In 2019, we hosted the first annual ManyChat Awards, and this year we continued the tradition, albeit virtually, to recognize the innovation and inspiration of our agency partners. 

We handed out six awards across five categories (yes, there was a tie!), and we’re excited to introduce you to the 2020 ManyChat Award winners.

Watch Our 2020 Winners’ Acceptance Speeches

Top ManyChat Developer Award 

This is the first year we’ve presented this award. The Many Award for the top ManyChat developer honors the hard work and innovation our developer partners put into creating apps to integrate ManyChat with robust tools that help users grow their business, boost revenue, and more.

The Many Award for Top ManyChat Developer 2020: Seller Tools

Emerging Agency Award 

This is the second year we’ve had the category for the Emerging Agency Award. This award honors agencies who joined ManyChat within the past year. To select the winner, we looked at a combination of successful Pro bots, overall accounts, and professional appearance.

It was too difficult choosing just one emerging agency, so we picked two winners.

The Many Award Emerging Agency Award 2020: Bold City Bots and DM Digital

Top-Performing eCommerce Bot

As one of our fastest-growing segments, eCommerce bots offer and there are so many creative ways to utilize ManyChat to drive more conversions and facilitate more exciting conversations. This year, that honor went to the Australian streetwear brand, Culture Kings.

The Many Award Top-Performing eCommerce Bot 2020: Culture Kings 

Top-Performing Agency

Our top-performing agency displays overall excellence when it comes to running a successful business, as well as building high-performance chatbots to drive more meaningful conversations with customers.

Top-performing agencies also hone their craft, as well as strive for innovation and train other marketers and their clients in the field of Chat Marketing. This year, AGM Marketing is the recipient of this award.

The Many Award Top-Performing Agency 2020: AGM Marketing 

ManyChat Community Award

The Community Award is the only community-voted category in this list. It honors those who not only serve businesses across a wide range of verticals and use cases, but those who demonstrate platform expertise and technological advancement. They are willing to help others advance in the Chat Marketing space and are advocates for lifelong learning.

The Many Community Award 2020: Kelly Noble Mirabella of Stellar Media Marketing

Thank you to  our winners and to those talented agencies that submitted an application this year. We’re excited to see all of the interesting ways our agency partners use ManyChat to advance their Chat Marketing goals.

Interested in becoming a ManyChat Agency Partner?

The post Conversations 2020: Meet the Many Awards Winners appeared first on Manychat Blog.

Take a peek at our top takeaways from Day Three of Conversations 2020.

Neil Patel: The Future of Digital Marketing. It’s Not What You Think

Neil Patel kicked off the day with a comprehensive breakdown of how we can adapt to marketing’s rapid evolution. He also brought some great advice on how to leverage these trends for your business today. 

Top trends Neil discussed: 

• There are over one billion blogs on the internet, one blog for every seven people. Do we really need more blogs out there? 
• By the end of 2020, experts believe nearly 50% of internet searches will be conducted by voice. 
• According to research from Neil Patel Digital, marketers are investing the most money in Google ads and Facebook ads. 
• Blogging and SEO are still leading ways for potential customers to learn about your brand and drive conversions. 
• Employing user metrics can help inform your SEO and paid ads strategy to better engage customers, which will improve your business’s conversion rate.
• Leveraging omnichannel marketing enables you to interact with your customers more frequently on the channels they prefer, helping you build more meaningful relationships. 
• Using push notifications in addition to email marketing, Facebook Messenger chatbots, SMS, and WhatsApp in your Chat Marketing strategy can help lower your cost per acquisition (CPA) and increase qualified traffic and sales. 

Kelly Noble Mirabella: 10X Your Facebook Lives with Chatbots

Next up, Kelly Mirabella of Baby Got Bot dropped some major knowledge bombs on hacking the Facebook algorithm and securing more distribution and engagement for your Facebook Live media. She also taught us, step-by-step, how to build tried-and-true bot flows that will net you more organic views, likes, shares, and comments!

Kelly shared her Live Broadcast formula with us:

1. Registration. To bump up those initial views on your Facebook Live, create a registration bot to notify people when you go live.
2. Thanks for sharing. Ask people to share your event to kick off the algorithm before you even go live. 
3. Comment during the live event. Use the Comments Growth Tool to engage with people during your broadcast. 
4. Deliver an offer. Create an irresistible offer and ask people to share your live event to get access to the promotion. 

She also offered some tips and insights on executing a Facebook Live strategy:

• Facebook only allows a small test audience to see your organic content at first. If this group doesn’t engage with the content (like it, share it, comment on it, etc.), it signals to Facebook that the content is unappealing, and they won’t distribute it further. 
• When running a Facebook Live event, you want to get people into the session, but also convince them to engage and stick around. If you succeed in doing this, the Facebook algorithm will pick up on these signals and show your content to additional interested people. 
• Use ManyChat’s Messenger Ref URL to get registrants to sign up in your ManyChat bot. If your audience is new to Messenger or less than tech-savvy, set expectations up front and tell them they’ll end up registering in Messenger. 
• Always use short copy and thank people when they share your live event. Never leave your audience hanging in your Messenger bot. 
• As a marketer, always be thinking ahead about how you can get people to engage. 
• Use sponsored messages to promote your live event. Kelly recently acquired over 400 opt-ins for around $5. 

