Update #

1. Starting from 4.03.2020, ManyChat users will now see a new broadcast interface that introduces new features and takes into account the new Facebook Messenger platform strategy updates regarding subscription messaging, standard messaging, and message tagging.2. Learn more about this on the official Messenger policy page.Learn more about this above.

4. After the new Facebook messaging policy takes effect, certain previously available features will no longer be available after March 4, 2020. Currently, pages cannot send follow-up broadcasts. Additionally, pages that were not granted subscription permissions by Facebook before 4.03.2020 (5. see 6. Facebook News Page Index, NPI7. ) cannot send subscription broadcasts to their audience, while other options including “promotional” (within 24 hours) and “non-promotional” (within and outside the 24-hour window) can still broadcast. You now have 4 messaging tags: “Post-Purchase Update,” “Account Update,” “Event Confirmation Update,” and “Other.”

8. To send promotional messages now and outside the 24 + 1 messaging window and after 4.03.2020, you can use “ 9. Paid Messages”10. (which helps you run a special type of Facebook ad called “Sponsored Messages,” also found in the ManyChat ads section).

11. Therefore, your Messenger bot is set up, and you even have your first subscriber. Let's start chat marketing through broadcasts.

12. 1. What is a Broadcast #

13. ManyChat Broadcast is one of the best marketing tools to connect with your existing customer base to grow your business. Reactivate your existing subscribers, show them their needs and interests, and make sales and useful suggestions based on their replies. This is the next amazing ManyChat feature that gives you the opportunity to start a conversation with your subscribers immediately, so you can

14. deliver content to the subscriber list and target using audience filtering criteria.

15. Engage your subscribers through any available channel and pull them back to another channel when needed (consider bringing back inactive subscribers to Messenger via SMS).

16. Understand your audience and segment them based on user replies (conversation actions) using tags.

17. 2. How to Create a Broadcast #

18. It's simple. There are two ways to do this:

19. Create a broadcast from an existing flow by clicking the button in the upper right corner of the "Broadcast" homepage. This will open a flow selector where you can easily choose one of the existing flows. Once a flow is selected, you can either send the flow directly or edit it in the broadcast interface. Please note that any edits you make will not affect the original flow, as you will be editing its auto-generated copy. These copies are stored only in the "Broadcast" section.“The button in the upper right corner of the ”Broadcast“ homepage creates a broadcast from an existing flow. This will open a flow selector where you can easily choose one of the existing flows. Once a flow is selected, you can either send the flow directly or edit it in the broadcast interface. Please note that any edits you make will not affect the original flow, as you will be editing its automatically generated copy. These copies are stored only in the ”Broadcast" section.
Click Button to create broadcasts from various blank templates. A dialog window will open for you to select the channel to start (read some tips on how to determine the channel). After selecting the channel, you will find yourself in the Flow Builder, where you can write message flows and add many conversational actions (buttons or quick replies) that users can respond to. Don't let your subscribers get lost in replies; try to engage them in a conversation with one or more options. Create some attachment messages for the reply options you provide, but don't make the conversation too deep. You can also assign an action for each reply - add or remove tags, subscribe users to sequences, notify admins, etc.

3. How to choose the channel to start #

When you decide to use the channel, the first thing to consider is “How many people can be reached through channel X, and how likely are they to respond in the way I want when communicating with me through this channel?”

Other considerations include:

The contacts you have collected
You can use audience filters to target anyone, but if subscribers have not established any contact with your company through channels like SMS or Email, they will not receive messages through those channels. An effective connection via SMS and email means that subscribers 1) have shared their phone and email addresses, and 2) have consented to receive communications from your business.
Costs
Sending non-promotional messages via Facebook Messenger will not incur any costs (e.g., messages marked as “Account Updates”). On the other hand, each SMS costs you a few cents, and if you target a lot of people, the total cost of the campaign can be high.
Channel responsiveness
The effectiveness of channel combinations varies greatly among different types of businesses. However, channels like Messenger and SMS typically show higher open and click rates compared to Messenger. On the other hand, in certain segments like e-commerce, email communication is an essential part of the channel mix and proves its efficiency.
Regulations and policies
In most countries/regions, communication channels are strictly regulated by various laws and policies. Violating these regulations can lead to severe penalties, especially in the case of SMS. It is crucial to understand all possible restrictions (e.g., quantity, content, and sending times) that apply in the country/region where your target audience is located before sending SMS broadcasts.
Content and format options
Although SMS is limited to 140 characters, email offers more functionality in terms of graphic content and text quantity. That said, Messenger provides the highest level of interactivity, which can be very important for the conversational experience your audience may engage in.

