Chatbots: A marketer's friend in the digital world

Smart, handy devices that we carry with us have transformed our life – be it business or personal. The trending digital transformation is more than just an upgrade from one technology to the other. Digital technology integrated with any business workflow has made it possible to effectively visualize, analyze and make meaningful decisions about the untapped business information. This has not only allowed businesses to achieve better but has also changed the fundamental dynamics of how enterprises are organized. A chatbot is one such technological by-products that is trending among start-ups to enterprises.

Why marketers must know about Chatbots

The journey of marketing has slowly shifted towards digital technology. Traditional marketing has been superseding day by day with the growing digital methodologies such as email marketing, inbound marketing, social media marketing, SEO, and PPC.

Today, marketing has reached on Facebook and WhatsApp has become an important medium for reaching out to customers. Fortune companies such as Amazon, Google, and Apple are also contributing exhaustively in voice recognition technology.

Marketers need to understand the optimization of mediums and channels to increase the brand value of their company with this change in best practices of marketing. Chatbots are the new world of communication between a customer and a business service.

Chatbots can be the one of the best customer service technology delivering immediate answers to a wide range of complex questions, a 24*7*365 service without any wait time, offering a personalized experience and quality self-service. They save us time and help us to be better organized. Chatbots give marketers the true engagement of your customers with your company brand way above clicks and views.

Chatbots in Numbers

Chatbots have become a rapidly growing tool for marketers of any business. eMarketer report states that 1.4 billion people interacted with a chatbot in 2015. And a number of brands are starting to use this artificial intelligence to engage with their customers and boost sales and engagements. Facebook Messenger which uses around 11,000 bots has become the top choice for business bot development. Brands such as Kik, Uber, and Sephora are using chatbots to interact with their customers and drive engagement. In case you have already invested in the Chatbot technology, you are planning to uncover the power of chatbots in your business, you should make sure that you are prepared for the tens of thousands of chatbots competition.

The new sales guy

Chatbots in the landing page of your company can be the new salesperson for your business. They can be vital in addressing the customer’s requirements according to their business needs. They can take inquiries for any particular product or services, automatically drive customers down the sales funnel and even close the sale. Chatbots provide 24/7 access to users of every time zone providing quick resolutions for any customer’s query. This can ultimately lead to an enhanced ROI for your business. On the whole, chatbots can help you make money while you sleep.

Enriched Customer Service

Chatbots with its artificial intelligence technology can offer enriched customer experiences. Everyone hates listening to the automated recording whenever we call customer service. In this age of online marketing, chatbots can help in registering queries of customers and provide solutions at the earliest. If queries are not answerable by the chatbots, then it gets highlighted to the senior customer representatives for resolution of their queries. This ensures enhanced customer experience and improves customer retention.

Secured and effective payments

Adding payments to the chat experience can give your customers the leading edge with your competitors. To remain competitive, businesses must innovate digitally. Integrating payments into the chatbots can take this technology to a higher standard. Successful chatbots in businesses can also process payments without taking users away from the application. China’s WeChat platform has a payment platform integrated to the chatbot. Use your chatbot as a payment tool so that, if a customer needs to make a payment, the chatbot can handle the transaction for you in a few clicks.

360-degree Customer Insights

Analyzing customer behavior and pitching solutions or services according to their needs is the key to any business. Chatbots with their basic instinct can map purchase patterns, analyze habits effectively than humans. Companies are harnessing the power of big data and predictive analysis to gain deeper insights of their customers. Chatbots help your business in classifying tons of customer data and offer laser-sharp targeting.

The Human Touch

Any personalized marketing is powerful. By providing a human-like personalized interaction, chatbots are slowly replacing humans. In order to give your customers a personalized experience, chatbots are more impressive. Whenever a customer visits your company’s website, chatbots can address your customer’s requirements with their names. Chatbots can use the information about a customer, and create customized messaging that guides the customer along the buying journey. Marketers can employ chatbots to engage consumers, providing expertise and services to achieve the individual’s needs real-time.

Improve Engagement

Engagement is an important parameter for marketers in the business. Engagement of customers in any business directly relates to the sales. Chatbots can improve the engagement of your brand. Rather than just receiving comments from a particular engagement, chatbots can converse effectively with your customers. This improves engagement as well as brand loyalty with the chatbot.

Combining the creativity and expansive technology usage, chatbots can be strategically used. As app downloads continue to decrease, businesses should think about channelizing their marketing techniques. In order to stay ahead of competitors and offer peerless user experience, chatbots should be integrated into your marketing strategy.

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