November 14, 2024 • 31 mins
Have you ever chatted with a bot on Instagram? Chances are if you connected on a post of mine and got a link sent to you in your DMs, then you've interacted with my Resilient Retail Club Instabot.
But what is an Chatbot and how can it be useful for retailers?
In this episode, we are talking with Mel Eilers about the transformative potential of chatbots for retailers.
We delve into the benefits of using chatbots to enhance customer engagement, streamline operations, and boost sales. Mel offers practical examples and strategies, such as automating social media interactions and prioritizing marketing objectives. Additionally, we highlight the importance of compliance and the growing trend of conversational marketing among retailers.
This episode is a must-listen for small business owners looking to leverage technology to build a resilient retail business.
[01:43] Meet Mel Eilers: Chatbot Expert
[02:18] Understanding Chatbots and Their Benefits for Retailers
[03:57] Implementing Chatbots in E-commerce
[05:09] Building Effective Chatbot Strategies
[09:39] Expanding Chatbot Use Beyond Instagram
[10:47] Success Stories and Case Studies
[15:34] Compliance and Best Practices
[18:04] Future of Chatbots in Retail
[19:39] Getting Started with Chatbots
[30:12] Chatup with Mel Eilers
Links:
Get all of the details on the show notes
Learn more about the Resilient Retail Club
Learn more about my mastermind for product business owners
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Catherine Erdly (00:00):
If you've ever commented on a post of mine and got
a link sent to you in your DMs, thenchances are you've interacted with
my Resilient Retail Club Instabot.
But what is an Instabot and how can itbe useful, particularly how can it be
useful for a product based business?
Hi, I'm Catherine Erdly.
I'm the host Of theresilient retail game plan.
(00:21):
I'm also a small business and retailexpert and the founder of the resilient
retail club, which is my membership groupand mastermind for product businesses.
You can find out more about everythingI offer at resilient retail club.
com.
Today, I'm talking to Mel Eilers,who's going to be talking to us
about the use cases for chatbots andhow they can help grow your sales.
(00:48):
Welcome to the Resilient Retail GamePlan, a podcast for anyone wanting to
start, grow or scale a profitable creativeproduct business with me, Catherine Erdly.
The Resilient Retail Game Plan isa podcast dedicated to one thing,
breaking down the concepts and toolsthat I've gathered from 20 years in
the retail industry and showing youhow you can use them in your business.
(01:11):
This is the real nuts and bolts ofrunning a successful product business,
broken down in an easy, accessible way.
This is not a podcast about learninghow to make your business look good.
It's the tools and techniques that willmake you and your business feel good.
Confidently plan, launch, and manageyour products, and feel in control of
(01:32):
your sales numbers and cash flow to helpyou build a resilient retail business.
Mel, thank you so much forjoining me today on the podcast.
Do you want to kick off by tellingeveryone about you and what you do?
Welcome back to the podcast, I should say.
Mel Eilers (01:54):
Yes, thanks for having me again.
So my name is Mel Eilers and Iessentially, help brands to personalize
their connection with followersthrough many chat automations helping
them to increase their organicreach and engagement, leading to
higher conversion rates througha more seamless customer journey.
Catherine Erdly (02:10):
Amazing.
So we're going to come into delveinto that in a lot more detail,
what that actually means, but justto give us a bit of background.
So what was it that kindof got you interested in?
So we talked about many chat,we're talking about chatbots.
So also known as conversational marketing.
So what was it that really got youinto this or interested in this area?
Hmm.
Mel Eilers (02:27):
I've working on the Meta platforms for quite some time now.
I started out in organic social mediamarketing, which is obviously quite
conversational, the social media side.
And then I retrained into Facebookads for e commerce businesses.
But what actually got me interested inwas actually myself commenting on somebody
else's Facebook post, and this was nowprobably about four years ago, and it
(02:52):
was to get a guide a free guide, a freePDF on something that I was interested
in, and I didn't really know that thesethings existed on the meta platforms.
Obviously they have quite some time,and I commented the keyword on a post,
and then the message came into mymessenger, I gave my name and my email,
and then the guide that I'd requested wasliterally in my email within 20 seconds.
(03:15):
And I was like, wow,what is this wizardry?
And then I went down a bit of a rabbithole with it, discovered many chats.
And that was just, thepivitol moment for me.
And I was like my God, this isso easy for brands to increase
their recent engagement throughtheir organic platforms.
To deliver whatever it is, whether it'sa lead magnet, whether it's a discount
(03:36):
code, it's so simple and it's fun aswell because the conversational side of
the chat bot is really fun to interactwith and that was what got me first into
it and I was like, this is so for me.
So that's when I introducedit to the business, which is a
three, about three years ago now.
Catherine Erdly (03:53):
Absolutely.
Yes.
You have worked with me on my manychart automations, which is great.
But let's talk aboutspecifically e commerce.
So e commerce chatbots, if someone'slistening to this and they're thinking,
okay, this sounds interesting, ormaybe they've commented on my post
or somebody else's post and had thatsome sort of interaction with the bot.
But maybe they're thinking,okay, but I can't quite see
(04:14):
how it works for my business.
Do you want to talk us throughsome e commerce examples?
Mel Eilers (04:20):
Sure, yeah, no problem.
So essentially, whenever you arebuilding out a chatbot strategy,
it's the same with your marketing,chat marketing is there to compliment
your existing marketing funnels.
It's not there to replace anything.
It's very much a a complimentarychannel and especially on Instagram
where they're getting, leads andsales through saying link in bio.
(04:41):
gives the customer an incrediblyconvoluted journey that does, take a
while to go to your link in bio to findthe right link, click on the right link
where they then go to a landing page.
They may or may not takeyour intended action.
You're actually asking theconsumer to do quite a lot.
So when you are planning yourstrategy, Really think about what
it is you need your business to do.
So for e-commerce that is to eitherget more eyes onto their website,
(05:05):
to their shop or it's to increasetheir email list, for example.
So what I always say to e-commerceretailers is the one flow you should
definitely set up would be veryreminiscent of the flow that they have
probably got on their website anyway,where it's sign up to my email list
and get, a 10 percent discount codeor something off your first order.
(05:26):
And that, that exists as a popup on many e-commerce websites.
So that is one flow that I woulddefinitely say, is worth doing.
Another one that I think worksreally well for e commerce businesses
especially if you are a brand where youget tagged a lot in stories, unboxing
videos, user generated content of themdoing a quick review or something.
(05:49):
And if your DMS are absolutely full ofpeople mentioning you in their story,
you can automate a reply to that.
That just quite simply can say somethinglike, thank you, just thank you for
the mention, appreciate it, which thenfor you as a brand saves the time for
you to go into the DMs because youknow that anyone sometimes any time
(06:14):
that someone is mentioning you in yourstory, They are automatically getting
some recognition and a note of thanks,which can help to build loyalty.
But equally, you as the brand are notin the DMs all the time, searching
for people who have mentioned youto try and say thank you, or at
least give them acknowledgementof the tag that they've given you.
