Smart chatbots for enterprises are directly associated with customer service. This connection is so strong that it is now imperative for businesses with a digital presence to have an AI-enabled chatbot. An equally important, but often underutilized facility of chatbots is marketing. Enterprises can boost the success rates of their marketing campaigns by utilizing AI chatbots. Not only do these chatbots provide critical data that can feed into the conceptualizing and strategizing stages, they also help monitor the progress of current campaigns and are even able to provide recommendations for the future. Added to that, the chatbots themselves are an incredibly effective marketing channel.
Here are some of the fundamental ways in which AI-enabled chatbots can enhance marketing campaigns:
High-quality lead generation
AI chatbots are data goldmines. With natural language processing (NLP) and sentiment analysis, these chatbots go beyond the usual customer information and provide insights into preferences, interests, needs, pain points, complaints, confusions, behavioral patterns and much, much more. With this level of depth, AI chatbots take lead generation to a new level. Enterprises will now get a far more detailed picture of customers who have interacted with their chatbot, enabling them to prioritize and select whom to approach in a far more judicious and effective manner. The end result of this is a considerably higher lead conversion rate.
Sophisticated customer segmentation
Through the multiplicity of data variables that they generate, smart chatbots for enterprises provide more specialized customer segmentation. Not only are profiles well-honed and specific, they are also more ‘real’ in that they present a well-rounded and intricate picture of target audiences. This level of precision facilitates highly targeted and personalized marketing campaigns which are far more likely to succeed.
Saving time and money
AI-enabled chatbots make marketing campaigns far more efficient and cost-effective. These chatbots are adept at responding to customer queries and resolving more straightforward problems. This significantly reduces the need for human resource allocation. Through both NLP and sentiment analysis, the chatbot can recognize when the matter needs to be escalated and hand over to a human agent with no disruption to the interaction. Thus, the marketing team does not need to be troubled with FAQs and simpler queries and can focus their attention on more complex matters and high-priority customers.
Customer-centric campaigns
AI chatbots respond in real-time. Furthermore, unlike people, these chatbots can tackle multiple chats in one go. They can be implemented across all the different platforms than an enterprise uses for customer engagement. Thus, no matter what time of day or night it is, the chatbot will answer customer questions and process requests. Regardless of how many people are online at the same time, all customer queries will be attended to promptly. Irrespective of what mode the customer chooses to contact an enterprise on, the chatbot will be on hand to attend to the customer. Thanks to smart chatbots for enterprises, marketing campaigns are no longer limited by time or channel and can run uninterrupted, even while the team is asleep or busy strategizing for their next campaign.
A marketing channel in its own right
AI-enabled chatbots themselves can be a mode for marketing campaigns. They can be utilized to engage customers in different ways. Whether through surveys, quizzes, competitions or polls, enterprises can utilize their chatbots to implement their marketing campaigns through interactive content. With 63% of people across generations preferring messages to calls or emails when interacting with a business, marketing campaigns run through chatbots will be better received. The likelihood of people engaging with the marketing material via a chatbot is also higher. Thus, AI-enabled chatbots are a friendlier, more widely accepted channel for marketing campaigns.
Real-time monitoring
By soliciting feedback from users, AI chatbots can gauge the reception of a marketing campaign as it is being run. This kind of timely feedback can inform tweaks or adaptations that can be made on-the-trot. The ability to gain immediate insights gives marketing teams a real-time understanding of how their campaigns are faring, allowing them to intervene as and when necessary so as to gain better reach and wider engagement.
Future-ready recommendations
Beyond a retrospective analysis of user data, AI chatbots are also able to predict and forecast. They reveal what customers are looking for and can forecast upgrades and changes to products and services. They are also able to suggest innovations and new offerings that can capitalize on trends. In this way enterprises can stay on top of their game by anticipating customer needs and meeting these even before they arise. In terms of emotional appeal, this creates an image of a business that is sensitive to customers and attuned to their requirements and desires.