Jeffrey Brogger: 3 Simple Steps to Build a Scalable Real Estate Chat Agency

We’re seeing a significant shift in real estate—just ask Jeffrey Brogger of Steezy.Digital, an expert on the subject. Real estate marketing is becoming more conversational; in fact, Jeffrey thinks, “buying a home should be as easy as texting a friend.” 

He walks us through the exact chatbot funnel he used with ManyChat to generate 12x ROAS for a real estate client. 

The top insights he shared:

• Don’t try to do everything for everyone. Each industry has its own language and issues. It’s impossible to scale when every new client needs a full-scale chatbot build. 
• When you choose a niche, build one template to use for the entire industry, and tweak small things for each client. This will save you time and money.
• Aspiring marketers looking to break into an industry should consider real estate. There are nearly two million active real estate licenses in the United States alone and six million active licenses worldwide. In 2019, eager buyers snapped up over five million homes in the United States. 
• There are 100,000 real estate brokerages operating in the US. Seeing as the typical realtor is a 55-year-old white female, many will need help taking advantage of new technology. 
• Automate and scale your agency by using templates, plugging into world-class systems that can be duplicated and easily scaled. 

For more information about Jeff’s system, check out his real estate case study on the ManyChat blog. 

Mackensie Liberman: The Ultimate Chatbot Blueprint to Build Your List and Maximize Your Reach in 2020 and Beyond

The Queen of Chatbots and ManyChat veteran Mackensie Liberman hit the digital stage with inspiring Chat Marketing tutorials. Her recommendations ranged from improving bot engagement to building strategies around the Facebook Messenger policy.  She also divulged a simple chatbot funnel any business can use to drive more sales. 

Here are the stages of her chatbot blueprint:

1. Beginning stage. Drive traffic into your bot from your website using Growth Tools, emails, Comment Growth Tools, ads, and QR codes for in-person interactions. Use lead magnets like offers, quizzes, giveaways, and challenges to entice people into Messenger.
2. Middle stage. Encourage users who are within the 24-hour engagement window to converse with your bot so you can collect emails and phone numbers for future communication. Then use one-time notifications to sustain an engaging (and compliant!) conversation. 
3. End stage. What’s your ultimate call to action? Determine what you want subscribers to do, and reverse engineer your funnel starting from the end. 

She also described how to use the ManyChat Pixel to fire off conversations in Messenger after a website conversion. Pretty awesome insights, Mackensie! 

Troy Johnston: How Amazon Sellers Leverage Chatbots to Generate 8 Figures in Revenue

Ever wonder how the top 1% on Amazon use Chat Marketing? We did! Fortunately for us, Troy Johnston of Seller.Tools used his time to show us, step-by-step, how top Amazon earners are using ManyChat today. 

Here are the key areas he recommends focusing on to maximize results in your Amazon store:

1. Rankings and reviews. When it comes to the 80/20 of Amazon success, you want to zero in on the two “R’s”: rankings and reviews. Rankings increase traffic; reviews and social proof help with conversions on your Amazon product page. 
2. Sales velocity. The greater your sales on Amazon, the higher you’ll rank. You want to build a customer journey to generate sales quickly and legitimately for specific keywords to improve ranking and conversions. But how do you accomplish this with so much competition?
   • Part 1: Promote an offer. What are customers eligible for? Most of the time, you can use a 100% rebate to encourage a sale. 
   • Part 2: Direct a purchase. Troy recommends a “keyword-optimized sale”: giving your customer a keyword to type into Amazon and instructing them to buy your product directly from the ensuing search results.
   • Part 3: Fulfill rebate. After a customer takes advantage of your offer, fulfill their rebate with a Visa gift card. 
3. Automate the process. Use one of Seller.Tools’ ManyChat templates to automate the rebate process in your Amazon store.

He also shared how using ManyChat as the gateway into your customer journey is essential. Collect customer information like email, phone number, etc., then you can guide users outside the bot onto your other sales channels to promote your offer and start the rebate process. 

Rupert Samuel:  Unlocking Mobile Wallet: The Secret Notification Channel to Take Your Chat Marketing to the Next Level

If you’re a fan of using the mobile wallet to bypass the 24-hour messaging rule and drive sales, you’d have loved Rupert Samuel’s talk. He shared insider tips for clever mobile wallet strategies that boost sales and reward loyal customers, all using his app, Walletly. 

Check out his trade secrets and information:

• Over 2.1 billion global consumers use the mobile wallet as of 2019; 24% of them use it daily. 
• People use mobile wallets because they are contactless and fast. Global spending is expected to reach $14 trillion by 2022.
• Most mobile wallets come pre-installed on smartphones (think, Samsung Pay, Apple Wallet, G Pay, etc.). You don’t have to ask customers to download any new apps.   
• Approximately 84% of mobile wallet use cases are from offline businesses, such as gyms, restaurants, hotels, hairdressers, and spas. Some generate over 11,000% ROAS by sending mobile wallet notifications and digital cards. 
• Combining the Walletly app and ManyChat help advertisers achieve two things: (1) you can reach customers on their preferred channel, and (2) you can trigger an emotional response from customers with personalized passes, loyalty cards, and more. 

The big takeaway from Rupert’s talk? Marketers who send notifications and passes through the mobile wallet will make out big in the  coming years. You can bypass messaging restrictions, create beautiful, personalized digital passes, and meet consumers on a channel where they are active and comfortable engaging with your business. 

