Using Chatbots for Digital Marketing

The idea of chatbots can be intimidating. While they can make life easier, they can also seem difficult to use. Setting up a bot on your site may be just another thing on your to-do list. But chatbots can perform time-consuming tasks for you so you can better serve your customers. Using chatbots will help your customers feel like they’re valued.

What are Chatbots?

A chatbot is a program that automatically engages with messages that it receives. You can program a chatbot to respond the same way or differently to messages with different keywords. There are even some bots that use machine learning to create an intelligent response.

Choosing the Right Chatbots

To get started, you’ll want to list your goals. For example, do you want to provide after-hours support? Or do you want to interact with every customer on your page? Many types of bots require you to pay a monthly fee to use. With all the other expenses associated with a website, you might want to think about what’s important to you. Try to further your education so you can invest in your site and a good bot. If you’re a student, taking out student loans can help you pay for school. The nice thing about taking out student loans is that you have a grace period after graduation to pay them back. Because of the more lenient repayment options, student loans can be a great way to fund your school expenses while you work on developing your site.

Spend some time looking at the different chatbot providers out there. Consider your goals, the size of your website, and your budget when deciding. Many bots allow you to program multiple responses. When you have a wider range of responses, you can give your customers a more personalized experience.

Automating Customer Support

One way to keep your business competitive is to automate as many processes as you can. Think about kiosks to place your order at restaurants or self-checkout lines at grocery stores. Chatbots add value to your business because they can automate conversations with visitors to your business. If your business does not provide 24-hour support, your customers won’t get answers when your office is closed. By using a bot when your company is closed, potential customers will still get the answers they need. In today’s day and age, consumers expect to get a faster response than many businesses can give. But a bot will give them information instantly.

Save Time

Answering the same questions over and over again wastes time. But when your customers can get the answers they need right on your website, they won’t call you with their questions. This frees up your time and other resources so you can put it toward other parts of your business. The more messages you can automate on your site, the more time you save.

Generating Leads

Bots use messages directed at customers to get information. For example, many bots start the engagement by asking visitors why they decided to visit your website and if they need any help. That allows visitors to share information so you can serve them better. You might choose to collect their email addresses so you can follow up with them later. Without automation, you couldn’t personally interact with every visitor to your site.