Chatbot Marketing

Chatbot Marketing – Is it Worth it for Your Business?

By: Frank DePino | March 15, 2024

It’s hard to ignore chatbot marketing these days. Thanks to ChatGPT, chatbots are on the front page of newspapers and at the forefront of marketers’ minds. By 2024, it’s estimated that consumer retail spending from chatbots will reach an impressive $142 billion

Learn how you can maximize your business through chatbots and marketing!

What is Chatbot Marketing?

Chatbot Marketing is a digital marketing strategy that uses chatbots, which are computer programs designed to mimic human conversation, interact with customers, and automate customer service, sales, and support. Chatbots can be integrated into various messaging platforms, websites, and mobile applications, allowing businesses to engage with customers in real time, personalize communication, and streamline customer interactions. Companies program chatbots to answer common predefined questions and concerns. Or the chatbot can use artificial intelligence to answer queries. By instantly answering users’ questions, chatbots prevent you from missing another lead again.

So how do chatbots and marketing fit into your business strategy? 

Chatbots for marketing satisfy current customers by moving them down the sales funnel. They can also upsell and nurture new customers as well, increasing engagement and retention, and driving sales by delivering personalized and targeted messaging at scale.

Read on to learn the benefits of using a chatbot.

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The benefits of including a chatbot in your marketing strategy

24/7 Availability

Your customer service representatives stop answering questions when they leave for the day at 5 p.m. Chatbots don’t have to log out! No matter what hour your customers are pondering questions, the chatbot is available. In the middle of the night, your chatbot can guide customers toward a purchase or answer their pressing shipping questions.

Cost-Effective

Employing staff to field questions 24/7 would be expensive. Chatbot marketing is an affordable way to keep communication open with your customers. Instead of paying a salary, chatbots are a cost-effective option for maintaining a conversation with customers at all hours. The cost of your chatbot depends on how many integrations you have. Some standard chatbots can cost as little as $100 a month.

Personalization

Personalized messaging impacts a person’s purchasing decisions. Chatbots tailor messages toward the user by using past information about the customer. For example, a chatbot can collect information on a person’s interests. As a result, the chatbot can suggest product recommendations to the customer. Your chatbot can also remember a user’s name or email address to personalize future conversations.

Automation

Chatbot marketing removes tedious and repetitive conversations off your employees’ plates through automation. Chatbots are smart. They recognize conversations and automate logical responses. By recognizing the context and content of the message, the chatbot is programmed to give the right answer every time. Like humans, chatbots even learn from their customers over time!

Lead segmentation

When you receive leads, it’s essential to segment them into where they are in the sales funnel. Chatbots gain crucial lead information about customers. It can tell when a person is gaining awareness of your brand or when they’re ready to convert. By leveraging the power of chatbot marketing, you can use data to properly segment leads for future lead nurturing.

Increase lead and sales

Everyone wants to generate more leads for their business. Chatbot marketing has an exceptional conversion rate. Research shows that 67% of people are more likely to purchase from a business when they use a chatbot. When using a chatbot, ensure that no leads go unanswered. Chatbots also gain useful insight into your customer’s thought processes while they’re getting ready to convert. This information can help you make additional sales in the future.

What types of chatbots exist?

Rule-based chatbot

Rule-based chatbots use dialogue trees with pre-determined rules to communicate with customers. The rules you choose can range from quite basic to complex dialogue trees. The chatbot recognizes communication patterns within the dialogue map. From there, the bot moves the conversation from A to B on the dialogue map. Communication is predictable within this model. However, the chatbot is only prepared for pre-programmed conversations. It cannot recognize scenarios that exist outside of the rules.

AI-Powered Chatbots

AI-Powered Chatbots leverage the power of natural language processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence (AI). These bots can dynamically answer users’ questions. Chatbots using AI pinpoint the text or speech from users to create logical responses. The result is a rather convincing and human-like conversation between chatbot and human. AI chatbots can even ask follow-up questions based on the responses they receive.

Virtual Assistant Chatbots

A virtual assistant chatbot performs many similar tasks to a human virtual assistant. Virtual assistant chatbots talk to customers, make calls, and type information. They can even book meetings and provide reminders. Using NLP and AI, these chatbots for marketing analyze human conversations. Customers may never even know it’s a bot! They engage in a real conversation with a chatbot mimicking a human virtual assistant.

