Everyone must have heard about chatbot or have even used it in recent times whether knowingly or not. Many business organizations are now implementing chatbots on such platforms as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and on their online sites as well. When used alongside other channels of marketing such as email marketing, chatbots have proved to be having a lot of potential particularly in boosting the rate of conversions. Ideally, chatbots are software with a capability of conversing with a person with a sole objective of getting help in completing certain tasks as happens in a paper writing service or in dealing with shared problems and questions.
Since their inception, chatbots to this day, there has been a continuous use of chatbots among brands, especially in their digital conversations when reaching out to customers. With chatbots, companies have been able to scale cumbersome activities such as customer service triage, sales and responding to FAQs. Chatbots have become a very important pillar in marketing. They have proved to be a powerful tool for promoting effectiveness of previously used strategies especially email marketing.
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Concept in Chatbots
The design and use of chatbots are meant to simulate real conversations with the objective of perfectly comprehending the interactions with the humans both in semantics and emotionally. They are able to get the meaning and the sentiment prompting such interactions. A lot of developments have been made with an inclusion of simple programs that make use of keywords to keep up with a script. There is also sophisticated software that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to help read through complicated inputs.
What Next for Chatbots?
Apparently, the advent of chatbot technology has been taken as a replacement to email marketing. AI professionals believe that conversing with customers via chat is a better option compared to the use of emails. However, marketers seem to be smarter. Despite the value being brought in by Chatbots, email is still considered relevant amongst marketers. Therefore, the best option would be to combine the two to tap in the advantages of using each one of them. When used together, they will enhance conversions and boost sales.
Chatbot Use Benefits
With the use of chatbots, users get the following benefits:
- The advantage of a dynamic yet humanized interaction with a brand without delays.
- The ability to solve problems while still in the messaging app or without prompts to switch in between websites
- The acquisition of sought-after information without doing a lot of research
Chatbots May Not Replace Emails Completely
The use of chatbots in whatever form even with the emails can help in reinforcing the brand image of a company through the adoption of a unique personality and desired tone. Brands such as WritingJobz can now get hold of the millennials among other audiences and still be able to keep up with those subscribed to their emails.
Chatbots can perfectly work together with email marketing but not alone entirely. Technology use in these two enhances conversation with prospects at different levels hence the reason why they can be used together. One of the easiest ways to implement this is getting leads to subscribe to an email list. After the conversation has been started, the bot can be very useful in getting details such as preference on gender, preferred frequency and so on. The collected information is then included in the email database for access and use in the future for email marketing. For example, a conversation gets started once a prospect likes a brand’s Facebook page.
In most cases, sales don’t just happen in a single moment. Therefore, chatbot technology though being an instant conversing platform cannot suffice alone. Both can be used to nurture the sales process to help customers make decisions. Ideally, customers need some time to think over their purchases especially when they are large or somewhat very important to them. While chatbots just like other social media trends will be quick to inform and respond to concerns raised, emails would help in availing the information customers need to decide on the proposed services and products.
For online purchases, chatbots will provide a perfect solution. Once a customer has an established account online, chatbots will make the process of making product selections simple and fast and proceed on to confirm payment and delivery details swiftly. Then after that, emails will be of great use in providing transaction details following the purchases made. They are the best to confirm details of purchases and provide notifications on shipping details and for verifying delivery using a receipt.
Conclusion
The use of chatbots have brought in some good value in marketing but may not be entirely sufficient to take up the work that emails do. While chatbots can open up channels for converting leads, emails would be the best option to forward important transaction information, product and service details and marketing initiatives to keep customers informed before they can make decisions on some cases.
