Bojana Vojnović

Platforms

Engagement

<p>Today’s e-commerce market has to take the social aspect into consideration. That means leveraging social media as a tool. You’re probably already maintaining a social media presence and running social media ads. In this article, we will make a case for why you should also have an actual store on social media. We’re talking about Facebook Shops.</p>
<h2>What is Facebook Shops?</h2>
<p><a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2020/05/introducing-facebook-shops/">Facebook Shops</a> is a part of the Facebook platform. It’s a shopping interface that a business can set up and link to their business pages. It can be a single online store for both Facebook and Instagram. Brands choose the products and customize their shop with a cover image and accent colors. This means any seller can bring their business online and connect with customers wherever and whenever it’s convenient for them.</p>
<p>People who are already socializing with friends and keeping up with businesses on Facebook will be able to find your shop easily. Your business page will have a link, and you can run ads that lead to it, too. Some businesses can even offer a native buying experience, so users can enjoy shopping on Facebook and then check out without leaving the site or app. Users can also bookmark favorite items and message the business directly through Messenger if they have questions.</p>
<h2><strong>Top reasons to sell on Facebook marketplace</strong></h2>
<h4><strong>1. Global audience</strong></h4>
<p>Facebook has 2.7 billion monthly active users worldwide. If your business has a presence on this platform, you’ve access to a vast audience. Statistics show that people want to connect with brands on social media. <a href="https://www.kleinerperkins.com/perspectives/internet-trends-report-2018">78% of US consumers</a> say they’ve discovered products on Facebook. And there’s now a dedicated marketplace tab on Facebook. Users can browse products by category or search for a specific shop. They’ll also be able to access your shop through the prominent View on Website button on your business’s Facebook page. This sets the stage for your business to benefit from the shopping development on Facebook.</p>
<h4><strong>2. No monthly fee</strong></h4>
<p>Even though there are no initiation or monthly fees, some payments associated with being a merchant on this platform occur. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/business/help/223030991929920?id=533228987210412">Facebook takes 5%</a> of all orders processed with their in-app checkout option (or $0.40 on items cost $8 or less). These fees include taxes and payment processing costs. Merchants don’t need to worry about manually paying for their Facebook shop since Facebook automatically deducts the fees.</p>
<h4><strong>3. Easy to save time and sell more</strong></h4>
<p>In an e-commerce shop, a Messenger chatbot plays the role of a sales associate. Set up a chatbot and equip it to answer common questions about your Facebook Shop’s products. It will automatically respond to every customer inquiry and give them information in a seamless, back-and-forth style. That means prospective buyers will no longer fall through the cracks because you were too busy manually responding to messages. And after answering the user’s question, your chatbot can even cross-sell and upsell additional products related to the one the customer showed interest in.</p>
<h2><strong>How to set up a Facebook marketplace automation</strong></h2>
<p>Setting up a Facebook Shop is simple to do but can be a game-changer for the success of your new or well-established brand. As long as you’re an admin of your page in Business Manager and have permissions to manage the page and its catalog, you can set up a Facebook Shop in minutes. If you already have an e-commerce store set up on Shopify, you can create a Shopify Facebook store. That way, you’ll be able to continue selling on your original site and attract business from Facebook. Follow <a href="https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/online-sales-channels/facebook/facebook-shop/setup">Shopify’s instructions for linking</a>.</p>
<p>If you’re starting your e-commerce store from scratch on Facebook, follow these instructions to set up a Facebook shop:</p>
<p>**Step 1.**Start at Facebook’s <a href="https://www.facebook.com/micro_site/url/?click_from_context_menu=true&country=US&destination=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fcommerce_manager%2Fonboarding_landing&event_type=click&last_nav_impression_id=0SUqiKhNw3znG8uzM&max_percent_page_viewed=100&max_viewport_height_px=713&max_viewport_width_px=1343&orig_http_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&orig_request_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fbusiness%2Fhelp%2F268860861184453&primary_cmsid=268860861184453&primary_content_locale=en_US&region=noam&scrolled=true&session_id=10OlnbYqweCi1WIpp&site=fb4b&extra_data%5Bview_type%5D=v3_initial_view&extra_data%5Bsite_section%5D=help&extra_data%5Bplacement%5D=%2Fbusiness%2Fhelp%2F268860861184453">Create Your Shop page</a> and click <strong>Next.</strong></p>
<figure><div><img alt="How to set up a Facebook shop automation" src="/cms/static/blog/62580ebbc996a8156af20606_b70c1bd150b18597c302f82b0499e43613aa218c9c30c3b037f1fd6e5869083a45ca9b63b0c7ac485610986debb33063e6368534ffa78c643107f2a173f20afcc23bccbddb31ca6bddbe5ca41fbbe0c9c1714442733fce40ae07b74b0c36651afa53e121.png" height="1168" width="2080" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAACCAIAAADwyuo0AAAACXBIWXMAAAsTAAALEwEAmpwYAAAAI0lEQVR4nGN4++6dqKgoNw/PnLlzGb59+9rR0bFt27bW9i4AoFcNM+arjoEAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"></div></figure>
<p>**Step 2.**Choose a checkout method. We recommend the <em>Checkout with Messaging</em>option, so you can enable tools like Chatfuel to help you sell more. Then click Next.</p>
<figure><div><img alt="How to set up a Facebook shop automation" src="/cms/static/blog/62580ebbdf20ab28560cccd7_5ec6d99d04be6eb60088940f019c21fbd8b7d09b150e6be71fd3b8ac4179d095bd4fc235bdd0abede03247efd00a211bf3e38d53c2c2550b96ddb17062eb73be68bb4f6d8973581d6d520361e7eda02eb178ab7f6ba7d041cb74c1f1512f6f90620481e8.png" height="1168" width="2080" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAACCAIAAADwyuo0AAAACXBIWXMAAAsTAAALEwEAmpwYAAAAI0lEQVR4nGPYd+DAqlWr3NzchEVFGJ4/fzFlynT/gABbW1sAo+MLZujuNXoAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"></div></figure>
<ol>
<li>Select your business from the list or start a new one. Click Next.</li>
<li>Select existing products in the Add Products section**, ** or add a new catalog. Click Finish Setup.</li>
<li>Create a collection of up to 30 products.</li>
<li>Customize the colors and other visual settings of your shop.</li>
<li>Publish your shop and wait for approval from Facebook.</li>
<li>Set up a Messenger chatbot to increase your sales and improve customer service.</li>
</ol>
<h2><strong>Facebook marketplace and chatbots</strong></h2>
<p>Facebook Shops lets you access a vast, engaged audience. They load faster than a mobile website, and you can make your shoppers' lives easier by enabling in-app checkout. Thanks to the prominent tab and buttons, shops efficiently market with Facebook ads, making organic discovery easy.</p>
<p>Integrating a Messenger chatbot helps Facebook Shops grow faster with conversational marketing. Setting up a chatbot for e-commerce to do all of the above on Facebook is easy. With Chatfuel, no coding experience is required.**<a href="http://dashboard.chatfuel.com/?utm_landing=blog-posts%2Fwelcome-message-best-practices&lng=en">Sign up</a> for your free account today to get a chatbot for e-commerce up and running in minutes.</p>

Top reasons to sell on Facebook marketplace and how to set up a Facebook shop automation with chatbot