Paul Baron: How to Boost Your Tribe of Nano Influencers

The world of influencers has changed significantly over the past few years. You’ve probably heard terms like micro influencers, mega influencers, celebrity influencers— but what the heck are nano influencers? 

According to Paul Baron of Chat Marketing University, they are the secret to growing your tribe of loyal and engaged audiences. 

He explained that “nano influencers” are Instagram users with between 500 and 10,000 followers. They typically have more intimate audiences that align with your target market. 

Paul also shared his framework for building a nano influencer program for your business:

1. Customize the program so it aligns with your brand. Identify your ideal customers and find out where they hang out. Set up tiers, costs, contracts, obligations, and product packages. 
2. Promote the program. Explain the program and the benefits your influencers will receive and use Messenger to process applications as a time-saving measure. 
3. Build an active community. This is the secret sauce that makes the program work! Keep engaging with your community across different channels to maintain and grow it over time. 
4. Post user-generated content. Create a feed filled with lifestyle photos from your customers. This form of social proof can foster trust with potential customers and help drive sales.

Nano influencers provide powerful and prolific social proof. They are everyday people who fill the role of the “trusted friend” voice on social media. If you can build an army of these brand ambassadors to promote your products, you’re in good shape for sustainable business growth!

Amberlea Henriques: Paid Performance: How to Turn Conversations into Cash

Closing out Day Three was Amberlea Henriques of AdSocial. She took the digital stage by storm with a full breakdown of how to accelerate the success of your paid campaigns using chat. Even better? Her tips are relevant for every industry and ad objective.

Her top tips are:

1. Research. See what your competitors are doing and use it as a jumping-off point before launching a paid campaign! Check out Facebook’s Ad Library to analyze the copy and creatives your competition uses to target your customers’ demographic—then do it better. 
2. Boost your Relevance Score. The Facebook algorithm takes three things into account when deciding which ads to display: (1) bid amount, (2) estimated engagement rate, and (3) ad quality. Check your Ad Relevance Diagnostics in your Facebook Ads Manager account to see how your campaigns are performing.
3. Split test your campaigns at the ad level. Test different copy, images, and videos. See which ad is the stand-out winner and turn off the underperforming ones. Then bump up the winner’s budget to drive more engagement and conversions, which, in turn, can boost your Relevance Score. It’s a virtuous cycle!
4. Increase your top performing ads’ reach with your bot. As you drive paid traffic to your ManyChat bot, give subscribers the option to share your ad on their Facebook page to get more views and increased post engagement for free.
5. Add cost per prospect into your reporting. With click-to-Messenger ads, you can determine how much you spent to acquire each prospect by using the following formula:

Cost per prospect = (Ad spend amount) / (Number of new subscribers)

And that’s all she wrote!

Thank you for joining us this year at Conversations 2020! And a MASSIVE thank you to all of our partners, sponsors, speakers, crew, and the participants who made this year possible. Don’t forget to check out everything else we learned on Day One and Day Two.

We hope to see you all again at Conversations 2021, in sunny San Diego, California!

Want to join us for Conversations 2021? Click below to get on the waitlist!

Note: Above link opens in Facebook Messenger.

The post Conversations 2020 Day Three Highlights appeared first on Manychat Blog.

Each of our all-star speakers gave away their customer-first business knowledge in spades; every session delivered scads of on-point marketing insights, from dissecting customer pain points to creating relevant and appealing content.

Don’t sweat it if you weren’t able to attend all the sessions. We compiled some of our favorite “aha!” moments and hit-the-ground-running strategies from Conversations Day Two. 

Billy Gene: How Do You Make a Million Dollars From a Facebook Ad?

Billy Gene is renowned as the master marketing showman, always reminding us that “the middle will put you out of business, and boring will put you out of business.”

He acknowledged that there’s a lion (not elephant) in the room: COVID-19. If you’re worried about selling your product, take heart, because according to Billy, the best time to sell is now. 

“When there is less competition (on Facebook), it’s more affordable. So, right now is the right time to sell,” he said.

His number one tip? An easy way to reach someone when they’re always happy to hear from you is…on their birthday!

Run a birthday campaign (yes, this information is available in the detailed targeting section of Facebook ads).  This type of campaign works for any business, and it will probably cost you between one and 10 cents to show an ad to someone on their birthday.

Pair this ad with ManyChat to deliver a special offer coupon.

Anyone can run a birthday campaign like this and start getting leads today.

Natasha Takahashi: ManyChat Mastery: The Expert Framework to Build a Chatbot From Scratch

After analyzing over 10 million messages, School of Bots co-founder Natasha Takahashi used that data to devise six levels of Chat Marketing.

Her advanced workshop took us through the six stages of her expert framework, which promises to deliver a results-first chatbot. Here are the six steps:

1. Autoresponder strategy (aka the bare minimum)
2. Notification strategy (embrace personalization—you’re notifying a singular person, not a group)
3. Funnel strategy (essentially a sales funnel)
4. Contextual funnel strategy 
5. AI-powered strategy
6. Omnichannel strategy

To begin implementing her framework, Natasha encourages you to identify your top one or two funnels (what sales metric can the chatbot help boost first?), and accumulate all the assets you can from your brand, even if they’re not campaign specific.

