Facebook Messenger Bots – A How-to Guide

Are you using Facebook Messenger Bots in your business yet? Here’s why you should…

I don’t know about you, but I receive a ton of emails every day. More emails than I can read, or even want to read. But you know what isn’t inundated with messages? My Facebook Messenger app.

Guess what happens when I do get a message on Messenger? I read it. Like, within an hour of seeing that little red number sitting on my app.

So if I’m checking (and reading) my Messenger app, I bet you are too.

Guess who else is doing this too? Your potential customers, clients, and subscribers.

In fact, in a webinar hosted by Ezra Firestone (and Podcast interview he also did on Mixergy), he said that in his tests so far, they were having a 98% open rate on their Facebook Messenger Bot broadcasts.

98%! Let that sink in for a bit.

When was the last time one of your emails got a 98% open rate? Is your answer never?! Mine too!

The way we consume information is changing, and as a business owner, whether it’s your side hustle or full-time gig, you need to stay in front of these trends to make the most of the time you have available to connect with your audience.

That’s why I had to share with you this blog post about getting your own Facebook Messenger Bot setup. The more people that implement this TODAY, the more success they’ll start to see in their businesses in the coming months.

In this blog post, you’ll learn:

• What options there are for messenger bots and which one to choose
• Setting up your welcome message and default message
• Working out your keywords

Ready to get started? Let’s jump straight in.

Facebook Messenger Bot Options

In all of the research I’ve done over the recent weeks, there are two main bot options that people tend to use.

The option you go with will largely depend on the type of business you run, although both bot options will work in any industry.

ChatFuel and ManyChat are the two bots that you need to check out.

For the purposes of this blog post, I’ll be using ChatFuel.

ManyChat is what Ezra Firestone uses for his eCommerce businesses, and is what we also use in our eCommerce businesses.

ChatFuel is what a lot of digital product providers use, which is why I’m going to show you how to setup ChatFuel vs. ManyChat.

Both are similar in the way they can be set up — just different interfaces and terminology.

Getting Started With Your Facebook Messenger Bot

First things first, you’ll need a Facebook Page associated with your business to get started. If you don’t have one set up yet, go ahead and do that now. Shouldn’t take you more than 10 minutes to get setup.

Once your Facebook Page is setup, it’s time to sign up for a ChatFuel free account. Head to www.chatfuel.com and sign up. Follow the steps and connect your Facebook Page.

You’ll be prompted to set up a “chatbot” — you can use one of the templates provided or opt to go with a blank template.

I’d recommend that you start with a blank template.

Setup welcome and default messages

Once you’ve got your initial setup complete, it’s time to get into the nitty gritty of setting up your chatbot.

On the left-hand side menu, click on “build” — you should see the following screen once you’ve done this.

You will see that you have two blocks (messages) sitting there, waiting to be edited.

We’re going to start with the Welcome Message block.

FYI, blocks are simply the different messages that make up your chatbot. Think of them as building blocks, as they build on top of each other, based on what you tell your chatbot to do.

Ok, back to editing your Welcome Message block.

To edit, click on the Welcome Message block (if you’re not already in it). You’ll see a screen to the right open up, where you can edit the text.

To edit the text, simply click on the grey area and highlight the text and replace it with something more meaningful.

Here’s what I’ve got written for the Hustle & Groove Messenger Bot:

Keep it short and sweet and in line with your brand.

The next thing you’ll want to do is click where it says “Add a button”.

You’ll have three options:

1. Connect to an existing Block
2. Send them to a URL
3. Provide them with a phone number

I’d recommend connecting them to an existing block, that being your Default Answer.

So when you click on “Add a button” enter a name for your button. I’ve used “Learn More”. Then, in the drop-down area below, you’ll see that block is chosen by default (vs URL or phone number).

Click in the blank space below the three options and you’ll see another drop-down menu appears. Choose “Default Answer” and this will be inserted into this area.

Click done once you’re finished.