The marketer is messaging with his chatbot to understand how to optimize the lead generation process

Increase your lead generation through chatbots in 9 steps

1. Set up the goal of the chatbot

The goal will determine how your chatbot interacts with users. A conversion-oriented bot will behave differently than a bot that seeks to educate customers on commonly asked questions.

2. Determine where the chatbot will live

Will the bot only be on your website? Chatbots for marketing can expand to your social media channels and SMS. You can even infuse your chatbot into your email marketing campaigns.

3. Choose the style of chatbot that reflects your brand

A quirky brand might give its chatbot a relevant name. A B2B company might opt for a nameless and professional bot to fit its branding.

4. Create a path of the answers based on user choices

Your chatbot’s answers can derive directly from your FAQ section. For a conversion-oriented bot, these answers will guide a user toward a purchase or membership.

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5. Enrich the answers with images, videos, links, and gifs

Customers want a conversational and interactive experience with a chatbot. The use of media helps humanize your chatbot and illustrate complex topics.

6. Include a call to action to capture the email or phone number

Guide your user toward completing a conversion with this clear call to action. This might be making a phone call or filling out a form.

7. Segment new leads based on their choices

As you learn more about your customers, you’ll want to segment them by where they’re at in the sales funnel. Users asking awareness-based questions are in one stage of the purchasing process. Users ready to make a purchase are in another.

8. Track the results of the chatbot performance

Finally, you’ll want to analyze how your chatbot is performing. Dig into your analytics to see how your bot is affecting conversion rates.

9. Introducing a real person

Once you’ve gathered leads and have crucial user information, introduce a real person. A sales representative of your company can reach out to the customer using the information they provided the chatbot.

How to implement a chatbot in social media marketing

You’ve designed your chatbot for your website. Now it’s time to infuse it into your social media marketing strategy. If you use Facebook or Twitter, there are messenger chatbots on their platforms. How you implement this chatbot will depend on your strategy. Maybe you’ll integrate your company’s app through social media to encourage purchases. Or you might set up your chatbot to answer common questions through a messaging app like Facebook or WhatsApp. See the following examples of successful chatbot marketing on social media.

3 Examples of a successful chatbot marketing campaign

1. Decathlon

As Decathlon prepped consumers for their upcoming store, they used a chatbot for marketing on Facebook Messenger to keep in touch with customers. By keeping customers updated on the store opening and signing them up for their loyalty program, they maintained an excellent 41% conversion rate.

2. HelloFresh

HelloFresh put itself on the chatbot marketing map with Freddy Freshbot in 2017. Using Facebook Messenger, Freddy helped guide users through their meal prep questions. He could even set reminders to make the meal-prepping experience seamless and fun.

3. Sephora

Sephora was a pioneer in using chatbot in the makeup industry. Back in 2016, Sephora toyed with appointment setting bots and color matching bots. Since then, Sephora expanded to Kik and Facebook Messenger. The strategy worked, as users engaged with the bot ten times a day once they started a conversation!

The best 3 chatbot marketing tools

1. Manychat

Manychat is a chatbot tool that allows users to create chatbots or use a ready-made template.

Manychat is a chatbot tool that allows users to create chatbots or use a ready-made template. Link up to social media like Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp. You can also expand to SMS text and integrate into other platforms like MailChimp or Shopify.

2. Tidio

Tidio is a chatbot that helps small businesses manage automated communication

Tidio is designed for small and medium businesses looking for chatbot assistance. Their live chat option is designed for websites. Seamlessly integrate with other tools like WordPress, Shopify, and more.

3. Mobile Monkey

Mobile monkey allows you to implement a chatbot in social profiles

Mobile Monkey is one of several chatbot platforms that combines chatbot technology with your website and social media channels. The service combines the chatbot data for the website and social channels. MobileMonkey holds all your information easily in one platform.

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Schedule Your Free Consultation

Seeking to elevate your luxury business? Let Mediaboom guide you. Secure your exclusive, free consultation with our luxury marketing experts today.

Hire a web agency and boost your marketing with chatbots

Mediaboom can help establish your chatbot marketing strategy.

Contact us to learn more!

Chatbot is not only smart but expected by customers in 2023. Gone are the archaic Dunder Mifflin days with Dwight Schrute. No more beets or Battlestar Galactica. It’s time to automate.

Embrace artificial intelligence to make your customer experience memorable with a chatbot.

By: Frank DePino

Frank DePino is Principal and Founder of Mediaboom. Since 2002, Frank has led Mediaboom’s award-winning staff of creative and technical professionals, building the most effective marketing and advertising solutions for its clients.

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