ManyChat Secrets to Messenger Bot - Mikael Yang - FHR #239

Why Dave Decided to talk to Mikael:

Mikael Yang is the CEO and Co-Founder of ManyChat. With over 300,000 customers they are a leader in the "bot" universe especially with Facebook. Mikael reveals how to get subscribers to your bot. What to do to build engagement, how to use Stripe and get payments through ManyChat.

Tips and Tricks for You and Your Business:

• How to get subscribers to their bots (4:50)
• Stripe Integration Release (12:15)
• Augmented Reality Inside Messenger (15:08)
• TIp and Tricks for building Bots (16:00)

Quotable Moments:

"The overall impact of messenger marketing is bringing more meaning and value into the conversations between businesses and customers."

"Stripe integration allows people to sale products directly on messenger."

"Simple. Easy. Visual."

Other Tidbits:

Messenger marketing is here to stay, there are over 2 billion people using messengers. A bot platform and facebook messenger is nothing more than a facebook page on messenger, allowing businesses and customers to do business with one another.

Links: FunnelHackerRadio.com FunnelHackerRadio.com/freetrial FunnelHackerRadio.com/dreamcar

---Transcript---

Speaker 1:     00:00         Welcome to funnel hacker radio podcast, where we go behind the scenes and uncover the tactics and strategies top entrepreneurs are using to make more sales, dominate their markets, and how you can get those same results. Here's your host, Dave Woodward.

Speaker 2:     00:17         Hey everybody. Welcome back. This is going to be a fun, fun ride. I am so excited. I have the opportunity to have been just an amazing guy on this podcast. Dan would introduce you guys to Mikaila Yang Macau. Welcome.

Speaker 3:     00:29         Hey Dave. Great to be here.

Speaker 2:     00:31         So for those of you guys may not know who Mikael is, Mikael is the co founder, CEO of many chat. It's a platform that we've used, we continue to use and it's been blowing up. Uh, I think anytime anyone thinks about facebook messenger, they, it's almost synonymous right now with many chats. So, Macau, you guys done an amazing job in pulling this off.

Speaker 3:     00:51         Thank you. Thank you very much.

Speaker 2:     00:53         Well, I'm excited to kind of find out a little more about, uh, what are some of the main things you've been involved in this industry here? What did you, when did you guys start this? Like 2015, 2016.

Speaker 3:     01:04         Yeah. We actually started in July 2015 and we started with a messenger platform that not a lot of people heard about at that point. Not, not in the US at least. So it's actually telegram messenger. And now telegram has become a much more popular. Um, but at that point it was a, it had a quote unquote only $65 million users, but they've, but they've just opened up their API. I'm seeing only because like other, other messenger platforms had a 10 x more users. So at that point, but uh, the point is that they were one of the first platforms, uh, in the western world to open up their Apis as a, a messenger platform. And uh, they actually, uh, gave developers access to those $65 million users and not in a way that they've, uh, they gave the access like, just to message to them, but in a way that they were actually able to build bots.

Speaker 3:     02:13         And uh, it, it, it, it was in new, it was a very new experience because before opening up of the API, the only thing that people did on the messengers is just message each other and now it's, it's has transformed because now businesses could actually connect with their customers and message them. Now one of the first thing that I tried to do is just to build a bot for the platform and it didn't work out because it was just too hard technically, like I have a technical background, but like just to send out a few messages to set up a Hiroko Danno and to like launch plus grass. And like all of those things, it was, it took me hours just to do something simple. So I've called up my co founder and said we got to do a platform for this. And um, we actually didn't to cough.

Speaker 3:     03:06         And so long story short, I can, I can spend three hours talking about this. But long story, long story short, we got tens of thousands of bots on telegram and just in a, in, in a year, facebook messenger opened up. And, uh, when facebook messenger opened up, we knew that this is, this is going to be big because facebook has already $70, million businesses using pages and bots and facebook messenger is nothing more than a facebook page just talking on messenger, uh, and having automation inside of it. So we, we were one of the first facebook messenger, a marketing Bot platforms and uh, have, have done really good ever since. We now have well over 300,000, um, facebook pages in number 100 countries and they sent over 30 million messages every day, a powering over $90 million conversations with their customers.

