In today’s episode I chatted with chatbot expert Mel about the ease and accessibility of setting up chat funnels on Instagram and Facebook for small businesses. Mel shares valuable hacks, tips, and strategies for improving engagement, building email lists, and integrating chat funnels into your marketing plan.
The discussion emphasizes the affordability and low barrier to entry for businesses of any size and highlights the importance of personalizing customer journeys via DMs. Tune in to learn how chatbots can enhance your online presence and convert followers into leads.
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Transcript
Teresa:
If you’ve ever seen any of the big names in the online industry using chatbots, you know, where they post something and say, comment this or DM me this, and you thought, oh man, that must be really big and complicated and expensive to set up, then you definitely want to listen to this episode today.
In today’s episode, I chat with the amazing Mel who is a chatbot expert, and she shares with us how easy and accessible it is for small businesses of any size to set up a chat funnel on Instagram or Facebook. She talks about some of the amazing hacks and tips that you can use, and also some genius ways in which you can help improve engagement.
And get people on your email list. Like I said, this is not a trend that is just happening and people should jump on. This is a really cool [00:01:00] strategic thing that you can do for your business. So today’s episode is not to be missed.
Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Your Dream Business Podcast. I hope you are good. This week we have a really cool interview. [00:02:00] I have been doing some serious interviewing, batching of interviews. And it’s like, you know, when you record a load of interviews and you’re like, I just can’t wait for them to come out, but they’re going to have to take the time to come out, but I’m super glad that we’re bringing this one out pretty soon after recording, because I feel like this is something you need to hear.
Now, if you know me, you know, I don’t jump on the latest thing. I have a long history in marketing and therefore when a platform comes out and loads of people jump on it, I often, I can kind of like behind a little bit because I’m like, let’s just really see what it can do for us before it takes time out of my day.
And I spend too much time working on something that might not actually do anything for my business. So. I didn’t jump on threads. I’m still not on it. I never went on Snapchat. I’m not on TikTok. Like, and I’m not saying that they can’t all do amazing things for our businesses. I’m sure they can, but for me, I didn’t feel the need to add something else.
However, this thing I do want you to jump [00:03:00] on and it’s not even that new. Today. We are talking about chatbots and chat funnels and basically how you can comment a word in a DM and or in a cap, comment. And then get an automation sent to you. So we’re talking about that today and it’s actually not new.
I talk about the fact that years and years ago, about eight years ago, I did a speaking thing in America and many chat were there. And then they kind of disappeared for a bit and then they came back again. So it’s not that this is a brand new thing to do, but actually I have seen the increase in this massively over the last six months.
I’ve seen some of the really biggest names in the industry using it. And therefore I really think. That you should have a look at it. Also, it’s a low barrier to entry from a knowledge point of view and a money point of view. So it’s really one of these things that actually, once you learn the basics of it, then it’s a rinse and repeat thing.
So for me, this is really, really important episode. It’s also lovely to have [00:04:00] on the podcast, someone who I’m working with in my accelerator program. Although we don’t talk about that at all, because. The aim of having her on is nothing to do with selling my program, but she just happens to be one of my accelerator people, which is awesome.
And I’m currently working with her on her launch, which is going really well, which is also awesome. So the lovely Mel is a conversational marketer and a many chat agency partner with a long career spanning B2B publishing, social media, paid ads, and chat funnels. She combines the power of conversation with strategy to help brands get more sales, more leads from their marketing.
This stuff is so cool and so smart. And like I said, the barrier to entry is low. So if you are an business owner of any type and you are on social media, Instagram or Facebook, then this is definitely, definitely an episode you’re going to want to listen to and something that you’re going to want to check out and you’re going to want to check Mel out.
So without further ado, here is the awesome Mel. [00:05:00] Mel, welcome to the podcast.
Mel:
Thank you for having me.
Teresa:
I’m excited to have this conversation because I think this, I’m such a geek, right? I’m not sure I come across as a geek, but I am an absolute geek around tech, funnels, all of this sort of stuff. And this is the conversation we’re having today, which I’m so excited about.
So we’re going to dive straight in and I’m going to get you just to explain. What is a chat funnel?
Mel:
So a chat funnel is essentially a, a new way of marketing your business that can compliment what you do already. So for a lot of businesses, their marketing will comprise doing their social media posts.
