How to set up a facebook messenger chatbot that will increase your webinar signup and attendance rates (in 14 mins or less)

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Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission.

Legal disclosure aside…  I use every product that I’ve endorsed in this post. If my the tutorial is helpful and you need the product it’s a nice way to show me the love :) Enjoy…

The hardest part of running a webinar is getting people actually show up to the webinar. (or – getting the software to record.  Ugh)

I’m going to show you how to get amazing attendance rates on autopilot using a facebook messenger chatbot.

According to David Abrams of Demio webinar platform, you can expect about a 30% conversion rate from cold traffic to register for your webinar.

And if you use three to four email series campaign, you’ll get on average if 35%- 40% show up rate.

In a typical webinar, 15% of the attendees will convert to customers.

Let’s assume you get a thousand people to view your webinar registration page. 300 people will register. 120 people will show up. and 18 will become paying customers.

So why will so few people actually show up for a webinar but they’ve signed up to?

Fact is people get busy and they forget.

If you take a look at the top articles on google about how to increase attendance rates, they’ll all tell you pretty much the same thing.

  1. Give something away (Basically, incentivize people to show up)
  2. Schedule your webinar on the right day of the week (Most happen to say it’s mid-morning on a Wednesday or Thursday)
  3. Email people.  (Oh and after you’re done emailing them… email ‘em again)

These approaches are fine.  And they work.
They’re the reason that people are getting the standard 35% show up rate.

You can’t do something that’s standard and hope to get exceptional results.

Because people are overwhelmed with email, most will never open any reminders that you send.

If you get around at 20% email open rate you should be ecstatic. Unfortunately, that means that 80% of people probably didn’t get the reminder.

But what if 80% of people saw and opened your reminders…
And took an action to confirm their attendance?

Can you imagine how many more people would attend?

Today I’m going to show you how to setup your own messenger bot funnel for webinars that you’ve seen get over an 80% open rate.

Get the step-by-step tutorial video of this chatbot webinar funnel.

Click the button and I’ll send you a video tutorial where you’ll see me set up this webinar funnel step by step.

Or if you’d like us to help you build your own bot funnel…
My bot will help you schedule a time with me if it makes sense.

Pick your Facebook Messenger chatbot platform:

  1. Chatfuel
  2. ManyChat
  3. Others (which I won’t talk about but the tutorial will likely be applicable)

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If you’re not sure which to pick Dana Tran of ThinkTuitive  has created a pretty awesome comparison so check that out.

But here’s the short version.

ChatFuel is by far the more flexible platform.

If you’ve got some coding chops you’ll like it better.

Hooking into API’s and back ends is much easier using Chatfuel.

It’s great for:

  1.  e-commerce bots
  2.  complex Integrations
  3.  if you need custom code and abilities in the bot

The Chatfuel team is great, they’re very responsive and care about their users.

The Chatfuel community is filled with programmers and tech-savvy people I’ll give you a hand if you need it.

Manychat is the easier platform to use.

But in return for its push-button simplicity, you’re far more limited in the Integrations and customizations that you can make.

The Integrations they do have are made very simple through the use of Zapier. However, you’re limited by the depth of the integration on Zapier’s end.

How to set up your webinar registration page for either chatbot platform

I use several programs to create landing pages.  Including webinar registration pages.

For clients I’ll typically use:
Leadpages (affiliate link) or
Landingi (affiliate link)  – 15% off a new account when with my link.

Here’s the example webinar registration page I created in Leadpages:

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And here’s the example I created with a Landingi Template:

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I’ve worked much more with Leadpages and prefer it.

Landingi is pretty darn good, some parts of the drag and drop builder are better, most are worse.  But the main draw benefit that Landingi is by far cheaper.

Leadpages is better, Landingi is cheaper.

But you can use any property where you can add a bit of JavaScript in HTML.

For my WordPress sites I’ve switched between using:

Thrive Themes and

Divi from elegant themes (affiliate link)

The simplest approach is to explain about the webinar before the person gets into the chatbot.

But, you can easily make more complex sequences and flows that educate your prospect inside the chatbot and then try to capture their email inside the bot.

I normally create a 5-7 day educational sequence with soft calls to action along the way.

You can even drive traffic from a Facebook ad that directly opens a conversation your chatbot.   You’ll just need a little bit more set up before asking for the email.

Whatever you decide, you’ll be able to reuse the sequence you create to add a webinar call to action wherever you want inside the bot.

How to set up your Webinar bot Funnel & Webinar Messenger Reminders in Chatfuel

I’m going to assume that you can set up the basics of your Bot on your own.

Chatfuel has some great tutorials and how to do exactly that so you’re going to Jump Right In.

How to set up your webinar email capture in your Chatfuel Chatbot

First, create a new group called webinar registration.

