Guide on how to get started and build a chatbot (Examples of Chatbots Included)

In the article Using Chatbot in your Marketing Strategy” we discussed how to use chatbots in your Marketing Strategy and which benefits you could receive.

If you want to start building your own chatbot, please follow these guidelines, and you will have a functional chatbot ready in no time:
How to build chatbot

1. Set up the chatbot’s goal.

In order to build your chatbot, you need to have a clear vision of what customers and your team can expect from this new tool. A great place to start could be an internal discussion with your team about how a chatbot could save their time.
For instance, your chatbots could help achieve goals like:

  • Direct your visitor to informational resources:
    • Send them to White-papers, guides, pricing pages or other links.
  • Direct your visitor to the right person:
    • Using it as a “starter” for Live conversation with a live person via Slack integration.
    • Connect existing opportunities and customers to their salesperson or account manager.
    • Use it for customer support or to answer common questions.
  • Create an interactive quiz and follow-up based on choices (eg.. to help your team qualify leads quickly).
  • Survey customers and generate feedback for your teams.

2. Build your chatbot’s conversation tree.

Just after you've formulated a goal/plan, we recommend building a chatbot conversation tree to help visualise all the steps in your chatbot structure.
Using tools like Draw.io or Whimsical will help you build the chatbot structure quickly. With a visual representation, you can start discussing it with your team to get feedback and improve this first draft quickly.

3. Creating your chatbot.

When you have completed the steps above and have a plan for your chatbot, you can start creating it in Funnelbud (We also have a step by step guide that you can use).
If you're using a different chatbot provider consult their documentation for how to build a chatbot.

At this point, you’re probably asking “How long does it take to build a chatbot?”
This video will show you that it takes less than an hour to get started and create a simple chatbot in Funnelbud to guide visitors who are looking to find information about your pricing and services (as an example).

As with most things in Marketing Automation – we recommend starting by creating a simple chatbot first and then continuously improve your process by adding more actions and flow to the chatbot as new ideas come in. 

4. Thoroughly test your chatbot before releasing it publically.

It’s essential to test internally and make sure that chatbot works as expected - especially since chatbot is the tool for a face-to-face conversation with your customers.

Once built, share the chatbot with your team and ask them to check functionality, structure and look for bugs.
Be ready to receive a lot of new tips and suggestions! Fixing these now can save you public embarrassment and downtime in the future.

5. Promote your chatbot, so people know you have one.

As with other marketing tools, simply creating a chatbot and hoping for the best isn’t always enough.
The chatbot will only be successful when people find it and start using it.
So it’s essential to, be proactive in advertising your chatbots in different promotion channels:

  • Add the chatbot as an attractive support channel on your site, guides and customer onboarding docs.
  • Create a specific Landing page for people to get to know the chatbot.
  • Using a call-to-action on your website or blog, promoting the new chatbot.
  • Add a section to your Newsletters, promoting the “new, quick, always active new support channel” you’re offering.
  • Advertise on your social media channels.

6. Track the effectiveness of your bot.

Once the chatbot is live, it’s important to ask the question - is the chatbot working? 

The good news is that your FunnelBud chatbot comes with inbuilt reports that provide an at-a-glance view of all the site visitor interactions with your chatbots, as well as how those chatbots are achieving goals like converting contacts and eventually the revenue these leads generate.

We wanted to highlight an example from Gobius, who implemented a chatbot on their websites, and already it has generated 87 new leads through chatbot interaction during last 6 months.

Here is part of Gobius Chatbot's Report:

By the way, Gobius provides a unique, patented tank monitor solution Gobius System, that makes measurement of fluid very easy. Why not use the chatbot on their site to test it?

7. Continue improving and making your chatbot more effective.

Once your chatbot is live on your site, don't just stop there. Always look for other repetitive areas your teams are spending time on that can be automated and grow the capability of your chatbot.
You should continuously analyse your customer conversation, behaviour with the chatbot and always think about these questions:

  • Does chatbot really solve my client's problems?
  • Are there other problems I can solve with the chatbot?
  • What other methods can a chatbot use to save time for my team?

Every few months, spend some time doing a chatbot review and think about how you could make the chatbot even better.

Our FunnelBud Community is already using Chatbots to improve team productivity
(examples of Chatbots)

Some  of our clients are already using chatbots as effective new team members in daily routine: 

No matter the size of your team, or the industry you are in - chatbots could help you scale business, gain an edge on competitors and provide your customers with the incredible service they have always been looking for.

So, don’t lose the chance to welcome a new super-member to your team - Chatbot!

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About the Author

Marian Semchyshyn

Marian, Project manager at FunnelBud, enjoys investigating how new technologies could help clients increase effectiveness and productivity. In combination with Funnelbud Gold Certification and Chatbot's expert role in the FunnelBud, he is always trying to help clients to use the full potential of new features.

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