Around 1.4 billion people use chatbots on a fairly regular basis. It’s time that companies realize that chatbots are not merely for answering simple customer questions, they are capable of much more than that.
The implementation of the right chatbot marketing tactics can drive sales and revenue and on top of that, the ROI of using chatbots for marketing is unlike any other strategy.
To look further into what chatbot marketing is and how you can use it to grow your business, continue reading this article.
What is chatbot marketing?
Chatbot marketing is a way to promote and sell products and services through chatbots – AI-powered digital assistants used to automate text and voice interactions with customers.
Chatbot marketing gained popularity when Facebook allowed for the integration of bots with its messenger app, which has about 1.3 billion users today. From there on, chatbots started getting deployed on multiple platforms, and honestly, became the go-to marketing tool for businesses worldwide.
Companies suddenly realized the untapped potential of chatbots for not only customer service but also lead generation and sales. Insider Intelligence predicts that, by 2024, consumer retail spend via chatbots worldwide will reach $142 billion – up from just $2.8 billion in 2019.
Benefits of chatbot marketing
1. Shorten your sales cycle
Chatbots handle everything from query resolution to accepting payments. So, more sales are made in a lesser time as customers don’t have to switch between channels to make a purchase.
2. Offer better personalization
Chatbots use NLP to sense the tone of the customer and craft conversations that deliver positive customer experiences.
3. Provide instant support
55% of people prefer using chatbots to interact with a business because they provide instant answers to their queries.
4. Derive helpful customer insights
Chatbots track and maintain systemic records of customer data that can be used to predict trends and behavior patterns.
5. Get a higher return on investment
Chatbots are three times more successful at converting a prospect to a customer than other marketing channels such as emails. Companies that implement chatbots in their marketing strategy are reported to experience a 67% increase in sales.
How to use chatbots for marketing?
Be it improving lead generation, spreading awareness about new launches, nudging customers down the sales funnel with limited-time offers and more, there is no end to what you can achieve with chatbot marketing.
Think about how a sales representative in a physical store helps customers buy the right products. Similarly, chatbots, in the online shopping world, act as store associate equivalents that provide customers with the help they need to complete their purchase.
Also, considering how high user standards are today, even loyal customers can churn if they don’t get an experience they expect. Modern customers expect proactive customer service that meets their needs even before they arise. They want hyper-personalization, and they base their loyalty on how convenient you make the shopping experience for them.
Implementing a chatbot in your marketing strategy can help you meet customer needs in real-time and supercharge your growth simultaneously. If you are looking for ways to use chatbots to spearhead your marketing efforts, here are a few chatbot marketing tips that can help you grow your business in 2022.
1. Increase lead magnet downloads with messenger bots
How do Facebook ads work? You show an image or a video to a customer with a lead magnet and direct them to a landing page where they are greeted with an intrusive request for their email.
Not surprisingly enough, 90% of customers bounce off the post-ad landing page because really, why wouldn’t they? Unless of course, you give them a reason to stay. This is where messenger bots can help.
Marketers can instead use click-to-messenger ads that can directly connect the prospects with a social media chatbot. The chatbot then engages with the customer in real-time, automatically records their digital SSN, and finally allows the customer to download the lead magnet from the chat interface.
By keeping the entire conversation in messenger, you’ll be able to reduce the cost per lead, achieve more engaged customers, score better leads, and add a personal touch to marketing.
2. Bring back prospects using retargeting
A lot of time customers may come to your website, browse around and then drop off without making a purchase. Retargeting is a great way to remind prospects about your brand and rekindle their interest in your offerings.
For instance, if a customer came to your website and interacted with your chatbot, the bot automatically captures all the pertinent information about the user.
Now, if the user leaves the website, the chatbot will ping them on WhatsApp with a custom message or an offer that incentivizes the customer to complete their purchase.
Also, chatbot retargeting is free of cost. Chatbots can re-engage with thousands of prospects and send them personalized messages, giving you a better chance at conversions.
3. Close deals with payment integrated chatbots
Customers tend to get frustrated when they have to switch between channels to complete a single purchase. For example, if a customer receives an offer by mail, they’ll be directed to a landing page, from there to the product page, and finally to the check-out page.
You can obviously further shorten the funnel but how great would it be if the customer could close the purchase, in one single conversation? It may seem impossible, but with chatbots, customers can go from the awareness stage to conversion in just one chat interaction.
Chatbots integrated with payment platforms such as Razorpay, PayU, etc are capable of accepting payments and even processing hassle-free refunds. Such a streamlined experience can immensely boost customer satisfaction and loyalty.
4. Qualify leads with interactive questionnaires
To establish if a lead is qualified or not, you need detailed customer data to verify if the lead has all the attributes that you’re looking for in a potential buyer. Chatbots are one of the most efficient ways to gather customer information as they can make your surveys conversational.
Lead generation chatbots make the process of outreach for lead scoring much easier. They replace the traditional forms and make answering survey questions a lot more fun and interactive for the users.
Intelligent chatbots make the customers feel heard and valued, it’s just like giving your feedback to a human agent. Also, with the help of chatbots, you can easily connect with prospects that can not be reached via phone or email.
5. Execute successful up-sells and cross-sells
Up-Selling is when you encourage the customers to purchase a higher-value product than the one they are interested in buying. On the other hand, cross-selling is the practice of selling an additional product or service along with what the customer is intending to buy. Bot of these sales strategies can be achieved by knowing the customer, his interests and willingness to purchase.
A chatbot that is programmed using high-tech capabilities such as NLP, NLU, AI and machine learning, will be able to use customer data to make suitable up-selling and cross-selling product suggestions. They can entice customers to try different packages, eventually resulting in increased revenue.
Email marketing vs chatbot marketing in 2022
For decades now, email has been a popular channel from a lead gen perspective but a growing number of companies today are shifting their focus towards chatbot marketing. Besides declining email open rates, the foremost reason for this shift is the rise of two-sided conversations.
Chatbots are capable of having real-time conversations with customers just like a human agent would. Whereas, emails tell customers about your business and products, rather than engaging with them in real-time. This makes a much bigger difference than you think it would.
Typically, the click-through rate of chatbots is 15% to 60% compared to emails, which ranges from 5% to 10%. Chatbots also have a 68% higher open rate as compared to emails. Let’s look at a few more ways chatbots have the upper hand.
In a nutshell, chatbots are the future of marketing automation. They are low-risk, offer the best returns, and help to grow brand image, engagement, and trust. To reap the most benefits of chatbot marketing you need a robust, AI-powered chatbot that is easy to build and integrate with various internal and external applications.
So, to get a headstart in chatbot marketing, develop your own chatbot today with Yellow.ai’s no-code chatbot builder. Request a demo, and our team will help you build a bot in under 10 clicks and deploy it to over 35+ channels including Voice.