Inside that group create a new block called webinar email capture and a second block named web email thanks.

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Now you’re going to learn how to capture a prospect’s email and send it on to your webinar platform so that they’re registered from the bot.

Create your web email thanks block

This might seem counterintuitive that you’re setting of a thank-you block before you set up the email capture, but it actually saves a step.

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This block does three things:

  1. It lets the user know that the bot processed their email.
  2. You’re going to pass the user’s email to Zapier and then onto your webinar platform.
  3. It assigns a user attribute so the bot knows who has signed up for the webinar.

Underneath your thank you message create a Json API plug-in.

Set the type to post.  end select the user attributes that you want the chatbot to pass to Zapier and your webinar platform.

Last – Set up a user attribute to tag each user who visits this block.

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Create your web email capture block

Because the person came in from your landing page, they’ve already clicked to register for the webinar.

Here’s where you make the ask for their email.

And you do that with a user input Plug-in.

You’ll want a short text intro as to why you’ll be asking for the email. Then you’ll ask for the email and go to the thank you block (that you set it up in the last step).

For the User Input Plugin

  • Set your message to the user as:  what’s a good email first name?
  • Validation should be set to:  email
  • And the attribute you want to type in as: email

So after somebody types in their email, you want to send them on to the thank you block.

To do that use a go to block and redirect to your email thank-you block.

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Now you’re going to jump over to Zapier to finish the setup.

Set up a catch hook in Zapier that’s will link your chatbot to your webinar platform

Zapier lets us actually do something with the data the bot’s collected.

So it’s time to click Make A Zap!

Choose webhooks by Zapier as your trigger.

 

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Pick catch hook

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Leave “pick off a child key” blank.  And hit continue.

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Copy the url of the hook to the clipboard

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Sweet!  Now let’s jump back over to Chatfuel.

Paste the hook Url into your Json API plugin.

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Now it’s time to test your sequence and you’ll find out if your Zapier Hook is working.

Make sure your chatbot is hooked up to a Facebook page. I like to use a test page while I’m setting up the bot.

Instead of clicking test this chatbot, what you have to do is create a ref link and use that to test.

Go to your email capture block and create a ref link like so…

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Go through the 2 steps and make sure everything’s working as expected.

Now you’re going to jump back over to Zapier and confirm that it’s collecting data.

Time to test the hook by finishing the last step in clicking okay I did this.

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If you did it right you’ll see a success message.

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You’re halfway home.

Now let’s connect your webinar platform so everything plays nicely together.

Set up your Zapier action step & choose your webinar platform as the app.

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Fill out the template with the info that was pulled in from Chatfuel.

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If you need more help check out the quick video tutorial:

Bingo.  Now your bot will register attendees.

But you’re not done.

Now you have to remind people to show up for the webinar. because there’s so much less noise on messenger these reminders are infinitely more effective than email reminders.

On average you’re seeing about an 80% open rate or higher with an engaged audience.

So it’s best to send out these reminders can schedule the webinar pretty soon after the person has signed up.

Most webinar email reminder sequences start about a week out. That’s okay for putting it on somebody’s radar but honestly, do you even remember an email that you got a week ago?

I don’t.

you think that if you tell somebody far enough out the plan to be there. They’ll schedule their day around our webinar.

Come on. you know that’s not how it works.

What’s important in our worlds is just a little blip in theirs.

Instead of sending out more emails over a long period of time, in the hopes that the person may open just one of them,
ensuring that they’ll actually see the reminder a day before and the day of the webinar makes a lot more sense.

Before you set up a reminder sequence, I’m sure some of you are asking…

What if Zapier doesn’t integrate with my webinar software?

  1. If they have an API you can make a custom integration
  2. You’ll need to use a more traditional webinar registration page.  Then ask the user if they want to get reminders in messenger on the thank you page.
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  3. In your confirmation email & reminder emails –  include an option for people get reminders in messenger. It can be as simple as including a text-based ref link  as a call to action in your email.

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How to set up your webinar reminder messages to send on autopilot from your Chatfuel chatbot

Remember you talked about the timing of the messages being critical?

You’re going to send out a reminder one day before, an hour before, and 10 minutes before the webinar starts.

And finally, you’re going to send a last message 15 minutes into the webinar to try to capture any stragglers who haven’t opened up the messages.

Go to broadcast and create a message under the schedule for later tab.

This is the message that you’re going to send out the day prior to the webinar.

Send out a quick intro and just remind them that the webinar is just a short day form now.

I  like giving people an additional bonus, like a checklist to download and print prior to the webinar.

It adds value.

And it gives you an excuse to reach out to them besides reminding them about the webinar.

After composing your message pick when to send it and who to send it to.