She also stressed the need for personalization every step of the way.

Jasmine Star: 3 Powerful Secrets to Build Your Brand and Accelerate Your Growth

Photographer and business strategist Jasmine Star took us back to the basics of finding, nurturing, and converting more ideal clients.

Her top tips to accomplish this?

• Create an ideal client profile
• Create value-driven marketing content that empowers or helps customers, or diminishes fear 

Customers like to interact with people, things, and businesses that resonate with them on a personal level and make them feel understood. Creating valuable content will position you as a professional who can help solve their problems.

It’s important to have a clear-cut marketing strategy that defines how and when to approach the people you’re trying to attract. For example, don’t hit moms up first thing in the morning—they don’t have time!

Here’s how Jasmine recommends creating valuable content:

• Think of your ideal client like he/she is a real person
• Ask yourself if your content will help empower or help them, or diminish fear for them 
• Remember that your content is not about solving your problems; it’s about solving theirs

Keep in mind that you’re playing the long game; on average, it takes about four and a half months to convert a customer.

Bot Blondes: How to Turn $500 into a Six-Figure Chat Marketing Agency

Bot Blondes—Angela Allan, Lauren Petrullo, and Trilce Jiron Garro—took a deep dive into the nitty-gritty of building a successful Chat Marketing agency.

Elaborating on Jasmine Star’s fundamental concept of “understanding your customer,” the Bot Blondes encouraged us to fully define  our ideal clients,  establishing their values, income, hobbies, education level, and pain points. 

They also dished out strategies for finding clients “like a boss” (yes, it involves creating valuable content and educating prospects), and how to identify bad clients.

The blondes delivered on what the title promised: If you start today with just $500, here’s what to do next to build your agency:

1. Gather case studies (do one chatbot project for free to beef up your portfolio)
2. Talk to a lawyer (if you don’t know anything about contracts or business law, many lawyers offer free 30-minute consultations)
3. Start improving your skills to become a trusted marketing professional (check out Kelly Noble Mirabella’s YouTube channel for some expert tips on how to get started)

Michelle Barnum Smith: 3 Amazon Chat Strategies to Dominate Q4

The queen of Amazon chatbots and Amazon Chatbot Strategies trailblazer Michelle Barnum Smith provided all the essential tactics you need to position your Amazon listings for Q4:

• Do your keyword research and search for keywords with low competition and high volume
• Look for halo effect and gift keyword opportunities
• Conduct a Reverse-ASIN lookup for your listings to determine the keywords for which you’re already ranking 
• Zero in on keywords with the highest search volume

She also took us behind the scenes of one of her successful holiday harvesting campaigns (which aimed to secure more video reviews), which landed her client 50 additional reviews! 

Jessika Phillips: How to Capture Attention, Amplify Your Message & Keep Your Audience Coming Back for More

As NOW Marketing Group President, Jessika has pioneered #RelationshipMarketing, which helps turn followers into fans, clients into advocates, community members into collaborators, and transform your team into evangelists. 

She delivered insights to help shift our marketing mindset from “buying to belonging.” This strategy aims to encourage your target audience to support and engage with your brand to boost ROI.

“Stop counting likes, and start focusing on conversations,” she said.

Jessika attributes her success to her revolutionary CARE framework: 

1. Capture attention. Know your audience and make them the hero.
2. Articulate your message. Prioritize consistency and clarity.
3. Build relationships. Encourage personalized one-on-one conversations that include video and audio.
4. Experience. Ask for follow-ups and feedback to improve the customer experience.

Molly Mahoney: Keep the Conversations Going with Live Video Bots

In her session, Molly Mahoney, the brussels sprout and live video queen, served up her “Map to Millions” video formula: Confidence, content, connections, and conversions.

She introduced us to her #Quesadillaofawesome, which uses her SAAVE formula to ensure your videos will stand out from your competitors’ content: 

S – Skillset
A – Appearance
A – Activities
V – Values
E – what you like to Eat

Molly piques people’s interest by including polarizing food, like brussels sprouts (which she loves), as conversation starters for her social media posts.

She also gave us the blueprint for live videos that convert (which she then pairs with a Messenger chatbot to boost conversions).

Videos that convert know:

• your brand
• your ideal client
• their problems
• the solutions to their problems, and 
• their objections to purchasing

Matt Leitz: Advanced Lessons from ManyBot: Behind the Scenes of ManyChat’s Own Bot

BotBuilders.com CEO Matt Leitz took us under the hood of ManyChat’s very own bot. Going step by step, he showed us the five main areas the chatbot was designed to help:

• Reducing support tickets 
• Increasing bot engagement  
• Educating existing members
• Solving language confusion
• Improving bot stickiness

Matt discovered that knowledge quizzes were a fun way to educate existing members about products and services. Plus, you can tag users for sales or support follow-up, and they have the option to “pick up where they left off.”

His efforts resulted in more than 80% of quiz participants taking the bot course or signing up for ManyChat.

