Importance of Chatbots in a Digital Marketing Strategy

Chatbots are fascinating and intimidating at the same time. The former because it’s a novelty right now, as in for all those who haven’t really figured it out yet, and seems like a pretty sophisticated piece of software. This is also why it seems intimidating to many.

Most of the time, until we understand something, we are always wary about it. In this article, we will explain why exactly are chatbots important in digital marketing.

What is a Chatbot?

Designed to personalize user experience, Chatbots are programs that engage with the customers using responses that have been programmed into them. This means that they reply in the same way each time, but their messages vary depending upon the responses of the customers. 

Chatbots use chat mediums such as SMS texts, Facebook messenger, website chat windows, and so on, for the sending and receiving of messages. They are of various types. Fun and goofy ones such as Cleverbot learn on the go as they engage with real people. 

How Effective are Chatbots?

Do you know that 56% of people prefer messaging over the customer-calling service? This is one of the key points behind the effectiveness of chatbots. Many times an effective conversation can lead to a conversion. It might be just what your website or marketing strategy requires to increase the number of conversions.  

• They have proven to be extremely helpful in automating business processes.
• They improve customer services by a great margin.
• They help in getting quality leads that lead to conversions often.  

How to Get Started with Chatbots?

Now that you have a slight idea of what a chatbot can do, follow the steps given below to get started: 

1. Set your goals and choose a platform

As chatbots can be used to serve such a varied number of purposes, it is hard to narrow them down to one. Do you want to improve customer service issues or get new leads? Promote some new product or something else? Figure it out. 

After that get started on choosing the platform on which you want to place your bot. This is because conversations differ with different platforms. 

2. Create your content strategy

You need to work on the content that you’ll be programming into your chatbot so that it can relay the same to your customers. This content will naturally vary from goal to goal.

Try thinking of FAQs by placing yourself in your customers’ shoes and don’t forget to include visuals in your content. It can really elevate the quality of the message(s). 

3. Work on developing your Bot’s personality

This is where you need to get creative. Your chatbot needs to have a personality and a voice. It might be serious, or it might be quirky or goofy. Depending upon how you think the message you want to spread will be best relayed.  

4. Begin tracking customer journeys

Based on the products or services, start creating customer journeys based on the questions that you think might follow after the first round of the conversation. 

This helps you in preparing answers according to the questions that the customers are most likely to ask, and in what sequence. 

5. Come up with a great opening message and responses

Make sure that the opening message is amazing and catches their attention from the get-go. This should depend on the personality you are creating for your chatbot. Following that, work on creating the best possible answers.

After working on the customer journeys, list the questions and start answering them one by one. Each answer should have all the details that you need the customers to know, in one way or the other.  

6. Include CTA cues for the audience 

The final step or the last round of conversation that chatbots are programmed with includes call-to-actions. This means that you let the customers know what the next step for them will be. 

This could be guiding them to a particular product or page, or directly to the checkout page. There are several possibilities depending upon the purpose of the chatbot. 

7. Test and then monitor the Chatbot

To make sure that all your questions and answers are on point, no matter the line of questioning followed by the customer, you need to test it out. All the different interaction possibilities should be tested out. 

After the testing is done, you can make the chatbot live and then monitor its progress. If you see that there are certain glitches or other issues, you can always rectify your mistakes. 

Conclusion

Whether you should start using chatbots can be answered pretty easily. With the help of this program, the experience of your customers is getting enhanced. It helps in bridging the gap between your audience and your company, and isn’t that really what marketing is all about? 

Therefore, follow the steps given above and start using chatbots right away in order to serve your customers better and ultimately, increase your sales. 

For more such content, don’t forget to check out Simpliskills Blog section. Further, go over the various digital marketing courses that we offer and take your first step towards becoming a digital marketer. 

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