We couldn't believe what we were seeing from our first tests with chatbots.
On our email list of over 125,000 people, we see click-through rates of only 1% to 6% at most.
Now that we are using Messenger bots, we're seeing click through rates of 33%+.
We started teaching this to a few students in a private group, and almost overnight they were getting offers of $2,000+ to build other people chatbots!
...And bigger chatbot companies can charge even more. Like Assist, which charges $100,000+ to build bots for bigger corporations.
This is when I knew something had shifted in the marketing landscape....
After graduating from college, I built and sold an online greeting card company that did over $30 million in sales. Then I built Mixergy.com into a top business interview site, where I help entrepreneurs learn from people like Gary Vaynerchuk, Barbara Corcoran, & Joe Gebbia (founder of Airbnb).
For years I interviewed founders, and they kept telling me that email marketing is the most effective thing they do.
But the more I talk to them in private, the more they're admitting that it's getting harder to collect email addresses and build an audience. And harder to get people to open emails. And even harder to get real sales from email.
Have you noticed that, too?
I've seen the same thing with our marketing emails at Mixergy.
I realized it's because of the two BIG problems with email marketing...
I asked my friends on Facebook to post screenshots showing how much unread email they have. This inbox image is pretty typical.
Every marketer is hitting people's inboxes. So when you send your message, you have to compete with every freakin' email in there.
It's an endless box of stress.
Even when I talk to my team about the marketing emails we plan to send, I use messaging apps to communicate with them.
People LOVE messaging apps.
They make sending messages so fast.
The responses you get are shorter and easier to read.
And they're just more fun.
Think about the last person you kissed or the person you do the most work with. Do you talk to them via email? Or do you use a messaging app?
So I tried an experiment…
If messaging apps are how people prefer to communicate, can I use those apps to reach my audience? Would they open and click what I send? Would they buy?
So I tested it. And what I saw blew my mind...
I got 80% open and click rates.
Who the hell is getting 80%+ open rates in email?! Pretty much no one, that's who. I thought maybe it was just my Mixergy audience. Maybe they're just a little bit crazy or advanced or different. 😉
So I started talking to other people who are using messaging apps to communicate with their people, and they're saying it's not at all unusual. 80% is high, but over 50% was not at all unusual.
The engagement rates are so high because marketers haven't saturated this channel. And because it's so quick to check Facebook Messenger, people just open it up to see what's there.
Compare that with the average email open rate of about 20% and click rates of 2-5%, according to MailChimp.
If your email open and click rates are higher than MailChimp's average, that doesn't surprise me at all.
But are they 80%? Probably not.
So why aren't we trying to get a piece of this 80%? Why are we still living in email only?
Look, I'm not saying email is dead. If it's working for you, keep doing it. I'm saying that you also need to know about chatbots, too, because the open rates and engagement are too good to ignore.
Besides the killer open rates and conversions, this is the next big thing in marketing and sales.
Just like how email took over snail mail.
Right now, you can join me at the beginning of a movement, BEFORE your competition jumps on the bandwagon and saturates the market.
For me and my team, there's no going back. The opportunity in marketing with messaging is too big to ignore.
And not only does this get results...it's freaking fun to run these Messenger campaigns! It's magical to see what happens when you create a sequence, run it, and start hundreds of conversations with potential customers!
I want to show you how to do this, too
To do that, I'm introducing:
Bot Academy is a 5-week course that will teach you everything you need to know to create a successful marketing campaign with Messenger.
Week 1: How to build your bot (If you can use MailChimp or Aweber, you have the technical skills to do this)
I’ll show you how to setup your first campaign, add messages, drip it to your audience, and follow up. You’ll be building your bot alongside me.
Week 2: How to write your chatbot script (one that converts super high, and is designed to sell).
In this module, I'll show you how to write short-form, persuasive copy...even if you've never written sales copy before.
Plus, you'll learn a tip we discovered for increasing click rates by 20% and how to create a funnel that leads to a sale.
Week 3: How to get people to opt-in (and get signups 4x to 8x cheaper/faster).
I've seen a lot of people who build great bots...but no one signed up. So then they think bots are a waste of time, when really, they screwed up. You can't expect someone to come to you and subscribe to your bot (or your client's bot). You have to promote it. In this module, we'll show you how.
You'll learn how to do one-click subscription, how to automate it, how to incorporate your bot with your other marketing campaigns, and more.
Plus, we've written custom code to that increases bot subscriptions even more. You'll get lifetime access and clear instructions on how to use this code, exclusively available to Bot Academy students.
Week 4: How to get clients.