They’ll be sending people to landing pages. Those landing pages will build their email list. Now, nothing wrong with that, but chat funnels enables brands now to personalize that customer journey and actually get them from the social [00:06:00] channels into the email list through the DMs. And I’m talking specifically here about really Facebook and Instagram.
And Instagram is where I love doing most of my work and where a lot of the clients that I work with actually get the traction. And so for chat funnels with regards to Instagram, You are getting them to comment on your post, which is playing into the algorithm for engagement and comments and reach. And you’re giving them a keyword that’s bringing them into the DMs.
You’re taking them through a really short marketing journey, which is normally, this is what we’ve got. The, this is our offer. Would you like it? This is your name. Please give me your name and your email. And that pings it straight into the, the brands CRM email system, which delivers the thing, the PDF, the checklist, what it is they’ve signed up for.
So chat funnels essentially is about personalizing that marketing journey through the DMs. And it’s for the consumer, it’s one to one. So they are [00:07:00] feeling like it’s a one to one journey, but yet still for the brand, because it’s automated, it still has that one to many outlook. So they are not, individually talking to everybody that is automated, but the automation is providing that personalization of the customer journey.
And it’s all really super exciting.
Teresa:
It is. And I was telling Mel that one of the first speaking gigs or the first speaking gig I did out of the country or in the States was for Leadpages, which For those of you who don’t know who Leadpages are, they basically do landing pages for list building. And they also owned a company at the time called Drip, which was their CRM on the back end.
Anyway, I went out, like I learned about this stuff a really long time ago, and ManyChat, who is the company. So there’s obviously the chat funnel, but the company that the system is called ManyChat that most people use in other systems other than ManyChat.
Mel:
There are, there are, yeah, there are other chats, there are other platforms that you can use.
[00:08:00] I, a lot of people, myself and a lot of people I know, use ManyChat. Quite simply, from the other ones that I’ve looked at, is because it’s actually quite simple. Once you’ve learned how to use it, it’s a no code interface, so you don’t need to have vast amounts of technical knowledge in order to be able to use it.
So that, yes, there are other platforms out there, but Many chat, specifically is the one that I use. Yeah. It’s one of the biggest ones out there. Yeah.
Teresa:
And, and they were one of the speakers and this was literally like eight years ago and they were like chat funnels, chat bots. This is going to be the next big thing.
And it was huge. And I remember like, you know, seeing the stats of open rate and click rates and thinking, this is amazing. And then it disappeared. , and you and I have talked about this as to why it disappeared and changes to the API and all tech stuff that is really beyond me. Yeah. Essentially as well.
Yeah. So then it stopped and now it’s back and [00:09:00] all the big people are using it.
Mel:
They are. Yeah.
Teresa:
So. Let’s just because I touched on that, have you got some stats and I appreciate I am literally just throwing questions at you. So have you got some stats in your head about the kind of conversions that people can expect through this kind of stuff?
Mel:
So essentially from what I see and from the flows that I build for clients and from myself and just in the wider industry as well, you can expect to open rates and click through rates of between 60 to 80%.
Teresa:
I mean, that’s wild.
Mel:
But generally, you don’t get that on a landing page or an email. It’s not to say it’s impossible, but generally, it’s actually because no one really ignores a message from a brand in their DMs.
And if that marketing journey is relatively short, as I believe it should be, and it’s personalized, You know that and the ability to bring them straight from that social media channel into the CRM without having to be taken off platform is what gives it that kind of unique [00:10:00] touch in getting those higher open rates and those higher click through rates.
So, yes, in essence, that is kind of the stats that we are looking at. They open rates and click through rates are much, much higher.
Teresa:
So, which is amazing because that is the aim of everything we’re doing. So one of the things I know about you is that obviously you also do Facebook ads and you started in the ad space.
What made you decide to go over into offering this as well?
Mel:
So I essentially, I wanted to add another string to my bow apart from just doing and doing Facebook ads, which I still love, still do that. And my background years and years ago, long time ago now, for your children, is in print publishing. So I’ve worked in journalism and editing and page design.