Go to dedicated articles for information on setting up and usingSMSwithEmailMore information.

4. What to do next? #

Start building!

Just like flows, broadcasts can contain a single message or multiple messages linked together. As long as these messages are activated in your ManyChat account, they can be sent to any channel in any order.

Depending on the channel you choose, you will find different starting presets we have created for you. Remember, this is just a template, and you can customize it as needed without worrying about breaking any content.

Click to select Messenger, SMS, or Email, You will be taken to the Flow Builder, where you set a single message for the corresponding channel that will be the first message received by any subscriber in the target audience (“Start Step”). The good news is that if you want to change the channel, you don’t have to restart and select another type of broadcast. Just add another step (SMS, email, or other) and then drag the green “Start Step” tool onto it. You can then delete any unnecessary unlinked steps.

Additionally, you can mix channels in one flow by linking Messenger to SMS, and then linking to email, for example.

Using the “Multiple Channels” option, you will be provided with the ability to start building broadcasts using multiple channels based on popular templates, which will use the following set of conditions as the “Start Step”:

Messages related to the conditions will only be sent to subscribers who meet the criteria. If a subscriber meets multiple conditions, the message related to the highest condition in the list will be sent to them.

In this example, emails will be sent to subscribers who are outside the 24-hour window for Messenger, while SMS will be sent to subscribers who cannot be contacted via email.

The great thing about this is that you don’t have to spend money to find people you can reach for free.

Please follow the logic in this template to segment your audience across different channels based on your campaign goals.

You can delete conditions and messages for channels that are not needed.
You can change the order of messages sent to the target audience by changing the order of conditions in the condition steps.
You can add conditions and use other filters to limit any conditions.
You can link the first message of any channel to subsequent messages of any other channel (for example, linking SMS to Messenger).

Similarly, this is just a template that can be changed as needed.

5. Settings #

On the “Settings” tab, we only show you those settings required for the “broadcast flow” designed in the previous step. Therefore, for example, when you remove all Messenger steps from the “broadcast,” we will hide the Messenger-only settings (content type and notifications) as they become irrelevant.

Broadcast settings will apply to all automatically sent messages until the first subscriber interruption occurs. Essentially, the flow interruption happens when subscriber action is required (such as text input or clicking a button).

According to Facebook's messaging policy, broadcast content type (Messenger only) #

Please read this article carefully as it directly relates toFacebook Messenger platform policies., ThePolicySpecifies the types of content that should be delivered and the ways in which it can be delivered to its audience.

Non-promotional or mixed broadcasts Allows you to send non-promotional messages as long as they belong to categories predefined by Facebook and are tagged. This broadcast can also include promotional messages (which should remain untagged), but note that these messages will not be sent to anyone outside the 24-hour messaging window. Keep this in mind when targeting. Therefore, in the case of non-promotional messages, you can use the “BUSINESS_PRODUCTIVITY” tag to inform businesses (your customers) about the services or products they have subscribed to, or use “CONFIRMED_EVENT_UPDATE” to notify someone about an upcoming course or event they are registered for. A complete list of tags can be found atHere. Now, all tags should be implemented at the message level (go to the “Broadcast” tab and tag the messages that need tagging):

Promotional broadcastsAllows you to send business messages. Note that with this option, your targeting will be limited to subscribers who have been active (interacted with your bot) in the past 24 hours. Use this option cautiously, as you do not want to annoy your subscribers with mass promotions.