Yeah, so really, yeah, there's afew things there is think of what
(06:37):
flows will actually complement yourbusiness and there are a few back end
flows like the story tag mentionedreply, which can easily help you
to save time in the DMS as well.
Catherine Erdly (06:48):
Yeah.
Okay.
That's really interesting.
Yeah.
So coming back to the email signup,that's a really fascinating one
because one of the things that I'malways conscious of and I often talk
to clients about is this idea about,we don't own our social audiences.
We're building our house onborrowed ground type thing.
Whereas if you've got their emailaddress, then that is much easier
(07:11):
to communicate directly with them.
And if your Instagram went downtomorrow, or who knows, I don't
know, Elon Musk buys it or something.
Doesn't mean crazy with it, thinkabout all those businesses that
were built on Twitter and like youwould then have that ability to
talk directly to your customers.
So one thing is that, relationshipbetween the size of your email list
(07:31):
and the size of your social following.
And it always working to convert socialfollowers to email list subscribers.
So it's interesting what you'resaying about using the chat bot for
that purpose, almost to automate,like comment, whatever, and get a
welcome code or sign up to our listor something along those lines.
Mel Eilers (07:52):
Yeah, definitely.
Especially at this time of yearwhere for, we're into Q4 now.
And, if those retailers are thinkingabout running any offers, et cetera, et
cetera, audience building ahead of thatis something that, is really important.
Because once the emails go outalongside the, complimentary organic
strategy, it's, if your list is biggerin theory, you know, you've got more
(08:13):
opportunity for those sales to come in.
And so by, promoting your list buildingflows on your organic stories or posts
and your reels during Q4 time can onlyhelp to build the audience for when your
offers are ready later in the month orChristmas or whenever that time will be.
(08:34):
So I think it's one of those andit's so easy to do through Instagram.
Rather than relying on them to come toyour website, or, it's easy to get them
to comment a word on a post, or to DMyou a word, or to reply to a story with
a word, that then brings them into thebot, gathers their name and their email,
(08:55):
and that connects into your CRM, andthen they're delivered, whatever it is
that they have signed up for, and itdoes make it, such a fun thing as well,
because for them, for the consumer, it'sa one to one interaction with the brand.
Yet for the brand it's still one to many.
So it's very much playing to thepersonalization of the customer journey,
(09:19):
which a lot of consumers are looking for.
Now, we're looking for thatpersonal touch with our brands
and the people that we buy from.
But equally for the brand, it'snot massively difficult to set
up, and once it's set up once it'sstill catering to the one to many
audience, but for the consumer, theexperience is a little bit different.
Catherine Erdly (09:37):
I see.
Yeah, very interesting.
And when you talk about platforms, soInstagram and Facebook, for sure, for many
chat, does it work on any other platforms?
Mel Eilers (09:47):
So Instagram and Facebook are the two main meta channels.
If you bring them in via Instagram orFacebook, you can then, depending on how
you build your flows, and the informationthat you want to gather, you can then
ask for a phone number, which then opensup the ability to use WhatsApp within
the ManyChat platform, or SMS, as well.
(10:09):
Many chat does have a native email system.
I always recommend as marketers that weshift that out to, so for e commerce,
that, there might be Clavio, Shopify,et cetera onto another email marketing
platform, but depending on the informationthat you are gathering within that bot,
if you do get that phone number, yes,you can use WhatsApp and you can use SMS
as well within the ManyChat platform.
Catherine Erdly (10:32):
Okay.
But TikTok, for example you can't.
Mel Eilers (10:35):
No, sadly not.
One day, hopefully, that would be nice.
Catherine Erdly (10:39):
I'm sure that'd be coming.
So what kind of results then do people seewhen you've seen people implement this?
What were some of the impacts?
Mel Eilers (10:47):
I can tell you about one of my core students on the last cohort was
a fashion stylist, but she also sellsthe clothes through her Shopify store.
And she was doing like a 30 days ofstyle challenge where every day she
was doing a real showing off an outfitand giving them a keyword to comment.
(11:08):
And they would comment the keyword theywould come into the DMS and it gathered
their name and their email address.
It gave them the links to that specificoutfit directing them straight to her
website, and she gave them a discountcode as well, like a time limited discount
code, so they would view the reel, theywould comment the keyword, they'd come
(11:30):
into the DMs, they would see those clothesagain, be able to directly link into her
website, and then they got the discountcode, I think it was 10% for use that day.
And she has seen phenomenalsuccess with that.
I was so pleased for her becauseshe was so happy as well.
But I think, one of her first comments,one of her first reels that she
did had two, 200 comments on it andgrowing, and obviously that's all
(11:53):
that's on the organic platform as well.
Knowing how the algorithm works when,you get the more engagement on your
ads, you get more reach as well.
So it was very much.
ticking a lot of boxes for her.
So yes, you can see somephenomenal results with chatbots.
Catherine Erdly (12:11):
Yeah, that's really fun.
Yeah I mean I definitely see that as wellwith the chatbot when it pops off and
people are commenting Because Instagramlikes comments and they like you to
not be linking outside the platform.
They like You'd be keepingpeople on the platform.
So the fact that, we've now switchedit so that I was sending people an
external link, which obviously witha shop, then it's useful to do that.
(12:33):
But, in this case, we're now ableto gather their email directly.
And also many chat also should say it'sa, as an approved partner of Instagram.
of Meta.
So it's not like you're doinganything that Meta is not happy with.
This is something thatthey approve this tool.
You're getting commentswhich the algorithm likes.
And it can be that fun interaction.
(12:54):
That's a brilliant idea.
So she was, she did that across 30 days.
And so she had these veryspecific targeted It's
something really nice, isn't it?
Because it's almost likeyour hand selecting it and
delivering it to these people.
Whereas, as you said, that feelslike a one to one interaction
from the business owner.
Mel Eilers (13:11):
Yes, very much so.
Catherine Erdly (13:12):
yeah.
What's your view on, I know we'vetalked about this before, but I'd
love to just hear you say makingit clear when it's the bot . Yeah.
Mel Eilers (13:19):
I think you do need to make it clear that it
is an automated conversation.
I think if you're in the digitalmarketing world, you're well
aware of automation and the thingsthat can be done with automation.
But if you've not experienced it beforeit can feel a bit weird and a bit
disjointed if you're not expecting it.
(13:40):
So I always say to make it clear inthe actual posts comment this keyword
To receive this or to sign up for thisand then invariably for most people,
I would recommend that in that firstmessage that they receive in the DMs,
it says, Hello, I am, you know, foryou, it's it will say Catherine's
instabot, you know, and then they knowthat they are talking to an automation,
(14:05):
but equally as well to keep those flowsrelatively short and to the point.
Chatbots can, you can design these flowsto talk about anything and for everything
for a long time, but essentially fromInstagram, you want to get them from A
to B quite quickly and quite succinctly.
And in a fun way, a fun and easy wayfor the consumer to enjoy and for you
(14:26):
to reach your intended objective and forthem to get what they want out of view
without having to go around the house.