Speaker 2:     04:09         Unbelievable. Congratulations. You guys are absolutely crushing it. I, again, I joke around and I was talking to Andrew Warner Awhile back about you guys and I mean obviously he's a huge fan of what you guys have done and built. And it was interesting just to see this whole, this idea as far as bot technology and know with click funnels. We've started off originally on kind of an email platform that actionetics. We've now brought in a multidimensional type of marketing and followup funnels utilizing messengers and bots. And currently right now do a ton of stuff through many chat. We have a lot of, a very large user base in mini chat. But one of the things I get asked all the time and that is how do people get subscribers to their bots? What's, how does that really work in a way that they can connect in? Don't come across spammy.

Speaker 3:     05:01         Yeah, that's a great question. Uh, I think it's important to know that there is no concept of spam because the reasons for that is because the user is always in control. You cannot as a business, you cannot start messaging somebody who has not started in interaction with you so you're not able to buy a list or to have to do something to get those context somewhere and to just start like broadcasting messages to random people that you've somehow found their emails or the phone numbers or something. So that's not possible. And uh, the user has to start a conversation with the business on Messenger. And when the user starts this conversation, then the business can reply. And if the business sense something that is, I'm not relevant to the user or is it distracting or is just like not interesting, then the user can delete the conversation.

Speaker 3:     06:12         And the beauty of this channel is that it actually deletes that connection. So the business now can no longer send messages to that person. It's like ignoring somebody. And, and the, the beauty of that is because businesses will start to think, what am I sending out? What, uh, what did I want to be talking about and to whom and how do I send more relevant messages to my customers? And I think that that is one of the things that is missing right now in email and an sms because you, you can get around, like you can get a list of people and you can send messages. And that's why Europe has such strong spam laws because people that the way that the architecture of the openness of female works, there is a lot of benefits to have an open architecture. But as there's also drawbacks and now like it's, it's, it's the thing that nobody controls who can send, who wants.

Speaker 3:     07:22         And you can like it and if you can unsubscribe, but then you have to find where is that unsubscribe button and then everybody has a different interface and then you unsubscribe and it actually doesn't, doesn't subscribe you because you're subscribed to some other list or the person loads you into another esp or like it's so it's a frustrating experience and that's why email open rates and click through rates have been going down because there is no control there and I think that when you give the customer power to select who the actually want to be talking to and who they don't want to be talking to, then the customer is going to be smart enough to just make that decision and to close the conversation so that they're not interested in it and, and that are distracting and to continue the ones that are valuable for them. So I think the overall impact of messenger marketing is bringing more meaning and value into the conversations between businesses and customers.

Speaker 2:     08:25         I really appreciate that. I know that you'd made mentioned as far as it's got to be relevant. It's got to be something that's engaging, it has to be something where they want to continue a conversation with you and I. Yeah, I know as, as we've taken a look at it, it was kind of funny. We rolled out actionetics, MDR, multidimensional, the marketing in March, a bout the same time that a facebook kind of shut down the whole messenger type of platform. And I was kind of curious as far as your experience in working with facebook and building a business on facebook,

Speaker 3:     08:56         what, what are the pluses and minuses, the drawbacks you've experienced and what have you kind of learned as far as working with their API? The, um, the pluses are that it's a, it's a big platform with lots of existing users and you don't have, you can just focus on building the best platform and then if users love it, then they're just going to spread the word. So I think, uh, we're really, uh, uh, uh, it's really, it's great that a platforms like facebook, it's, it's very rare for such a big platform to be open to developers building on top of it. So we're really thankful and I, I think it's, it's the, it's really good for the ecosystem. Um, uh, the minuses, you know, it's, you can say that having something like the pause, uh, uh, is a minus, but we actually understand the growing pains as a, as a hyper, as a, as a hyper growth startup ourselves.

