WHY A CHATBOT

1. Facebook is where your target market already is

When you consider how many people are already using Facebook and Messenger to communicate with family and friends, it’s a no-brainer that as wedding professionals, we go to where our target market already is. A chatbot allows prospective brides and grooms to get the information they want when they want it and through a platform that they’re engaging with on a daily basis. 

When you consider that Facebook also owns Instagram and Whatsapp (and in the future, their messaging apps will all be under the one umbrella), it makes sense that we harness the potential of this platform. In the future, the pie of individuals who are active on these platforms is only going to get larger, so chatbots really are the way of marketing going forward.

2. Everything can run on autopilot

From the moment a prospective client subscribes to your chatbot to when they fill out a contact form to talk with you directly, everything can be done on autopilot. For busy wedding professionals who don’t have a lot of time for marketing and responding to inquires (that might not even lead to bookings), having an automated system is a game changer. It frees up your time significantly to focus on other aspects of running your business or doing other things you want in life. But remember, at any time, you can jump in and take over from the chatbot if you see fit.

3. It’s marketing from the comfort of your own home

One of the biggest attractions of Messenger marketing with chatbots is that they can be implemented and run in the comfort of your own home. Once it’s set up, it will be working for your 24/7, 365 days of the year, even when you’re sleeping, working at another wedding or taking some leisure time out. There’s no need to spend money establishing a studio space to showcase your work or setting up a booth at a bridal show. Simply let the chatbot do the hard work for you, then engage with prospective clients whenever and wherever it suits you - on your phone or on a laptop. You can easily make changes or add new features if you want, all for what equates to around $10 a month.

4. Messenger chatbots have high open and click through rates

Compared to email marketing, Messenger chatbots have far higher open rates (70-80% for chatbots compared to 20-30% for email marketing). So not only are a higher percentage of people actually going to read your content but the higher click-through rates mean a higher percentage is also going to act on it. Perhaps that means clicking through to your website, a pricing page or an article you’ve written. This means that engaged couples are much more likely to engage through a chatbot than through traditional email marketing. 

5. They’re not promotional

One of the biggest misconceptions about chatbots is that they’re promotional and spammy but that’s far from the truth. With Messenger marketing, you’re actually opening up a conversation with your potential clients, even if it is through an automated system. You’re offering valuable information to them when they want it and you can personalize your chats by including their name and wedding date. Rather than sending a generic email with a series of questions for them to answer, there's a balance between you as the service provider and your prospective clients when you’re chatting in real time.

6. There are endless options for third-party integration

After implementing a chatbot for your wedding business, there are so many options for third-party integration. For example, you can integrate MailChimp so you can directly email prospective clients who have subscribed to your chatbot. If you have a contact form, you can integrate this with Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel so that the information is automatically transferred to a spreadsheet for your reference. The options are endless when it comes to Messenger chatbot integration, which only adds to the benefits they offer. 

7. You can share your Messenger chatbot link anywhere

Once you have a Messenger chatbot link, it can be shared almost anywhere - as a link in your Instagram bio, at the end of your email signature and on your website and blog. It can be coded as a banner or implemented as a pop up in almost any virtual setting. Gone are the days of giving out business cards to market yourself by sharing only your information. Now, we’re giving out virtual links so we also have information about prospective clients (their phone number and email address for example) so we can market to them.

In addition, engaged couples can also share content contained within your chatbot to their friends and family. If they end up clicking on that link, they will also be subscribed to your chatbot for you to market your services/products to them. Just consider the viral potential chatbots offer!

8. They can be utilized with Facebook ads for exceptional results

While you do need a Facebook fan page to make your Messenger chatbot work, it’s a big misconception that you have to run Facebook ads as well. That being said, Facebook ads can help to generate leads and subscribers to your chatbot, particularly when you’re just starting out. It’s like adding fuel to a fire that’s already burning - Facebook ads can assist in exponentially increasing the beneficial results you see as a result of using a chatbot and give you an incredible competitive edge over other vendors in your market. 

9. There’s software to do the hard work for you

All sounds a bit “techy"? There are a variety of software options, such as ManyChat, that offer features and tools to help you program your chatbot. Despite everything they can do for you, chatbots are actually pretty dumb and need to be fed information so they function in the way you want. But rather than typing out code, chatbot software assists you in establishing “flows” and “sequences” through user-friendly methods. You can add tags to differentiate groups of people and market to them in different ways, then put everything on autopilot and watch your chatbot work its magic. 

10. Hardly anyone else is currently doing this

Perhaps the main benefit of implementing a chatbot for your wedding business is that hardly anyone is doing this at the moment. While chatbots aren’t new (and neither is Messenger), the wedding industry hasn’t taken advantage of how they can be such a game changer in the way we reach out to and connect with engaged couples. Most forms of marketing are super saturated and it’s difficult to stand out, which is why it’s so exciting to have such an innovative new form of marketing appear…and the train is yet to leave the station!

So that’s why I encourage you to consider implementing a Messenger chatbot for your wedding business before it becomes the next “big thing”. Not only are the benefits endless and the marketing costs involved low, but it’s all automated, giving you time to spend doing other things you want. 

If you’re interested to learn more, check out some of our most recent blogs to discover how a chatbot could be a game changer in your wedding business. 

Want to experience what it’s like to use a chatbot? Click the link to access our demo to see how a chatbot could work for you.