Seven years and billions of messages later, I’m happy to share that this vision came to life. Our journey has led us from a bare bones product on Telegram – a chatbot for building chatbots without an app or a website – to integrating with Facebook Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, SMS and building the leading and most powerful chat marketing platform in the world. From being rejected by 40 investors while trying to raise our seed round to raising an $18M Series A from Bessemer Venture Partners. From two co-founders with $0 revenue to a growing business with 150+ amazing, talented people across the US, UK, and Armenia.

All the credit for ManyChat’s accomplishments goes to the ManyChat dream team that has made this possible. Our team are the real heroes that put their blood, sweat, and tears to pioneer Messenger Marketing, Flow Builder, Hybrid Communication Model, Instagram DM Automation, WhatsApp Marketing, Unified Customer Profile, and other products/inventions, many of which have become industry standards.

I want to take a moment to thank the ManyChat team and the broader ManyChat community for their resilience, strength, and creativity that allowed them to adapt to a constantly changing environment and thrive over the years.

Today, with ManyChat being break-even, well-funded, and with our newest channels like Instagram and WhatsApp quickly growing, I want to take this opportunity to make a bigger announcement.

After 7 years of running the show, I’ve decided to pass the torch to Sunny Manivannan, who joins ManyChat as CEO to drive the future of our impact and success.

Sunny is the perfect leader for ManyChat given his 10+ years of B2B SaaS leadership experience, during which he has been a part of two IPOs, first at Coupa and more recently at Braze. Sunny has a proven track record of building high-performing, cohesive teams, and I know that he has the skills and experience necessary to accelerate ManyChat’s mission to transform how businesses and customers communicate around the world.

Here are a few words from Sunny:

“From the first time I met Mike, I knew that he and the team had built a special company. I am delighted to have the opportunity to help ManyChat achieve its full potential in the coming years, and I am excited for the work ahead”.

As for myself, I will continue to guide ManyChat both strategically as the Chairman of the Board and operationally as the Head of Product in order to ensure the success of this transition.

With the growing popularity and depth of usage of chat applications, our vision is stronger than ever and now is the perfect time to seize the next frontier of this opportunity. With our incredible team and Sunny leading the company, we will bring the power of chat not only to the next million SMBs but also to the biggest international brands making billions of customer conversations more interactive, engaging, and fun.

I raise this glass to ManyChat’s success!

Thank you,

Mike Yan

The post Important Announcement from Mike Yan appeared first on Manychat Blog.

Product 

We launched several new features and released multiple product updates:

Instagram DM Automation launch

Right around our 5th birthday, we launched Instagram DM Automation; all of us at ManyChat were (and still are) incredibly excited to add this critical channel to the Chat Marketing revolution!

Some of IG Automation’s critical features include:

• Flow Builder: Customize text, media, and destination URLs (such as a website) and instantly launch chat experiences, all without writing any code.
• Keywords: Trigger messages, entire conversations, and business automations if an Instagram (IG) user messages you with a specific, pre-determined keyword or phrase.
• Comments Automation: Also known as Comments Growth Tool (CGT), this feature can trigger three distinct automations at once: 1) reply to a user’s Instagram Post Comment with a comment, 2) like or “heart” a user’s comment, and 3) send the user who commented a message.
• Story Mentions Trigger: Instantly reply to everyone who mentions your brand’s handle/account name in a Story.
• Conversation Starter: These handy pre-filled buttons are presented to new customers when they message a business account that kick-starts a discussion on that topic. 

Other features include capturing user information, offering live chat, and automated replies.

Introduced the Recurring Notification

In partnership with Meta, we introduced a new way to re-engage your customers on Messenger: The Recurring Notification.

The Recurring Notification allows your business to re-engage your customers after 24 hours of last interaction, with prior permission, on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

If you are familiar with the Broadcasting tool with ManyChat, the Recurring Notification expands on this tool by creating an experience that your customers are in control over. 

Launched WhatsApp Chat Marketing Automation

The new channel offering allows businesses and brands who use WhatsApp to communicate with customers and automate their marketing and customer support.  

WhatsApp has more than 2 billion users worldwide, and over 175 million people message a business using WhatsApp per day. With WhatsApp’s user base continuing to grow, specifically in key geographies such as Europe, South America, and Asia, it’s critical for businesses to communicate with their consumers conveniently. 