But essentially, you know, the theme through all of that is, is conversational. It’s, you know, editorial, it’s about getting the message across through, well back then, through the print media, and I came across ManyChat now four years ago, [00:11:00] I think, and I think it’s because I commented on someone’s post on Facebook, and then this automation popped up, and I was like, wow, that’s amazing, and then, and then I kind of delved a little bit deeper, and then I found ManyChat, and then I just went down this whole rabbit hole for weeks and weeks on end, and it totally played to what I was looking for.
In, you know, adding an extra stream to my business that is conversational and it’s personalized because it’s, it’s what I’ve done for years in my previous career. And the fact that it kind of links into Facebook as well meant it kind of married up very well with what I was doing existingly in Facebook ads as well.
So it’s, it’s kind of, you know, my love of the written language and being able to communicate with people through a chatbot, which is more. It’s a much more casual way of talking to people as well. And we use emojis and it’s, and it’s quick and it’s conversational and it’s personalized. [00:12:00] And I love it. And so then as soon as I found that, I was like, right, I’ll have to go and learn this.
And I did. That’s exactly what I did do.
Teresa:
But like you said, this is so freaking clever for so many reasons. One, like you said, we all know engagement on posts is key to get anything to actually have any traction. So the fact that you the whole way this starts is by commenting on a post or sending a DM or whatever.
But if it’s a comment on a post, that action alone is going to start kicking off that algorithm in terms of like showing other people the fact that it’s done in app. making it hopefully as seamlessly as possible for the person who’s going through it. Because I remember like, I think I must’ve talked about chatbots a really long time ago, but I remember saying to people like, imagine when you’re, you know, saying to someone and before you could put the link in a story or something, [00:13:00] you’re going to say to, okay, go to the link in my bio and you click the link in the bio and then they head over to wherever that is and they do the thing.
Like there’s too many points. And when I talk about a funnel, I talk about at any single point, someone could fall out the funnel. And we’ve got to make that as seamless and as easy as anything, so that people don’t fall out or don’t think, oh, this feels a bit disjointed. I don’t want to do this. So the fact that this is done seamlessly within it is brilliant.
One thing I want to address, because I am guessing If people are listening to this podcast, they’ve probably seen that like, we can name some big names that have done it. Like Amy Porterfield, Jenna Kutcher, Michael Hyatt uses it. Like lots of huge names are using chatbots all the time in their marketing.
So instantly people are going to think I can’t do it. Right. Like they’ve got a team, they’ve got this, the like, how do I get the chatbot to talk to my CRM system? Like, can we just allay some [00:14:00] fears in terms of, is it, well, maybe we won’t allay fears. Maybe we’ll go, yes, you’re right. You can’t do it.
Mel:
No, not, it’s certainly not just for those who have the huge, the huge accounts. Yes, you do need to have, an engaged, instead of talking specifically about Instagram, an engaged Instagram account. Now people will be seeing possibly at the moment, there is a little bit of concern that people aren’t getting comments on posts, but The chat funnels, the, and Manychat can connect into more than just the post.
It can also, is the posts, the reels, the stories, the DMs, the Instagram lives, when people mention you in their story, when you use a reveal sticker and someone has to type a word in order to reveal the image, there are various different ways in which you can trigger those conversations. It doesn’t just have to be on a post.
So, you know, but essentially if you, you know, Think about, do I need to have a big account to use this? No, [00:15:00] you certainly don’t, you need an engaged audience and that also, but that also comes down to your organic strategy as well, but, you know, separately to chat funnels, you need to have an Instagram, you know, strategy for putting out, you know, engaging Instagram content that you ordinarily you want people to to watch and engage with regardless of whether you have a chat funnel attached or not.
And, and if you’ve got that by having a chat funnel attached to that to give away your, you know, your freebies, your offers, build your list, whatever you need it for, that will just amplify your existing engagement and your reach.
So, you know, by getting to people comment on the posts or to send you into the, send them into the DMS or reply to a story, your content is, is instantly being, being magnified in that way because it is playing to the algorithm. The follower numbers, Well, excuse me, are not important. It’s actually more to do with your content and how you’re utilizing that content to maximize your reach [00:16:00] and reach your potential followers and customers.