The content type settings are as follows: #

#

You can select the broadcast content type in the new interface for broadcasts.

Specify targets #

You can target each broadcast through many conditions, including gender, tags, names, events, languages, time zones, etc. After adding targeting conditions, you can immediately see the number of users who will receive the message.

Schedule broadcasts #

Start sending broadcasts immediately or schedule them to be sent at a specific date and time.

Time zone settings #

These settings allow you to consider the time zones of subscribers. You can choose one of the following three options:

Send all at onceYour broadcast can be sent immediately.

“Time travel”The option allows broadcasts to be delivered at the scheduled time based on the subscriber's time zone.

Once the daytime in the user's current time zone matches the desired delivery time, thenRestrict sending timeA message will be delivered as soon as possible.

Notification settings (Messenger only) #

Please note that the Facebook API only allows control of mobile Messenger notifications. The following settings do not apply to desktop notifications.

Regular pushNotifications will make a sound and be sent to your mobile device. Used for important messages.
Only one regular notificationOnly trigger one regular notification (the first message in the broadcast), with the rest sent silently. Ideal for situations where there are more than 2 messages in the broadcast but you don't want to send too many notifications.
Only 2 regular notifications willTrigger 2 notifications (for the first 2 messages in the broadcast), with the remaining notifications sent silently. An ideal choice for broadcasts with more than 3 messages.
Silent push Notifications will be sent to your mobile device without making a sound. Use it for regular messages that do not require immediate action.
SilentThe broadcast does not display any notifications. Use it to send content updates silently.

Remember #

When using multi-channel broadcasts, there may be multiple initial messages that could be related to different channels. Consider the above “multi-channel” template.

With this process design, there are 3 initial messages (sent via Messenger, Email, and SMS), and you can guess that the settings applied next will apply to all these messages. To indicate that these settings will apply to more than one channel, we have added icons for these channels based on each applicable setting:

After completing the settings, please proceed and then click the blue action button in the upper right corner of the screen to publish the broadcast, which looks likeSend now orSchedule sending. If all necessary settings are done correctly, you will be redirected to a success screen and then return to the “Broadcast” list.

1. Broadcast list and performance statistics #

2. All your broadcasts are stored in the “Broadcast” > “Broadcast” section, which includes drafts, scheduled broadcasts, and the “History” list. After sending a broadcast to subscribers, you can find it in the “History” tab, watch its performance, and evaluate the statistics for each message (sent, delivered, opened, clicked).

3. The broadcast has been sent and delivered to 2 subscribers, who opened one message and responded.

4. Let's take a look at what these statistics mean:

5. Sent6. The number of broadcasts successfully sent.

7. Delivered 8. The broadcasts seen by many users. This means that your subscribers opened Messenger but did not open your broadcast.

9. Opened10. The number of broadcasts opened by users.19. Ads Manager after11. The number is the number of clicks registered in this broadcast.

Click on12. In the broadcast history, CTR is based on the click records of UNIQUE users, only counting the "Start Step."

Note:

13. If the “Start Step” does not contain any buttons, or is an action/condition/etc., the click count will not be included!

14. Here are some useful tips for creating broadcasts:

15. 1. Carefully consider your target audience and the purpose of communication. What action do you expect them to take? Design the broadcast in a way that leads to this desired action with minimal steps. #

16. 2. Personalize your broadcast messages. Start typing {{ to access the list of variables you can use (first name, full name, etc.).

17. 3. Reward engaged users with useful and interesting content or incentives.

18. 4. Always be clear on how to unsubscribe from broadcast messages to avoid users completely blocking messages from your business page or reporting your page to Facebook.

19. 5. If you want to send promotional broadcasts to people beyond the 24 + 1 coverage, you can always use SMS, email,

5. If you want to send promotional broadcasts to people outside the 24 + 1 coverage area, you can always use SMS, email,Paid messagesOr through ManyChat Ads.

6. Additionally, please note that if the first step of the broadcast isConditional tools - The statistics for the broadcast will be zero.

【Broadcast content】Broadcast content