How to Improve Your Lead Conversions Using Chatbots

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Chatbots are everywhere these days. Click on a website, and, undoubtedly, you’ll hear the bing of a fresh bot ready to help you out with whatever you might need. And chatbots are born of a growing demand for fast, interactive information and services. 

As well as being a modern-day customer service staple, chatbots are emerging as a key indicator of conversion rates. In fact, there are approximately 1.4 billion people using chatbots today. As a result, more and more businesses are turning to bots to automate sales and lead generation processes on their websites. 

In this article, we’ll be talking about how to improve your lead conversions using a chatbot. So stay tuned for some top tips.

What is a chatbot?

Incorporating a digital workforce makes this easier for both employees and clients and doesn’t leave customers wondering something as simple as ‘What is a bot? A chatbot is one type of AI (or artificial intelligence) software. Most commonly, you’ll find it integrated into an application or website. That’s because the main purpose of a chatbot is to automate an experience similar to human conversation. Bots are programmed to respond to human questions and answer simple queries, just as a service rep would. 

What is lead conversion, and why is it important?

Lead conversion rate is the percentage of your website visitors who are captured as leads. This key performance indicator (or KPI) is one of the most important because it tells us how good we are at attracting the right people to our page and how fast we turn those visitors into leads. 

Lead conversion rates are important because they indicate where we’re doing well and where there is room for improvement in our sales funnels. For example, if too many leads aren’t finishing the purchase process, it’s an indication that your customer journey might need some tweaks. 

Improving your lead conversion rates is the best way to guarantee that your business is acquiring and retaining valuable customers. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to improve lead conversions. And chatbots are just one of them. 

The key to smooth conversions lies in reducing friction. Now, what do we mean by that? Reducing friction means reducing the number of obstacles a prospect must navigate before finalizing a sale. Remember, every obstacle is an incentive for that customer to click away. 

You can reduce friction by providing all the necessary information in a user-friendly manner. And there are many ways to achieve this depending on your target audience. For example, some clients may still prefer to use fax (especially if you work with an older demographic). 
No problem, just send a fax online without a fax machine. Hey presto, you’ve made your customer’s journey as straightforward as possible. And chatbots have much the same effect. Remember, once you’ve captured your leads, they’ll need plenty of nourishment if they’re to end in sales. Target those prospects and qualify those leads for clicks that end in conversions. 

How do chatbots improve lead conversion rates?

So, how exactly do chatbots improve conversion rates? 

Great question. Take a step back for a moment and ask yourself what you want when you visit a webpage. You’re hoping to solve a problem or answer a question, right? Most website clicks come about when an individual is in search of information. 

Likewise, a well-positioned chatbot acts as an intermediary between the searcher and their desired answer, reducing the amount of time it takes for them to achieve the desired result – thus increasing conversions.

In other words, chatbots remove obstacles to sales by opening up a clear and concise line of direct communication with customers. But that’s not all. Chatbots provide one of the best ways to use interactive content online and, as such,  improve conversions for multiple reasons.

They’re personal 

Today’s customers crave personalization but often want to avoid any real-life interaction at all costs. Chatbots are great at facilitating this. They greet each visitor personally, but users don’t have to interact with a live agent. And this encourages interaction and purchase. 

They provide credibility 

Chatbots provide business credibility. And here’s how. Real or not, offering an agent to speak to makes great first impressions with consumers. Your website visitors will feel valued and see that you value your business and services as well.

How to use chatbots to improve lead conversions 

So, we know that chatbots work, but how can we mobilize them on our own apps and websites to improve lead conversions and increase sales? For B2C retailers and B2B eCommerce platforms alike, chatbots are now an essential part of your user experience strategy. 

Thankfully, we’ve compiled a comprehensive list of our top tips when it comes to chatbot strategy and lead conversion success. So, without further ado, here are some fantastic ways to improve your lead conversions with chatbots. 

1. Ensure ease of use

Make sure that your chatbot is intuitive and easy for even first-time visitors to use. Keep things simple. Functionality and speed are key when it comes to a good bot. So try to incorporate predicted button responses for the user to engage with to save time typing. 

2. Understand your target audience

We can’t stress enough the importance of understanding your target audience. Try to know your client better. There’s no use expecting your customers to find you. You have to find them. Place yourself where your desired users are across your website, social media, and all platforms. 

This is the key to establishing and maintaining effective communication and getting the most out of your chatbot. From there, the bot is on your side. Chatbot engagement is incredibly useful. It helps us segment our audience based on needs, interests, and preferences, and helps us generate (and qualify) more leads as a result. 