Teresa:
And also taking something off your plate, which is business owners. That is so flipping key that we are able to bring things in that will help engagement and help sales and help conversions without you having to actually do the thing yourself in real time, because that is hard. Okay, so talk to me about the, so I’ve been in many chats, I’ve had to look around you, I’ve done work with you on it, and you’re right, it’s really lovely to look at and really like, I, things like that matter to me, like it needs to be intuitive and it is, which is great.
The thing that I think people are going to get stuck with, so I want you to answer this in kind of two ways. So I think people are going to get stuck with how do I attach it to the thing, my CRM. I want you to talk us through a funnel that doesn’t have to attach, right? And then touch on the How hard is it to get it to attach?
Mel:
So, [00:17:00] essentially, in order to, integrate it with your CRM, there are, ManyChat does have native integrations, but what I generally tell clients to do, and what I do for clients, is to set up Zapier. Or the other and another integration kind of platform that provides the bridge between the two. I personally use make, but I tend to use Zapier for clients.
And that is quite simple to set up within Zapier. You attach your many chat is the trigger. And then your CRM is obviously the action towards the end. So that is, is actually quite simple. Do you have to send people to your CRM all the time? No, you don’t. If you were actually just starting out and you didn’t have an email, system at all.
ManyChat does have native email, which then keeps them all within the ManyChat platform. So, you wouldn’t need to provide that bridge. However, I think you would probably agree that for anyone who’s going to take their marketing to the next level and build their an email list, you really do need that [00:18:00] CRM.
Yeah. But also it’s, you know, you don’t have to use ManyChat for list building. You can use it for engagement. So for example, if we were to think about say an e commerce brand, if they were something like skincare for example and they were bringing out a new skincare range. You could get people to comment with a keyword and you could take them into like a little quiz.
So, you know, what type is your skincare, you know, or do you have dry skin, do you have normal skin, et cetera, et cetera. And then you could filter out whatever those results were. And this is the product that we recommend for you. And here’s a little 10 percent discount code. And then they go off to the website.
Here’s the link to the website. And that takes straight to the website and they put in the web, the, you know, the discount code for the product that they’ve just been recommended and that it doesn’t involve the CRM whatsoever. So there are various ways. And it’s, it’s really about, you know, looking at the brand and thinking how, how [00:19:00] can we utilize this for, you know, maximum marketing powers for us.
And it doesn’t have to be all about list building. Ultimately, it’ll depend on the brand and what the brand’s objectives are as to how they use it.
Teresa:
But I think that’s the, the, the cool thing about it. And one of the things that you just said before that I wrote down was that you can do it for mentioning a story.
And I’ve seen that. Yes. Where. I’ve mentioned someone in a story and a bot has come in and said, thank you for the mention. I really appreciate it. You know, it’s just little things like that. If you don’t want to be a slave to your phone and you don’t, you know, and you want to have some engagement, that’s really nice.
Also the reveal sticker. I didn’t realize I have to say I’ve never used the reveal sticker, so I don’t really know how it works if I’m honest, but like that, you know, that is another really interesting way to get people to engage. And I think this is the thing, it’s seeing it as. This isn’t just a one trick pony, this is potentially all the other things that it can [00:20:00] do for you and it can help build engagement.
And it’s that self fulfilling prophecy of, if you start using it when your engagement isn’t as good as it could be, the more you do it, the more your engagement will get better, the better that will be.
Mel:
Exactly, exactly. And I, you know, just going back to the story mentioned reply, I think that is that absolute one fundamental flow that for, for example, e commerce brands should be setting up.
Even if they don’t do anything else, they should set up that story mentioned reply. Because it means all those unboxing videos or which, you know, happens so often for e commerce brands. Every single one of those people is going to get a little reply from the brand, which, you know, the brand is everything and that the brand can still go in later and add a human reply to that should they wish to.
But it does mean that all those, all those customers are not getting ignored in the DMs. They’re getting some sort of acknowledgement and it’s so simple for the brands to set up. It really is. And it can, [00:21:00] it can do so much with regards to brand loyalty as well.
Teresa:
Yeah. And even things like, thank you for mentioning me of mentioning us, here’s 10 percent off your next order.
Like, you know, really simple stuff like that. That could be great. And the other thing, I guess in many chat, there is. It’s tracking, so it’s telling you what’s working and what’s not, is that right?
Mel:
Yes, yeah, you can certainly get some analytics as well. So you there is from the main dashboard, you can see how many people are, how many contacts you have.