With WhatsApp, businesses can now easily automate campaigns to drive sales, answer common questions, or quickly escalate customers to live chat agents. 

Case studies

At ManyChat, we are always interested in hearing about how our customers use automation and their results. Here are some case studies we put together this year with help from our users: 

The Dream Workshop Increased Leads by 2X

The Dream Workshop is the leading mattress retailer in Costa Rica. The company utilized Facebook and Instagram for 2+ years to find new customers and engage with existing ones. 

As messaging became more popular, The Dream Workshop shifted towards Messenger ad campaigns to streamline communication and increase lead volume. The mattress retailer wanted to automate the follow-up process from its Instagram ads but couldn’t do it through Facebook’s Ad Manager. 

The Dream Workshop partnered with Trilce Jirón Garro, founder of TBS Marketing, to run a visual JSON ad and Reels campaign paired with workflows from Instagram Automation by ManyChat that would solve their follow-up challenge. 

Their combined efforts generated 2X leads on Instagram and a 50% conversion rate on incoming messages while minimizing acquisition costs by 30% between November 2021 and December 2021.

Read more about how the Dream Workshop used ManyChat to increase leads.

Astral Restaurant Systems Produced $52,000 in Extra Sales

Operating out of the United States and Mexico, Astral Restaurant Systems helps restaurants build a customer database and implements strategies to increase views on social platforms, repeat customers, order size, and overall return on investment (ROI). 

When asked how he could have such success with his company, Gonzalez’s answer was simple: ManyChat. 

“We incorporate ManyChat analytics with our customer data, captured through QR codes and interactive chat prompts, funneled into live dashboards,” he said. “We integrated ManyChat with Google Sheets to build our dashboards.”

Read more about how Astral Restaurant Systems produced $52,000 in sales using ManyChat.

Astral Restaurant Systems grew its subscriber list by 23,000

Astral Restaurant Systems has experienced great success after implementing ManyChat into its business strategy.

Digging deeper into Gonzalez’s success, we wanted to know a few best practices he feels helped him achieve this fantastic return. Here are seven tips that you can implement in your strategy.

Tip 1: Experiment with different growth tools

Tip 2: Create a user-friendly chatbot

Tip 3: Use Facebook Custom Audience action for retargeting

Tip 4: Collect as much data as possible

Tip 5: Create multiple interactions with the same customer across all platforms.

Tip 6: Utilize the bot fields

Tip 7: Use the randomizer to do split tests

Read more about how Astral Restaurant Systems grew its subscriber list by 23,000. 

Outreach 

This year, we were excited to host and attend events, speak with other experts in the industry, and meet ManyChat users. 

Instagram Summit 

ManyChat hosted Instagram Summit—a two-day event with industry experts sharing the latest expertise in all things Instagram. Take a look at the Instagram Summit Highlights.

Opened an Office in Armenia

Although our headquarters are in San Francisco, CA, we opened a new R&D office in Yerevan, Armenia.

The Yerevan office comprises 100+ engineering, product management, data analytics, customer support specialists, and people operations functions.

“The new R&D office is an important milestone for building an international distributed product development process. We are very grateful to the Armenian hospitality and will be glad to have the best specialists on our team,” said Dmitry Kushnikov, ManyChat CTO.

Team meetups 

To celebrate our 6th year, many of us got together for some team bonding in the US and overseas. 

Thank you for being a part of our year. ManyChat has grown so much, and we have more to look forward to that we can’t wait to share with you!

The post ManyChat Celebrates its 6th Year! appeared first on Manychat Blog.

Yerevan office consists of 100+ engineering, product management, data analytics, customer support specialists, and people operations functions.

ManyChat is excited to have an opportunity of connecting with the local IT community and is planning to continue growing the team of top talents to support the company’s growth and create more value for our customers.

“The new R&D office is an important milestone for building an international distributed product development process. We are very grateful to the Armenian hospitality and will be glad to have the best specialists on our team.”, said Dmitry Kushnikov, ManyChat CTO.

If you are interested in the roles available in Yerevan, please contact us via email at hr@manychat.com.

The post ManyChat is Opening a New Office in Armenia appeared first on Manychat Blog.