This is what you’re finished Welcome Message should look like (something similar of course, please don’t copy!):

Ok! That wasn’t too hard now, was it?

Our next step is to set up our Default Answer. Go ahead and click this on the left-hand side to open the screen so we can edit it.

The default answer is the main response that will be used to respond to any user input (after they’ve received the Welcome Message).

This should be like a mini-menu and provide them with more information or a way to get in touch with you.

Here’s what I have for Hustle & Groove:

You’ll see that I’ve included three buttons that all link to a specific URL. You should set yours up in a similar way.

If you want to personalize your messages with the person’s first name (as they’ve got on Facebook), then all you have to do is type “{{” and you’ll be provided with a drop-down menu with these personalization options.

Choose whatever your want and continue editing.

It’s important to note that you can jump into your Facebook Messenger Bot and respond to the messages at any time.

In fact, I’d recommend that you do that regardless of what you’re setting up here.

Your chatbot is simply a way to help your subscribers get instant access to information, but it’s not meant to replace a real human, particularly when your subscriber is asking a question your chatbot can’t answer.

Keep this in mind as we go through the rest of the setup.

Ok, we’re done with phase one 🙂

Setting up your AI aka working out your keywords

Our next phase is where the magic happens, where the chatbot comes to ‘life’!

To set this up, you’ll need to do a bit of planning and thinking about how people will interact with your bot.

So before we set up your AI, I want you to go through the following exercise:

Step 1: Write down your blog categories

Step 2: Look at your emails from customers/clients/subscribers and see what common questions they’re asking — note those down

Step 3: Look at your Google Analytics and see what common search terms are being used as people ‘surf’ your site

Once you’ve got all of that information together, it’s time to set up your AI inside ChatFuel.

To do this, on the left-hand side menu, just under the “Build” option, you’ll see “Set up AI” <– click this and you’ll see the following screen:

Starting with your blog categories, click “add rule” and add your first blog category. You’ll see that after you enter this, the cursor jumps to the next box, where you can choose to write some helpful text or choose to link to an existing block.

This is where you’ll need to plan out your content. If you need to create more blocks, go back to the build menu and under your Welcome and Default Messages, you’ll see two more options for blocks:

One is for creating one-off blocks (standalone) and the other is for creating groups of blocks (those that link to each other).

Looking at the keywords, search terms, questions and blog categories you have, plan out whether you’re going to need to create standalone blocks or block groups.

I’d suggest that you create your blocks or block groups first, then go and set up the rules in the AI section.

Here’s a quick video of me setting one up for Hustle & Groove so it makes a bit more sense:

And that’s it, your basic Facebook Messenger Bot is all set up!

There are other parts to your bot that you might want to look into, such as creating broadcasts and sequences, which are very similar to your email sequences you’ve got set up in your email platform, like ConvertKit.

Linking to Your Facebook Messenger Bot

Once you’ve got your chatbot all set up inside ChatFuel, you’ll want to start promoting your bot!

The best way to do this is to add a plugin to your site that allows people to message you directly inside Facebook Messenger. This will prompt your bot to start interacting and will automatically subscribe them to your chatbot.

ChatFuel provides information on how you can connect your chatbot to your page, but I’ve found installing a Facebook Messenger plugin on my WordPress site works much easier.

I’m using the Zotabox Plugin, it’s free and allows you to connect directly to your Facebook Page’s messenger app.

You can also link to your chatbot by sharing the link you can see at the top of your ChatFuel account:

The one for Hustle & Groove is m.me/hustleandgroove if you want to check it out and connect more 🙂

Next Steps

All that’s left to do to get your own Facebook Messenger Bot live is to follow the steps outline in this blog post! Allow yourself 2-3 hours to get this properly set up and remember to continue to review and update your AI rules.

Want more detailed help?

Grab the Facebook Messenger Bot mini-course and get guided,
step-by-step video instructions on setting up your own chatbot inside ChatFuel.