Every marketing agency needs to stop everything and sell Messenger chatbot services right now.

Facebook Messenger chatbots are the hottest marketing tactic to hit the digital marketing scene in the last ten years.

Today, every marketing agency needs to sell Messenger chatbot services

Here’s what to expect from reading this article.

1. You’ll be 100% persuaded that your marketing agency needs to sell Messenger chatbot services.
2. Find out if your marketing agency has one of the four characteristics required to successfully sell Messenger chatbot services.
3. Get the five-step plan for selling Messenger chatbot services immediately.

Let’s go. Q&A time.

Sell Messenger chatbot services? What exactly are you suggesting?

Simple: Digital marketing agencies should sell Messenger chatbot services to their clients.

It looks like this.

1. You create custom Messenger chatbots for your clients.
2. You set a price for the creation of the Messenger bots.
3. You charge a monthly ongoing retainer for the continued use of the Messenger bots.

Let’s say that one of your marketing clients is a personal trainer. You’ve been running some Facebook ads for her. She’s had some marginal success.

So far, so good.

But what if your client was using a Messenger chatbot?

She could save time, seamlessly onboard clients, segment her audience, filter out weak leads, scale her business, schedule complimentary consultations, and increase her revenue. All without having to lift a finger.

Who wouldn’t want that?

You, as an agency, can offer this service. Your client sees the benefits, purchases chatbot services, and gets major results.

That’s what I’m suggesting. Your agency sells Facebook Messenger chatbot services.

You win. Your clients win. We all win.

Why should marketing agencies start selling Facebook Messenger chatbot services?

I’m always reluctant to tell people “you must,” “you should,” and “you need.” Every situation is different.

But this is really important.

Facebook Messenger chatbots have the biggest reach, the highest level of engagement, the greatest amount of power, and the least amount of cost and effort of any marketing channel anywhere.

(Whew. That’s a lot of superlatives in one sentence.)

Right now, there are more users of the top four messaging apps than the top four social networks combined.

(And honestly, that was like two years ago, so the disparity is probably even higher today.)

People use messaging apps all the time. Think back on your day. Have you used Messenger, WhatsApp, iMessage, or Instagram messages today? It’s only 11:15a and I’ve received or sent over 71 messages on iMessage, Instagram, and Messenger already. (I work in the chatbot marketing field, so there’s that.) 

Posting on social media is no longer the optimal method for high customer engagement. The stratospheric ad spend required to compete on Facebook advertising is getting out of hand.

Messaging apps are the present and the future of digital marketing. And integrating chatbots with these messaging apps is the ticket to high-success marketing.

The reasons why agencies should start selling Facebook Messenger chatbot services are legion, but there are three overarching upsides:

1. Facebook Messenger chatbots are the most effective marketing tactic available today.
2. Digital marketing agencies are in the best position to profit by selling Facebook Messenger chatbot services.
3. Clients stand to benefit enormously from purchasing chatbot services from marketing agencies.

Let me throw out a final observation on this point. 

Very few agencies are doing this right now. You’ll find the occasional freelancer who may offer to create up a bot sequence for a thousand bucks, or an agency that vaguely discusses their NLP customer service chatbot.

But not many agencies are doing the thing I’m suggesting here — adding Facebook Messenger chatbot services and selling it to their clients.

What does this mean for you?

You have the potential to get in early, profit big, and dominate the marketplace.

That’s why you should sell Messenger chatbots now.

How will my agency benefit if we sell Facebook Messenger chatbot services?

A marketing agency benefits when they earn more revenue, attract more customers, increase ROI, improve client satisfaction, reduce client churn, and scale.

If your agency exists to earn revenue and serve customers, then adding Facebook Messenger chatbot services is basically a no-brainer.

Digital marketing agencies today are in an ideal position to sell chatbot services. Customers already recognize you as an authority on digital marketing trends. Customers know that you do Facebook marketing. Based on this rationale, launching Messenger bot services as a product makes logical sense.

It’s likely that some of your clients expect your agency to sell chatbot services. Digital marketing agencies are “supposed” to do certain things — SEO, PPC, local search, etc. Chatbot services are on their way to becoming de rigueur for today’s digital marketing agencies.

A simple way to answer the question “how will my agency benefit” is to respond “because your clients benefit.”

When they win, you win.

The majority of businesses admit that “generating traffic and leads” is a top challenge.

