Chatmatic's Messenger Chatbot - Does It Work?
NEWS UPDATE: 20th November 2023.
Chatmatic is no longer an active application promoted on this website.
The company that bought Chatmatic from Travis Stephenson has failed to make a go of this tremendous product and has unfortunately closed down all business assets and training. The product itself is still active although it won't be supported, which essentially renders it unusable.
I will investigate replacements for this type of product and write about them in due course.
ALL BUTTON LINKS TO CHATMATIC ON THIS PAGE HAVE BEEN DISABLED.
In this Chatmatic messenger chatbot review we're going to look at what a chatbot is, how it works and whether Chatmatic's offering is worth it.
Let's start with a summary to kick things off.
Messenger Chatbot Review Summary
The marketing force behind Chatmatic is a man named Travis Stephenson. Together with his Chatmatic side-kick Trent Richards they have built a platform that enables you to automate direct messages on both Facebook and Instagram. You can go to Travis's Instagram here.
product specs
Unlimited account pages and workflows in the fully paid offering.
Training And Support
Plenty of tutorial videos on each screen of the application plus more in the members area.
Affiliate Program
Affiliate program paying 40% base commission on sales of numerous campaigns.
Ease Of Use
Intuitive interface with clear workflow layout. Some learning curve required however.
Reliability
Regular system updates. Can be interrupted by changes to Facebook sometimes.
Price
Full service, unlimited version is very well priced and affordable.
4.5/5
Chatmatic gets a 4.5 out of 5 star rating. The only reason it doesn't get a 5 is because the bot workflows can sometimes not fire if there has been any interruption between Chatmatic and either Facebook or Instagram. Not their fault of course, and easily fixed by simply re-connecting.
What Is Chatmatic Messenger Marketing?
Messenger marketing is the process of using the messenger services from within Facebook and/or Instagram to connect with your audience on a more personal level. It's conversation marketing allwoing a on-on-one interaction between you and your customers or potential customers.
There's a big problem however. And that is, messenger marketing is available 24/7 for anyone who wants to contact you but you're not always available at the same time.
To alleviate this, there are some "default" answers and responses that you can set up within the platforms to at least respond to someone immediatley so that they don't feel like they've been left hanging.
With the advent of programs like Chatmatic, now you can build messenger automations (commonly known as bots) that can act in an intuitive way to have a "conversation" with someone.
Now, they are not left hanging and in many ways can get their questions answered without you physically having to respond to them.
But it can now go WAY further than that, with things like delays, if/then responses, merge fields and so many other built-in features to the messenger systems like Chatmatic, that you can practically run full marketing campaigns that automatically fire off in response to the interactions of people on your Facebook and Instagram pages.
Now controlling all this could get way out of hand but with messenger marketing systems like Chatmatic, you can create, edit, store, monitor and even share chatbot workflows and also have them triggered in many different ways depending on what type of marketing campaign you're running.
Should I Buy Chatmatic?
No matter what system I look at, and no matter how good it might seem, for me the answer to the above question always comes down to "am I going to use this right now".
If you want to create multiple marketing campaigns on many levels then the answer is YES. If you're not thinking of automating that marketing in any way then the answer is NO .
With the recent announcement by Instagram that it will now allow automated direct messaging responses the answer is leaning even more towards a YES because Instagram is a veritable goldmine just waiting to be tapped.
The Chatmatic Toolbox
Now that Chatmatic can handle both Instagram and Facebook automated sequences, the toolbox has expanded. There are some subtle differences in the way that sequences can be built and triggered, but essentially the way Chatmatic works for both systems is the same.
It's a pity that they aren't EXACTLY the same though because that way you could build one sequence and have it triggred by either platform, but the capability for that is unfortunately not there yet.
So, while the basics are the same for both, you have to build one sequence for Facebook and one for Instagram.
Chatmatic's Main Toolbox Set
The Home Screen
The home screen of Chatmatic is where you connect all the pages (Facebook and Instagram) that you have admin ownership to. These may be your pages, or the pages of clients. You can also see your overall stats, training videos, tips and tricks, featured templates and system update messages.
Subscribers
Once you access any page within the system, you not only have data on that page's performance, but you also have a number of other items. One is a subscribers button. Here you see all the subscribers to that page, you can export them, look at individual data acollected, sequences they've entered, messages they've read and their lifetime value.
Triggers
Triggers enable you to set conditions by which a sequence fires. For example, it can be via a keyword, or a generic response, via an ad, a stories mention (Instagram), from a welcome message or chat widget on your site. Some triggers can only be used with certain sequences and will only fire if the sequence is set up correctly.
