In order to make popular chatbots, people need to use them and businesses need to derive ROI value from them.
That’s simply by definition. To have a popular chatbot, it needs to be fun, interactive, and profitable.
Whether you’re looking for inspiring chatbots for ecommerce or retail, chatbots for generating B2B leads, or are trying to gain traction for your products and services in an innovative way, look no further.
The chatbots shared here are unicorns that you can leverage for your own chat marketing campaigns.
We are constantly adding to this list and we’d love to know the exciting, helpful and purposeful chatbots that check the boxes for you. Add yours in the comments and we’ll add them to this list of chatbots.
What is a marketing chatbot? If you want to know, look there.
What are the most popular chatbots?
Here are 11 of the world’s most popular chatbots today achieving growth marketing strategy gains in sales, publishing, education, and service industries:
- Fandango
- Sephora
- Wall Street Journal
- National Geographic
- James Patterson “The Chef” Short Story
- AccuWeather
- TGIFridays
- Western Union
- Summit Academy OIC
- Customers.ai
- Stanford’s QuizBot
Let’s take a closer look at what makes these popular bots such a valuable asset for business.
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Create chatbots like these using Customers.ai’s free multi-channel chatbot builder.
Customers.ai integrates SMS marketing tools alongside for Facebook Messenger bots, website chatbots and more.
Fandango
This one’s for the movie fiends. Fandango’s chatbot is perfect for those who want to be in the loop on all the latest movies.
Others will simply enjoy the chatbot because of its easy-to-use interface, right through Facebook Messenger, and the way it highlights the top trending movies, trailers, and theaters.
You can even find showtimes and purchase tickets. Fandango’s popular chatbot is truly a one-stop shop.
Don’t know about you, but I’m way more likely to use it because of this.
It’s so much cleaner and easier to navigate than trying to compare movie times through three different movie theater sites.
Convenient, useful chatbots for the win.
Sephora
Sephora does a great job with their unique popular chatbots. Not only can you book makeup or skin services, some that are even free (!!), but you can explore your closet stores.
Chatbots are a fantastic use-case for Sephora.
They offer all types of appointments, from facials to full-face makeup to brow makeovers or even “lash & dash” appointments where they put your false eyelashes on for you.
Sephora has a huge following and their popular chatbots simply allow everyone to take advantage of their services and appointments in a much more efficient way.
That’s what we call a popular chatbot. It’s solving problems, winning over old and new customers alike, and drawing attention.
Plus, by simply highlighting their services but not focusing too heavily on their products, they’re able to draw visitors into their stores, where they’re more likely to purchase items.
The chatbot also lets users deal with customer service issues and provide feedback on store locations. A multi-use chatbot directly through Facebook Messenger.
Wall Street Journal
What better way to deliver the news than through a popular chatbot that delivers a personalized, one-on-one content delivery experience?
Wall Street Journal’s Facebook Messenger chatbot sends you a “WSJ news digest” each morning, you can personalize it to the types of content you’d like to see.
For example, readers can choose between receiving the latest news or focus in on a particular company for updates. There’s even a pre-filled button for podcast listeners.
It’s a solid way for a company to innovate their product. Sure, WSJ newspapers are still being printed each day.
Each day, those stories are loaded onto the web. But now, they’re taking it one step further with a bot that delivers news the way readers would like to see it.
Think outside of the box when you’re building a chatbot for business.
National Geographic
Who isn’t up for a game of trivia?
National Geographic uses their Facebook Messenger chatbot in an unexpected and fun way for readers with Pop Geo, a world trivia game.
They let you customize the chatbot game to topics you care about, like space.
Then, Pop Geo users get a few questions straight from the latest Nat Geo Almanac.
All the while, they’re able to lightly push a sale. It’s genius.
Popular chatbots don’t always have to be some crazy invented game. You can simply take something classic, like a trivia game, and put a spin on it to build engagement with your users.
James Patterson “The Chef” Short Story
Yes, you can take a classic game like trivia and put a spin on it, or you can completely surprise everyone with something that’s never been done before.
Bestselling author James Patterson chose the latter route when he published a thriller short story through a suspenseful chatbot.
Not only did it catch readers’ eyes, but it was an innovative new way to deliver a story.
Stories have been delivered the same few ways for years, and Patterson took a risk.
This popular chatbot paid off by getting the attention of new readers (after all, the story bot was free) and built up loyalty through engagement with longtime fans.
I won’t give the whole story away. You’ll have to go check it out for yourselves, but I will say it’s a truly immersive experience to search through evidence alongside characters.
Short story X mystery game X chatbot — anything is possible with chatbots.
AccuWeather
Stepping away from games for a moment, AccuWeather’s Facebook Messenger chatbot provides you with an AI meteorologist.
Not only does Dawn inform you of the weather in any location you wish, she also alerts you to any severe weather alerts so you can stay safe.
My personal favorite function is the actual feels-like temp and the fact that I can view the next few days weather all through Facebook Messenger. There’s no need to download another app to my phone.
AccuWeather isn’t doing anything complicated here.
They’re simply providing a new efficient way for users to reach their product. And it works just as well as other popular chatbots out there.
TGIFridays
If you have a loyal user base, why not give them another up-to-date way to order food efficiently?
Much like Domino’s, Pizza Hut, or other popular chatbots, TGIFridays wanted to get in on the order-ahead bot business.
With their Facebook Messenger app, you can order to-go, find your closest locations, or make reservations.
It’s an easy way for office employees to cater a meeting, make a lunch order, or book an after-work meal.
