In this article I will explain about BOTS and why you as a business owner should seriously consider why you might need one and how they could possibly help you grow your business.
Firstly, let me cover off one point.
It’s a know fact that people buy from people they like and can have conversations with. It’s all about building relationships and staying in touch, you need to understand your client and communicate with them in their level, be that a CEO of a large company or a sole trader.
The better you do this, the quicker your business will grow.
Later in this article I will explain how BOTs can help you do exactly that.
What Is a BOT?
“An internet bot, also known as web robot, WWW robot or simply bot, is a software application that runs automated tasks over the Internet. Typically, bots perform tasks that are both simple and structurally repetitive, at a much higher rate than would be possible for a human alone. Wikipedia”
The definition of a bot is “a computer program that performs automatic repetitive tasks.” To expand on this definition, bots also act as the primary tool for automating interactions and engagement with website content on a large scale.
A BOT gets its name from the term ROBOT or WWW ROBOT, but what we are referring to here is a piece of software that uses AI (artificial intelligence) to help you understand your client.
How Does It Work?
A BOT is designed to interact with humans conversationally, based on its programming. They automate the process of interacting with your website visitors and/or social media followers in an attempt to create the best user experience. Ideally, this helps you maintain the presence of a helping hand, even when you or your team can’t respond, a BOT operates 24/7 on auto-pilot.
It’s a virtual conversation in which one party is an online talking robot.
The artificial intelligence feature within BOTS has been used in various industries to deliver information or perform tasks, such as telling the weather, making flight reservations, or purchasing products.
BOTS Uses of Today and Tomorrow
BOTs currently operate through a number of channels, including web, within apps, and on messaging platforms. They can be used for research, lead generation, and brand awareness. But here we are going to look at how you can use BOTS to grow your business by explaining Messaging BOTs in particular.
So Where Do BOTs Come In?
BOTS can help you semi automate the initial (and future) conversation with your clients. Here we are going to demonstrate how you can engage with your clients using Facebook and Messenger BOTS to start the conversation.
Where to start?
BOTS use a conversational “flow” to engage with the visitor, this happens where your ask a question and give the visitor a number of options to choose from by selecting from a number of buttons, (see example).
It’s All About Flows !
Messenger BOTs to the rescue …. ask a question, receive an answer, ask a question, receive an answer, ask a question, receive an answer, deliver the solution
Here’s an example of a process flow…
Practical example of a BOT in action:
For this example we will us a local restaurant, they have a Facebook Business Page where they post news about whats happening within their business, they receive messages via messenger asking for information about menus, availability etc. A lot of these enquires occur outside of business hours and that creates a problem, the customer expects a quick response and moves on to the competitor if they don’t get one.
How a BOT would handle that situation
The visitor engages via Messenger, they are greeted with a welcome message along with a number of questions, one of the questions asks of they would like to join the Birthday Give-A-Way list, another asks if they would like to see the Menu, and a 3rd one asks if they would like to book a table.
Depending in the answer, the BOT takes the visitor down a particular path (know as a flow) with another group of questions, with the 1st question it would likely ask what month they were born and the date, they would receive a thank you message and would be added to the Database so a special gift could be sent just prior to their birthday.
Q2…. the BOT immediately immediately links them to the menu page of the restaurant’s website or displays a PDF version
Q3…. the BOT immediately connects then with the booking system and adds them to the database for future marketing.
All this is done on auto-pilot with no human interaction.
The added unique feature of messenger BOTs is that you can jump in at anytime and have a live chat with the client if you see fit.
How can this work for your business?
Just visualize having a phone conversation with a new client, what kind of questions would you ask to qualify them, what typical answers would you expect, with each question give them 3 answers to choose from (closed questions), this is now know as “Conversational Marketing”.
Email Substitute:
Messenger Chatbots have higher open rates and click through rates than email. As a result many online marketers have begun using chatbots as a way of getting website visitors information via pop-ups. Once the user engages, they will be sent down a sales funnel bot style.
Sales Funnels: Just like email marketing, bot marketers are using sales funnels to segment audiences and sell products. In bots the sales funnel is interactive and dynamic. When a user says no, it is easier to find out why and send them to a different part of your funnel which can convert them at a later date.
More to Learn
Chatbot technology will continue to improve in the coming years. Chatbot architecture and design will evolve to the point that interactive AI will become standard for customer service. But there are numerous applications for chatbots across a variety of sectors.
If you have any questions please feel free to email me directly at fred @ MoreMarketingIdeas.com or check out an example bot here.