Why NOW Is The Time To Rethink Your Chatbot Strategy
It’s time for some chatbot advertising chat.
Chatbot advertising gained popularity with the release of Chat GPT and while it started popping up on a few years back, the capabilities are truly endless. If your only experience of them has been a little dull, you could be forgiven for thinking that answering basic customer service questions is all chatbots are good for. But think again. When used strategically in your campaigns, chatbots can be a powerful lead nurturing tool.
We’ve been flying the chatbot flag for quite some time here at WCM, so we’re going to tell you our favourite chatbots advertising facts and stats, how they can work for your lead gen campaigns. We’ll show you a real example of how they can be implemented, using one of our own client campaigns as a case study.
What is chatbot advertising?
A chatbot or messenger bot is software that communicates with customers through direct and instant messages. Aside from customer service pop-ups on websites, they can also be integrated with messaging apps your customers are already using, like Facebook messenger. A chatbot is often pre populated with keyword responses, and detailed sequences of messages that look like real conversations. They can also be connected to humans providing real time responses.
Chatbot advertising can also use artificial intelligence (AI) to respond to written questions and answers and can be programmed to respond to keywords; and as technology improves, they’re starting to be able to take on more complex conversations.
Chatbot advertising in action
Client case study: nurturing leads for a gym
One of our clients is a gym owner and is looking to launch a new location in the near future. To help drive sign ups before the opening date, we created a lead generation campaign using a combination of Facebook ads and a chatbot to generate and nurture leads.
How it works:
The audience at the top of the funnel see a Facebook ad about our client’s new gym location, which includes a call to action to find out more about their upcoming opening and membership offers. Once they click the CTA button, a Facebook messenger window opens telling them more about the discounted membership offer. It guides them through a series of multiple-choice questions about their fitness levels and goals, and gives them more information about the types of fitness classes on offer.
This not only collects a lot of useful data for our client that can be used to further segment and understand their audience, but it helps to nurture the leads by introducing them to the classes and brand, without them even having to leave Facebook!
The campaign is still running, but as you can see, the open and click-through rates on the chatbot sequence are much higher than you’d expect from an email nurture sequence, or even a lead generation form.
Why is chatbot advertising effective in lead nurturing?
Now that you’ve seen how a chatbot can be implemented to nurture leads, let’s look at exactly why they’re so effective…
1. They can give your leads immediate attention, 24/7
A 2016 study showed that more than 50% of customers anticipate that businesses are open 24/7. We can only imagine this number has since increased, and especially recently when so many businesses have had to go online due to Covid-19. If new leads have questions about your product or service that they want answered before making a purchase, it’s always best to strike while the iron is hot. If you’re running a lead gen campaign that might prompt people to ask questions about your offering (and you want your community manager to be able to get some sleep!), a chatbot is your best friend when it comes to responding to leads at any time of the day or night.
2. A chatbot can qualify your leads and gather more information
By including chatbot advertising in your top of funnel ads, the bot can get to work qualifying those leads ASAP. How? By giving them more information, or asking them a series of questions about their needs, interest in various products or services you offer, their availability for calls or consultations, etc. You can think of it as a more interactive version of a lead generation form or an email nurture sequence. By having the chatbot lay all the groundwork for you or your sales team, you’ll be able to use your time much more effectively talking to pre-qualified leads.
3. A chatbot can help your leads convert
One of our favourite chatbot features is the ability to send offers and promotions to your leads. Think sending a discount code in Facebook messenger as part of your abandoned cart sequence, or hitting those bottom of funnel leads with a time sensitive offer. The promise of higher open and click through rates than if you sent the same offer via email makes a chatbot a pretty appealing option!
Why is now the time for a chatbot?
While chatbots aren’t exactly a new innovation, we do think they’re still underutilised in lead generation campaigns, and we’ve compiled some pretty compelling statistics to show you why there’s never been a better time for chatbots.
8 billion messages are exchanged on Facebook Messenger each day
Think about all the messaging apps you use every day, particularly since the pandemic started. Facebook Messenger, Slack, WhatsApp, Instagram direct message to name a few. 8 billion is a pretty mind-boggling statistic, but what exactly does it tell us? That people are using messaging apps. A lot. If there’s one thing social media marketing has proven over the years, it’s that the key to engaging audiences is to market to them where they already are, in a way that feels natural and intuitive to them. The stats show that’s messaging apps. And they’re not just for personal interactions either…
68% of people consider messaging the most convenient way to contact a business.
People actually want to be able to communicate with businesses via message these days. In fact, another study found that 56% of consumers prefer to message a business for help rather than call customer support. Again, this is about meeting people where they are, in a way that they actually prefer to communicate.
Chatbots can have a click-through rate of 15-60%
Although that’s a pretty big range, even at the lower end of 15% it’s still well above the 4% average click-through rate for email marketing. In a time when people’s inboxes are increasingly flooded with communication from brands, you can’t go past a chatbot if you want to increase audience engagement with your marketing efforts.
We hope this has shown you that when used strategically, chatbots can be extremely effective for more than just customer service! Can you see an opportunity to include a chatbot in your marketing campaigns? The WCM Team are seasoned chatbots experts, and can help you build and implement an effective chatbot. Get in touch today to find out how we can help.