If you’re in the food service industry, make your popular chatbot today!
Western Union
Western Union, the financial services company, dove into popular chatbots by making it easier for their customers to send money.
With their Facebook Messenger chatbot, users can send money or track transfers at the click of a button.
It’s a smart use-case for Western Union as customers no longer need to navigate through pages or log-ins on their site. They can simply access where they need to go, and they can do so instantaneously.
Take note of their “What would you like to do?” welcome screen. It provides a valuable menu for users so they can make their way through the bot with pre-filled buttons.
Not to mention, their Customer Care option that provides users a chance to explain their issue so that customer care agents can solve the problem faster.
Summit Academy OIC
Summit Academy OIC used their popular chatbots to enroll more students at their academy. Their campaign led to a 30% increase in prospective students.
So, how’d they do it?
With click-to-Messenger campaigns.
They cost-effectively increased enrollments and nurtured leads through automation. First, they ran click-to-messenger Facebook ads. This allowed them to filter to prospective students, and then provided those leads with the information they needed to make a decision.
Prospective students could sign up for an information session via the Summit Academy OIC’s Facebook Messenger chatbot.
And all of this was made possible through the Customers.ai chatbot. It’s bananas.
You can learn more about this Facebook Messenger ads case study, or jump in and build your own bot for free.
Customers.ai
Customers.ai has used a popular chatbot to broaden reach and lower the cost of lead acquisition.
How?
With spectacular copy, personality, and content.
Using Facebook click-to-messenger ads, they gained new contacts that they could then cycle through the customer lifecycle and send follow-up messaging and advertising too.
This is a clear example of how you can make content fun and engaging, while providing a valuable resource.
Look at the below example from a later perspective in the customer lifecycle and take note.
Popular chatbots can also come from providing users with exactly what they’re looking for.
Customers.ai uses a single chatbot that works simultaneously in web chat, Facebook Messenger and SMS.
See the effect of automated SMS lead tools for yourself by signing up for my SMS drip campaigns. Just text “CLUB” to 1-309-740-3151 to get my chatbot marketing updates.
Stanford’s QuizBot
There are dozens of popular chatbots out there, but Stanford University’s QuizBot highlights the future potential of these intelligent bots.
Stanford researchers designed a bot that helps students study factual information, and it outperformed other study methods like flashcards. Pretty impressive, right?
Students who used QuizBot had over 20% more correct answers than those who used a flashcard app.
The popular chatbot is designed for self-paced learning and it uses dialogue to help users learn science, English, and safety vocabulary.
Now, just muse over the future applications…
Unicorn Tips to Making Your Own Popular Chatbots
OK, now it’s your turn.
What’s your use-case for chatbots?
While you can create popular web chat bots and start running them without a clear goal or use-case, you probably won’t receive the best possible results.
Popular chatbots aren’t successful because they automatically know what to do (maybe by 2030 we can have next-level intelligent bots!), but because people are designing them in creative ways to elevate their businesses.
They’re finding the diamond in the rough, the unicorn disguised as a donkey.
Once you see it, you can’t go back.
If you’re having trouble determining your purpose or goal, here are some ideas:
- Welcome site visitors
- Use chatbots for customer support that’s 24/7 instant and automated
- Provide fast access to information
- Understand why someone’s come to your website
- Set up appointments or calls
- Qualify and re-engage leads
- Promote offers and products
- Increase sales by relieving bottlenecks
- Entertain and delight visitors
- Reach consumers with your products in new ways
Those are just a few. There are dozens of more additional goals for chatbots for business.
Some of my personal favorite chatbot use cases start by inspiring and delighting consumers, as well as reaching consumers in innovative ways.
Think of the James Patterson example or Nat Geo. But it doesn’t have to start out so complex.
Just look at Sephora’s success with a relatively basic chatbot design.
Once you have a use-case in mind, you can move onto designing your popular chatbots.
Get started fast with Customers.ai chatbot templates for ecommerce, real estate, gyms, hair salons, etc. Customize templates to add details and swap out copy for your company’s voice and style.
Get started today, and if you need more inspiration from popular chatbots, swing on over to Customers.ai’s chat marketing case studies.
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Popular Chatbots: Important Next Steps
FAQs About Popular Chatbots
Q: What are popular chatbots?
Popular chatbots are computer programs designed to simulate human conversation and interact with users in a conversational manner. They are widely used across various industries to provide customer support, automate tasks, and deliver personalized experiences.
Q: Which industries are using popular chatbots?
Popular chatbots are utilized in a wide range of industries, including e-commerce, healthcare, banking, travel, and customer service. They can be found on websites, messaging apps, and social media platforms to enhance customer engagement and streamline business processes.
Q: What are some examples of popular chatbots?
Some popular chatbots include:
- 1. Chatfuel: A chatbot platform used for creating Facebook Messenger bots.
- 2. Dialogflow: A natural language understanding platform by Google that powers chatbots across various channels.
- 3. IBM Watson Assistant: An AI-powered chatbot solution capable of handling complex conversations.
- 4. Customers.ai
Q: What are the benefits of using popular chatbots?
Popular chatbots offer several benefits, such as:
- Improved customer service and support.
- Increased efficiency by automating repetitive tasks.
- 24/7 availability for users.
- Personalized user experiences.
- Cost savings by reducing the need for human resources.
Q: Are popular chatbots capable of understanding natural language?
Yes, popular chatbots leverage natural language processing (NLP) techniques to understand and interpret user input. They analyze text or speech and use machine learning algorithms.