Want to know what’s the best chatbot (or the best platform) for your business? Read on to discover the most popular bots for websites and social media.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
👉 Start with the basics: what are the best use cases for bots?
👉 Need more leads? What’s the best bot for lead generation?
👉 Want inspiration? Where to find the best chatbot examples
👉 Follow these best practices…
👉 How to identify the best features you can use in your business
👉 Revealed: some of the best ideas and the best solutions
👉 Interested in chatbot AI? Read this before looking for the best AI bot
👉 Training: why you need the best tutorials
👉 What’s the best bot software to use?
👉 Social media bots: the one thing to look for in a Facebook bot
👉 Where to find the best free bot for website owners
👉 Use WordPress? What to look for in a WordPress chatbot plugin?
👉 What’s the best bot platform?
👉 FAQ
👉 Conclusion: so what’s the best chatbot for your business?
Start with the basics: what are the best use cases for bots?
Firstly, what exactly do you need a bot for?
Do you need:
🤖 lead generation bots which you can add to your website or social media channels
🤖 social media bots to automatically generate leads, sales, and bookings
🤖 a customer service bot to instantly answer questions, reduce your support tickets and enhance your customer experience
🤖 a bot for appointment booking (or meetings, events, webinars, etc) on your website or social media
🤖 bots to replace webforms on your website (or to work alongside them) to generate more leads
🤖 a real estate bot to automate bookings and generate more leads
🤖 an insurance bot to automatically generate more (qualified) leads
🤖 an e-commerce bot to automatically drive more sales
🤖 bot examples to inspire you and help you get started
🤖 a sophisticated AI bot that uses machine learning
🤖 a multiple language bot which you can easily edit to work in any language
🤖 a bot for live chat (to either replace live chat or as an initial point of contact before handing over to a human in real time)
🤖 website bots to increase your website conversions (bot can be used as widgets, popups or embedded within your website)
🤖 a chatbot website (also known as “conversational landing pages” or a “bot landing page“) to generate more leads
🤖 a WordPress plugin chatbot to increase engagement with your content
🤖 a Facebook Messenger bot (or social media bots) to reduce the cost of Facebook advertising and increase your ROI
🤖 a bot conversation flow you can easily edit to help achieve a high ROI
🤖 assistance with setting and understanding your goals so you can measure your performance
🤖 to customize design so that your bots are consistent with your brand
Bots provide endless opportunities so having an idea of your goals will help you to find the best one for your business.
Need more leads? What’s the best bot for lead generation?
Do you have a website or a Facebook Business Page? Or both?
We’ll briefly explore bots for both these channels. This will help to answer the question “what’s the best chatbot for lead generation?”
- How to use Website bots for lead generation
On your website, you’re likely to have a static web form to collect leads.
On a website, lead generation involves either:
#1 replacing your forms with bots
#2 using bots alongside forms
Static forms are outdated and can result in low user engagement.
In fact, they’re actually quite boring…
| Meanwhile, bots can dramatically increase user engagement and interaction. That results in a better user experience. Better user experience = higher % lead generation (or lead conversion) |
- How to use Facebook Messenger Bots for lead generation
You can use a Facebook Messenger chatbot example as a powerful alternative to landing pages. Or as an effective strategy alongside your landing pages.
Here’s why they perform so well for lead generation:
#1 Filling out a lead form on Messenger is so much easier than redirecting people to a form on your website.
#2 98% of Facebook users access their accounts through mobile. (Source)
All they need to do to become your subscribers (or leads) is click on one button to opt-in. That’s much simpler than filling out a form on mobile.
#3 Once they become your subscriber you can follow up with them even if they don’t send you their phone number or email.
#4 Facebook Messenger is a more personalized way to communicate.
The conversation flow can be changed during the actual chat. The Messenger bot can know the name of the user through Facebook.
These are just some of the reasons why you should use Facebook Messenger bots for lead generation.
- So which is the best bot for lead generation?
| The best lead generation bots work as BOTH website bots and social media bots. |
There aren’t many platforms that support both types of bot.
Here at ConvertoBot, we support both website bots and social media bots.
We have many pre built chatbot templates for lead generation to help you get started.
Want inspiration? Where to find the best chatbot examples
When considering examples, think of a template (much like a website template). We also call them “conversation flows.”
