Let’s start with a very simple word: mobile.
Mobile has quickly gained its status as a platform of choice for digital marketing consultants, to create and share content. In fact social media teams would agree that it has been dominating the desktop for some years now.
Seeking or sharing information online via applications on messengers is now a common practice. Chatbots is the most recent addition to the family of digital solutions for online businesses.
So we could say that it would be natural for a user to use a chatbot placed on your website. Did you know you could also use it as a marketing opportunity? Some say chatbots as digital solutions are still little apps with limited scope. But it’s good to remember that at the beginning of Apple’s App Store many years ago, the applications that existed were very basic whereas now there is almost nothing that you can not do with an application.We believe it is better to start early in this case to test the real usefulness of chatbots.
Why is it interesting in a digital marketing strategy?
It must be said that a chatbot often is more important in a strategy of engagement and retention than notoriety, because the relationship that is being developed by 1 to 1 interaction, cannot be compared to the views we gather by broadcasting a message to as large audiences as an advertisement. So, the tool allows you to automatically build relationships one by one with a multitude of users without needing a human behind. So it’s even better than social media for engagement .
Currently, chatbots are starting. They are in the embryonic stage of what they can really do for brands. On the other hand, as it is a new technology, we must be careful before saying that we need to invest massively in it. We only have to think about some technologies in the past that have not been so successful or have had temporary success (remember QR codes?).
On the other hand, if you decide to invest in them, it can develop a competitive advantage if you do things right. A bit like social media, if you are the one to lead a concept or innovation, it gives results to the height greater than our efforts, and you are remembered.
As a new medium for a campaign
The bots are activated on user’s request. So when you push a promotion, the chances of customers consuming your message are much more.
The chatbot could become a new medium to exploit to make live a campaign. Imagine all the digital solutions in your marketing plan: social media, website, newsletter and more. Now it would be the same but with a chatbot added. Maybe that’s where technology can bring us in a while. A little like we live our TV advertising through Facebook publications, we can live our TV advertising through a chatbot and add a link even at the end of advertising.
In their 2016 Mobile Messaging Report, ubisend-the leading AI driven chatbot building company, found that over 50 percent of consumers said they would choose messaging apps over email to get in touch with a company.
Fast forward a year, in the 2017 Chatbot survey, nearly 70 percent of respondents said they would rather engage a chatbot than a human because they desired an instantaneous answer.
One in five respondents said they wouldn’t be troubled in spending an average of $440 with a chatbot.
Not a bad close for a robot who works around the clock for free.
It requires the partnership of several departments
I do not think the marketing or communications department can handle a single chatbot on board. Much like social media where many people interact together, processes, flow of information needs to be thought through in many ways before being launched. Imagine a crisis management with a chatbot who only repeats the same messages to a crowd in crisis.
If I had to make a link with an existing system, I would say a mix of website and social media. We have the structure of information of a website, but with the relationship that social media allows. I hope that it can help you to better visualize the people of your company necessary to make this work.
It’s an investment and not a project on the side
Create a chatbot, it can be done in a few hours, but often it will take a complete team dedicated to this project for several days / weeks to do everything that is around. This must be kept in mind when planning the construction of the robot. Depending on your project need, it can be as complex as creating a microsites. Some microsites are done in a few hours and some in a few months.