How to automate your Facebook marketplace

Mary Rybakova

Industries

<h2>The Brand</h2>
<p>Yash Bhansali and Vikram Kanodia met in high school. Now, they’ve founded a chatbot agency together called <a href="https://talkative.ai/">Talkative.AI.</a> Their chat agency’s mission is “to use conversational AI to power ecommerce, create unique customer experiences, and empower brands.” And when the coronavirus pandemic hit in early 2020, they saw opportunities to help their clients weather the storm using AI chat bots. This is the story of one such consumer marketing client, a Mumbai bakery called Essange that specializes in stunning cakes and cupcakes.</p>
<figure><div><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb0a55deacf1_AI chatbot for bakery.png" loading="lazy" alt="" height="1194" width="1618" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAIAAAA7ljmRAAAACXBIWXMAABYlAAAWJQFJUiTwAAAAMklEQVR4nAEnANj/AE0mHHJgWNvf4Pv7+wAkAABkPUHPzdHV3eMAPjA0LwAAqpme////YFUS/ITogA0AAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"></div><figcaption>Essange is known for their beautiful desserts.</figcaption></figure>
<h2>The Problem</h2>
<p>When the COVID-19 pandemic escalated, lockdowns went into effect all around the world. Since gatherings and parties were prohibited, Essange experienced a sudden, major drop in business. “Regular orders slowed down,” explains Yash, “and many people started baking at home for themselves instead by following online video tutorials on YouTube, <a href="https://try.chatfuel.com/instagram">Instagram</a>, and Facebook.” To stay in business, the bakery’s owner knew she needed to pivot—and fast.</p>
<h2>The Solution</h2>
<p>Yash and Vikram knew that a robust AI chatbot would be the perfect solution to help this client keep her business afloat. Their Facebook chatbot agency had already built her a bot for <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/posts/chatbot-for-customer-service">FAQ automation</a>, but they knew that now was the time to turn that into something even more powerful and engaging. “We decided to use this opportunity to create a unique, memorable experience for all her customers while generating a new source of income at the same time,” Vikram and Yash tell us.</p>
<p>Here’s how the <a href="https://m.me/essangedessertbar?ref=BakeAtHome">Bake at Home bot</a> works:</p>
<ol>
<li>Customers buy a DIY “bake at home” kit from the bakery, which includes everything they need to make their dessert of choice except for milk and eggs. 📦</li>
<li>The customer uses their phone to scan the QR code on the kit, and they’re directed to the Facebook chatbot that Yash and Vikram built. 🤖</li>
<li>The AI bot acts as a virtual baking assistant, guiding the customer through each step of the baking process with instructions and GIFs. 🗺️</li>
</ol>
<figure><div><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb8182deacf2_Agency builds AI chatbot.png" loading="lazy" alt="" height="788" width="940" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAIAAAA7ljmRAAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAMklEQVR4nAEnANj/AKSkpKKjpGtra6qwsgBRS0YkHheTlJTa4OUA4uLir6+vvsLHztXaiTsWL9C/jV8AAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"></div><figcaption>The AI chatbot for the bakery guides customers through instructions for baking their dessert.</figcaption></figure>
<p>“Not only does the chatbot make the baking experience super easy and fun,” Vikram explains, “but it also retargets the customer a few hours later to upsell other DIY baking kits.” The Messenger bot also invites users to tag the bakery in a photo of their completed creation on social media, which helps the business generate social proof.</p>
<figure><div><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bbd847deacf3_Customer experience chatbot.png" loading="lazy" alt="" height="788" width="940" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAIAAAA7ljmRAAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAL0lEQVR4nGP4//9/SnJyakbG////Gf7//29tbCTOzAHi/PjxY9XqdUsXL//x4wcA0xwY2GyHGk4AAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"></div><figcaption>The bakery chatbot invites customers to share a photo of their creation on social media once they've finished it.</figcaption></figure>
<p>Yash and Vikram explain that they wanted to use a chatbot for something more than a marketing channel or a <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/posts/chatbot-for-customer-service">customer service experience</a>. “The client said, <em>Can we make the bot part of the business?</em> And that’s when we figured out that there’s a tandem opportunity to actually make the bot part of the product she’s selling,” they share.</p>
<h2>The Recipe</h2>
<p>“We’ve found that good chatbots don’t need to be complex chatbots,” says Yash. “Some of the most effective bots are those that use only simple or basic features, but are designed to focus on business goals and providing the best customer service experience through smooth interactions.”</p>
<p>That’s why Chatfuel was the right fit for their project. “We feel that the Chatfuel team keeps the end-user in mind while designing the platform,” shares Vikram. “The end-user experience is our relentless focus with every chatbot, so using Chatfuel helps us create more value for our clients.”</p>
<p>Here are a few of the Chatfuel tools and features the Talkative team used to build this baking bot:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Artificial intelligence (AI)</strong>. “We leveraged Google’s NLP to understand user input and respond intelligently. This ensures a seamless, unrestricted, and natural user experience,” says Yash. To apply AI in the simplest way, you can <a href="https://docs.chatfuel.com/en/articles/828883-ai-setup">set up AI rules</a>, which are pre-set messages your bot will send  in response to certain text inputs from users. Or, you can learn how to <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/posts/build-ai-chatbots">set up Dialogflow</a> for a more robust user experience with AI. Either way, an AI chatbot can significantly improve the user experience, as it did for the Bake at Home Bot.</li>
<li><strong>Customer Chat Entry Point.</strong> Yash and Vikram used this plugin so that the chatbot would pop up and offer help to anyone who visits the bakery’s website. <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/posts/add-a-messenger-chatbot-to-your-website">Adding a chatbot to a website</a> is an easy way for any brand to get new users.</li>
</ul>
<figure><div><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb4e80deacf4_Chatbot for website.png" loading="lazy" alt="" height="1390" width="2588" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAACCAIAAADwyuo0AAAACXBIWXMAABYlAAAWJQFJUiTwAAAAI0lEQVR4nGP4//dnXW6Op6XFhXMXGK6eOqrAwNBWVtA+ZQkAuvMNJIfb5pwAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"></div><figcaption>The chatbot is ready to engage anyone who visits the bakery's website.</figcaption></figure>
<ul>
<li><strong>Facebook Ads Entry Points.</strong> This feature lets you easily set up <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/posts/sponsored-messages-guide-to-reengaging-chatbot-subscribers">sponsored messages</a> and <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/posts/create-click-to-messenger-ads-to-drive-traffic-to-your-bot">click-to-Messenger ads</a> for your bot, and Yash and Vikram took advantage. “Sponsored messages and click-to-Messenger ads on Facebook <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/posts/use-instagram-ads-to-bring-users-to-your-dms-or-your-messenger-bot?clid=_jXrNVtAnPWGOU2sq-odX&abt=">and Instagram</a> were ‘baked’ into the branding and marketing strategy,” they tell us.</li>
</ul>
<p>Vikram and Yash shared that they also made use of <a href="https://docs.chatfuel.com/en/articles/925465-asset-guide">gallery cards</a>, images, GIFs, and sequences in the recipe tutorials. User attributes and <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/posts/a-marketing-automation-love-story-chatfuel-zapier">Zapier CRM integrations</a> helped them with personalization and retargeting. All these features combined helped improve the customer experience for the bakery bot’s users.</p>
<h2>The Results</h2>
<p>The Bake at Home Bot performed extremely well, according to Yash and Vikram. “The chatbot achieved its design goals beyond expectation in terms of lead conversion, increased sales, brand building, and customer engagement,” they tell us.</p>
<p>“Our experience-oriented design <strong>acquired 250% more users in a month</strong> than the automated FAQs version was able to acquire in over a year,” shares Vikram. “User activity spiked to <strong>50x Active Users</strong> and 13x Reengaged Users. Plus, online-to-offline sales conversions also increased significantly, which helped our client jump-start her business amidst the COVID slowdown!”</p>
<figure><div><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb4692deacf5_AI chatbot metrics.png" loading="lazy" alt="" height="707" width="1600" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAACCAIAAADwyuo0AAAACXBIWXMAAAsTAAALEwEAmpwYAAAAI0lEQVR4nGN4/frN959/ymtbJ0yZwzB33qL4pAxtQ8vo+FQA1xANoh6FLuYAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"></div><figcaption>The virtual assistant version of the bakery's chatbot acquired 250% more users in a month than the FAQ version did in over a year.</figcaption></figure>
<h2>A chatbot can get your business sweet results 🍰</h2>
<p>The digital customer experience the Bake at Home Bot offers was a game changer for Essange Bakery, as it helped them expand their customer base, increase sales, and stand out from the competition. If you’re ready to take your business to the next level with a free AI chatbot, get started with Chatfuel today. <a href="https://dashboard.chatfuel.com">Start with a free account</a> to get familiar with <a href="https://youtu.be/D4n6VLQHE5U">the basics of building a Chatfuel bot</a>, then <a href="https://chatfuel.com/pricing">upgrade to Pro</a> when you’re ready for unlimited users, priority support, and other perks.</p>

