Chatbots have infiltrated the B2B marketing world.
With the rise of AI and conversational marketing technology, today’s marketers are using chatbots more than ever before to provide their audience with immediate answers to their questions.
Studies show that the integration of web chat into a website increases conversions by up to 45%. Customers convert because they can get instant answers with minimal barriers to entry. Other studies show a majority of today’s website base prefers to use a chat feature, rather than email or phone inquiries.
If you are looking to successfully engage with your audience through a chatbot, we have 5 tips for you.
Use Existing Data
The first step in creating an effective chatbot is to look at the data that you already have. Your sales and marketing team may already be answering a range of questions on a consistent basis. Use this to your advantage as you can provide quick answers to problems that your audience faces.
Alternatively, look toward your Google Analytics to see what pages users are frequenting the most over the last year. Is there a particular blog, service, or solution page that is drawing more interest than others?
These are two great starting points to mold the questions for your chatbot.
Read more: GA4 vs Universal Analytics – a Comparison.
Draft Questions
Once you have some background and some foundational insight, you’re ready to start drafting the initial questions that users will be asked when they engage the chatbot. Start with at least 3 questions you believe would be helpful for users just arriving at your B2B website. If they are already familiar with your brand and service offerings, there’s a good chance that they’ll skip the chatbot entirely and go directly to a particular service or to the contact page. However, if they are at the beginning stages of their customer journey, you’ll want to provide some guidance with these questions.
Based on your industry, you may consider questions like:
- How can XYZ service or solution benefit me?
- Who is your typical clientele?
- What is your pricing like?
Be mindful that the questions you’re asking aren’t too specific (use the chatbot as an introduction to generating a conversation with your lead afterward) and that you aren’t asking too many questions (this can make the workflow very confusing and hard to navigate, not to mention this can overwhelm users with too many options).
Keep the questions and answers as straightforward as possible.
Add an option for your users that are just browsing to allow them to quickly (and easily) provide their contact information in case they want to reach out about something else in the future. This is especially helpful for users who are still shopping around and gives you a chance to connect with them in real-time outside of your B2B website (by phone or email).
Plan Your Workflow
After you’ve established your core set of questions, you need to visualize the workflow. Depending on what you are looking to achieve from the chatbot, the workflow can include answering FAQs or allowing the user to ask open-ended questions. However, you should always include a section where you gather contact information from the user so you can reach out to them later. Contact information should include their name, email, and phone number. Once they’ve entered this information, you officially have a lead to work with!
Consider Live Chat
The last part of the workflow is often overlooked. You can choose to end with a simple message that someone from the team will reach out at a future date or put them in touch with your team right away. Determine if someone is available to respond to the chatbot should the user need to connect with a live person.
There are benefits and drawbacks to a live chat option.
Benefits:
- You can interact with a potential lead in real-time, providing answers and qualifying them from the start.
- You can choose when to allow live chat (e.g., during business hours or during a certain time frame of the day).
Drawbacks:
- Because it is live, it is imperative to have someone available to respond to the chat within a moment’s notice during certain time periods. Otherwise, it can be a bad user experience if they are waiting for a long time to talk to someone.
Read more: A 3-step Guide to Evaluate Your B2B Website Leads.
Review Your Chat Bot
Review the chatbot every week to start. Then, you can determine if you need to make any changes to the questions, add any additional information, or switch the workflow. Make sure there aren’t any dead ends or missing information. The chatbot is a living entity and should be updated frequently to stay current. You may also consider enlisting a few team members to try out different workflows. More (and fresh) eyes are always helpful for finding any gaps or opportunities.
