Chatbots are the latest topic in tech and marketing. Facebook’s recent announcement that Messenger supports chatbots and would like to create a chatbot store demonstrates how they see social interaction in the future. This could make a significant difference in the way businesses interact with customers.
Marketers must determine how the new tactic will fit into their existing strategies, just as with any other tactic for consumer relations. Before you rush to find a chatbot developer in your area, make sure that it is a good fit for your company and how it will benefit your customers.
Is your business ready for a chatbot?
The first question you need to ask is whether a chatbot could benefit your marketing efforts. It doesn’t necessarily mean it is a good fit just because it’s new and shiny. Chatbots have a few common uses that might work for your business.
Chatbots are a great way to automate customer service. Chatbots can easily communicate with customers and provide solutions to their problems. Chatbots can not answer questions, so a human customer service representative can be alerted to assist.
Chatbots allow customers to get reliable customer service 24 hours a day. Chatbots are a great way to showcase your company’s customer service strengths. Chatbots enable customers to quickly access a “rep” who can answer their questions. Instead of waiting for hours or even minutes, they can be accessed instantly.
Customer service is vital to a happy customer, which leads to a better reputation and reviews. Businesses often boast about their excellent customer service. However, adding chatbots and friendly customer service representatives to your team can help you reach the next level.
A personal assistant or shopper
Chatbots can recognize what people like and don’t like, which is a vast improvement over the artificial intelligence of the past. Although the chatbots currently in use aren’t very good at this, it is something we know will improve.
Some consumers might need clarification if your business offers a wide range of services and products. Chatbots could guide them to the right product for their needs. The chatbot could have a conversation and identify the needs and desires of the customer to create a profile.
After they have made a purchase, the chatbot will identify the product connected to them and suggest products that would make sense to go with it. There are no more days when you can buy a vacuum and have every product recommendation or targeted advertisement be more vacuums.
Customer Interaction and Engagement
There are very few channels consumers can interact directly with businesses right now. These include email and social media. However, it can take a lot of work to have meaningful conversations with large groups of consumers via these channels. Automation often makes your business seem impersonal.
Chatbots can revolutionize the way marketers follow up with customers and leads. Marketers are looking to automate these tasks because they need more time or desire to follow up with every person. However, they want customers to feel special when reaching out to them.
These are two goals that chatbots can achieve. Chatbots allow marketers to focus on other tasks while still being able to monitor follow-ups and can intervene at a moment’s notice. Chatbots can engage with customers on a personal level, especially when they know a lot about the consumer and use casual language. Your chatbots can be combined with your leads database to reach people and ask them questions. Each conversation can be personalized to each individual. You can personalize their questions if you match leads up with personas. It feels like someone cares about you.
Get ready for a lot more data.
Analytics data is gold to marketers. Analytics data can predict future trends and identify customer buying patterns. It also helps you plan your marketing strategies. You’ll learn more about your market by watching how people use chatbots. This will help you understand how customers shop and how to interact with them.
Be prepared for a tsunami of new analytics if you use chatbots. Businesses can gain a competitive advantage by using this data to create operational plans. Planning how you will analyze the data and capture meaningful information from the start is essential. The data can be used to improve your chatbot and your marketing strategies.
Each chatbot conversation is like a conversation. Treat each interaction as a conversation with your target market. You can use what you learn to improve your buyer personas and your marketing.
Mobile is getting a new emphasis.
Chatbots are another indicator that consumers do more shopping using mobile devices. How we use our smartphones in the future could change as the chatbot market grows. They could have a chatbot deliver curated articles to their phone instead of searching Google for the latest news. Instead of searching the web for the answer to their question using Google, they may use a chatbot.
Chatbots can impact marketing campaigns, regardless of whether they are used. Businesses that heavily rely on content marketing to visitors and leads will be particularly affected. Chatbots might show less than ten results for a relevant search, but only the top-ranking sites. You could lose a lot of traffic if your site does not meet these conditions.
This is also an opportunity to make sure your mobile site is up-to-standard. A chatbot will refer people to your website via a mobile platform if it does so. The chatbot may log the site as not helpful and only show it to customers in the future if they like it.
It will be okay if it catches on.
Although chatbots are not guaranteed to become popular, Facebook’s recent push in AI and the announcement of a chatbot shop show that they believe this idea is worth exploring. Even if chatbots are wrong for you, planning your marketing to consider their impact on the world is essential. You can make sure you take advantage of great opportunities by looking ahead and planning for them.
What do you think about chatbots? Will chatbots be the next trendy trend, or will they become a standard part of our daily lives? How can chatbots be used to improve marketing? Comment below to let us know your thoughts.