It's for, you know, sit there thinking,okay, yeah, no, yeah, and taking
ages throughout the bot becausethat is not such a good experience.
Catherine Erdly (14:40):
No.
But that is fun though, to seesomething and comment a word.
I'm just thinking about, I don'tthink I've actually seen that.
But yeah, I think I'd like that.
You see a nice outfit and you commenta word and you get sent a link
that says, Hey, here's the outfit.
Look at this.
And blah, blah, blah.
And you can be like, Ooh.
Mel Eilers (14:55):
And that goes for anything in retail, doesn't it?
It's not only fashion, it could beyour new skincare range, or it could
be, a complementary range of homewaresthat complements a particular colour
of a room or something like that.
It's, it was, she was veryspecific in what she had.
It was like, skirt, jacket, shoes.
Here are the links.
Here's your code.
Go and buy it.
Yeah.
(15:16):
Yeah, so simple, but yet so effective.
Catherine Erdly (15:18):
Yeah.
Yeah, that is really fun.
And then also you mentionedabout things like reaching out
to people with a flow, but say toget people onto your email list.
So is that you can automatethings like, for example, when
you get a new follower, right?
So if someone follows you.
Oh, you
Mel Eilers (15:34):
can't actually, no, you can't actually, that is actually
against Meta's terms and conditions.
So just actually to briefly touchon compliance and this kind of ties
in with the fact that ManyChat is anapproved Facebook business partner.
And as we know, whenever you work throughFacebook's platforms, there are compliance
issues, which are there to protect notonly us as brands, but also consumers as
(15:58):
well, rightly and so when you do buildmany chat automations, it's important
to note that they are permission based.
So if someone just becomes a follower,you can't automate a reply to you because
they haven't given you their permission.
They haven't opted in for anything.
They've literally decided to follow you.
(16:21):
So it's only by someone commenting akeyword or by someone replying to a
story or mentioning your story thatyou can then send them an automation.
And that's and.
With regards to the posts and thereels and the live trigger because
you can also in trigger it from a,from an Instagram live, that first
(16:42):
comment is sent by Meta as well.
So there are that first commenthas to be quite specific in
the way this is set up as well.
But it's important to, to know thatyou can only send flows if people have
opted in and once they have opted in,you're only able to send them automations
for a period of 24 hours from themoment of their last touch in the bot.
(17:05):
If they have opted into a flow andsigned up for, a webinar, a discount
code, a lead magnet, whatever it is.
And then more than 24 hours has passed.
They've not been seen in your DMS.
And a few days later you think, Oh,I'd really like to send them that flow.
You can't because they'reout of that 24 hour window.
And the only way that you can get themback in is if they then opt in to another
(17:28):
automation, which is why it's importantto use these flows to build your email
list, or to gather their numbers soyou can retarget them via, WhatsApp
and SMS because you own your own emaillist, you can send them as many emails
as you want, whether you should or notobviously that has to be, consideration
for your marketing objectives.
But yes, that 24 hourwindow is super important.
(17:49):
And once it's over, youcan't retarget them.
Catherine Erdly (17:52):
Yeah, that's really interesting.
I think that's a good thing, to behonest, because it means that it keeps
you on the straight and narrow andit means that you're not going to be
spamming people who don't want it.
And for a consumer, it means you'renot going to get constantly bombarded.
Do you think that, are we seeingbig retail business issues
conversational marketing chatbots?
Yes.
Mel Eilers (18:10):
Yes, I think it's starting to, I think.
Yes.
I think there is an awful lot ofpotential there for some of them, for
retail in general, but also for biggerretailers, people who have the huge
followings to really, I've seen themdone really well on Instagram lives.
So Instagram live is a trigger.
(18:31):
So I've watched fashion brandsdo a half an hour Instagram live
of their latest autumn wintercollection, spring summer collection.
And they have shown off the lookswith the models on the live.
And within a few minutes of thelive, they have given a keyword,
which has given them a discount codetowards again, very similar to the
(18:51):
strategy I spoke about previously,where it's then given them the links.
To those products and like a discountcode that's valid for 24 hours.
And the keyword is pinnedat the top of the live.
So even if you can't stay for the wholehalf an hour, within a few minutes,
that keyword, you've seen some of theoutfits that they are launching and
(19:12):
because you have been on that live andyou've seen the keyword you've opted
in and you've received a keyword thatsmall segment of people is getting
first dibs on the new collection.
So yeah, depending on how you workit with your intended objectives,
but essentially only people thathad seen that live had that keyword,
therefore had that discount code.
Yeah, I've seen that theyhave worked really well.
(19:34):
You can literally see thecomments just going and going,
which is amazing to watch.
Catherine Erdly (19:39):
So, when it comes to the kinds of conversations that chatbot can
have, how would you kind of look at thatin terms of when you're setting up a flow?
What are kinds of things are youthinking that they should try and handle
and they shouldn't try and handle?
Mel Eilers (19:52):
You can use it in many ways.
You can use it, for marketing,you can use it for sales and
you can use it for support.
So I would imagine, retails as well,obviously get a lot of people coming
into their Facebook and Instagram DMs.
Now looking for help with order numbers.
I would imagine where is my order?
What are your shipping details?
How long is my ordergoing to take to arrive?
(20:13):
So there are variousthings that you can do.
Essentially, you need to look atyour DMs and decide what out of all
of this can we automate and whatactually needs a personal touch.
Because there is within many chatthere is a live chat system as well.
So if someone does come in to thebot and they have a more personal
question, like Where is my order?
(20:34):
I need to chase it up.
You can set the flows up so theyknow what that kind of help word is.
It might be help or it might be.
I have a question and that canautomate a quick automated reply
saying what is your question?
And then in the back end of many chat, youcan set it up so it can be sent to a live.
Chat agent and you can have severallive chat agents onto your account and
(20:57):
so they then know that the this personis waiting in the DMs for a response
to the question and that can all beorganized within the many chat platform.
How the live chat works, you don'thave to have all your employees
sitting there DMs going throughthem one by one, they will receive a
notification within the within many chat.
To deal with that morepersonalized question.
(21:20):
With regards to what kind ofconversations that you can have, AI is
starting to be a thing within chatbots.
If you upload the whole load ofinformation about your business,
people can be a lot more flexible onthe questions that they ask and AI
responds, whether that is somethingthat brands want to set up will probably
depend on, their feelings about AIand the kind of the touch that they
(21:45):
want to have with their consumers.
But yeah, there are manythings that they can do.
And if anyone was thinking aboutgetting started with many chat or
using the chatbots within theirInstagram DMs, I would say, look at
your marketing objectives and workwith those first before you expand.
into, the whole realm ofother stuff that can be done.
Catherine Erdly (22:08):
So start by thinking like, what's your key thing right here?
You want to grow sales is your number one
for most people.
Mel Eilers (22:19):
Organic reach and engagement through your stories and your posts,
whether that's to deliver discountcodes or, to send people a gallery of
products, um, think about it that way.
And then, look at the resultsthat you're getting and see
how you can expand it as well.
