With 80% of companies planning to implement some type of chatbot by the end of 2020, it is becoming increasingly popular to use a chatbot for improving business processes.
Most companies implement a similar procedure: create a chatbot, promote it, engage with users through it, and grow your business.
But one of the most important things that this procedure requires is a tightly bound strategy that makes it work.
Continue reading 5 Steps To Creating a Successful Chatbot Strategy
As we progress into 2020, with the digital era at its peak, it becomes harder and harder for brands to break through the noise and make themselves heard. Also, with all the marketing clutter on the internet, people like it when something out of the mess is personalised for them.
That is why brands have been approaching their marketing strategies to create personalised campaigns for their consumers. But the problem is that with such a vast number of online followers, most brands can’t keep up with creating a personalised experience for everyone. The best solution for this problem is to create a chatbot that represents the company at the very forefront of all communication: social media.
Continue reading Chatbots in Marketing: How Chatbots Helps Convert More Leads
Chatbots are very efficient when it comes to solving problems for a business. There is a huge influx of chatbots by different brands and companies, there arises a need to ensure that your bot stands out. Branding your chatbot can help tackle this problem. By creating a separate identity for your bot, you can ensure better recall value by its users.
Although, branding is an important step towards creating a successful chatbot, here are some factors that you have a consider before creating branding your business chatbot –
Setting a realistic goal
It is true that technology has come a long way and almost anything is achievable with the help of artificial intelligence and virtual assistants. But, creating a bot that can perform multiple activities takes time and you might end up losing the focus on why the bot was created in the first place. For this reason,the bot must have a clear, achievable goal that it can perform perfectly every single time.
Chatbot should align with your brand
It is important to develop a bot whose persona is aligned with your brand and its values. If your bot is entirely different from your brand, the result will be unfavourable for your business.Make sure your bot is consistent with the overall brand experience your customers are already aware of.
Chatbot must be relatable to your target audience
The personality of your bot must be in sync with your target demographic. Let’s say you are cool e-commerce clothing brand for young women, then your bot must be funny and quirky and full of life. It must be like a best friend you go shopping with. But if your bot is formal and to the point, the users cannot relate to your bot.
Do you have any other factors that can affect the branding of your bot? Let us know in the comments below!
Time and again Chatbots have proved their effectiveness when it comes to assisting companies from different verticals. Although, it was predominantly used as a tool to improve customer service, it has seeped its way to other functionalities too. And we’ve got some tips on how these smart chatbots can also help your business generate leads
Interact with users using live chatbots
Live chats are useful because they can instantly talk to users on your website or social media channels and help them out whenever required. Let’s say an user visits your website and engages with your bot regarding a certain product. At the end of the conversation, your chatbot can request the user for their email ID so they can be informed of upcoming deals and discounts. This way, you will slowly start building prospective leads and keep them informed about your brand through mailers
Educational chatbots
We already know it is important for brands to answer the user’s queries immediately. But it is also important for brands to understand that they should be equipped to educate the users i.e be able to answer questions that the user has not even asked yet. The chatbots can tips/hacks or any other info that might interest the user. Through this, you can continue your email list.
Help with the purchase
Chatbots can also act as your virtual shopping buddy! It can help the visitors on your website make the right purchases by suggesting the right products. Let’s say a user is looking for dresses, your bot can add value by recommending matching accessories or bags to buy. At the end of the purchase, the bot can simply ask the customer for their email ID, and they’d be happy to share it with the bot if they’ve had a good shopping experience.
It is 2018 and technology is at its peak! Well, technology and social media. And who is the biggest user of both of these? You guessed it right, it’s the millennials!
It is believed that, by 2020, almost 85% of consumer interactions with businesses will be with bots or through self-servicing. Research states that 60% of millennials have interacted with a chatbot and 70% of users have had a positive experience with a bot. And the users who haven’t tried are also excited to interact with a bot.
Companies have realised that chatbots are a goldmine with millennials and brands like Sephora, Dominos and Starbucks have already created their very own chatbot that are highly popular amongst millennials.
So, what is it about chatbots that makes them so irresistible to the millennials? Well, you’re about to find out.
Feeds into their need for instant gratification
If there’s one thing that all millennials hate, it is waiting. They want instantaneous replies and feedback. And this is one of the major reasons that they love chatbots. Their queries are attended to in a jiffy! Plus, with the improvement in chatbot technologies, bots are improving their conversational abilities to become more humanized and friendly. Millennials may not receive the same instant responses while interacting with a human. This is why, they are more prone to communicate with bots instead of other customer servicing channels.
Keeping up with the latest technology
Millennials love staying ahead of the curve. Be it fashion, technology or music. They all want to be a part of the next big thing. They loved drones and hover boards and they’ve also started to love chatbots. It is the newest addition to social media channels. They’re all happy to experiment with the latest technological revelation.
