Episode 131: All About Chatbots With Kelly Noble Mirabella

Dynamic. Engaging. Totally rad. These are a few words you might use to describe your latest Facebook video … but they also apply to Kelly Noble Mirabella, self-described social media geek and marketing consultant with Stellar Media Marketing.With more than 11 years of social media marketing experience—and more than a few wacky costumes—Kelly brings tricky social media concepts to life through her fun, clear and memorable social media training videos and classes. Long before social media savvy was status quo, Kelly recognized how social media can take brand recognition, customer engagement, and marketing efforts to a radical new level. What’s more, Kelly has spent the past two years learning to build Facebook messenger bots (aka “chatbots”), and now teaches others how to build them with simple, entertaining and, sometimes, 80s-themed tutorials. Today, she teaches entrepreneurs, small business owners, and working professionals how to use social media to improve their businesses and achieve their goals. Biggest Takeaway You Don't Want To Miss Chatbots are some of the latest and greatest marketing technology that we have access to as business owners. They might seem complicated and daunting, but they really aren't! You don't need to be a programming or computer science expert to use one. Show Highlights What is a chatbot? [3:20] What is the 24 + 1 rule? [6:00] Are there things people should NOT do with chatbots? [7:00] How do we get started with chatbots? [9:15] What's the difference between emailing your client list vs. chatbots? [17:15] Special Offer: Subscribe to Kelly's YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/stellar247 and join her Chatbot Facebook Group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/BabyGotBot/ Links Jump & Scale Webinar: http://jumpconsulting.net/scale Kelly's Website: https://stellarmediamarketing.com/ Kelly's YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/stellar247 ManyChat: https://manychat.com/ Kelly's Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BabyGotBot/ Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 131 of Bella in Your Business. Do you feel like your business is going around on a merry-go-round? Well, I've got news for you. This episode is sponsored by my incredible webinar series called Jump and Scale. It gets you off that merry-go-round and up to the next level in your business. It's called Jump and Scale, and it's free for you right now. Just go ahead and sign up at jumpconsulting.net/scale. You will learn how to grow your business, increase your staff, and not be held hostage to your business. So go ahead, sign up for free. That's jumpconsulting.net/scale. I'll see you inside. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready. Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, and today I have got Kelly Noble Mirabella with me. I love saying her name. She has quickly become honestly like one of my Voxer besties. We talk all the time, and the girl is so knowledgeable when it comes to messenger bots. Don't get too scared, but she is here with us today to just give us the lowdown, the breakdown of bots 101. Kelly is dynamic, engaging, and totally rad. She's got a ton—a series of really short videos explaining how to do different things in chatbots to an 80s-style theme. Yes, I am talking about teased hair and neon shirts and everything. It's super cute. But she has this real knack for breaking the vernacular down into words and things that we can understand. Because if you're like me, message bots and all of these diagrams and arrows everywhere just kind of make you glaze over like a deer in headlights, right? Kelly's been in social media marketing for more than 11 years. Her company is called Stellar Media Marketing, which, if you're watching the video to this, you're going to actually see that it's very stellar behind her, like the whole ecosystem. Nebula—that’s the word. And so she brings tricky social media concepts to life with her fun and clear, memorable social media training videos I was just telling you about. She has recognized how social media can take brand recognition, customer engagement, and marketing efforts to a radical new level. What's more, Kelly spent the last two years learning to build Facebook messengers, AKA bots, and now teaches others how to do them. So without further ado, welcome, Kelly. Hi. Wow, that was a mouthful, Bella. You did well. I did. I always like to add my own personal thing into it. So, Kelly, as you know, I represent a lot of small business owners, specifically pet sitters and dog walkers. I want to just come out of the gate here because, as business owners, we feel like, “My gosh, I have to jump on this. It's