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The when is straightforward.  The filtering is more complicated.
Remember the user attribute that you set up?

Now you’re going to filter the message to send only to people who registered for the webinar.

You’re going to duplicate the message 3 times.

I like to set the second message to send out an hour before the webinar.

Remind them of your bonus.

And give the person the option to join the webinar.

But you’re going to do something a little sneaky here.

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Instead of giving the person the link directly,  you’re going to link to another block, which you’ll create in a second.

This is going to let us a sign another user attribute for people who decide to join the webinar.

That way you can easily keep track of your metrics inside the bot

And you can send an additional reminder to people who haven’t yet joined live but registered for the webinar.

To do that you’re going to create two new blocks under the automate tab.

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The first is the join webinar block.

The purpose of this block is to deliver the webinar link and then allow you to tag that person as having joined the webinar.

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What’s Happening Here is if the person clicks the “let me in” button…

You’re sending them on to another block by using the go to block card and filtering for a match to the last button clicked.

The block that you send the person to immediately after will add a user tag.

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Now let’s finish your broadcast messages.  You’ve already created the day before broadcast message and the hour before message.

Create your 10 minute warning broadcast

You know the drill.

So I’m going to let you do this one on your own.   But, here’s a screenshot of mine below to help you out.

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Last, create your “oh crap you’re missing it” broadcast…
Aka the 15 mins into the webinar reminder.

This one can be pretty short and sweet.

Something along the lines of: Hey where are you?

And same deal you’re going to send them to the join webinar Block.

The key here is about  User filtering.

You want to broadcast to everybody who registered for the webinar but exclude everybody who joins the webinar live.

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That’s it.

You can expect a solid open rate and click-through rate for these messages.

I’d love to know just how much of an impact this makes on user attendance for your webinars.
So if you do implement, shoot me a message or an email and let me know how it works for you.

Need help implementing this strategy….
Or want to see how this fits into a complete messenger chatbot funnel?

My bot will help you schedule a time with me if it makes sense.
In other words, you’ve got to take my lead qualifying quiz.

How to set up your Webinar bot Funnel & Webinar Messenger Reminders in ManyChat

At this point, if you’ve read through the Chatfuel tutorial,  you have a pretty good idea of what you’re going to do for ManyChat.

Again here I’m going to assume that you know how to set up a basic bot.

If you don’t, go read a different tutorial first.

How to set up your webinar email capture in your ManyChat Chatbot

First, create a new flow called webinar registration or signup.

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Now your bot is going to grab the prospect’s email to send it to Zapier and on to your webinar platform.

To capture the prospect’s email address you’re going to create a user input block.

In the block, you’re going to ask the person to type in their email address.

Then set the reply type to email.

Because you absolutely need the email address you’re going to delete the skip button by removing any text from that field.

And finally, you’re going to save the email to a custom field named email.

If you want to take it a step further you can add a tag so you’ll know who has registered for the webinar.

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Here it makes sense to thank the user after they’ve replied and let them know that you’ll see them soon.

Now preview your sequence.

You’ll want to go through the sequence and enter your email so Manychat will register at least one user with the correct tags and custom Fields applied.

From Manychat, linking to Zapier is easier. So let’s head over to Zapier now and set it up.

How to link your webinar platform to ManyChat using Zapier

Make a new Zap and select many chat as your trigger app.

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Pick the right trigger.

There 2 triggers that you could use.

  1.  new or updated custom field
  2.  new tagged user

I like to use new tagged user for this.

Because I want the custom field just to say: email.
Storing every email in a single custom field makes it easier to use that data across multiple platforms.

That means when I also link to my CRM or ESP I only have to select one custom field to link rather than multiple.

Eg.  If you save a user’s email in a custom field called webinar email and later ask for an email address in a different spot in the main bot flow you’d have to save it to a separate custom field called email.

It’s more of a headache trying to link both fields to your other software.

Next connect your Manychat account And pick the tag you’re going to use as the trigger.

Make sure to create to create a unique tag for each webinar you have.

Go ahead and choose that tag now.

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If you didn’t test your sequence in Manychat then you’ll probably get an error from Zapier saying no subscribers with the tag or custom field found.

Go back preview the sequence then test your zap again.

If you really know what you’re doing you can skip the test and keep going.

For everyone else you’ll see you success message like this:

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Choose your webinar plaftorm in step #2 as the action.

Create a new registration for your webinar.

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Set up the Zapier template by selecting the ManyChat fields from the drop-down.

Email first name last name all pretty self-explanatory.

I also like to pull in UTM data that I can take a look at in Google analytics.

Here’s what I do for my UTMs:

  1. Medium: Bot
  2. Camapign: Luser Last Growth tool Name
  3. Content : XYZ webinar flow

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Same deal, test it out and make sure everything’s looking good.

