Chatbots as a marketing communication tool: Part 2

Chatbots are a vast topic, and this is the second time we are here to talk about chatbots. If you have missed the first part go sneak peek at the key points and continue exploring the technology.

Customers and their needs remain the major focus of marketers striving to use any lever to gain new prospects and customers. One of the proven strategies to keep leads engaged and convert them into customers is communication. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the behavioral shift in how people communicate with technology and brands have contributed to the increased use of chatbots for marketing purposes. As a result, many companies have developed their own chatbots to engage their customers more closely in the current age. How may your company and digital marketing efforts benefit from chatbots? Or do you really need chatbots now? Let’s dig deeper. 

What is Chatbot Marketing?

The term "chatbot marketing" refers to a strategy that leverages a chatbot to market a business. Chatbot marketing became popular when Facebook integrated bots with its Messenger. It all started with customers submitting questions or concerns via Messenger. The strategy is an effective way to promote services and products and to lead customers through a predetermined conversation. 

What is Conversational Marketing?

You may wonder why we have jumped from chatbot marketing to an entirely new topic. The thing is that conversational marketing is the basis of building relationships with customers and talking to them. This can be done through chatbots, voice assistants, live chat, or any other form of conversational AI. With conversational marketing, businesses can overcome communication gaps with prospects through responsive channels.  

Conversational marketing is a dialogue-driven approach to marketing through real-time conversations.

Chatbot marketing is the strategy of integrating computer programs for automating interactions with prospects. 

How to use Chatbots to Transform Digital Marketing?

The chatbot technologies used in digital marketing support marketing tactics and use the conversational platform as a new sales funnel. Chatbots may transform digital marketing practices when implemented and used in the right way with tracking and monitoring. 

Transforming digital marketing with chatbots

Automating information gathering

Marketing takes a lot of time and effort, and the aim is to reach the target audience and convert leads into customers. Chatbots have already proven to facilitate marketing efforts, streamlining parts of processes, automating repetitive tasks, and freeing up time to focus on more critical strategies. So how does a chatbot meet marketing needs? The core function is to collect information like a phone number, email address, device, preferences, etc. Of course, it doesn’t mean that chatbots can replace humans. Let’s make it clear; bots are human engagement enablers that handle the initial communication and gather information to support customer agents or marketing specialists. 
 

Bridging the gap between sales and marketing 

Chatbots better deal with converting prospects into customers and meeting marketing goals by always being available and close to customers. The disconnect between sales and the market often leads to a non-productive marketing funnel where the leads from the sales cycle never become payable customers. A chatbot is a tool to keep marketing and sales on the same page by providing a constant connection with customers. 
 

Personalizing the user experience

Personalization and a customer-oriented approach are the new ways of reaching out to leads; that is why AI chatbots deliver more personalization. A chatbot gathers everything for a personalized conversation; it gathers name, gender, location, browsing history, and experience to build a better interaction.
 

Auto qualifying leads

The sales funnel is not enough anymore to qualify leads. Users have become more demanding and challenging to satisfy. That is why chatbots are a new-gen tool to automate lead qualification processes.
 

Helping customers make quick decisions

Whether you have a B2B or B2C business, the customers expect an immediate response to queries, and their decision mostly depends on the business's response. Even if a chatbot lacks human touch and a personal approach, it can be used as a first-time connection touchpoint for customers, keeping the leads warm until you can turn to them with clear answers. 
 

Increasing new channel adoption and opportunities

Having multiple touchpoints and handling them with equal effectiveness requires tons of effort and resources. With chatbots, it is possible to improve the productivity of already existing channels (for example, social media channels) and adopt new ones based on previous experiences. With AI chatbots, like Facebook Messenger chatbots, brands and organizations can lead customers up to purchase without human interference. 

Improving Marketing with Chatbots

Chatbots are far more than customer support tools. Chatbots help organizations leverage conversation to boost sales, integrated into modern digital marketing strategies. 

Chatbots in Marketing
 

24/7 availability and instant answers: unlike the support team, chatbots are always available and ready to give instant answers at any time.

Time and cost-efficient:  as a one-time investment, chatbots will unload the customer support department and help direct efforts on more critical tasks and queries. 

Personalized outreach: chatbot based on algorithms collects user information like name, location, and device, and personalizes further conversation to make customers feel comfortable.

Elimination of human errors: chatbots don’t work with delays and never act on emotions, unlike humans that may get frustrated or lose patience. 

Increase in SEO ranking: if a chatbot improves customer experience, it will eventually impact SEO ranking by increasing time spent on the website and decreasing the bounce rate.

Data for analytics: marketing chatbots are great at collecting user data for analytics purposes, validation of demographics, and further digital marketing strategies. 

Lead generation increase:  chatbots are proven efficient tools for generating leads from new channels by speeding up request processing. 

Customer engagement: the chatbot may expand the target audience by processing big data and connecting to numerous customers simultaneously. 

The Future of Chatbot Marketing: Final Words Before You Leave

Today, we can clearly see that most business processes lean towards automation. Why not take advantage of a technology that can help you save resources? With bright future predictions, AI chatbots will be more used for data collection and analysis to make better decisions. In the future, chatbots will be integrated into CRM, CDP, and ad platforms to have a unified view of the customer journey. 

Consider integrating conversational marketing into your business processes and digital marketing if you have a customer-oriented approach and you are looking for new ways of improving communication.