And if you are getting, if you aregetting a lot of questions in the DMS
about shipping, about delivery, about allthe kind of the backend stuff of sales,
(22:43):
then build out an automation, like afrequently asked questions flow, which
is easily accessible within the menus ofmany chat, because you can see menus, if
you're coming into the DMs and you havemany chat attached there are two kind of
menu options that consumers would see.
If they are completely new to your DMs, i.
e.
they have never messaged you before,you can have your conversation
(23:05):
starters on that first DM page.
Instead of seeing like a blank screen witha profile picture at the top, you can have
four conversation starters here and one ofthem could be frequently asked questions.
So that's an easy way to do that.
If they ask somebody who has beenin your DMs quite a bit, there is
a main menu choice that they canaccess on the top right hand side.
It looks like a little hamburger.
(23:26):
That's the main menu.
I think that's not specificallynot massively visible.
So I do try to end flows with saying,if we can help you at any other time,
do click on the main menu above.
And ask us a question.
So there are various ways that it canbe set up to encompass your needs,
whether that is sales, whether that ismarketing or whether that is more support.
Catherine Erdly (23:49):
Okay.
Yeah.
So don't try and run before you can walk.
Mel Eilers (23:53):
I think so.
I think so.
Yeah.
Start off with your main objectivesand see how you feel about that.
And then it can be absolutelyexpanded and grown into whatever
you, whatever task you need it to be.
Catherine Erdly (24:06):
Yeah.
And I suppose what we're really talkingabout, if you think about the question,
Small business owners always ask is,why is this worth my time or money?
It's something you've got to weigh up.
I suppose because going through DMsand customer service and interacting
is tricky, then if you've got this,it just is a bit of a peace of mind
that if somebody's looking for ananswer, there's a chat bot there that's
could at least give them a steer.
(24:26):
So they're not have a customer hanging.
Mel Eilers (24:30):
it's exactly that, especially for small businesses as well, but they're
putting the time and and the creativityinto creating that organic content.
You want to get traction from thatorganic content rather than just
letting it sit there and hopingthat people will go to your link in
bio in order to get whatever it is.
(24:51):
If there is simple ways that smallbusinesses can use chatbots in order
to get them more sales and leadsdirectly from their content, that
content is then working harder forthem than it is by just doing that.
Just putting the content out thereand hoping that, that somebody, takes
action on something and remembers togo to their website or remembers to go
(25:12):
to their link in bio, it's very directcall to action, do this and, take this
action to sign up for my email list toget this, product gallery into your DMS
to get the direct links to my website.
Catherine Erdly (25:25):
Do you think this is an opportunity to almost get
ahead of the curve a little bit?
I know it's hard to say, but like,how many people do you think are using
this kind of technology at the moment?
Mel Eilers (25:34):
It's interesting, actually, because many chat had their annual
conference last month, I think.
And I think in 2023, there wassomething like 100, 000 Instagram
accounts attached to many chat.
And when you consider that's on aglobal scale, that's not that many.
By 2024 that figure was up to 500, 000.
(25:58):
So they've had 5x growth in the last year.
And I certainly as someone who managedmanagers, managing automations, I have
seen a lot more people start to use it.
And even when they start to useit, I would say 90 percent of them
are bringing them into the DMS onlyto send them a link, which then
sends them out off the platform.
Again, there are actually very fewbrands Considering the amount of
(26:23):
Instagram accounts there are, who arebringing people into the DMs and getting
people to take action within the DMs.
So therefore effectively increasingtheir reach and engagement on platform
that, they're the ones getting thesales and the leads on platform
rather than either, doing nothing withautomations or just bringing them in
and then sending them out to the link.
(26:44):
So many chat is seeing phenomenalgrowth and I can only at the
moment see this Getting bigger.
So at the moment, I would saythere is a lot of space in the
DMS for people to be marketed to.
And if you think about it, I have got,goodness knows how many unread emails.
I don't have any unread DMS becausenot many people at the moment will
(27:08):
ignore a message in the DMS, especiallyif it's from a brand that they
follow and they're interested in.
Yeah, there is thinking about it that way.
You think there is somuch opportunity there.
And even if you just start to useit in a really simple way you should
start to see the benefits from it as
Catherine Erdly (27:26):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that was so interesting.
It's really, it's funny because I actuallyfirst started using many chat in 2019
when I was running a free challenge,plan your year challenge and I now run
inside the membership, but it was moreto engage people with the challenge
to say, Oh, I'm going to go live now.
And so it was sending peopleFacebook messenger, me messages,
(27:50):
and it's just really interesting.
So that was what, five years ago now?
And I've been using it in Instagram,probably, I don't know, on a basic
way, like two or three years.
But interesting to that,it's grown so fast.
I'm always a big fan of technology thatjust makes things a bit easier and simpler
and quicker for small business owners.
Mel Eilers (28:09):
Exactly the same.
And actually I was just thinkingabout another e commerce example
that wasn't one of mine, but it wasused as a case study, I think on
Catherine Erdly (28:18):
Yeah.
Mel Eilers (28:18):
like a ManyChat.
The lady in question, I think, wasa fashion brand again, and she had
wanted to reduce her reliance on adsduring Q4 because they're expensive.
Costs and competitioncan go through the roof.
And so she set about two months beforeprimetime Q4 for her, and I think
she was in the States, so she waslooking more about Thanksgiving time.
(28:38):
Definitely around that period.
And she basically used the twomonths before, to build her list
and she did it consistently.
And maybe there was a littlediscount code, et cetera, et cetera.
And then when it came to the black Fridayweekend, obviously the email list was
nurtured with whatever the offer was.
I don't know the specifics ofthat, but in that email, it also
(28:59):
said, keep an eye on our stories.
Over this weekend, because on one storythis weekend, there will be an extra
incentive to buy whatever the end productwas so that meant everybody was on the
email list, then went back onto Instagramwas watching the stories waiting for
this one story, because you can attachan alteration just to one specific story.
(29:21):
It doesn't have to be.
And once they saw that one specific story,they opted in and got the extra incentive
a discount code or whatever it was tohelp to enhance the original offer that
they had been delivered in the emails.
So it was almost like a full circle.
Marketing strategy.
And apart from building the DMsthe many chat flow, she didn't
(29:43):
spend any money on Facebook ads.
But it's, I was like, wow, thatis a phenomenal strategy, really
to do so well out of something.
Theory it's quite simple to,yeah, completely organic.
She had put the time into her organiccontent, which is, we all should be doing.
And, but she, the way that she broughtthem into the organic content, got
them onto the email list and thentold the email list to go back to
(30:06):
Instagram to get the extra incentive.
I was like, wow, that's really quite cool.
Catherine Erdly (30:10):
Yeah.
Love it.
Oh thank you so much, Mel.
This has been a reallyfascinating conversation.
Really enjoyed delving into this.
And if people want to know more about youand about your ManyChat teaching course
et cetera, then where can they find you?
Mel Eilers (30:24):
So they can find me on Instagram, which is a
socially underscore sound.
