Messenger marketing tools like ManyChat, MobileMonkey, Chatfuel, Octane AI, and Morph AI help improve sales and customer relationships. In this article, learn about the top 5 messenger marketing tools to find out which chatbot might best suit your marketing needs.
Messenger marketing is fast becoming one of the most popular forms of marketing for many progressive brands. Usage statistics make it easy to see why. WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and WeChat alone total more than 2 billion users. Not only does it offer access to unprecedented numbers of people, but it also offers it easily and inexpensively.
Unlike many other forms of marketing, messenger marketing is immediate and offers exceptionally high open rates. Some studies have found that messenger marketing open rates can be as high as 80% to 90%, which is just one of the reasons we think it is the future of digital marketing.
One of the most commonly used messenger marketing tools is a chatbot creator. Chatbots are automated response tools that save you from having to message or reply to people individually. They’re powered by artificial intelligence and use machine learning to understand more complex language. Any business, small or large, can take advantage of a chatbot. As a relatively new marketing tactic with demonstrable results already, early adoption of chat widgets into your marketing strategy can deliver exceptional value.
Marketers can use chatbots for a variety of different business use cases. This includes customer service, promotion, scheduling appointments, lead generation, placing orders and much more. Some of these uses are explained in more detail below.
At present, messenger marketing tools are still few and far between. Even so, we’ve compiled a shortlist of some of the best ones we’ve come across to date.
ManyChat came to life in 2015 and focuses specifically on Facebook Messenger – one of the most popular messenger apps available. The platform has numerous capabilities and can be used as both a marketing tool and an automated customer service tool for a wide range of businesses. The setup process is simple. It requires a one-click authentication process to connect ManyChat to the Facebook account. From there, it will guide you through several steps to grant access to your business’ Facebook page.
ManyChat does have a free plan but it’s very limited in terms of what you can do and the features you have access to. Pricing for ManyChat Pro depends on how many subscribers you have. For example:
Online food agency Say2eat used ManyChat to create a native chat ordering system on Facebook. Working on behalf of local restaurants, Say2eat provided a quick and easy way for their clients to capture online orders with a Facebook chatbot. Through integrating an ordering service via Facebook messenger, the company could combat the high drop-off rates commonly seen in the use of websites and mobile apps.
Figure 1:Rapid Fire Pizza boosted sales with ManyChat by offering customers a special deal.
In the case of Rapid Fired Pizza in Fairfield, Ohio, the chatbot generated $16,715 in sales within just four months. Their ad spend was just $2,504, offering high-profit margins. The sales tactic employed was simply a buy one, get one free scheme. It allowed customers to choose from collection or delivery using a simple question and answer feature. To receive the offer, customers needed to type the keyword “RAPID” into the Facebook messenger chat, which allowed Rapid Fired Pizza to track their campaign engagement.
One of the newer kids on the block, MobileMonkey began operating in 2017. Even in its short existence, it’s already giving its more established competitors a good run for their money. MobileMonkey has a low skill barrier, meaning those who know little about coding can still use the service with ease. MobileMonkey really shines is in its offering of sophisticated features to marketing professionals. These include tools for drip marketing, mobile app for live chat, multiple chat channels in a unified inbox, advanced live chat features for customer service teams, in addition to the ability to target campaigns toward a specific demographic.
MobileMonkey offers a more advantageous free plan than ManyChat. To access all features, however, you’ll need to sign up to one of the premium plans. These range from $19 per month for their advanced Messenger bot Pro plan to $199 for the Team plan which is designed for freelancers and agencies who are working with multiple Facebook pages.
A leading example of MobileMonkey in practice can be found with Car Loans Canada. The online automotive loan company used targeted Facebook ads to attract potential clients. Once the user clicked on the ad, the messenger chat was automatically opened to a MobileMonkey chatbot. From there, the chatbot helped customers complete a loan application all through messenger.
Figure 2: Car Loans Canada encouraged their target audience into the sales funnel by prompting them to send a message via Facebook Messenger.
Car Loans Canada utilized information from targeted Facebook ads to erase 5% of questions on their standard form. These questions were answered by the data already provided by the click-to-messenger ad. As a result of shorter questionnaires and targeted ads, Car Loans Canada saw an increase in their conversion rate compared with their traditional website ad landing pages.
Chatfuel has been around since 2015 and also helps you automate messaging on Facebook. Much like its competitors, Chatfuel offers to help businesses build automated bots with no coding required. Like other chatbots, Chatfuel provides both a live chat feature in addition to a visitor dashboard with a slightly more advanced interface.