new. I have to do it. It's the newest thing.” You know, I hear all these stats that people open messenger bots better. So they jump into it, and what they end up doing is messing it—or effing it—up. So let's start off first with what a bot is and then the most common “don’t” that you see. Kelly: Okay, cool. So a bot, or a chatbot—there are bad bots too, but we're talking about chatbots today—is basically an automated message system that's built by a human or artificial intelligence. Now don’t get it twisted. Most people automatically assume it’s all artificial intelligence, AKA AI. That is not true. In fact, 90% or more—I just made up that stat, but I’m assuming—the majority of chatbots that you see today are not AI. And the reason I know that is because it's very expensive and very techy to include artificial intelligence, and the tech is really not quite there yet unless you’re like Google. So it's these messages that we can utilize. If you have Siri on your phone, Google Assistant on Android, or Alexa, those are all voice. So you've been using them for a while now. The ones that I prefer are Facebook Messenger chatbots, which are those messages that run through the Messenger platform from a Facebook business page. So that's the basics. If you're still confused, it's basically like an email automated system that you set up in the backend and then they see what happens from the frontend. But it's more engaging because it's not so one-sided, like push marketing with email. It’s more of a two-way street of engagement that you can build out—kind of a choose-your-own-adventure of messaging. So what are some ways that you see business owners jump in and fail epically? Kelly: The foundational thing about chatbots in Facebook is that you can’t just add people to your list. That’s a fail-safe. You can’t randomly add people the way you could (though shouldn’t) with an email list. In order to subscribe to someone’s chatbot, you have to send them a message. There are ways you can encourage that engagement, but you can’t force it. There’s also the “24+1” rule. As soon as someone engages with your chatbot, you have 24 hours to send them a promotional message. Outside that, you can’t send a promotional message. You can send a non-promotional one—like a value post—but not something that leads to monetary gain. The “plus one” part means you can send one follow-up promotional message after the 24 hours, and then you’re done unless they engage again. Bella: Is it good when I go to your Facebook page, or is it distracting for the bot to automatically pop up? Kelly: I think it’s great practice. You can set it in your Facebook settings without third-party tools. It usually only pops up for people who haven’t engaged before. It’s like a call to action—wonderful, in my book. The key, though, is foundational marketing: set expectations. Let people know if you’ll message daily, weekly, etc. Say, “Hey, do you want to subscribe to our daily deals?” or “You’ll get a weekly message on Thursdays.” That way, they know what to expect and won’t find your chatbot annoying. Bella: So what I’ve heard then is: do not add people, do not be deceptive, set expectations, and follow the rules of Facebook. Kelly: Yes—and basically, follow the golden rule: don’t treat people the way you don’t want to be treated. Bella: Okay, so for people who are brand new, how do we get started? Kelly: You don’t need to code. All you need is a tool like ManyChat or ChatFuel. I recommend ManyChat—it’s easy, plug-and-play, and starts at about $10/month. You could do a welcome chatbot, a FAQ chatbot, or even deliver a lead magnet. I’ve got tons of beginner videos on my Baby Got Bot YouTube channel. Bella: So let me break this down in real terms for you guys. This bot could be as simple as popping up and saying, “Welcome! Do you have a dog, a cat, both, or other?” Depending on their answer, you guide them—like sending dog owners to your dog-walking page. Kelly: Exactly. You can make it interactive and even fun—name your bot after your pet! Bella: A lot of pet sitters have blogs or guides, like “Best Dog Walking Trails in Sacramento.” If they were to go live and talk about it, how could they use bots with that? Kelly: That’s one of my favorite strategies. Go live—when people are in the moment—and use a keyword trigger, like “type WALK below.” Using ManyChat, anyone who comments “walk” gets an automatic message with your guide, coupon, or freebie. It’s instant engagement while they’re hot, not hours later when they’ve moved on. Bella: I love that. You can even send an email reminder like, “Going live in 10 minutes—click here!” And then have the bot deliver your guide right in Messenger instead of making them fill out a form. That’s way less friction. Kelly: Exactly.