Chatbot Marketing

What is chatbot marketing?

Chatbot marketing is a conversational marketing technique that employs automated, two-way, one-on-one interactions with customers and prospects across the website, apps, messaging platforms, SMS, social media, and more. The purpose is to promote products or services and/or handle service issues. AI chatbots can simulate human conversations that are personalized to each individual, tailoring suggestions to reduce cart abandonment, share shipping updates, and more.

Alongside hosted contact center solutions, chatbot marketing is one of the primary ways a company can deliver interactive customer experiences and support to customers.

The benefits of chatbot marketing

Chatbot marketing has been enthusiastically embraced due to its ability to provide instant responses to customers 24/7 across different channels. This has allowed companies to provide better service, give customers the instant gratification and the personalized experience they expect, and avoid missed opportunities.

Efficiency and scale

Chatbots have become one of the most popular AI-powered marketing tools because they help businesses allocate resources more efficiently. They make e-commerce customers feel more valuable. Chatbots are not restricted by working hours or essential human requirements. They can be available every hour of the day, providing support to customers at scale. They answer numerous inquiries at once, so customers aren’t left waiting.

Chatbots can easily take on repetitive tasks (like sending tracking numbers upon request) that humans would find tedious, and thus allowing the staff to spend their time on higher level inquiries, fixing customer issues, and optimizing the customer experience. This leads to a more gratified team.

Cost savings

Customer retention and customer acquisition are huge priorities for marketing teams. As the market becomes more competitive, both have become more challenging and expensive. Chatbots streamline customer acquisition through personalization, instant engagement, data collection, and more. They also boost customer retention by providing added convenience and thus improved customer satisfaction. According to HubSpot, retaining customers is less expensive than acquiring new customers and longtime customers provide better long-term profitability. A brand has a 60-70% chance of making a sale to an existing customer, but only 20% when selling to new customers.

Though there is an initial financial outlay to get a chatbot up and running, the long-term savings are significant.

Instant gratification

Today’s consumers are used to having just about everything at their fingertips. So if they have a question about an item or the brand’s return policy, they want it right away. A study by Aircall on how long customers expect to wait for service across different digital channels found that 49% of shoppers on live chat would navigate away from a website if they didn’t see anyone typing within one minute. 80% said they expected an answer via live chat within two minutes.

Processing payments efficiently

Chatbots are not just for conversations. They can also handle payments. This can speed up purchases with a convenient and secure payment experience that allows customers to complete their purchase without ever leaving the chat.

Universal applicability

It doesn’t matter if an e-commerce website offers visitors the opportunity to book a trip, buy a pair of sneakers, or purchase a domain name—chatbots can be customized to work across nearly every industry and vertical. They can also be applied to social messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

Simplifying segmentation and personalization

Chatbots help brands learn more about their customers and their browsing behavior. They have the ability to segment website traffic on the basis of user engagement. Using this information, chatbots can identify high-potential customers and provide tailored experiences.

For example, if a customer is interested in a particular product category, a chatbot can ask questions to attain more information, such as color preference, size, or budget. This level of detail can enable personalized customer experiences.

The chatbot can then provide product options most suited to the customer, along with any relevant offers, and even assist them with checkout. This brings added value to the customer experience which builds brand loyalty and customer connection.

Expanding global reach

Integrating chatbots with platforms like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp gives brands the ability to have personalized interactions with customers across the globe. Multilingual chatbots provide customers with automated support in their preferred language. Whatever the timezone, chatbots are available.

Delivering data-driven insights

Data is among one of the most valuable business assets. In collaboration with tools like call monitoring services (such as those offered by Vonage), customer feedback forms, and social listening, chatbots are one of the best ways to collect data from customer interactions. This data gives brands a better understanding of customer needs, preferences, and pain points.

Companies use these insights to optimize product offerings, improve the customer experience, and inform future marketing strategies.

Nurturing sales

When brands achieve real-time personalization through chatbots, they can cultivate sales naturally. Personalized product recommendations can have a powerful effect on customers, and the information chatbots provide can help customers feel confident in their purchases.

This is where a chatbot plays the role of store associate or personal shopper. It can ascertain a customer’s budget, personal tastes, and any other requirements. The chatbot can then showcase the benefits and features of relevant products to the customer.

Even if a customer doesn’t make a purchase straight away, this interaction can improve the brand’s image and increase the likelihood that the customer will come back in the future.

Overcoming common challenges in chatbot marketing

When companies incorporate chatbot marketing into their strategy, it’s possible they may encounter a few hurdles. Here are some ways to overcome them.

Data privacy and compliance

Data security is a big concern for businesses of all sizes and industries. Whether it’s adopting RealVNC to ensure remote workers can access information securely or upping cyber security, companies are taking increasing measures to keep data safe.

This is also crucial when considering chatbots, which must be compliant with corporate and industry security regulations. To safeguard sensitive information and clearly communicate privacy policies to users, brands must prioritize security measures.

User trust and skepticism

Some customers are likely to be wary of dealing with chatbots. This may be an issue when it comes to providing personal information and payment details.

The key to dealing with this is to design chatbot interactions that feel human and to provide assurance that all customer data will be handled securely.

Integration with human support

Though today’s chatbot technology is highly conversational and effective, it still has its limitations. Chatbots are ideal for answering routine questions and basic transactions, but there will always be instances where a human will need to get involved.

To provide the best possible service to customers, brands must ensure that there is a clear channel for chatbots to hand over human support when required. This will prevent any potential frustration and reassure customers that chatbots are not being used as a substitute for personal customer service. Accepting a chatbot’s limitations enables brands to provide more high value customer experiences and increase trust.

Overall, brands should never implement a chatbot marketing strategy that deflects customers’ questions. That will send customers straight to a competitor. If the chatbot can’t provide the customer with actual value by answering them accurately and efficiently, the inquiry should be forwarded along to a human agent.

Save time and money with chatbot marketing

As more businesses adopt chatbot marketing, customers will come to expect it. Automating customer interactions is a great cost-cutting measure. When done correctly, it improves the customer experience and personalization at scale. Personalized interactions ensure that the brand nurtures customer relationships, leading to greater marketing ROI.

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