Chatbots are essentially bots or robots that are powered using Artificial Intelligence. In its essence, these are programs that are designed to conduct and carry on conversations with anyone who interacts with them.
In terms of the look and feel it’s almost like chatting with another human. But, instead of a representative – a programmed robot is the one doing all the talking. So, you can ask questions like ‘What kind of services do you offer?’ or ‘What’s the return process?’.
Depending upon the nature of your business, you can design your bots. The biggest benefit
Chatbots offer is that they can reduce the need for manpower by offering automated answers instead of having a person answer them for your customers.
The best part is that since it’s powered by machine learning, bots become more intelligent and sophisticated with more and more questions poured into it. Companies can deploy chatbots on Facebook and websites.
There are myriad ways in which you can incorporate chatbots into your digital marketing strategy, such as:
For gathering information from the leads
Bots are perfect for when you wish to gather information from leads. Almost every lead comes with a bunch of useful information such as email, phone number, etc. When you compare the way bots gather information, it’s much more quick and efficient than using a form or something else. It’s also time-efficient and it can save a ton of time.
Scheduling
Whether you have to schedule a call or need to get someone onboard, bots are perfect. Instead of having a dedicated person schedule a call or an appointment for you, you can automate the whole thing using AI-powered bots.
FAQs
Almost every business will get an influx of common queries by almost every single incoming customer no matter what product or service you sell. Answering each one of those questions can get exhausting. Therefore, instead of deploying manpower, you can automate most of that work via bots.
It will answer the same question within instants that are asked about 10,000 times a day. You can think of it as a concierge who greets customers. By placing your bot on Facebook or website, you can recreate a similar kind of experience; only faster.
Using Chatbots for Sales
Many times, a customer may have a few queries or concerns regarding a sale. Therefore, they may like to get their queries answered before finalizing the purchase. During such times, chatbots come in handy.
Instead of calling you up and verbally asking a question, they can just type the question in. A well-programmed bot can even nudge the customers into the direction of buying the product/service.
Shopping
Many bots come with the feature of allowing in-app shopping purchases. You can customize many bots to showcase products and services and redirect customers towards the right kind of pages to finalize purchases.
Chatbots for Marketing
One of the finest ways in which to utilize chatbots is for finalizing marketing tactics. It’s a great tool for nurturing leads. As soon as someone lands into your chatbot you have the opportunity to get them to subscribe to your emails and newsletters. You can keep sending them informational and advertorial content. This is a major tool in your arsenal as bots offer an opportunity to conduct face-to-face communication. Twesocial explains in more detail you can see.
Organizing Your Team
The way you can incorporate bots into your SaaS marketing strategy is not merely through conducting Facebook campaigns or blog posts. Bots can also be used for tracking and managing team performance.
One of the biggest challenges that teams (particularly remote ones) face while working in collaboration on a project is difficulty staying on the same page. This often leads to a lot of friction.
But, many bots like Nikabot and Standup Bot can help your teams stay together through all their projects.
Things to Avoid While Using Bots
You must avoid relying completely and totally on chatbots. To come up with a winning strategy, you must ensure some degree of human touch. Therefore, while automation can be of immense value – make sure it’s not the tool in your arsenal for communicating with the customers.
Another thing you must remember is that Bots should not overdo sending messages to the customers. While it’s a power that chatbots can automatically send a lot of questions, it must be used in moderation. Otherwise sending out too many messages could easily turn off users. It won’t be long before they unsubscribe from your services.
Bottom Line
Chatbots are a beautiful offering. That’s why it’s sad that many people still don’t utilize them to their full potential. How well you can utilize bots depends upon your creativity and your business needs.
Also, when it’s time for you to add a bot to your page, you can utilize a bunch of platforms to create and integrate them. Based on the look you’re trying to achieve, you can always adjust the design.