A marketing agency built an AI chatbot for this bakery to help them stay afloat and even grow during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bakery Uses AI Chatbot to Create New Revenue Stream During COVID-19 Shutdown

Angela Skowronek

Use cases

Find out how a customer support chat bot can help your brand provide a better customer experience.

How to Build a Free Chatbot for Customer Service

<h2>The Brand</h2>
<p>The Famous Grouse is a Scottish whisky brand founded in 1896. Their blend is one of the most popular in the world, and they’ve been the best-selling whisky in Scotland for over 40 years. This year, they released a new product: a limited-edition gift box featuring three of their hard-to-get blends (Ruby Cask, Wine Cask, and Bourbon Cask). They hired The Leith Agency, a full-service marketing agency, to help them market and sell their new offering as a Father’s Day gift.</p>
<figure><iframe allowfullscreen src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DAlWAujLjlQ"></iframe></figure>
<h2>The Problem</h2>
<p>The team at <a href="https://leith.co.uk">The Leith Marketing Agency</a> knew that selling the gift box would require a different approach than <a href="https://www.thefamousgrouse.com/en">The Famous Grouse</a>’s typical campaigns. Normally, they target and speak to whisky drinkers with their marketing. This time, “we also needed to think about people who would be buying gifts for whisky drinkers,” explains Leith’s Head of Social Jamie McAdam. “This meant that they perhaps had less knowledge about whisky itself, the brand, or what we had to offer.”</p>
<p>So the team knew that product education had to be a key component of their strategy. But they also knew it had to take a more engaging form than “extra-long Facebook statuses,” in Jamie’s words. So instead, they created a series of <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/facebook-ads">Facebook ads</a> for the gift box using <a href="https://www.shopify.com/blog/facebook-ads-sequential-retargeting">sequential retargeting</a>. “This allowed us to tell a longer story, building in more information about the product with each ad,” Jamie says.</p>
<p>While the ads worked well to tease the product to shoppers, “we wanted an opportunity for a more in-depth customer experience,” explains Jamie. “We wanted a place where people could learn specific product details and strengthen their affinity with the brand.”</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We wanted a place where people could learn specific product details and strengthen their affinity with the brand.” — Jamie McAdam, The Leith Marketing Agency’s Head of Social</p>
</blockquote>
<p>‍</p>
<h2>The Solution</h2>
<p>The Leith team knew that this was the chance they had been waiting for. They’d been interested in trying out <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/6-reasons-marketing-agencies-should-offer-chatbot-services">conversational marketing for their clients</a> for a while, and this opportunity “ticked all the right boxes” for their first go. “Both the client and our team were keen to explore how <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/9-reasons-your-ecommerce-business-needs-a-chatbot">a chatbot could act as a new and innovative solution</a>,” Jamie tells us.</p>
<p>“After some initial research,” he continues, “Chatfuel stood out as <a href="https://docs.chatfuel.com/en/articles/3882031-chatfuel-for-agencies-and-creators">the best option for this project.</a> The platform itself is easy to manage, no code skills required, and the level of support offered was just what we needed to take this project to the next level.”</p>
<p>The team ended up crafting a version of a gift-recommendation chatbot to lead people who were shopping for Father’s Day gifts towards the new product. “By being more conversational [with the ecommerce chatbot],” Jamie explains, “we could guide people through what the offering was and help them make a purchase decision.”</p>
<p>Here’s how the bot works:</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>The bot welcomes the user</strong> 👋🏽The chatbot <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/welcome-message-best-practices">greets the user</a> and introduces itself as the Grouse, the whisky brand’s well-known and beloved icon. Its <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/chatbot-names">friendly, charming persona</a> makes users feel both comfortable and intrigued. (The Leith team also made sure to break up the text, add pauses, and include visuals to make for a more natural, streamlined conversational design.)</li>
<li><strong>The bot confirms the user’s interest</strong> ✅ It asks if they need help finding the perfect Father’s Day gift.</li>
<li><strong>The bot begins a</strong> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfmQvqtJN9Q"><strong>product-recommendation flow</strong></a>❓When the user confirms that they’re looking for a Father’s Day gift, the chatbot guides them through a series of questions. “Although the ultimate goal is always the same—to sell the gift box,” Jamie explains, “the questions helped make a clearer case for why it would be a good gift for that user’s dad in particular.”</li>
<li><strong>The user makes a purchase</strong> 🎁 Once the user is convinced that the gift box is the right choice for their Father’s Day gift, the Facebook Messenger chatbot sends them to the website to buy. Or, if they’re still unsure, they can choose to live chat with a human support agent instead. Either way, they’ll have traveled along the ecommerce sales funnel and will be likely to make a purchase from there.</li>
</ol>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb846bdead59_Product Recommendation Chatbot.png" loading="lazy" alt="" height="788" width="940" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAIAAAA7ljmRAAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAMklEQVR4nAEnANj/AP/796Sgn2lmZYmQlADisZJPPjcABAs1OTwA//v2qamqfYGDmJiYi5wTjZN9hTkAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>The Famous Grouse ad led to their product recommendation chatbot.</figcaption></figure>
<blockquote>
<p>“Chatfuel is incredibly easy to manage, no code skills required. And the level of support offered was just what we needed to take this project to the next level.” — Jamie McAdam</p>
</blockquote>
<p>‍</p>
<h2>The Recipe</h2>
<p>The Leith team focused on these key tools and features to build the Messenger chatbot for The Famous Grouse:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://docs.chatfuel.com/en/articles/828883-keywords"><strong>AI rules</strong></a>. AI, or artificial intelligence, was key to the success of this Facebook chatbot. First, the Leith team created a few basic AI rules, including an option to return users to the start of the chat experience if anything “went wrong.” Then, they brainstormed other questions or comments users might send during the chat, like mentioning other whisky brands, “swearing/being cheeky,” and questions about the box itself or about shipping. They added AI rules so the bot could properly respond to all of these scenarios. After launch, they continued to watch out for where users were getting stuck and added more rules to remove those friction points.</li>
</ul>
<figure><iframe allowfullscreen src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/F-lO4dAujjg"></iframe></figure>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://docs.chatfuel.com/en/articles/849315-live-chat"><strong>Live chat</strong></a>. The Leith team used the live chat feature as a sort of net to catch any users who may have otherwise fallen through the cracks. If a user completed the product-recommendation flow but had other questions or still wasn’t sure about buying, they had the option to then initiate a live chat session. From there, a human would take over to resolve their queries, so no sales opportunity would be lost and no user would be abandoned.</li>
</ul>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb87f2deac64_image-5.png" loading="lazy" alt="" height="371" width="645" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAACCAIAAADwyuo0AAAACXBIWXMAAAsTAAALEwEAmpwYAAAAJUlEQVR4nAEaAOX/APLu7Nzc3PX09N/e3gAOHyrHx8jn5+fV1NX82hK5gu9e8QAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==" placeholder="blur"></figure>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/create-click-to-messenger-ads-to-drive-traffic-to-your-bot"><strong>Click-to-Messenger ads</strong></a>. The team ran click-to-Messenger ads to attract prospects to the Facebook chatbot. (This ad type appears in a user’s feed and directs them immediately to a conversation with the bot in Messenger.) “These ads meant less effort for users to take part, and they proved to be a much more effective way of acquiring new prospects on the media budget we had available,” says Jamie.</li>
</ul>
<figure><iframe allowfullscreen src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tjKqCie3IsA"></iframe></figure>
<p>Another tool that was crucial to the success of The Famous Grouse’s chatbot: <a href="https://youtu.be/ZIUTFnRyJZI">excellent copy</a>. First, the Leith team’s copywriters made sure all the bot’s content <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/craft-a-brand-voice-that-converts">matched the voice and tone</a> of the brand’s mascot, the Grouse itself. They created a user experience that was consistently warm, welcoming, and on-brand throughout.</p>
<p>Finally, the team also made sure to closely monitor the Facebook chatbot’s performance stats so they could iterate and optimize. Shortly after launch, “we could see where [in the flow] certain users were stopping,” Jamie explains. “So we implemented a flow that provided them with three new areas of information: price, shipping, and the box itself.” Following these edits, the conversion rate increased.</p>
<h2>The Results</h2>
<p>The detailed work the Leith team put into The Famous Grouse’s Messenger chatbot and its conversational commerce campaign paid off in a big way. It earned their client an <strong>on-site conversion rate of 24%</strong>. That means virtually a quarter of users who chatted with the bot ended up purchasing the gift box! 👏🏼 (The shoppers who went from the bot to the website also spent the longest average time on the page.) Before the chatbot, the Facebook video ads the team created were earning 8% conversions at their peak. So when the chatbot marketing campaign <strong>tripled the client’s conversion rates</strong> compared to the ads, the Leith team knew they’d hit the jackpot.</p>
<p>These results “showed us that people who came to the website from the chatbot were much more informed about the product, what it offered, and how it worked, and were therefore more likely to purchase,” explains Jamie. The goal of using the chatbot for ecommerce product education was a definite success.</p>
<p>Lastly, we asked Jamie what his team has planned for future campaigns with the bot. “We’re very pleased with how it performed,” he tells us, “and we’re now looking at ways it can play an additional role alongside our social advertising campaigns.”</p>
<h2>Chatbot marketing success—on the rocks 🥃</h2>
<p>The conversational marketing campaign for The Famous Grouse shows just how impactful online ecommerce chatbots can be for businesses. They’re an incredibly engaging way to educate shoppers about your products so they’re primed and ready to buy. The result: more sales for you (or your client)!</p>
<p>Whether you’re an ecommerce business owner or an agency with ecommerce clients, the key function of Chatfuel is to help you earn results like these.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>For ecommerce</strong> <strong>merchants</strong> 🛒 <a href="https://dashboard.chatfuel.com">Sign up for a free Chatfuel account</a> to get started with chatbot marketing today. (Then <a href="https://chatfuel.com/pricing">upgrade to Pro</a> for more perks as you grow, including priority support and no user limits!)</li>
</ul>