Chatfuel offers an excellent free plan, which is perfect for getting started if you don’t have heavy usage needs. Upgrading to one of the paid plans will give you access to more features and pricing is reasonable. The Pro plan starts at $15 per month and allows you to remove branding and create focused Facebook Ads. If you need extra assistance - for example, with bot-building - then the Premium plan at $199 per month will get you a dedicated account manager. Both paid options come with a no subscriber limit feature.
HelloFresh delivers fresh ingredients to its customers’ doors and provides them with a step-by-step guide and tips to show them how to cook nutritious meals. However, the company was facing two major issues. One was an increasingly high volume of incoming messages, which required at least one employee to always monitor customer service complaints. Their second major issue was response time. It was taking between 6 and 12 hours for customers to receive a response from the customer service team. Employees were overworking and underperforming. Something needed to change.
Figure 3: HelloFresh's chatbot sent individuals who answered the riddle correctly a discount code.
In late 2017, HelloFresh enlisted the help of ChatFuel to initially improve their quality of service. The automated customer service bot alleviated some of the pressure placed on employees by automatically answering incoming customer queries. After this problem was resolved, HelloFresh used Chatfuel to boost sales. Between Black Friday 2017 and 2018, the team created a riddle for potential customers. When the riddle was answered correctly, a discount code was sent to the user for their order. This campaign had a staggering 64% conversion rate.
Octane AI was released in 2016 and just like many of its competitors offer chat automation via Facebook. The standout feature of Octane AI is that it can be linked directly to your Shopify account. This allows you to track revenue earned and prompt users with abandoned carts to finish placing their order.
The full price plan is as follows:
Basic Plan: $9 a month. This is aimed at merchants just starting out and does not include any access to SMS features. The $9 is a flat rate and does not scale depending on usage.
Pro Plan: Starts from $209 a month. Designed for fast-growing merchants. This includes all features including both Facebook Messenger and SMS. The Pro Plan price will scale based on your usage.
Enterprise: Price unspecified but a free demo is available. It is for high-volume merchants who use Shopify Plus or other high-level eCommerce platforms. This plan is for those seeking expert help and comes with a dedicated account manager.
Online clothing retailer Feat had integrated Octane AI to help sales revenue. The goal was to use the chatbot to target abandoned baskets on their site, hosted by Shopify. Co-Founder of Feat, Taylor Offer, claimed that within 2 weeks of going live, Octane AI had “increased abandoned cart revenue by 5x.” Their open rates now sit anywhere between 70% and 80%. This was a substantial increase compared with the open rates of email marketing.
Morph AI allows you to automate customer support without the need for complex coding and is aimed at businesses of all sizes. Morph AI predominantly offers services for WhatsApp, though access is still available for Facebook and website bots.
Morph AI’s price plan allows you to grow as you scale. Their pricing starts at $35 a month with an additional one-time activation fee of $100. This is based on 500 monthly active users and 5000 monthly session messages. The pricing will increase based on the amount of monthly active users. Morph AI also comes with a 30-minute WhatsApp Bot training session as part of the price plan.
Manchester is a formidable football team that competes in the top division of English football – the Premier League. They have won 4 titles in the past decade were looking for ways to develop their presence off the pitch as well. They partnered with Morph AI to create a Messenger chatbot that would keep fans in the loop about their beloved team and favorite players with creative content marketing.
As a result of the partnership Manchester City fans were easily able to enjoy the latest interviews and video clips, order merchandise and receive updates from the players’ social media accounts, all through the intuitive Messenger chatbot. This has brought fans even closer to the action and increased engagement significantly to strengthen the football club’s global brand.
Figure 4: Manchester United's Facebook chatbot experience
ManyChat, MobileMonkey, Chatfuel, Octane AI, and Morph AI are just five of the chatbot tools that are available on the market today. Effective use of any such software can significantly increase sales and also build stronger relationships with your customers. While all of these tools can bring considerable benefits to your marketing communications, be sure to select the one that best meets your specific requirements. Soon thereafter, you’re likely to become the latest in a growing list of advocates who are significantly expanding their reach through the use of messenger marketing tools.
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Published on 02/05/2020 by Jenny Frances.
Jenny Frances has over eight years experience as a Digital Marketing Consultant. With a firm belief in utilizing the latest trends and developments in digital marketing, she founded Zoom Digital, which assists medium and large e-commerce businesses to achieve optimum growth online. The agency focuses on: Digital strategy, SEO, conversion rate optimization, FB ads, and messenger marketing.