How to bring chatbots into your marketing strategy

When used effectively, chatbots can deliver timely, quick support to influence buying decisions, field customer service questions, and maximize target marketing via analytics. Let’s take a deeper look at how you can effectively bring chatbots into your digital marketing strategy.

Chances are, you have had a conversation with a chatbot before. If you’ve ever clicked on the little widget on the corner of a website, it’s possible that you were actually talking to a bot, not a human.

In some cases, it’s obvious that it’s a chatbot based on the speed of the reply. In other cases, the implementation is so seamless you don’t even know you’re talking to a bot, as they mimic humans via audio or text using deep learning processes.

These deep learning processes involve scripts and layers of information within neural networks. The more layers of information or data a chatbot has acquired over time, the more artificially intelligent it is.

Chatbots deliver timely, quick support to influence buying decisions, field customer service questions, and maximize target marketing via analytics.

“Chat bots have existed for a good while — at least since ELIZA, an early bot that attempted to psychoanalyze people, was created in the ’60s,” Devin Coldewey of NBC Tech explains.

“But the last few years have seen an explosion of applications that make people interact with bots as though they’re talking to another person.”

Let’s take a deeper look at deep learning and how you can effectively bring chatbots into your digital marketing strategy.

Using chatbots as sales reps

Chatbots are not solely that little pop-up box on your landing page ready to answer any customer questions. They can also be used to drive customers down the sales funnel, and even close the sale.

Giving your customers the attention they deserve can be challenging for businesses. Having 24/7 customer service reps in every time zone and language is incredibly expensive and difficult to implement for all but the largest of brands.

The vast majority of companies do not have the resources to have customer service or sales reps available around the clock.

Chatbots, however, are available 24/7, in every time zone, and in any language that you choose to program them in.  Think of the money saved by being able to significantly reduce the amount of customer service reps required to answer the most obvious and basic of customer service questions!

Apparel company H&M has made significant use of chatbots its marketing strategy for this very reason. When an H&M customer chats with a bot, they are subtly asked questions about their style. This allows the bot to tailor recommendations based on unique preference, something that could come off slightly imposing from a human.

By implementing chatbots into your sales funnel, you can drive customers toward a purchase seamlessly. Take for example Facebook Messenger bots, which can now process payments “with a few easy clicks”, allowing customers to check out “without ever leaving the Messenger app”, as Facebook proclaims.

Enhancing user experience via engagement

Engagement is a metric every business and marketer knows well. It is an essential aspect of your marketing strategy, since engagement often equates to sales.

With chatbots, instead of clicks or one-sided comments, customers have the opportunity to converse via chat, revolutionizing the user experience. Your bots can actually boost brand loyalty and help to build social proof.

Disney, for instance, did an exceptional job of leveraging AI chatbot innovation to build anticipation for the release of “Zootopia.” Using Facebook Messenger, Disney created a bot based on movie character Officer Judy Hopps.

People interested in the movie could chat with the character, and on average, spent over 10 minutes conversing with the chatbot.

“These bots can understand user language and complex signs (i.e., acronyms and emoticons),” Dean Takahashi of Venture Beat explains. “They can predict a user’s intent and retain relationship memory.”

Collecting and analyzing valuable customer insights

Potentially one of the most important aspects of a chatbot is its ability to collect and analyze customer insights. Bots can map purchase patterns and analyze habits far more efficiently and effectively than humans.

Using bots to monitor patterns of your customers lets you to know exactly what products or services they like. This allows you to personalize and maximize target marketing.

“Smart companies are already harnessing the power of predictive analytics to gain deeper insights on their customers,” Christina Comben of Day Translations explains.

“They can break down tons of useful information and offer laser-sharp targeting. Now just picture this efficiency of information coupling with IoT.”

Any personalized marketing is powerful, and it is certainly a great way to boost brand loyalty as well. By providing a human-like personalized interaction, you’re increasing confidence to buy with tailored products and services – available 24/7 and in any language you desire.

As people continue to fall out of love with apps, it may be more important than ever before to bring chatbots into your marketing strategy.

“The bot revival is also taking place at a time when people are growing tired of individual apps,” Mike Isaac of The New York Times said.

Are you ready for the bot revival? If you want to stay ahead of competitors and offer an unmatched user experience, take a serious look at chatbots and the most effective ways to integrate them into your marketing strategy.

For some examples of brands using chatbots, check out our most recent article on the topic: How six retailers are using chatbots to boost customer engagement (and why you should too)

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