You must have visited websites with popup windows that lend a virtual helping hand to visitors. Chatbots platforms are among the most hyped marketing trends of recent times. More and more businesses are jumping on the bandwagon with every passing day. It is believed that by 2024, the global chatbot market will be worth $9.4 billion. Experts are rating this product of artificial intelligence so highly because chatbot-based digital marketing has been proved to be extremely effective in driving sales and offering impeccable customer service. Read through the section below to learn more about chatbots and their role in digital marketing.
What Are the Different Types of Chatbots? Â
Chatbots are small computer programs that are capable of mimicking interactions and conversations with humans in the form of speech or text. These programs are used to help humans to complete tasks and fix issues. The chatbot types that are currently in use are:
Menu-based chatbot: Selecting these chatbots will give you a new series of options to choose from.
Keyword-based chatbot: These chatbots work by capturing keywords and accordingly process queries and solve them.
Natural Language processing chatbot: This one is possibly the most advanced chatbot type in use currently. It works by using artificial intelligence and machine learning. A natural language processing chatbot combines the two technologies to provide users with highly contextual results.
How AI Chatbots Aid Digital Marketing?Â
Generates More Lead
Most modern-day businesses follow an omnichannel format of operation. They sell their products/services on their website, social media platforms, and several other channels. The AI chatbots would ensure that customers can communicate with you/your business through the prevailing messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger.
The chatbots will allow you to engage your potential and existing customers through personalized messaging. They work following a pre-set questionnaire to attract visitors to your business and its offerings. Eventually, this leads to better lead generation. Moreover, nurturing is done based on the specific journey embarked by a customer. For example, if the chatbot is representing an e-commerce business, it will give combo offers, personalized recommendations, discounts coupons, etc. for alluring leads and improving sales conversions.
Offers 24/7 Automated Customer SupportÂ
Today, nobody has time to wait. So, if a customer visits your website looking for some information and doesn’t get an immediate response from your customer support team, it’s unlikely that he/she will wait. The person will instead prefer taking the product/service from one of your rivals.
By adding the chatbot feature to your website you will be able to keep your users engaged 24/7. The chatbot will answer the common questions asked by visitors on your site immediately. The round the clock support will have a strong positive impact on the visitors. This will not only help in creating new customers but will also help you in retaining the old ones. To take the assistance to the next level, chatbots can direct website visitors to answers they will find genuinely useful. This would increase customer satisfaction even further.
Increases Customer EngagementÂ
If you want your business to make it big in the online world, you must know the art of keeping your customer engaged. Chatbots will help you in keeping your existing and potential customers engaged using one or all of the following methods:
- Increasing customer satisfaction
- Providing customers with personalization
- Enabling real-time conversations
- Improving user’s experience
Offers ScalabilityÂ
If your customer support team consists of live agents, there are chances that you will not know that there’s a need of adding more agents to the team. Moreover, to hire more agents, you will have to spend a significant amount of money on training and infrastructure. The hiring and training process will also take up much of your precious time.
While using bots, you will not need to worry about capacity. This AI technology scores heavily when it comes to its scalability. When offering live support, you will have a team that can handle a maximum of two to three conversations at a time. Chatbots are computer programs; so, they are capable of managing several thousand conversations together. This means you will not need to worry about employing more people just because your website is getting more visitors, or your business has earned greater profits in the last quarter.
Eliminates Human ErrorsÂ
When humans do a job it’s almost inevitable that some errors will occur. However, there are certain areas where annual errors can lead to serious issues. For example, if someone arriving at an online medicine store asks about a suitable remedy for a headache, a wrong answer can result in a medical emergency.
Using a bot on your website would eliminate any possibilities of such errors. As chatbots are computer programs and have all information stored in them, they will never commit any error when answering the client’s queries.
Final Words
Besides contributing to digital marketing in the ways mentioned above, AI chatbots are often used to collect and customize data. They are capable of tracking the purchasing behavior of your customers. If you want to get the feature on your website, make sure it is incorporated under a qualified web developer’s supervision. You shouldn’t mind spending a one-time amount for incorporating it into your website as this feature is here to stay.