9 MIN READ

Chatbots are the hottest new marketing trend on social media, and for good reason. They’ve been proven to be an effective way of automating sales and qualifying leads. And they can do it without you having to hire more people or spend a lot of time training them! In fact, chatbot automation is so easy that tons of companies are already using chatbots as one of their core strategies when it comes to their sales and marketing. One key advantage with chatbots is how well it qualifies leads—many customers have reported a massive increase in generating leads (and qualifying them) through Clepher alone. This is a great way to start automating your sales and marketing.

In this article, we’ll share with you how you can use chatbots in your own business for lead generation and increase the number of qualified leads coming through your funnel.

What is a chatbot, and how does it work?

Chatbots are basically computer programs that can automate conversations just like an actual human would. When someone interacts with the bot, the bot analyzes what they’ve said or written and sends them an automated response relevant to their query. It collects data, determines the lead’s needs, and then automatically replies with either relevant information or an invitation for further conversation if it senses there is potential for more sales.

How to use a chatbot for lead generation

The idea of using a chatbot for lead generation might seem a bit strange, but it’s actually straightforward. Let’s say that you want to generate leads from people interested in your product or service. To do this, you set up a chatbot with Clepher and write a set of questions that it can use to qualify leads. You then direct your target market to the chatbot’s landing page and attach an autoresponder there as well. What happens next is that when someone interacts with your bot, they will be asked a series of qualifying questions about their need for your product or service. It’s then up to them to respond to the chatbot with their information. You can then use this information to start a conversation with them and determine whether or not they are qualified leads.

Tips for successfully using chatbots for lead generation

An essential part of improving your conversions with a bot is to make 100% sure that your marketing efforts are targeted to the audience you want to attract. Meaning the audience with the highest possibility to convert. You may agree that your sales reps’ time and effort are a precious resource. That’s why you have to make sure s/he is spending time on only the leads most likely to convert. The chatbot comes in to play here. Its job is to qualify these leads, so your sales reps can focus on the closing. Qualifying the leads is done via various preliminary, automated questions that can then pass them onto actual sales representatives for more in-depth conversations if necessary or desired by the lead itself, depending on their needs and wants as well as what your company offers.

So, qualifying leads with chatbots is an integral part of boosting your sales. Not only does it save time, money, and effort by not chasing prospects that are never going to buy, but also for improving conversions with chatbots. This way, you can give actual humans time to focus on more qualified clients instead of wasting their efforts on the wrong people or, even worse, not doing anything at all. This would be the worst possible scenario since they would not improve conversions with chatbots, and this could also even cost them their jobs if a client is unsatisfied with a lack of responses or no answers to their questions.

So, what’s the idea behind qualifying leads? And what about qualifying leads using chatbots? Let’s dig deeper. Here are the 4 steps to qualify leads with chatbots

Step 1: Immediately Get the Prospect’s Attention.

The most challenging part of the chatbot’s plan is this. As soon as the prospect enters the chat, ask the prospect a false-dichotomy question, and s/he doesn’t have the option to say no. For example: By giving “Yes” and “Absolutely” as two options. This ensures the prospect will continue on with the conversation instead of walking away. This is a simple method for providing that the prospect does not leave the chat at this time. If prospects genuinely want to say “no,” they must exit the conversation or never start it. This is because they want to see what happens next and how the chatbot will reply.

Now that you’ve captured their interests, you need to get them interested in continuing a conversation. Asking questions like “What industry are you in? What challenges are you facing currently? What is your biggest challenge right now?” etc., are effective ways to continue the conversation. By giving them options to choose from, you are automatically starting a discussion between your prospect and chatbot, which could lead to multiple engagements.

Step 2: Find Out What Their Pain and Needs Are.

Your product or service may have multiple features for distinct target audiences. I.E., If you’re marketing a SaaS marketing suite, your product may have various uses for an SEO and a PPC advertiser. If this is the case, base your prospect’s segmentation on these use cases and ask about their valid pain points. If you’re a marketing service for bloggers, find out what questions they may have and what pain points they face as a blogger. You can also ask why they chose your product or service over others.

These kinds of questions give the prospect information about their own pains and need to realize how qualified they are to purchase the product or service. This is because they must understand why they would use your product/service and how it helps solve their particular issue(s). If the prospect has no clear pain point as a lead, you may need to qualify that person as not a qualified lead for your business.

For example, some things we as a chatbot company ask:

“What Is your goal for using a chatbot?”

“In what way do you think a chatbot can help you with?”

“What problem are you trying to solve right now?”

This gives them the ability to tell us more about themselves and what they want from our company. This way, we will assess them and give them the best solution for what they want. It also keeps our prospects engaged and asking questions. This way, we can continue to learn about their business needs and problems that may not seem like a big deal on the surface but could actually become one if left unchecked.

Pro Tip: You will have a better idea of how qualified they are as a lead if they closed questions, like multiple choice questions, first, for example, “What are you looking to do with a chatbot tool like Clepher?” And then already give them the pre-framed answers:

To Automate Sales

Qualifying Leads

To Improve Conversions

At the early stage, try to steer away from options where they can provide open-ended responses (like “Other:______”). If you do this early, it may hurt conversion rates. Get those micro-commitments, and slowly ask for more.

Step 3: Demonstrate Expertise & The Value Of Your Product/Service.

Provide evidence of your company’s trustworthiness based on your analysis of the prospect’s problems. The goal is to explain how your product solves its problem (based on step 2). This method will help you improve conversions quickly, as well as increase retention in the conversation. If you have data-backed proof, case studies, or a unique selling proposition (USP), all the better!