Matt ended his session with three recommendations for building a successful bot:

• Map out a plan before you build
• Always make your flows modular
• Build it out one flow at a time 

Fara Rosenzweig, Jessika Phillips, Kristi Jackson, Anna Tutckaia, and Anna Wiggins: Chat Marketing Women Who Rock 

These five bold and daring women shared some powerful tips for females looking to advance in tech:

• Be fearless and take risks; the only person blocking you from your goals is you
• Don’t be afraid to try something new, ask questions, be curious, and learn from failures
• Use technology and tools to help you automate the work you can, allowing you to focus on what you do best
• Surround yourself with support

Apps in Action: Meet Our Developers & How to Build an App Workshop with Michael Brant, Vadim Ciobanu, Troy Johnston, Paul de Lange, and Yana Mazo

During this workshop, the developers built an integration between ManyChat and Active Campaign using our new developer tools. They also walked us through new additions to the new ManyChat App Store, including a new webinar registration app and the Send SMS app, which is useful for bot builders who live in countries that don’t yet have the ManyChat native SMS feature. (This means you can now send SMS messages to your subscribers living all over the world.)

The ManyChat dev team demonstrated the power of Botsheets using tools, templates, and actions, through which bot makers can quickly make dynamic requests when building a bot.

They dug into the Seller Tools feature, educating us about creating real Amazon orders for customers through automation in ManyChat. With Seller Tools, you can set up special deals for your top customers, share complimentary products after purchase, and even create five-star quality customer service for users.

Wow! So much knowledge jam-packed into one day

Day Two revealed that for a business to thrive—even during a pandemic—it’s essential to focus on customer desires and what they truly need from you. Your goal is to help them, and providing this assistance through meaningful one-on-one conversations will pay dividends.

It’s what’s needed now more than ever.

Check out everything we learned on Day One.

Want to join us for Conversations 2021? Click below to get on the waitlist!

Note: Above link opens in Facebook Messenger.

The post Conversations 2020 Day Two: The Best Bits appeared first on Manychat Blog.

ManyChat built the CDC Messenger bot to educate the public about COVID-19, and our annual Conversations conference went 100% virtual for the first time. The pandemic affected more than just our lives; digital adoption accelerated like never before. 

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said it best: “We’ve seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months.”

We are collectively experiencing this shift.

During his keynote, “Chat Marketing: How to Thrive in the Mobile Era,” ManyChat CEO Mike Yan boldly announced that “mobile has eaten the world.”

Mike delved into ManyChat’s progress, the pandemic’s impact, the future of Chat Marketing, and, of course, the hotly anticipated feature updates, including the exciting news that the WhatsApp integration is on the roadmap for Q4 (closed beta).

Watch Mike’s Keynote

While the experience may have been different this year (usually we’re all in a large conference room cheering together at the end of the keynote), one thing is for certain: using ManyChat for your omnichannel marketing campaigns is the number one way to fuel your empire in 2020, and beyond.

Be sure to join the #ManyChallenge! We can’t wait to see the ways you’re using our new features, including the new email builder and the exciting integrations from the ManyChat App Store.

And don’t forget the new rules of marketing:

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

Automate. Optimize. Repeat.

Want to join us for Conversations 2021? Click below to get on the waitlist!

Note: Above link opens in Facebook Messenger.

The post Mike Yan Conversations 2020 Keynote: How to Thrive in the Mobile Era appeared first on Manychat Blog.

ManyChat is renowned for listening to our community and releasing the product features they’ve been asking for. To that end, this year, the ManyChat team developed a purpose-built feedback platform in just two days so our valued users could add their requested features, and others could up-vote their favorites.

Watch ManyChat CEO Mike Yan’s full keynote right now to discover what ManyChat has been working on in 2020, and why we believe the future is mobile.

Let’s dive into the hotly anticipated product features you’ve been waiting for:

1. Conversation starters

People don’t know what “Get Started” means, so we changed that feature to “Conversation Starters”: introductory statements used to initiate a conversation with a customer. These statements can be anything from FAQs your bots continually answer to an inviting greeting. Conversation Starters are easy to use, too. Go to Settings, type in your questions, connect them to existing flows or build a new flow, and you’re done!

2. Undo / Redo

If you’re working on your flows and you (or your cat) accidentally deletes part of the flow, don’t panic! You now have the option to click a handy “Undo” button that works for all the ManyChat functions.

3. Folders for Custom Fields

Our new folder feature allows you to organize your custom fields in a similar way to your flows, keeping everything neat and orderly.

4. Hide Accounts

If you’re managing multiple accounts, it can be overwhelming to see all of them at once in the sidebar. You now have the ability to hide multiple accounts, giving you a cleaner, more organized interface. Don’t worry: You’ll still have access to all of your accounts in two easy clicks!

5. Pinned Accounts

Annoyed when you have to scroll through the sidebar to find accounts you regularly access? Now you can pin multiple accounts to the top of your sidebar so you can immediately open them.

6. Flexible Facebook Page Connection

We’ve made it easy to build and test your chatbots, then connect them to the relevant page when you’re ready. In just a few clicks, you can now create your chatbot, try it on your test page, disconnect it, then reconnect it to the page on which you want the chatbot to live. Everything—flows, custom fields, tags, etc.— will stay in its place.

7. SMS & Email Wallet

You can now add funds for one-time payments and automatic refills. This way, you’ll always be in control of your budget, and your SMS and email campaigns will run without a hitch. You can even top up an account instantly and set it to auto-refill when it hits a certain amount to avoid countless invoices, and you can control your daily limits. Current Pro accounts get 10,000 free SMS messages to test this new feature (valid until December 31, 2020, for US numbers and Conversations 2020 attendees only.) Learn more here.