You can build flows that where you can mark conversion. So if an email address being given to you is marked as a conversion, that can be, you can see that from the dashboard and in between, in the actual flows themselves. You can see how many people have come through each of the message nodes and then should you wish to split test and things like that.
You can also do that, see the type of language you’re using, the words you’re using or the emojis or the the button titles. You can test all sorts of stuff to [00:22:00] try and build eventually out the best flow that brings you the best conversion rates for your intended actions. Yeah.
Teresa:
And the genius thing about this is once you know, once you go to someone like Mel and learn how to do this properly, you’re done. Like you basically rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat for every lead magnet, rinse and repeat for every launch, rinse and repeat for everything. So this, unlike, you know, Unlike ads, which are constantly a moving beast in terms of like, well, this worked last month.
It doesn’t work this month or, you know, this time of year is really tricky or whatever it might be. This feels to me like, I’m not a big fan of jumping on a trend or jumping on the latest bandwagon. You know, I’m not on Threads yet. I’ve never been on Snapchat. I’m not on TikTok. Like none of them were important to me to go.
That’s going to make a big difference to my business. This is, this is something that I feel like we could jump on fairly easily. And with a [00:23:00] small, I want to say small investment, because actually it is compared to other things. Right. you know, learning it. So you’re doing a program soon, aren’t you?
Mel:
I am.
Teresa:
Which just tell us about that program. I know by the time this episode goes out, you might have already started the program, but you’ll be doing another one. So I’m sure there’ll be a wait list.
Mel:
Yes, there will be. And it will, I will run it again in the new year, probably. New year. I haven’t quite decided on it yet.
But it’s essentially as of, yes, when this comes out, it’ll be next week, the Instagram DM accelerator is starting. And that is for essentially the social media managers, VAs, personal brands who want to learn how to utilize ManyChat for their own personal gain, for their accounts, or whether they build for clients as well, because you know, this, this is not going away.
ManyChat has been available on Facebook since 2016. It’s been available on Instagram. since summer of 2021 and only in the last six months or so have I really [00:24:00] seen people start to use it. But what I, what I see a lot of people doing is using many chat to bring them into the DMS and then send them a link, which then takes them back out of the platform, which, you know, I mean, there are, you way sometimes when it, that’s what you need to do for the marketing journey.
You need to take them on, but there are so many times where you can actually just register them, sign them up, whatever it is within the DMS themselves. So I think when you first look at many chat, you can see what the easy functionality is, but when you dig a little bit deeper, there is so much that you can do and I’ve been working through the platform now for, you know, four years or so, so.
You know, I can give you advice on product quizzes, you know, lead magnet ideas. You can do pre qualification flows. There is so much that you can do. And that’s what we’re going to be covering in the Instagram DM Accelerator, basically taking you right from the basics of how it connects up, what is on the dashboard, to [00:25:00] how to build out your flows.
And giving you loads of, loads of templates as well to help them because sometimes that’s the best way to learn, isn’t it? Just see it and go, Oh my goodness, okay. And then, and there’s a four week course, but this, yeah, that will have started by the time this goes out, but we will be running a wait list from the start of October, I think, for the next cohort.
Teresa:
And I think, so, you know what, for four weeks for how much is it currently on for? We can’t guarantee it’s going to be this price when it,
Mel:
So the, the beta price is 350 plus VAT, so 420. Okay. So it the, the next, the first, so the next cohort will be a little bit more, but essentially once you’ve made that investment.
you know, you can take that forward. I mean, how much does a lead cost these days in Facebook ads, you know, before.
Teresa:
This is the thing, like, and also if you’re going to learn Facebook ads, that is a ton of work to learn. And with ads, you’ve got to be in it doing it all the time. And you need the [00:26:00] budget to be spending to, to understand what’s working and not working.
Whereas this honestly, like, and people who have listened to this podcast for a while will know I don’t jump on the latest everything. So if I’m saying to you, this is really good, I mean, it’s really good and we’re doing it in my business, but to, to, you know, spend that money to spend that time to have that tool then in your tool belt of things.
And like I said, it’s a rinse and repeat. So what we’re trying to do in my business is we’re working with Mel to set some things up. And then hopefully Johanne. We’ll be able to do the rinse and repeat stuff, which is brilliant, you know, so for me, I just think, why wouldn’t you do it? Why wouldn’t you try if it helps engagement, if it helps convert people.