The secret is showing your potential clients just enough so that they understand how bots work and see how it'll deliver a clear ROI, but not so much that they get overwhelmed. We'll show you exactly how to do that, along with how to do a demo that closes the sale.
You'll also get a template you can use inside Pipedrive, a sales management app, to help you close sales and stay accountable.
Week 5: Advanced Optimization: We'll work directly with the group to improve everyone's bots and give personalized help when needed
This is where we go deeper into bots. We'll show you how to add more intelligence to your bot, how to combine different bots, how to mix bot platforms, how to get tracking data, how to collect payment, and more.
Bonus 1: One free year of ManyChat marketing software, to create marketing automation chat bots that send scheduled emails. That means you won't have to pay anything to run your first campaigns (a $1,740 value).
Bonus 2: Six months of Botmock for free, which will help you design the flow for your bots (a $270 value).
Bonus 3: Six months of ShopMessage and a bonus training module on how to use it (a $197 value). With this training and software, you can help Shopify businesses close more sales. How? By building a bot that recaptures customers who’ve abandoned their shopping carts. (The close rates on this blew my mind.)
Bonus 4: My bot campaign template, which you can use with your clients. Swipe away. I’ve really tested and developed this campaign, and wouldn’t sell it on its own for less than $1,000--the minimum I’d charge just to setup a bot. But as a Bot Academy student, it’s all yours.
Bonus 5: Five group coaching call sessions during the course. These are so helpful that past students have asked me how they can continue joining the group calls. We've never let anyone leave the call without addressing their issue. We also bring in guest experts on these calls.
Bonus 6: Insider strategies from the top entrepreneurs in the world, via a six-month complimentary subscription to Mixergy Premium (a $294 value). This is the stuff top entrepreneurs only talk about behind closed doors, or in masterminds that cost up $50,000 just to get in the room.
These bonuses give you the tools, strategies, and coaching to become a successful bot creator, and even start your own agency, if that’s your goal.
But I also want to help you land clients. To do that, I’m offering:
Bonus 7: A listing as one of my certified bot consultants. Once you complete all the modules and have proven you can build high-quality bots, we’ll certify you.
That means you have instant credibility with clients.
However, there’s another big benefit to being certified...
I talk about bots all the time. And I’ve given presentations about them at conferences like Converted (Leadpages), Ontrapalooza, Fireside (the Canadian tech community), and Social Media Expo. So businesses and startups contact me to ask who they can hire to build a bot.
When that happens, I refer them to the certified people in my Bot Academy directory (that’s you). Just one client can easily mean $2,000...at minimum.
So bots are awesome, they have a super high ROI, and right now is the best time in history to charge for them...
“I probably got the investment back before the course even started, like when we were all just networking.”
Kelly Garrett, who now has multiple paying clients, upwards of $1,500 each!
“My butchery client has acquired dozens of customers through the bot. She says each customer usually equals $3,400 yearly for them. So we are projected to be making her $110-$150k yearly. The client was so busy she asked us to stop posting for the long weekend as she couldn’t handle all the demand! The demand for bots is huge. Having done cold email for months, I never got near the open rates I did when I was talking about bots. People love them!”
Stephen Bradeen, who after just a few months had six clients on retainer, two of which pay him a commission on every sale
“We are over the moon by the reaction of business owners once they see the potential. It’s blowing their minds. We get comments like, ‘Wow, is that really possible?’ and ‘OMG this is going to save me so much time,’ and ‘Wow, this really helps me put lead gen on autopilot.’ Their excitement is contagious. And I guess so is ours. This is awesome. I would like to give a huge thank-you to Andrew, Tam, and the team at The Bot Academy for going above and beyond in delivery of value and ongoing support of this course. The extras like access to founders of the bot building platforms and additional group calls and so much more far surpassed anything I expected.”
Jamie Burt and Duncan Felix, who closed a contract for $120,000/year in chatbot business
“My favorite thing about Bot Academy is the support … and the community.”
Jess Kuemmerlin, who closed a client just one month after joining Bot Academy
“I got my first client today! We agreed on a model where [the client] pays me 15% of every successful lead he gets from the Messenger bot. Each lead is worth $2,500 to him, so each sale to me is worth $375. Excited about my first client, and now it’s time to get working and show great results!”
Rachana Reddy
“Celebrating a personal win today: Realized that I’ll be able to go full-time into bots and finally end my days as a freelance accountant! Two signed clients: one is $6,000 plus 1% of gross sales from the bot, and the other is $4,000 plus $250/monthly. In the next two weeks I expect to sign another $6,800 plus $400/monthly. I was concerned I’d be on my own after signing up, that there wouldn’t be accountability from instructors. But personalized attention and ongoing accountability from Bot Academy created an environment conducive to successfully completing the program.”
