I don‘t need to tell you that the ways we communicate with organizations are radically shifting. Static websites are no longer cutting it. Consumers – especially younger digital natives – want to engage via apps, messaging and voice chat.
In fact, Messaging apps now see over 20 billion messages sent per day, surpassing social networks.
Many businesses are leveraging this ideal channel to implement chatbots. As my new virtual friend, let me walk you through the fascinating world of conversational AI…
Chatbots Are Exploding…Here‘s Why You Need One
First, what exactly is a chatbot? Simply put, it‘s an AI program designed to communicate conversationally with humans via text or voice. Using techniques like natural language processing, today‘s chatbots can understand questions and respond intelligently like a real support rep or sales agent.
According to Juniper Research, the total number of chatbot interactions will exceed 22 billion per year by 2024—representing an average annual growth rate of 26%.
What‘s driving this explosive growth?
Many factors, but primarily cost savings and scalability:
- Chatbots enable 24/7 self-service without hiring more staff
- They can handle 5-10x more conversations than human reps
- This drives dramatic savings in customer acquisition and support costs
- ROI is often over 600% in under 12 months
Importantly, today‘s consumers want self-service. Surveys show:
- 72% prefer chatbots for quick inquiries so they don‘t have to wait on hold
- 65% have used a chatbot, with 83% having a positive experience
- 64% are willing to shop with a retailer that offers bots
Clearly my friend, chatbots represent the future. Those that don‘t embrace this trend will lag dangerously behind.
Now that you see their immense promise, let‘s explore the top platforms for building highly effective, intelligent bots…
Meet Chatfuel – The Most Popular Chatbot Builder
With over 5 million users powering bots for 100,000+ businesses, Chatfuel is one of the most widely adopted platforms.
Renowned for its ease of use, it enables anyone to create bots with a simple drag-and-drop interface. No coding required!
Key strengths include:
- Over 250 templates for common business scenarios
- Built in forms, eCommerce and analytics
- NLP engine handles complex questions and requests
- Seamlessly scales to extremely high volume
- Integrates easily with Facebook Messenger and Telegram
Household names like Adidas, Uber and TechCrunch have built bots on Chatfuel to engage audiences. The publishing site leveraged it for a Botmaking Contest delivering over 1.3 million messages!
Pricing starts free for basic usage, up to Pro plans with more capabilities. For most small businesses, the Starter plan costing only $15/mo provides ample power.
In summary my friend, if you want a code-free bot builder used by major brands, I highly recommend test driving Chatfuel.
Check Out ChatBot – the Intelligent Bot Builder
If you like the ease of drag-and-drop bot creators but want more sophistication, allow me to introduce ChatBot.
Designed for non-technical users, it still packs an enterprise-grade punch. Key highlights include:
- Built in NLP accurately understands requests
- Contextual responses based on full conversation
- Omnichannel support for Messenger, SMS, Alexa etc
- Tools to build complex dialog flows with variables
- Custom analytics dashboards
Theaa ChatBot free trial provides up to 1,000 messages so you can validate effectiveness before subscribing.
Exciting examples of innovation include:
- DHL enabling parcel tracking and estimates via FB Messenger
- Suzuki powering an intelligent bot on their website guiding vehicle purchases
If you seek robust capabilities without needing developers, ChatBot warrants a close look my friend!
Why I Recommend Exploring SendPulse
If you want to get creative in engaging your audience, my next recommendation will excite you!
SendPulse is an email and bot marketing platform with unique differentiation:
- Build multi-channel bots for Facebook, Viber, Telegram etc
- Leverage built-in email and SMS capabilities
- CreateSEGMENT
- Send drip campaigns, triggers and behavioral messaging
This unified approach allows crafting highly personalized conversations driving unprecedented engagement.
For instance, when a site visitor interacts with their bot, SendPulse lets you automatically enroll them in an ongoing email nurture sequence. Powerful!
While they can build complex bots with coding, I love their templates allowing easy creation for everyone.