Speaker 3:     10:10         We totally get it when you want to, you want to get to build the best product and to get to then get it into the hands of as many people as you can and that sometimes, um, a takes a toll on a, on a, um, handling everything, uh, right from the start. So I wouldn't, I wouldn't even expect that, uh, uh, the thing that I would expect is to, uh, uh, to make changes when issues arise. And I think facebook has done a really good job in implementing those changes and, uh, actually, uh, they, they've like shutting down the platform, uh, for a month is a really serious decision and that just shows you how seriously facebook took this issue and, uh, what they were, uh, able to, uh, how they were handling this. The, the, uh, uh, just the amount of work and decisions that, that, that so, so, um, yeah, I think there's going to be, yeah, there's going to be, there's always going to be like, uh, uh, things that's like, uh, uh, uh, that are going to be moving and changing, but that is the nature of the current state of the whole tech world.

Speaker 3:     11:43         Uh, all the platforms and everything is in constant change and evolution and uh, uh, we just had, we just, we just get to it. We are a part of that. So, so yeah, I think that there's definitely a lot more pluses. I am,

Speaker 2:     12:03         we're super excited as well. Obviously we're in the process of trying to add some different features to our action and d product utilizing this type of Messenger bots. And I think one thing to know, you guys are been twitter, I think you guys just released is your stripe integration as far as being able to have take payments now, is that correct?

Speaker 3:     12:20         Yes, that's true.

Speaker 2:     12:22         Do you mind kind of expanding on that as far as the impact that has for those people who are involved in Econ?

Speaker 3:     12:29         So yeah, sure, that's a great question. Um, uh, I think that our stripe integration allows people to sell products on messenger, like ride inside messenger without having them leave the messenger experience, uh, for a browser like safari. I'm, uh, and I think that's the way that it impacts ecommerce is that you can now actually start to experiment and to see how you can drive people from facebook ads a into a messenger conversation, not to a landing page, but into a messenger conversation, qualify the lead, the lead, nurture them if that needs to happen or present them with an offer right away, make sure to be compliant with the policies that the 24 hour policies, um, uh, that means that you only consent promotional materials within 24 hours after the last user interaction. So if the user hasn't spoken or pressed buttons inside your body, did not send them a ads and promotions just to be in the clear, um, but that actually unlocks a lot of, uh, new use cases for people who are selling a, like specific products who have a stores, whether the, a product or just the several, several products. I think messenger could be a really, um, a great channel and we see a lot of people who are actually successful selling thousands and tens of thousands of dollars of products, uh, through messenger. And, um, uh, I think that number's going gonna grow and we're going to see many more people who are starting nods a will like their ecommerce journey nods on, uh, uh, on the web, but actually who are starting to build messenger stores and a, we're starting to build a, uh, to do a messenger commerce. I love that.

Speaker 2:     14:57         I know, uh, one thing is we're looking at the other day is some of this augmented reality and the opportunities that might come into messenger on that can kind of expand on some of the things you're seeing from an augmented reality aspect inside of Messenger.

Speaker 3:     15:10         I'm actually a facebook has announced a on the last f eight that day or releasing camera, augmented reality effects and uh, uh, that platform, uh, as far as I know is, I don't know if it's released or not. I think it's still in Beta, but they showed some case studies sense. Uh, uh, one of the case studies from Nike, basically they sold out their, uh, one of their, uh, models in a few, like a, I don't remember. It's either was like a few minutes or a few hours, but that was the fastest that they've sold out. And it was a really big win for messenger as a commerce channel. That's awesome.

Speaker 2:     15:59         Well, with all of your experience in Messenger and obviously in building many chat, what are some of the recommendations or things that you would tell our listeners as far as what they should be doing? How they should be building their bots. What one of the tips and tricks that you think they should hear?

Speaker 3:     16:15         I think the number one thing is that a lot of people talk about Messenger Marketing, chatbots, uh, and just just talking about it and it's. Everybody's heard about that, but not a lot of people have actually tried it because there's millions of, uh, businesses in us. There's hundreds of millions of businesses around the world. And uh, and we are one of the biggest platforms on facebook messenger and still we're at $300,000, a 300,000 pages. So there's a lot of work to be done. And I think, uh, uh, the number one thing that the listeners a should ask themselves is, uh, is this, uh, is this the next, uh, a big marketing channel? And if it is, do I want to be the one that is the first to this new marketing channel? Or am I just going to be with the pack with the, um, a majority of people when everybody's doing it, when, when millions of businesses are doing it.

