Manychat Review: Chat Marketing Automation But Is It Enough?

When it comes to marketing, automating communication with prospects can be a huge lifesaver. But if this automated communication is smart too, well, that is just pure gold, isn’t it? Now, there is a plethora of AI-based chat automation tools in the market today, some good, others not so much. In this review, we are putting Manychat on trial. 

Maybe you have heard about it or maybe your mind went blank at the mention. Either way, as always, let’s start with a quick introduction so everybody is on the same page.

Shall we begin?   

What is Manychat? 

Manychat is a well-known chat automation platform that uses AI and machine learning to create and run chatbots on various communication channels including  Instagram, WhatsApp, SMS, and Facebook Messenger. It is used by over a million businesses worldwide - Nike, Mindvalley, Benefit, Hotmart, Jenna Kutcher, and Amy Porterfield being some of them.  

With chat automation at its heart, Manychat can not only help you up your lead generation game but also boost your conversion rate on autopilot. So, let’s see what exactly you can do within Manychat. 

WhatsApp

Well, for starters, the Manychat platform offers a comprehensive built-in WhatsApp automation solution. You can manage all your chats, leads, and sales from a single number, ensuring a unified and streamlined communication experience. Also, it allows you to avoid unnecessary delays with automated responses, empowering your team to engage with leads promptly. And, as your sales team gets a complete overview of every conversation and lead, they can make better decisions and offer enhanced customer service. 

On top of that, Manychat has WhatsApp Broadcasts so you can re-engage your contacts and carry out high-converting remarketing campaigns with no effort at all. With WhatsApp automation on Manychat, you can automatically qualify leads 24/7, ensuring no opportunity slips through the cracks. And the icing on the cake - this platform comes with a dedicated AI assistant that creates chatbots for you, putting you in control of your WhatsApp sales automation journey.     

Facebook Messenger

Facebook or Meta, as it is called now, is widely used by brands for marketing, especially when it comes to paid advertising. And oftentimes, these ads lead prospects to your Facebook Messenger, offering you a chance to convert them into paying customers. With Manychat’s Facebook Messenger automation, you can create a well-curated series of automated responses that can answer common questions about your products or services.

Or maybe you can create a bot to interact with prospective customers, gather information about them, feed them helpful content, and then nudge them towards a sale. 

Of course, you need an existing Facebook page and administrator rights to manage it. Once you have that, you can get started with just a few clicks. Easy-peasy! And hey, just so you know, your Manychat bot is not limited to just prospects on your Facebook page. No matter where a customer clicks a link, be it your website, email, or a QR code, you can initiate the bot and get on with the conversation. 

Instagram

Your Instagram DMs can be a reliable sales funnel if you play your cards right. With Manychat’s Instagram DM automation capabilities, you can attract quality leads and convert up to 80% of them without having to need a salesperson or a virtual assistant.  

What is interesting about Manychat is that it allows you to build your list of contacts and leads and re-engage with interested prospects, streamlining communication efforts. Also, it barely takes 15-20 minutes to set up a personalized bot capable of answering FAQs, responding to comments, informing customers about your products and services, collecting feedback, and scheduling calls. 

SMS Marketing

Yeah, SMS marketing is not dead. In fact, most customers prefer text messages over a phone call or an email. Also, SMS is a fantastic communication channel if you have something time-sensitive to say to your customers. 

Manychat’s SMS automation capabilities allow you to build automated SMS journeys in the Flow Builder that feel personal to your customers. You can send product updates, reminders, special offers, and coupon codes, or collect customer feedback. Also, this platform gives you the flexibility of having a real person take over the conversation via Live Chat at any point in time. 

The only caveat here is that Manychat relies on Twilio to send and receive SMS messages. Therefore, you will need a Twilio account and a phone number purchased from Twilio. 

Templates

To make it easier for beginners to navigate around the platform, Manychat offers ready-to-go customizable templates, no matter what communication channel you want to automate. 

But more importantly, it features a number of chat marketing templates for e-commerce that are endorsed by the well-known marketing expert Neil Patel. In fact, the Manychat team has categorized them based on specific use cases, for example, abandoned carts, sales/promotions, out-of-stock products, etc. 

Integrations

Manychat offers seamless integration with some of the very popular tools to extend its functionality. For example, by integrating with Google Sheets, you can retrieve, save, update, or manage subscriber data. 

Some other third-party integrations are Zapier, HubSpot, MailChimp, PayPal, Stripe, ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit, and more. 

Pricing

Manychat offers simple and straightforward pricing with only three plans - Free, Pro ($15/mo), and Premium (custom pricing). The Free plan gives you zero-cost access to some quite basic features. You can communicate with up to 1000 contacts on Instagram DMs, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp. Plus, you get 10 tags to segment your customers. 

The Pro and Premium plans offer access to more communication channels with plenty more features and are scalable with the number of contacts. 

Final Verdict

Overall, Manychat wins on many fronts. It offers multi-channel automation, an easy-to-use Flow Builder, custom tags for customer segmentation, built-in Live Chat via Zapier, and more. Also, it does not hurt that it only costs 15 bucks a month when starting out. However, this platform has quite limited AI capabilities, which can be a deal breaker for many marketers, especially in the age of AI.

This is why it is best to try out the free version and see if it works for you. And hey, you don’t even have to put in your credit card details for this. A win-win, won’t you say?