Josi Nielsen
“So I did my demo for my first potential client yesterday, and she LOVED it. She was sold at the end, and was super excited. So I got my first client! We start building content on Monday. But, that’s not what had me the most excited. At the end, she said that she has clients of her own who she knows could use these, and wants to refer them to me!”
Tyler Hillan
“I landed nine paid clients in less than two months after going through the course. I charge $1,000-$6,000 to build a Messenger Bot funnel, with a $500-$1,000 a month retainer for maintenance.”
Mary Kathryn Johnson
Still have some questions?
Here are the answers to the most common questions I've been asked about Bot Academy.
Q: I don't use Facebook or messaging personally, so how can this really work?
A: That's okay. Because other people DO use it. The Facebook Messenger app has more than 1.3 billion monthly active users (not downloads, *active* users), so you'll be reaching a huge market.
And think about it like this...
When email was a new thing, lots of people said, "I never use email. Why not pick up a phone?" Now pretty much everyone uses email on a daily basis. The companies that jumped into it quickly seemed crazy at first, but they were able to lock in subscribers fast.
Q: Why Does Facebook Want Businesses To Use Chatbots?
A: Facebook is actively trying to get businesses to use chatbots because it keeps people on the Facebook platform. This means they WANT Messenger Bots to catch on!
It's actually CRITICAL to Facebook's business. They are running out of ad space on their main platforms and need a new place to serve ads, which they will eventually do with Messenger.
Feels good to know Facebook wants help you sell chatbots to businesses, right?
That's why they worked with PayPal to send receipts via Messenger. And enabled TechCrunch to send their articles via Messenger. And why they keep trumpeting all the possible ways companies can use Messenger instead of email.
Q: Do the end users like chatbots?
A: We've found that customers actually PREFER these messages over email in huge numbers, but only if they are written the right way. Check this out:
Mixergy Email Click Throughs: ~20% Mixergy Chatbot Click Throughs: 85% (that's INSANELY high for clicks)!!!
For one thing, the messages are shorter and easier to read than email. Also, it's a lot more interactive and fun, since you can add buttons, gifs, and more. And finally, readers can unsubscribe from anything in Facebook Messenger using one swipe.
Not only do we teach you best practices so you can avoid feeling spammy and intrusive, we'll show you how to create bots that people LOVE and even SHARE.
We would never promote practices that would annoy customers.
Q: What exactly is inside this course? What can I do with it?
A: This course will show you everything you need know to create a Messenger marketing agency. You can use what you learn to use Messenger to promote your clients' products, or your own. This means you can either use this knowledge to make your own chatbots on your own websites/business, or charge others to make chatbots for them.
And there's also the special bonus package:
Bonus #1: One free year of ManyChat marketing software, to create marketing automation chat bots that send scheduled emails (a $1,740 value).
Bonus #2: Six months of Botmock for free, which will help you design the flow for your bots (a $270 value).
Bonus #3: Six months of ShopMessage and a bonus training module on how to use it (a $197 value). With this training and software, you can help Shopify businesses recapture customers who’ve abandoned their shopping carts.
Bonus #4: My bot campaign template, which you can use with your clients. Swipe away. I’ve really tested and developed this campaign, and wouldn’t sell it on its own for less than $1,000--the minimum I’d charge just to setup a bot. But as a Bot Academy student, it’s all yours.
Bonus #5: Five group coaching call sessions during the course. These are so helpful that past students have asked me how they can continue joining the group calls. We've never let anyone leave the call without addressing their issue. We also bring in guest experts on these calls.
Bonus #6: Insider strategies from the top entrepreneurs in the world, via a six-month complimentary subscription to Mixergy Premium (a $294 value). This is the stuff top entrepreneurs only talk about behind closed doors, or in masterminds that cost up $50,000 just to get in the room.
Bonus #7: A listing as one of my certified bot consultants. Once you complete all the modules and have proven you can build high-quality bots, we’ll certify you. You’ll have instant credibility with clients. I also refer business owners to my certified bot builders. Just one client can easily mean $2,000...at minimum.
Basically, Bot Academy will take you from never having built a bot to building one that converts like crazy, for yourself or for paying clients. (Or hey, why not both?!)
Q: How much support do I get through the course?
A: There are recorded trainings and weekly live trainings with our bot experts.
And because I want to do everything I can to make sure every Bot Academy student is successful, I'm offering a special guarantee...Take 14 days. If you do the work you start struggling, falling behind, or even if you just start wondering if this is really for you, let's chat. If it's not a problem I can help you solve, and you can show us that you have done the action steps we outline after each module, I'll give you a full refund.