Two weeks ago, on March 1, we made our position clear and announced a relief program for all our Ukranian customers and made ManyChat Pro free for all accounts based in Ukraine. Today we expand our relief efforts and extend the relief program until the end of this year (December 31, 2022).

Moreover, in an effort to support the broader cause beyond our customers, ManyChat is donating 100% of Instagram Summit ticket sales revenue to charity organizations to help relieve the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.

Lastly, we are suspending all operations and new sales in Russia. As a US company with headquarters in San Francisco and tens of thousands of customers from 170+ countries around the world, we will continue monitoring the situation and complying with all laws, regulations and sanctions.

We pray for peace.

With hope,

ManyChat Team

The post ManyChat’s Update on Ukraine appeared first on Manychat Blog.

With this mission in mind, ManyChat evolved from a single channel Messenger Marketing platform to a multi-channel Chat Marketing machine with SMS and Email introduction last year. We’re also excited to be bringing you WhatsApp & Instagram in the near future.

We’ve released several new features, including new Growth Tools to help you acquire more customers, ManyChat Analytics to help you track and understand what’s working, several new integrations that connect ManyChat to the tools you use every day, and much more.

Today, more than 1.8 million businesses across 190 countries engage and support billions of customer conversations in real-time and at scale, making us the #1 Chat Marketing platform in the world.

We’ve come a long way.

But with all growth, change is inevitable. We want to continue to keep delivering a world-class Chat Marketing platform to our customers, and to achieve this; we’ve made some updates to our Free plan model, which will help us better align the plans to the value that they each deliver.

What’s changing in the Free plan?

Effective December 10, 2020, new Free accounts will have a limit of 1,000 contacts, and the Facebook Ads integration and Paid Messages will become Pro-only features.

Once a Free account reaches 1,000 contacts, Growth Tools will remain active, but Live Chat, Broadcasts, and all automation on your bot will pause. This action means that you can continue to grow your contact list, but you cannot send messages to contacts without a Pro account. All subscribed, unsubscribed, and deleted contacts will be counted towards this limit with the updated Free plan.

Update: Effective February 11, 2021, Message Tags and One-Time Notifications (OTNs) will become Pro-only features. Free plan accounts will not be able to use these features to send messages to contacts outside of the 24-hour interaction window. In an effort to keep the Messenger ecosystem healthy for all, this change was made due to a high volume of Facebook Page blocks coming from Free users due to the misuse of these features.

There will be no changes to the ManyChat Pro plan. Unsubscribed or deleted contacts are not counted towards your contact limit under ManyChat Pro.

Check out our pricing page for more details.

How do these changes affect me?

These changes to the Free plan are effective immediately for any new Free accounts created. 

If you already have an active Free account with over 1,000 contacts, you’ll have until January 31, 2021, to plan and execute how to move forward. You will receive an email and notification in ManyChat with details on your next steps and options.

What are my options?

If you’ve been an active user of ManyChat with our Free plan, you’ll know the value that it brings to help you connect with your customers to grow your business. 

While our Free plan remains an incredible value at no cost, we’ve seen what Pro’s benefits can achieve for our customers.  By going Pro, you have unlimited access to advanced features to help you grow, nurture, and connect with your customers in a whole new way. 

With access to SMS and email, you can shift to an omnichannel marketing strategy and reach your customer on the right channel, with the right message. And you’re not going to want to miss out when WhatsApp and Instagram integrations arrive on ManyChat. 

Along with access to SMS and email, Pro users get:

• Click-to-Messenger ads to send leads from Facebook to your Messenger bot
• Unlimited Growth Tools and unlimited contacts to grow your audience
• ManyChat Analytics dashboards to help you track and understand what works best
• Integrations to PayPal, Stripe, Shopify, Google Sheets, Klaviyo, MailChimp, ActiveCampaign, and HubSpot to save you time
• Unlimited tags and custom fields to better segment and build personalized campaigns

… just to name a few.

We understand that these updates to our plans can feel complicated. Our goal is always to ensure that our customers are using a top-notch product and they feel supported throughout these changes.

The ManyChat Facebook community is a great place to have a discussion, or you can always go to manychat.com/support with any questions.

Learn more about ManyChat Pro features.

The post ManyChat Free Plan Updates appeared first on Manychat Blog.

