How do I use my chatbot to trigger an email or email sequence?
Gobot not only engages with your visitors - it follows up with them via email!
There are three ways Gobot can trigger the sending of email:
- SEND EMAIL BUTTON: In bot build mode, drag the Send Email button into your script and your bot will send an email or an email sequence when the portion of your bot script including the Email Send is reached by your visitor.
- EMAIL FIELD BUTTON: In bot build mode, drag the Email Field button into your bot script to collect emails and add them to an email list you may have in a separate email marketing automation tool. Gobot integrates with MailChimp, Aweber and Constant Contact. Using Gobot to add an email to your external email list will trigger your email marketing tool to to start an email automation sequence.
- EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS: Your bot can send you a notification email to update you on your bot's interaction with your visitors. Control your settings in the Notification tab of the Bot Settings page.
#1 EMAIL SEND
Your bot can send emails to your visitors automatically depending on your visitor's interaction with your bot. Configuring your bot to send an email or an email sequence is as easy as A-B-C.
As an initial step, you will want to make sure you have an email to send! To access Gobot's email text editor, click on the Email icon in the vertical navigation bar on the left of the screen. Clicking on an email from your list will make it appear in the center panel where you can edit it. Basic information about your email, e.g., title, appears in the right hand panel. To create a new email click on the Create Email button, entered the required information in the right hand panel, draft your email in the center panel and then click Save. Note that you can access email styling options by clicking on the Design tab in the right hand panel.
OK, now that you've created your emails, you need to tell your bot (a) when you want your email sent, (b) which particular email you want your bot to send, and (c) to whom you want your email sent.
Go back to bot build mode. While scripting your bot, drag the Send Email button from the right hand panel into the center panel. Position the Send Email instruction in your script strategically - as soon as this part of the bot script is reached your email will be sent to the visitor engaging with your bot. For example, assume your bot is chatting with your visitors about an upcoming webinar and your bot inquires as to interest with Yes/No Quick Replies. In this case you would drag the Send Email button directly into the Yes branch of the Quick Replies. As soon as your visitor clicks Yes your bot will send your email!
In the right hand panel, select from the pull down menu an email you previously created using Gobot's email editor. This is the email that will be sent once your visitor reaches the portion of your bot script including your Send Email instruction. Also, identify who you want to receive the email above and beyond or instead of the visitor engaging with your bot.
That's pretty much it. Once your bot runs, if your visitor gets to the part of your script containing the Send Email instruction, your email will be automatically sent by Gobot. Congrats!
Note: You can have your bot send your email to multiple different email addresses. This is useful, for example, if you want your bot to automatically generate a help desk ticket. Click here for more details. You can also have your bot send a sequence of multiple emails. Click here for more details.
#2 EMAIL LISTS
As you already know, by dragging the Email Field button into your bot script you can get your bot to collect emails. Above and beyond email collection, however, you can also use this functionality to trigger the sending of an email or email sequence by adding the collected email to an email list in one of the email marketing automation systems Gobot integrates with, e.g., MailChimp, Klaviyo, Aweber, Constant Contact, etc. All you need to do is choose the email marketing system from the pulldown menu and connect it to Gobot. Click here to learn more.
#3 NOTIFICATION EMAILS
Gobot keeps you abreast of your bots activities by sending you a scheduled email with information about your bot's engagement. To control your notification settings click on the Notifications tab on the Bot Settings page.
Note regarding Email Testing:
Please note that your bot will not send emails in Test Mode - this mode is primarily to help you visualize your bot script flow (not send emails or webhooks). You will need to actually publish your bot and run it to test your email functionality. If you do not want to do this on your business site, temporarily publish your bot on a non-public site for testing purposes.
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