A marketing agency helped The Famous Grouse to market and sell their new offering as a Father's Day gift.

Product Recommendation Chatbot Triples Conversion Rates for The Famous Grouse Whisky

<p>Here’s the story of MyDreamChat — a startup that created a Facebook Messenger mental health chatbot for dream analysis. It grew to over 12,000 users in the first five months with under $5,000 in marketing spend. It brings powerful therapy experience as part of a larger project to create a separate app for this purpose. Tackling the minimum viable product creation, they ended up using the Messenger chatbot practically and creatively.</p>
<h2><strong>The brand helps to start your mental health improving journey</strong></h2>
<p>Sansan Fibri, the founder of the startup, has always believed that our dreams have the power to help us uncover and deal with emotional challenges. However, most of us need the proper guidance to start this mental-health journey. That’s where Sansan’s AI chatbot MyDreamChat comes in.</p>
<p>It’s a guided self-therapy tool that helps users analyze their dreams in a conversational, quiz-like format. The goal is to lead them towards a resolution at the subconscious level for more sound mental health.</p>
<p>While Sansan started on this concept in 2018, it’s become more relevant than ever in the COVID-19 era. Sansan and her team surveyed over 10,000 MyDreamChat users a few months into the pandemic. They found that 40% of customers used words like “feeling trapped,” “hopeless,” or “powerless” to describe their coronavirus-era dreams. But after dream analysis via this mental health chatbot, 82% of respondents reported gaining new insight, which led to feelings of hope and optimism.</p>
<h2><strong>The iOS app for the MVP proved to be way too pricey</strong></h2>
<p>Sansan explains that “effective mindset change and lasting healing occurs when we become conscious of our unconscious patterns and triggers. Those drive 95% of our decision-making and behavior.” Dream analysis is an effective tool on this journey for mental health, which is why she founded a startup called <a href="https://wakefully.io">Wakefully</a> in 2018.</p>
<p>However, to build the complete product she dreamed of, Sansan needed investors. And to attract investors, she knew she needed to start with a minimum viable product (MVP). The purpose of the MVP would be to validate market interest and cultivate a motivated and engaged core audience.</p>
<p>So she started by commissioning an iOS app for her MVP in 2018. But “it turned out to be an expensive user interface that was not really usable and most definitely not scalable,” Sansan shares, since she was doing all the analysis work behind the scenes.</p>
<p>After that experiment, Sansan knew she needed a cheaper and more automated solution for her true MVP. “That’s when I realized that the conversational nature of the app I envisioned and the Q&A in branching logic lend themselves pretty nicely to a chatbot,” — she says. “It seemed like a more affordable and scalable solution to test market interest. Thought at the time, I had no clue that I, the visionary/non-technical founder, would be able to build it myself!”</p>
<h2><strong>Chatbot has it all</strong></h2>
<p>“In the past, I used lead quizzes that would send people to my landing page waitlist. No more! I saw how I could streamline the entire funnel: ad → quiz → landing → dream analysis using a Facebook bot.” She was sold when she learned that she could use chatbot marketing to drive traffic, capture leads, retarget, and deliver value. “Our entire value proposition, all in one chatbot!” says Sansan.</p>
<p>She turned to Chatfuel for this project right away. Sansan tells us: “In my research, Chatfuel kept coming up as the platform that can enable someone like me, lacking any coding skills, to build an awesome Messenger bot. Using just Chatfuel and its <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1_z5c5UnMJ0waRJ8Bx1cFg">videos</a> and <a href="https://docs.chatfuel.com/en">help docs</a>, I built and launched the first version of MyDreamChat in about two weeks. I continue to learn, grow, analyze, and iterate due to the vast amount of information and tools Chatfuel provides.”</p>
<p>Here’s how MyDreamChat chatbot for mental health works:</p>
<ol>
<li>The user selects their dream type (being chased, falling, or feeling trapped).</li>
<li>They take a personalized quiz about the details of the dream they can remember and the feelings they associate with it.</li>
<li>The chatbot generates a personalized analysis of the user’s dream. The analysis explains what it “means” or symbolizes in the context of that person’s life experience.</li>
</ol>
<p>“It delivers this dialogue using positive psychology to help reframe their thinking about this and other dreams in a therapeutic, healthier way,” explains Sansan.</p>
<figure><img alt="dream analysis_chatbot_02_fb.png" src="/cms/static/blog/6284e7e20b365968858cadc2_f580c5676729fe3ca1f114506c1cfd8d7f33590b2f1aee2b722fc1c2229b61414bad8bd38b7954c1c8d95c1e166cbd48791a43618caf0c04cd10ae954096a470c13fcd2343c4a59cb4c1e993242181ac0ffde47120e23a184d88e8cbae29babf8e743711.png" height="1168" width="2080" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAACCAIAAADwyuo0AAAACXBIWXMAAAsTAAALEwEAmpwYAAAAI0lEQVR4nGNgkIyff/Fv2vJrDJr5DAyq+af+/w/s38YgEgQAi4gKuW+t9roAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>Positive psychology in action</figcaption></figure>
<h2><strong>Satisfied customers and high conversion</strong></h2>
<p>Sansan originally built her Messenger chatbot as an MVP for her separate app. She intended the Messenger bot to be a temporary solution but now decided to continue using Chatfuel as the top of the funnel with her own app. “The experience is so optimal for customer acquisition,” she says.</p>
<p>This decision is based on the incredible results she’s seen with her chatbot for mental health and dream analysis so far. Take a look:</p>
<ul>
<li>The chatbot has an 82% user satisfaction rating based on exit polls seamlessly integrated into the chat after an analysis.</li>
<li>The average engagement rate for users is 3 times more in the first week.</li>
<li>30% of users share the bot, and 25% of page likers share MyDreamChat ads, making for a virality factor potential of 50%.</li>
<li>Sansan and her team identify 53% of users as highly likely to convert (to download their separate app) and 33.5% as likely to convert to paid subscribers in the app.</li>
</ul>
<p>MyDreamChat illustrates how the use cases for Messenger chatbots are practically infinite. Most any scenario that would benefit from a personalized, back-and-forth conversation can be created in Messenger. It’s not just e-commerce retailers or brick-and-mortar businesses. As you can see, chatbots that provide mental health care or guidance work incredibly well in Messenger. They are using no-code technology to help people live better. We love to see it!</p>
<p>Wakefully is currently offering a promotion to their Facebook chatbot subscribers: a pre-order discount on membership once their complete, separate app is released.</p>
<p>If you are ready to build your own project in Chatfuel, <a href="https://dashboard.chatfuel.com">get started for free</a> to boost your sales.</p>