This year’s BFCM brought in some impressive numbers as well. According to Adobe, consumers spent $9 billion on Black Friday, up 21.6% from last year, and $10.8 billion on Cyber Monday, making it the biggest day ever for U.S. eCommerce sales.

Shopify merchants alone sold over $5.1 billion worth of product over the holiday weekend, according to the company’s CEO, Tobi Lutke. 

Turns out social distancing and stay-at-home mandates just make people want to buy more stuff. Who knew, right?

As our word for 2020 is “eCommerce,” we wanted to wrap up the final month with this Year in Review post and kick off the New Year in style! 2021, we thought you’d never come.

Part 1: Fighting COVID-19

Epic partnerships that shared timely, relevant COVID-19 updates with the public 

ManyChat was excited and proud to partner with the CDC this year to create their COVID-19 Messenger experience. The bot’s goal was to provide updates, explain COVID symptoms and what to do if you have them, and share education and tips to reduce the virus’s spread.

Read more about the collaboration.

ManyChat also partnered with Messenger from Facebook to connect the public to government and United Nations health agencies supporting COVID-19 response efforts. 

These organizations used a unique template created by ManyChat to disseminate timely and accurate information to people worldwide. They offered people quick responses to common questions and alleviated stress on federal and local call centers by speeding up response times. 

You can check out the COVID-19 Messenger Templates or read more about this collaboration. 

Part 2: Customer stats

A chatty group of marketers

We burned the midnight oil to transform ManyChat from a Messenger marketing tool to a full-on marketing automation platform that includes SMS and email. The response was overwhelmingly positive, and we’ll continue to work to meet your needs in 2021 and beyond. 

Messenger

• Over 1.8 million businesses are now using ManyChat in 190 countries! 
• ManyChat marketers have over 8.5 million active conversations each day through Facebook Messenger
• They also see CTR rates that are 130% higher than the industry average
• The average conversation length with a ManyChat-powered Facebook Messenger chatbot is 10 minutes

SMS

• SMS usage has grown 230% MoM since its launch in 2019
• ManyChat customers enjoy mobile message CTR rates that are 40% higher than the industry average
• The average conversation consists of five back-and-forth messages 
• At least one-third of recipients respond to a ManyChat SMS in under an hour

Email

• Email usage has grown 144% MoM since its launch in 2019
• ManyChat customers achieve open rates that are 66% higher than the industry average
• ManyChat customers see CTR rates that are 250% higher than the industry average

Abandoned carts

• ManyChat delivers a 58% lift in recovering abandoned carts versus the industry average
• ManyChat marketers recover an average of $154 per cart

Part 3: A new CMO

A warm welcome to our new Chief Marketing Officer, Dorian Quispe

In May, we were super excited to announce that Dorian Quispe, former CMO of Legal Zoom, was joining the team! Dorian brings over 20 years of marketing experience—from building entire marketing departments to setting the brand vision and executing omnichannel campaigns—to the ManyChat table.

Thanks for leading the way, Dorian! We’re happy to have you on board. Learn more about Dorian in our press release.

Part 4: Betas for everybody

Two launches everyone was waiting for…WhatsApp and Instagram! 

You read that right: 2020 was the year BOTH Instagram and WhatsApp opened their API for Messenger bots. And guess who was first up to run beta tests on how to use Chat Marketing with these popular apps? We’ll give you one guess… 

ManyChat beta tests are live now, which means we’ll have updates for you in the near future. 

Until then, get up to speed with our resources chronicling these partnerships:

• Join the ManyChat for Instagram Waitlist (Opens in Messenger)
• See What ManyChat for Instagram is All About
• A Quick Guide to WhatsApp Business 

Part 5: Product updates

C-c-c-changesss, turn, and face the new features!

One of the most anticipated events during Conversations is our new product feature announcements. Each year, we roll out a list of updates based on ManyChat user feedback and trends. 

So, Johnny, what’s behind door number three? Here are some key features we released in 2020:

• Conversation starters: Take advantage of introductory statements used to start conversations with users. 
• Flexible Facebook Page connections: Build and test your bots, then connect them to the correct page when you’re ready to launch. Flows, custom fields, tags—everything stays in place. 
• Comments Growth Tool “like and comment” feature: Now you can automatically like and reply to people who leave comments on your posts! (Trust us, it’s a game-changer.)
• Smart Delay improvements: You can now set a Smart Delay for seconds, a specific date, and even allow contacts to choose their own reminder dates for a message. 

