Chatbots are now the go-to virtual assistant for a lot of websites. It is an effective way to interact with visitors to a website. A chatbot is ever-present and eliminates the 24*7 need for human interaction on a website.
Depending upon its use and functions, a chatbot can be a very effective tool for marketing. It can help potential customers in a more personalized manner. Let us look at why chatbots are so important to discuss their marketing capabilities.
WHY YOU NEED A CHATBOT?
A chatbot is essentially a bot or a computer program/software. It is programmed specifically to suit a specific business. It is a digital assistant for your marketing needs. It is a simple and effective tool that can be a commodity depending on your use.
If your website provides more than one service, product, or has a variety of content, then you definitely need a chatbot. Chatbots provide an effective one-on-one interaction with your customer/potential customers.
With a set number of questions or sentences, the chatbot can help visitors by identifying their needs and aiding through pre-set answers and questions. Chatbots can not only be present on sites but through SMS, emails, and various other texting platforms. If on a platform you can type and send text, then there is a chatbot.
If you’re someone who believes in data, we got you covered. Almost more than 65% of people over four different continents trust and prefer texting over other forms of business communication.
Thus, you definitely should invest in a good chatbot. the personalized experience makes for an appealing attraction for your business.
HOW DO THEY HELP IN MARKETING?
There are various factors and benefits of utilizing a chatbot. As said above, they are a form of a virtual assistant. The better program they are, the better outcome you get. Let’s look at some ways chatbots improve the marketing experience.
1. PERSONALISED EXPERIENCE
Chatbots are robotic Artificial intelligence. It functions as a set of questions and answers and the input from texts. These pre-set questions and answers can be tailor-made to suit any business.
For any potential customer it is important they get what they want. To ensure that, a chatbot can be programmed effectively to rely on inputs from buyers to give them an extremely personalised experience.
With an advanced AI, chatbots can work as virtual customer service, a personal shopper for customers, and even a guide for navigating on your website. Chatbots can thus be programmed to answer queries regarding service issues, find and buy products and navigating to exactly what you want. For example, a company engaged in escape rooms will need to cater to a wide variety of interests. This means that there will be multiple filters and options used by the customer on site, which can be overwhelming for a customer, thus, a chatbot can be programmed to ask specific questions relating to escape room and the preference of the customer, increasing the amount of time spent by them interacting with the chatbot and reducing their burden of finding the perfect escape room.
2. EFFECTIVE AND EFFICIENT
Chatbots are AI and programmed for a specific purpose. They do not need maintenance per se and can be updated easily. Chatbots thus can only be misused if there is a flaw in their software code. This means unless there is an inherent problem, a chatbot is usually free from making human mistakes.
Chatbots also rely on just a programming code and thus are cost-effective than most marketing techniques. It can really save a tremendous amount of money as it eliminates certain engagement needs requiring human interaction. It can be a blessing for beginners and new businesses.
3. VERSATILE & RESOURCEFUL
Chatbots can be programmed for almost all business types. They function well on online stores and equally well on educational sites. While one can assist a customer in finding and buying the exact thing, a chatbot through programming can easily assist a student is looking for articles on a particular subject.
Chatbots through these interactions can be more resourceful by engaging and storing leads by requesting data and interests. This can be a critical feedback mechanism for a lot of new businesses as well as important data for well-established businesses.
4. UNIQUE MARKETING STRATEGY
Depending on the use and design, chatbots can work with human support to provide assistance at all times. Chatbots can schedule appoints and calls with real-time support. Involving chatbots with human supervision can lead to interesting marketing strategies. Chatbots thus provide a unique marketing strategy for businesses of all sizes and stature.
5. EASE OF ACCESS
Chatbots ultimately are tools for providing easy and simple ways to navigate or interact with a website or product. In case of non-availability of a product or customer support, a chatbot can schedule meetings and notify customers when a particular product is available again.
Chatbots are used by various companies to track the progress of products ordered by a customer. Right from finding and buying to delivering and feedback, chatbots are always present and give easy access to relevant information.
CONCLUSION
Chatbots thus has become an integral part of the internet era and digital marketing. Despite their usefulness, chatbots must be maintained and updated to suit the needs of the business. An outdated and faulty program is as detrimental as a good program is beneficial. In order to expand and digitize your customer’s experience don’t make the chatbot a separate part of your business. Integrate chatbot with positive human interaction to ensure that customers don’t feel detached from the site.