As a marketing agency, this is a problem that you can solve for your clients.

Regardless of your client’s industry, demographic target, product, or service, Messenger chatbots can help to solve the problem of generating traffic and leads. 

So, should my agency sell Facebook Messenger chatbots? How do we know? 

I’ll be honest. Selling chatbot services is not for every marketing agency.

Some agencies are focused, say, on Squarespace websites, billboard design, or magazine layouts. They probably don’t need to sell Messenger chatbots. 

Broadly speaking, there are six main types of digital marketing agencies.

Each of these agency types is in a position to sell Messenger chatbot services without distracting from their service focus or clientele.

Does your agency qualify for selling Facebook Messenger chatbots? (Keep in mind that an “agency” can be a solopreneur or independent contractor, too.)

Agencies that are ideally positioned to sell chatbot services have at least one of the following characteristics:

1. The agency offers a broad array of digital marketing services (SEO, PPC, CRO, etc.).
2. The agency offers website design or creation, especially WordPress. (The free WP-Chatbot is a must-have).
3. The agency deals with any customer-service related solutions for clients.
4. The agency deals with any type of Facebook-related service (paid search, social posting, etc.).

If your agency performs any one of these four broad activities, then your agency is a perfect candidate for selling Facebook Messenger chatbot services.

Here are nine more qualifying questions that will allow you to determine if selling chatbot services is the right move for your marketing agency.

1. Does your agency want to make more money?
2. Does your agency want more high-dollar retainer clients?
3. Do you want to scale back on the number of hours you work for clients, but get higher returns?
4. Have you invested in the growing need for more marketing automation for agencies? 
5. Do you want your clients to succeed?
6. Do you want to beat the competition by staying ahead of the curve in marketing trends?
7. Do you want to improve client retention?
8. Do you want more word-of-mouth referrals for your agency?
9. Do you want to scale easily?

(I hope we got some yesses up in there.)

If you’re not sure what exactly you do as a marketing agency, that’s okay, too. You can position yourself by selling chatbots and be able to quickly gain clients.

Our marketing agency already sells some services really well. Why add chatbot services?

I get it.

You do one thing well. You sell it with streamlined precision and excellent markup. Your clients are giddy. Your retainers are kicking ass. Your marketers are unicorns. Your rate card is so pretty. Why mess it up by selling Messenger chatbot services?

And, sheesh, who wants to be a “chatbot agency?”

I do get it.

But you also want to evolve as an agency. You want to stay ahead of the proverbial marketing curve.

Clients expect chatbot marketing services. And if they don’t now, then they will soon.

Adding an additional service will not dilute the services you already offer. Instead, it will complement them.

Chatbot services are stellar upsells. If you’re already servicing clients with your legendary paid search services, then integrating chatbots makes enormous sense. It enhances the paid search efforts, giving them greater reach and success than paid search can achieve alone. Besides, with techniques like click-to-Messenger Facebook ads and Facebook post autoresponders, you can lower their ad spend and boost conversions.

Let’s talk about niches for a minute. Niching yourself as a marketing agency is obviously a smart move. You get hyperfocused on a certain type of client, gain a reputation within that vertical and make bank.

You can do the same thing with Messenger chatbots.

Let’s say your marketing agency is just fantastic at servicing East Coast, kid-friendly, dental offices with their marketing needs.

Now, you can be the go-to marketing agency for customers in the happy-kid-dental niche who will benefit from Messenger chatbots.

Wait. Isn’t there a learning curve for building Messenger chatbots? I’ve heard these things are complicated.

Yes, there is a learning curve.

But, no, it isn’t complicated.

You don’t need to raise capital, hire more people, buy expensive stuff, and have month-long, offsite training sessions. Building Messenger chatbots is so easy! 

Here’s a peek into the Customers.ai app. There’s absolutely no coding required anywhere in the app.

It’s simply click, drag, tap, point, type, deploy. The WYSIWYG editor and logical sequencing of chatbot dialogues means that you’ll be up and running with a fully-functioning Messenger chatbot within minutes of creating a Customers.ai account. 

You can make full dialogue sequences, create lead magnets, send chat blasts, and perform other Messenger hacks simply, quickly, and easily.

Based on our internal data, most users are spending an average of 14 minutes per session in the app creating chatbots. They can create a whole sequence or send a chat blast to thousands of users in those fourteen minutes.

