In an article we just published last week, Sterling Beck had some strong opinions against becoming dependant on Facebook for advertising and marketing. Here we have the opinion of Natasha Takahashi- co-founder of the School of Bots. She believes that Facebook Messenger has the potential if used correctly to help with engagement marketing, building your list, and propelling your business.

Getting people onto your “list”

The first step in online marketing is to get a bot. For Facebook Messenger marketing, Natasha Takahashi recommends Manychat. Then what? Here is one of her favorite processes to capture leads:

The opt-in feud

Single opt-ins vs double opt-ins. Our previous section outlines a perfect example of a single opt-in. A single opt-in allows a user to put in their email address only once, automatically becoming a subscriber with no conformation necessary. A double opt-in, however, is more high security. As the name suggests, it requires more than just the first email submission. It also requires a second conformation (usually through email) explicitly vocalizing that they want to be on your subscription list. Just like Santa Claus makes a Christmas list and checks it twice, when you use double opt-ins, so can you!

Christmas aside, how do you know which method works best for YOUR company?

Single opt-ins are much faster and build a business’s list at a 20-30% quicker growth, according to GetResponse. With many more people signing up for your subscriptions at a significantly faster rate, what’s the negative? Double opt-ins often generate more quality lists, with people who are actually engaged and interested in the product. This subtle difference could be game-changing for a business, however, depending on what their goals and target audience are.

Rules for contacting people on your list 

With automatic chat, there are definitely some “annoyance rules” that must be followed. How often are you allowed to message someone without it becoming irritating to the person you are trying to reach? For most chatbots, they are the unspoken rules. For Facebook, however, there are real rules to follow.

• When a person engages in conversation with you on your page
  • The 24-hour window after a person leaves a conversation with your page you can message them about anything and everything. (Sales, promotions, events, etc.)
• If they haven’t engaged with you at all
  • You can pay to send them a “sponsored message”, usually to drive a sale. The message appears like a regular message but with sponsored above, costing a few cents a person.
• If they’ve RSVPed for an event
  • You are allowed to send them any reminders about the event, if they respond or click any buttons about the RSVP then you have opened the 24-hour window of engagement.

The scoop on Manychat

Manychat is a service that allows you to create chatbots for Facebook Messenger. In a survey of business owners and decision-makers done by Business Insider, 80% said they were using chatbots or planned to use chatbots by 2020.

From a completely unbiased opinion, we can confirm that chatbots are the future. Okay, we might fall victim to slight biases here. But what Manychat is doing with chat seems to be off the charts. Messenger’s engagement statistics are, mind-blowing. In 2018 there were 20% to sometimes even as high as 50% click-through rates and 80-90% open rates. Manychat’s chatbots were also getting a 400% ROI. According to Murray Newlands, “Messenger marketing is 10x more effective than email marketing and we’ve made a very affordable and easy to use solution to tap into this channel.”

How to use Manychat for B2B marketing

With so many companies using Manychat to market their product or service, the business to business format can really thrive. Businesses (b2b) reach out to other businesses (b2c or b2b), using similar marketing engagement techniques to capture real leads.

 The receiving company finds help to propel its own business and both entities profit from the transaction. Thus completing the chain.