These are only a few of the product updates from this year. Peep the full list! 

But wait, there’s more? Of course! We also upgraded a handful of ManyChat feature’s from a new email builder to MMS, dynamic product catalogs, and our enhanced Shopify integration. Check them out below:

• Announcing Our Enhanced Integration for Your Shopify Store
• Discover Our Email Builder Updates to Boost Engagement
• ManyChat SMS Now Has Multimedia Messaging
• Update Photos Across Flows with Dynamic Images

Part 6: The ManyChat App Store launch

Ecommerce plug-ins to improve your Chat Marketing and grow your business

The ManyChat App Store opens a new realm of possibilities for ManyChat users. Gone are the days of confusing, technical app installs. (Noice!) You can now choose from a solid list of apps that you can add to your account in just three clicks. 

Take a look for yourself! We currently have 28 apps, including Seller.Tools, Botsheets, Walletly, and more. 

Explore the ManyChat App Store now and start building out your bot! 

Part 7: Conversations 2020 (The Virtual Edition)

Thriving in the mobile era with ManyChat

If you joined us this year for Conversations 2020, you’re well on your way to a successful 2021. (Even if you didn’t, it’s ok, we’ll drop the recap links below!) We were lucky to have top speakers from around the world share their most valuable Chat Marketing tips and tricks to drive sales, including:

• Stan Chudnovsky, VP of Messenger at Facebook
• Daymond John, Founder and CEO of FUBU
• Neil Patel, Co-founder of Neil Patel Digital
• Molly Pittman, CEO at SmartMarketer

And more!

Want the inside scoop? Check out the following articles to see what you missed (and don’t forget to register for next year’s Conversations 2021):

1. Mike Yan Conversations 2020 Keynote: How to Thrive in a Mobile Era
2. 10 Key Takeaways from Conversations 2020
3. Learnings from Day One
4. The Best Bits from Day Two
5. Day Three Highlights

And that’s all they wrote, folks

WOO. 2020 was, ahem, quite a year (to say the least). Before we go, let’s recap Mike Yan’s new rules of marketing:

1. Start with mobile
2. Embrace an omnichannel strategy
3. Focus on chat

Automate. Optimize. Repeat. See you in 2021!

Don’t have ManyChat just yet? Join us today and market your business better in 2020. Start free now.

The post The ManyChat Year in Review (2020 Edition) appeared first on Manychat Blog.

WhatsApp has chosen to partner with ManyChat on account of its proven track record of enabling peer-to-business communications at scale, globally. Almost 2 million businesses across 190 countries use ManyChat, which powers 8.5 million active conversations per day on Messenger by Facebook. ManyChat is well poised to handle WhatsApp’s massive scale and reach in 180 countries.

Using ManyChat will make it easy for brands to reach WhatsApp’s 2 billion users while automating campaigns to drive sales, answer common questions, or quickly escalate customers to live chat agents.

“We’re excited to partner with WhatsApp. ManyChat is leading the way in helping businesses create meaningful relationships with their customers, and we’re just thrilled to offer our customers the ability to grow their business and customer relationships with WhatsApp,” says Dorian Quispe, CMO of ManyChat.

Both ManyChat and WhatsApp aim to help businesses create meaningful relationships with their customers that result in personalized and comfortable conversations. The ManyChat platform has proven to drive vibrant peer-to-business dialogue: almost half of the recipients of a ManyChat-powered Facebook message respond in less than an hour, 90% of recipients respond within a day and the average conversation lasts 10 minutes.

In the eCommerce space, ManyChat has helped businesses generate incremental sales, especially in recovering abandoned carts. Brands using ManyChat recover an average of $154 per cart. As WhatsApp expands its capabilities, ManyChat is excited to continue to help retailers grow.

ManyChat customers can also manage both Messenger and WhatsApp customer conversation channels from one central platform, leading to increased operational efficiency, higher customer satisfaction, and sales.

Click here to get notified about WhatsApp news from ManyChat. 

