The top of your marketing funnel is perfectly polished. Your share-worthy content and targeted ads are driving loads of traffic to your website. On the surface, this sounds like a winning combination, but you and your marketing team know that traffic alone doesn’t equal lead conversions.
So, how can you move leads that are interested in your content to considering buying your product? The answer to this lies in the realm of conversational marketing. The puzzle piece you’ve been frantically searching for to repair your funnel is conversational bots.
What are conversational bots in marketing?
Conversational bots are tools to help you proactively engage and convert your website visitors. They can be AI-powered or simply created based on a set of predefined options or conversation flows.
Leveraging these bots for marketing means that they are the bridge that connects the user from where he is coming to where you want him to go. The beauty of conversation bots is that they are as flexible as you want them to be. The power of defining and designing them falls into your hands.
Guiding the visitor to their desired page quickly with button-based options or leading the prospect directly to a sales agent via live chat are just some of the things conversational bots are capable of.
If you’ve heard a variety of different names for bots recently, like a chatbot, button-based bot, lead generation bot, or conversational bot, don’t fret. Spoiler, most of these bots have the capabilities of the other, so let’s boil it down to “you say tomato, I say tomahto” when it comes to the names.
The key thing you need to remember though, is that your bots should be conversational in nature, or else your prized bots will be more of a hindrance than a lifesaver.
Because if you’re just shooting identical pop-up bots regardless of the visitor’s actions, you’re also shooting down your chances of guiding a prospect successfully through your marketing funnel.
How to use conversational bots to improve your marketing funnel?
Some of the conversational marketing best practices are the ones where you stop settling for average. The journey to converting customers into fans of your brand, starts way before they even make a purchase.
That's why your marketing funnel needs a bit of revamping from top to bottom. So, let's look at the average AIDA funnel we all know and love, and add a little spice.
- Awareness
- Interest
- Desire
- Action
1. Obsessed Awareness
You’re doing something right to generate enough awareness through your ads and social media to garner traffic to your website.
But, not quite enough to influence prospects to want to stay aware after they’re on your website. In other words, once a prospect arrives on your page after clicking an intriguing ad, your company can become forgettable.
One way to catch your target audience's attention and stand out from your competitors is by adding conversational bots to your interactive ads. This means being able to take your conversational marketing approach outside of your own website domain. You can do this placing your bot into your ads using platforms, such as DV 360 or Adform.
But what happens when the potential lead lands on your website? Even with the clearest copy, and most simple menu navigation, they still may not find what they’re looking for.
In 2021, customers expect to get information in a blink of an eye, and without much effort. So it's not surprising that 69% of consumers prefer chatbots because of their ability to provide quick replies to simple questions.
To save customers from bouncing right off the top of your funnel, you need to engage them wherever they land on your website.
What internally looks like segmenting, is actually just catering to your customers’ needs. This is what conversational bots do effortlessly. The goal of the conversational bots at this awareness level is to ignite and direct the prospect’s journey.
Depending on what page they landed on, your button-based bot can offer quick personalised solutions.
For example, the bot can have button options to a frequently asked question or to another blog about a problem the prospect needs help solving.
This friendly bot in the bottom corner of your screen solidifies brand awareness by making sure the prospect has the opportunity to be catered to. It’s kinda like walking into a store, and the associate walks you straight to the item you’re looking for.
Turns you into a fan-for-life right? Conversational chatbots can do this for your business.
2. Irresistible Interest
At this point, your prospect isn’t jumping ship just yet. He’s received some guidance and is finding your website quite useful and informative. After finding what initially brought the prospect to your site, he is now browsing for more info and even looking at some products.
Now, it’s time to pull the curtain back on another use for the conversational bot at the interest level of your funnel.
The great thing about chatbots is that they are like the Pac-Man of collecting customer data. Even without direct contact information from a lead, your bot still collects analytics about visitor website behaviour, like how many times they've visited your site.
This means you can personalise your bot messages, even more, when you instantly see these visitor stats every time they visit your pages.
After all, personalisation can increase revenues by up to 15%, and increase the efficiency of marketing spend by up to 30%!
So, with this data backing up your decisions on predefined conditions for your bot, you can now fulfil the customer’s interest even further.
- Is there a guide you can offer by having the visitor simply plug in his email?
- Is the prospect spending a lot of time on a specific product page, and can you offer a quick tidbit about that product?
Again, these interactive, button-based options on your conversational bots keep the prospect supported throughout his journey. Well-designed bots can pique more interest with each interaction.
3. Direct Desire
If a prospect has made it to the desire/decision level of the marketing funnel, he has also wiggled his way through the qualification process without even noticing.
At this point, you may already know if this prospect could be considered a qualified lead.
Throughout all of the interactions with the bot, the live sales team is on alert also to see when the right time to step in on the live chat is.
When live chat and your chatbot are integrated, it makes for a smooth handoff from bot to human without any friction.
To ensure you’re not losing a hot prospect at this level, it is key to have appropriate options available on your chatbot.
“Talk with a sales rep,” or “start a free trial today,” or even clickable product options could be great conversational chatbot prompts to lead the prospect to the action level of the funnel.
Taking your sales team online can help you significanly increase sales. Take leading automotive company K-Caara, for example. They are able to close over 250 sales sales using live chat.
4. Easy Action
Well at this point, the hardest work has been done. Not to mention that that hard work’s been done without using much of your business’s resources and time.
Now, the customer may be taking action to buy with a sales representative or the customer is making a purchase via a self-service channel.
Either of those is worth celebrating since it was a successful lead conversion. But, who are we patting on the back here? Let’s give credit where credit is due.
Conversational bots patched up the holes in this marketing funnel that usually would have led to many leaks before even reaching the interest level.
By tailoring your bot to meet and know the visitor before he bounces from your page, you can significantly improve your lead conversions... like digital marketing agency Medialuotsi does with the help of giosg - 50% of all their inbound sales leads are converted using a conversational bot!
Maximise your marketing funnel and get started with conversational bots
If you’re ready to convert more leads with a reinforced marketing funnel, get help in implementing your conversational with a free demo with one of our marketing experts.