Pricing starts very affordable and scales up based on usage. SMBs can easily justify the ROI – some clients achieve over $15,000 revenue per month with their tools.
In closing my friend, if you want to wow people with creative utilization of bots, sign up for a free SendPulse trial today.
My Top No-Code FB Bot Builder – Botsify
Let‘s say you specifically want to launch smart chatbots on popular messaging platforms. Allow me to strongly recommend checking out Botsify.
Their suite enables creating messenger bots for Facebook, WhatsApp, SMS, Alexa and more with NO coding required.
Key highlights:
- Drag-and-drop Visual Builder
- Multi-language NLP baked in
- Growth tools like lead gen forms
- Bot connector to hand-off conversations
- Team collaboration with shared access
- Enterprise-grade security
Global leaders like OLX and JLL leverage Botsify to facilitate millions of automated engagements monthly.
Pricing starts free covering 10,000 messages, then scales based on usage. SMBs can easily cost justify a small monthly fee based on labor savings and revenue growth.
If your goal is specifically leveraging messenger bots to transform customer experience, stop reading and go try Botsify now my friend!
Dialogflow – The Bot Platform Powered by Google
What if you expect EXTREMELY high traffic volume? Maybe over 500,000+ conversations per month?
You need serious technology backed by AI cloud infrastructure. That leads me to enthusiastically recommend Dialogflow.
Created by Google, Dialogflow utilizes deep integration with the Google Cloud platform for unrivaled scale and sophistication.
- Built-in NLP understands complex nuances
- Contextual responses feel remarkably human
- Processing power to handle insane traffic without delays
- Integrates across devices like Google Assistant
- Enterprise grade security and reliability
Global titans like Kayak, Domino‘s and Airbus tap Dialogflow to handle millions of engagements.
Pricing is based on usage starting at just $0.006 per request after free tier. So you only pay extra as demand necessitates.
If you anticipate stratospheric scale, I advise checking out the platform powering chatbots for some of the world‘s biggest companies.
Converse – The 853 Startups Choice for Bots
My entrepreneurial readers will appreciate this next gem – Converse!
Focused on serving fast-growth startups, Converse makes it easy to create and manage bots on all major channels.
Their customers include over 853 innovative startups like ProductHunt, Shippo and Napkin Labs.
Standout strengths:
- Drag and drop bot builder needs no coding expertise
- NLP accurately interprets requests
- Unified dashboard to manage all bots and interactions
- Tools to track ROI on campaigns
- Humans can takeover conversations when needed
- Affordable pricing scales as you grow
In celebration of Women‘s History Month, check out how PlanGrid (founded by Tracy Young) leveraged Converse to increase sales pipeline 4X!
I encourage all my startup founders to test drive Converse with their free dev accounts before paying.
Why 1 Million Businesses Use ManyChat
My friend, no bot review is complete without addressing the beast that is ManyChat.
With over 1 million users, this category leader boldly declares "If you‘re NOT using ManyChat, you‘re missing out on 95% of traffic and sales!"
While many platforms focus solely on bots, ManyChat views them as just one tool for Messenger marketing domination.
Core strengths:
- Broadcast content to followers
- Lead capture forms and sales funnels
- Segment audiences
- Auto-reply sequences
- Messenger ads integration
- Affordable pricing tiers
Pizza Hut uses ManyChat to accept delivery orders via Messenger chat.
My agency clients often use it in conjunction with dedicated bot builders for comprehensive messaging strategies.
I suggest you join 1 million businesses leveraging ManyChat to growth hack Facebook Messenger and their bottom line.
Smooch – The Platform for Multi-Channel Bots
What I especially like about Smooch is the unified API supporting every messaging channel imaginable:
- SMS
- Apple Messages
- FB Messenger
- Slack
- Telegram
- Line
- Viber
- etc…
With Smooch, one set of code powers engaging bots across platforms.
Ideal for large enterprises, strengths include:
- Human hand-offs
- Conversation analytics
- HIPPA compliance
- CRM integrations
- Scalability to high volumes
Pricing starts $99/mo for core features. Big brands like Subway, Rogers, and TGIF use Smooch to connect customers across countries and apps.
