7 Proven Chatbot Marketing Strategies
I had a lot of great experiences in Japan, but few are as memorable as being greeted by a child-sized robot at the top of Tokyo Tower.
“This is so Japan” I thought as I talked to the friendly, helpful multilingual bot named Pepper. When I arrived back home, I told my friends and family about Pepper and now years later, I’m talking about it in this post. The point is that it was so unexpected (it was standing right outside the elevator door and it moved ) but I got to learn about the Tokyo Tower in a modern and interactive way.
A chatbot on your website or on your messaging channels, like Pepper, can greet your customers and make a “wow, neat” impression in your marketing strategy. Let’s take a look at why so many businesses are creating their own digital assistants.
The benefits of chatbot marketing
Speed, most notably. A chatbot’s first response time is instant. When you consider that speed has the largest impact on customer satisfaction, making it a core principle of customer service, chatbots are an ideal solution for providing immediate help.
Collects data. Within minutes, a chatbot can learn your customer’s name, job title, location and team size. This helps you build profiles within your customer management software and target potential leads.
Drives engagement. Your agents don’t know when your customers are on your website until they reach out, but a chatbot does. You can trigger intriguing chatbot messages to boost interest and engagement with your company in a low-barrier way.
Generates and nurtures leads. Chatbots help move your prospects down your sales funnels by making product recommendations and answering FAQs. Plus you can personalize interactions and tailor experiences to the visitor’s needs with interactive elements such as carousels.
Visually interesting. Having a well-designed chatbot is important. Much like your agents, your chatbots represent your company and help set the tone of your brand. An attractive chatbot with a catchy name, picture and engaging script will make your business stand out among boring bots and failed attempts.
Available across channels. Chatbots aren’t limited to your website — assist customers via WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and other popular channels your customers use daily.
7 creative chatbot marketing strategies
Hearing about the advantages of chatbot marketing is one thing, but how do you go about it? As a customer messaging solution and chatbot provider, we’ve helped many clients with their chatbot projects. Here are seven proven tips based on our experience and research for turning automated chatbots into a creative, engaging marketing tool.
- Offer proactive help like an in-store assistant
- Recommend products through quizzes and games
- Encourage orders with secret offers
- Create marketing materials from FAQs
- Target visitors outside business hours
- Get your campaigns seen
- Create a personal scheduling assistant
1
Offer proactive help like an in-store assistant
Proactive bots help break the ice when visitors are browsing your site. This shows the customer that you’re available and ready to assist at any time, which reduces cart abandonment rates and can be comforting while looking at size charts, for example.
If you connect your chatbot to your customer messaging software, you can set it to trigger after a visitor has spent a specified amount of time on a page.
One way to go about this is to have your chatbot send a welcome message in the chat after a customer has been on your pricing page for three to 10 seconds.
When a customer revisits your website or a specific page, your chatbot can use the customer’s conversation history to make product recommendations.
Plus you’ll learn which services or products are most popular on your website, and can focus on promoting them more, plus any relevant add-ons or upgrades.
2
Recommend products through quizzes and games
Why ask your customers to fill out boring forms and questionnaires when in-chat quizzes are a thing?
Chatbots can help customers find exactly what they’re looking for or create an account with your business by asking questions in an engaging way. Plus, you’re more likely to earn a customer’s email address if they have to exchange it for their result at the end of the quiz.
If you sell software or a service, a chatbot could also learn about the customer’s goals, budget, industry, etc. within the quiz to make personalized recommendations in their results. For example, if you sell language learning software and create a quiz that tests the customer’s proficiency, you can use their result to recommend a subscription based on their level and language goals.
3
Encourage orders with secret offers
Products, food, replacement parts — a chatbot can help customers find what they’re looking for and guide them to the checkout page.
Chatbots are compatible with multiple channels, such as WhatsApp, for buying on the go. You can use button options within your promotional messages, for example, to promote deals and coupons in the chat. If a customer is on the fence about making a purchase, a “secret” discount from a bot may encourage them to buy — and remember to use your chatbot next time they order.
A chatbot can also help with order management and looking up shipping details. For example, Hermes uses their Userlike chatbot “Bo" to help customers track or redirect their packages.
It’s also more empowering for a customer to request changes in just a few words and button clicks with a chatbot, which lets your agents focus on more serious inquiries and lead generation.
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4
Create marketing materials from FAQs
Answering frequently asked questions not only eliminates doubt at checkout, but it also helps your business learn what customers need help with.
This will influence your lead magnets and other marketing materials you create. Do customers often ask about your feature set or add-ons? You can address their questions in a designated landing page, which your chatbot can then share during future conversations.
We learned in our consumer chatbot perceptions survey that customers would rather speak to a chatbot immediately than wait for a human agent. So in marketing, immediate help from a chatbot and extensive self-help materials are ideal for keeping customers interested and engaged with your business.
5
Target visitors outside business hours
Whether you’re using your chatbot to run a limited time campaign or as a first point of contact in your marketing strategy, being available 24/7 is a major benefit for your business and customers.
Messaging and chatbots allow for asynchronous communication, so customers can pick up conversations whenever it suits them. And since chatbots are often available via popular messaging apps, customers can access them straight from their phones.
Even if your agents aren’t online, you can still give your customers attention with push notifications, enticing pop-up offers or a promotional newsletter subscription from your chatbot.
If a question is too complex, a chatbot can create a ticket for an agent to pick up when they’re available again.
6
Get your campaigns seen
In McKinsey & Company’s “Next in Personalization 2021 Report,” researchers learned that the companies that prioritize creating close customer relationships see faster revenue growth.
Consumers don’t just want personalization, they demand it.
When you’re creating marketing campaigns, they have to appeal to your target buyer. You capture their attention, stoke interest and offer irresistible value — all without meeting the customer face to face.
A chatbot helps bridge the gap. Deploy a chatbot on your social channels to share campaigns, events, offers and more directly to your customers in a conversational manner.
Remember to be creative with your initial message (first impressions are important in your chatbot funnel) and use media in the chat to invoke visual interest based on their search criteria.
And don’t forget the details — use the customer’s name throughout the chat and “interview” them about their company and needs to build a profile. This will help your agents quickly familiarize themselves with customers during future chats.
7
Create a personal scheduling assistant
Instead of relying on your chatbot as a fallback solution, use it as customers’ direct connection to your team for one-on-one assistance.
For example, in our post, “6 steps for creating a smooth conversation flow,” I show how you can use a rule-based chatbot to collect and manage calendars and appointments. It’s a simple use case that still lets you show off your brand’s personality and leave a lasting impression, much like my Japanese bot friend, Pepper.
If a customer is asking questions about a difficult topic, for example, you can also offer to schedule a demo call or forward the conversation to an available agent.
You don’t even need to use third party software - share your call scheduling link in the chat or use a call feature, like Userlike’s, to call during a conversation.
The Logic Bot – your tool for effective chatbot marketing
At Userlike, we offer a Logic Bot that functions as an active member of your team: it can greet customers, answer questions using simple syntax and navigate visitors through your marketing funnel.
You can easily try the strategies mentioned in this post by using our Logic Bot. It’s an all-in-one solution that works as a proactive first contact for customers at any time of day and can help promote your offerings and campaigns in an attractive, interactive way.
If you already have a chatbot and want to start using it as part of your marketing strategy, we also offer a chatbot API so you can connect it to our software.
If you’re interested in learning more about our Logic Bot and chatbot services, start a chat on our chatbots page to talk to a member of our team or sign up for a consultation.