Customers are deploying these chatbots at a rate of hundreds per day. User data and satisfaction studies have proven that for Customers.ai customers, creating chatbots isn’t just easy. It’s fun! Maybe even addicting. [Cue evil laugh.]

So, no, the learning curve is not steep. In fact, for most types of businesses, we’ve already created Facebook Messenger chatbot templates for you. All you need to do is tweak a few things and launch.

For example, that dentist office you’re servicing would benefit from a chatbot like this one (pre-made).

You can test the chatbot here.

Look, if you’re already offering Facebook services — ads, posting, whatever — then you possess the requisite understanding for creating Messenger chatbots.

Even if you’ve never touched Facebook Ads Manager, creating Messenger chatbots is not hard at all.

What price should we set for selling Messenger bot services?

This is a big question with lots of contingencies, factors, and disclaimers, but I’ll try to shoot straight.

First, you’ll need to pick what kind of pricing structure you want

1. Hourly rate. Simply charge the client at your customary hourly fee. Be careful with this method, since the time required to create chatbots is extremely low, but the payoff for clients is extremely high. 
2. Value-based pricing. Your client pays according to how much estimated value the addition of a chatbot will bring to your client. It can be a tough sell, especially if payment is required upfront, but it’s a lucrative payoff for both agency and client.
3. Point-based pricing. The point-based model adds charges based on additional functionalities, drips, blasts, and integrations. The more the client wants, the more it costs.

If you manage your client’s chatbot after you create it (recommended), then you’ll also want to charge an ongoing monthly fee or retainer. Managing the bot takes time and usually requires a monthly payment for the chatbot tool and/or the number of contacts on the list.

What is an average point-based pricing model? Here’s an example:

As you can see, selling Messenger chatbots can deliver an enormous ROI to your agency. Equally as thrilling is the fact that chatbot services are just as lucrative for your clients.

Okay, selling Messenger chatbot services sounds good. So how do we do this? [Free Five-Part Framework]

Ah, we’re at my favorite question. Implementation.

How does an agency start offering Messenger chatbot services to their clients?

I suggest this five-part framework.

1. Select a chatbot building platform like Customers.ai. It’s free.
2. Learn how to use it. Creating chatbots for your own agency is the perfect starting point.
3. Set a price point for chatbot creation, which could be as simple as your hourly rate.
4. Set an ongoing retainer fee for chatbot service. The ongoing chatbot service may include optimization, reporting, etc.
5. Offer this shiny chatbot service product to existing clients.

This is only a framework. It provides guidance, but the exact process you follow to start offering chatbot services will differ according to how your agency operates.

Um. I have questions. Lots of questions.

That’s fine. Offering a new marketing service, especially an emerging tactic like chatbot technology, can be intimidating. Plus, it requires some careful consideration.

There are five things I suggest for getting your questions answered. Pick one or pick them all. Chances are, you’ll find what you need.

1. VERY IMPORTANT: Sign up for the Agency Growth Accelerator. This is a full-day summit that tells agencies how to scale big time using a medley of tactics, chatbots included. Free tickets available here.
2. Start using Customers.ai. It’s free, so you have nothing to lose. Getting into the product will answer a lot of questions.
3. Learn about the Customers.ai agency plan. We’ve created an exclusive price point for agencies to unleash the full power of Customers.ai for as many clients and Business Pages as they want. Check it out.
4. Purchase a Customers.ai Pro Plan that includes one-on-one consulting sessions with a dedicated account manager. With this plan, you’ll receive as many coaching sessions you want (additional charges may apply) to get bot building support, and answers to all your chatbot questions.
5. Join the Customers.ai Facebook group. Apply to join this closed group, and get deep intel on all the agency chatbot information you’ve been missing out on.

Please, do this now.

Reggie Bradford, the late VP of Oracle delivered a keynote in Prague in 2016. In that keynote, he predicted that the biggest technological innovations in the next few years would be messaging apps and chatbots.

In Bradford’s words, “This wave is about to hit you hard. It’ll knock you back into the sand and force water up your nose. But, if you’re ready, this could be an incredible opportunity.”

A bit dramatic, but yeah, the time is here. The wave has come. (Not sure about the water up your nose, but still.)

Marketing agencies that survive and thrive in the new era of digital innovation are agencies that sell Messenger chatbot services. Marketing agencies that don’t sell Messenger chatbot services may not stand a chance.

Now is the perfect time to get started.

Important Next Steps