Marketing automation has revolutionized a variety of industries. One of the most visible areas where we see automation exploding is through the use of chatbots via websites.
At the core of this approach is the ability to provide site visitors access to information quickly, while directing them to product or service-related information. The advantage is immediacy — answering customer questions in real time leads to significant business benefit.
At Atlas Marketing, we introduced Atlas Bot on Atlasstories.com last year with the help of Drift. Since Atlas Bot joined our “sales team,” site engagement has increased 16 percent along with a 9-percent increase in meetings scheduled. Below are a few best practices from our short time with Atlas Bot.
No forms!
The single most significant advantage of Atlas Bot is the immediate response. There is no need for contact forms and begging for information before engaging with potential customers. Let’s face it, how often do you give out your real email address on those forms? More importantly, when you do provide information via a form, how long does it take the company to respond? By removing the time factor, companies can set themselves apart and respond when their customers have questions.
Directs interaction
Utilizing bots to ask qualifying questions does reduce the time factor, but it also provides an opportunity to focus customers in the right direction. For example, based on specific responses, a software startup can create opportunities to schedule a product demonstration with little involvement from the product development team. This allows the product development team to do what they are best at, develop the next iteration of the software. Of course, this assumes that your webpage is telling a story that drives to the demo, but that is another conversation.
Depending on the objectives, a strategic campaign utilizing chatbots can eliminate unnecessary steps while improving conversion rates through specific routing directives. Preparing individual responses and conversational interactions has the potential to increase revenue-generating functions while offsetting significant expenses.
Improves (potential) customer satisfaction
Eighty-two percent of consumers consult their phone before making a purchase. Most retailers cannot respond to that volume of inquiries, so chatbots take up the slack. In addition, 90 percent of business buyers consult some form of online research prior to purchase. I think you are beginning to see how valuable immediate customer engagement has become. Chatbots can direct site visitors to the information they seek, along with the ability to help curate information for potential customers rather than sell. The power is in the hands of the decision makers, and marketers who focus their attention on helping will see stronger results.
Yes, marketing is ever-changing, yet one consistency is in the form of helping rather than selling. Chatbots offer an automated ability to refine and deliver information, so customers reduce their pre-purchase research time. Once we embrace that, we all are winners.