Templates you can easily edit and use on your own website or social media account. They can save you a lot of time and help you get started.
You can always adapt them according to your business needs.
A conversation flow may be simple or complex depending on the use case.
For example, lead generation bots may only involve two steps before asking for the lead contact information.
On the other hand, a customer service bot may need to deal with many different questions and scenarios.
So it’s likely to be more complex and needs more customization to support your product or service.
| If you need inspiration, we have over 100 Facebook chatbot examples, WhatsApp bot and website chatbot examples here. You can easily edit them and use them as website bots or social media bots, in minutes. |
They cover many different industries and use cases. Our community requests them and we build them. 😊
Follow these best practices…
This is related to the previous section in which we discussed the concept of a conversation flow.
Without following best practices, you’re limiting the ROI of your bot.
The practices below cover the entire journey: from starting the chat to completing the flow. They’re designed to increase engagement and ROI.
They’re based on our experience of analyzing thousands of conversation flows.
| We discuss best practices in more depth in our video tutorials. You can setup a free account here and access those videos. |
- Keep the initial interaction short – ask your user for a response as soon as possible.
- Use short sentences like you would do naturally when chatting.
- Don’t ask for contact information too early in the chat. Give your user a strong reason to trust you with their personal information.
- Before adding content to your bot, work out a conversation flow using a bot builder.
- Or if you don’t want to build your own flow, use a chatbot template to get started.
- Use emojis where appropriate. 🤖 They add personality and character to the conversation. 😉
- Customize the bot design (applies to website bots) so it follows your brand.
- Choose the bot avatar design (applies to website bots) to suit your brand.
This is just a snapshot of some of the best bot practices. Setup a free account and get more guidance in our tutorials.
How to identify the best bot features 🤖 you can use in your business
To find the best bot features, firstly let’s consider three questions.
QUESTION 1 What exactly are you using bots for?
QUESTION 2 Do you have a website or a Facebook page? Or both?
QUESTION 3 Do you need to pass the data from your bots to your other apps?
So let’s imagine that you’re using a bot lead generation strategy. (QUESTION 1)
Like many businesses, you have both a website and a Facebook page. (QUESTION 2)
You need to pass the lead info to your CRM system. (QUESTION 3)
(Or you may be using a marketing automation tool or email marketing service).
So the best bot features for you include:
- lead generation examples
- a platform which supports both website and Facebook Messenger bots
- a platform that offers a wide range of integrations and allows API access
ConvertoBot is a platform that ticks all of the boxes and we’re not shy of saying it. 😊
- We have over 100 conversational bots examples for all kinds of use cases and industries.
- Our platform supports both website and Facebook Messenger bots. All of our examples work with both channels.
- You can use our API – we support webhooks.
- We have a wide range of native integrations with marketing automation tools/CRMs/email marketing solutions.
- If you use Zapier, we have a Zapier app that opens up access to over 1,500 apps.
To learn more about the best features on ConvertoBot read this detailed ConvertoBot review.
Revealed: some of the best ideas and the best solutions
We’ve reviewed thousands of bots across multiple industries and use cases. Some of the most innovative examples we’ve seen include:
- Chatbot Website or Conversational Landing Pages
This is also known as a “full page bot”. The entire landing page is a bot which means there are no other distractions.
That’s why this is also known as a chatbot website.
These bots can work extremely well as conversational landing pages for PPC or any kind of advertising campaign.
You can use a bot website in conjunction with:
- a bot lead generation strategy
- a bot for appointment booking (or any kind of event/meeting/webinar etc)
- an ecommerce bot strategy (or any kind of sales strategy)
| We discovered that using a conversational landing page significantly lowers advertising costs. At the same time it increases leads and sales conversion rates. It’s one of the best solutions for mobile traffic on websites. Try using any of our bots as a chatbot landing template. |
Traditional website landing pages weren’t designed for mobile. In contrast, chat applications were designed for mobile.
When users land on conversational landing pages (or a bot website), they know what to do. It’s intuitive to them.
Think about it this way. Whatsapp has over 1.5 billion users. (Source)
From teenagers to grandparents, a chat application is a familiar interface. So when users land on conversational landing pages or a bot website, they know what to expect.
That’s why a conversational landing page, is an effective solution to lower advertising costs. That, in turn, leads to higher ROI.
