Chatbots can give brands a lot of power and help to engage and connect with customers. There’s a huge opportunity awaiting brands with the Facebook chatbot feature, yet businesses are not taking advantage of this. According to SEO Journal, “The marketing opportunity is massive, yet only 1 percent of businesses can automatically engage with customers via messaging.”

It’s time to change this. Become part of the 1% who are in the know by reading about all the important features of Facebook chatbot that you can take advantage of for your business.

How does it help customer engagement?

Though still relevant, email open rates are declining. The opposite seems to be true with Facebook messenger. According to SEO Journal, the open rates for the messaging platform are “70-80 percent within the first hour.” With this kind of engagement, it’s clear that chatbots provide a good opportunity for businesses.

There are multiple ways you can engage with customers via chatbots. You can use them to answer frequently asked questions or blast larger messages for a greater amount of people to receive. Chatbots are also less intimidating to converse with because there isn’t a live person on the other side being overly persistent about getting someone to pursue their services. Because customers feel less pressured with a chatbot, they are more open to engaging with you and your business. Customers who are engaged and interested in your content will eventually result in higher conversions for your business.

How can you create a Facebook chatbot?

There are several options you can employ when you want to create this helpful tool for your business. You can use a visual chatbot builder if you have limited knowledge of the Facebook messenger API. You can create different types of content through this chatbot feature, whether they’re more visual or text-based. Businesses also have the option to use purely text messages available to clients or integrate other features.

Facebook has created a chatbot to feel like a human conversation even if the interaction is using automated responses by utilizing technology from wit.ai. Keep this in mind as you design your chatbot.

What type of content can you create?

You can utilize various media using chatbots, including text, audio, images, video, files, and gift cards. This gives you many choices on how you can appeal to your audience and their tastes. With these many options, you can create various content, including testimonials, giveaways, and much more. Your options for message types are also extensive; you can use standard messaging, subscription messaging in beta, sponsored messages, and API. You can also send attachments, including files, URLs, and attachment IDs. All this illustrates how customizable a Facebook chatbot can be.

How to create a successful chatbot

One of the most important aspects of creating a chatbot is cultivating a meaningful experience for clients, despite using planned responses. Here are some tips to achieve this.

• Write different versions of the same messages to give people a variation and flow of natural conversation.
• Please focus on the customer and anticipate their needs.
• Create questions that warrant a response with feedback and make sure each one sounds conversational.
• If a potential customer message you first, you have one day to respond with as many messages as you want. We would recommend that you keep these messages low, as sending a customer too many could backfire.
• Be aware of your tone in these responses and be clear.
• Offer your customers the choice to subscribe and give them a chance to opt-in or emphasize using contact forms.
• Don’t be overly persistent. Make sure to allow your users to unsubscribe or stop your messages, and be respectful if this happens.

How will this help your small business?

If utilized strategically, this tool can greatly affect your small business for the better. The more communication you have with potential customers, the more you increase your potential for a great ROI. This new chatbot feature will serve anyone in any industry due to its extensive communication methods. Additionally, the numbers don’t lie; open rates are fantastic! So give it a try and be one of the businesses participating in the latest and greatest technology. For more information on how to use the chatbot feature visit, Facebook for developers.