing’s bot below.
With this information, Original Coast Clothing can start building a relationship with the shopper by offering product suggestions and setting up their orders.
And you can do it too!
2. Send a Promotional Offer
Encourage leads to make a purchase by giving them a promotional offer through your Facebook ads and bot.
For example, the ad copy might detail a new product and end with “Try it today for 20% off,” followed by a call-to-action button saying “Get Offer.”
Once the user clicks on this CTA, they will be directed to a chat where your bot sends the discount code.
To create this chat, write the first message in the “Intro Text” section to greet the customer and provide the promotional offer.
Then, set up a question to ask the user if there is any other way you can help them.
Use the combination of your bot and ads to send promotions and you’ll incentivize leads to make a purchase.
3. Always Offer to Help
Build your lead relationships by offering great customer support via your bot. Set up your bot to ask users if it can help in any way.
For this type of bot setup, your ad copy should encourage the user to ask you questions.
If your ad promotes a specific product, the copy might say:
Questions about (your product)? We’re here to help!”
The CTA button would say
Send Message.”
When you click on a Facebook ad for Castle Hayne Farms, for example, you are greeted with an open-ended statement asking what they can do for you.
You can set this up in your chatbot by using the “Short Answer” feature.
Once you set up your offer to help, make sure you fill out the “Completion Message” field.
This lets your lead know what will happen next.
This method is best if you have someone checking your messages at least once a day to follow up and respond to messages from Facebook leads.
4. Sign Up Leads for Events
If you’re hosting a webinar, conference, or other events you want people to sign up for, you can use the chatbot to instantly collect email addresses from people who want to sign up.
Your leads will be satisfied by the prompt reaction to their sign-up request, and your team can follow up later with more information about the event.
Start with a Facebook ad that details the event.
If the ad CTA is clicked, it will direct the user to a Messenger chat with your brand.
For the intro text of your chat, greet the customer and describe the event.
Then, set up a question to request the user’s email address as a means of signing up.
Once you have the lead’s email, you can build excitement around the event as it gets closer. Send them reminders, and tease out details of the event, either via email or on Messenger.
By connecting your ads to Facebook Messenger and setting up a chatbot, you can immediately start building a relationship with your Facebook leads.
Your leads will see you as a highly responsive business, and your bot can collect information so you can tailor the sales or customer service experience to each individual lead when your team follows up.
Connect with Facebook Leads Through Messenger Bots
When you’re using Facebook to communicate with leads, responsiveness is absolutely vital.
Using Messenger bots means you can follow up immediately. Users will see you as a highly responsive business, and you don’t have to have someone responding to Facebook messages 24/7.
Just remember: your bot shouldn’t be totally autonomous.
Make sure you have team members monitoring Messenger chats regularly to determine the best way to follow up with leads and cultivate those relationships.
You might, for example, use bot conversations about style preferences to send users product suggestions.
The more you learn from bot interactions, the better you’ll be able to nurture leads.
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