8. Mobile App: Contacts and Education

The ManyChat app is a CRM in your pocket. You can take your subscribers with you wherever you go, and send Messenger messages and emails straight from the app. Check out the support for Smart Segments at the top, and explore the Education tab. Technology changes rapidly, so use it daily to further your Chat Marketing knowledge and ensure you remain a lifelong learner.

9. Dynamic Menu

Use the dynamic menu to personalize the experience for your new leads as well as existing customers. Our new feature allows you to tailor the main menu items for each audience to guarantee relevance.

10. Comments Growth Tool: Like and Comment Feature

We added a new feature to the Comments Growth Tool, which is one of our most popular Growth Tools., You can now automatically like and reply to people who leave comments on your page, which will help increase your messages’ open rates. 

All you have to do is turn on the “Like” button/setting, set the reply you’d like, and hit publish.

11. Smart Delay in Seconds

Say good-bye to the tricky workaround: You can now set a smart delay for seconds, where previously it was only available in minutes or hours.

12. Smart Delay for Dates

You now have the ability to set a smart delay for a specific date. For example, say you’re running a Halloween special. Customers can register in your bot for the sale; then, you can set a smart delay for October 31st at 9AM. This way, no matter when they were added into the flow, everyone will continue the flow on the same day.

13. Dynamic Date Smart Delay

Enhancing your control over ManyChat’s smart delays means you’ll always deliver the right message at the right time. With our new feature, you can now set a dynamic date smart delay that allows your subscribers to choose their own reminder date.

14. User Input Expiration Time

You can now change ManyChat’s default 24-hour reply period, which determines how long a user will remain there. Setting the expiration time will give you more control over your bots. And who wouldn’t want that?

15. Optimized UX

Enjoy a more streamlined, crisp platform experience without any drastic changes. 

16. Facebook Shops Integration 

Facebook Shops Messaging permits ManyChat users with a Facebook Shop to chat with shoppers about specific products, helping to drive product sales. When a Facebook Shops customer asks a business a question, the bot can easily understand the question’s context and will respond accordingly. 

This feature helps eCommerce businesses understand which products a customer is referring to in the messages they send to a company. You can also insert specific products from your Facebook Shops catalog into Messenger from the Live Chat module.  

Furthermore, your business can also automate responses to frequently asked product questions like “How will this fit a Nike size 8?” or “Does this come in green?” You can direct Shops customers to ManyChat live chat and suggest alternative or complementary products within Messenger for upsell or cross-sell opportunities.

17. ManyChat App Store

Our new app store opens a new realm of possibilities for ManyChat users. You no longer need technical knowledge to find and install apps, as they are now integrated into the ManyChat platform. Three clicks are all it takes: Simply go to the ManyChat App Store, find the app, and install it! We’re launching with 15+ public apps, including Seller.Tools, Botsheets, Walletly, and Send SMS.

18. Custom “From” Address for Email & New Email Trigger: When Opened

Take advantage of ManyChat Email’s 98% delivery rate by creating a custom “from” address. In addition, our new email trigger allows you to create an action that’s prompted by a user opening your message.

19. New Email Builder

Hit the “Edit Email Design” button, and you’ll get a new page within Flow Builder that offers additional mobile-first options for email customization. Current Pro accounts get 100,000 free emails (valid until December 31, 2020. Available in the US for Conversations 2020 attendees only.) 

20. WhatsApp Beta

This year, we are commencing work on our WhatsApp integration, and plan to start with a handful of clients in Q4 for the closed beta.

Time to take the #ManyChallenge 

Embrace omnichannel marketing this season. To join us (and the Chat revolution), take these steps:

1. Make a decision. Kick off your commitment by determining how you want to use these features.
2. Make a plan. Omnichannel marketing requires more than a “can-do” attitude. Create a plan for when you will start your omnichannel marketing activities and implement your campaign, then add a follow-up reminder as a backup. 
3. Take action. Once you’ve reached your start date, take action! You’ve got everything you need: the platform, free SMS, and free email. You can do this. 

Share your #ManyChallenge pledge with us right now on social media. Learn more here.

Ready to test out these new features and updates?

The post Drop the Mic: Conversations 2020 Product Updates appeared first on Manychat Blog.

That’s why we’re giving away 10,000 free SMS and 100,000 free Emails to active Pro users when you join the #ManyChallenge and seize the holiday season! 

You read that right.  

ManyChat is challenging YOU to take advantage of free SMS and Email messages to try an omnichannel approach to your marketing strategy this holiday season.

Drive more sales and engage more customers by going omnichannel with Messenger, SMS, and Email to reach customers on the right channel, at the right time — at no cost to you.

Got growth? SMS and Email are the newest interactive ways to engage with your customers. They’re also growing at an explosive rate. 

ManyChat’s SMS channel has grown 6x since last year alone, with millions of text messages being sent monthly. Our Email channel has been even hotter, with 11x growth in emails sent monthly and more than 20x growth in email subscribers so far in 2020.

We’re not done growing, and neither are you. At ManyChat, we want to enable businesses like yours to grow like never before by taking advantage of everything omnichannel marketing has to offer.  

What are you waiting for? The holidays are just around the corner! Give your business the gift of growth. 

Don’t miss your chance to send 10K free SMS and 100K free Email by joining the #ManyChallenge today!