After a successful test, you can move on to creating the webinar reminders in Manychat.

How to set up your webinar reminder messages to send on autopilot from your ManyChat chatbot

Right now you have a choice…

The lazy way or

The better way.

In general, for manychat, you can either create one-off messages or you can create a modular approach with separate messages and flows.

Sometimes it makes perfect sense to make a one time message.

Because I’m assuming you’re going to hold more than one webinar, I’m going to show you how to reuse messages for your broadcast.

Go to the flow folders and create a new flow.

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Create your first reminder message to be sent out a day before your webinar.

I like to go with a short intro and remind the person that the webinar is coming up in just a day.

I also created a downloadable and printable checklist that the person will get in this message.

It adds value.

And gives you a good excuse to reach out and remind them of the webinar.

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Duplicate this message and set up your second webinar reminder.

To do that go back into the flows folder tap the three little dots on the right hand side of the flow and click duplicate.

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Send this reminder out an hour before the webinar starts.

Re-emphasize your bonus. And give the person the webinar link so they have it when the time comes.

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You can decide if the button should take them directly to the webinar like in the Chatfuel example above or you can to deliver the webinar link so they can come back and click it later.

The advantage of using the button is that it’s trackable from the bot.

The downside, however, is that the person can’t save the url to use later.

Notice the tag just says webinar link sent.

If you decide to give them the text link make sure to add in a UTM code so it’s trackable in Google Analytics.

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Webinar reminder #3.  The 10 min warning from the bot.

This is the last message your prospects going to get before they join the webinar.

Keep it short and sweet.

Here you’re going to have the user press a button to join the webinar.

Use a strong call to action.

Add an Emoji to really draw attention to your CTA.

Because anybody who clicks will be taken straight to the webinar, you’re adding a tag of: joined webinar.

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Webinar reminder #4.  The hail mary.

You’re probably wondering why you’re setting up one last reminder.

It’s one last ditch effort to get anybody on who hasn’t already joined.

You’re going to send this message 15 minutes or so into the webinar.

You’re only going to send it to people who have registered for the webinar but have not yet joined.

I’ll show you how are you going to set up the broadcasts in just a moment.

here’s how I suggest you set up the last message:

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How to link it all together and send your broadcasts

So you got all four of these messages but now you have to figure out who’s going to actually get them.

So you’ve got people registered through the bot for your webinar.

You’ve already created your reminder messages.

Now you’re going to schedule the reminders to be automatically broadcast out before your webinar.

Open up the broadcast tab in create a new broadcast.

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What you’re going to do here it’s a little bit of a hack.

It looks like you have to create a new message inside the broadcast.

But you don’t.

Even though you can’t start a broadcast with a go to flow action, you can cheat a bit and link into our flow without anything coming before it.

Because a message is required, click into a text block and hit the spacebar.

You’ve just created a message that won’t send to the user.

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Select continue to another step.  And choose go to flow.

Now you’ll be able to link to whichever message  you want.  Pick the first reminder message that you want to send.

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Now it’s on to the settings. You’ll pick what type of message to send who to send it to and when to send it.

  • Message type
    • I’d suggest subscription broadcast because  your messages aren’t promotional. (But, make sure whatever you choose adhears to the Facebook TOS)
  • Targeting
    •  You only want users that match: tag is registered for webinar.
  •  Scheduling
    •  schedule for later and set it to send a day before your webinar

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Do the same for the rest of your reminder messages.

Except for the 15-minute last ditch effort reminder, the user targeting on all the messages will be the same.

In the last message, you want to include people who have registered for the webinar but, exclude people who have already joined the webinar.

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Cool.

Now you’re not going to annoy the crap out of everybody who’s already joined the webinar.

Next steps – test

Before pushing your sequence live. Make sure to preview everything yourself.

Look at the sequence on your phone, in Facebook Messenger, and in the smaller messenger box in Facebook.

Messages won’t display the same across different devices.

So you’ll need to tweak and optimize to make sure it works well on each device.

Make sure when you send out the first broadcast you’re available to monitor it,  answer user questions and deal with any issues that may come up.

For as long as I’ve been doing this, I still find that people do things that surprise me and that the bot is not prepared to deal with.

Because of that, you can’t treat your messages as static content. Your messaging always needs evolve and get better.

Test it out for yourself. And let me know how many more people start sending your webinars.

Remember, this is only the beginning. You can start using your chatbot to continue building your relationship with potential customers.

Get the step-by-step tutorial video of this chatbot webinar funnel.

Click the button and I’ll send you a video tutorial where you’ll see me set up this webinar funnel step by step.

Or if you’d like us to help you build your own bot funnel…
My bot will help you schedule a time with me if it makes sense.