And as we know, this is the key thing. It’s that conversion. You know, we love the social media platforms. We love what they do for us in terms of getting us in front of people that wouldn’t know us otherwise, but we’ve got to convert them into our stuff. We’ve got to get them on our list. We’ve got to get them used to doing things or otherwise they’re just lovely people watching [00:27:00] us from afar, which is, which is nice. And my ego loves that, but it’s doing nothing for my business.
Yeah.
Okay. What should we be looking out for in terms of things that we should be careful of? I know there’s like a rule of like, you can DM them in a certain time and all that sort of thing.
So what’s that?
Mel:
Essentially, because Facebook. Sorry. Many chat is a Facebook business partner. It connects through the API. They are obviously bound by rules of compliance with meta. And the, the biggest rule really is the 24 hour rule, which sounds really confusing, but it’s not. And it’s an actually, I think it’s really beneficial because it also helps people to understand.
Using chatbots in this way is not spammy. They are obviously totally legitimate and a hundred percent allowed through the platform, but it is also permission based. So as a brand. You cannot message people willy nilly. You can’t, you can’t just send them [00:28:00] automations into their DMs. That is not allowed. It is permission based, which means the initial trigger always comes from the consumer, by them commenting, mentioning you, or tagging you, or, you know, replying to a reel or a live, etc.
All those triggers that we mentioned earlier. Once they have come into your DMs, you have 24 hours to send them as, as many automations as you wish, but you wouldn’t because as a brand, be strategic with your marketing. So you wouldn’t do that, but there are, you know, there are things that you could do, say for the example, they come in and they, they want a lead magnet.
You could then send them another message an hour later using a condition, like a box that in the flow that within many chat that checks the, whether they actually follow you on Instagram. And if they don’t. You can then say, Oh, thank you for registering for my lead magnet. You don’t actually follow us yet on Instagram.
Let’s rectify that. You know, then you can keep up to date with all of latest launches, etc. So there are things that ways that you can follow on that flow still [00:29:00] within the 24 hour rule that’s still providing a good customer experience. But once that 24 hours is stopped, you cannot send them any more automated conversations, which is really important.
Doesn’t stop you going into your Instagram DMs and
Teresa:
personally,
Mel:
doesn’t remove any of the personalized, you know, the human touch doesn’t remove any of that at all, but it does remove, you know, the automations and the only way you can get them back into your automations is by them opting in again. So that is the way that it is it That is the way it works.
And that is, I think that’s the right way as well because the last consumer is, wants to be bombarded in the dms. It. You know, absolutely
Teresa:
no one. In fact, I think that used to be different back in the day when I first heard of many chat. I think you could do that when they first started all those years ago.
And I think you’re right. I think no one is going to opt in for anything. If it means suddenly you’re now going to get [00:30:00] marketing messages into your DMS when you haven’t asked for them. Whereas delivering something to me in an easy way within the platform I’m already sat in feels great and easy and nice and fine and yeah, absolutely.
Well, is there any examples that you’ve seen that you like? This is fricking genius. Like that. And I love like, but those of you don’t know, I watch launches like you watch a Netflix series. Like I swear I am. When I see someone starting in launch mode, I start screenshotting everything. Right. I start like filing it all in a little folder, like my little investigation folder of all the things that they’re doing, because you know, this is what I do day in, day out.
And if I can, see something that someone’s doing and I can start to like go, Oh, that’s interesting. And how are they doing it? So this stuff I geek out on totally. So yeah. What have you seen that you’re like, Oh, this is so good.
Mel:
This is actually a brand that I heard about. I would love to say it was my [00:31:00] idea.
It wasn’t, I heard it through. Through the communities that we, that, you know, chatbots chat in and it was last Q4. So it was quite apt actually considering Q4 was coming up again. And it was for a brand who wanted to reduce their reliance on ads because Q4 was very, very expensive. So it was probably around the September, October time, they really ramped up their organic content on Instagram and they were list building.