Broadcasts
Broadcasts enable you you to send one-off style messages to all the subscribers, or a subset of subscribers of your page. This message can be in messenger format or email format which opens up the marketing options available from Chatmatic in a huge way. Think follow ups.
Workflows
This is where the heavy lifting is done. Your workflows are your message sequences. They can contain text, emojis, images, gifs and videos (not in Instagram yet), conditional statements, time delay options, sms sends, email sends. The options are only limited by your creativity.
Integrations
Integrations allow you to move outside the Chatmatic environment and connect to other systems like autoresponders and basically any software that either allows webhooks or has an application programmimg interface (API). Now, Chatmatic's becomes a full-blooded marketing system and not just a messenger marketing program.
Automations
Automations work with the Integrations and enable you to set when and where things occur within your sequence. For example, after someone enters an email address, you might have an automation triggering an intergration to send that email address to your autoresponder system.
Templates
Every single workflow that you create can be saved as a template for your own use on other pages, or to upload to the template library to be made available to other Chatmatic uses either free or for a price. This adds another level of value to the Chatmatic system and also increaes the effectiveness of the programm all round. I mean, why re-invent the wheel. Just buy a sequence that someone else has already created and modify it to your own needs. Brilliant.
Custom Fields & Tags
Chatmatic isn't just a messenger system. It's a massive data collection system too and with custom fields and tags, you can store any data item you want and use it wherever you want. This is great for segmenting audiences, or to send info to your field agents or sales people or to just repeat back to a person what they've entered in the sequence.
What You Can Do With A Chatmatic Chatbot
The main function of messenger marketing is to create conversations. But if you limit it to just that, then you're not taking advantage of the wide scope that automated conversations can create. Here's a few examples:
Competitions
The competition process on Facebbok and Instagram is well known. But it's also cumbersome. people have to leave the platform to do tasks like click on links. Not anymore. The contestant simply DM's a word and gets taken staright into an automation where all task are completed on the phone/computer. This is hugely powerful.
Lead Generation
Automations come into their own for lead generation. You can use all the standard opt-in processes you already use on websites to create the same lead generation sequence via an automation, and the opt-in rate is much greater than with a standard computer based form. The power of instant response creates a dynamic and also fun environment.
Support/Research
Both customer support, and buyer research can be done through a chatmatic sequence. The ability to ask questions, get responses, repeat back responses, go to links based on answers and other abilities like this extend the use of automated sequences beyond the standard "how can we help you" chat widget you're used to.
As mentioned earlier, the scope of automated sequences is really only limited by your imagination.
You can get extremely creative with a chatbot sequence and I have seen many that have become full-blown sales funnels to rival any seen with standard websites and opt-in forms.
You can integrate Chatmatic sequences via buttons or links on your website by simply utilising the different trigger options available to you.
I use them a lot on my Thrive Themes sites. If you've never used Thrive themes, check out my review here.
Chatmatic Pros And Cons
Chatbots and automated sequences are not new, yet they are still in a growth phase so their development is varied dependant on the provider. Here's a few Chatmatic pros and cons.
Pros
Cons
While the Facebook side of automated sequence marketing is fairly well established, Instagram has only just opened their direct messaging to automations.
Some of the features that are familiar with the Facebook side are either not yet available, or work slightly differently for Instagram, so the learning curve can be a bit "bumpy".
That is, you think you've done something correctly only to find out you can't use "X" feature for Instagram, or you can't add a video like you can with a Facebook automation. These are only minor issues but it can become a bit frustrating if you forget halfway through building a sequence.
Chatmatic pricing Options
As at the time of writing (September 2021), Chatmatic was changing its pricing models. Adding Instagram into the system required a price increase to $1495.00 per year, however the Chatmatic company has been running many promotions that keep the price at the old $499.00 per year Agency package pricing.
There was also a monthly option but I understand that might be getting removed because it just didn't make financial sense (both to buyer and seller) but I am not 100% sure of that.
The best bet at present is click the button below and see what the pricing options are listed on the promotional page.
Chatmatic Messenger Chatbot Review Conclusion
Personally, I think if you are not adding automated messenger sequences into your marketing arsenal today then you are missing out on a potential goldmine of opportunity.
When you consider the number of Instagram influencers alone who could use your help to set up their sales sequences, the mind boggles.
Does Chatmatic work? yes it does. Does it work well? yes it does. Is it perfect? No it isn't. I have seen other chatbot systems out there that have more features and some that have less. Some seem easier to use and again, some are harder.
I have found Chatmatic to sit in-between many of the other systems and the final analysis for me is that it gives me everything I need, plus is continually being developed, so it'll grow with the market. For me, that's the biggest plus.