Chatbots: Your Secret Weapon for engagement and Business Growth

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.   KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST   If you enjoyed this episode then please feel free to go and share it on your social media or head over to Apple podcasts or Spotify and give me a review, I would be so very grateful.   LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE Connect with Mel on Website, Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin, Email: [email protected] Connect with Teresa on Website, The Club, Sign up to Teresa's email list,  Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter   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