How e-commerce brand create a Messenger mental health chatbot for dream analysis and increase engagement rate x3

Startup blasts: chatbot analyzes dreams and improves mental health

Read on to find out what an ecommerce chatbot can do for your online store, and find out how to get started building one.

9 Reasons your eCommerce business needs a chatbot

The game-changing tool that'll help your nonprofit save time, get new donors and volunteers, and expand its impact: a Messenger chatbot.

9 Reasons Your Nonprofit Needs a Chatbot

<p>A chatbot is your business’s Swiss Army knife: a multi-purpose tool that can help you with all kinds of different tasks and goals. Looking to cut costs, save time, boost sales, or delight customers? A Messenger chatbot can help with all four. And the best part is: You don’t need to be a tech expert or have coding knowledge to build one! That’s what no-code tools like Chatfuel are for. 😎 So allow us to dig a little deeper into the question of why your business needs a chatbot. Your business can benefit from chatbot technology in the following nine ways, because bots can help you…</p>
<h2>Cut business costs</h2>
<p><em>What company would turn down an easy opportunity to cut expenses? A Messenger chatbot for your business can help do this in two key ways.</em></p>
<h3>#1. Qualify leads automatically to reduce operational costs. ✅</h3>
<p>Simply by asking questions in its natural, conversational style, a chatbot can automatically sort prospective customers into categories. They can narrow down which prospects would be a good fit for your services, for example. Or, they could separate out those who seem more prepared to buy your products than others. Check out these real-world examples of Chatfuel users who have found success with their lead qualification chatbots:</p>
<ul>
<li>A car dealership saw a <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/nissan-sells-cars-using-messenger-bot">3.5x increase in qualified leads</a> and a 10x increase in sales in the first month, thanks to a bot that qualifies test-drive leads</li>
<li>An astrology brand was able to <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/cut-operational-costs-with-messenger-bot">cut costs by $25,000/month</a> and reduce their staff by over half once they launched a chatbot to qualify leads, since their employees no longer had to waste time talking to unqualified prospects.</li>
</ul>
<h3>#2. Improve return on ad spend. 📈</h3>
<p>Let’s say you run a Facebook ad that directs users to your ecommerce store, your <a href="https://chatfuel.com/templates/restaurant">restaurant’s</a> menu, or <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/6-reasons-marketing-agencies-should-offer-chatbot-services">your agency’s website</a>. Once the user arrives, they’re on their own to browse, and <em>hopefully</em> convert.🤞 But <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/create-click-to-messenger-ads-to-drive-traffic-to-your-bot">direct them to a chatbot on Messenger instead</a>, and they’ll get personalized guidance right down the sales funnel. Your bot can <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfmQvqtJN9Q">recommend products</a> in your store, answer questions about your food delivery, or qualify leads for <a href="https://docs.chatfuel.com/en/articles/3882031-chatfuel-for-agencies-and-creators#:~:text=We%20also%20offer%20an%20Enterprise%20plan">your marketing agency</a>’s services. The result? More conversions and a better ROAS for you.</p>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb7d52deab29_image-3.png" alt="click to messenger ads" height="788" width="940" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAIAAAA7ljmRAAAACXBIWXMAAAsSAAALEgHS3X78AAAAMklEQVR4nAEnANj/APX39e7w68/Q0NXW1gBiY1EACwDc4tz+/P0A9/b24OHf5Ofo7u7uGTIcTWOLmqQAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>You can create <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/create-click-to-messenger-ads-to-drive-traffic-to-your-bot">click-to-Messenger ads</a> that drive users to your chatbot. Once there, your bot can move prospects down the sales funnel towards a conversion.</figcaption></figure>
<h2>Save time</h2>
<p><em>The less time your employees have to spend on repetitive questions and tasks, the more time they’ll have for other value-adding projects. Here’s why you should consider chatbots as a business solution for saving time.</em></p>
<h3>#3. Automate your overflowing inbox. 📨</h3>
<p>Are you or your staff spending countless hours responding to Facebook messages from prospects and customers? Good news: Chatbots and customer service are a match made in heaven. In fact, a well-built Messenger chatbot can answer <a href="https://www.invespcro.com/blog/chatbots-customer-service">up to 80% of routine questions</a>.</p>
<p>In a couple of hours (and with no coding involved!), you can <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/chatbot-for-customer-service">build a chatbot to answer FAQs</a> instantly, 24/7. (You can also use a no-code integration to add AI to your chatbot to make it even better at answering user questions!) See for yourself: Chatfuel client HelloFresh built a customer support chatbot and <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/hellofresh-reduces-support-wait-times-with-chatfuel-messenger-bot">cut their response time by 76%</a>! Customer satisfaction went up, and HelloFresh’s support team now has more time to focus on other tasks.</p>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bbd96cdeab70_image-15.png" alt="messenger chatbot" height="788" width="940" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAIAAAA7ljmRAAAACXBIWXMAAAsSAAALEgHS3X78AAAAMklEQVR4nAEnANj/APb09CEiIyouMvv6+gDi4uIPEBA/Q0Xt7ewA8/Pyam1wXWJm9vT0ipEVQvd2MZoAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>You can easily set up a Facebook Messenger chatbot to answer customer questions and save your team time.</figcaption></figure>
<h3>#4. Launch quickly and cheaply. 🚀</h3>
<p>Chatfuel is no-code tool for building Messenger chatbots. That means you can launch a simple chatbot for your business in a couple of hours, or a more sophisticated bot in days or a few weeks. <a href="https://docs.chatfuel.com/en/articles/4237017-how-to-build-a-flow">Our Flow Builder interface</a> makes building a chatbot a visual, intuitive experience. (Video tutorial below. 👇) Plus, all our most valuable Pro tools are now available to all Chatfuel customers. Our free trial plan gives you the perfect opportunity to test your concept with 50 users. Once you’re ready for unlimited users, priority support, and other perks, <a href="https://chatfuel.com/pricing"><strong>upgrade to Pro.</strong></a></p>
<figure><iframe allowfullscreen src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HX-zA-DkPaU"></iframe></figure>
<h2>Boost conversions and sales</h2>
<p><em>Need another reason to adopt a chatbot for your business? We’ve got two words for you: more sales.</em></p>
<h3>#5. Gather valuable lead information. 👥</h3>
<p>Your business needs a chatbot if you rely on leads for revenue! (For example: <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/marketing-agency-uses-messenger-bots-to-deliver-high-quality-leads-for-clients">Chatbots for marketing agencies</a> and chatbots for real estate brokers are especially popular use cases.) First, bring users to your bot from your website or Facebook ads. Then, your chatbot can qualify them and gather contact information in a casual, conversational way. It can ask for their zip code, job title, or whatever data would be useful for your business. Then, with the Save User Email and Phone Number plugins, the user can share their contact information with the chatbot in one click.</p>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb0defdeab63_image-16.png" alt="generate leads" height="788" width="940" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAIAAAA7ljmRAAAACXBIWXMAAAsSAAALEgHS3X78AAAAMklEQVR4nAEnANj/APHx8RcXFyEhIvb29gDX1tY8PD1GR0fc3NwA9/f2GxseFBYX9/f2eNsTXEF2RCcAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>The Save User Email and Phone Number plugins will auto-populate the user's contact information, if available. It makes it easy for them to share their details in one tap.</figcaption></figure>
