Chatbot marketing helps businesses engage with customers at all stages of the customer journey. This can help improve customer retention, boost customer engagement, and generate more leads. You can use a chatbot to collect leads, answer questions, send promotional messages, and even complete transactions within a conversation window.
One of the first things you should do is decide what your goal is for your chatbot. For example, you might want to collect email addresses or phone numbers from website visitors. If you’re launching a new product, you might want to develop a chatbot to promote your new feature. Another option is to build a chatbot to solve customer service issues. Whether you’re building your first bot or revamping an existing one, you should talk to your team about your goals before starting any project.
The next step is to analyze your sales funnel. This will help you decide when to send out messages. It also will allow you to segment your contacts, which will make it easier to follow up with warmer leads. Also, you’ll be able to monitor how visitors respond to your messages and adjust your messaging strategies accordingly.
Once you know the best time to send messages, you’ll need to determine the content to send them. For example, you might decide to offer discounts to returning shoppers. Likewise, you might consider introducing a “just browsing” option for visitors who aren’t ready to buy. Or, you might want to set up a poll for visitors to answer.
To make sure your chatbots are answering the right questions, you might need to conduct some research. For example, a cell phone company might want to offer visitors a demo of their various models, features, and colors. Similarly, a higher education college might build a chatbot to handle inquiries and application process.
As with any marketing campaign, you should consider the demographics of your audience. This will help you create targeted messaging and avoid sending open-ended messages. And, it will also help you customize your bots for your specific segments.
When deciding which content to send your prospects, you can use Google’s Drawings tool to build a simulated journey. This will also allow you to see what information your prospects are most interested in and the most effective way to communicate it.
Using a chatbot can also be a cost-effective way to collect leads. However, many companies still haven’t taken advantage of this technology. In fact, only about 56% of users would rather send a message to a real person than a chatbot. But this is a small price to pay for the benefits it can provide. By using a chatbot to qualify leads, you can save time and money, and ensure that the right people are getting the right messages.
A great example of a conversational AI-powered bot is the Volvo Cars Amberg chatbot. This tool allows visitors to get instant price quotes for new cars and car loans, and it can even answer questions about other models.