- Exit Intent Bot
An exit-intent bot has high novelty value. So in that respect, it’s similar to a conversational landing page.
| Traditional exit intent popups are extremely common. They’ve been around for as long as you might remember. Meanwhile an exit intent bot popup is new and rare. |
For that reason, it can be a powerful website strategy to:
#1 generate leads
#2 drive bookings
#3 add sales (for example a special offer to an exiting visitor)
Interested in chatbot AI? Read this before looking for the best AI bot…
AI is a huge buzzword around bots.
However, we would suggest a cautious approach to using artificially intelligent bots. Rather than enhance the user experience, they may end up frustrating them.
Another thing to consider is that even the best AI powered bot involves significant setup time.
Let’s take the example of a customer service bot. You need to build the bot to address a wide variety of questions relating to your products and services.
For this to work smoothly and generate a strong ROI:
#1 the AI and natural language processing needs to be as close to flawless as possible
#2 you need to pre-load the bot with as many scenarios as possible.
Even billion-dollar companies are still working on their AI and NLP (natural language processing technology). At this stage, a conversational AI bot may raise more issues than solve problems.
Learn more about the issues with AI bots and other common chatbot problems with natural language understanding.
Training: why you need the best tutorials
The best bot is only as good as the training tutorials that come with it.
That’s why you need the best tutorials to succeed in achieving a high ROI.
At ConvertoBot, we’ve built up a wealth of tutorials.
Our basic training video series consists of 80 bite-sized videos. These will help you get started quickly.
They’ll also help you learn basic strategies to get results.
Our advanced training series consists of 27 slightly longer videos.
| You’ll learn the strategies which we’ve discovered from testing and analyzing thousands of bots. You can setup a free account here and access those videos. |
What’s the best software to use?
Here’s what to consider when you’re considering which is the best chatbot software:
- is it a cloud-based application?
- is the interface easy to use?
- does it have enough native integrations so you can pass data to your apps? (or your clients)
- does it integrate with Zapier? (there are thousands of apps on Zapier which the software can connect to)
- is the software hosted on fast and reliable servers?
- do the software companies handle your data securely?
- is your data backed up?
- is there good customer support to help you?
These are some of the questions we considered when building the ConvertoBot app.
✅ Our software is cloud-based with a beginner-friendly interface. You don’t need any special skills to get results with it.
✅ We have many native integrations with marketing automation tools/CRMs/email marketing solutions.
✅ Our Zapier app opens up access to over 1,500 apps you can integrate with
✅ We use the Amazon Web Services (AWS) server infrastructure which is known to be a highly secure cloud computing environment.
✅ We use 129-bit SSL encryption for data transfer on our platform.
✅ We also follow strict security protocols in all of our work premises.
✅ On a daily basis, we backup all data.
You can learn more about the pros and cons of our software, in this ConvertoBot review.
You can also find out more about the pros and cons of the ConvertoBot Starter vs Professional vs Agency chatbot pricing plans.
And here’s a full breakdown of our bot service pricing plans.
Social media bots: the one thing to look for in a Facebook bot
There are 1.66 billion daily users of Facebook. (Source) So it’s no surprise that Facebook Messenger bots are wildly popular.
| The one thing which separates the best Facebook Messenger bots from the average one is the range of integrations. |
i.e. the number of apps that the bot can connect to.
Messenger is a powerful way to collect lead data. However, you will likely need to pass that data to your other applications. That’s how you maximize your ROI.
(By the way, here’s a detailed look at how to make a chatbot with a high ROI.)
We focus heavily on integrations at ConvertoBot.
We have a number of native integrations with marketing automation tools.
We also have an integration with Zapier which allows connection to over 1,500 apps.
Where to find the best free bot for website owners
A word of warning here.
Many companies push the free offer but in reality, it’s:
- a free trial which requires a subscription to continue
- free website bots with very limited functionality
We’ve yet to come across a free bot that can actually generate meaningful results.
At ConvertoBot we’re not shy to say that we have the best free bot for websites.
However, it’s a free 14 day trial that allows you to assess all of our features and functionality.
You can extend your free trial by a further 7 days. But after that, you do need to upgrade to a paid plan to continue using the service.
This article takes a detailed look at ConvertoBot chatbot pricing: Starter vs Professional vs Agency.