<h3>#6. Convert followers and website visitors into customers. 💰</h3>
<p>Businesses can use chatbots to turn lukewarm leads into a warm leads or even customers. Meet prospects where they are, and use your chatbot to guide them towards a conversion. For example, you could:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Add your chatbot to your website.</strong> Don’t leave visitors to browse your products or services alone! Have your friendly <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/add-a-messenger-chatbot-to-your-website">chatbot pop up on your website</a> and offer to answer their questions, make a recommendation, or guide them to the right resources. Take the case of a large English university, for example. They added their Chatfuel bot to their website to generate and qualify leads and doubled their conversion rate, facilitating $3.1 million in new enrollments in one day!</li>
<li><strong>Set your chatbot to respond to Facebook comments.</strong> The Comments Autoreply Entry Point in Chatfuel makes this a breeze. You can have your Messenger chatbot respond to comments on every post or only one post, and all comments or just those that contain keywords. Once this feature is set up, your bot will send commenters a message instantly and tell them more about your contest, offer, promotion, product, etc. Just look at what Chatfuel client DECEN Muebles did with this tool: They got almost <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/decen-baby-brand-generates-80-of-total-sales-with-messenger-bot">4,000 qualified leads</a> from a single post!</li>
</ul>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb9897deab60_image-17.png" alt="generate leads" height="788" width="940" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAIAAAA7ljmRAAAACXBIWXMAAAsSAAALEgHS3X78AAAAMklEQVR4nAEnANj/AFU9igQAXqafrrS0sgBaKlEpACOro6q2ursA//32/Pfyq62vnJ2gUJgUh6k5LCMAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>It takes just a few clicks to set your bot to automatically reply to comments on your Facebook posts.</figcaption></figure>
<h3>#7. Gather key customer data. 📊</h3>
<p>The more you know about your audience, the more effectively you can sell to them. Lucky for marketers, chatbots make excellent data-gathering tools. You can set your chatbot to save the data it collects from users via its back-and-forth, conversational style. The data will be stored in Chatfuel in the form of user attributes, which are like tags. From there, you can:</p>
<ul>
<li>View and export all user data from the <a href="https://docs.chatfuel.com/en/articles/1575151-people-tab"><em>People</em> tab</a> in Chatfuel.</li>
<li>Create user segments in the <em>People</em> tab, and sync them to Facebook Ads Manager in one click. Then, use the data to create Lookalike audiences to reach valuable new prospects, or custom audiences to reengage existing users.</li>
<li>Use data from customer actions in your bot to visualize your chatbot sales funnel. (The Send Analytics Events plugin makes it easy.) Then, you’ll be able to clearly see if there are any drop-off points in your flow, and make adjustments to maximize conversions.</li>
</ul>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb3e76deab66_image-18.png" alt="funnel conversion" height="676" width="2000" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAABCAIAAAB2XpiaAAAACXBIWXMAAAsSAAALEgHS3X78AAAAFUlEQVR4nGOQZjDJjaj9/u3H33//ASHDB3Fi3NmRAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>Use the Send Analytics Events to Facebook plugin to visualize your chatbot's sales funnel.</figcaption></figure>
<h2>Create a dazzling customer experience</h2>
<p><em>Finally, a chatbot for your business can be the “wow factor” that delights users and keeps them coming back to your brand for more.</em></p>
<h3>#8. Personalize the experience</h3>
<p>It’s flattering when someone you’ve met before remembers details about you. It shows you that they were truly listening to what you had to say. That’s exactly the feeling your chatbot can give your audience. Your bot can incorporate two types of user data to personalize the conversation:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Data from their Facebook profile.</strong> Chatbots on Facebook Messenger have access to a user’s basic profile details. That means that—without asking for the information—your chatbot can greet prospects by name, or customize messages by their location or time zone.</li>
<li><strong>Data from past conversations.</strong> Chatbots can store data from previous chats as attributes, and use those to customize future conversations. A chatbot could tell the user about new products related to one they showed interest in last time. Or, a chatbot could show locations or shipping availability for a user’s specific area based on the zip code they shared in a past conversation.</li>
</ul>
<p>Personalization make users feel seen and special, which helps build brand trust. Plus, <a href="https://us.epsilon.com/pressroom/new-epsilon-research-indicates-80-of-consumers-are-more-likely-to-make-a-purchase-when-brands-offer-personalized-experiences">80% of users say personalized experiences</a> make them more likely to buy. That means this feature of Messenger chatbots can benefit your bottom line, too.</p>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb7705dead80_iPhone 11.png" loading="lazy" alt="" height="788" width="940" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAIAAAA7ljmRAAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAMklEQVR4nAEnANj/AObn5+Li4mhpam1xdAD29/fMzMtUWFhSW2EA6Ojo7u7uAAEAFBUT15UVAKncI8gAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>Use user attributes to personalize the conversation. It'll help build customer trust and can increase conversions, too.</figcaption></figure>
<h3>#9. Delight users with a fun, engaging conversation</h3>
<p>There’s so much room for creativity when building a chatbot for your business. You can add videos, quizzes, and trivia to your chatbot. Sprinkle in GIFs and emoji to draw the eye and break up the text. Translate your <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/craft-a-brand-voice-that-converts">brand voice to your Messenger chatbot</a> to make users comfortable and build trust. <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/chatbot-names">Choose a chatbot name</a> and persona to keep users interested. Use the opportunity to create an interesting, interactive experience that your users will remember.</p>
<p><em>Ready to jump aboard the “chatbots for business” train? 🚂 We can help with that. <a href="https://dashboard.chatfuel.com">Sign up for a free Chatfuel account</a> today and start building a chatbot for your business—no previous experience or coding knowledge required. (Once you’re ready to scale, <a href="https://chatfuel.com/pricing">upgrade to a Pro account</a> for unlimited users, priority support, and other exclusive perks!) Run a marketing agency? Check out <a href="https://docs.chatfuel.com/en/articles/3882031-chatfuel-for-agencies-and-creators#:~:text=We%20also%20offer%20an%20Enterprise%20plan">our Premium Agency plan</a>. Enterprise customer? Get more information about <a href="https://chatfuel.com/pricing">our Premium plans</a>.</em></p>