I.E., suppose the prospect answered “Improving Conversion” in the last question. In that case, you can have your chatbot say, “Great news, on average, Clepher has increased conversion rates by 62% for our customers!”

Pro Tip: Follow up with the prospect as often as you can. This gives you more opportunities to sell, and it’s also a great way to provide support if needed. For example, if the chatbot qualifies them as an eCommerce company and then asks about their business goals after that statement is received by your bot, say: ”

Step 4: Disqualify/Qualify Prospects.

The essential goal is to discover whether or not the prospect should and can buy your product or service. Define any potential roadblocks that could prevent the prospect from purchasing your goods or service.

I.E., if your product or service has a price above $1,000, then ask:

“Are you willing to spend $1,000 to resolve your problem?”

By doing this, you quickly disqualify prospects who answered “No.” Do this by having your chatbot say:

“That’s unfortunate; we don’t offer anything within the range of your budget.”

Ask them to provide their contact information to notify them when you release a lower-cost version in the future. But, when they meet the criteria, you may pass them on to a real salesperson. You can also give them permission to schedule a meeting through the chatbot interface. It collects their phone number so your salesperson can reach them at their preferred time.

With these 4 easy steps, you successfully qualify or disqualify a lead, and making the life of your closers easier while at the same time increasing the bottom line of your company.

Chatbots are the perfect way to automate your sales.

A chatbot may be very helpful for you to boost your sales. First of all, chatbots are great tools that help customers with their questions and inquiries about products better than human customer service representatives could do. Also, chatbots are accessible 24/7 and can answer questions immediately.

Secondly, chatbots give you the chance to understand your customers better. It’s essential for companies who want to grow their business to learn more about their customer behavior on social media channels like Facebook Messenger. But one of the best ways to gain more insight is by analyzing your messenger activity with a chatbot that will help you generate reports based on tasks completed or answered questions over time. This way, it makes it easier for you to see where people get confused, etc., so that you’re able to improve your customer service!

The best time to use a chatbot for lead gen is… NOW!

The best time to use a chatbot for lead gen is right now. There is a pretty big misconception that chatbots are only good for customer service. But the reality is, chatbots can be used for sales automation and for lead gen as well. Chatbots can engage your leads and prospects with an automated conversation! Qualify them based on their responses to trigger a call from sales or schedule a demo. There is no better time than now to use a chatbot because it’s going to save you time, increase conversions, and improve your lead quality over time!

How do Clepher’s customers Qualify Leads?

Many Clepher customers report a BIG increase in generating qualified leads. All through the use of chatbots. And, based on our research and user testimonies, here’s how they do it:

1. lead-gen systems are less “intrusive”.

Meaning that they are designed to send timely messages based on the most appropriate time of the day. On top of this, you can set it, so these messages are sent only when prospects have been away from their inbox for a while. This way, there is less likely to be a “spam” complaint or, even worse, ignored completely! There are many other ways to use the scheduled messages feature, but this is one of our favorite time-based applications.

2. Lead generation systems are designed to follow up with people

Especially with those who have shown interest in your product or business somehow. This can include website visitors, people who have downloaded your ebook, and even people who have visited certain pages of your site. Let’s say that you want to send a lead-gen piece to the person who visits your website’s “Contact Us” page. You can set a rule, so the messages are sent out after a person has been away from your site for a certain amount of time. This way, you’re not following up with people who hit these pages and then immediately bounce

3. Lead gen and qualifying leads allows for segmentation

As mentioned above, lead generation systems help you segment your audience. To do this, you need to have a strong understanding of who your target audience is. This isn’t just getting the right people to sign up for your products or services, but it’s making sure that you are following up with the right people at the right time!

4. A lead generation system makes it easier to ask questions.

This way, you can qualify your leads using chatbots. These systems allow you to send messages like “fill out this form with your email to get updates about our product”. Or whatever else that might be relevant for your business or brand! The best part is that these forms are self-updating, and the information gathered is automatically added to your CRM.

5. Sending Drip Campaigns

The final feature we would like to talk about is sending a serialized message over a series of days. As a business owner, you need to be careful because it can get pretty annoying when you send out too many chat messages in a row. The good news is that you can use the tool to send messages like “Day 1” or “Day 2” through automatically updating forms and lead-gen pieces so that prospects are engaged over time!

Final Thoughts about Lead-Gen & Qualifying Leads with Chatbots

Chatbots that generate leads are a great way to generate qualified leads for your business, but the key lies in understanding how they work and using them accordingly. The most significant advantage of automated messaging over other forms of online marketing is the time and money you save while generating a high-quality lead! But beyond that, chatbots can help your business in many different ways. For instance, these systems make it easier for customers to find answers to their questions without waiting 24-48 hours for a response.

The biggest mistake that most people make when using lead generation chatbots is not properly qualifying their leads. This means understanding where your target audience spends time online, how to get them to sign up for your product or service, and why they are interested in it! If you have a high-quality landing page with an opt-in form, then you are already ahead of the game. But turn this into a chatbot and see your conversions soar!

Finally, the best time to use a chatbot is right now because it will help you save time, improve lead quality over time, and increase conversions over time with the tools provided by Clepher. And frankly, when it comes to lead generation, there is no better tool than Clepher.

If this sounds like something that might interest you, or if you need more information about these features on our platform, let us know! We are happy to provide some free insights into what we do here at Clepher and why we think it could benefit your company immensely. Download the Chatbot Stats guide here.

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