A Copywriter’s Secrets to Writing Great Messenger Bot Conversations

Writing copy for your Messenger chatbot can be daunting. You feel like you don’t know what you’re doing, and then writer’s block (and maybe a little bit of self-doubt) creeps up on you, so you decide to watch another episode of The Good Place on Netflix instead of finishing your bot.

No one should have to experience the paralysing fear of writing, especially when it’s meant to be a fun conversation for a Messenger bot. Basically, you shouldn’t feel like this…

Many of the clients I work with have the exact same problem when it comes to writing, from tone of voice to greetings, and even the wording of their terms and conditions for bot competitions.

I’ve worked with close to 1,000 clients and the one thing that they know is crucial is copywriting. And for my Messenger bot clients, they know the bot is representing their business so their #1 priority is the bot HAS to sound like them.

So, let’s go through some things that can help you approach copywriting for your Messenger chatbot like a pro, so you can banish the self-doubt and “writing demons” once and for all. (I think I also have a voodoo spell for that.)

But why is copywriting so important?

Put simply, copywriting can increase both the quality and quantity of your leads.

“Once you understand what makes people buy things, you know how to sell — and how to write copy.”

– Robert W. Bly, The Copywriter’s Handbook

Why you should care about copywriting

Serial entrepreneur Ramit Sethi was asked what the most underrated skill was to grow a business, he replied, “I’d have to say copywriting. I spent years studying it, we’ve generated millions of dollars using copywriting, and I’m still amazed by the masters.”

I am #TeamRamit on this one. I created an email for a SaaS startup that generated a 10% open rate in 2 hours to a list of 11k (higher than industry average)… I then built a Facebook Messenger bot and a two-email sequence that made $3,000 in sales and 68.2% open rate, with a 36.5% CTR and 71.5% CTR to the sales page.

I wrote a landing page for a USD $69.95 per month subscription product that outperformed the control by 44%.

So, copy is key when it comes to getting the attention of your audience.

But bot copy is a little different. So here are some things you should follow:

5 powerful rules for giving great bot copy

1. It’s a conversation in Messenger — treat it like one.
2. Brevity is ALWAYS best in this platform. If you can say it in 2 sentences, say it in 2 sentences ONLY. Don’t waffle on.
3. Use emojis. If you have to convey a lot of information, use emojis as bullet points to create visual interest.
4. Use GIFs. Copy can be enhanced by appropriate GIFs to show humour or reward the user for performing a task.
5. Don’t forget your buttons — they need some copy love, too. 💖

Button, button… Who’s got the button?

SURPRISE! People don’t read all of your message text within the bot, so your buttons or quick replies are going to have to do MORE of the work.

For example, say you have a realtor bot and it sends a message asking subscribers if they can attend an open house on a particular date. Normally, you would write quick replies as “YES” or “NO”.

But if you write them as “Yes I can attend” or “No I can’t attend”, the click-through rate will be higher as people will skim your message and be able to respond a lot faster to your question. We’re all too busy, OK?

Think about including a “something else” option for some yes/no questions. For the realtor bot, this would be “Not sure” option for the same open house question.

Tone of voice is also important here. A button response like “Yes! Gimme!” to a question would be appropriate for a young, fun brand (think Tarte Cosmetics) while a reply that’s “Yes! I’d like that” is better suited to a more sophisticated brand, like Vogue.

The biggest secret: reuse existing content

When I create copy for a Messenger bot campaign, it includes:

• Facebook Ad
• Custom template for Facebook keyword trigger in the ad
• Bot flow in ManyChat
• Email (triggered by the bot and delivered by Mailchimp)

Usually, I’ll use copy from the website or brief to create the bot copy, then I’ll use copy from the Facebook Ad and bot flow to create the emails we send out (or vice versa). Everything is created once, and modified for each use, keeping best practices for each use in mind.

Gamification

Gamification works great for helping your audience find a product that works for them. You may have seen them already. Something like this:

• Which product is best for you?
• “5 Days and 5 Ways to a Healthier Body Challenge”
• Which perfume would suit you?

This also ties into qualifying leads.You can do this via a series of questions, which your customers are MORE willing to answer than they would if they were talking to a human (because they know there isn’t a person at the other end judging them).

You can find out things like what their budget is, if they’re ready to buy or just browsing, and what they’re looking for. Then target your marketing based on this segmentation.

For dating expert Matthew Hussey, I created a dating quiz that tied into his appearance on reality show “The Single Wives”, and also allowed our subscribers to brush up on their dating prowess with 5 dating questions.

The results were super encouraging:

5 foolproof gamification rules

1. Use existing copy ﹘ When creating a quiz, use a guide, an article you’ve written, eBook or whitepaper to source material that can form your questions.
2. Turn the questions into Q&A. Map it out! I use XMind ZEN.
3. Limit it to 5 questions.. Any more and it’s too long and the audience will drop off.
4. Limit it to 2 answers as A LOT of building goes into these!
5. Make them evergreen. This means they’ll live in your bot for a long time with a great shelf life.

BONUS: quizzes also perform well in Facebook Ad campaigns.

So now you have the best-kept secrets for writing fun Messenger bot conversations. Writing doesn’t have to be scary, you just need the tools to make it work for you. The rest is practice.

Want to know more about how to write killer copy ?

> Click here to get the “Copywriting for Chatbots: 5 Essential Tips to Non-Sucky Copy” delivered to you via Facebook Messenger (what else?). 😉

Not sure you can tackle the copywriting or Messenger bot yourself?

> I only work with a handful of clients, so drop me a line via my Facebook Messenger bot and answer some simple questions about your business to see if we’re a good fit.