How to Promote Your Bot on a Budget

Chatbots are taking over the business world. Every month, people send more than a billion messages to businesses and organizations through Facebook Messenger, and experts have predicted more than 80 percent of companies will use chatbots by 2020.

It isn’t necessarily cheap to build a chatbot, though. While prices vary widely, building a bot from the ground up can

Add to that the cost of promoting your bot, and it can really start to get pricey. Promotion doesn’t have too put a lot of pressure on your budget, though. These tips will help you promote your chatbot without spending too much, so you can get more back on your investment.

1. Test the Product First

The first step toward saving money on promoting your bot begins before you even start your marketing campaign. It’s crucial to test your bot thoroughly before launching it. If you send users to your bot before it’s ready, they may leave disappointed and never return, making the money you spent getting them there a waste.

Before you even put work into your program, make sure it’s solving a problem your customers will want to use it for. Once you’ve confirmed there’s a market for your bot and you’ve developed it, conduct some A/B testing to determine what phrases, questions and language work best.

2. Create a Story

Before you begin promoting your chatbot, it’s essential to have a solid brand image. A key part of this brand is your story, which will tell your users about your company or chatbot, how you came to be, why you do what you do and how you’re relevant to them.

Making your story something that will resonate emotionally with your users will help you connect with them. Also, make sure your story is honest, easy to understand and entertaining. Doing so will make your brand more memorable.

3. Add It to Your Website

If you already have a website, you can use it to promote your bot for no additional cost to you. Even if you’ve just created a simple site for your bot, it should be easy for users to access your bot, either directly on your website or by connecting to their favorite messaging platform from your site.

Facebook makes it easy to connect a Facebook Messenger bot to your website with its Messenger’s Customer Chat Plugin. This tool will add a chat window on your site and pulls their message history from Facebook so they can continue a conversation across devices.

4. Use Existing Social Media Tools

There are also many tools integrated directly into social media platforms that make it easy to promote your bot there.

On Facebook, you can easily submit your bot to the Messenger Discovery section to give users a chance to stumble upon it. Just go to your Facebook page settings, then your Discover settings and click Set Up. You can also add a Send Message button to your Facebook page.

Of course, you should also post about your chatbot directly on social media channels you have an account on, which is an easy and free way to spread the word about your new bot.

5. Make It Easy to Share

In today’s world, your customers can often be your best promoters. By creating easy-to-share content, you can organically grow your user base.

On Facebook, for instance, you can add a “Share” button to the Messenger Persistent Menu. That will enable users to share your bot with just a few clicks. The fewer steps required to share it, the better.

You can also publish content such as blog posts, videos and images related to your chatbot that encourage sharing. Create content that provides value to the customer — whether that’s through information, entertainment, an emotional experience or another service. If you’ve already created an engaging, emotionally resonant story surrounding your brand, you’re one step ahead in this area.

6. Avoid Ad Fraud

Paid advertisements can be a cost-effective way to gain users, too, if you target the right people. Make sure you know who your target audience and how to reach them, so you get the most value you can out of your advertising dollars.

Ad fraud is another pitfall to avoid when buying online advertising. Some estimates state ad fraud makes up 9 percent of digital ad spend and 22 percent of the money spent on video advertising.

To avoid advertising to fake accounts, retarget users who have already visited your site and chatbot, since you know these users are real and interested in your product. You should also set up conversion tracking and keep a close eye on how your ads are performing.

Investing in a chatbot can be a smart business move, especially if you’re frugal with your promotions. By crafting a budget-friendly promotional strategy, you can grow your user base while getting a better return on your investment.