Looking to cut costs, save time, boost sales, or delight customers? A no-code Messenger chatbot can help with all four.

Top 9 Reasons Your Business Needs a Chatbot

<p>You already know that Messenger bots are powerful tools to help businesses increase sales and automate support. Now, there are two new use cases to add to the list: chatbots as tools for freelancer job training and economic development. 💹</p>
<p>Our story begins in a small country in West Africa called The Gambia, which has a population of just over two million. <a href="https://theodora.com/wfbcurrent/gambia_the/gambia_the_economy.html">Three-quarters</a> of those citizens rely on agriculture for their livelihood. So when unpredictable events like droughts impact the output of that industry, the country’s entire economy is at risk. To help diversify the Gambian economy and build up other sectors, international organizations have set up certain programs—and one of them runs on chatbots.</p>
<p>In 2018, the International Trade Centre (ITC) planned one such initiative. The ITC is a global agency linked to the World Trade Organization, the United Nations, and the European Union, and one of their objectives is to promote economic growth in certain countries. They came up with a plan for The Gambia and partnered with a Danish marketing agency called <a href="https://www.growthbond.co/#lp-pom-block-2030">GrowthBond</a> to implement it in 2018.</p>
<p>GrowthBond is a member of <a href="https://docs.chatfuel.com/en/articles/3882031-chatfuel-for-agencies-and-creators#:~:text=We%20also%20offer%20an%20Enterprise%20plan">Chatfuel’s Premium Agency program.</a> We spoke to their CEO, Ferdinand Kjærulff, to find out how his team used a Chatfuel bot to help promote and organize this unique project.</p>
<h2>A plan to empower Gambian young people and small businesses</h2>
<p>Kjærulff explained that the ITC identified a two-pronged problem in the Gambian business world. First, most small- and medium-sized businesses in Gambia don’t have the resources to harness the power of modern digital marketing. Very few have in-house talent with enough experience in the digital marketing space, and not many have room in their budget to hire outside help either.</p>
<p>Second, young people in Gambia lack opportunities to break into the world of digital marketing work. It’s nearly impossible to be competitive in the international freelance market without proper training, experience, and a strong portfolio. So with no local certifications, internships, or similar programs available to Gambians, their chances of breaking into the freelance marketing world were slim.</p>
<p>That’s where GrowthBond came in. They worked with the ITC to create a program to equip young Gambians with in-demand marketing skills. Then, they granted ITC funding to SMBs in the country so they could afford to hire the newly trained freelancers. That way, the businesses could get free marketing and the freelancers could gain experience—a perfect win-win! 🏆</p>
<h2>The six-step program (chatbots included!)</h2>
<p>Over a period of six months, GrowthBond was responsible for “the selection, training, and supervision of the digital marketing students, as well as digital marketing consulting and local mentorship.” Here’s an overview of how the program they developed worked:</p>
<p><strong>#1. Lead generation via Facebook ads 👋</strong> The first order of business was to spread the word about the program to promising young Gambians. GrowthBond set up Facebook ad campaigns advertising their digital-marketing training program for aspiring freelancers.</p>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb142fdeab67_image.png" alt="facebook ads sample" height="1023" width="1600" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAIAAAA7ljmRAAAACXBIWXMAAAsSAAALEgHS3X78AAAALklEQVR4nGOQEBc5d+7CuXPnNm/ewiAqJvbx48erV68eOHCAQVtb6w4YHD12DACdphcAmEyMwAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>A sampling of the Facebook ads GrowthBond ran to get students for their new program.</figcaption></figure>
<p><strong>#2.</strong> <strong>Lead qualification via chatbot ✅</strong> Of course, not every Gambian Facebook user would be the right fit for the program. So those who <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/create-click-to-messenger-ads-to-drive-traffic-to-your-bot">clicked the ads</a> were redirected to Messenger. There, a chatbot that GrowthBond set up asked them lead-qualification questions to find out if they were eligible to participate. The group that made it through this round was whittled down even more after that with an in-depth questionnaire GrowthBond sent them next.</p>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb3b26deab20_image-1.png" alt="messenger chatbot" height="354" width="422" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAIAAAA7ljmRAAAACXBIWXMAAAsSAAALEgHS3X78AAAALElEQVR4nGPYu3tvbmaWkaHx/PnzGbKycoWFxVVUVLy9vRn+g4GHh0dpSQkAOkoQ4yUfaZ0AAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>GrowthBond set up a chatbot to qualify leads for the training program.</figcaption></figure>
<p><strong>#3. Course reminders via chatbot 🔔</strong> The students who applied and were approved then received messages via chatbot with important information about the training courses, including reminders and helpful hints.</p>
<p><strong>#4. Online training 👩🏻‍💻</strong>The students could go through some of the freelancer training at their own pace in Thinkific. For the rest, GrowthBond hired two local mentors to run live trainings on Facebook. They reminded students about the trainings via chatbot and via email.</p>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bbd481deab5b_image-2.png" alt="conversation rates" height="234" width="678" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAABCAIAAAB2XpiaAAAACXBIWXMAAAsSAAALEgHS3X78AAAAFUlEQVR4nGN48vz53r37opISjKwtADY5Bqx6B/GPAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>Stats for one of the live trainings GrowthBond's local mentors held for students on Facebook</figcaption></figure>
<p><strong>#5. Email outreach ✉️</strong> To get local SMBs on board with the project, GrowthBond reached out to many via email. They offered these businesses $50 USD in Facebook ad credits, plus $200 USD worth of freelancer work to help get them set up.</p>
<p><strong>#6. A Facebook group and in-person meetings 👥</strong> GrowthBond also created a Facebook group for students who completed the course. They shared extra tips and advice there for their budding freelancers. The group also served as a place where the students could get feedback on their pitches and profiles, and share their success stories. In addition, the local mentors GrowthBond hired held in-person meetups where students could get support and input on their work.</p>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb4b2fdeab5d_image-3.png" alt="chatbots for freelancers" height="1067" width="1600" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAIAAAA7ljmRAAAACXBIWXMAAAsSAAALEgHS3X78AAAAL0lEQVR4nGNQ01D7/fsPBwMDDw8ngxwDg5muVqSPjaaSDENVaFh7fkZ6YvTa+VMBv5wLCphlHakAAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>One of the in-person advice and feedback sessions GrowthBond set up for its students</figcaption></figure>
<p>Once the students finished the training and gained experience working for the SMBs, they were ready to launch their careers as freelance marketers. The GrowthBond team continued to support the students for the first two months of their new adventure, to help them put what they’d learned into practice. 🙌</p>