As many brands will be starting to do at this time of year, they were just list building and getting people into, into the CRMs in exchange for, lead magnets, you know, small offers, et cetera, et cetera. And then they towards black Friday, cyber Monday, the messaging changed and it was very much, you know, get onto our, our black Friday VIP offer list.
where you will be the first people to hear about whatever the offer was. I can’t remember exactly what the offer [00:32:00] was for Black Friday. And then what they actually did on that Black Friday morning, the email went out to the VIPs, giving them the original offer as promised, delivering on their promises.
And then it said, however, if you would like an extra incentive, watch our stories today. And just on one story of that day, they had a chatbot attached that gave them an extra discount code, whatever the extra incentive was. So their story views for that particular day went through the roof and they were already high enough anyway, because of the list building that they had been doing.
And then the chatbot was only attached to one story. So only viewers of that one story got that extra incentive and obviously only las for 24 hours. So, and they, should said they absolutely cleaned up and I was like, well, that’s just amazing. Isn’t it? Yeah. It’s incredible. It really is.
Teresa:
What I love about that is using two platforms together.[00:33:00]
So using, getting them off social into their email, then using email to send them back to social. Yeah. Like genius. That’s so, so good. I love that so much. That’s awesome. Okay. Mel. I’m really grateful for your time and going through this. You, I have been speaking to you. You actually spoke at the summit. I think that was like how we first really started getting chatting because I was looking at your chatbot offer and you were the only name that came up in the UK, which is awesome.
It’s a great place to be because if you are.
Mel:
The only geek in the UK.
Teresa:
Yeah, hey, listen, I love it. I love this geek. He’s done. It’s brilliant. Also, just as a quick heads up. I, like I said, I know this stuff. I know how to run things like this. This is what we’ve done. And I put together a chat bot thing and said to Mel, could you just check it for me?
And she fixed it. So even when you think you’re doing it, like someone like Mel in your team is really good. Because I was like, I’m going to do this really last minute. So let me just set this up. And then she’s like, yeah, no, you did that wrong. [00:34:00] So it’s definitely worth, even though it’s very intuitive, it’s definitely worth having someone talk you through the process because otherwise, like most things, we end up spending money on something as in like, cause there, there is a cost for chat, for many chat, but it’s not expensive.
Is it? What’s the.
Mel:
No. It’s not. So you can get started. You can get started on a free plan.
Teresa:
Free. Yeah.
Mel:
If you want to go in and just have a look around, absolutely nothing wrong with that. But there are, as with any free platforms and any software, there are limitations. So I do recommend the pro plan because then you get all the bells and whistles, the tags, custom fields, as many automations as you like.
And that is $15 a month. So that comes out at about 11 pounds, which
Teresa:
again, like,
Mel:
Yeah, and it does, I mean, compared to the amount of context that you have, but like with, with it, you know, the same way you clean your email list. You clean your many chat list as well. And so, you know, that $15, £11 gives you 500 contacts.
And then obviously the costs go up, but if you clean your list, you can keep your costs quite low.
Teresa:
Yeah. [00:35:00] Awesome. Thank you, Mel. Where can people come and find out more about you?
Mel:
So you can come and follow me on Instagram, which is socially underscore sound. And there you can have a play around with all my trigger words.
If you go through my posts, you’ll be able to see them because they’re all live despite the amount of how old they are. They’re still there. You can find me on my website, which is sociallysound. co. uk, or you can always email me, which is mel at sociallysound. co. uk.
Teresa:
Awesome. Thank you so much, Mel.
It’s been an absolute pleasure to have you on.
Mel:
Oh, thank you for having me. I love it. I love talking to you.
Teresa:
Me too. I love it too. So just as a really quick recap, obviously we talked about what chat funnels were. We talked about what many chat is. We talked about the fact of It’s an amazing way to get your account and everybody engaged, which is really, really important.
There are so many different ways in which you can use this. It’s not just DM me, and it’s not just comment. There’s the reveal sticker. There’s the mentioning stories. We talked about how you link them up through things like Zapier. Although you can do [00:36:00] a really basic funnel that just says, here’s the link to the landing page.
If you want to get started. And we talked about the biggest rule of you can’t do anything out of that 24 hour window, which is perfectly right and reasonable. Mel, that was brilliant. There’s so much good stuff there. Please do go check Mel out. She really is the expert on this. So Mel, I really appreciate your time.
Thank you so much.
Mel:
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