If you need omnichannel scalability – especially for complex organizations – check out Smooch.
Why I‘m Crazy for MobileMonkey
My agency friends, this next one is for you! If you manage lots of clients wanting to leverage Messenger, behold the glory of MobileMonkey.
We implement it for clients constantly desiring more powerful marketing automation. I‘m just crazy about it 😜
Capabilities include:
- Messenger chatbots
- Contact management
- Broadcasting content
- Personalization + segmentation
- Multi-step sales funnels with conditional logic
- Integrations with CRMs, email and webinar tools
- Robust analytics
Pricing is very reasonable for serious firepower starting under $20/mo.
The US Navy uses MobileMonkey to nurture recruiting via Messenger sequences. One fitness studio saw a 508% increase in leads from their MobileMonkey bot.
For savvy marketers, especially agencies, MobileMonkey is an indispensable Swiss Army knife!
Developers Rejoice – Open Source Botkit!
Maybe you already know some programming or have a technical team. If you desire maximum customization control, behold open source Botkit.
This developer toolkit enables building custom conversational interfaces on countless platforms beyond messaging apps. The only real limit is your imagination!
Key features:
- Modular components
- SDKs for major coding languages
- Prebuilt starter templates
- Community contributed plugins
- Hosted Botkit Studio workspace (optional)
As a real example, Live Nation built an AI-powered Facebook Messenger bot that helps groups pick concerts to attend together. So cool!
Botkit Studio pricing starts free for individuals, then paid tiers adding collaboration tools. Or use just the open source libraries at no cost.
If you want freedom to create the next generation of boundary-pushing conversational interfaces, Botkit rocks!
Need Working Prototypes? Botsociety Lets You Test Drive Concepts.
My entrepreneur friends always ask me for tools allowing mockups before investing in development.
BotSociety perfectly fits that need for rapidly iterating bot concepts.
It functions like a "gymnasium" for testing conversational design safe from public eyes.
Core features:
- Built-in human emulators show realistic dialog flows
- Allows collaborators to give feedback
- Import third party conversation transcripts
- Integrates with dev platforms like Dialogflow
Pricing starts free for individuals, then paid tiers with team functionality.
Before spending big bucks on bot development, I strongly advise taking concepts for a test drive with BotSociety.
Rounding Out the Dozen – Wit.ai
Last but not least in my bot platforms tour, I want to mention Wit.ai.
Acquired by Facebook back in 2015, they offer an open source solution tailored to speech recognition.
Standout strengths:
- Understands spoken sentences and queries
- Supports text-based conversations too
- Community contributed language packs
- Tight integration for voice assistants
- Generous free usage tier
For companies like Udemy serving global audiences, Wit.ai facilitates easily deploying bots with automatic language translation enabled.
My friend, if voice chat represents part of your conversational interface plans, be sure to check them out.
Key Takeaways – Finding Your Ideal Chatbot Partner
Congrats getting all the way here! By now you surely see chatbots are a MUST for remaining competitive. The costs savings and revenue growth simply can‘t be ignored.
Here are my key recommendations as you move forward:
Keep It Simple Initially
Start experimenting with easier no-code tools. Chatfuel, ManyChat, MobileMonkey and Converse let you validate concepts and measure results fast without coding. You can always switch later.
Map the Conversation Journey
Sketch out the key dialog flows. What FAQs will you automate? How will you qualify leads? Design smart paths to guide users seamlessly.
Hybrid Works Wonders
Even advanced bots have limitations. Make sure to incorporate a "hand off" to talk to a live rep, take surveys etc. Combining bot + human can be very powerful!
Analyze Performance Obsessively
Tools like ChatBot and Smooch have fantastic analytics. But also track leads generated, sales influenced, opt-ins captured. Continuously tweak based on data.
I sincerely hope you found this bot guide helpful my friend! Please don‘t hesitate to reach out if I can offer any other advice. Just imagine the possibilities…
Wishing you tremendous success!