Also, find out more about our bot service pricing options.
Use WordPress? What to look for in the best WordPress chatbot plugin
Roughly 35% of the internet is powered by WordPress.
The number of total active websites is estimated at over 1.3 billion according to a survey published by Netcraft.
So that means that around 455,000,000 websites are using WordPress.
This was a statistic at the forefront of our minds when we built ConvertoBot.
| That’s why our WordPress chatbot plugin has all of the features we offer for website bots. There are no limitations. |
With the plugin you can get started very quickly with your first website bot.
Our development team regularly enhance the plugin to keep it in line with our general website bots.
To try our WordPress plugin for free today, open a free account here.
What’s the best bot platform?
These days most businesses have both a website and a social media presence (for example, a Facebook Business page).
| The best chatbot platform should therefore support both website and social media bots. It should offer a wide range of features on both channels. And, it should have a builder that’s drag and drop easy. |
Don’t restrict yourself to builders that support either website or social media bots, but not both.
There are 1,260,909,305 websites across the internet (Source) and 1.66 billion daily users of Facebook. (Source)
So it’s highly likely your customers will be browsing on both channels. If you’re only using website or social media bots (rather than both), you’re restricting your ROI.
This article is a must-read for a detailed look at how to make a chatbot with a high ROI.
FAQ
I have multiple websites. What’s the most cost-effective option?
Choose a platform that offers competitive bot service pricing for owners of multiple websites.
For example, here at ConvertoBot we offer an unlimited website license.
I have no special tech skills. What’s the most suitable chatbot solution?
Any bot platform worth its salt should allow you to build bots without needing any coding or special skills.
However, better platforms make that process intuitive and easy-to-learn.
One thing to look out for is a service with a wide range of the best chatbot examples.
These can save you a lot of time and give you a good idea of how to structure a conversation flow.
What’s the difference between a good bot and a rubbish bot?
A good bot should provide a quality user experience.
The intro should get straight to the point and keep the visitor in the conversation flow. It should then intelligently engage and interact with the user before achieving the end goal.
Language is the key. Use short, punchy language rather than long-winded sentences that are hard to read.
Conclusion: so what’s the best chatbot for your business?
Does your business have a website? Does it have a Facebook Business page?
If so, then the best option for your business is a platform that supports both website and social media bots.
If you don’t have a Facebook Business page, you’re potentially leaving many leads and customers on the table. You’re also restricting the channels on which your customers can communicate with you.
ConvertoBot supports both website and social media bots. We have over 7,000 customers who have activated over 12,000 bots on our platform.
You can see our free chatbot templates here.
Find out more about our pricing options on our bot service pricing page.
Start using our platform today by opening a free account here.
Articles you may also like:
- “How Much A Chatbot Cost?” – A Beginners Guide
- How To Make A Chatbot With A High ROI: Ultimate “How To” Guide
- ConvertoBot Chatbot Pricing: Starter vs Professional vs Agency
- The Most Common Chatbot Problems
- ConvertoBot Review – Is This The Best Bot?
- Get A Vital Competitive Edge With A WhatsApp Bot
- 7 Reasons Your Business Needs A WhatsApp Chatbot In 2021
Bot examples:
- Chatbot insurance examples you can clone and edit in a few minutes.
- Chatbot for automotive industry to generate more appointment bookings and sales.
- Cleaning services chatbot to convert more website and social media visitors into leads and clients.
- Wedding chatbot you can use today, in minutes, to increase inquiries and qualified leads.
- Enterprise helpdesk chatbot to reduce support tickets and work in conjunction with human agents.
- Travel chatbot examples you can clone and easily edit to increase inquiries, bookings, and sales.
- Retail chatbot to automatically increase your e-commerce sales.
- Best Whatsapp bots to reach your customers on the most popular messaging app in the world.
- Facebook Messenger chatbot example and website bot example to grow your design agency.
- Social media bots or website bots for improving customer service in the healthcare industry.
- Chatbots for hospitality industry to dramatically increase your sales and bookings.
- Chatbot conversation flow for a wide range of industries.
- Chatbot script examples for the recruitment industry.
- Photography chatbot to get more inquiries and better clients.
- Chatbot messenger template to increase event registrations.
- Facebook Messenger chatbot example for a design agency.
- WhatsApp chat bot example for education services.