So socially sound on Instagram.
You can also find me on mywebsite, socially sound.
co.
uk.
And if they are interested in training,the next cohort is in January.
Do get in touch more than happyto chat through what what that is.
And yeah, so just come into my DINs andI will be happy to chat to you there.
(30:45):
Either,
Catherine Erdly (30:48):
there.
Mel Eilers (30:50):
either, yeah.
Catherine Erdly (30:54):
Thanks so much for tuning in.
Why not head over to ApplePodcasts and write us a review.
If you haven't done so already, it makessuch a huge difference in getting the
podcast out in front of more people.
And of course, if you like and subscribe,you'll be the first to know about
every new episode, which comes out ona Thursday morning, see you next week.
If you've ever commented on a post of mine and got
a link sent to you in your DMs, thenchances are you've interacted with
my Resilient Retail Club Instabot.
But what is an Instabot and how can itbe useful, particularly how can it be
useful for a product based business?
Hi, I'm Catherine Erdly.
I'm the host Of theresilient retail game plan.
(00:21):
I'm also a small business and retailexpert and the founder of the resilient
retail club, which is my membership groupand mastermind for product businesses.
You can find out more about everythingI offer at resilient retail club.
com.
Today, I'm talking to Mel Eilers,who's going to be talking to us
about the use cases for chatbots andhow they can help grow your sales.
(00:48):
Welcome to the Resilient Retail GamePlan, a podcast for anyone wanting to
start, grow or scale a profitable creativeproduct business with me, Catherine Erdly.
The Resilient Retail Game Plan isa podcast dedicated to one thing,
breaking down the concepts and toolsthat I've gathered from 20 years in
the retail industry and showing youhow you can use them in your business.
(01:11):
This is the real nuts and bolts ofrunning a successful product business,
broken down in an easy, accessible way.
This is not a podcast about learninghow to make your business look good.
It's the tools and techniques that willmake you and your business feel good.
Confidently plan, launch, and manageyour products, and feel in control of
(01:32):
your sales numbers and cash flow to helpyou build a resilient retail business.
Mel, thank you so much forjoining me today on the podcast.
Do you want to kick off by tellingeveryone about you and what you do?
Welcome back to the podcast, I should say.
Mel Eilers (01:54):
Yes, thanks for having me again.
So my name is Mel Eilers and Iessentially, help brands to personalize
their connection with followersthrough many chat automations helping
them to increase their organicreach and engagement, leading to
higher conversion rates througha more seamless customer journey.
Catherine Erdly (02:10):
Amazing.
So we're going to come into delveinto that in a lot more detail,
what that actually means, but justto give us a bit of background.
So what was it that kindof got you interested in?
So we talked about many chat,we're talking about chatbots.
So also known as conversational marketing.
So what was it that really got youinto this or interested in this area?
Hmm.
Mel Eilers (02:27):
I've working on the Meta platforms for quite some time now.
I started out in organic social mediamarketing, which is obviously quite
conversational, the social media side.
And then I retrained into Facebookads for e commerce businesses.
But what actually got me interested inwas actually myself commenting on somebody
else's Facebook post, and this was nowprobably about four years ago, and it
(02:52):
was to get a guide a free guide, a freePDF on something that I was interested
in, and I didn't really know that thesethings existed on the meta platforms.
Obviously they have quite some time,and I commented the keyword on a post,
and then the message came into mymessenger, I gave my name and my email,
and then the guide that I'd requested wasliterally in my email within 20 seconds.
(03:15):
And I was like, wow,what is this wizardry?
And then I went down a bit of a rabbithole with it, discovered many chats.
And that was just, thepivitol moment for me.
And I was like my God, this isso easy for brands to increase
their recent engagement throughtheir organic platforms.
To deliver whatever it is, whether it'sa lead magnet, whether it's a discount
(03:36):
code, it's so simple and it's fun aswell because the conversational side of
the chat bot is really fun to interactwith and that was what got me first into
it and I was like, this is so for me.
So that's when I introducedit to the business, which is a
three, about three years ago now.
Catherine Erdly (03:53):
Absolutely.
Yes.
You have worked with me on my manychart automations, which is great.
But let's talk aboutspecifically e commerce.
So e commerce chatbots, if someone'slistening to this and they're thinking,
okay, this sounds interesting, ormaybe they've commented on my post
or somebody else's post and had thatsome sort of interaction with the bot.
But maybe they're thinking,okay, but I can't quite see
(04:14):
how it works for my business.
Do you want to talk us throughsome e commerce examples?
Mel Eilers (04:20):
Sure, yeah, no problem.
So essentially, whenever you arebuilding out a chatbot strategy,
it's the same with your marketing,chat marketing is there to compliment
your existing marketing funnels.
It's not there to replace anything.
It's very much a a complimentarychannel and especially on Instagram
where they're getting, leads andsales through saying link in bio.
(04:41):
gives the customer an incrediblyconvoluted journey that does, take a
while to go to your link in bio to findthe right link, click on the right link
where they then go to a landing page.
They may or may not takeyour intended action.
You're actually asking theconsumer to do quite a lot.
So when you are planning yourstrategy, Really think about what
it is you need your business to do.
So for e-commerce that is to eitherget more eyes onto their website,
(05:05):
to their shop or it's to increasetheir email list, for example.
So what I always say to e-commerceretailers is the one flow you should
definitely set up would be veryreminiscent of the flow that they have
probably got on their website anyway,where it's sign up to my email list
and get, a 10 percent discount codeor something off your first order.
(05:26):
And that, that exists as a popup on many e-commerce websites.
So that is one flow that I woulddefinitely say, is worth doing.
Another one that I think worksreally well for e commerce businesses
especially if you are a brand where youget tagged a lot in stories, unboxing
videos, user generated content of themdoing a quick review or something.
(05:49):
And if your DMS are absolutely full ofpeople mentioning you in their story,
you can automate a reply to that.
That just quite simply can say somethinglike, thank you, just thank you for
the mention, appreciate it, which thenfor you as a brand saves the time for
you to go into the DMs because youknow that anyone sometimes any time
(06:14):
that someone is mentioning you in yourstory, They are automatically getting
some recognition and a note of thanks,which can help to build loyalty.
But equally, you as the brand are notin the DMs all the time, searching
for people who have mentioned youto try and say thank you, or at
least give them acknowledgementof the tag that they've given you.
Yeah, so really, yeah, there's afew things there is think of what
(06:37):
flows will actually complement yourbusiness and there are a few back end
flows like the story tag mentionedreply, which can easily help you
to save time in the DMS as well.
Catherine Erdly (06:48):
Yeah.
Okay.
That's really interesting.
Yeah.
So coming back to the email signup,that's a really fascinating one
because one of the things that I'malways conscious of and I often talk
to clients about is this idea about,we don't own our social audiences.
We're building our house onborrowed ground type thing.
Whereas if you've got their emailaddress, then that is much easier
(07:11):
to communicate directly with them.
And if your Instagram went downtomorrow, or who knows, I don't
know, Elon Musk buys it or something.
