Worried a robot is going to eventually take your job? This blog post may or may not allay your fears. However, if you’re ready to improve your digital marketing strategy in 2019, better build a bot.

If chatbots still sound too 2049, simply think of them as a form of marketing automation.
You probably already use automation in your email drip campaigns to help reach your target audience and generate leads. Bots work similarly.

Chatbots are inexpensive, programmable software that can be designed to automatically carry out any number of tasks quickly and accurately. Their conversational nature can save you tons of time, and early adopters have seen benefits from increased conversion rates to streamlined operations. (More on these in a bit!)

Not sure if automation is right for your business? Let’s talk about just six of the ways chatbots can help take your brand into the future.

1. Never miss an inquiry.

No need to have your employees work the graveyard shift or pay them time and a half for a holiday. Chatbots work 24/7 365 days a year and you’ll never hear them asking off in the middle of your busy season. They’re also helpful in fielding floods of inquiries, so whether you’re getting more web traffic from that cute and clever copy you wrote or from a potent new product, you’ll be ready for the deluge.

2. Do more without hiring more employees.

Hiring new staff means taking a chance on potentially ill-suited personalities. It also comes with more time-off requests (see above) and increased expenses. Whereas chatbots are like a team of employees who always do exactly as they’re told (programmed) for a fraction of the cost. In most cases, a bot can be bought for a few hundred to a few thousand dollars depending on functionality.

3. Market to Millennials.

The overwhelming majority of millennials would rather converse via text than over the phone. Live chat satisfies their instant gratification expectations and allows them to conduct their comparison shopping without commitment. From your end, it’s simply another touch point in which to promote your brand and squelch any concerns that might impede the sale.

4. Increase conversions.

Having a hard time getting traction with your email marketing campaigns? According to Chatbotslife, “Chatbots are seeing open rates of 80%+ and CTR’s of 25%+.” Now, imagine several hundred repeat customers seeing your latest promotional offering. You could be staring down some serious sales.

5. Make internal communications simpler.

With all this talk of digital marketing, it can be easy to overlook the real machine that makes your operation run: your team. Having a system in place to streamline and enhance your internal communications can mean the difference between duplicated tasks and redundancies, and everyone being on the same page working toward the same goal. Bots can be particularly helpful if some or all of your team work remotely.

6. Personalize your online ads.

Who prefers personalized ads? 71% of consumers. You can happily and easily oblige with chatbots on your site. Not providing a customized user experience? You can be sure your competitors are, so time to chat up or bot out. Chatbots can even help you with the preliminary task of information gathering about your core demographic. Their simple if/then formula makes it easy to base responses on the answers users provide in your initial questioning.

Still think bots are bits of dark magic designed to put you out of a job? Try shifting your perspective a little and seeing them for the engagement and traffic tools they are. Use them wisely and let the results speak for themselves.

Not sure which bots are best for your biz? Let’s have a chat.