I proudly stand behind EVERYTHING I do, and Bot Academy is no exception. I'm confident if you spend the time to watch the videos and join the live calls (or watch the recordings), you will be able to build chatbots yourself and keep this valuable skill for life. When you join Bot Academy, I'm personally invested in your success.
— Andrew Warner
What's the investment to join Bot Academy?
Your investment for Bot Academy will be $2,000.
That's a fantastic value, as so many of the Bot Academy students pay for the entire course from just one client!
In fact, they often pay for the course over-and-over from just one client!
Here's Mary's results from learning chatbots from us, then charging clients:
and she isn't alone at all!
We teach our students how to charge a minimum of $1,000 for the setup fee alone, and then there are the ongoing monthly maintenance fees.
Well, take whatever your annual revenue is from email marketing and multiply it by four. Because with Messenger campaigns, we've seen that you can get four times the open rates you're getting in email. As long as your conversion rate stays the same (and I bet we can even get it higher with bots), you could multiply your revenue significantly.
That's the potential with bot campaigns.
So...that's the ROI you'll get from Bot Academy.
And then you're also getting a bonus package (total value of $5,500+). And yet even with the bonus package and the revenue you'll make from building bots... You won't pay even $10,000 for Bot Academy...
Or $5,000...
In fact, right now, Bot Academy is open for enrollment for just $2,000.
Land just one client, and you'll make your money back. Every client you get thereafter is straight ROI. And remember, there's a 14-day guarantee, so you can try it out risk-free.
This is the very best price I ever plan to offer for Bot Academy.
(And yep, there's a payment plan. Just click the button below for the details...)
When I was 24 yrs old, I owned a company in Manhattan. I remember that rent alone for the office space was $1.2 million.
We invited an old-school direct mail marketer to the office one day. We wanted to know how he wrote copy back then...to see what we could learn from him and apply to email.
I'll never forget what he said when he came into our office and saw that we had a floor of space in midtown Manhattan...
“Wow? Email built all this?"
Later on he admitted, "I missed email.”
He was SO good at direct mail marketing. He knew how to target, how to use gimmicks like scratch off offers, and how to make a whole lot of money at it.
“But we got lazy and weren't paying attention to email,” he said. “So now I want to see what you younger guys are doing with email.”
By then it was too late, though. We were too big for him to catch up to, with 20+ million email subscribers. He was too far behind.
After the guy left, I remember my CFO saying, “That was a splash of cold water. We could be that guy one day.”
No way. I'll never be that guy.
And that's why I'm talking about marketing with Messenger today.
People are on messaging apps today.
This is what's next, and if you ignore it, if you wait until the market is flooded the same way our inboxes are getting flooded with email...
...then you just might end up like the direct marketing guy. A dinosaur. Extinct.
Don't be that guy. Let's get in front of this movement before anyone else.
Everything You Need
6 Monthly Payments of $399
Even More Support
6 Monthly Payments of $599
And here are even more student wins...
“The course has been awesome. The community is amazing. So if you’re considering it, I highly recommend it.”
Nick Julia
“The pluses for me in this course were that it’s short, sweet, packed into a certain period of time, and if you can just say, ‘Okay, I got this month to do this,’ you’re going to be in a totally different place at the other end of it.”
Kate Schutt
“If you’re coming from a position like myself, not having a lot of experience, I would say we’re seeing experienced people out there making mistakes that Andrew’s kept us from making, so I think that the course is very beneficial.”
Jeff Duran
“You can be a lonely wolf and be on your own and try to find it out on yourself. And that will cost you also a lot of time and a lot of money, so don’t bother. Just go out to be in a cohort of people and you will see that you will benefit much more, that your level will go up much faster. That’s what I experienced now in these four weeks. I would never have had this level of expertise on chatbots without this group and without this course.”
Dominique Dejonghe
“[To get my first client] I reached out to my personal network, you know, first-degree friends. I started thinking, ‘Who might be able to be a decent fit?’ Once I have this first client showing these open rates, or at least being able to refer to some of these open rates and saying, ‘Hey, this is our client, and this is what they’re seeing now, this is real,’ it makes selling [to more clients] a lot easier.”
Jason Koprowski
“To my surprise, it was easier than what I expected [to get my first client]. It was nothing salesy. I was being honest with the person. I think that’s what helped me close that sale.”
Angel Francisco Anderson
I’ll see you on the inside!
- Andrew Warner
Founder of Mixergy & Bot Academy