Today’s guest is Mikael Yang, the cofounder and CEO of ManyChat. This is the leading Messenger marketing platform, with over 250,000 businesses in over 200 countries using its services. (I’m proud to add that I’m one of its happy users, as well.) Mikael will take a deep dive into marketing through Facebook Messenger. He’ll explain why it’s such a valuable marketing avenue and how best to take advantage of this opportunity to streamline communication with customers.

Find Out More About Mikael Here:

Mikael Yang on LinkedIn
Mikael Yang on Facebook
@mikedyang on Twitter
ManyChat

In This Episode:

• [01:25] - What is it about the Messenger platform that makes it so ideal for marketing?
• [06:52] - Email as an industry is still growing despite all the negative decisions on how the system would work, Mikael points out.
• [07:31] - Mikael talks about why we aren’t seeing the same sort of marketing on WhatsApp as on Messenger.
• [09:39] - We learn about why Messenger is a better marketing platform than SMS or texting.
• [12:22] - What are some best practices, and some mistakes to avoid, if you want to scale and automate Messenger marketing?
• [14:38] - Mikael talks about what he would say to naysayers who would say that Messenger will close down in a matter of time.
• [16:55] - We hear about why SnapChat is struggling when Messenger isn’t having any of those sorts of problems.
• [19:29] - Mikael circles back to talking about Messenger marketing best practices.
• [21:21] - What are some of the big mistakes that Mikael sees with people who are using ManyChat?
• [26:21] - Stephan remembers hearing from DigitalMarketer in 2016 about their uses of ManyChat.
• [28:22] - How did Mikael end up creating ManyChat?
• [31:33] - Mikael talks about what, exactly, a “bot” is in terms of his industry (as opposed to SEO, for example).
• [33:18] - We hear about why someone might want to create a bot for their Facebook page rather than having a team of people manning it 24/7.
• [36:54] - Mikael talks more about referral programs.
• [39:47] - We learn more about how Mikael is integrating AI, or artificial intelligence, into the ManyChat platform.
• [42:42] - Are there any cool AI things coming up on Mikael’s roadmap?
• [46:41] - Mikael talks about what the differentiator is that would push a marketer to explore using Facebook Messenger with ManyChat.
• [48:57] - Where can people go to try out ManyChat?

Links and Resources:

• Mikael Yang on LinkedIn
• Mikael Yang on Facebook
• @mikedyang on Twitter
• ManyChat
• Facebook Messenger
• WhatsApp
• SnapChat
• DigitalMarketer
• Frank Kern
• Roland Frasier on Marketing Speak
• Molly Pittman on Marketing Speak
• Telegram
• Xiaoice