About ManyChat

ManyChat is a global chatbot automation platform that combines the power of Facebook Messenger, SMS, and email to help almost 2 million businesses across 190 countries engage and support billions of their customers in real-time and at scale. ManyChat was founded in 2015 and is based in San Francisco with venture funding from Bessemer Venture Partners. Learn more at www.manychat.com or follow the company on Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, or Twitter.

Media Contact
Fara Rosenzweig
Head of Content, ManyChat
Fara@manychat.com

The post It’s Here! ManyChat Partners With WhatsApp appeared first on Manychat Blog.

• How to prevent getting sick
• COVID-19 symptoms and what to do if you experience them
• Guidance on face coverings and how to make your own
• How to disinfect your home and frequently touched surfaces 

“CDC appreciates technology companies’ support to amplify COVID-19 prevention messages nationwide,” said Carol Y. Crawford, Chief of the Digital Media Branch at CDC. “During these challenging times, it is meaningful that CDC recommendations are shared through a wide variety of communication channels.”

This comes on the heels of ManyChat’s partnership with Messenger to help scale COVID-19 efforts. Since inception, the conversations have helped many people navigate through COVID-19. 

“ManyChat is humbled to be a part of this initiative with CDC, and we are incredibly thankful for the tireless work they are doing to help stop the spread,” said Mike Yan, ManyChat CEO and Co-Founder. “We are hopeful that the ongoing education efforts will save lives and help flatten the curve.” 

For more information click here, or to access the CDC’s COVID-19 Messenger experience, click here.  

About ManyChat

ManyChat helps eCommerce, marketing agencies, and businesses grow by combining Messenger, SMS, and email to engage with customers through the right channel at the right time. With billions of people across the world now using Chat to communicate, over one million businesses use ManyChat’s Chat Marketing platform to instantly connect with customers. ManyChat was founded in 2015 and is based in San Francisco with venture funding from Bessemer Venture Partners. Learn more at www.manychat.com or follow the company on Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, or Twitter.

Disclaimer: CDC’s use of ManyChat does not imply the endorsement of ManyChat or its services.

Media Contact
Fara Rosenzweig
Head of Content, ManyChat
Fara@manychat.com

The post ManyChat Partners with CDC to Educate Public about COVID-19 appeared first on Manychat Blog.

Quispe brings more than 20 years of marketing experience, nine of which were spent at LegalZoom, where he was progressively promoted. He built the firm’s digital marketing department and was the company’s first Chief Digital Officer and acting Chief Marketing Officer, leading a multifunctional team of more than 50 people. Quispe also improved the legal technology company’s operational efficiencies and grew its valuation five-fold. In addition, he set the team’s strategic direction and drove the execution of creative, data-driven multi-channel marketing campaigns to maximize revenue and enhance the customer experience. 

“At ManyChat, we understand the essential role marketing plays in every firm’s growth, and we are thrilled to welcome Dorian to the team,” said Mike Yan, ManyChat CEO and Co-Founder. “Not only was Dorian’s experience a perfect fit, but he was also a cultural fit, and we know he’ll elevate our marketing efforts.” 

Prior to joining LegalZoom, Quispe was the director of marketing for LowerMyBills which was eventually acquired by Experian. He also worked at Yahoo! for six years. He started his career in digital marketing and has since expanded across other marketing disciplines. Quispe received his Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from California State University Northridge. 

“I’m fueled by ManyChat’s mission of helping businesses grow by building meaningful relationships with their customers, and I’m excited about achieving the firm’s next phase of success,” said Quispe. “I truly believe that great marketing is a team sport, and I’m privileged to have the opportunity to help lead this talented organization.” 

About ManyChat

ManyChat helps eCommerce, marketing agencies, and businesses grow by combining Facebook Messenger, SMS, and email to engage with customers through the right channel at the right time. With billions of people across the world now using Chat to communicate, over one million businesses use ManyChat’s Chat Marketing platform to instantly connect with customers. ManyChat was founded in 2015 and is based in San Francisco with venture funding from Bessemer Venture Partners. Learn more at www.manychat.com or follow the company on Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, or Twitter.

Media Contact
Fara Rosenzweig
Head of Content, ManyChat
Fara@manychat.com

The post ManyChat Hires Dorian Quispe as Chief Marketing Officer appeared first on Manychat Blog.