If you grew up with the internet at your fingertips in the early 2000s, then you may remember SmarterChild computer program, the friendly neighborhood chat bot that swept across AOL and MSN messaging apps back in 2001.
You could ask primitive questions in natural languages and engage in humorous conversations with this chatbot via messenger. As a precursor to Artificial Intelligence like IBM Watson, and Siri/Alexa, this chatbot made its way into the lives of those seeking entertainment after school and work two decades ago. However, chatbots are much more than simply entertainment. They’re sophisticated robots focused on business growth.
Fast-forward nearly twenty years later, into the future of chatbots and they have begun replacing customer support agents to answer basic customer inquiries. However, the chatbot developed into much more than a little robotic customer support sidekick. They’re transforming into salespeople through mobile apps.
From Customer Support to Sales Agent
In 2019 Chatbots Trends Report by Intercom had press releases, which surveyed 500 consumers and 500 business leaders, it was found that chatbots are being used first and foremost for sales (41%) followed by support (37%). Initially, business owners were using them to simply engage customers quickly and answer questions. But now, chatbots are driving sales for business owners on autopilot from social media.
The ROI of Sales Team Chatbots
Over the past few decades, the way we’ve conducted sales has improved. The days of door to door, cold calling, and telemarketing are over. With the world at their fingertips, consumers in 2020 are becoming increasingly impatient and expect immediate, personalized responses through live agent chat features. The best part is, this generation of chatbots can do this really well, which allow businesses to scale with ease.
You’re probably thinking…What is chatbot technology? Just how effective are chatbots at increasing sales? I mean, they’re just AI robots, right? So how well are chatbots performing and what is the best chatbot platform?
AI chatbots are different from facebook messenger bots. One creates the buyer’s journey in the messaging apps, while the other assists the customer experiences, continually having the machine learning (conversational AI). That’s the limitation of chatbots compared to artificial intelligence. Also people knowing they’re not talking to real people, but that’s where you play into the fun, let them know it’s not a real person and be creative!
Taking a deeper look at the Chatbots Trends Report revealed some juicy survey stats:
- 35% of business leaders claimed chatbots assisted them in closing sales deals
- On average, chatbots increased revenue by 67%
- 26% of all sales began with a chatbot interaction
So how are chatbots increasing sales? And how exactly can you take advantage of these 24/7 sales machines?
Chatbot Examples You Can Use To Increase Revenue in 2020
Using innovative chatbots in your sales funnel is an effective way to automate your sales process, saving you time, money, and increasing sales. Here are a few ways you should be using chatbots this year to drive revenue in your marketing and sales.
Send Welcome Messages
It would help if you thought of your chatbot as an actual salesperson. If you had a brick and mortar store and a potential customer walked in the door, what would you do first?
The first step to ensure a great experience is to greet them! The same goes for your chatbots live chat. Users interact when you say hi to your site visitors, making them feel welcome, and putting them in a great mood to shop. This may seem simple, but it is the first step you need to get users to interact and begin driving sales with chatbots.
Generate Leads Through Data Acquisition
Chatbots can be very useful at building your lead base. While it’s tempting to focus on making an immediate sale when a prospect shows up to your site, the best strategy is to ensure a prospect converts into a lead. This means getting their contact information like their email address or mobile number to follow up with marketing messages through email marketing, social media marketing, and SMS marketing.
It would benefit by using your chatbots to acquire customer data like names, emails, and phone numbers. If you want to take things a step further, you should optimize your chatbot to tag certain phrases in conversations to begin building a lead profile.
For example, if you own an online sports store, you could tag the phrase “Football”. If someone says, “Show me your football gear”, your chatbot would use natural language processing, and show them those related products, but you can also store that conversational data.
You can then automatically build a lead profile for this visitor that includes their name, email, and that they’re interested in “football”. If you want to send an email marketing promotion just on a line of football products, now you have a personalized, targeted lead.
Abandoned Cart Recovery
One email marketing strategy best for drawing leads back in is through an abandoned cart email series. If someone put something in their cart but left the site, you’d send an automated email reminding them of their products. These have proven to be very effective in capturing lost sales with a credit card required.
According to Barilliance, the average abandoned cart email has an 18.64% conversion rate. You should be using the same tactic, but with your chatbot. You can set it up so if someone ditches the cart, they can gently remind them that the purchase hasn’t been completed yet.
Pinnacle Projections
With our focus shifting this new year/decade from a full scale agency, to providing a greater service that helps create more revenue, Pinnacle Status is the top messenger marketer when it comes to build your own chatbots and built for you (based on user industry). If you’re interested in learning more follow that link to see our services or click here for Chatbot Overview. Looking forward to this next decade helping everyone appear #ONTOP!
RELATED: THE CURRENT STATE OF ONLINE SALES IN DIGITAL MARKETING
Do you use chatbots to increase sales? Let us know down in the comments.
This article originally published on GREY Journal.