Share Your Success Stories

We always love to hear from you to learn how you’re using ManyChat to grow your business.

For the #ManyChallenge, we encourage you to share your success stories through your social media accounts and in the ManyChat Facebook Community. Exchange ideas and inspire other members of our growing community to start their journeys towards omnichannel marketing success. 

We’ll feature a few of our favorite #ManyChallenge posts on our blog and in the community. Don’t be shy!

The #ManyChallenge Promotion Details

What are we giving away?

ManyChat is giving away 10K free SMS to all Pro accounts with US or Canada phone numbers and 100K free Emails to all Pro accounts worldwide.

Pro accounts need to be active on October 6, 2020 in order to be eligible for these credits. If you’re an active Pro account user but do not have your SMS or Email channels enabled, your credits will appear once you opt-in to the promotion and enable those channels (SMS channels will need a valid US or Canada phone number).

Does this promotion expire?

Yes. All free SMS and Email credits will expire at 11:59PM on December, 31, 2020.

Don’t wait until the last minute to get started on your omnichannel journey — the holidays will be here before you know it.

How do I get my free SMS and Email?

1. Enable SMS and Email channels for active Pro accounts
2. Click ‘Get Free SMS & Email Now’ to access promotion landing page
3. Verify your eligible active Pro accounts 
4. Accept the Terms & Conditions
5. Get started on your omnichannel journey!

Disclaimer: This information is provided for educational purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal advice. Please always consult your own attorney before engaging in text marketing.

Terms and Conditions for the ManyChallenge, as governed by ManyChat’s Terms of Service:

• 10,000 free SMS credits and 100,000 free Email credits per eligible Pro account.
• All promotional SMS and Email credits received through the ManyChallenge will expire at 11:59 PM PST on December 31, 2020.
• The respective Pro account must be active on October 6, 2020, in order to be eligible to receive free credits in the ManyChallenge.
• Free SMS and Email credits can only be applied to each eligible Pro account once for the duration of the promotion.
• SMS credits are available to active Pro accounts with US and Canada phone numbers only. New US and Canada phone numbers that are enabled on active Pro accounts during the promotion will be eligible to receive SMS credits.
• Email credits are available to active Pro accounts worldwide.
• Eligible Pro account users must opt-in for the challenge and enable the SMS and Email channels on their Pro account to receive free credits in the ManyChallenge.
• ManyChat, Inc. reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to modify these Terms & Conditions to cancel, modify, terminate or suspend the ManyChallenge.

The post Join the #ManyChallenge and Get 10K SMS and 100K Email Free appeared first on Manychat Blog.

Conversations 2020 delivers an unbelievable value to agencies, offering a carefully curated agenda that showcases success stories and use cases, as well as insider knowledge that isn’t found anywhere else.

Conversations is known for providing little-known industry strategies and tactics to help build a six-figure agency and helps agency owners go from good marketers to sought-after experts, leapfrogging over competitors.

The agenda includes sessions handpicked for agency owners who:

• Don’t know a thing about running a Chat Marketing agency.
• Have made some good chatbots, but are ready to level up their strategy.
• Are somewhere in “limbo” with their agency and are looking for a way to outsmart the competition with a new marketing service. 

If you’re still not convinced, here are the top three reasons you need to attend Conversations 2020.

Reason no. 1: The blueprint to scale your agency

At Conversations, you’ll discover the action plan you need to scale your agency. You’ll learn from fresh faces as well as the biggest names in digital marketing today, including access to Orca Marketology founder Mackensie Liberman’s ultimate blueprint, which gives you strategies to build your list and maximize your reach (without breaking a single Facebook Messenger rule).

Reason no. 2: Get under the hood of expert’s chatbots

If you’re already running Chat Marketing campaigns for clients, Conversations provides the opportunity to learn if your chatbot is being utilized to its full potential through sessions that cover bot-building fundamentals, Manychat’s features, and deep dives into the Chat Marketing revolution with product masterclasses. 

Watch as experts, like School of Bots co-founder Natasha Takahashi, take you under the hood of their chatbots and guide you, step-by-step, on how to build a bot from scratch so it generates results on the first go.

Reason no.3: Access to money-can’t-buy templates and freebies

Conversations speakers will be giving away invaluable templates, checklists, cheat sheets, and more, in their 100% virtual, interactive sessions. Some speakers have worked tirelessly for months on their freebies alone, all of which are valued at over $15,000.

Conversations 2020 is an incredible investment in not only your future but the future of your agency.

Grab your ticket today and join us at Conversations 2020 on October 6-8! 

More About Our Speakers

Some of the biggest names in marketing, including Daymond John, Neil Patel, Billy Gene, Molly Pittman, Jasmine Star, Ryan Deiss, and many more, are part of our all-star assembly for Conversations 2020.

View our full line-up of speakers here

More About Conversations 2020

Conversations is the largest Chat Marketing conference in the world that unites 5,000+ marketers from over 40 countries who are shaping the future of Chat Marketing.

This #1 virtual event will be showcasing winning tactics on how to grow your business online with sessions dedicated to agency growth and success.

You’ll get 30+ breakthrough sessions designed for coaches, consultants, digital agencies, Amazon and Shopify sellers, and more, as well as $15,000 worth of templates and practical workshops. 

The post 3 Reasons You Must Attend Conversations 2020 If You Run a Marketing Agency appeared first on Manychat Blog.