Doesn't mean crazy with it, thinkabout all those businesses that
were built on Twitter and like youwould then have that ability to
talk directly to your customers.
So one thing is that, relationshipbetween the size of your email list
(07:31):
and the size of your social following.
And it always working to convert socialfollowers to email list subscribers.
So it's interesting what you'resaying about using the chat bot for
that purpose, almost to automate,like comment, whatever, and get a
welcome code or sign up to our listor something along those lines.
Mel Eilers (07:52):
Yeah, definitely.
Especially at this time of yearwhere for, we're into Q4 now.
And, if those retailers are thinkingabout running any offers, et cetera, et
cetera, audience building ahead of thatis something that, is really important.
Because once the emails go outalongside the, complimentary organic
strategy, it's, if your list is biggerin theory, you know, you've got more
(08:13):
opportunity for those sales to come in.
And so by, promoting your list buildingflows on your organic stories or posts
and your reels during Q4 time can onlyhelp to build the audience for when your
offers are ready later in the month orChristmas or whenever that time will be.
(08:34):
So I think it's one of those andit's so easy to do through Instagram.
Rather than relying on them to come toyour website, or, it's easy to get them
to comment a word on a post, or to DMyou a word, or to reply to a story with
a word, that then brings them into thebot, gathers their name and their email,
(08:55):
and that connects into your CRM, andthen they're delivered, whatever it is
that they have signed up for, and itdoes make it, such a fun thing as well,
because for them, for the consumer, it'sa one to one interaction with the brand.
Yet for the brand it's still one to many.
So it's very much playing to thepersonalization of the customer journey,
(09:19):
which a lot of consumers are looking for.
Now, we're looking for thatpersonal touch with our brands
and the people that we buy from.
But equally for the brand, it'snot massively difficult to set
up, and once it's set up once it'sstill catering to the one to many
audience, but for the consumer, theexperience is a little bit different.
Catherine Erdly (09:37):
I see.
Yeah, very interesting.
And when you talk about platforms, soInstagram and Facebook, for sure, for many
chat, does it work on any other platforms?
Mel Eilers (09:47):
So Instagram and Facebook are the two main meta channels.
If you bring them in via Instagram orFacebook, you can then, depending on how
you build your flows, and the informationthat you want to gather, you can then
ask for a phone number, which then opensup the ability to use WhatsApp within
the ManyChat platform, or SMS, as well.
(10:09):
Many chat does have a native email system.
I always recommend as marketers that weshift that out to, so for e commerce,
that, there might be Clavio, Shopify,et cetera onto another email marketing
platform, but depending on the informationthat you are gathering within that bot,
if you do get that phone number, yes,you can use WhatsApp and you can use SMS
as well within the ManyChat platform.
Catherine Erdly (10:32):
Okay.
But TikTok, for example you can't.
Mel Eilers (10:35):
No, sadly not.
One day, hopefully, that would be nice.
Catherine Erdly (10:39):
I'm sure that'd be coming.
So what kind of results then do people seewhen you've seen people implement this?
What were some of the impacts?
Mel Eilers (10:47):
I can tell you about one of my core students on the last cohort was
a fashion stylist, but she also sellsthe clothes through her Shopify store.
And she was doing like a 30 days ofstyle challenge where every day she
was doing a real showing off an outfitand giving them a keyword to comment.
(11:08):
And they would comment the keyword theywould come into the DMS and it gathered
their name and their email address.
It gave them the links to that specificoutfit directing them straight to her
website, and she gave them a discountcode as well, like a time limited discount
code, so they would view the reel, theywould comment the keyword, they'd come
(11:30):
into the DMs, they would see those clothesagain, be able to directly link into her
website, and then they got the discountcode, I think it was 10% for use that day.
And she has seen phenomenalsuccess with that.
I was so pleased for her becauseshe was so happy as well.
But I think, one of her first comments,one of her first reels that she
did had two, 200 comments on it andgrowing, and obviously that's all
(11:53):
that's on the organic platform as well.
Knowing how the algorithm works when,you get the more engagement on your
ads, you get more reach as well.
So it was very much.
ticking a lot of boxes for her.
So yes, you can see somephenomenal results with chatbots.
Catherine Erdly (12:11):
Yeah, that's really fun.
Yeah I mean I definitely see that as wellwith the chatbot when it pops off and
people are commenting Because Instagramlikes comments and they like you to
not be linking outside the platform.
They like You'd be keepingpeople on the platform.
So the fact that, we've now switchedit so that I was sending people an
external link, which obviously witha shop, then it's useful to do that.
(12:33):
But, in this case, we're now ableto gather their email directly.
And also many chat also should say it'sa, as an approved partner of Instagram.
of Meta.
So it's not like you're doinganything that Meta is not happy with.
This is something thatthey approve this tool.
You're getting commentswhich the algorithm likes.
And it can be that fun interaction.
(12:54):
That's a brilliant idea.
So she was, she did that across 30 days.
And so she had these veryspecific targeted It's
something really nice, isn't it?
Because it's almost likeyour hand selecting it and
delivering it to these people.
Whereas, as you said, that feelslike a one to one interaction
from the business owner.
Mel Eilers (13:11):
Yes, very much so.
Catherine Erdly (13:12):
yeah.
What's your view on, I know we'vetalked about this before, but I'd
love to just hear you say makingit clear when it's the bot . Yeah.
Mel Eilers (13:19):
I think you do need to make it clear that it
is an automated conversation.
I think if you're in the digitalmarketing world, you're well
aware of automation and the thingsthat can be done with automation.
But if you've not experienced it beforeit can feel a bit weird and a bit
disjointed if you're not expecting it.
(13:40):
So I always say to make it clear inthe actual posts comment this keyword
To receive this or to sign up for thisand then invariably for most people,
I would recommend that in that firstmessage that they receive in the DMs,
it says, Hello, I am, you know, foryou, it's it will say Catherine's
instabot, you know, and then they knowthat they are talking to an automation,
(14:05):
but equally as well to keep those flowsrelatively short and to the point.
Chatbots can, you can design these flowsto talk about anything and for everything
for a long time, but essentially fromInstagram, you want to get them from A
to B quite quickly and quite succinctly.
And in a fun way, a fun and easy wayfor the consumer to enjoy and for you
(14:26):
to reach your intended objective and forthem to get what they want out of view
without having to go around the house.
It's for, you know, sit there thinking,okay, yeah, no, yeah, and taking
ages throughout the bot becausethat is not such a good experience.
Catherine Erdly (14:40):
No.
But that is fun though, to seesomething and comment a word.
I'm just thinking about, I don'tthink I've actually seen that.
But yeah, I think I'd like that.
You see a nice outfit and you commenta word and you get sent a link
that says, Hey, here's the outfit.
Look at this.
And blah, blah, blah.
And you can be like, Ooh.
Mel Eilers (14:55):
And that goes for anything in retail, doesn't it?
It's not only fashion, it could beyour new skincare range, or it could
be, a complementary range of homewaresthat complements a particular colour
of a room or something like that.