3. Prioritize speed 

When it comes to chatbot services, the aim is always (we repeat, always) to solve a customer query as quickly as possible on first contact. This way, you’ll avoid customers getting lost in sales funnels or simply bouncing away because you lost their interest. The best way to keep prospects engaged is to make sure they never have to wait. 

Make sure your sales team is equipped with the technology they need to work as efficiently as possible. The idea is to create a frictionless path to sales opportunities. As well as chatbots, why not think about mobilizing a predictive dialer to increase agent efficiency and boost lead-call rates? By leveraging AI-powered customer service, you can further enhance your team’s capability to resolve queries swiftly and keep customers engaged.

4. Get your greeting right 

It might seem like a small detail, but your chatbot greeting is a client’s first impression of your company’s personality. Remember that chatbots are effectively the equivalent of an in-store sales assistant. So make your bot the world’s best clerk. Never pushy, never overbearing, just polite, friendly, and helpful. 

5. Embrace feedback 

Chatbots aren’t just useful for users; they’re useful for us too. Chatbots can help business owners work out what’s working and what’s not on their website. Make room for feedback at every critical point along the sales channel. For example, if your user leaves their shopping cart without a final purchase, an automated bot can step in to see what went wrong. Avoid lengthy surveys. One question should suffice.

6. Remarketing 

As well as email, a chatbot is an excellent vessel for your remarketing campaigns. Chatbot pop-ups on your landing page, checkout page, and even your social media sites are the perfect opportunity to market similar products that a particular user might be interested in based on their basket and search history. 

7. Active lead generation

Chatbots can also fuel active lead generation by getting involved in the sales process itself. How? A chatbot can ask customers qualifying questions and provide additional informative material, even without prompting. That means consumers get answers and information, and you generate more sales leverage. 

8. Wave goodbye to manual forms

Gone are the days when lead generation meant sending out tedious forms. Chatbots do the job so much better. That’s because bots streamline the data collection process and break down barriers to engagement, making it super simple and easy for customers to provide personal information and engage in quick-fire survey questions. All of which contribute to more leads for you in the future. 

9. Schedule appointments

If your sales channel ends with an appointment booking, then bots are set to be your best friend. Businesses like restaurants, hotels, and healthcare services, can streamline their online booking processes for customers with bots. More and more customers want the ability to book their appointments online. 

And today’s technology is making it easier than ever before. In fact, voice bot technology has improved so much in recent years that it’s now possible to provide intelligent booking over mobile. Plus, by scheduling your appointments this way, you’ll be able to automatically capture leads, send email notifications, and continue to engage your customers even after the appointment is up.

10. Educate your audience 

Educated audiences make educated purchases. That’s why it’s so important to provide detailed, accurate, and comprehensive product knowledge on your website. And what better way to parlay this information to your customers than directly, via chatbot. 

Bots are an efficient way to send educational and promotional material directly to your customers. That could include anything from manuals to eBooks or videos and promotions. 

11. Pair with live chat 

Now. You might be thinking, what about all those complicated questions that no bot could ever answer? Great point. Chatbots are super-efficient, but there’s no denying that their knowledge is typically limited to pre-programmed information. For complex or highly technical queries, a live agent will always be superior.

That’s why you should always be using live chat handover. You’ll get the fast response times associated with an AI bot, but be safe in the knowledge that complicated issues can be diverted automatically to the right mind for the job. 

You can up your game even further by providing video support or screen sharing options for a 360-degree approach. This is especially handy when helping customers troubleshoot highly technical problems. Luckily, there are many video conferencing programs similar to Skype, which can facilitate this need. And for little expense.

12. Strengthen relationships

Even though chatbots are only mimicking human behavior, they nevertheless help to build stronger relationships between you and your customers. And it certainly helps that bots can be mobilized 24 hours a day. 

By offering guaranteed, instant assistance, you’ll automatically build trust between your users and your brand. Welcome, engage, and solve. That’s how to build trust and lead conversions. 

13. Bring back those bouncers

One of the biggest gripes for any eCommerce store is bounce. What do you do about those people that click and run? If your bounce rate is higher than you would like, it’s probably because your users aren’t getting the information they need fast enough. 

Adding a lead generation chatbot to your landing page is a great way to capture engagement and prevent prospects from clicking away before they’ve even started. 

Lead more conversions with chatbots technology

At the end of the day, commerce is changing, which means the way we generate leads is also changing. In our online-dominated world, it’s imperative we give our customers what they want when they want it. 

That means comprehensive information at the click of a button. Chatbot technology helps eCommerce retailers and other businesses capture visitor attention, retain engagement, and prevent disengagement by providing quick-fire answers and personalized engagement. That’s a win for your customers and a win for you. You’ll find your conversions increasing in an instant.