Last year, Stefanos Loukakos spoke at our event in Austin, Texas, and the room was on fire. It ended with a round of applause from the captivated audience.

This year, Stan Chudnovsky, VP of Messenger at Facebook, has agreed to speak at Conversations 2020.

We’ve been pursuing Stan since our conference was established back in 2018, and now, we’re thrilled Stan has agreed to join ManyChat CEO Mike Yan for a fireside chat to share his insights on the future of Messenger.

During F8 in 2019, where Facebook announced “digital living rooms”— creating a dedicated space within the Messenger app to find content from friends and family they message the most — and this year’s introduction of Messenger Rooms, it’s clear that Messenger has an exciting future.

Currently, more than 2.5 billion people use messaging apps worldwide. In fact, 87% of smartphone users have mobile messaging apps. With this current trend, we are expected to have 3 billion messaging app users by 2022. 

This year, for the first time in history, there are more mobile messaging app users than social network users. This means that mobile messaging apps are bigger than social networks.

Stan might also share his perception on the messaging landscape and comment on its future, and give his thoughts on the startup world in general — before joining Facebook, he co-founded startups including IronPearl, Jiff, and NFX.

Learn more about the future of messaging with Stan Chudnovsky, VP of Messenger at Facebook, at our all-virtual Conversations 2020, which runs from October 6-8th. 

Get your front-row seat to see this fireside chat with an Expert Pass or a Super Fan Pass. We can’t wait to see you there.

More About Stan Chudnovsky, VP of Messenger at Facebook

Stan Chudnovsky is the VP of Messenger by Facebook. Prior to Facebook, Stan was VP of Growth and Global Strategy at PayPal. Stan also co-founded several other successful companies including IronPearl, Jiff, NFX, Ooga Labs, and Wonderhill. Before that, Stan worked on building Tickle Inc., one of the first social media companies, and grew it to become one of the largest websites in the world by 2003. 

View our full line-up of speakers here

More about Conversations 2020

Conversations is the largest Chat Marketing conference in the world that unites 5,000+ marketers from over 40 countries who are shaping the future of Chat Marketing.

This virtual event will showcase winning tactics on how to grow your business online with sessions dedicated to coaches and consultants.

You’ll get 30-plus breakthrough sessions for Amazon and Shopify sellers, digital agencies, coaches and consultants, and more, as well as $15,000 worth of templates and practical workshops. 

The post Stan Chudnovsky, VP of Messenger at Facebook, is Speaking at Conversations 2020 appeared first on Manychat Blog.

At Conversations, we’ve rallied the top Amazon and Shopify ninjas to share their secrets for attracting more customers, generating 10x ROI, and growing your store using proven omnichannel marketing strategies. 

At this virtual event, Amazon and Shopify sellers will gain tremendous knowledge not found anywhere else.

The agenda includes handpicked eCommerce sessions that you’ll enjoy, even if:

• You’re new to chatbots and are curious about how they can help you grow a successful online business
• You’re already testing and experimenting with chatbots, but you feel like you’re missing something that will take your efforts to the next level (without your constant oversight)
• You want “the secret sauce” that will help boost customer retention rates and hit those all-important sales targets 

We’ve identified the top three reasons you must attend Conversations 2020.

Reason #1: You’ll discover the secrets of Amazon’s top 1%

You’ll get advice straight from renowned Amazon and Shopify experts who will unpack how the top 1% of online sellers use ManyChat to deliver the winning edge against the competition.

In fact, Seller.Tools co-founder Troy Johnston has dedicated his entire session to sharing step-by-step instructions for what top eight and nine-figure Amazon earners are doing right now with ManyChat.

Reason #2: You’ll leave with ready-to-go revenue strategies for the holidays

With the holiday season upon us, let the queen of Amazon chatbots, Michelle Barnum Smith, show you how to take advantage of Amazon’s massive traffic with strategies that position you for success, outsmart your competition, and build an audience of buyers ready for the new year.

These expert tactics can be applied to any online store, even if you’re not an Amazon seller.

Reason #3: You’ll score a major shortcut to your success with $15,000 worth of templates and freebies

Conversations speakers will be giving away invaluable templates, checklists, cheat sheets, and more, in 100% virtual, interactive sessions. Some of our speakers have worked tirelessly for months on their freebies alone, the combined value of which is estimated at over $15,000.

Conversations also has sessions for all levels that offer bot-building fundamentals, Feature 101 sessions, and dive into the Chat Marketing revolution with Product Masterclasses.

This event will open your eyes to the untapped potential of your online business.

More About Our Speakers

Our all-star line-up consists of some of the biggest names in marketing, including Daymond John, Neil Patel, Billy Gene, Molly Pittman, Jasmine Star, Ryan Deiss, and many more.

View our full line-up of speakers here

More About Conversations 2020

Conversations is the largest Chat Marketing conference in the world. It unites 5,000+ marketers from over 40 countries who are shaping the future of Chat Marketing.

With 30-plus sessions dedicated to Amazon and Shopify sellers, this top-rated virtual event will deliver winning tactics for growing your business online. You’ll get to sit in on breakthrough sessions for coaches, consultants, digital agencies, and more, as well as receive $15,000 worth of templates and practical workshops. 

The post 3 Reasons Why eCommerce Owners Must Attend Conversations 2020 appeared first on Manychat Blog.