It's, it was, she was veryspecific in what she had.
It was like, skirt, jacket, shoes.
Here are the links.
Here's your code.
Go and buy it.
Yeah.
(15:16):
Yeah, so simple, but yet so effective.
Catherine Erdly (15:18):
Yeah.
Yeah, that is really fun.
And then also you mentionedabout things like reaching out
to people with a flow, but say toget people onto your email list.
So is that you can automatethings like, for example, when
you get a new follower, right?
So if someone follows you.
Oh, you
Mel Eilers (15:34):
can't actually, no, you can't actually, that is actually
against Meta's terms and conditions.
So just actually to briefly touchon compliance and this kind of ties
in with the fact that ManyChat is anapproved Facebook business partner.
And as we know, whenever you work throughFacebook's platforms, there are compliance
issues, which are there to protect notonly us as brands, but also consumers as
(15:58):
well, rightly and so when you do buildmany chat automations, it's important
to note that they are permission based.
So if someone just becomes a follower,you can't automate a reply to you because
they haven't given you their permission.
They haven't opted in for anything.
They've literally decided to follow you.
(16:21):
So it's only by someone commenting akeyword or by someone replying to a
story or mentioning your story thatyou can then send them an automation.
And that's and.
With regards to the posts and thereels and the live trigger because
you can also in trigger it from a,from an Instagram live, that first
(16:42):
comment is sent by Meta as well.
So there are that first commenthas to be quite specific in
the way this is set up as well.
But it's important to, to know thatyou can only send flows if people have
opted in and once they have opted in,you're only able to send them automations
for a period of 24 hours from themoment of their last touch in the bot.
(17:05):
If they have opted into a flow andsigned up for, a webinar, a discount
code, a lead magnet, whatever it is.
And then more than 24 hours has passed.
They've not been seen in your DMS.
And a few days later you think, Oh,I'd really like to send them that flow.
You can't because they'reout of that 24 hour window.
And the only way that you can get themback in is if they then opt in to another
(17:28):
automation, which is why it's importantto use these flows to build your email
list, or to gather their numbers soyou can retarget them via, WhatsApp
and SMS because you own your own emaillist, you can send them as many emails
as you want, whether you should or notobviously that has to be, consideration
for your marketing objectives.
But yes, that 24 hourwindow is super important.
(17:49):
And once it's over, youcan't retarget them.
Catherine Erdly (17:52):
Yeah, that's really interesting.
I think that's a good thing, to behonest, because it means that it keeps
you on the straight and narrow andit means that you're not going to be
spamming people who don't want it.
And for a consumer, it means you'renot going to get constantly bombarded.
Do you think that, are we seeingbig retail business issues
conversational marketing chatbots?
Yes.
Mel Eilers (18:10):
Yes, I think it's starting to, I think.
Yes.
I think there is an awful lot ofpotential there for some of them, for
retail in general, but also for biggerretailers, people who have the huge
followings to really, I've seen themdone really well on Instagram lives.
So Instagram live is a trigger.
(18:31):
So I've watched fashion brandsdo a half an hour Instagram live
of their latest autumn wintercollection, spring summer collection.
And they have shown off the lookswith the models on the live.
And within a few minutes of thelive, they have given a keyword,
which has given them a discount codetowards again, very similar to the
(18:51):
strategy I spoke about previously,where it's then given them the links.
To those products and like a discountcode that's valid for 24 hours.
And the keyword is pinnedat the top of the live.
So even if you can't stay for the wholehalf an hour, within a few minutes,
that keyword, you've seen some of theoutfits that they are launching and
(19:12):
because you have been on that live andyou've seen the keyword you've opted
in and you've received a keyword thatsmall segment of people is getting
first dibs on the new collection.
So yeah, depending on how you workit with your intended objectives,
but essentially only people thathad seen that live had that keyword,
therefore had that discount code.
Yeah, I've seen that theyhave worked really well.
(19:34):
You can literally see thecomments just going and going,
which is amazing to watch.
Catherine Erdly (19:39):
So, when it comes to the kinds of conversations that chatbot can
have, how would you kind of look at thatin terms of when you're setting up a flow?
What are kinds of things are youthinking that they should try and handle
and they shouldn't try and handle?
Mel Eilers (19:52):
You can use it in many ways.
You can use it, for marketing,you can use it for sales and
you can use it for support.
So I would imagine, retails as well,obviously get a lot of people coming
into their Facebook and Instagram DMs.
Now looking for help with order numbers.
I would imagine where is my order?
What are your shipping details?
How long is my ordergoing to take to arrive?
(20:13):
So there are variousthings that you can do.
Essentially, you need to look atyour DMs and decide what out of all
of this can we automate and whatactually needs a personal touch.
Because there is within many chatthere is a live chat system as well.
So if someone does come in to thebot and they have a more personal
question, like Where is my order?
(20:34):
I need to chase it up.
You can set the flows up so theyknow what that kind of help word is.
It might be help or it might be.
I have a question and that canautomate a quick automated reply
saying what is your question?
And then in the back end of many chat, youcan set it up so it can be sent to a live.
Chat agent and you can have severallive chat agents onto your account and
(20:57):
so they then know that the this personis waiting in the DMs for a response
to the question and that can all beorganized within the many chat platform.
How the live chat works, you don'thave to have all your employees
sitting there DMs going throughthem one by one, they will receive a
notification within the within many chat.
To deal with that morepersonalized question.
(21:20):
With regards to what kind ofconversations that you can have, AI is
starting to be a thing within chatbots.
If you upload the whole load ofinformation about your business,
people can be a lot more flexible onthe questions that they ask and AI
responds, whether that is somethingthat brands want to set up will probably
depend on, their feelings about AIand the kind of the touch that they
(21:45):
want to have with their consumers.
But yeah, there are manythings that they can do.
And if anyone was thinking aboutgetting started with many chat or
using the chatbots within theirInstagram DMs, I would say, look at
your marketing objectives and workwith those first before you expand.
into, the whole realm ofother stuff that can be done.
Catherine Erdly (22:08):
So start by thinking like, what's your key thing right here?
You want to grow sales is your number one
for most people.
Mel Eilers (22:19):
Organic reach and engagement through your stories and your posts,
whether that's to deliver discountcodes or, to send people a gallery of
products, um, think about it that way.
And then, look at the resultsthat you're getting and see
how you can expand it as well.
And if you are getting, if you aregetting a lot of questions in the DMS
about shipping, about delivery, about allthe kind of the backend stuff of sales,
(22:43):
then build out an automation, like afrequently asked questions flow, which
is easily accessible within the menus ofmany chat, because you can see menus, if
you're coming into the DMs and you havemany chat attached there are two kind of
menu options that consumers would see.
If they are completely new to your DMs, i.
e.
they have never messaged you before,you can have your conversation
(23:05):
starters on that first DM page.
Instead of seeing like a blank screen witha profile picture at the top, you can have
four conversation starters here and one ofthem could be frequently asked questions.
So that's an easy way to do that.
