ManyChat is a chat marketing platform that enables businesses to create, manage, and optimize chatbots for various messaging apps, including Facebook Messenger. The rise of ManyChat can be attributed to the growing importance of conversational marketing and the increasing reliance on messaging apps for communication. This article explores the evolution and impact of ManyChat in the context of modern communication.
One of the most widely used chatbot platforms worldwide is Manychat, which you can use to build chatbots for your website, SMS, email, Telegram, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp.
So should you build your chatbot with Manychat?
Let's analyze!
In this article you will know:
- What is ManyChat?
- User Interface
- Components of ManyChat
- User’s/Client
- Messages
- Channels
- Integrations
- Promotions
- Pricing
- Analytics
- Templates
- Client Assistance
- Conclusions
What is ManyChat?
ManyChat is a company that develops artificial intelligence chatbots, offering businesses a fully automated solution to handle their customer interactions. Social media, SMS, websites, and advertising can all be supplanted by it. With the ManyChat flow builder, setting up any automatic chatbot is simple. You will be able to tailor the chatbots to behave as much like a real live agent as possible, and you will have total control over their behavior.
User Interface
Upon logging into Manychat, you will be presented with a dashboard that features the content of each section on the right and a menu of options on the left. It's actually quite simple to use and comprehend dashboard:
ManyChat offers the greatest visual flow builder I've ever seen in a chatbot platform for building your chatbot. This can be attributed to the UI's extremely 'clean' appearance and ease of use, even for those who are new to creating chatbots.
Each flow in the flow builder begins with a trigger, which is an event that sets off the flow. From there, you can drag and drop blocks to connect them:
A message, an action, a conditioning, or any other Manychat chatbot feature can be considered a block. Furthermore, you have the option to test your chatbot flows directly within the Manychat interface or on the channel (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc.) for which the flow is intended:
Components of ManyChat
All of the chatbot building components are available from Manychat. I want to discuss each of the two components, a condition is the first thing. You can use logic in your flows and have one-on-one conversations with your contacts by using a Condition. There's the Start Flow as well. You will be able to create a new flow in your Manychat account as a result. By referencing other flows rather than repeatedly copying and pasting the same flows, this guarantees that you can build a scalable chatbot.
Users/Client
Users can have custom fields and tags added to them in Manychat. For instance, you could pose a query, save the response in a custom field, and then apply a particular tag in response to the query. You can create user segments (which you can use in your chatbot flows) using these custom fields and tags. The "Contacts" tab displays all of your contacts who have communicated with your chatbot. This tab also allows you to view all users of a particular segment (by clicking on the segment on the left) and filter by particular custom fields or tags:
You can view all of the contact's details by clicking on it, and you can view their chat history by selecting "Start chat" after select one of the contacts.
Messages
Broadcasts, sequences, and the ability to subscribe and unsubscribe from sequences are all offered by Manychat. The fact that the ManyChat sequences are so well-organized is something I truly appreciate about them. One handy feature is that you can view the entire sequence in a single overview, along with the specific message sent at each moment.
ManyChat has a feature called "Conditions" that lets you send users through a specific flow using logic. Furthermore, you can create a chatbot in any language, but translating it to another language is difficult because you have to manually duplicate all of your chatbot's flows.
Channels
You can make a chatbot with Manychat for your website, SMS, email, Telegram, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. This guarantees that you can give your users an omnichannel chatbot experience. For instance, you can respond to a comment someone makes on Facebook Messenger by sending them an email.
You must link Manychat to a Twilio account in order to use SMS. Then, Manychat handles all of the chatbot logic, and Twilio handles sending and receiving SMS messages (although Twilio has extra fees). Furthermore, contacts from various channels can be combined (based on an email or phone number). For instance, ManyChat can identify that a contact is the same when they initiate contact via Facebook Messenger and then follow up with them on Instagram, and it will merge the two accounts.
Integrations
The Inbox is the name of the built-in live chat feature of Manychat. You can direct a chatbot conversation to one of your customer service representatives by using the Inbox. The fact that Manychat's Inbox has an iOS and Android app allows you to reply to user inquiries from your mobile device, which is something I really enjoy about it. Inbox Pro, a feature-rich live chat service with agent groups, employee analytics, and automated assignment rules, is another service provided by Manychat.
Furthermore, Manychat integrates directly with:
Furthermore, ManyChat offers an App Store where independent developers can make their own ManyChat integrations. There are 38 apps available in the App Store right now, but I predict this number will rise:
Promotions
Manychat is among the greatest platforms available for chatbot marketing. You can use the URL of your website to send proactive messages and add a Facebook Messenger widget to your website. Following that, you can also build landing pages for your chatbot on Facebook Messenger.
Also available on Facebook is:
- Make reference URLs that point to a particular chatbot flow.
- Automatically reply to comments on Facebook
- Send a single alert
- Send Out Consistent Alerts
- Adding a Facebook advertisement link to your chatbot on Messenger
- and use Facebook Messenger to send Sponsored Messages
You can do the following on Instagram:
- Automatically respond to remarks on Instagram
- Respond to users on Instagram who mention your handle in their Stories by sending them a message.
Additionally, you can send Message Templates using WhatsApp. In essence, ManyChat offers nearly every marketing option you could possibly require for your chatbot.
The lack of a native website widget by Manychat is its lone disadvantage.
Pricing
Manychat offers a free plan that is free. With 1000 contacts, this plan offers the essential ManyChat features—enough to create a functional chatbot. The Pro plan, which costs $15 per month (a really cheap price) is an upgrade if you want more features or have more than 1000 contacts:
The more contacts your chatbot has, the more expensive the Pro plan gets. $25 is earned for every 1,000 contacts, and $45 is earned for every 5,000 contacts. You can test out ManyChat's Pro features during the seven-day free trial period that is included with this plan. In addition, there is a money-back guarantee that lasts for 30 days without asking any questions. In addition, Manychat offers Manychat Inbox Pro, which has a monthly cost of $99 only. This includes three seats for live chat:
Templates
To create your chatbot, ManyChat offers 19 templates that you can install straight away. They consist of templates that are free and those that are exclusive to Pro users. You can create a chatbot template with ManyChat and share it with other people. When you are creating multiple chatbots that perform the same task (like lead generation), this is really helpful. To make your chatbot faster, you can also duplicate the elements and flows of your chatbot.
Client Assistance
Comprehensive tutorials on building a chatbot and using ManyChat's platform are available. They also provide excellent customer service and documentation.
Another great thing about ManyChat is that they have a sizable Facebook community (100,000+ members) where you can learn more about the platform and ask any kind of question you have.
Conclusions
One of the greatest chatbot creation platforms available is Manychat, which allows you to build chatbots for SMS, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram, and more. particularly if you're only now beginning to develop chatbots. Additionally, I use it to build chatbots for my own clientele.
For only $15 per month, you can publish your chatbot on six channels, use built-in live chat, have conditions to create personalized conversations, store contact information, publish your chatbot on multiple channels, publish it on all of your preferred channels, and get all the necessary marketing features. Additionally, the flow builder is incredibly user-friendly and provides all the necessary chatbot elements.
There are only three drawbacks that come to mind for me:
- It only provides keyword recognition; it does not provide direct AI integrations.
- The analytics, such as a summary of unrecognized user input and flow analytics for a given time period, could be improved.
- Multilingual chatbot translation is challenging.