Convenience is everything
Millennials take their smartphone everywhere, they’re always connected to the different social media platforms. Brands need not take any effort to educate these millennials about these platforms. All they have to do is be present on the platforms that their TG frequent the most. The convenience of the chatbots is what makes millennials use them again and again.
Chatbots have been around for a while now and there have been hits and misses since its inception. We’ve cracked the mysteries on what makes a bot successful and the tips to create a perfect bot. And since brands have realized the true potential of bots, they all have incorporated it in some aspect of their business.
Unfortunately, the crowding of bots on the internet have made it difficult for every single chatbot to stand out. This brings us to marketing. How can a business effectively promote their messenger bot and not let it get lost in the crowd?
Well, we’ve got just the right tips to ensure all your existing and potential customers are aware of this feature.
Increase the visibility of your bot
The first step to promote your bot is identification. All your development efforts are baseless if users cannot easily discover your bot. There are different steps to go about this.
It’s all about the content
Now that we’ve covered visibility and brought the user to your chatbot, it is important that the bot engages and assists the user effectively as possible. To achieve this, it is important to understand the reasons behind creating a chatbot and what makes your chatbot unique.
It is imperative to convey information about your bot, its latest updates and features to ensure top of the mind recall and also to maintain the interest of your audience. This will also provide room for user reviews and feedback to help fine tune your bot’s performance. Your bot can be made more fun and interesting by incorporating GIFs, audio and video files.But do note that your updates about the bot do not become spammy for the users.
With the right balance of the above mentioned tips, you are surely on the right path to Chatbot success!
Clean & Clear is a prominent skin-care company that is known for their affordable line of dermatology products. Its products are available in 46 countries and cater mainly to young women.
The brand wanted to establish themselves as the go to skin expert for teens. They wanted to leverage the digital medium to help achieve their goal in an innovative manner. We set out to find a way to reach the teens in a platform they love to use, Facebook!
This led to the creation of Kimi, a friendly chatbots for teens. She was like a big sister who could answer any skin related issue but also knew how to have fun. She was someone that every teenager could relate to and connect with. Kim was introduced as a chatbot on Facebook Messenger.
How does it work?
Here’s how Kimi managed to capture the hearts of over 30,000 teens.
Kimi asks the user a few questions to understand the skin type, skin problems and the age group. Post this assessment, she lets the user pick the issues he/she is facing, like pimples, oilyness,dull or dry skin. Once the user has chosen a skin problem, Kimi immediately offers useful tips and solutions to overcome this issue.
But it does not end there. She even recommends the right C&C products that’ll help tackle different problems and also offered vouchers to the users.
But all work and no play would make Kimi a dull bot. So, she was also configured with some cool features. Selfie Soundtrack is a feature where where the user’s selfie is analyzed to determine their current mood (happy, sad, angry) using Google Vision API. Once the mood was determined, Kimi picks and plays a song according to the user’s mood using the Spotify API.
The chatbot campaign was immensely successful and resulted in 30,000 user interactions. Out of these, around 25,000 users have opted for ongoing skin care tips. The bot was able to offer 20,000 promo codes, of which, 11,000 were redeemed by users.
The bot can be accessed through Messenger.
Chatbots are currently experiencing a peak in their growth. More business are companies are joining the AI bandwagon. This technology has been developed, customized and innovated to suit the needs of different businesses in multiple industries. But there are still some common misconceptions surrounding chatbots and we’re here to bust these myths once and for all!
Myth 1 – Chatbots are only for big businesses
This is one of the most common misconceptions when it comes to chatbots. Yes, it is true that some of the biggest brands in different industries have made use of this technology to achieve big results,but, it is not restricted to the elitist brands. Chatbots can be developed for your business, irrespective of the size. And you need not worry about the costs of the chatbots being super high. You can actually develop a cost-effective chatbot for your business without compromising on its quality.
Myth 2 – Chatbots are only used for Customer Service
Most people believe the biggest function of the bots is to address customer queries when the employee is unavailable. But in reality, the potential of these bots is so much more! They can used in various functions like Sales, Accounting, Communications and many more.
Myth 3 – Chatbots lack human touch
This would be the biggest myth that surrounds chatbots. People believe that Chatbots can only offer robotic and repetitive replies to questions. But that is not true. Chatbots can be built to constantly evolve and learn from every interaction they have. It generates useful insights from every conversation it has. Bots are even being utilized for counselling. So the matter of personalised touch purely depends upon how effectively your bot is built.
Myth 4 – Chatbots will lead to unemployment
Chatbots are developed to make the jobs easier for people, not to completely eliminate them in the process. Even though these bots can be built to perform multiple tasks effectively, its benefits pose a limit. Certain activities need to pass through a human.
With these busted myths, you can surely understand what bots can and cannot do. In this day and age where technology dominates every aspect of your life, bots are the perfect addition to grow your business to the next level.
