Conversational AI in digital marketing is changing how brands engage customers. Here are 8 ways AI chatbots help you serve, understand and convert your audience.
Key takeaways:
- Human-like and always on: Conversational AI uses AI and machine learning to mimic natural conversation, 24/7.
- Handles the basics: Bots answer simple questions and complete tasks like bookings across every channel.
- Knows your customers: Bots collect and analyse customer data to personalise promotions.
- Drives growth: They engage customers in real time, generate leads, shape strategy, share offers and gather feedback.
- Supports people: AI takes on simple tasks, so your team can focus on complex stages of the funnel.
Chatbots are part of everyday life, and we have all used them at some point. These tools have come a long way from early chatbots, which had limited skills and answered only very simple questions. Today, conversational AI chatbots are transforming digital marketing like never before. Specialists have even built chatbots that make you feel you are talking to a real person, not a machine.
As the world moves online, brands increasingly see the need to give customers close attention during the sale. Most customers now deal with businesses online, so conversational marketing has made the experience much smoother. Conversational AI chatbots use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to mimic natural human behaviour and conversation. They are safe, reliable and accurate, and they can talk to customers around the clock. They also greatly reduce costs, so you can focus your people on other important tasks.
In digital marketing, conversational AI understands what each customer wants, so you can tailor promotions and campaigns to match. Customers can also easily find product information, make purchases and use services. Voice assistants like Siri and Alexa are another great use of conversational AI in digital marketing. Here are 8 ways conversational AI is transforming digital marketing.
1. Performing simple tasks
Conversational AI chatbots can help your sales team with simple tasks, such as sharing basic product or service information. For example, customers might ask, “Where is my order?”, “Is this shoe available in size 38?” or “Can I book flights for 26 January?” These basic questions used to take up much of the sales team’s time and effort. Not any more. Now, chatbots answer simple questions and also complete tasks like booking hotel rooms and flights, transferring money and giving directions.
What’s more, conversational AI chatbots integrate with social platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Twitter. This gives you an omnichannel presence. Wondering what that means? Simply put, users can start a conversation on one channel and get consistent support across every channel.
You can now integrate and manage one omnichannel chatbot across all devices and channels. Then you can reach your audience wherever they are, centralise customer data from every channel and create a smooth buying experience. Learn more in our complete guide to omnichannel AI agents.
2. Collecting customer information
Conversational AI chatbots excel at the early steps of marketing, and gathering customer information is one of the best examples. Details like name, age, email address, products of interest and favourite websites simplify your marketing strategy. With this basic information, you can plan promotions and even personalise them. That works wonders when you want to impress a customer with your products.
Collecting customer information also builds a solid customer database. How can you use this data? Through mailers, direct messages, in-app ads, push notifications and chatbot pop-ups across platforms. Each one helps you grab customers’ attention and boost conversion.
3. Analysing customers
Once AI has gathered basic customer information, it can dig deeper into customer behaviour. Deeper analysis reveals search patterns, browsing habits, key data points and buying habits. This helps your digital marketing strategy. You can prepare better answers, stock products that are in demand and send matching promotions and deals.
Advanced conversational AI can also hold human-like conversations with customers. Using customer preference data, it can adopt the regional language and informal style that appeal to more people. This directly helps your conversion funnel.
4. Engaging customers
Conversational AI chatbots have astonishing abilities. They are available 24/7, present across many channels and able to chat with many customers in real time. Studies show that real-time conversations are more likely to become sales, because customers feel heard and valued. In a fast-moving world, customers love instant gratification. The quicker their queries are solved, the faster they buy.
People, by contrast, have limits when it comes to engagement. A person can engage only one customer at a time, while conversational AI can engage many customers across many channels.
5. Generating leads
Remember the old ways of finding and analysing leads? They were tedious and time-consuming. Now, with conversational AI chatbots, you can generate leads and analyse them against your business goals. Chatbots scan large amounts of data and analyse customer behaviour, which helps you find ideal customers.
For example, in an HR company, conversational AI can scan thousands of applications and pick the most eligible candidates. In some cases, it can even run the first interview round and shortlist candidates further. See more in employee recruitment simplified with AI.
6. Creating marketing strategies
The goal of all this data gathering, profile scanning and behaviour analysis is to build niche marketing strategies that win more conversions. There are many kinds of strategy, from email and messaging to social media marketing, and you can prepare each one accordingly.
- Email marketing: Campaigns go only to a specific group, such as customers who have shown interest in your website or product. For example, a fun quiz or survey might ask for your email address before showing results. Once the business has your email, it can send you promotions.
- Direct messaging: On platforms like WhatsApp, you can chat directly with customers and share deals and promotions.
- Social media: Conversational AI scales your social media efforts by answering queries and sending personal content, deals and promotions. In effect, it gives you an active social presence without you being there in person.
7. Updating customers on new products and offers
Traditional marketing was very labour-intensive and reached only a handful of customers, missing many potential ones. Conversational AI, however, is a great way to tell customers about new products and offers. Using social platforms, messengers and mailers, you can announce upcoming sales, special deals, flash sales and offers your customers will love. To nurture these contacts towards a sale, read how to use automation to nurture your new leads to sales.
8. Collecting customer feedback
Last but not least is customer feedback. By now, you will have guessed that conversational AI is a two-way platform. So businesses can collect data and feedback and act on it to give customers a happy shopping experience. Feedback can take the form of forms, ratings from 1 to 10 or whatever suits your business best.
Conclusion
Any business, big or small, can use conversational AI to transform its digital marketing and truly grow. You also save a lot of money by adding a simple software solution.
Worried that conversational AI will replace your employees? There is no need. Conversational AI takes over only the simpler early tasks, where human effort is wasted. After that, people take over the more complex steps of the sales funnel.
Conversational AI is now available to every business, and it will soon become a core part of every marketing strategy. Today, providers like BotSpice offer a great platform to create and personalise a conversational AI chatbot for your business model. If you want to grow your customer base while meeting customer demand, AI is the way to go.