The one obvious area in which Digital Marketing takes the edge over other traditional forms of marketing is the use of Data. Observing customer’s habits, interests and tastes allows marketers to make the most of target marketing. So, say if you were on Amazon today, looking up some crockery products, chances are you’ll be seeing the ads of the same crockery products on majority of websites you visit in the next week or so. The business getting the slightest hint of your interest in their product will chase you wherever you go on the internet. That’s digital marketing for you.
Technology has revolutionized the way brands now connect with their customers. Social Media has become their favorite stamping ground for a rendezvous with their target audience. The assumption that if a person uses the internet, he/she’s got to be reachable on one or the other Social Media platform is the driving force behind this trend. Brands moreover remain convinced that the more they’re in their audience’s faces, the more they’re likely to convert them into actual buyers.
But more recently, instant messaging apps have stolen Social Media’s thunder. Apps like WhatsApp and Messenger are statistically performing better than Facebook and Twitter. Any particular reason? The engaging nature of chatting is responsible for this shift in trend.
It’s quite a simple equation, the closer you are to your customers the better your chances of selling products/services to them. It also means you’ll be spending relatively less on marketing and that’s where Chatbots really come into the play.
Learn about the five Cs of Chatbot and how they’re challenging the status quo in Marketing:
1. Consistentcy
The one most recurring flaw of human-nature is inconsistency. We go through periods of hot and cold. But that’s not the case with machines. You can program it to work in a certain way for any length of time. Since chatbots are powered by Artificial Intelligence, that margin for human-error is eliminated altogether. This creates a perfect space for lead creation and conversion. Chatbots also become smarter over time as more and more helpful data is fed into the system.
2. Context Driver
Having some background information about the customers is always handy when dealing with them in real-time. Chatbots are able to fetch such details through a submission form with fields for age, gender, and location etc. Although, not a game changer, it allows Chatbots to create messages that are bound to have the greatest impact on the customer.
3. Conversational
Where we fail, machines come to the rescue. Replicating a process over and over again with the same perfection is challenging for us, but it’s a piece of cake for Chatbots. With more exposure to a variety of conversations, Chatbots can become smarter at communicating than humans themselves.
The reason for that is we are multi-faceted beings. We have formal, conversational or informal conversations all within the space of a single day. Our job is to adapt quickly as per the need of the occasion. Chatbots dealing primarily in a business-setting can be trained to master formal communication This should contribute towards improved customer-services and increased lead-conversions.
4. Compatible
Chatbots are highly flexible tools and can be called upon to serve a variety of functions. A normal chatbot sits prettily in the bottom right corner of a website, always at customer’s service. They can be employed for simple lead-generation to full-fledged automated sales operations all with relative ease.
5. Cost Effective
It’s is hardly a secret anymore that Chatbots are cost-effective in comparison to almost all of their alternatives. A business would only have to bear a one-time development cost to build a Chatbot. After that, they can employ it to all sorts of purposes. Chatbots are an investment and a profitable one at that.
Final Thoughts
With the growing popularity of messaging apps, it’s hardly a surprise now to see Chatbots becoming an attractive tool for target marketing and customer acquisition. Leading businesses around the world all realize that significance of Chatbots and are actively integrating them in their marketing strategy. Have you got a Chatbot on your business website? Is it helping you serve your customers more efficiently? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