If they ask somebody who has beenin your DMs quite a bit, there is
a main menu choice that they canaccess on the top right hand side.
It looks like a little hamburger.
(23:26):
That's the main menu.
I think that's not specificallynot massively visible.
So I do try to end flows with saying,if we can help you at any other time,
do click on the main menu above.
And ask us a question.
So there are various ways that it canbe set up to encompass your needs,
whether that is sales, whether that ismarketing or whether that is more support.
Catherine Erdly (23:49):
Okay.
Yeah.
So don't try and run before you can walk.
Mel Eilers (23:53):
I think so.
I think so.
Yeah.
Start off with your main objectivesand see how you feel about that.
And then it can be absolutelyexpanded and grown into whatever
you, whatever task you need it to be.
Catherine Erdly (24:06):
Yeah.
And I suppose what we're really talkingabout, if you think about the question,
Small business owners always ask is,why is this worth my time or money?
It's something you've got to weigh up.
I suppose because going through DMsand customer service and interacting
is tricky, then if you've got this,it just is a bit of a peace of mind
that if somebody's looking for ananswer, there's a chat bot there that's
could at least give them a steer.
(24:26):
So they're not have a customer hanging.
Mel Eilers (24:30):
it's exactly that, especially for small businesses as well, but they're
putting the time and and the creativityinto creating that organic content.
You want to get traction from thatorganic content rather than just
letting it sit there and hopingthat people will go to your link in
bio in order to get whatever it is.
(24:51):
If there is simple ways that smallbusinesses can use chatbots in order
to get them more sales and leadsdirectly from their content, that
content is then working harder forthem than it is by just doing that.
Just putting the content out thereand hoping that, that somebody, takes
action on something and remembers togo to their website or remembers to go
(25:12):
to their link in bio, it's very directcall to action, do this and, take this
action to sign up for my email list toget this, product gallery into your DMS
to get the direct links to my website.
Catherine Erdly (25:25):
Do you think this is an opportunity to almost get
ahead of the curve a little bit?
I know it's hard to say, but like,how many people do you think are using
this kind of technology at the moment?
Mel Eilers (25:34):
It's interesting, actually, because many chat had their annual
conference last month, I think.
And I think in 2023, there wassomething like 100, 000 Instagram
accounts attached to many chat.
And when you consider that's on aglobal scale, that's not that many.
By 2024 that figure was up to 500, 000.
(25:58):
So they've had 5x growth in the last year.
And I certainly as someone who managedmanagers, managing automations, I have
seen a lot more people start to use it.
And even when they start to useit, I would say 90 percent of them
are bringing them into the DMS onlyto send them a link, which then
sends them out off the platform.
Again, there are actually very fewbrands Considering the amount of
(26:23):
Instagram accounts there are, who arebringing people into the DMs and getting
people to take action within the DMs.
So therefore effectively increasingtheir reach and engagement on platform
that, they're the ones getting thesales and the leads on platform
rather than either, doing nothing withautomations or just bringing them in
and then sending them out to the link.
(26:44):
So many chat is seeing phenomenalgrowth and I can only at the
moment see this Getting bigger.
So at the moment, I would saythere is a lot of space in the
DMS for people to be marketed to.
And if you think about it, I have got,goodness knows how many unread emails.
I don't have any unread DMS becausenot many people at the moment will
(27:08):
ignore a message in the DMS, especiallyif it's from a brand that they
follow and they're interested in.
Yeah, there is thinking about it that way.
You think there is somuch opportunity there.
And even if you just start to useit in a really simple way you should
start to see the benefits from it as
Catherine Erdly (27:26):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that was so interesting.
It's really, it's funny because I actuallyfirst started using many chat in 2019
when I was running a free challenge,plan your year challenge and I now run
inside the membership, but it was moreto engage people with the challenge
to say, Oh, I'm going to go live now.
And so it was sending peopleFacebook messenger, me messages,
(27:50):
and it's just really interesting.
So that was what, five years ago now?
And I've been using it in Instagram,probably, I don't know, on a basic
way, like two or three years.
But interesting to that,it's grown so fast.
I'm always a big fan of technology thatjust makes things a bit easier and simpler
and quicker for small business owners.
Mel Eilers (28:09):
Exactly the same.
And actually I was just thinkingabout another e commerce example
that wasn't one of mine, but it wasused as a case study, I think on
Catherine Erdly (28:18):
Yeah.
Mel Eilers (28:18):
like a ManyChat.
The lady in question, I think, wasa fashion brand again, and she had
wanted to reduce her reliance on adsduring Q4 because they're expensive.
Costs and competitioncan go through the roof.
And so she set about two months beforeprimetime Q4 for her, and I think
she was in the States, so she waslooking more about Thanksgiving time.
(28:38):
Definitely around that period.
And she basically used the twomonths before, to build her list
and she did it consistently.
And maybe there was a littlediscount code, et cetera, et cetera.
And then when it came to the black Fridayweekend, obviously the email list was
nurtured with whatever the offer was.
I don't know the specifics ofthat, but in that email, it also
(28:59):
said, keep an eye on our stories.
Over this weekend, because on one storythis weekend, there will be an extra
incentive to buy whatever the end productwas so that meant everybody was on the
email list, then went back onto Instagramwas watching the stories waiting for
this one story, because you can attachan alteration just to one specific story.
(29:21):
It doesn't have to be.
And once they saw that one specific story,they opted in and got the extra incentive
a discount code or whatever it was tohelp to enhance the original offer that
they had been delivered in the emails.
So it was almost like a full circle.
Marketing strategy.
And apart from building the DMsthe many chat flow, she didn't
(29:43):
spend any money on Facebook ads.
But it's, I was like, wow, thatis a phenomenal strategy, really
to do so well out of something.
Theory it's quite simple to,yeah, completely organic.
She had put the time into her organiccontent, which is, we all should be doing.
And, but she, the way that she broughtthem into the organic content, got
them onto the email list and thentold the email list to go back to
(30:06):
Instagram to get the extra incentive.
I was like, wow, that's really quite cool.
Catherine Erdly (30:10):
Yeah.
Love it.
Oh thank you so much, Mel.
This has been a reallyfascinating conversation.
Really enjoyed delving into this.
And if people want to know more about youand about your ManyChat teaching course
et cetera, then where can they find you?
Mel Eilers (30:24):
So they can find me on Instagram, which is a
socially underscore sound.
So socially sound on Instagram.
You can also find me on mywebsite, socially sound.
co.
uk.
And if they are interested in training,the next cohort is in January.
Do get in touch more than happyto chat through what what that is.
And yeah, so just come into my DINs andI will be happy to chat to you there.
(30:45):
Either,
Catherine Erdly (30:48):
there.
Mel Eilers (30:50):
either, yeah.
Catherine Erdly (30:54):
Thanks so much for tuning in.
Why not head over to ApplePodcasts and write us a review.
If you haven't done so already, it makessuch a huge difference in getting the
podcast out in front of more people.
And of course, if you like and subscribe,you'll be the first to know about
every new episode, which comes out ona Thursday morning, see you next week.
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