Speaker 3:     17:36         But then I'm going to jump on the bandwagon and tracked because I think the thing that separates people who are going to get a really amazing results, uh, is that they're going start early and we already have a lot of people who are getting a crazy hour wise, like just hundreds of percents, thousands of percents of Roi. I'm just, because this is a new shell and there's a lot of, uh, there's not a lot of saturation. Um, so I would, I would suggest just to not fear it, it's not that complicated. It's not going to be complicated. It's artificial intelligence. Uh, and uh, uh, all of that, like it's, it's, it's really simple to do. You just drag and drop point and click. It's, it's simple and easy. It's visual. Uh, and uh, uh, the only thing that you have to try at this to go to a platform like many chat, um, and, uh, start a free account.

Speaker 3:     18:39         So the only thing, the only thing that's you're investing as your time, uh, you can, you can look around, uh, uh, maybe a, uh, um, like there's a messenger marketing course we've published. Maybe you want to start with that one before diving deep into the actual practice. Um, I would suggest doing both because, uh, when you, when you are around in the interface, you're going to know what questions do you have and then you'll be able to have like to have to find those answers inside the course. And um, yeah, I would just, it doesn't matter like you can, you can use any other platform. Uh, uh, I think the most important takeaway from this is that messenger marketing is real, uh, hundreds of thousands of businesses are using it and getting amazing results and uh, uh, everybody should try it for their own business and see if they can make it work. I love it. So

Speaker 2:     19:36         again, guys, I highly recommend you guys go ahead and check out many chats. You get a free account there and they've got amazing courses from just, you guys provide a ton of education for a person to really kind of figure things out. I think your pricing is based primarily on subscribers. It's again, real simple pricing. So the more success you have, more you pay, but you should be making more money out of it as well. So again, me, because I am so appreciative of you taking time today. I know you've got a lot going on. Tell me if, is there any parting words is we kind of get close to wrapping things up here we want to share aside from basically telling people, go and get an account at mini chat. So we set up a free account. What else do you want to let people know?

Speaker 3:     20:20         Um,

Speaker 2:     20:23         it's soft enough for you.

Speaker 3:     20:25         It's, it's a very. I didn't want to make it sound a emotional. I learned, I learned to focus more on the uh, the thing is again, like you can choose any cloud you want, but the thing is messenger marketing is here. Uh, there's over 2 billion people using messenger a and there's basically a zero businesses that are doing this right now. When I see zero mean relative to the amount of businesses that there are in the world. And right now, this year, you can be a one of the first marketers to actually dive deep into this channel and to see for yourself, uh, uh, how it works. Um, it's not very often when the whole global population changes the way it communicates from older channels like sms and email into new channels like messengers. So there is now this gap, this opening where you can just dive in and, uh, create, uh, create something for your business or for your clients' businesses.

Speaker 2:     21:38         Awesome. Well, again, because I'm so appreciate for you being on this on the podcast, again, everyone who's listening check out mini chat.com. Go ahead, go subscribe, get a free account, play with it, start building up your subscribers. We're huge believers in messenger. And, uh, again, many chat for us as one of the, my face actually is one of my favorite platform. So we've been using it, Mikhail and you guys did a great job in building it. Obviously we've got some other things we're using with action md that's coming out later, but I'd encourage everybody go play around with this. Get used to using messenger. And I don't think there's a better platform out there right now, um, to get you started. Then many chats, so many chat down, make sure,

Speaker 3:     22:18         and we'll make sure that we stay the best platform.

Speaker 2:     22:24         Thanks again. I love having you on and we'll talk to you soon.

Speaker 3:     22:27         Thank you, Dave. Bye. Bye. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 4:     22:31         No, one of the things that means a ton to me is the personal reviews that you guys leave on itunes. If you wouldn't mind going out, rate the show, let me know how I'm doing. Just go to Itunes, click on the episode and rate and leave a comment. I read all the comments, I appreciate all the stars and everything already left for me. Again, I really appreciate it and it's my way of finding out how I'm doing so if you don't mind, I'd really appreciate it. And I again, thank you so much for all you guys do. Have a great day.