What you should know about chatbots?
1. Chatbots are simple artificial intelligence systems that you interact with via text. Those interactions can be straightforward, like asking a bot to give you a weather report, or more complex, like having one troubleshoot a problem in your internet service.
2. Chatbots are making it possible for marketers to easily and quickly attend to their customers’ needs.
3. To incorporate chatbots in a business, one must remember to always determine the audience, define the precise business vertical, feed the bot with information, and provide a good interface for these bots.
4. Chatbots can guarantee that its functionality can remain effective in the digital marketing landscape for a longer period – and further advancements can be expected.
When technology evolves, so does every other advertising, social media, video production, and digital marketing agency. In the Philippines, given the huge percentage of the digital audience – it would be particularly hard to keep up with the consumers if an agency declines from adapting the most up-to-date technology.
So what’s new in the digital marketing landscape?
While everyone’s fast asleep, developers made chatbots. It was a concept that the world found intriguing, especially way back in the development of the Turing Test, Eliza, Parry, Jabberwacky, and the SmarterChild – which introduced the modern chatbots notion. While it seemed a toy way back in its early beginnings, its continuous development has made it possible for everything – therefore, swallowing the world into this very idea that chatbots are the next big thing.
What is a chatbot?
As NBC News would note it, chatbots are “simple artificial intelligence systems that you interact with via text. Those interactions can be straightforward, like asking a bot to give you a weather report, or more complex, like having one troubleshoot a problem in your internet service.”
So, to say – they are support systems acting as customer representatives sheltered by messaging apps.
What’s in it for marketers?
For users, chatbots have very well made things possible – from checking the weather to using a virtual assistant to remind you of your appointments for the whole day. These have made chatbots succeed in the field. But how do they help marketers in this digital age?
With data and technology combined, chatbots are paving the way for marketers to meet their customers’ needs while reducing customer support costs along the way. However, there are particular points that brands should know before incorporating bots into their business, which includes the following:
- Determine your audience.
As how a traditional marketing approach starts off, you have to determine first the people you are trying to reach for the bot to operate in a particular direction.
- Define the business vertical that your bot would operate in.
Whether it is content, service, or e-commerce – your bot should know on what specific aspect of your business it is supposed to work on for it to work accurately.
- Feed the bot with information.
A bot works in specific rules and develops with the knowledge it gains over time, hence, it is significant to feed it with relevant information to expand its knowledge base in a timely manner, and of course, for it to work accurately on a real-time basis.
- Provide a good user interface.
A good user experience is deeply associated with the user interface that the bots are in. Hence, it is important to design a quick, convenient, and natural interface that people will easily interact with.
With proper integration, definitely, brands will be able to make use of this technology into growing their businesses.
In for some examples? Here are a few brands who have successfully communicated with their consumers through the use of chatbots.
UBER ON MESSENGER
A successful and convenient integration of chatbots lately is Uber’s chatbot on Facebook Messenger. The chatbot allows users to hail an Uber cab within the Messenger’s platform. A ride can be requested via chat with the Uber chatbot by tapping on the vehicle icon, or while conversing with another user by clicking on the indicated address. Furthermore, just like the usual Uber app, it allows users to get real-time updates on their requested ride right on their Messenger app.
PIZZA HUT ON MESSENGER AND TWITTER
In for some late night pizza? Pizza Hut is extending efforts on reaching their customers with the use of chatbots on Messenger and Twitter! To provide a quick and convenient service to their customers, the company is willing to adapt to the latest technology today. Facebook users can now interact with the restaurant’s chatbot and connect their Messenger accounts to their very own Pizza Hut accounts for the chatbot to access their order history. Their order history makes it possible for the company to personalize offers, and of course, for them to quickly reorder their favorite menu deals.
How do chatbots guarantee the future of digital marketing?
In light of chatbots’ massive popularity, does it guarantee the future of digital marketing? For this question, we’ll leave the answer to these statistics:
- For 2017, the expected number of mobile messages sent reaches a total of 28.2 trillion – doubling the previous figure in 2012 of 14.7 trillion.
- Given the top ten apps that are most used around the world, 6 of them are messaging apps.
- Statista says that the retention rate of messaging apps is over 60%.
- Messaging apps averages to a total of 75% with regards to mobile messaging compared to SMS or MMS which is about 25%.
- A total of 75% internet users is accessing mobile messaging services around the world.
Given these numbers, it just shows how people are so comfortable with using messaging apps nowadays such as Messenger, Slack, and WeChat to name a few, which are also the main platforms for chatbots. With these two technologies and a marketer’s creativity combined, what are the odds? Surely, brands are most likely to serve their customers with quick and convenient service while getting relevant data to further boost their marketing approach.
Key Takeaway
With the chatbots on the rise, a variety of things are now possible in the easiest and fastest way possible. Positively, along with the right integration of this technology, further developments can be made possible. In addition, brands who integrate chatbots on their businesses can serve their customers better.