<h2>The role of Messenger bots in the training program</h2>
<p>GrowthBond’s training program focused more on the basics of Facebook advertising than <a href="https://youtu.be/D4n6VLQHE5U">the basics of chatbot building</a>. However, they did use Messenger bots to promote their program at different stages along the way. As a result, many students got their first exposure to chatbots. Plus, the bots helped the program grow and assisted the students in staying on track. GrowthBond used their Messenger bot for:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p><strong>Lead generation</strong>. To generate leads and get students to apply for their freelance training program, GrowthBond ran a series of Facebook ads. They were <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/create-click-to-messenger-ads-to-drive-traffic-to-your-bot">click-to-Messenger ads</a>, which meant that users were directed to a Messenger chatbot after clicking the CTA.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Lead qualification</strong>. Then, the marketing agency took advantage of a chatbot’s back-and-forth, conversational style to gather more information about program applicants. Based on the user’s answers to the questions, the bot could automatically approve qualifying students to move to the next round. It then saved the responses from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNBeoGF90PY">qualified leads</a> as attributes, and <a href="https://docs.chatfuel.com/en/articles/2708726-export-data-from-chatfuel-to-google-sheets">exported them to a Google Sheet</a> automatically so the GrowthBond team could easily access the information.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Reminders</strong>. Once students were enrolled in the program, the GrowthBond agency used a chatbot to keep them on track with their studies. This program ran in 2018, well before Facebook’s 2020 policy changes. So although GrowthBond used a sequence of messages then to remind students about upcoming live classes, there are still several ways an agency could do this with a bot now. You could still set up a sequence that engages students daily, to keep reopening the 24-hour contact window. You could have students sign up for <a href="https://youtu.be/vTwdLHar6pI">One-Time Notifications</a> to remind them about the classes. Or, you could use <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/sponsored-messages-guide-to-reengaging-chatbot-subscribers">sponsored messages</a> to send reminders and other important course info.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb6d09deab69_image-4.png" alt="chatbots for recruitment" height="788" width="940" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAIAAAA7ljmRAAAACXBIWXMAAAsSAAALEgHS3X78AAAAMklEQVR4nAEnANj/AJ+fn42Oj3h9f/P09QDo6Ojv7esADxyttb4An5+fWVpaMDIznJ6fvJcU+ldDL54AAAAASUVORK5CYII=" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>GrowthBond used a Messenger chatbot to generate and qualify leads, and to send students reminders about their coursework.</figcaption></figure>
<h2>Success stories from GrowthBond’s freelancer training program</h2>
<p>GrowthBond got 370 applicants for their freelance marketing program initially. Of those, 180 showed up to the first online course sessions. From that group, GrowthBond chose 50 of the most promising candidates to move forward. Out of that group, 30 completed the course and started working as freelancers.</p>
<p>10 of them are currently generating revenue, “and are expected to make it as online freelancers,” according to Kjærulff. Considering that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_Internet_users">less than 20%</a> of Gambians are internet users (compared to over 75% of Americans), these numbers represent a great start.</p>
<p>One of the program’s top success stories is a young man named Bakary Fatty, who earned $515 in freelance income during the program. His story “proves that, with proper education and motivation, anyone can reach his or her targets,” Kjærulff says.</p>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb0bfbdeab64_image-5.png" alt="chatbots for freelancers" height="1165" width="1058" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAAECAIAAAAmkwkpAAAACXBIWXMAAAsSAAALEgHS3X78AAAAP0lEQVR4nAE0AMv/AMDY7rLR3rrI3Ii+4gBXsN87UVZJQz/A7v8AXbTgFyo2BQMWwOH3AKXS9vj7//b0/63N8hp0H4CScc9KAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" placeholder="blur"></figure>
<p>To keep the program alive even after its six-month span, GrowthBond ran Facebook ads to companies in Africa to promote the services of these freelancers. After receiving interest from 130 companies, they turned off the campaign and got to work connecting them with students from the program. “We expect to continue receiving a constant flow of companies lined up to hire freelancers in the future,” says Kjærulff.</p>
<figure><img src="/cms/static/blog/60afa6a88bd1bb1a2cdeab21_image-6.png" alt="facebook ad copy" height="459" width="402" blurDataURL="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAAECAIAAAAmkwkpAAAACXBIWXMAAAsSAAALEgHS3X78AAAAP0lEQVR4nAE0AMv/AMLK5uvr6/v7+v///wC5uK2trrCvsbbc39wAMjk4FRQaAwAObXR4AEdSWQ8PFA0ME3+FiU6GGSTkDfY2AAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" placeholder="blur"><figcaption>GrowthBond continued to run ads after the program was over to get more opportunities for the freelancers to build experience.</figcaption></figure>
<h2>The power of Messenger bots for education and training</h2>
<p>This story serves as a timely reminder that chatbots are <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/chatbots-for-universities">powerful tools for education</a>. And while Messenger bots have always been <a href="https://academy.ied.eu/blog/elearning-digital-media">effective learning tools</a>, their potential is even clearer during this global pandemic. Bots can help people build new skills from the safety of their own homes, whether those skills will help them complete a degree, explore a new field, or learn to bring in money remotely as a freelancer. It also reminds us that agencies and nonprofits will continue to be crucial players in how we recover and rebuild pieces of the economy that COVID-19 has damaged.</p>
<p>👔 <strong>Businesses:</strong> Start <a href="https://dashboard.chatfuel.com">building a Messenger bot for free</a> to keep your customers informed, automate tasks, generate revenue, and more.</p>
<p>💼 <strong>Marketing agencies:</strong> <a href="https://docs.chatfuel.com/en/articles/3882031-chatfuel-for-agencies-and-creators#:~:text=We%20also%20offer%20an%20Enterprise%20plan">Book a demo</a> with us to learn more about how our<a href="https://docs.chatfuel.com/en/articles/3882031-chatfuel-for-agencies-and-creators">Premium Agency program</a> can empower you to exceed client expectations and make a difference, like GrowthBond did.</p>
<p>💙 <strong>Nonprofits:</strong> Learn <a href="https://chatfuel.com/blog/9-reasons-your-nonprofit-needs-a-chatbot">how your org can benefit from a bot</a>, then get information on our <a href="https://chatfuel.intercom-clicks.com/via/e?ob=ztQDpK3PbBuSXQ9E9J2xuj%2FY46kabynWNpmbS699JLJ7FlFGf5hjsBuwd25s1ieveLsx10ajwhwHIguNgyVgT7irAeOFbbjiHJTaw4y8meU%3D&h=2f7945ea5a3937b3ceac168b68622d1194f4d4f7-mca3oa0n_26925251929">Bots for Good program</a>, designed to support the nonprofit organizations that support all of us.</p>
<p><em>Learn more about what Chatfuel is doing to help businesses during the coronavirus pandemic.</em></p>

Here are two new use cases for what chatbots can do: They can be tools for freelancer job training and economic development.